Monochromes       Nothing       Radical Art       


  Lines


(The one-dimensional monochrome is the undifferentiated straight line.)
     


Olga Rozanova:
Untitled,1917/1918


Barnett Newman:
Onement V, 1952



Piero Manzoni:
Linea, 1959



Shiraga Fujiko, 1955



Ben Vautier, 1950's


 


Wojciech Fangor:
Nebieska Fala, 1962


Nam June Paik:
Zen for TV, 1963


Günter Brus:
Selbstbemalung, 1965




Constantin Brancusi:
"Endless Column", 1937/1938


Anne Truit:
Night Nadia, 1977

 

Walter de Maria:
Vertical Earth Kilometer, 1977.

[Top view of 1 km. brass rod
inserted into the earth.]


                      




Barnett Newman:
Onement I, 1948



Piero Manzoni:
Linea, 1960




Piero Manzoni:
Senza Titulo, 1961



Akira Kanayama,
1956


Nam June Paik:
Zen for head, 1962


Günter Brus:
Wiener Spaziergang, 1965

 


La Monte Young:
Composition 1960 # 9




Each point on this line
is a composition.


Henry Flynt,
January 1961



The line above is rotating
on its axis at a speed of
one revolution each day.

 

Douglas Huebler, 1970
       



Draw a straight line
and follow it.


La Monte Young:
Composition 1960 # 10
(to Bob Morris)



Richard Long:
A line made by walking, 1967



Carl Andre:
249 Brass Run, 1969



Dennis Oppenheim:
Timeline USA-Canada, 1968



Walter de Maria:
Mile Long Drawing, 1968


Jan Dibbets: White line in the sea.
Amalfi, 1968.

 


Christo Javacheff:
Running Fence, 1970-1976

     




Douglas Huebler: Site Sculpture Project: 42° Parallel Piece, 1968

14 locations ('A' through 'N') are towns existing either exactly or approximately on the 42° Parallel in the United States. Locations have been marked by the exchange of certified postal receipts sent from and returned to 'A' – Truro, Massachusetts.



Jan Dibbets:
Monument à la Mémoire d'Arago, 1994


Related issues: Continuity

The uncountable cardinality of line and plane was thematized in Henry Flynt's "word piece" above, and in monochromes by Christer Hennix.


A curious problem regarding the continuum was raised by Kazimir Malevich (1922): "Since we can find no indivisible units in this world it is obviously extremely difficult to prove the existence of matter."



References

Kazimir Malevich: "A Letter to the Artists of Holland", 1922. In: K.S. Malevich: Essays on Art, Vol. I. Copenhagen: Borgen, 1968, pp. 183-187.

 

La Monte Young: Compositions. In: La Monte Young & Jackson Mac Low (eds.): An Anthology. New York, 1963.

 

 

 

 

Compiled by Remko Scha, 2005-2010