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something

[elementary shapes and elementary non-shapes]
          

On Kawara: "Something", 1963
[From: Nothing/Something/Everything]



Within the realm of objective, unexpressive, "anti-artistic" art, some of the most common strategies are defined by the notions of everything (the whole world), anything (chance), and nothing (empty space, monochrome painting, etc.). The virtually vacuous notion of something completes this list. It is a convenient label for another important strategy, that is perhaps a bit more subtle and less easy to identify: an art of pure facticity, which forsakes painting and turns to material objects, but which also wishes to avoid sculpture and construction because it is not interested in non-trivial shape. It seems to aim for the impossible three-dimensional equivalent of monochrome painting: the object which presents pure objecthood.



blocks

bags





Related genres:

   L'Informe

   The Readymade