The formalism study was first developed as an academic discipline in the early twentieth century; however, along with the cross-disciplined design since late twentieth century, it has turned into an approach revealing the formal structure between artwork and other social phenomena such as social hierarchy, ethnics, and gender. In this paper, I explore two early Renaissance David sculptures by Donatello. My attempt is to investigate sexual desire through the formal configurations in terms of sublimation of cultural identity underpinning hitherto socio-cultural reality, searching for the centripetal force consolidating the gender in the Renaissance society.
The methodology of this paper is based on two studies: "Form and Gender" by David Summers (1993), and "Gender" by Whitney Davis (1996). On the one hand, Summers' theory helps me to observe how Donatello transfers the rhetorical skill, antithesis, into the formal design of sculpture. On the other hand, Davis analysis is supportive to read artwork in the social fabric synthetically; moreover it allows me to investigate the gendering elements in two David statues. After comparing the formal elements in two David statues along with their displaying locations during the Renaissance, I suggest the masculinity in Marble David is correlated with its religious purpose and the public symbol of the government; and the androgynous figure of Bronze David is not ascribed to Donatello's homosexual tendency; instead, it is a visual evidence of the queer subject in the fifteenth century Florentine social fabric.
Keywords
Donatello, David, Formal Analysis, Homoeroticism, Queer Theory
When Conceptual art was not as flourish as how it is today, Giuseppe Penone (1947-) was a prophet already who had liberated sculpture from nature with enlightenment. Instead of following prevailing minimalism or metaphysical art during that period, Giuseppe Penone sought for inspiration through his personal life experiences and poetic sensibility within literature. He not only also applied tautology and creative criticism to excavate truth from substance of nature, but also reverse stuffy definition of existence and nothingness. Giuseppe Penone brought enlightenment thinking of contemporary art up.
In this paper, I try to analyze the Italian artist Giuseppe Penone who was the youngest member of Arte Povera. As sculpture had always been his core rhythm, I first introduce his multi-oriented sculpture following his sequence of the concept, and then analyze how he became a pioneer of concept art through creating a new possibility from the tradition and the reality in a world of art dominated by flouring minimalism. Secondly, I attempt to study Giuseppe Penone's achievement through connecting it with Daoism and Chinese bonsai art. Until now western scholars still couldn't discuss about his art through in-depth perspective of eastern world. We however can find the concept of Daoism within his work. Therefore, I try to find the relationship between Daoism and his perspective of art. At the end, we could more clearly and deeply understand his outstanding mind by comparing with eastern culture, and find what evokes Concept art, Body Art, and Process Art. It is possible to inspire eastern artists to furthermore examine their own traditional philosophy in reverse and create possibility of new amazing art.
Keywords
Giuseppe Penone, arte povera, animism, chinese bonsai art, Daoist aesthetics
雕塑中的「物」與「物性」——論英國雕塑家菲利浦‧金2014 倫敦戶外個展The Object and Objecthood of Sculpture: British Sculptor Phillip King's Outdoor Exhibition in London, 2014
摘要
2014年6月 Masterpiece London 藝術博覽會慶祝英國藝術家菲利浦．金(Phillip King) 的八十歲大壽而舉辦其戶外雕塑個展，其中有來自臺灣苗栗東鋼藝術家駐廠創作的成果。九件展出作品中，可見藝術家用色彩與構成來對抗重力進而達到元素間的平衡，創作更從「幻象主義」逐漸轉向材料的物理特質。他的雕塑牽涉了「物性」，陳述了對臺座、尺寸、周邊環境與光線互相關聯的問題。本文探討英國新雕塑的背景與重要性，由美國1960年代藝術批評來理解菲利浦．金雕塑中的「物」與「物性」，研究其雕塑作品隱含的創作脈絡。
關鍵字
菲利浦．金、英國新雕塑、物、物性
Abstract
In the year of Phillip King CBE PPRA's 80th birthday, an outdoor exhibition of his sculpture was displayed at Masterpiece London in Ranelagh Gardens, Chelsea, June 2014. Among the nine works being in the show, the latest ones were made in the Tung-Ho Steel Factory during King's artist residency in Miaoli, Taiwan. The sculptures were made using color and construction that freed the work from a sense of gravity. All elements reached balance with his works turning illusionism to physicality of materials. His sculptures are a statement on the problem of the relationship between the plinth, scale, context and light as they have reference the problem of "Objecthood". The study explores the background and importance of British New Sculpture, and examines the influence of Object and Objecthood on King's sculptures through the connection with American Art Criticism of the 1960s. This will enable an understanding of the creative context behind the work.
Keywords
Phillip King, British New Sculpture, Object, Objecthood
Mr. Huang's family was not wealthy when he was young. After the Japanese colonial education, he entered to Normal school, and got support from the officer of Taiwan Government to go to Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko to learn sculpture with public funds. Mr Hung was Taiwan's first artist whose works won Japanese recognition. Besides his efforts, the political and educational systems of Japanese occupation period brought his outstanding life experiences.
Mr. Huang created the works for Japan Empire Exhibition, accepted the order from Japan royal family, and extended his artificial field to general life hood to customize the portrait and artificial decoration for Japanese and Taiwan gentries. This led to various public arts. However, he personally regarded himself as a weird man because he had no time to have interaction with others. If he was not good at social relationship, how could he get financial funds to support his creation? In the records of Taiwan Daily News, Mr. Huang attended many public social activities to enhance his social relationship. He also made friends with some officers of Taiwan Government, businessmen and artists from Japan and Taiwan. Since 1927, Taiwan Daily News had kept assisting selling his works. It was the beginning of artificial work commercialization.
The transition of conservation and modernity not only reflected on his works but also influenced of establishment his social relationship and development of his work creation. This article, in a social history perspective is to review Mr. Huang again, and analyze Taiwan's cultural development; hope to compensate the insufficiency of existing researches.
Keywords
Huang Tu-Shui, The Japanese Colonial Period , Empirical Fine Arts Exhibition, Taiwan Daily News, Art Sponsoring
