“Marlena Doktorczyk-Donohue: Would you concede that you create zany correlates of the body that maneuver between the abstract and the figurative?
Peter Shelton: This whole figurative versus abstract stuff comes from faulty thinking after World War II, suggesting that Modernism was fundamentally a battle between representation and abstraction. I don’t see it as one leading to the other or exceeding the other. It comes down to achieving some core expression, and the “hows” of getting there follow from that.
MDD: Do you mean that idea trumps process?
PS: Nothing is that simple. I mean that it’s inaccurate to see my work as growing linearly from abstract to real or simple to complex, or the reverse. Unlike many of my formalist predecessors, I don’t work linearly, evolving from project and situation to the next project and situation–ideas continue to circulate [...]” (41)
Doktorczyk-Donohue, Marlena. “Simple Simply Isn’t.” Sculpture. April 2012. pgs. 38-45.
Excellent quote and clear thinking..at least I think so.
Yeah, I’m fond of it too. Sometimes we see this divide between the abstract and the figurative among our students’ work, here at OCAC. I like Shelton’s view. It’s really an unnecessary and useless conflict, a distraction that can often get in the way of producing successful works — which is what it’s all about anyway (as Shelton points out). Thanks for commenting! Best, Kevin.
Agree very much with this point of view: “It comes down to achieving some core expression, and the “hows” of getting there follow from that.”
Interesting how poetry and art have the same issues. I hear from one poet that this ‘crazy’ poem writing I’m doing this month, well, she doesn’t get it and doesn’t like it. In another email, a poet loves it. My ‘crazy’ poems are as ‘abstract’ as visual abtract work.
Being a poet myself (I got my MFA in Poetry at the University of Washington) and working as a librarian in an art college, I see correlations between issues in the visual art world and the poetry world all the time. Especially with respect to the creative process. There doesn’t seem to be much of a difference, no matter what particular medium one is working in. Thanks for sharing your observation! Best, Kevin.
Interesting quotes – thanks for posting this. I have been thinking about this kind of thing lately in my art.
How interesting… the now old-fashioned Jean Piaget, child development psychologist I think, described the development of children’s learning as a spiral, revisiting areas of knowledge but at a different level… I’ve always though thought this works for me with learning, maybe it also applies to making.
early in my final year at college I had what Kevin describes: two bodies of work, one figurative and one abstract (vessel). I’m glad I went with the vessel, but the two sets of work were I think trying to express the same thing, just in different formal languages, and the more formal language definately suits me better, I know know, five years on!
Hi Carys! Thanks for this comment! I’m intrigued by Piaget’s theory of child development. I’ll have to look into that! Also thanks for talking about your own experience as an artist. It’s so important for our students to hear about the experiences and changes other artists have endured — especially with respect to figurative vs. abstract (which is a still a hot topic around here!). Thanks again! Best, Kevin.
I find what I do in my poetry/writing is more apparent or less baffling if I do it in form. My play in metaphor there is harder to entertain than in a substantial physical way (regardless of the figurative versus abstraction??). People get it more, or enjoy it more.
Reading the figure is less work than reading an abstraction which is less work than a prose poem? Even if at a conceptual level it is similar? With figures some GPU module in the brain can take over and ‘things’ can be automagically dealt with, rather than annoy the CPU with trivial details?
Hi Meika! Thank you for such a thoughtful comment! It’s always great to learn about an artist’s process and what considerations go into that process. Thanks again! Best, Kevin.