symposium
reductive abstraction less is more again
In the spring and summer of 2005 FOAM ArtRadius, together with Saksala ArtRadius organized a sculpture symposium based on the theme reductive abstraction. The material was wood. We posted more photos on order-essays.com.
Six sculptors worked during different periods in the summer. The periods overlap and at the most three sculptors will be working at the same time. The material is wood (pine, birch and poplar). The works they produce will remain their property. We do expect them to leave the work on loan to the open air museum for a period of three years.
During the last two decades it seems that art has been attempting to give itself more content by accumulation. Combinations of superfluous materials and styles have lead to a redundant art. But this apparent development is only an aspect of art as a whole. What is presented as contemporary or even avant-garde is only that which has temporarily in the spotlights of the museums and galleries. The marketing of art by too many fashion seeking art historians and art promoters is continuously aimed at creating new trends. This would not be so detrimental, if only they would realize that different art forms have to exist next to each other in order to stimulate and nourish each other. Letting the artists determine their development themselves seems to be too much to ask.
ArtRadius, a global initiative, set up and supported by artists, will give the wheel back to the artists - therefore seemingly forgotten movements in art will be re-established and put back in the footlight.
The development of art is parallel not serial.
Therefore we aim to aim the spotlight at a development which did not only start during the Russian Revolution or the Stijl, but has been going on much longer; already in the renaissance artists were searching for a pragmatic, as well as scientific, approach to bypass emotional target practice. So constructivists were not only the men and women in the first decennium of the twentieth century. The development of art has broadened our scope since the renaissance.
MINUS SPACE, an online initiative presenting the best reductive, concept-based art, formulates it very concisely:
"Reductive, concept-based work is generally characterized by its use of plainspoken materials, monochromatic or limited color, geometry and pattern, repetition and seriality, precise craftsmanship, and intellectual rigor."