Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

Making use of the notion of “epodic spaces” this paper presents a reconsideration of non-objective art practices, proposing alternatives to established materialist, formalist, process-based conceptualist approach to such work. The paper addresses Ferreira Gullar’s (1930-2016) Neo-Concrete Manifesto, where he sought to create a distinction between the geometric arts of neoplasticism, constructivism and suprematism – which he described as “dangerously acute rationalism” – rather seeking a position for alternative non-objective practice(s) to account for the expressive potential of such work. In the early twentieth century, Russian Cosmism – an esoteric philosophical movement – was highly influential on Russian avant-garde artists and can account for suprematist artists’ interest in, and approach to, planar geometry and four-dimensional space as demonstrated in the work of Kasimir Malevich (1879-1935). Nikolai Fyodorov (1823-1903) promoted the idea of anti-gravity and cosmic space as the field for artistic activity. The artist and writer Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin (1878-1939) wrote on the concept of Euclidean space, and the overcoming of such rational conceptions of space, the breaking free from the gravitational field and the earth’s sphere, and of planetary feeling and tilted space. These imaginary spaces present a poetic dimension to the work of the Suprematists which arguably aligns more with Gullar’s formulation of his neo-concrete rather than that of his alignment of Suprematism with rationalism. The paper discusses both historical and contemporary non-objective practices in this context, drawing attention to the manner in which the category of the non-objective is used to categorise art works which are, arguably, qualitatively different.