Female abstractionists


I find what Arthur Danto has to say about the abstract art of the ’90s very interesting. He proposes that there are two distinct tendencies in contemporary abstract art. The first sustains the importance of moving beyond the idea of art history as a sequence of events in time; the second instead is grounded in the very legacy that this history has expressed. The works in the latter group could be called “classical,” in the sense that they reveal an underlying interest in balance, without, however, indulging in uninflected uniformity. I would say that the work of German artist Elisabeth Vary, which explores the symmetrical relationship between the sum and its parts, can be slotted into this classical vein. Her work succeeds in establishing multiple viewpoints, which free it of any pretense to monolithic unity. It is characterized by an unstable equilibrium that highlights the intermingling of pictorial and sculptural languages through the relationship of form, color, and surface. A quality of empathy empowers the finished works, a remarkable capacity to involve the viewer in a visible object that is open to more than one possible interpretation...


The full text is published in "tema celeste" No. 84, March-April 2001.




Tiziana Conti