art criticism Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art. Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty. A goal of art criticism is the pursuit of a rational basis for art appreciation but it is quest ...

of the 1960s and 1970s, flatness described the smoothness and absence of curvature or surface detail of a two-dimensional work of art.

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Critic

Clement Greenberg Clement Greenberg () (January 16, 1909 – May 7, 1994), occasionally writing under the pseudonym K. Hardesh, was an American essayist known mainly as an art critic closely associated with American modern art of the mid-20th century and a formali ...

believed that flatness, or two-dimensionality, was an essential and desirable quality in

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

, a criterion which implies rejection of painterliness and

impasto Impasto is a technique used in painting, where paint is laid on an area of the surface thickly, usually thick enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas. When dry, impasto provides tex ...

. The valorization of flatness led to a number of art movements, including

minimalism In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...

and post-painterly abstractionism.

Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

in the arts appeared during the second half of the 19th century and extended into most of the 20th. This period of art is identified by art forms consisting of an image on a flat two-dimensional surface. This art evolution began in the 1860s and culminated 50 years later. By this time almost all three-dimensional works had been eliminated. This new approach to painting was to create a visual appearance of realism. Looking at a surface with only two dimensions our perception of depth is an illusion. The reduction of depth in painting was the consequence of investigation. This new essence of self-analysis attempted to establish an experience or effect from the viewer of the painting.

Terminology and history

The term flatness can be used to describe much of the popular American art work of the 1950s and 1960s. The art of this period had a basic yet colorful design that held a degree of two dimensional form. Thus the term flatness is used to describe this medium. The groundwork idea for

Minimalism In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...

began in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in 1913 when

Kazimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (

placed a black square on a white background claiming that:

Art no longer cares to serve the state and religion it no longer wishes to illustrate the history of manners, it wants to have nothing further to do with the object as such, and believes that it can exist in and for itself without things.Stangos, Nikos (1974) ''Concepts of Modern Art''. Thames & Hudson.

One of the first

artworks was created in 1964 by

Dan Flavin Dan Flavin (April 1, 1933 – November 29, 1996) was an American minimalist artist famous for creating sculptural objects and installations from commercially available fluorescent light fixtures. Early life and career Daniel Nicholas Flavi ...

. He produced a neon sculpture titled ''Monument for V. Tatlin''. This work was a simplistic assembly of neon tubes that were not carved or constructed in any way. The idea was that they were not supposed to symbolize anything but to just merely exist. The Minimalist approach to art was to conceive by the mind before execution. Traditional modes of art composition were rejected in favor of improvisation, spontaneity and automatism. This new expressionist style consisted of improvised pattern making where every stroke of the brush was viewed as expression and subjective freedom.

Pop Art

This concept inspired a whole new art form called Pop Art. It retained the color scheme and simplicity of Minimalism, but it borrowed images from pop culture to become relatable. The works now in question held a meaning for the viewer with familiar imagery but it still retained the

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

approach of Minimalism. Pop Art is a well-recognized movement in 1960s culture. This type of art was very free-form fashionable and rebellious. It was wild and colorful but many works retained the idea of two dimensional flatness.

Op Art

Pop Art fell out of fashion and a new movement came into being. Op Art or Optic Art was now the latest trend in home décor and fashion. This form of modern art shares a strong relationship with the culture thought and design of the 1960s. This new art form focused on non-objective painting that focused on design, color, form, and line. These paintings were hand-drawn or created with a mechanical aid. They featured a flat-looking two dimensional design that could appear to pop out in an almost three dimensional form. Some pieces look as if they are moving due to shape and line placement creating a trick of the eye. This form of art was created to test the limits of the conscious perception of the viewer. Bright colors were no longer favored, as much of Op Art is black and white with little use of color. The designs presented migrated back to the Minimalist idea of art simply existing and not representing an ideal. A well noted artist of this style is Bridget Riley who shaped the contemporary art scene of the early 50s and 70s. Her works are designed to pull the eye in such a way to stretch and disorder the perceptual sense. She is considered a ground-breaking artist in the realm of modern art. Her work mainly consists of detailed line and circle patterns to create an optical challenge for the viewer. Riley composes her art with the thought in mind that we all have a narrow view on how we see things and our vision is rarely stretched to new abilities. Her work confronts the observer with new imaginative sensations, and the overall purpose of the artist's disappears and is replaced with what the viewer conceives. This form of art has no clear outlined theme therefore it allows total freedom for one to compose their imagination. Riley's work ignores object and instead focuses on visual movement to create a seemingly endless pattern. Riley's art appeared in the fashion of that era. Similar patterns still remain popular in clothing today.Bryan Robertson. ''Bridget Riley Paintings and Drawings 1951-1971''. The Hayward Gallery, 1971.

References

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