Cut Up Painting

A Lesson In Non-Objective Art

OBJECTIVES

Color planning and painting skills Awareness of non-objective art Reinforce Principles of Design Alter a work of art - create a low relief

collage

MATERIALS

Canvasette Acrylic paints Brushes Palette knives Texture scrapers Modeling paste Palettes and covers Water bowls Matboard scraps Rulers

X-acto knives or paper cutter

Glue Matboard Poster board Acrylic gloss medium Crystal clear fixative Drawing board Tape

NONOBJECTIVE ART

Non-objective art is visual art that does not represent a subject external to itself. It isn't a picture of something. It is, rather, colors and forms that compose an image. There will be nothing identifiable as an object within a truly non-objective painting. Neither is a non-objective painting meant to suggest or resemble natural forms. For this reason, the patterns of, for instance, Navajo textiles intended to stand for elements of the landscape do not constitute non-objective art in its strictest sense. The subject of non-objective art may be the process, the color or the pigment itself.

PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN

Balance Contrast Emphasis Movement Pattern Rhythm Unity

Wassily Kandinsky's Composition VII, 1913

Helen Frankenthaler’s Mountains and Sea, 1952

Willem de Kooning’sComposition, 1955

Gunther Gerzso

Mexican-born Gunther Gerzso (1915-2000) moved to Switzerland at the age of 12 to live with his uncle, Hans Wendland, an art collector, dealer and historian. In 1931, he returned to México and became a set and custom designer in the cinematographic industry. His initial artistic works, during the 1940s, were influenced by surrealism but he later turned to abstractionism. His works have been displayed in México City, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Sweden, France, England, Japan, Venezuela, and Germany among other countries. In 1973 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and in 1978 the Premio Nacional de Artes y Ciencias, the highest artistic/scientific distinction awarded by the Mexican government. The prestigious Gelman collection contains numerous Gerzsos, and works of art by Gerzso are part of the collections of major museums throughout the world. Maestro Gerzso died on April 21, 2000 in México City.

Gunther Gerzso’sPaisaje Espejismo, 2000

Gunther Gerzso’sPaisaje Nocturno, 1999

Gunther Gerzso’sCenote, 1947

Gunther Gerzso’sPersonaje Mitológico, 1985

Gunther Gerzso

PROCEDURES - Color Scheme

Use canvasette and acrylic to make a nonobjective painting.  Use analogous, compliment, split-complement, or monochromatic color schemes.

Analogous – colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel

Compliment – colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel

Split-compliment – color scheme that includes a main color and the two colors on each side of its complementary (opposite) color on the color wheel

Monochromatic – different values (shades and tints) of one single color

PROCEDURES - Paint

Choose the colors to be used and with quick brush strokes start a series of vertical and horizontal shapes that create a center of interest in the aesthetic center of the canvasette (not in actual center point - think rule of thirds).  Use lightest colors/values first and then go to the darker colors/values last. Vary the size of the brush strokes and overlap colors to produce more complicated areas. Use modeling paste, palette knives, paint scrapers, etc. to add textural interest.  

PROCEDURES - Finishing

Let the painting dry and coat with Acrylic Gloss Medium or spray with Crystal Clear Fixative to give your piece a shine and protect the work.  After moistening the back of the painting, press under heavy objects to let it dry flat.

PROCEDURES – Cut Up

Using a paper cutter (or X-acto knives and rulers) cut the painting into uneven widths of shapes with the center of interest being smaller than some of the others.  Next, cut in the opposite direction more shapes; squares, rectangles, triangles, etc. You can vary this cutting procedure once you study some of the examples of non-objective art and you can see how Gunther Gerzso's works have a cut up look to them and sizes of shapes are varied.

PROCEDURES - Collage

Use colored matboard (or poster board) that goes with the paintings color scheme and/or contrasts in value (black would be a safe color choice in doubt).  Start at the upper right or left side and begin to use white glue to stick the shapes to the matboard. You can overlap each shape or create even spaces between shapes and use tabs of scrap matboard to create a low relief effect with the shapes. Low relief is a sculptural technique in which the work projects slightly from the background.