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Digital line vs black line


Eun Nim Ro, born 1946 in Conju, South Korea

“In my art I try to work like nature, adjusting to its rhythms, its becoming and its passing and adopting its powers of transformation.” E.N.R.

Eun Nim Ro, pair of birds 2000-R-6, 2000, etching, edition 30, 69x51cm, sheet size: 90x70cm [Online] Available from: http://www.kunstmarkt.com/pagesprz/ro_eun_nim_9674_vogelpaar_2000_r_6_2000/_i45694_d112961_r45707-/show_praesenz.html?&words=%20Ro%2C+Eun+Nim+%26%239674%3B+Vogelpaar%A02000-R-6%2C+2000 [Accessed 13/02/19]


I started to research this artist because of the funny story. One of my relatives likes one of the drawings of this artist (approximately as it is on the picture below) and so, she said “- ok, I’ll paint this myself and will have a nice “original” painting”… after several attempts to do so she asked me.

At first glance, simple forms and lines make me smile – I really loved it from the beginning! So simple and super positive! What else do you need to have every day on the wall of your living room? After several practices on different images I realized – how difficult it is to keep the composition, line, material and all the rest, even your breath, in a balance?!



Eun Nim Ro, [Online] Available from: http://www.johnmolloygallery.com/eun-nim-ro-recent-paintings.html# [Accessed 13/02/19]










Franz Kline an American artist (1910 – 1962)



This is extremely emotional art for me! Big open forms, stains of colour and expressive gesture. Franz Kline took all unnecessary away and presented the purity of the art on the flat surface. He focused on the communication with the viewer via minimal colours and maximum vivid lines.





Franz Kline, Cardinal, 1950 [Online] Available from: https://www.wikiart.org/en/franz-kline/cardinal-1950 [Accessed 18/02/19]

















Marina WitteMann 2018




Comparing these two works we can say that are both executed in a monochrome manner. In a second work, more types of material are in use. Lines are changed from a bigger to the smaller in different patterns in both works. Theoretically, someone probably could say that the first image is exact and concrete and the second is more narrative and loaded. The difference in time is 68 years. This is could be a very long life of a Russian citizen. But for a work of art, it can be critical! At the first place it was a development of Modernism, performance and abstract expressionism and others, but in 2018 all those tendencies are known and new vibrations are in the air. As a result seems that for being “modern” in your time you need to use ideas, sources, medium, materials from your time. But would it mean that if I will rework this work on my iPad and then printed again this work becomes a “strong” piece of contemporary art?



Morita Shiryū (1912 - 1998) “was a postwar Japanese artist who revolutionized Far Eastern calligraphy into a global avant-garde aesthetic” (Wikipedia, online)



Morita Shiryū [Online] Available from: https://www.bozar.be/en/activities/111529-a-feverish-era-in-japanese-art [Accessed 18/02/19]


The fact that Franz Kline was in close contact with Bokujinkai (avant-garde calligraphy group based in Kyoto) is beyond doubt. This comparison made me research avant-garde ‘expressionist calligraphy’. After learning this old a technique in China, on my own experience I can admit that the way as Asian artists sees this I believe no one can be better. What I like in art of Marita Shiryū is that he used different materials.





Morita Shiryū, Ryû - DRAGON , 1965 gold lacquer on paper, 158 x 79 cm. [Online] Available from: http://www.artnet.fr/artistes/shiryu-morita/ry%C3%BB-dragon-vJ4SlTBe9VB-sW32rEzZdg2 [Accessed 18/02/19]



The combination of old technology and new materials create fascinating images. The lines are dancing, angry, or the whole story unfolds before your eyes. The artist managed to create a volume and a delightful texture in calligraphy - where only liquid, brush and surface are involved.



Julie Mehretu (1970) American artist


“Mehretu’s points of departure are architecture and the city, particularly the accelerated, compressed and densely populated urban environments of the 21st Century. Her canvases overlay different architectural features such as columns, façades and porticoes with geographical schema such as charts, building plans and city maps and architectural renderings, seen from multiple perspectives, at once aerial, cross-section and isometric. Her paintings present a tornado of visual incident where gridded cities become fluid and flattened, like many layers of urban graffiti.” (Whitecube, online)

I see a connection with my works. Julie Mehretu combines geometrical and perspective images with emotions and “freedom”. I understand her thoughts and way of work just by looking in details of the image. Pragmatism and calculation in the foreground give way to living lines and colour.



Julie Mehretu, Co-Evolution of the Futurhyth Machine (after Kodwo Eshun), 2013, Graphite, ink and acrylic on canvas, (274.3 x 304.8 cm) [Online] Available from: https://www.mariangoodman.com/artists/julie-mehretu [Accessed 19/02/19]


Question why currently we are trying to imitate a digital lines and digital effects? Is it a reflection on the 2019?




Petra Cortright (1986) American artist



About Petra Cortright I read a couple of months ago when I was researching some digital works of art because I started to create similar pieces.



Petra Cortright, Contemporary Art Magazine, Digital Art [Online] Available from: http://www.contemporaryartcuratormagazine.com/home-2/petra-cortright [Accessed 20/02/19]


The artist creates her works on a computer out of hundreds of layers and exposes on the screens or printing on different materials. Computer or smartphone is the most popular thing currently in the household. To use these technical devices is interesting in an abstract and figurative way, yes I can agree with this. But there is no physical body of the artwork until you print it…


Don’t know what is more attractive for me to create digital lines as Julie Mehretu or straight away paint all thoughts in computer?!


Almost every person became a little bit of an artist with hundreds of photos on Instagram and Facebook. Representation of person on the internet is a subject for deep analyze for Cortright in her short videos. Sometimes weird, sometimes shocking they sharpen the questions of the digital time. Narcissism, number of likes, ignorance, sale, purchase are just some of the problems that the artist presents.






Bibliography and references


1. The art story, Mitchell Joan [Online] Available from: https://www.theartstory.org/artist-mitchell-joan-life-and-legacy.htm[Accessed 19/11/18]

2. Wikipedia, Morita Shiryū [Online] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morita_Shiry%C5%AB [Accessed 19/02/19]

3. TATE, Contested Comparisons: Franz Kline and Japanese Calligraphy, Eugenia Bogdanova-Kummer [Online] Available from: https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/in-focus/meryon/japanese-calligraphy [Accessed 19/02/19]

4. Whitecube, Julie Mehretu [Online] Available from: http://whitecube.com/artists/artist/julie_mehretu [Accessed 19/02/19]

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