Constantin Brancusi, Isamu Noguchi And Barbara Hepworth Essay Example

Introduction

The Artist Work
"The White Gunas" was an abstraction art developed by Isamu Noguchi. Noguchi is an American Born art; his artwork were most inspired by philosophies of the west and the east. His work "The White Gunas, " is a creativity showing three Gunas that stands for strands of quality in Samkhya India (Lewis 10). The first strand is “tamas” which stands for motionless or rather darkness. The second strand is "rajas" which in India means passion or desire and the third strip is "sattva" which means goodness or clear thinking in India. The philosophy of the art is that with the three qualities presented in the art one can finally attain peace and total balance if the qualities are incorporated in one's life. The three "gunas" give an individual an opportunity to enter into oneness and thus obtain peace and understanding (Lewis 12). The main aim of the art is to enable one to reach the major spiritual goal that is obtained balance of the three qualities (Lewis 17). The abstraction is that although they are all different qualities they all glow white and must all be incorporated in one accord to enable one reach optimum peace.
"Collection of the Sea" is artwork by Barbara Hepworth, the collection looks simple as it pieces of creatively designed marbles placed on top of a stainless steel support. Hepworth is recognized among the most creative and important British sculptor of the 20th century (Stephens 220). Her work as an artist involves both abstract and semi-abstract art. “Assembly of Sea forms” one of her latest great works was an art that portrayed the message of sensibility. The idea of stone standing on a steel platform evokes one to think of existence and support that is needed for existence. Her work also like the “White Gunas” has the concept of holiness (Stephens 224). The beautiful stones on a stainless steel compares to life and the universe since the universe supports life. Each of the forms in the art work is named as per the idea behind the creation of the art. The “Sea Mother” is the one portrayed to be the originator of the forms on the steel. Other forms includes the "Sea Bird" and "embryo" on the front row, "sea King" and "Sea mother" on the Back row and the "sea Young" "Shell" and "Sea Form" in the center row (Stephens 227). That is the Collection of the Sea forms art where the main idea that the artist brought is life and existence. This was one of Hepworth work that had strong elements of semi-abstraction. In the art, one can witness the sea forms perfectly balancing and stable on the steel platform. The perfect co-existence of the Sea forms and the steel support shows how life can also be holy and perfect if existence is cherished. That is the message that the artist abstracts in her pieces of art. The art work is also in line with the vitalism philosophy; the Plato's principle of unchanging external form yet can be presented by an artist in the matter through art (Stephens 230). The philosophy allows the artist to bring to life inanimate object by simply structuring them and hence injecting some nature intelligence in the art work.
Another great work of art is the “Birds in Space” an artwork by Constantin Brancusi. The work was purely based on the Romanian folklore known as the Măiastra; the folklore is about a bird and how it cures the blind (Geist 24). The bird is golden and beautiful to look at the bird could also foretell the future (Geist 27). The philosophical belief in this artwork is that reality exists in the external form of creativity. Though, the artwork is an image of the bird, to the philosophers and intelligent artists, the work is about soaring and elevating oneself to the next level (Geist 28). The essence of the work is that amidst all negative energy there is still hope, and the future might be better since the bird heals and can foretell the future.
Another example of an artist that represents abstraction is Pablo Picasso. He lived in the 20th century and made most of his paintings and artistic works based on ideas. Pablo is remembered as the man who formed the cubism movement. Cubism is credited for the development of abstraction art and Pablo was among some of the artists credited for this development. His artistic work, Les Demoissels D’ Avignon was based on the idea that all elements of nature can be summarized to three basic solids; cone, sphere and cube.

Conclusion

The three artists have displayed great pieces of work that philosophers can relate to life and existence. Sometimes the art allows humans to create a form in their mind that perfectly relates to human existence. The relation of art and human existence creates the form that is the theme that the artist always does convey. In the three piece work the artist have used different formulas but all the artwork through vitalism, one gets the intended message.

Work Cited

Benton, Edward. "Vitalism in nineteenth-century scientific thought: A typology and reassessment." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 5.1 (1974): 17-48.
Fraser, Mariam, Sarah Kember, and Celia Lury. "Inventive Life Approaches to the New Vitalism." Theory, Culture & Society 22.1 (2005): 1-14.
Geist, Sidney. "Brancusi's" Bird in Space": A Psychological Reading." Source: Notes in the History of Art 3.3 (1984): 24-32.
Lewis, Kevin D. “The Miracle of Unintelligibility”: The Music and Invented Instruments of Lucia Dlugoszewski. Diss. The university of Cincinnati, (2011) 9-30.
Stephens, Chris. "‘The morrow we left behind’: Landscape and the Rethinking of Modernism, 1939–53." Art History 35.2 (2012): 216-233.