6.4.21 The grid in contemporary art
‘The modernist grid in its very structure is an opponent of mental and visual disorientation, and its subsequent marriage with documentary (factographic) material (made in Russia by constructivists and in Germany by the Bauhaus artists) changed the grid from being a structure of an ‘abbreviatory optic’ to being a tool for attaining what the Bauhaus artist Herbert Bayer called ‘the extended vision’.24 It calls for a constant flux of forms and media, and yet prescribes in order to preserve one’s system of thinking. Postmodern artists were the last to adopt collectively this second function of the grid, the paradigm of art making, now melting, like arctic glaciers, in the global space of political, economic, and social uncertainty’ (Tupitsyn, 2009).
‘Just look around: in modern life, the grid is everywhere. The streets of Manhattan form the most famous urban grid in the world—we type in grid-shaped keyboard keys, we digest our digital media through tiny pixellated grids, and play the lottery filling numbers in small grids. The grid is the net that connects art with the increasingly ordered qualities of day-to-day life. As Krauss wrote, “logically speaking, the grid extends, in all directions, to infinity”. (Pope, 2014)
From my proposal to rebuild the cage in The Street:
'I’m also interested in the cage as a contemporary form of what Rosalind Krauss’ called ‘the grid’ (1979). ‘In modern life, the grid is everywhere…The grid is the net that connects art with the increasingly ordered qualities of day-to-day life. As Krauss wrote, “logically speaking, the grid extends, in all directions, to infinity”’ (Pope, 2014). ‘Working inside or outside the shared structural parameters of the grid, artists make a series of aesthetic choices that lead to personal, deeply individual statements. 21st-century artists use the grid as an organizational tool or the subject of an artwork itself. They follow or rebel against the form, pushing their medium forward by employing an age-old system’ (Cohen, 2018). This is an aspect of the cage that I plan to research further over the coming months.'
Cohen, A. (2018) For Artists, Grids Inspire Both Order and Rebellion Available at: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artists-grids-inspire-order-rebellion (Accessed: 7 April 2021)
Pope, N. (2014) How the grid conquered contemporary art Available at: https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/art_market/how_the_grid_conquered_contemporary_art-51540 (Accessed: 7 April 2021)
Tupitsyn, M. (2009) ‘The Grid as a Checkpoint of Modernity’ in Tate Papers no 12, Autumn 2009 Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/12/the-grid-as-a-checkpoint-of-modernity (Accessed: 7 April 2021)
‘Just look around: in modern life, the grid is everywhere. The streets of Manhattan form the most famous urban grid in the world—we type in grid-shaped keyboard keys, we digest our digital media through tiny pixellated grids, and play the lottery filling numbers in small grids. The grid is the net that connects art with the increasingly ordered qualities of day-to-day life. As Krauss wrote, “logically speaking, the grid extends, in all directions, to infinity”. (Pope, 2014)
From my proposal to rebuild the cage in The Street:
'I’m also interested in the cage as a contemporary form of what Rosalind Krauss’ called ‘the grid’ (1979). ‘In modern life, the grid is everywhere…The grid is the net that connects art with the increasingly ordered qualities of day-to-day life. As Krauss wrote, “logically speaking, the grid extends, in all directions, to infinity”’ (Pope, 2014). ‘Working inside or outside the shared structural parameters of the grid, artists make a series of aesthetic choices that lead to personal, deeply individual statements. 21st-century artists use the grid as an organizational tool or the subject of an artwork itself. They follow or rebel against the form, pushing their medium forward by employing an age-old system’ (Cohen, 2018). This is an aspect of the cage that I plan to research further over the coming months.'
Cohen, A. (2018) For Artists, Grids Inspire Both Order and Rebellion Available at: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artists-grids-inspire-order-rebellion (Accessed: 7 April 2021)
Pope, N. (2014) How the grid conquered contemporary art Available at: https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/art_market/how_the_grid_conquered_contemporary_art-51540 (Accessed: 7 April 2021)
Tupitsyn, M. (2009) ‘The Grid as a Checkpoint of Modernity’ in Tate Papers no 12, Autumn 2009 Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/12/the-grid-as-a-checkpoint-of-modernity (Accessed: 7 April 2021)