Thesis Abstract

Platonic Ideal, Plein Air Painting, and Prisoners

Notes on Thesis Precedents for Conceptual Art

Early in the paper, I will write briefly about the writings of Sol LeWitt, specifically his “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” and “Sentences on Conceptual Art,” in order to set the stage for what has become the definitions of this form of artwork. I will similarly touch on the ideas of art by Plato who presented the reasoning behind object and image based art. LeWitt and Plato will help set the terms of the ideas behind my discussion. I will address the origins of plein air painting and its practice in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Significant artists to my argument include Hendrik Terbrugghen, the Brill brothers, Claude Lorrain, John Constable, and the Barbizon school. Other topics include the beginnings of easle painting and its contribution to portable artwork and landscape painting leading into plein air painting. I am also interested in wrting about parallel practices that parallel practices that are not considered art. These practices may include the art of prisoners and the instituionallized, Australian Aboriginal walkabouts, travel Manuscripts, and early descriptive topographical art. Each of these subjects has a long history. I see my work as a contribution to this long history and these are among the precedents for my art practice.

The roots of my practice go back to ancient times. The idea of the Platonic Ideal is contemporary in its relevance to my art beliefs. The spatial and temporal issues addressed by plein air painters have been a source of guidance in my work. Finally, the products of non-art or magnialized art practice speak to the value of my art process as a mannr to locate the self. I am attracted to making artwork that is an exploration into the interactions and small influences between artist, materials, and environmental context through the production of modest, anti-virtuosic objects representing a visually quantified subjective experience.

I will describe how my work functions writing about its use as a document for experience in a space over a period of time. I will describe how the ideas of interaction with materials, portability, and spatial context were used to locate oneself. I will relate to my work through the work of the types of artwork and parallel practices listed above. I will mention specific artworks I have done in order to relate my work to the subjects being discussed.

I will write about artists who have been recently creating artwork that is in dialog with the principles discussed in my thesis. I will mention current artists working in a similar practice such as Richard Long, On Kawara, and Wolfgang Laib. I hope to begin a discussion regarding the importance of earlier art and non-art practices that inform the development of contemporary conceptually driven experiential artworks.