CubicCats

Ok, I think this stretches the definition of caricature, however I remember discussing whether an object or representation of something can be a caricature of another object or another representation. This picture is a minimal piece by Donald Judd.

The minimalist movement was a reaction to abstract impressionism. This artwork was sometimes created by factory machines, or with machine like perfection to avoid showing the hand of the artist. It bought into question the role of an artist in the authorship and creation of their work. Minimalism also tried to avoid putting any sort of connotation or meaning into their works, the work was the obvious, the object itself, and experimented with tradition materials, as well as traditional ways of displaying work. Donald Judd created this particular repeating modular so that no one part of the work would stick out, and the eye would be drawn not to any one particular focal point but to the overall piece as a whole.

I chose this piece because isn’t any artwork that is a direct reaction to a previous movement a caricature in a way? In it’s contrast to past works, it is making a comment on the work of the past, or rather on it’s particular view of the direction art should be moving toward) (as well as what values should be maintained or discarded). However, it still retains similar elements to the past so that one can trace from what movement minimalism arose. Comparable to the way in which the negative of a mold recalls the positive and vise versa.

I also choose this piece because it reminded me of a section of the reading where Diana Donald describes the print shop window, the dynamic between the audience and the comic prints, “ the latter becomes a comic spectacle celebrating the intimate relationship between satire and social reality” (7). Similarly most minimal works where created so that they were comparable to the body.The size, contrasting angles (to the smooth organic curves of the body), as well as a display (which often was placed in a location where the audience could walk around accommodating human eyes and legs) makes the audience an integral part of this kind of work. Not only that, but the work is defined in comparison to the audience. Together, they generate a larger more complex work than when set apart.