John Mccracken Analysis

At one point in time you’ve probably heard someone say how you can find beauty in anything. Some viewers try to take this approach when trying to observe fine art. Strip away expressive brush strokes along with subject matter and what do you have? Furthermore, what if you were to get rid of the traditional canvas and present a piece on say a plate of metal? The viewer would be sent into shock and most likely enter a state of either disgust or denial. The former would result in horrible critiques and word of mouth while the latter would produce forced projections from the viewpoint of the observer. Minimalist probably got this reaction to many of their viewers. Justin Wolf describes their efforts well on the theartstory.org when he states, …show more content…
He quite successfully eliminated expressiveness and composition in his pieces and accomplished the goal of a minimalist. His plank pieces not only get rid of composition and the human hand, but they also deal with. With how he uses his minimalist hand and use of color, McCraken establishes his significance. Trying to combine two ways of being is quite difficult. It would be much easier to dedicate yourself to one format and probably produce a bigger commercial audience. However, that did not stop minimalist like Carl Andre and John McCracken from turning materials into more than the literal. Andre might have focused on the relationship between ground and an audience, but he was still doing it with untraditional materials that left the viewer dumbstruck. His 37 Pieces of work, is made of metal plates and he even invites the viewer to step onto the piece. Many do but you will come across viewers who cannot disassociate its title as fine art and have to walk around it. He has managed to turn this sturdy bone crushing material into one as fragile as glass. Many minimalist …show more content…
There are a bunch of art classes that will teach you that color theory is meant to establish a mood in a piece. However, in this instance that is not the case. McCracken had one goal for using color. That was to make sure it would keep his pieces interesting. They’re not natural colors most of the time. A lot of vibrant yellows, pinks and greens can be found in his collection but you are not to take away the thought of “spring” from this encounter. Just like the conscious decision of how tall to make his planks, McCracken would paint his planks in other worldly colors so that the viewer would not associate themselves with it. You are not to view these identities as things you would ever interact with naturally. With the deliberate isolating decisions McCracken makes to distance his pieces there’s no room for a composition that could lead one to stumble upon a relationship, let alone programing an expressive technique to make remind you it was made by the hands of a fellow