Artist:
Marian Bogusz
Title:
Mobiler Granit
Year:
1971
Adress:
Pfannenschmiedsgasse
concrete or abstract
A circular disc is made up small natural stone plates. The disc is almost round. The surface is rough as the plates are irregularly broken.
There are two small but very noticeable details: an opening in the middle and a cantilevered plate. I would have preferred these details to be bigger. Now these details makes it unclear whether the artist wanted to make an abstract or a more realistic artwork.
Suppose there was no opening or cantilevered plate. Than the disk would be an abstract circle and made out of natural material. It would refer to moving (from the association with the wheel), to the center (as it is associated with the globe) and food (as it is linked with a millstone). The work would at the the same time say something about movement, centre and feeding. The work would be significant, with all these meanings.
Suppose the opening was bigger. The disk would more clearely refer to a millstone. The number of meanings would be less. Than Mobiler Granit would be able to say something like the people of Bochum are proud of the millers, who supply them with food. I have more problems in dealing with the cantilevered plate. Suppose there where larger plates and tabs that where cantilevering. Than I would think of a section of a medieval wall. Than Mobiler Granit would be able to say something like that Bochummers live in an old and historic place.
My preference would go to an abstract object; this would be ful of meaning as we have seen.
By Theo, www.artatsite.com
Vertaling
concreet of abstract
Een ronde schijf is gemaakt van smalle natuurstenen platen. De schijf is bijna rond. De oppervlakte is ruw doordat de platen onregelmatig zijn afgebroken.
Er zijn twee kleine maar toch ook opvallende details: een opening in het midden en uitstekende plaat. Deze details hadden wat mij betreft groter gemogen. Nu is het onduidelijk of de kunstenaar een abstract of méér realistisch kunstwerk wilde maken.
Gesteld dat de opening en de schijf achterwege waren gelaten. Dan de schijf een abstracte cirkel gemaakt van natuurlijk materiaal. Het zou kunnen verwijzen naar beweging (dan associeer ik op ‘wiel’), naar centrum (geassocieerd op ‘aardbol’), naar voeding voor de mens (naar ‘molensteen’). Het kunstwerk zou dan tegelijkertijd iets zeggen over beweging, centrum en voeding. Het kunstwerk zou veelzeggend, door al deze betekenissen.
Gesteld dat de opening groter was geweest. Dan de schijf duidelijker verwijzen naar een molensteen. Het aantal betekenissen wordt minder. Dan zou Mobiler Granit kunnen zeggen men in Bochum trots is op de molenaars die hen van voeding hebben voorzien. Ik heb meer moeite met de uitstekende plaat. Gesteld dat er grotere platen en nokken zouden uitsteken. Dan denk ik aan een gedeelte van middeleeuwse muur. Mobiler Granit had kunnen zeggen dat Bochummers op een oude historische plek wonen.
Mijn voorkeur zou uitgaan naar een abstract object; die is veelzeggend zoals we hebben gezien.
Door Theo, www.artatsite.com
www.welt-der-form.net:
Marian Bogusz, *1920 Pleszewic, †1980 Warschau.
Mobiler Granit, 1971.
Waldsteingranit, 150 cm Durchmesser, ca. 20 cm dick. Geschaffen anlässlich des Symposion Urbanum. Standort: zunächst 1972 in der Pfannenschmiedsgasse, mitten in der Fussgängerzone, am Eingang zum Kaufhof aufgestellt, seit 2011 Hallplatz. Die Scheibe war auf einer Achse senkrecht drehbar gelagert und konnte sich so dem Menschenstrom anpassen. Dies liess sich aber auch dazu nutzen, die Scheibe so aus dem Sonnenlicht zu drehen, dass die Bruchstellen im Stein hervortreten. Der Stein wurde gesponsort vom Granitwerk Henschel, Reinersreuth. Die Bearbeitungsspuren vom Sägen und Bohren liess Bogusz bewusst stehen.
www.courtauld.ac.uk:
In her pioneering monograph on the Polish artist and organiser of artistic life Marian Bogusz, Bo?ena Kowalska argued that his artistic trajectory was heavily determined by his war-time experiences.
Art historian, art critic and a vocal advocate of modern art in the post-Stalinist period, Aleksander Wojciechowski shared this opinion, noting in his introduction to the catalogue of the artist’s 1982 posthumous exhibition in Pozna? that ‘it was in Mauthausen that Bogusz the social worker was born, in addition to Bogusz the painter’.
Wojciechowski explained that the future that the artist was incessantly planning, throughout the course of the Second World War, became an escape from brutal reality. This essay examines the beginnings of Bogusz’s artistic practice, which coincided with the dramatic period of the war and its aftermath, focussing on his architectural plans for an International Artists’ Settlement (Mi?dzynarodowe Osiedle Artystów), produced in Mauthausen concentration camp where he was imprisoned from 1942 to 1945. I will argue that these raise questions about the status of home in a world in which the experience of homelessness was widespread, as well as concerning the place of modernist utopias in dreams of reconstruction following war-time destruction.
www.culture.pl:
Bogusz began to produce his own art around the end of the 1940s. During his first period he created mainly lyrical paintings in which mood was generated by specific arrangements of abstract forms deprived of any rigor, often treated simply as planes. This is evident in Kompozycja ze s?o?cem / Composition with the Sun (1948), exemplary of the artist's poetic sensitivity.
Somewhat later and particularly in the initial years of Group 55's existence (and in accordance with the group's program), Bogusz attempted to combine the clarity of his expressive language (visible deformation of figures, architecture, objects, and flatly laid colors) with the need to incorporate metaphorical meaning into his canvases (Symfonia liturgiczna Honeggera / Honegger's Liturgical Symphony, 1955).
Both of these tendencies disappeared when the artist developed an interest in "matter painting" in the 1960s. He not only abandoned metaphorical meaning but also excluded all manner of allusion, attempting instead to underline the autonomous values of his works, especially the texture of his paintings.
Thus he demonstrated his sensitivity for color and an ability to extract numerous hues and nuances from single planes of color more strongly than in any of his earlier works. This can be seen clearly in compositions P?ótno i plamy / Canvas and Planes (1960) and Ciecia / Cuts (1976). Some of these compositions possess a relief structure characteristic of this poetic, a structure which generated additional effects caused by light passing over the uneven surface of the painting (Epitafium dla stolarza Boles?awa / Epitaph for the Carpenter Boleslaus, 1966).
A circular disc is made up small natural stone plates. The disc is almost round. The surface is rough as the plates are irregularly broken.
There are two small but very noticeable details: an opening in the middle and a cantilevered plate. I would have preferred these details to be bigger. Now these details makes it unclear whether the artist wanted to make an abstract or a more realistic artwork.
Suppose there was no opening or cantilevered plate. Than the disk would be an abstract circle and made out of natural material. It would refer to moving (from the association with the wheel), to the center (as it is associated with the globe) and food (as it is linked with a millstone). The work would at the the same time say something about movement, centre and feeding. The work would be significant, with all these meanings.
Suppose the opening was bigger. The disk would more clearely refer to a millstone. The number of meanings would be less. Than Mobiler Granit would be able to say something like the people of Bochum are proud of the millers, who supply them with food. I have more problems in dealing with the cantilevered plate. Suppose there where larger plates and tabs that where cantilevering. Than I would think of a section of a medieval wall. Than Mobiler Granit would be able to say something like that Bochummers live in an old and historic place.
My preference would go to an abstract object; this would be ful of meaning as we have seen.
By Theo, www.artatsite.com
Vertaling
concreet of abstract
Een ronde schijf is gemaakt van smalle natuurstenen platen. De schijf is bijna rond. De oppervlakte is ruw doordat de platen onregelmatig zijn afgebroken.
Er zijn twee kleine maar toch ook opvallende details: een opening in het midden en uitstekende plaat. Deze details hadden wat mij betreft groter gemogen. Nu is het onduidelijk of de kunstenaar een abstract of méér realistisch kunstwerk wilde maken.
Gesteld dat de opening en de schijf achterwege waren gelaten. Dan de schijf een abstracte cirkel gemaakt van natuurlijk materiaal. Het zou kunnen verwijzen naar beweging (dan associeer ik op ‘wiel’), naar centrum (geassocieerd op ‘aardbol’), naar voeding voor de mens (naar ‘molensteen’). Het kunstwerk zou dan tegelijkertijd iets zeggen over beweging, centrum en voeding. Het kunstwerk zou veelzeggend, door al deze betekenissen.
Gesteld dat de opening groter was geweest. Dan de schijf duidelijker verwijzen naar een molensteen. Het aantal betekenissen wordt minder. Dan zou Mobiler Granit kunnen zeggen men in Bochum trots is op de molenaars die hen van voeding hebben voorzien. Ik heb meer moeite met de uitstekende plaat. Gesteld dat er grotere platen en nokken zouden uitsteken. Dan denk ik aan een gedeelte van middeleeuwse muur. Mobiler Granit had kunnen zeggen dat Bochummers op een oude historische plek wonen.
Mijn voorkeur zou uitgaan naar een abstract object; die is veelzeggend zoals we hebben gezien.
Door Theo, www.artatsite.com
www.welt-der-form.net:
Marian Bogusz, *1920 Pleszewic, †1980 Warschau.
Mobiler Granit, 1971.
Waldsteingranit, 150 cm Durchmesser, ca. 20 cm dick. Geschaffen anlässlich des Symposion Urbanum. Standort: zunächst 1972 in der Pfannenschmiedsgasse, mitten in der Fussgängerzone, am Eingang zum Kaufhof aufgestellt, seit 2011 Hallplatz. Die Scheibe war auf einer Achse senkrecht drehbar gelagert und konnte sich so dem Menschenstrom anpassen. Dies liess sich aber auch dazu nutzen, die Scheibe so aus dem Sonnenlicht zu drehen, dass die Bruchstellen im Stein hervortreten. Der Stein wurde gesponsort vom Granitwerk Henschel, Reinersreuth. Die Bearbeitungsspuren vom Sägen und Bohren liess Bogusz bewusst stehen.
www.courtauld.ac.uk:
In her pioneering monograph on the Polish artist and organiser of artistic life Marian Bogusz, Bo?ena Kowalska argued that his artistic trajectory was heavily determined by his war-time experiences.
Art historian, art critic and a vocal advocate of modern art in the post-Stalinist period, Aleksander Wojciechowski shared this opinion, noting in his introduction to the catalogue of the artist’s 1982 posthumous exhibition in Pozna? that ‘it was in Mauthausen that Bogusz the social worker was born, in addition to Bogusz the painter’.
Wojciechowski explained that the future that the artist was incessantly planning, throughout the course of the Second World War, became an escape from brutal reality. This essay examines the beginnings of Bogusz’s artistic practice, which coincided with the dramatic period of the war and its aftermath, focussing on his architectural plans for an International Artists’ Settlement (Mi?dzynarodowe Osiedle Artystów), produced in Mauthausen concentration camp where he was imprisoned from 1942 to 1945. I will argue that these raise questions about the status of home in a world in which the experience of homelessness was widespread, as well as concerning the place of modernist utopias in dreams of reconstruction following war-time destruction.
www.culture.pl:
Bogusz began to produce his own art around the end of the 1940s. During his first period he created mainly lyrical paintings in which mood was generated by specific arrangements of abstract forms deprived of any rigor, often treated simply as planes. This is evident in Kompozycja ze s?o?cem / Composition with the Sun (1948), exemplary of the artist's poetic sensitivity.
Somewhat later and particularly in the initial years of Group 55's existence (and in accordance with the group's program), Bogusz attempted to combine the clarity of his expressive language (visible deformation of figures, architecture, objects, and flatly laid colors) with the need to incorporate metaphorical meaning into his canvases (Symfonia liturgiczna Honeggera / Honegger's Liturgical Symphony, 1955).
Both of these tendencies disappeared when the artist developed an interest in "matter painting" in the 1960s. He not only abandoned metaphorical meaning but also excluded all manner of allusion, attempting instead to underline the autonomous values of his works, especially the texture of his paintings.
Thus he demonstrated his sensitivity for color and an ability to extract numerous hues and nuances from single planes of color more strongly than in any of his earlier works. This can be seen clearly in compositions P?ótno i plamy / Canvas and Planes (1960) and Ciecia / Cuts (1976). Some of these compositions possess a relief structure characteristic of this poetic, a structure which generated additional effects caused by light passing over the uneven surface of the painting (Epitafium dla stolarza Boles?awa / Epitaph for the Carpenter Boleslaus, 1966).