Kostołowski analyzes the forms of abstract art in the context of spirituality and the sacred. Before 1914, at the beginning of relations between abstraction and spirituality, Wilhelm Worringer’s polar system of ‘abstraction and empathy’ and esoteric texts (Hilma af Klint) were the most important source of inspiration. When more and more artists became interested in abstract geometric art in the period between the world wars, there was a conflict involving materialist-oriented artists and the artists interested in spirituality. Unism and structuralism were located in the border are of those two trends. A different path was chosen by some abstract expressionists who were interested in mythical and metaphysical and by the outsiders from different countries who were interested in esoteric phenomena. Jean-François Lyotard considered loftiness of the modernist artist as the valve of the sacred. Hybrid art of our era returns to abstraction, and also to spiritual abstract art.
Non-unquestionable relations: some links between conceptual art and performance (part one) The text concerns two major concepts in the art of the last half of this century: conceptual art and performance. Conceptual art, which crystal- lized in the 1960s, has become one of the fundamentally seminal move- ments in contemporary art. Performance – a phenomenon with long his- tory, since 1970s has been treated as an independent art genre. These two phenomena happen to be merged in various context; both feature an approach directed against the commoditization of art. However, in other areas and contexts crucial differences between these concepts can be perceived. Conceptual artists have adopted an analytical-index rela- tion to objects in their approach. During performances objects often play a major (also emotional) role, being left behind as documentation. Con- ceptual art, distancing itself from the so called “retinal art”, i.e. the one that pleases the eye, has adopted utilization of texts or other linguistic materials as an important method of expression. For performance artists (except for performance lecturers), texts and descriptions are located on the outskirts, i.e. as plans preceding actions and descriptions following them. The discussed disciplines of art differ in their approach to media, as well: conceptual art treats them purely functionally, in performances they are of bigger importance, for example combined with multimedia. The conclusion attracts attention to the complicated relations between the two concepts: conceptualism and performance art, taking into ac- count related activities in the 1970s and the difference in approach in the successive years.
Veiled and Direct. Remarks About the Feminine Worlds of Maria Pinińska-Bereś and Ewa Partum The proposals of art by the internationally known: Maria Pinińska-Bereś (1931–1999) and Ewa Partum (b. 1945) have been emerging since the 1960s and 1970s as the successive steps driving through the shell of masculine domination in art. Owing to the power and coherence of the liberation endeavours, both artists have worked out their own forms of creativity. Through the individuality of feminine approaches they mani- fested in their statements some sort of model message, and at the same time a uniqueness in the way of using artistic means of expression. For the sculpturess and “performeress” Pinińska-Bereś entangled in the mul- ti-level dualism of the patriarchal domination and neo-avant-guarde free- dom, the method depended on showing psychoanalytically filtered depths through the veiled object allusions. For the relatively early emancipated and direct in her strong performances conceptual artist, Ewa Partum, the fusion of corporal presence with critical ideas was, and still is, important.
In different historic periods, artists used the element of humor in their works of art and the results of their interest can be considered as aesthetic category. Humor was often combined with irony, self-irony, satire etc. Also, it was used as independent form. In popular and not necessarily in artistic work, humor played rather secondary role in the culture. Immanuel Kant and many later authors did not consider, however, humor-art as art-form. The Dadaists and other artists active after the 1960’s did not follow those gloomy ideas of their predecessors. As the result of that change, humor gained a new meaning. Today, the art forms which gained originality and significance because of humoristic content, are considered as important manifestations of art. Among them, special attention should be paid to art-form which gained strength because of their humor. Hence, we might say, as did Marcel Duchamp, paradoxically, that humor contributed to the seriousness of art. Also, we might highlight the role of practical joke.
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