The audio tour for John Chamberlain: Choices shares perspectives on select key works from the exhibition.
www.guggenheim.org/chamberlain

Exhibition Website

John Chamberlain's Involvement with Abstract Expressionism

Access a slow-looking exercise of this work.

Transcript
Narrator: "Broken Forms" by Franz Marc is a rectangular oil-on-canvas painting from 1914. It is about 3 1/2 feet tall by nearly 3 feet wide. The dynamic abstract composition features colorful shapes that are intersected by a large dark and angular form. 

This painting’s colors are strong and include shades of tomato red, mustard yellow, emerald green, and cerulean blue. They gently encircle the composition in soft curving, swirling, and hooked forms, which are intermixed and sometimes combined with vertical and diagonal geometric shapes.  

A dark form protrudes diagonally from just above the bottom-left corner of the composition and extends to its upper right. It is a tall rectangular form, and at its top is a left-facing swirl or hook that resembles a bass clef or the scroll atop a cello’s neck. The form is dark, mainly a mixture of blues and black, making it stand in great contrast to the colorful surroundings. Its sloped angle amid the background’s upright shapes gives a sense that it’s leaning over.  

Just under the dark form sits the center of the composition. Here, the colors seem to blend and lighten into a dusky rose haze with translucent pale yellow bubbles that dissipate within the surrounding well-defined shapes.  

The geometric and organic elements of the composition appear to layer over and under each other. Fluffy brushstrokes at the edges of the dusky rose haze give the impression that this cloudy area hovers over wide yellow vertical stripes that are in the background. Similarly, the crisp edge of the dark form gives the impression that it hovers over the haze. A skipping brushstroke extends down the center of the composition, its vibrant orange paint dragging on top of the dark form, perhaps like the glow of a spotlight. Some shapes’ edges are thinly highlighted with quickly applied white paint in a scumbled technique, producing a shiny three-dimensional effect. 

On close inspection, the painting’s surface is textured, adding a sense of movement and dimensionality to the work. Brushstrokes twirl to form circles that cluster in the central haze and in other places sweep to form curving shapes and edges. In some areas, colors are layered atop each other with hints of underpainting uncovered at the edges, forming a halo effect. In other areas, diluted washes of paint thinly veil the underpainting.

Orphism - Verbal Descriptions

Description of Broken Forms (Zerbrochene Formen), 1914

As part of the Guggenheim Museum’s Summer of Know series, artist Ad Minoliti and activist Adam Werner discussed social and artistic responsibility, and building community on digital platforms, with moderation by X Zhu-Nowell, Assistant Curator at the Guggenheim Museum.

Photo: Ed Marshall

Archivo de la Memoria Trans
https://archivodelamemoriatrans.tumblr.com/

Queer Ancestors Project
https://www.queerancestorsproject.org/

The Feminist School of Painting
http://fschool.kadist.org/

Cromoactivismo
https://www.facebook.com/Cromoactivismo-1430319627007557/

Campaña Nacional por el Derecho al Aborto Legal Seguro y Gratuito
http://www.abortolegal.com.ar/

Summer of Know

Conversation: Ad Minoliti and Adam Werner (2019)

Listen to audio about exhibitions and artworks at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Frank Lloyd Wright's landmark building is home to a collection of modern and contemporary masterpieces.

Description of Broken Forms (Zerbrochene Formen), 1914

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

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