The Highly Opinionated Newsletter XV

Cycladic Art

These figures were created 3000 years ago. Yet they appear as fresh and new as anything created since.. Representation is highly simplified. It is symmetrical, geometric and abstract. Nothing extraneous distracts the eye from sleek lines that indicate anatomical features with spareness and grace. The figure is elongated and wafer thin. Each piece has a ghostlike presence and seems to hover midway between two and three dimensions.

Although there are variations, the best of the figures adhere to a specific convention. This convention has the following characteristics. The figure, which is generally female, stands with arms that are enfolded about the waist, forming a square configuration. The breasts are indicated by raised cones, the waist is slightly indented, and the pelvis area is incised with a triangle. Legs, which are held together, are slightly bent at the knees and again at the ankles. The head is atop an elegant, slim neck and is bisected by a vertical ridge that indicates the nose.

That is all. That is enough. A strange beauty emanates from this intersection of two aesthetics: the representational and the abstract. For Cycladic art joins the particular and the general in a way as effective as any and more effective than most. We are presented with all the information we need, no more, no less. The figure is defined by a vision which contains neither too little nor too much.

It is the first minimal art.

It could be the finest.

Gentle Indignation
May 1998