Kim MacConnel
Encyclopedia
Kim MacConnel is an American artist
who works with painting
, sculpture
, and mixed media
-collage
/fabric. MacConnel is a seminal figure in the Pattern and Decoration
movement of the seventies, but overall MacConnel’s oeuvre has surpassed being categorized. MacConnel received his BA, with honors, from the University of California, San Diego in 1969 and his MFA, also with honors, in 1972.
of the time in the 1970s. During the Minimalist movement, artists weren’t interested in color or even painting for the most part; MacConnel’s art just wasn’t accepted as serious. It also had partly to do with his material, instead of painting on stretched canvas
, MacConnel instead painted on fabric and bed sheets, which he would tear apart and sew back together again.
It wasn’t until MacConnel was in an exhibition in Germany
that his art became recognized.
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
who works with painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
, and mixed media
Mixed media
Mixed media, in visual art, refers to an artwork in the making of which more than one medium has been employed.There is an important distinction between "mixed-media" artworks and "multimedia art". Mixed media tends to refer to a work of visual art that combines various traditionally distinct...
-collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
/fabric. MacConnel is a seminal figure in the Pattern and Decoration
Pattern and Decoration
Pattern and Decoration was an art movement situated in the United States from the mid 1970s to the early 1980s. The movement has sometimes been referred to as "P&D" or as The New Decorativeness.The movement was championed by the gallery owner Holly Solomon....
movement of the seventies, but overall MacConnel’s oeuvre has surpassed being categorized. MacConnel received his BA, with honors, from the University of California, San Diego in 1969 and his MFA, also with honors, in 1972.
Career
MacConnel had a lot of trouble starting out as an artist due to the fact that he had to come up against the minimalismMinimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
of the time in the 1970s. During the Minimalist movement, artists weren’t interested in color or even painting for the most part; MacConnel’s art just wasn’t accepted as serious. It also had partly to do with his material, instead of painting on stretched canvas
Canvas
Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame...
, MacConnel instead painted on fabric and bed sheets, which he would tear apart and sew back together again.
It wasn’t until MacConnel was in an exhibition in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
that his art became recognized.
- It wasn't really until a German collector who wrote a news letter for German collectors saw the work in a show that I was in Germany and was over come by it. He thought it was really brilliant for some reason. And that's when a contingent of EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
ans really started looking at what we were trying to do. Particularly in my case, what I was trying to do. And found that it resonated in that area for them as a new avenue into the future, really, of what art making might be. So it was revolutionary in some ways in terms of, like, the status quo.
Key Exhibitions
- Collection Applied Design in 1976 was MacConnel’s first solo exhibition and was also his big break back in the states. A book, Collection Applied Design, which he had found in China Town a few years before, inspired the exhibition. This book was pages of clip artClip artClip art, in the graphic arts, refers to pre-made images used to illustrate any medium. Today, clip art is used extensively in both personal and commercial projects, ranging from home-printed greeting cards to commercial candles. Clip art comes in many forms, both electronic and printed. However,...
and logoLogoA logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
s put together randomly, in no certain order, and with out an index, which inspired his series of works, “10 Items or Less” which he put into the show. - Age of Plastic was his next big exhibition which he added more of the sculpture aspect of his work. He had been collecting beach items that had washed up on shore for two decades and finally decided how he wanted to utilize them. He used them into a series of works titled “Trashy Beach Clowns” where he used his found objectFound objectA found object, in an artistic sense, indicates the use of an object which has not been designed for an artistic purpose, but which exists for another purpose already. Found objects may exist either as utilitarian, manufactured items, or things which occur in nature...
s and transformed them into clownClownClowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...
figures. - Another well recognized series of works that is more recent is “Woman with Mirror” in 2007. In this series he went back to his original medium of painting with acrylicsAcrylic paintAcrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry...
. Like PicassoPablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
had used African artAfrican artAfrican art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of people, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African...
as the subject of his work and added backgrounds of pattern, he would look at those backgrounds and take out the subject matter. - Collection Applied Design, A Kim MacConnel Retrospective, is his most recent exhibition, which came out this year and includes the last four decades of his work. He is getting a lot of publicity with this exhibition and is really making his name and art better known through it.