Exploring “The Void”, from Caspar David Friedrich to Bill Viola

(For those who would rather watch, scroll down to the end for a video version)

“The void” is a term and concept that is particularly challenging to address because it can be approached from many different angles. “The void” is commonly associated with something that is formless, empty, indescribable and non-existent which makes it difficult to stick to a single definition, or really define at all (Oxford Dictionaries | English, n.d.). The question remains, is it possible to seek an understanding of what is essentially “nothing”? Due to its mysterious and difficult nature, it is easy to associate the void with other terms that appear to avoid definition such as “the sublime”, which could literally be thought of as “an expression of the unknowable” (Riding and Llewellyn, 2013). This essay aims to address how different artists have approached the concept of the void and the abstract concepts that come with it, beginning with Caspar David Friedrich, and how the perspectives and ideas of artists have changed since The Enlightenment. The artworks chosen aim to represent a variety of different approaches to the concept, some more spiritual, while others not.

Due to the abstract nature of “the void”, the spiritual becomes a relevant topic in its discussion and therefore religion also. How has the void in Friedrich’s vast Romantic landscapes changed and what does contemporary art offer viewers today? What is the post-modern void? Are spiritual and religious ideas still successful in contemporary Western art? In his book “The strange place of religion in Contemporary Art”, James Elkins argues that "An observer of the art world might well come to the conclusion that religious practice and religious ideas are not relevant to art unless they are treated with scepticism” and that “Contemporary art, I think, is as far from organized religion as Western art has ever been, and that may be its most singular achievement- or its cardinal failure depending on your point of view." (Elkins, 2004). Despite the contemporary western art scene moving away from organized religion, religious and spiritual ideas are still very much alive and influence artists who are celebrated and making work today.

So how does “the void” relate to “the spiritual”? The word spiritual can be looked at from different angles: one is that the spiritual is something that relates to the human soul rather than material existence, and the other is that the spiritual is that which relates to religion or religious belief (Oxford Dictionaries | English, n.d.). In regard to the first definition, the human soul or the idea of immaterial existence is a topic that is central to many religions around the world. Religions such as Christianity and Islam offer similar viewpoints on the origin of our existence. The Bible states in Genesis 1:1-2, that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth. The Earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” (Biblia, 1995). Those familiar with the Qur’an will know that in Surah Al Baqara verse 117, Allah uses the Arabic word “beda’a” to tell mankind that he created everything from nothing (Surah Al-Baqarah [2:117], n.d.). In both cases God is stating that before existence there was a state of nothingness, a formless, empty void. Other philosophies and religions such as Zen Buddhism, also attempt to understand the unknown though the act of achieving enlightenment by looking towards something before thinking, before the interruption of the ego, to reveal one’s “true nature” (Bbc.co.uk 2002). Before looking at the concept of the void in contemporary Western art, it’s important to first look at one of the most pivotal times in recent human history that lead to a huge change in the way Western society viewed the world.

The Enlightenment

The seventeenth and eighteenth century saw huge changes in the way western society viewed religion and ideas surrounding spirituality in an intellectual movement that spread across Europe called “The Enlightenment” (HISTORY.com, n.d.). Enlightenment thinking involved the ideas that “advances in knowledge, through objective, rational and observational experiment, would bring about sustained improvement in the human condition.” (Brown, 2001). The advocation of freedom and equality lead many leading thinkers of the time to question traditional beliefs, particularly those of the Church that had dictated society for so long (Brown, 2001). As many Christians sought to relocate their spiritual beliefs and rationalise religion, alternative faiths such as “Deism” began to appear (HISTORY.com, n.d.). Deists rejected the majority of religious truths and what remained were ideas that were believed to be apparent to all rational human beings: “the existence of one God, often conceived of as architect or mechanician, the existence of a system of rewards and punishments administered by that God, and the obligation of humans to virtue and piety.” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1998). It’s interesting to note that the idea of God did not disappear amongst the period of The Enlightenment, rather people began to look for alternative sources to understand the divine. Despite its dramatic influence, not everyone agreed with the new way of thinking The Enlightenment offered and other intellectual and cultural movements began to form.

The subversive effects that the Enlightenment had on the influence of the Church paved the way for what was to be known as “The Romantic Movement” (Brown, 2001). According to Encyclopaedia Britannica (1998), ‘Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental.’ These ideas that were central to Romanticism could almost be considered a reaction against the great areas of human experience that Enlightenment thinking rejected. Turning towards the visual arts, there was one artist who is now considered to be the greatest icon of the German Romantic painters with his uncanny, semi-abstract landscapes reflecting the smallness of man against the infinite universe. His name was Caspar David Friedrich.

Figure 1. Caspar David Friedrich, Monk by the Sea (1810), Oil on Canvas, 110cm x 172cm

Friedrich’s “Monk by the Sea” depicts a lone monk looking out to sea, peacefully positioned on a long, flat shore with a dark, looming sky towering above. The dark waters of the ocean are dotted with the white of crashing waves, suggesting the approach of a storm. The composition can be broken down into 3 sections: the first section consists of the monk whose gaze is held by the dark water and the unusually low uninterrupted horizon, stretching across the whole composition. In the mid-section of the painting is a hazy collection of blue-grey clouds that tower over the sea. Towards the upper section of the painting the clouds fade into a clear blue sky; a dramatic contrast to the dark ocean below. The large scale of the painting, low horizon, flat composition and the hazy, semi-abstract sky are all elements that would be considered radical amongst the German Romanticists. The only “rule” Friedrich has appeared to follow is the “golden ratio”, which is represented by the position of the monk a little over a third into the left side of the painting. Robert Rosenblum commented that “Friedrich’s painting suddenly corresponds to an experience familiar to the spectator in the modern world, an experience in which the individual is pitted against, or confronted by the overwhelming, incomprehensible immensity of the universe as if the mysteries of religion had left the rituals of the church and synagogue and had been relocated in the natural world.” (Rosenblum, 1975).

“The Monk by the Sea” was the result of Friedrich turning away from classical tradition and peering into himself for creative alternatives. The search inside the self and the emphasis on the individual experience became central to the romantic movement, which paved the way for artists such as Friedrich to elevate the relationship between man and nature to a kind of religion (Brown, 2001). As Friedrich worked on his haunting landscapes that reflected his religious feelings, he believed that painting nature was a form of worship itself, a step towards understanding the divine (Brown, 2001). It is interesting to ponder upon why Friedrich’s work became so iconic. Jones (2001) comments that “Friedrich has become the supreme icon of the German Romantic visionary, the artist as mountain climber, throwing away his oxygen to get a better taste of the sublime, in love with the void, an image of German history.” It is clear that Friedrich was impressive at communicating scenes that expressed the unknown, the infinite, the insignificance of man again the vast universe, but how did he communicate “the sublime”? What exactly is the sublime and in what way is it related to “the void” he was so in love with?

“The sublime” has a similar nature to that of “the void” in regard to definition. The very nature of the word makes it difficult to pinpoint a single definition, so to understand works that communicate the void and evoke the sublime, several different viewpoints must be looked at. Riding and Llewellyn (2013) confirm the mysterious nature of the sublime by defining it as “an expression of the unknowable”, but also suggest that it is also “many things: a judgement, a feeling, a state of mind, and a kind of response to art or nature.” In regard to feeling, Nancy (1993) suggests the sublime is “a feeling, and yet more than a feeling in the banal sense, it is the emotion of the subject at the limit.” Another viewpoint is that of Kant (1790), who argues that the sublime can have form and also be formless, “but for reasons of size, exceed our ability to perceive such form.” So how has the theme of the sublime evolved since Friedrich? Arya (2013) argues “To summarise the contemporary position, as a category of aesthetic experience, the sublime gives artists the opportunity to define their relationship to a host of different subjects including nature, religion, sexuality and identity.” Over the past few decades the sublime has been revisited through many different mediums, subjects and ideas but to begin this discussion there is one artist in particular who is so well known for his depiction of the void; his name was Mark Rothko.

Mark Rothko

Figure 2. Mark Rothko, Light Earth and Dark Blue (1954), Oil on Canvas, 191.5 cm x 170 cm

Referring to the writing of Immanuel Kant within his “Critique of Judgement”, where Kant puts forward the idea that whereas “the Beautiful in nature is connected with the form of the object, which consists in having boundaries, the sublime is to be found in a formless object, so far as in it, or by occasion of it, boundlessness is represented” (Kant, 1790), Rosenblum coined the term “abstract sublime” to describe the work of the abstract expressionists that addressed the themes of vastness and solitude in their work; such as Clifford Still, Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko (Rosenblum, 1961).

Friedrich began the communication of the sublime through a semi-abstract language, but 150 years later Mark Rothko removed the monk and formed his own pictorial language. In ‘Light Earth and Dark Blue’ (see Figure 2) Rothko has painted two rectangular colour fields over a warm grey ground. The upper rectangle is a pale-yellow haze, slowly creeping into the canvas from the top down. The lower rectangle is a darker blue, contrasting with the yellow above but strangely existing in a soft, luminous manner due to the blurred edges leaking into the grey background. Rothko’s process is difficult to talk about simply because he was so mysterious about it. Through his subtle abstract language, Rothko sought to communicate his own state with the viewer. In Baal-Teshuva (2003) Rothko quotes ‘I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions - tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on. And the fact that a lot of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions.’

Rothko’s large-scale and open structure is not all that different from Friedrich’s Monk by the Sea. Rothko’s deep immersion in colour and pulsating colour fields draws similarities with Friedrich’s hazy sky and the abstract language the German Romanticist had begun to use. It’s interesting to note that Rothko always wanted to have his paintings hung close to the ground and intended for his work to be viewed at a close distance. This is because Rothko had taken a step further than Friedrich. Rather than experiencing ‘the void’ through the Monk, as we stand before Rothko’s immense paintings, our senses are overloaded and we are engulfed by the void ourselves.

Figure 3. Mark Rothko, Black in Deep Red (1957), Oil on Canvas, 276.2 cm × 136.5 cm

What exactly were the hazy colour fields that Rothko painted so frequently? Despite Rothko giving very little information on how and what he painted, there is some speculation to what his fields represent. Rothko reported that as a child he dreamt of open graves, and his friend Al Jensen suggested that his long rectangles that suck the viewer into a dark empty space, may possibly be the manifestation of those dreams (Elkins, 2005). Robert Rosenblum on the other hand suggested that Rothko’s work is a reflection of the Romantic landscape tradition and it was if Rothko had “put a magnifying glass to some painting of a sunset, and copied the colors on a gigantic scale.” (Elkins, 2005). The Rothko Chapel, founded in 1971, now allows Rothko’s work to be viewed within a religious environment that pulls in thousands of visitors a year (Rothkochapel.org, n.d.). The quiet, circular space displays 14 of Rothko’s paintings and has a permanent collection of several religious texts, allowing a tranquil environment for discussion, worship and meditation. There are many visitors who have confirmed the powerful effects of Rothko’s paintings, one describing her visit as “a religious experience that moves one to tears” (Elkins, 2005). Even today his dark, empty, featureless voids continue to engulf visitors who stand in front of them and for those who allow themselves to be taken, evoke the sublime.

Gerhard Richter

Figure 4. Gerhard Richter, Betty (1988), Oil on Canvas, 102cm x 72cm

In 1988, Gerhard Richter painted what was to become one of his most well-known paintings: “Betty”. The painting “Betty” is rather small for a Richter painting and is roughly of human scale (102cm x 72cm). The subject of the painting is a young girl (Richter’s daughter) who has turned her head away from us, peering into what appears to be a flat, grey background. The grey void she peers into lacks any sort of description and draws great contrast with her glowing white hoody, decorated with bright red flowers. The composition is cropped in a manner so that we can only observe her torso, shoulders and head. The shoulder closest to the viewer, is the sharpest part of the painting, allowing the surrounding areas to soften with a subtle blur. The contrast between these elements give the illusion of a short-depth focus, mimicking the effects a camera would achieve.

The intense naturalistic rendering of Betty draws us into the formless void with her. The question remains, what exactly is the nature of this void and what does it suggest to those who view it? Lewis (1993) tells us that at first sight the flat, grey background may appear blank at first look “until one learns that it’s not a blank at all, or anyways not just a blank: it’s one of her father’s own grey abstractions, staring back at her with a gaze at least as enigmatic as her own.”

Figure 5. Gerhard Richter, Grey (1974), Oil on Canvas, 250 cm x 195 cm

A comparison can be drawn between the large, grey monochrome paintings of Richter’s and the colour field paintings of Rothko. In both situations, the viewer stands before a tall painting and is engulfed by its colour and composition; or rather in Richter’s work, absence of it.  On the other hand, the presence of Betty before her father’s painting is familiar. In a similar manner to Friedrich’s monk in “Monk by the Sea”, she becomes a catalyst for the viewers to experience the void which allows those observing to question: what exactly is the nature of abstraction? What is the nature of representation? How can one process both concepts in relation to the reality we live in? On the nature of his grey series himself, Richter commented “Grey is the epitome of non-statement, it does not trigger off feelings or associations, it is actually neither visible nor invisible... Like no other colour it is suitable for illustrating ‘nothing’.” (Tate, 2007). Does Richter’s practice of constant play between abstraction and figuration suggest an investigation into the relationship of the material and immaterial, the seen and the unseen?

Michael Andrews

Considered one of his greatest achievements, over the course of 5 years Michael Andrews painted 7 works that were brought together in a series to be called “Lights” (Tate, 2001). The series describes the journey of a hot air balloon, a symbol that Andrews chose to represent “the self” (Andrews, Feaver and Gopegui, 2000), drifting over several locations before disappearing at sea. Andrews stated that his series “Lights” was “first and foremost about enlightenment, mystical knowledge”, and that through painting he realised “that enlightenment, this sudden, beautiful, selfless, consciousness, happened within my own discipline. Each time, in the process of painting a picture, enlightenment happened. Over and over again.” (Andrews, Feaver and Gopegui, 2000). Inspired by the writings of Alan Watts on Zen Buddhism and the notion of the “skin encapsulated ego”, Andrews painted “Lights” to remove him from himself; to dispose of what he understood as “the ego” (Tate, 2001).

Figure 6. Michael Andrews, Lights VII: A Shadow (1974), Acrylic on Canvas, 182.9cm x 182.9cm

Lights VII: A Shadow is the final painting and conclusion of Andrews’ “Lights” series describing the final moments of the hot air balloon, floating over a golden beach. The presence of the balloon is not depicted though the object itself, but through an expression of its soft shadow stretching across the sand. Towards the left-hand side, a patch of seaweed stretches across the sand pointing out to sea, suggesting the course the balloon is taking. On the upper third of the painting, gentle waves sit behind a blue haze that continues downwards to engulf part of the beach, blurring the line between the viewer and an abstract, unknown reality.

The hot air balloon is a symbol of “the self” or the “skin encapsulated ego”, a term that Andrews himself used after his studies into the works of psychiatrist RD Lang (Andrews, Feaver and Gopegui, 2000). Lights VII: A Shadow is significant because it concludes the journey of the balloon, or as William Feaver suggested, “the voyage of the soul” (Andrews, Feaver and Gopegui, 2000). Andrew’s “Lights” series began with the hot air balloon leaving the ground. It then begins to soar, drifting over a tranquil countryside. The balloon then reaches the city, casting its shadow onto the windows of offices and then passes by a bridge, heading towards the coast. As the balloon disappears from the vision of the viewer, Lights VII: A Shadow is the painting that concludes the journey of the balloon as it drifts away into the empty engulfing blue, the unknown, the infinite void. The journey of the hot air balloon symbolises the journey of the soul, the passage of life and presents different experiences and moods in each painting. Lights VII: A Shadow is such a haunting piece because as a conclusion to the series it is suggestive of the end, of death; a transition into an abstract reality that we cannot comprehend.

James Turrell

Contemporary light artist James Turrell is known for his unique spaces and works that use light as a medium to investigate the human perception. Before looking at his work, it’s important to understand his upbringing as a Quaker. Referencing to George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, Turrell commented that he spoke “about light both in a literal and figurative sense, or allegorical sense. And a lot of it is revelation – which is a light, as in a bright idea can light – but it always says this image of light.” (Art21, n.d.). In another interview, Turrell also spoke about how he actually moved away from his Quaker upbringing and had a 25-year lapse before returning to the religion (Whiffen, 2014). Despite this separation, there were certain aspects of the Quaker perception of light that still greatly influenced the way he processed the world around him, such as his grandmother telling him to “go inside to greet the light”, which is an expression that stuck with him and something that he continued to process throughout his career (Meads, 2015). Today, Turrell is more open about the association of his work with the idea of a “divine light”, in a response to a letter from Anthony Manousos, a Quaker, Turrell stated that:

The ideas of this relationship of the physical light to the Divine Light, the relationship of material to immaterial, this idea of the light we see in our dreams, very lucid dreams, and the light we see with the eyes open—something that bridges [all] that is very important to me. (Whiffen, 2014).

In 2010, Turrell gave the public an opportunity to see the light and experience the gap between the material and immaterial in “Dhatu”.

Figure 7. James Turrell, Dhatu (2010), Light Installation

In his piece Dhatu, Turrell has created a space where the viewer experiences the physical presence of light in such a way that all sense of space is lost to those who walk in. When speaking about light, Turrell stated that:

What is really important to me is to create an experience of wordless thought, to make the quality and sensation of light itself something quite tactile. It has a quality seemingly intangible, yet it is physically felt. Often people reach out and try to touch it. (Stiles and Selz, 1996)

The abstract, overwhelming experience of Turrell’s work is so disorientating that people have fallen over in his exhibitions thinking that they were about to lean on a wall or a kind of physical support (Glueck, 1982). So how does Turrell’s work explore the void? Is his work an example of the “modern sublime”?

When someone walks into Dhatu, they are embraced and overwhelmed by light. The experience is disorientating because all aspects of space have been removed; the harsh lines between the wall and the floor are no longer there and have been replaced by invisible curves. Towards the back of Turrell’s space, a single field of light is emitted, drawing viewers into a coloured void and the removal of a single wall makes the space appear as flat light from the outside. The combination of the carefully designed space, filled with the presence of light makes those experiencing it feel like tiny beings within an infinitely vast space. This experience evokes the sublime as viewers are faced with the possibility of giving up and becoming one with the void. The qualities of Turrell’s work reflect the ideas of the sublime presented by Kant where the sublime can have form or is formless, “but for reasons of size, exceed our ability to perceive such form” (Kant, 1790). The light that Turrell explores is his attempt to allow people to physically engage with an abstract reality; a bridge between the material and immaterial. Not only is Turrell an artist who has evoked the “modern sublime” by taking advantage of the continuously evolving technology of the modern world, but he has made spiritual ideas relevant and accessible to the wider public.

Jason Martin

Jason Martin is a painter whom has spent his career investigating the relationship between abstraction and figuration, engaging with the basic principles of painting to produce large, gestural works. Gooding (2016) labels him as “an artist whose oeuvre constitutes an extended meditation on the deep structure of the painter’s art, and with the principles and materials of that art”. In 2008, Martin produced a painting to be displayed in a church in Germany, placing his work within a religious context for viewers to experience his most spiritually charged work yet.

Figure 8. Jason Martin, Untitled (2007), Oil on Aluminium, 200 cm x 300 cm

Figure 8 above displays the untitled piece now on display at the chancel of the Church of the Apostles in Gutersloh, Germany. The aluminium support is shaped as a curved diamond, inspired by Martin’s studies into the details of Islamic architecture (hence the curves), but also resembling a cross; a symbol central to Christianity (Kittelmann, 2008). When addressing the subject of paintings within religious spaces, it’s easy to recall Rothko’s chapel discussed earlier. Does Martin’s work address the same themes as Rothko’s? Is Martin interested in evoking “the sublime” the same way Rothko did with his large, empty voids? In his “Untitled” piece above, Martin has applied blood-red oil paint onto an aluminium base, spreading the paint across the surface to create a series of abstract waves. In this particular piece, three of these waves appear to dominate the composition, emerging from the base of the painting. The effect of light falling on the surface of the work makes it appear almost sculpted and yet at the same time flowing. As the viewer changes position, light begins to fall on different brushstrokes, opening up new spaces within the work. The experience of standing in front of these huge, flowing paintings immersed in light can certainly relate to the spiritual, or a meditative state as the viewer tries to process an abstract image that is constantly changing before them. The fact that Martin also chose to display this work in a church is not something to be ignored. By placing his work in a church, was Martin looking to evoke a particular religious experience from his painting or is he investigating something else altogether? Martin himself stated that the “Untitled” work above was part of a series that “all relate in some way to themes found in Western religious narratives, Eastern ritual and calligraphy” and that he wanted to “extend the possible frame of reference beyond the figure and the many interpretations of Jesus on the cross” (Kittelmann 2008).

Figure 9. Jason Martin, Untitled (2017), Oil on Aluminium

It is interesting to contrast Martin’s previous works with his most recent series of oil paintings currently on display at Lisson Gallery in New York. To create his latest works, Martin first of all begins by applying thick oil paint with a plasterer’s trowel onto an aluminium support (Gooding, 2016). At the initial stages, the smoothly covered metal surface could be compared with Richter’s “Grey” (1974) (See figure 5) if it had not been followed and interrupted by broad horizontal brushstrokes that dominate the central space of the painting. The back-and-forth horizontal strokes in contrast with the flatter fields of grey can’t help but reflect the landscape tradition. Once the grey void is interrupted with the gesture of the brush, a foreground and a background emerge from what was previously empty space. Despite differences in composition, colour and shape to his earlier works, it is clear that Martin is still acting upon the very same ideas that relate to the basic principles of painting and the artist’s gesture.

Bill Viola

The 1980s saw new technology introduced, particularly that of the video screen, which gave opportunity for artists to approach the sublime with tools that had never been used before. These new tools enabled artists to create new, immersive environments, engaging with the senses in a manner that no previous artwork could. Morley (2010) commented that ‘a new wave of postmodern sublimity swept over the art world’, and one artist in particular who contributed to that wave is the video artist Bill Viola.

Describing his work as an exploration of the themes of “human existence, life, death, and their mysteries” (Musée Magazine, 2016), Viola has created many environments that engulf those who walk in with moving image and sound.  When exploring the mysteries of human existence, it is impossible to avoid the spiritual and the idea of “the unseen” or an alternative realm is a key factor in Viola’s work. In regard to his own spiritual ideas, Viola commented that he acknowledges:

There is something above, beyond, below, beneath what’s in front of our eyes, what our daily life is focused on. There’s another dimension that you just know is there, that can be a source of real knowledge, and the quest for connecting with that and identifying that is the whole impetus for me to cultivate these experiences and to make my work. And, on a larger scale, it is also the driving force behind all religious endeavours. There is an unseen world out there and we are living in it. (Viola, 2000)

So how exactly does Viola address “the unseen” and present it to a wider audience?

Figure 10. Bill Viola, A still from Five Angels for the Millennium, Ascending Angel (2001), Video Installation

Five Angels for the Millennium is made up of five video sequences: Ascending Angel, Creation Angel, Fire Angel, Birth Angel and Departing Angel. The scene is set in a dark room with each video projected on a wall, showing the figure of a man submerged in water, remerging, diving into the water and at times hovering above it. The piece is played in a continuous loop with added sound effects such as the crashing of waves; adding to the sensory experience. Describing the piece himself, Viola tells us that:

The human figure arrives intermittently as a powerful explosion of light and sound that interrupts an otherwise peaceful, nocturnal underwater landscape. Because the sequences run in slow motion, and are further altered by running backwards and forwards or right-side up and upside-down, the image is read in unexpected ways, and the disorientation becomes an essential aspect of the work’s theme. (E.tate.org.uk, 2003).

Those who walk in to experience Viola’s Five Angels for the Millennium are straight away engulfed by darkness, and soon after accompanied by five life-size figures projected on the walls. The philosopher Edmund Burke, a contemporary of Immanuel Kant, argued “To make anything very terrible, obscurity seems in general to be necessary. When we know the full extent of any danger, when we can accustom out eyes to it, a great deal of the apprehension vanishes.” (Burke, 1824). The nature of Viola’s Angels who dwell in the dark is that of obscurity. When the eyes are drawn towards the several different sequences, it is impossible to process all of them at once as they run backwards and forwards in slow motion, with desynchronised soundtracks preventing any means of comfort. The figures, or “Angels”, falling and rising above the surface of the water is suggestive of the Christian sacrament of baptism, yet Viola distorts the process though his abstract sequencing of events. The combination of all these aspects forces the viewer to lose all sense of form and is offered an experience of the sublime as the senses become completely overwhelmed.

Conclusion

The concept of “the void” and its relation to “the sublime” was difficult to introduce because of the evasive nature of both terms, and likewise to conclude a discussion on terms that relate to what cannot be understood is very challenging. What can be concluded from this discussion is that there have been changes in the way artists have processed the void and its relation to the sublime since the time of Caspar David Friedrich, yet some aspects of contemporary work are strangely familiar. Gerhard Richter’s “Betty” is an example of how the void is still being explored through a subject (in the same manner as Friedrich’s “Monk by the Sea”), and that formlessness can be questioned and investigated through naturalistic representation. The sublime as an experience through painting is then exhibited in the works of Rothko, it is interesting to wonder if more multi-faith spaces will be built to allow the more secular audience of the West to access the spiritual. The work of Jason Martin and Michael Andrews shows deep interest in the process of painting, exploring the tensions between the abstract and the figurative, the seen and the unseen. The modern world and its technology allowed James Turrell and Bill Viola to offer a completely new kind of immersive experience that was not possible in the 19th century. In the same way that a “post-modern sublime” was born when artists embraced new technology in the 80s, what will the new technology of the future bring? Will the sublime be reborn again with another new age of technology? The future of virtual and augmented reality may give opportunities for artists to explore the void and the sublime with their work not being bound by physical limits, but software. It appears that artists will continue to seek the infinite, explore the void and evoke the sublime because the qualities of “authenticity, integrity and inner truth”, that were the driving force of the Romantic movement, still remain relevant today (Brown 2001).

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Image Bibliography

Figure 1. Caspar David Friedrich, Monk by the Sea (1810), Oil on Canvas, 110cm x 172cm

Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/whispering-zeitgeist [Accessed 5 Feb. 2018].

Figure 2. Mark Rothko, Light Earth and Dark Blue (1954), Oil on Canvas, 191.5 cm x 170 cm

Available at: https://theartstack.com/artist/mark-rothko/light-earth-and-blue-1 [Accessed 5 Feb. 2018].

Figure 3. Mark Rothko, Black in Deep Red (1957), Oil on Canvas, 276.2 cm × 136.5 cm

Available at: http://www.markrothko.org/black-in-deep-red/ [Accessed 5 Feb. 2018].

Figure 4. Gerhard Richter, Betty (1988), Oil on Canvas, 102cm x 72cm

Available at: https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/art/paintings/photo-paintings/children-52/betty-7668 [Accessed 5 Feb. 2018].

Figure 5. Gerhard Richter, Grey (1974), Oil on Canvas, 250 cm x 195 cm

Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/richter-grey-l01682 [Accessed 5 Feb. 2018].

Figure 6. Michael Andrews, Lights VII: A Shadow (1974), Acrylic on Canvas, 182.9cm x 182.9cm

Available at: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/michael-andrews-lights-vii-a-shadow [Accessed 5 Feb. 2018].

Figure 7. James Turrell, Dhatu (2010), Light Installation

Available at: http://jamesturrell.com/work/dhatu/ [Accessed 5 Feb. 2018].

Figure 8. Jason Martin, Untitled (2007), Oil on Aluminium, 200 cm x 300 cm

Available at: http://www.guetsel.de/pics_content/8452.jpg [Accessed 5 Feb. 2018].

Figure 9. Jason Martin, Untitled (2017), Oil on Aluminium

Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/BeN215Il7hY/?taken-by=sophiakinell [Accessed 5 Feb. 2018].

Figure 10. Bill Viola, A still from Five Angels for the Millennium, Ascending Angel (2001), Video Installation

Available at: http://blogs.elpais.com/.a/6a00d8341bfb1653ef0192abbf5d81970d-pi [Accessed 5 Feb. 2018].