Introduction to Metaphysics: Art and Ontology
PHILOSOPHY 298
College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Faculty member: Maegan Fairchild (Philosophy)
Todd Hoyer, Untitled from Suspended Sphere Series, 2000, eucalyptus and wire. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Gift of Robert M. and Lillian Montalto Bohlen, 2002/2.146. Courtesy of the artist © Todd Hoyer
Contemporary metaphysicians are interested in questions having to do with the nature of objects. How can art objects help us better understand the material world? How much change can physical objects survive? Are there only things that are made up of physical objects or are there “abstract” objects, like properties or numbers? This course uses art objects to raise (and complicate) some of these questions. Students will consider the works on display as case studies to better understand central debates in metaphysics and as opportunities to examine how these questions might be better approached through the rich metaphysics of art objects.
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Art objects enrich our understanding of the theories that we’re trying to build in metaphysics… Is a sculpture different from the matter that it's made out of?
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Have you ever thought about what art can teach you about the nature of existence, time, or matter?
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about things like the existence of physical objects, the structure of space or time, the nature of possibility, and more. Can art help us think about these same fundemental questions?
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John A. Chamberlain
Untitled
paper, aluminum foil, glue, and painted resin
4 5/8 in x 7 1/2 in x 5 1/8 in (11.75 cm x 19.05 cm x 13.02 cm);8 7/16 in x 10 1/4 in x 10 1/4 in (21.43 cm x 26.04 cm x 26.04 cm)
Gift of the Lannan Foundation in Honor of the Pelham Family
Works included in this collection
Accession Number
2003/2.60
Title
Endless Line Series II 6 Holes
Artist(s)
Hatakeyama Norie
Object Creation Date
1992
Medium & Support
paper lash
Dimensions
13 3/4 in. x 13 3/4 in. x 13 3/4 in. ( 35 cm x 35 cm x 35 cm )
Credit Line
Gift of Drs. Joan and Bernard Chodorkoff
Primary Object Classification
Basketry
Collection Area
Asian
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
2003/2.60
Title
Endless Line Series II 6 Holes
Artist(s)
Hatakeyama Norie
Object Creation Date
1992
Medium & Support
paper lash
Dimensions
13 3/4 in. x 13 3/4 in. x 13 3/4 in. ( 35 cm x 35 cm x 35 cm )
Credit Line
Gift of Drs. Joan and Bernard Chodorkoff
Primary Object Classification
Basketry
Collection Area
Asian
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Hatakeyama Norie
Endless Line Series II 6 Holes
paper lash
13 3/4 in. x 13 3/4 in. x 13 3/4 in. ( 35 cm x 35 cm x 35 cm )
Gift of Drs. Joan and Bernard Chodorkoff
Endless Line Series II 6 Holes
paper lash
13 3/4 in. x 13 3/4 in. x 13 3/4 in. ( 35 cm x 35 cm x 35 cm )
Gift of Drs. Joan and Bernard Chodorkoff
Accession Number
1976/2.144
Title
Number 3, from "Numbers"
Artist(s)
Robert Indiana
Artist Nationality
American (North American)
Object Creation Date
1968
Medium & Support
silkscreen on paper
Dimensions
25 ⅜ in x 19 ⅝ in (64.45 cm x 49.85 cm);32 in x 26 in (81.28 cm x 66.04 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. Nick S. Nicolas.
Subject matter
“Number 3” is part of a series of works based on numbers and reflects Indiana’s interest in the existential aspects of numbers, which he regarded as the basic elements structuring our daily lives, with 1 to 9 representing the spectrum of existence and 0 standing between life and death.
By using a subject matter that can be instantly recognized and accepted, it permitted Indian to concentrate on form and color. He uses an intentional ambiguity based on the principle of redundancy by identifying the number “3” with its letter equivalent, expressing the same abstract concept graphically as both symbol and word.
Physical Description
The number "3" in orange in a blue circle with a green background; the word "THREE" written bottom center.
Primary Object Classification
Print
Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
1976/2.144
Title
Number 3, from "Numbers"
Artist(s)
Robert Indiana
Artist Nationality
American (North American)
Object Creation Date
1968
Medium & Support
silkscreen on paper
Dimensions
25 ⅜ in x 19 ⅝ in (64.45 cm x 49.85 cm);32 in x 26 in (81.28 cm x 66.04 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. Nick S. Nicolas.
Subject matter
“Number 3” is part of a series of works based on numbers and reflects Indiana’s interest in the existential aspects of numbers, which he regarded as the basic elements structuring our daily lives, with 1 to 9 representing the spectrum of existence and 0 standing between life and death.
By using a subject matter that can be instantly recognized and accepted, it permitted Indian to concentrate on form and color. He uses an intentional ambiguity based on the principle of redundancy by identifying the number “3” with its letter equivalent, expressing the same abstract concept graphically as both symbol and word.
Physical Description
The number "3" in orange in a blue circle with a green background; the word "THREE" written bottom center.
Primary Object Classification
Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Robert Indiana
Number 3, from "Numbers"
silkscreen on paper
25 ⅜ in x 19 ⅝ in (64.45 cm x 49.85 cm);32 in x 26 in (81.28 cm x 66.04 cm)
Gift of Mr. Nick S. Nicolas.
Number 3, from "Numbers"
silkscreen on paper
25 ⅜ in x 19 ⅝ in (64.45 cm x 49.85 cm);32 in x 26 in (81.28 cm x 66.04 cm)
Gift of Mr. Nick S. Nicolas.
Accession Number
2016/2.310
Title
Untitled (White)
Artist(s)
John Gaspar
Object Creation Date
1989
Medium & Support
oil on wood
Dimensions
19 ¾ in x 15 in x 1 ⅜ in (50.17 cm x 38.1 cm x 3.49 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Leonard Rosenberg
Physical Description
A faintly painted image in white with textured brushstrokes and a seam visible across the middle.
Primary Object Classification
Painting
Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
2016/2.310
Title
Untitled (White)
Artist(s)
John Gaspar
Object Creation Date
1989
Medium & Support
oil on wood
Dimensions
19 ¾ in x 15 in x 1 ⅜ in (50.17 cm x 38.1 cm x 3.49 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Leonard Rosenberg
Physical Description
A faintly painted image in white with textured brushstrokes and a seam visible across the middle.
Primary Object Classification
Painting
Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
John Gaspar
Untitled (White)
oil on wood
19 ¾ in x 15 in x 1 ⅜ in (50.17 cm x 38.1 cm x 3.49 cm)
Gift of Leonard Rosenberg
Untitled (White)
oil on wood
19 ¾ in x 15 in x 1 ⅜ in (50.17 cm x 38.1 cm x 3.49 cm)
Gift of Leonard Rosenberg
Accession Number
1978/2.61.13
Title
Yellow - Black - Red, from "Sixteen Lithographs in Color"
Artist(s)
Sol LeWitt
Object Creation Date
1971
Medium & Support
lithograph on Italia paper
Dimensions
23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);24 in x 24 in (60.96 cm x 60.96 cm);23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);14 in x 14 in (35.56 cm x 35.56 cm)
Credit Line
Museum Purchase made possible by the Friends of the Museum of Art
Label copy
March 28, 2009
“Serial components are multipartite pieces with regulated changes,” wrote LeWitt in 1966, and “the differences between the parts are the subject of the composition.” He began to explore seriality as a mode of composition in the mid-1960s, as he shifted from a sculptural practice associated with Minimalism into what has come to be known as conceptual art. For LeWitt, as for others at the time, seriality provided a means to eliminate the artist’s ego from his work because it resulted from a predetermined progression rather than a number of subjective—and ultimately arbitrary—decisions on the part of the artist. Serial compositions thus precluded traditional notions of expressivity. As LeWitt put it, “the idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” In this untitled suite of prints, as in nearly all of LeWitt’s work, the conceptual precepts that determine the composition are both visually evident and explained textually in the suite’s final component.
Primary Object Classification
Print
Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
1978/2.61.13
Title
Yellow - Black - Red, from "Sixteen Lithographs in Color"
Artist(s)
Sol LeWitt
Object Creation Date
1971
Medium & Support
lithograph on Italia paper
Dimensions
23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);24 in x 24 in (60.96 cm x 60.96 cm);23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);14 in x 14 in (35.56 cm x 35.56 cm)
Credit Line
Museum Purchase made possible by the Friends of the Museum of Art
Label copy
March 28, 2009
“Serial components are multipartite pieces with regulated changes,” wrote LeWitt in 1966, and “the differences between the parts are the subject of the composition.” He began to explore seriality as a mode of composition in the mid-1960s, as he shifted from a sculptural practice associated with Minimalism into what has come to be known as conceptual art. For LeWitt, as for others at the time, seriality provided a means to eliminate the artist’s ego from his work because it resulted from a predetermined progression rather than a number of subjective—and ultimately arbitrary—decisions on the part of the artist. Serial compositions thus precluded traditional notions of expressivity. As LeWitt put it, “the idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” In this untitled suite of prints, as in nearly all of LeWitt’s work, the conceptual precepts that determine the composition are both visually evident and explained textually in the suite’s final component.
Primary Object Classification
Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Sol LeWitt
Yellow - Black - Red, from "Sixteen Lithographs in Color"
lithograph on Italia paper
23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);24 in x 24 in (60.96 cm x 60.96 cm);23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);14 in x 14 in (35.56 cm x 35.56 cm)
Museum Purchase made possible by the Friends of the Museum of Art
Yellow - Black - Red, from "Sixteen Lithographs in Color"
lithograph on Italia paper
23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);24 in x 24 in (60.96 cm x 60.96 cm);23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);14 in x 14 in (35.56 cm x 35.56 cm)
Museum Purchase made possible by the Friends of the Museum of Art
Accession Number
1978/2.61.12
Title
Yellow - Black - Blue, from "Sixteen Lithographs in Color"
Artist(s)
Sol LeWitt
Object Creation Date
1971
Medium & Support
lithograph on Italia paper
Dimensions
23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);24 in x 24 in (60.96 cm x 60.96 cm);23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);14 in x 14 in (35.56 cm x 35.56 cm)
Credit Line
Museum Purchase made possible by the Friends of the Museum of Art
Label copy
March 28, 2009
“Serial components are multipartite pieces with regulated changes,” wrote LeWitt in 1966, and “the differences between the parts are the subject of the composition.” He began to explore seriality as a mode of composition in the mid-1960s, as he shifted from a sculptural practice associated with Minimalism into what has come to be known as conceptual art. For LeWitt, as for others at the time, seriality provided a means to eliminate the artist’s ego from his work because it resulted from a predetermined progression rather than a number of subjective—and ultimately arbitrary—decisions on the part of the artist. Serial compositions thus precluded traditional notions of expressivity. As LeWitt put it, “the idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” In this untitled suite of prints, as in nearly all of LeWitt’s work, the conceptual precepts that determine the composition are both visually evident and explained textually in the suite’s final component.
Primary Object Classification
Print
Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
1978/2.61.12
Title
Yellow - Black - Blue, from "Sixteen Lithographs in Color"
Artist(s)
Sol LeWitt
Object Creation Date
1971
Medium & Support
lithograph on Italia paper
Dimensions
23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);24 in x 24 in (60.96 cm x 60.96 cm);23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);14 in x 14 in (35.56 cm x 35.56 cm)
Credit Line
Museum Purchase made possible by the Friends of the Museum of Art
Label copy
March 28, 2009
“Serial components are multipartite pieces with regulated changes,” wrote LeWitt in 1966, and “the differences between the parts are the subject of the composition.” He began to explore seriality as a mode of composition in the mid-1960s, as he shifted from a sculptural practice associated with Minimalism into what has come to be known as conceptual art. For LeWitt, as for others at the time, seriality provided a means to eliminate the artist’s ego from his work because it resulted from a predetermined progression rather than a number of subjective—and ultimately arbitrary—decisions on the part of the artist. Serial compositions thus precluded traditional notions of expressivity. As LeWitt put it, “the idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” In this untitled suite of prints, as in nearly all of LeWitt’s work, the conceptual precepts that determine the composition are both visually evident and explained textually in the suite’s final component.
Primary Object Classification
Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Sol LeWitt
Yellow - Black - Blue, from "Sixteen Lithographs in Color"
lithograph on Italia paper
23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);24 in x 24 in (60.96 cm x 60.96 cm);23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);14 in x 14 in (35.56 cm x 35.56 cm)
Museum Purchase made possible by the Friends of the Museum of Art
Yellow - Black - Blue, from "Sixteen Lithographs in Color"
lithograph on Italia paper
23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);24 in x 24 in (60.96 cm x 60.96 cm);23 in x 23 in (58.4 cm x 58.4 cm);14 in x 14 in (35.56 cm x 35.56 cm)
Museum Purchase made possible by the Friends of the Museum of Art
Accession Number
1986/1.194.9
Title
Eternal Hexagon
Artist(s)
Robert Indiana
Artist Nationality
American (North American)
Object Creation Date
1964
Medium & Support
screenprint on paper
Dimensions
24 1/16 x 20 1/16 in. (61.12 x 50.96 cm);32 1/16 x 26 1/8 in. (81.44 x 66.36 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Graham and Marianne Smith
Subject matter
This work is one of ten prints published within a portfolio, “Ten Works + Ten Painters”, commissioned by Samuel J. Wagstaff from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum in 1964. This portfolio was one of the earliest to have several artists published together to make major American artists accessible to a wider audience and range of collectors. Each print in this portfolio was based on a painting the artists had previously created. Some of the artists represented, in addition to Robert Indiana, are Robert Motherwell, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Ellsworth Kelly and Roy Lichtenstein, who were associated with the Pop and Minimalism art movements in the 1960s.
Physical Description
This brown rectangular print shows a yellow circle and a yellow hexagon shape with red stencil lettering. At the bottom edge of the rectangle, below the yellow circle, is the word "hexagon". Within the the yellow circle are the words "eternal" and "hexagon" and within the yellow hexagon shape is a large "6".
Primary Object Classification
Print
Primary Object Type
color print
Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
1986/1.194.9
Title
Eternal Hexagon
Artist(s)
Robert Indiana
Artist Nationality
American (North American)
Object Creation Date
1964
Medium & Support
screenprint on paper
Dimensions
24 1/16 x 20 1/16 in. (61.12 x 50.96 cm);32 1/16 x 26 1/8 in. (81.44 x 66.36 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Graham and Marianne Smith
Subject matter
This work is one of ten prints published within a portfolio, “Ten Works + Ten Painters”, commissioned by Samuel J. Wagstaff from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum in 1964. This portfolio was one of the earliest to have several artists published together to make major American artists accessible to a wider audience and range of collectors. Each print in this portfolio was based on a painting the artists had previously created. Some of the artists represented, in addition to Robert Indiana, are Robert Motherwell, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Ellsworth Kelly and Roy Lichtenstein, who were associated with the Pop and Minimalism art movements in the 1960s.
Physical Description
This brown rectangular print shows a yellow circle and a yellow hexagon shape with red stencil lettering. At the bottom edge of the rectangle, below the yellow circle, is the word "hexagon". Within the the yellow circle are the words "eternal" and "hexagon" and within the yellow hexagon shape is a large "6".
Primary Object Classification
Primary Object Type
color print
Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary
Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Robert Indiana
Eternal Hexagon
screenprint on paper
24 1/16 x 20 1/16 in. (61.12 x 50.96 cm);32 1/16 x 26 1/8 in. (81.44 x 66.36 cm)
Gift of Graham and Marianne Smith
Eternal Hexagon
screenprint on paper
24 1/16 x 20 1/16 in. (61.12 x 50.96 cm);32 1/16 x 26 1/8 in. (81.44 x 66.36 cm)
Gift of Graham and Marianne Smith
Exhibition Support
Lead support for this exhibition is provided by the University of Michigan Office of the Provost, Erica Gervais Pappendick and Ted Pappendick, the Eleanor Noyes Crumpacker Endowment Fund, and the Oakriver Foundation.