Skip to main content

Timothy Martin

Loughborough University, Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Faculty Member

Followers

277

Following

89

Public Views

Dr. Timothy D. Martin
BA, Dartmouth 1983
MA, Oxford 1987
PhD, Goldsmiths 1999
Address: Leicester
England

less

The Cooper Union

Fernando Luis Martínez Nespral

Universidad de Buenos Aires

Sandra Kaji-O'Grady

The University of Queensland, Australia

Radboud University Nijmegen

Southern Methodist University

University of Wroclaw

Durham University

Sandra Santana Pérez

Universidad de La Laguna

New York University

Raphaël Pirenne

ERG

InterestsView All (7)

Uploads

Videos by Timothy Martin

Robert Smithson's Enantiomorphic Chambers

A short video exploring this important work of Minimalist sculpture

24 views

Papers by Timothy Martin

Minimalism unto Structuralism in an Age before Deconstruction in Architecture

European Architectural History Network, EAHN 2022 : 7th International Meeting. Conference Proceedings, 2023

This paper traces the arrival of Structuralism in American Minimalist sculpture in the period fro... more This paper traces the arrival of Structuralism in American Minimalist sculpture in the period from 1963 to 1970. This history begins with the rise of the work of Alain Robbe-Grillet and its effect on the writing and sculpture of Donald Judd and Robert Smithson. It then traces Smithson's reading of early Barthes and its influences on Minimalists including Sol LeWitt. It then considers the influence of Barthes' "The Death of the Author" on Smithson's art criticism and the effects of his premature death on the transmission of Structuralism into architecture through LeWitt and Peter Eisenman. It concludes that, in missing Smithson for LeWitt, Eisenman would contribute to a conceptual architecture structured around the mind/body paradox rather than the mind/matter paradox. Because of this difference, Eisenman foreclosed the material environment and made it difficult for Deconstructivist architecture to address the paradoxes of environmental sustainability.

Psychoanalytic Diagnosis for Architecture and Urban Design

Psychoanalysis provides a way to think about people outside the normal boxes of race, gender, rel... more Psychoanalysis provides a way to think about people outside the normal boxes of race, gender, religion, and social class. This paper introduces the psychoanalytic clinics, showing how each may help in the understanding of individuals and groups. Using examples from Tschumi and Smithson it shows that this method can be applied where social issues and even sustainability issues prevail and that it can produce substantial results for architects who want an architecture that is capable of mediating social conflicts and environmental impacts.

Robert Smithson and the Anglo-American Picturesque

Donald Judd: Architecture and Ф Space

Erich Neumann on Henry Moore: Public Sculpture and the Collective Unconscious

Tate Research Publication, 2015

In 1959 the psychoanalyst Erich Neumann applied Carl Jung’s concepts of the unconscious to Moore’... more In 1959 the psychoanalyst Erich Neumann applied Carl Jung’s concepts of the unconscious to Moore’s sculpture. "The Archetypal World of Henry Moore,". developed a theory of collective public space in which a feminine Modernist sculpture acted as a counterbalance to a masculine Modernist architecture.

Occupying the Museum: Jan De Cock’s Denkmal 53 at Tate Modern

Third Text

Marina Abramovic

Third Text

Publications List

Heri Dono Interview 1996

Interview with Heri Dono, MOMA, Oxford, 1996. On publication, this catalog was bulk purchased fr... more

Review of "Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings"

Art History, 1997

Robert Morris Interview with Tim Martin, 1997

ROBERT MORRIS RECENT FELT PIECES AND DRAWINGS, 1997

Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, UK

Silent Energy: New Art From China

Third Text, London, 1994

Donald Judd's Badge: Robert Smithson

American Minimal art of the 1960s was greatly impoverished when Donald Judd and Robert Smithson p... more

Signs of Tragedy Past and Future: Reading the Berlin Reichstag

FROM CABINET TO COUCH: FREUD’S CLINICAL USE OF SCULPTURE

How did Freud and Melanie Klien integrate sculpture into their clinical practice and setting?

Video and Text: Robert Smithson's Childhood ("Robert Smithson de 0 à 20 ans", traduction française)

Dans son dernier entretien connu, Robert Smithson résume sa principale méthode critique de la sor... more Dans son dernier entretien connu, Robert Smithson résume sa principale méthode critique de la sorte : J'ai toujours été du genre à penser en termes psychanalytiques. Je ne crois pas que l'on puisse en faire abstraction, cela fait partie de la réalité. Autrement dit, je pense que nous prenons nos décisions en fonction de nos besoins physio-psychologiques.

Psychosis and the Sublime in American Art: Rothko and Smithson

Donald Judd: The Cathexis of Space

donald judd: the cath exis of space t i m othy mart i n DE MONTFO RT UNIVERSITY, LEICESTER UK I n... more donald judd: the cath exis of space t i m othy mart i n DE MONTFO RT UNIVERSITY, LEICESTER UK I n 1962 the artist and art critic Donald Judd gave up painting for three dimensional work. In his seminal 1965 essay "Specific Objects" he stated his position saying, "Three dimensions are real space. That, moreover, automatically gets rid of the problem of illusionism and of literal space, space in and around marks and colors-which is riddance of one of the salient and most objectionable relics of European art… A work can be as powerful as it can be thought to be. Actual space is intrinsically more powerful and specific than paint on a flat surface." Judd concluded the essay with a remark that rang in the ears of many artists and critics, "A work needs only to be interesting." 1 Judd's essay announced many of the changes that were to mark the shift from Abstract Expressionism to Minimalism. It rejected the painterly depiction of objects in illusory space, and the tension or disjunction between flatness and depth that had dominated Ab Ex. Instead it announced a new cachet and a new disjunction between 'real space' and 'real objects' situated it. But, what caused the greater interest was space; it held the affective power, and Judd came out strongly in advocating those artists that were trying to think through ways of moving into it. The artists mentioned by Judd were praised, even where much remained to do. None of the thinking in the new work had yet really hit upon the full affective power of space; but they were getting there. As will shortly be seen, Judd theorised his interest in space starting with a theory of the causes of interest per se, and he did so by positing the subject in a rather animal, pre-oedipal, pre-symbolic 'natural' state. As such he set the question of space into a particular problematic, a subjectivity that arose not out of a psychical substance, but out of an animal substance. While there has been some critical analysis of Judd's preferences for empiricism, there has been somewhat less made of his preference for physiological psychology, the way he applied it, the limits he encountered, and the conundrums and paradoxes it raised in his work and his writing. Judd started off with an acute sense of a disjunction between the direct but indistinct emotional hold that space had on him, and the precise thinking that went into the objects he made. His attempt to make sense of this disjunction started with his reading of a theory of interest derived from physiological psychology. I would like to start with an examination of this theoretical position and then proceed to a more psychoanalytic position in considering Judd's pleasure in space and its disjunction with his thinking about objects. This will firstly entail following Judd's own development, and then moving to a more complete construction that considers some of the implications of pleasure in space.

Robert Smithson's Enantiomorphic Chambers

A short video exploring this important work of Minimalist sculpture

24 views

Minimalism unto Structuralism in an Age before Deconstruction in Architecture

European Architectural History Network, EAHN 2022 : 7th International Meeting. Conference Proceedings, 2023

This paper traces the arrival of Structuralism in American Minimalist sculpture in the period fro... more This paper traces the arrival of Structuralism in American Minimalist sculpture in the period from 1963 to 1970. This history begins with the rise of the work of Alain Robbe-Grillet and its effect on the writing and sculpture of Donald Judd and Robert Smithson. It then traces Smithson's reading of early Barthes and its influences on Minimalists including Sol LeWitt. It then considers the influence of Barthes' "The Death of the Author" on Smithson's art criticism and the effects of his premature death on the transmission of Structuralism into architecture through LeWitt and Peter Eisenman. It concludes that, in missing Smithson for LeWitt, Eisenman would contribute to a conceptual architecture structured around the mind/body paradox rather than the mind/matter paradox. Because of this difference, Eisenman foreclosed the material environment and made it difficult for Deconstructivist architecture to address the paradoxes of environmental sustainability.

Psychoanalytic Diagnosis for Architecture and Urban Design

Psychoanalysis provides a way to think about people outside the normal boxes of race, gender, rel... more Psychoanalysis provides a way to think about people outside the normal boxes of race, gender, religion, and social class. This paper introduces the psychoanalytic clinics, showing how each may help in the understanding of individuals and groups. Using examples from Tschumi and Smithson it shows that this method can be applied where social issues and even sustainability issues prevail and that it can produce substantial results for architects who want an architecture that is capable of mediating social conflicts and environmental impacts.

Robert Smithson and the Anglo-American Picturesque

Donald Judd: Architecture and Ф Space

Erich Neumann on Henry Moore: Public Sculpture and the Collective Unconscious

Tate Research Publication, 2015

In 1959 the psychoanalyst Erich Neumann applied Carl Jung’s concepts of the unconscious to Moore’... more In 1959 the psychoanalyst Erich Neumann applied Carl Jung’s concepts of the unconscious to Moore’s sculpture. "The Archetypal World of Henry Moore,". developed a theory of collective public space in which a feminine Modernist sculpture acted as a counterbalance to a masculine Modernist architecture.

Occupying the Museum: Jan De Cock’s Denkmal 53 at Tate Modern

Third Text

Marina Abramovic

Third Text

Publications List

Heri Dono Interview 1996

Interview with Heri Dono, MOMA, Oxford, 1996. On publication, this catalog was bulk purchased fr... more

Review of "Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings"

Art History, 1997

Robert Morris Interview with Tim Martin, 1997

ROBERT MORRIS RECENT FELT PIECES AND DRAWINGS, 1997

Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, UK

Silent Energy: New Art From China

Third Text, London, 1994

Donald Judd's Badge: Robert Smithson

American Minimal art of the 1960s was greatly impoverished when Donald Judd and Robert Smithson p... more

Signs of Tragedy Past and Future: Reading the Berlin Reichstag

FROM CABINET TO COUCH: FREUD’S CLINICAL USE OF SCULPTURE

How did Freud and Melanie Klien integrate sculpture into their clinical practice and setting?

Video and Text: Robert Smithson's Childhood ("Robert Smithson de 0 à 20 ans", traduction française)

Dans son dernier entretien connu, Robert Smithson résume sa principale méthode critique de la sor... more Dans son dernier entretien connu, Robert Smithson résume sa principale méthode critique de la sorte : J'ai toujours été du genre à penser en termes psychanalytiques. Je ne crois pas que l'on puisse en faire abstraction, cela fait partie de la réalité. Autrement dit, je pense que nous prenons nos décisions en fonction de nos besoins physio-psychologiques.

Psychosis and the Sublime in American Art: Rothko and Smithson

Donald Judd: The Cathexis of Space

donald judd: the cath exis of space t i m othy mart i n DE MONTFO RT UNIVERSITY, LEICESTER UK I n... more donald judd: the cath exis of space t i m othy mart i n DE MONTFO RT UNIVERSITY, LEICESTER UK I n 1962 the artist and art critic Donald Judd gave up painting for three dimensional work. In his seminal 1965 essay "Specific Objects" he stated his position saying, "Three dimensions are real space. That, moreover, automatically gets rid of the problem of illusionism and of literal space, space in and around marks and colors-which is riddance of one of the salient and most objectionable relics of European art… A work can be as powerful as it can be thought to be. Actual space is intrinsically more powerful and specific than paint on a flat surface." Judd concluded the essay with a remark that rang in the ears of many artists and critics, "A work needs only to be interesting." 1 Judd's essay announced many of the changes that were to mark the shift from Abstract Expressionism to Minimalism. It rejected the painterly depiction of objects in illusory space, and the tension or disjunction between flatness and depth that had dominated Ab Ex. Instead it announced a new cachet and a new disjunction between 'real space' and 'real objects' situated it. But, what caused the greater interest was space; it held the affective power, and Judd came out strongly in advocating those artists that were trying to think through ways of moving into it. The artists mentioned by Judd were praised, even where much remained to do. None of the thinking in the new work had yet really hit upon the full affective power of space; but they were getting there. As will shortly be seen, Judd theorised his interest in space starting with a theory of the causes of interest per se, and he did so by positing the subject in a rather animal, pre-oedipal, pre-symbolic 'natural' state. As such he set the question of space into a particular problematic, a subjectivity that arose not out of a psychical substance, but out of an animal substance. While there has been some critical analysis of Judd's preferences for empiricism, there has been somewhat less made of his preference for physiological psychology, the way he applied it, the limits he encountered, and the conundrums and paradoxes it raised in his work and his writing. Judd started off with an acute sense of a disjunction between the direct but indistinct emotional hold that space had on him, and the precise thinking that went into the objects he made. His attempt to make sense of this disjunction started with his reading of a theory of interest derived from physiological psychology. I would like to start with an examination of this theoretical position and then proceed to a more psychoanalytic position in considering Judd's pleasure in space and its disjunction with his thinking about objects. This will firstly entail following Judd's own development, and then moving to a more complete construction that considers some of the implications of pleasure in space.

It's Sculpture Baby!

I would like to take this opportunity to say why, as an art critic, I have found these shows valu... more I would like to take this opportunity to say why, as an art critic, I have found these shows valuable. In short, they have been a sort of dispensary of the ‘good object’. I say this from a perspective which is not restricted to my knowledge of the history of art, nor limited to my training in the theories of psychoanalysis. If I use the words good object in quotation marks it is because the judgment stems from the nexus of these two fields. On the one hand is the seemingly indispensable training offered by Formalist art criticism, as practiced by the likes of Wollflin and Clement Greenberg. On the other, are the writings of Freud, Lacan and Zizek on the arts. Unfortunately though, these two camps are quite often at odds with each other. The former focuses attention on the visual power and beauty of art, yet it often produces distorting superego ideals rather than directing the spectator towards an analytic encounter with the art-work. The later analyses the mechanisms of unconscious satisfaction at work for the artist, yet in remaining restricted to considerations of therapy and analysis of fantasy, it is often unhelpful in making aesthetic judgments. I can sometimes feel hemmed in by these differing avenues, and am never quite content in striking a route between the aesthetic and the psychoanalytic judgment of art.