Plastic Space

A New Interpretation of Three Dimensional Space

by Dianne Quarles

Marcella Hayes Muhammad is an accomplished artist having received numerous awards and accolades for her work in realism. She has mastered realism, abstraction and a wide range of styles with the technical skills to paint with a variety of methods. Marcella, however, considers her most significant work to be a style she developed herself that she calls “Plastic Space.” She has over the years developed her body of work in Plastic Space to a level that she is ready to share with the art world.

An Evolution of Style

Marcella's inspiration was Pablo Picasso's cubism. Cubism stemmed from the intellectual speculations of the time about the fourth dimension and the ability to simultaneously see all sides of a three dimensional object. Cubism is described as a “method of representing three dimensions as seen from several viewpoints.” In analytical cubism a technique called faceting is used to dissect and reconstruct the subject to depict its essence rather than its exact appearance. The visual planes of the subject are analyzed and reconstructed in intersecting, sometimes transparent planes that simultaneously depict the subject from various viewpoints. The faceted technique creates an abstract image that is still recognizable. *

Instead of dissecting the subject into visual planes as in cubism, Marcella goes beyond flat linear planes and explores the curvature of light around an object from a three dimensional perspective. As she develops the composition on canvas, Marcella becomes intensely involved in the painting to the point where she feels she can actually go into the painting and turn around and see the back of the objects and view them from every angle.

The Physics of Plastic Space

In 2006, Marcella’s nephew, a physicist and mathematician, became fascinated with her work while reading Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time & Light by Leonard Shlain, Perennial 1991. He gave this analysis of her Plastic Space painting titled Maruvian Horned Mask.

“Manét brought us the idea of curved space in Boats (1873). Monet showed us how an object’s true essence is captured throughout time in his Haystacks series (1891) and Rouen Cathedral series (1894). Picasso showed us the first image of traveling at the speed of light in a straight line in his cubist paintings Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) and Ma Jolie (1911). Marcella Muhammad’s Maruvian Horned Mask brings the next step of depicting the image of traveling at the speed of light around curves. Inspired by the cubists’ desire to relieve the viewer of sequence, Maruvian Horned Mask shows us the entire instantaneous journey circling around the traditional mask. The new experience is revealed in the painting where the curves from one layer are blended into the curves of the next layer along with the corresponding color change. You will notice that the blues are located toward the corners where she is making a turn around the mask. When you are traveling along the curve of a circle, you are accelerating toward the center of the circle. So if you are looking toward the center, it will turn blue, according to the Doppler Effect of relativity. The compression of time is also demonstrated by the continuity of each layer (representing a different point of view) blending into the next.”

                              - Kregg Quarles, Physicist

 

It was clear that what Leonard Shlain refers to as “a plastic transformation in the space” in his 1991 publication ** is how Marcella intuitively envisioned her subject when she created her style of Plastic Space as an art student back in 1964.

Marcella Muhammad’s Plastic Space is as revolutionary as Pablo Picasso’s cubism. Dr. Halima Taha, noted art historian and author of Collecting African American Art, recognized in a speech that an inherent disbelief in the intellectual capacity of people of African decent has caused the art world to often overlook the intellectual accomplishments of African Americans in art. Clearly Marcella’s natural artistic intellect and refined technical skills allowed her to create Plastic Space as a method of representing three dimensions as seen in the plastic transformation of space when traveling at the speed of light. She envisioned the physics of light and space almost thirty years before Shlain’s publication. Marcella successfully achieved her goal of creating a three dimensional appearance on a two dimensional surface by allowing us to circle around the object and simultaneously view all the curves of one layer blended into the curves of the next layer along with the corresponding color change.

Early Influence

A trip to the Picasso Museum in Paris, France in 1957 at the young age of 13 was a defining moment in Marcella Hayes Muhammad’s life as an artist. It was here she saw first hand the possibility to depict a three dimensional object on a two dimensional plane. The Picasso Museum was designed as a progressive chronology of Picasso’s development. She saw how his formal training in classical figurative art and extremely well developed artistic techniques allowed Picasso to explore a vast range of other artistic methods and styles throughout his career. His technical skills enabled him to emulate other noted artists like Gauguin, Monet and Van Gogh while still creating an original work of his own. *** When she entered the rooms filled with Picasso’s cubism, Marcella became intrigued with his use of African art as a foundation in many of his works. She also enjoyed the way Picasso’s cubism captured the appearance of a three dimensional object on a two dimensional surface through the use of angles, spatial placements and color application.

The Beginning of Plastic Space

When Marcella entered art school she was inspired to develop her art and technical skills to the maximum. She knew she must master realism, abstraction and a wide range of styles to gain the technical skills to achieve her goal of artistic expression. In 1964 her oil painting instructor assigned the class to study an established master and use that artist’s technique to paint a still life. Marcella chose Picasso. The more she studied his works, the more she wanted to develop her own interpretation of this style instead of copying it.

The still life that was set up in the class had a strong spotlight on it. As she began her sketch in preparation for the painting, she became very aware of the play of light on the different objects creating and in and out play of light that enhanced a three dimensional depth that she wanted to translate to a two dimensional surface. The light seemed to caress the shapes instead of leaping off at angles which caused her to focus on the curves. As she continued, she discovered the need for critical balance and placement. The additional challenge for her was the application of mathematics to balance curves and direction to keep the eye circulating throughout the painting, keeping the painting active and interesting to view.

By doing a thorough sketch of the intended painting in tones of gray, she was able to completely work out the balance, hues, and placement of objects. After her preliminary sketch, she sketched the composition onto the canvas and then included color as she painted. Marcella began building the composition with smooth thin layers of oil on the canvas. She used brushes, cotton cloth and even her fingers to carefully mix and blend the colors right on the canvas to capture the precise contours, highlights, shadows and color shifts of the objects.

Upon completion of this first work, she was asked to name the style because it was distinctly different from any of Picasso’s works and was definitely original. She had developed something quite unique. After a bit of thought, the name “Plastic Space” came to mind because of the in and out play of light and space. It was partially abstract but more of a figurative form of abstract with subjects that are somewhat recognizable. Her first “Plastic Space” painting, a 54” x 62” oil on canvas, won an award. It then was stolen from the gallery and has yet to be recovered.

Plastic Space Remains Favorite

Over the years “Plastic Space” has remained her favorite style of painting and she has continued to develop and perfect this style.

“My favorite style of painting is an original style of figurative abstract I have named “Plastic Space”. This was inspired by the study of Pablo Picasso and his form of Cubism. Painting the repetition of sharp angles in cubism was unappealing to me. I began experimenting with using curves when I noticed the way light fell around objects in a still life setting. I then took it a step further and included that movement of light showing how it traveled around and sometimes behind the objects and “Plastic Space” was created. Sometimes objects can be very abstract and sometimes they can appear very recognizable. It all depends on the work at the time and how the light affects what I see."

Marcella has refined her technique and built up a significant body of work in Plastic Space over the years. She has created several still life series including the Tropical Buffet series which was inspired by the festivities at her son’s wedding in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. Her figurative series is inspired by the people she knows and observes around her. Her personal favorite is Judy in the Red Dress, inspired by the positive and effervescent spirit of her best friend, Judy. Works such as Enigma and Third Generation give more of a social commentary. In the Ashé series Marcella gives tribute to her rich cultural heritage in the arts, music and design. Marcella’s series of Maruvian Masks represents the positive spirit of cultures from around the world and the common link they represent between world cultures. Marcella has an extensive body of work including realism, abstraction, and many other styles but her most significant legacy will be her Plastic Space.

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*http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/tl/20th/cubism.html © 14 Oct 2002, Nicolas Pioch

**Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time & Light by Leonard Shlain. Perennial, 1991

***http://pablo-picasso.paintings.name/ © picasso.nom.es