The Tree in Art: An Object of Transformation and a Factor of Artistic Form

— Concept — Material Subordination — Material Resistance — Material Participation — The Relationship Between Authorial Control and Independent Expression — Sources

Against the backdrop of digitalization, mass production, and the proliferation of artificial materials in art, there is a renewed interest in natural matter. Therefore, wood was selected for analysis: it preserves the traces of time, growth, and change, and it allows us to illustrate the connection between humanity, nature, and the artistic process.

The study analyzes three levels of interaction between the author and the material: — submission (using the material as a plastic foundation); — resistance (the material’s influence on the working method and composition); — co-participation (a more active influence in shaping the artwork). The study contrasts submission and co-participation, setting the intermediate level (resistance) aside for a more nuanced analysis, since it cannot be assumed that wood in art exists only as a passive object or only as an active «subject.» The relationship between the artist’s control and the material’s inherent expressiveness becomes the central focus of the research.

As material for visual research, works by Louise Nevelson, Tadashi Kawamata, Giuseppe Penone, and David Nash are utilized. The selection of materials is based on the fact that their practices demonstrate different levels of interaction between the artist and wood.

Textual sources examined include project descriptions from museum and gallery websites, curatorial texts, artist interviews, and articles and publications dedicated to land art, sculpture, installation, and working with natural materials. The analysis of these textual sources aims to identify how the artists and curators themselves describe the role of wood in the creation of the artwork.

When the tree functions as a subordinate object, the artist uses the wood as a plastic foundation. They cut, sand, and construct—meaning they maximize control over the final result. The material’s natural properties are important, but they ultimately serve the author’s vision.

Luiza Nevelson is an American sculptor renowned for her large-scale assemblages made from found wooden objects. She gathered fragments of furniture, wooden parts, crates, slats, and other elements, and then combined them into large wall or spatial compositions.

Nevelson perceived the found wooden elements not as random debris, but as components of a future composition. For her, the wood adheres not to natural logic, but to an authorial order: individual fragments become «words» from which a unified image is constructed.

A key feature of her method is coloring the entire piece in a single tone, most often black, white, or gold. In the work «Golden Gates, ” the color amplifies the sense of value and monumentality. Because of this, the found fragments begin to be perceived not as mundane remnants, but as part of a ceremonial, almost altar-like structure.

For Nevelson, the color black was often perceived by critics as a means of concealing the history of the discovered wooden objects. However, for the artist herself, using black did not signify the erasure of memory.

In it, the wood is not yet a «participant» in the full sense—as in works dealing with growth, time, or biological processes—but it is no longer neutral raw material. The artist retains control, yet the material’s density and scale, along with the traces of time upon it, inform their decisions.

Giuseppe Penone is an Italian artist and sculptor, one of the representatives of the Arte Povera movement. In his practice, wood holds a special place: it is viewed not only as the physical foundation of the sculpture but also as a carrier of nature’s memory.

In his work, «Versailles Cedar, ” Giuseppe Penone approaches the tree as a material already imbued with its own history. For this piece, the artist used a cedar trunk that was felled by a storm in Versailles in 1999.