Ming Art

Magnolia and Piece of Rock was a piece created by Chen Hongshou in the 1600′s and resides in the Palace Museum in Beijing. This is not considered one of his masterpieces, but I love it because it is so simple, with clean lines, and rich color. Chen Hongshou studied art with some of the most famous painters of his time and was considered an expert in peculiar paintings. In addition to his visual art talent, Hongshou was also skilled in poetry and calligraphy. I looked at lots of pieces of Ming art and art first they all reminded me of placemats at a Chinese Restaurant, but after I while I started to notice each painter has distinctive traits that make him unique.

Frida Kahlo

Las Dos Fridas by Frida Kahlo, 1939. This painting was interesting to me because I think the meaning she was going for is so clear. In her modern clothes she is strong and independent, but in the traditional mexican dress, she needs the support and protection of independent Frida. I’ve never personally experienced it, but I am sure that a lot of people who come to America feel the way Frida Kahlo does in this photo her heart is literally torn and exposed between her roots and being modern and proper. Much of Frida Kahlo’s art also integrated a European style with the bright, flamboyant colors that were considered more Mexican. The more I learn about Frida Kahlo, I feel sorry for her, she had such a turbulent life, and in the numerous self-portraits I see of her there is never a smile or happiness depicted.

A Sidewalk Reality

I chose the theme for this blog to be sidewalk art. I chose this mostly because I am blown away at how realistic they look! The first three are for artist Julian Beever – he is an English artist but has sidewalk art all over the United States and Europe as well. Not much is known about his earlier life, or what kind of money he makes because when people ask him, he ignores the question. He would rather talk about his art.  It is very hard to find the dates and often the place of his drawings, but this one is of Times Square IN Times Square, in fact, thats the name of it! It creates the illusion that there is an alternate times square under the pavement that you could look down into. I wish I could see one of these in real life, just to look at it from every angle, I doubt these photos can actually do it justice.

The second one, Taking the Plunge features the artist in it, I think that is some of the reason some of these pieces of pavement art are so fun, because anyone can jump in and be a part of it. I found this one on the artists’ website as well and it did not say where it was created, unfortunately.

This last piece of pavement art by Mr. Beever also doesn’t have a location attached. I like this one because it is so simple, but you can see the guy on the left obviously avoiding walking “into” it. Awesome!

The next pavement artist I chose is also very prominent. His name is Kurt Wenner, he has been a paid artist since 16 when he had his first mural commissioned and has been working as a graphic artist since. He is from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

This piece is called Iskandar and is at the National Museum of Singapore. Iskandar was the last king of Singapore in the 14th Century. This work of art is incredible, but not as fun as Julian Beevers.

This piece of sidewalk art is called The Giant, and is also by Kurt Wenner. I looked at a few different websites and could not find where it is located. This one reminds me of a mime, because it looks like the giant is almost trapped under some invisible piece of glass, trying to escape. An interesting thing about Kurt Wenner vs. Julian Beever is that Mr. Wenner’s art has a much more classical feel to it.

The last piece I chose by Mr Wenner was a piece commissioned by Dunkin Donuts. I find this one interesting because even though its a commissioned piece, it doesn’t have the whimsical feel that Julian Beever’s pieces had it still feels “stiff” I am curious if this piece was just on a sidewalk somewhere or in front of a Dunkin Donuts Store?

Early Modern

I knew this was going to be a hard painting to compare to one of the assigned topics but I absolutely loved it! It’s called Red Poppy by Georgia O’Keeffe and was painted in 1927. When I was thinking about how I would relate this to one of the topics I realized the answer was right in front of me! I loved this painting, so bright and dynamic, but simple. I could spend hours looking at it. This was during the Great Depression, and Georgia O’Keeffe was living in New Mexico, on the edge of the devastating effects of the dust bowl. Georgia O’Keeffe was unique in that she recieved recognition while she was still alive. I think this is because it was such a dark time, and when people saw this big, beautiful, bright paintings it lifted a part of them up. It was literally a ray of light in a time of dark.

Early Modern

San Francisco, Calif., Mar. 1942 photo by Dorothea Lange. This is a photo of a Grocery owened by a Japanese American. He unfurled this banner after the Pearl Harbor attacks. I chose this one because he put this banner up before he could have had any idea what was going to happen to the Japanese-Americans during the war. He simply wanted people to know that was something his former country did, but that he was an american now. This shows the effect of the World War, even if the Grocer had not been Japanese. I think this looks very similar to what we saw all over the United States the day after September 11. Very Moving.

Impressionism Impressions

Impressionism, as I stated in my assignment, reminds me of looking at a memory. Maybe the lines aren’t as crisp as right when it happened, but the feelings are still there. My first work is called The Dance Class by Edgar Degas, Paris 1873-1876. This work appeals to me because I used to be in ballet class, and this painting summed up what many of the lessons were like. Listening to the instructor talk. You can’t clearly make out the expressions on any one dancer’s face, but you can tell that some are paying attention and some are not. Now to contrast this to a Neoclassical painting called Oath of the Horatii by Jacques Louis David, 1784 Paris. The lines on David’s painting are ultra crisp, and you can clearly see expression on the faces of the subjects. This is interesting because David was painting a scene that no one in his time had personally witnessed, however Degas painting something probably right in front of him without the clarity that he could clearly see. The subject matter is also typical of both movements, the Neoclassical shows an honorable Roman scene, while the Impressionist shows a pleasant day at The Dance Class. Around the same time my last painting was produced by Jean-Honore Fragonard called The Swing, 1767, London. This painting is typical in most ways of Rococo painting, but there are obvious similarities between Fragonard’s Rococo and Degas’ Impressionist paintings, especially when you consider the subject. They are both pleasant and light, although Fragonard went in to much farther detail in the background than Degas. Another interesting comparison is that on Fragonard’s Rococo you cannot see facial expressions clearly, but you can almost count the leaves on the trees. This may have made the transition to impressionism easier for some (even though they had a movement or two in between). I enjoy impressionism because it does for me exactly what the painters intended, evokes a light, happy feeling.

Classical BLOG

Jacques Louis David

The work I chose for this lesson is called The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, it was painted by Jacques Louis David in Paris in 1789, at the very center of the French Revolution in every way. At first, the government would not allow this painting to be hung because they thought it would “agitate” people. They had already not allowed David’s painting of Lavosier to be hung for the same reasons. However, when they did not allow this painting to be hung, it caused such public outrage that they Royals were forced to give in and hang the painting. In the painting is the Roman leader Brutus, grieving for his dead sons. He had ordered them killed because they attempted to overthrow the government, and he felt that their death was the only way to ensure democracy in the republic. He is obviously in a state of deep thought in the painting torn between his anguish for his dead sons, and the feeling that what he did was the best thing for his country. The distance between him and his wife and kids is also notable, I would think the distance is not just physical, but emotional, she must not have felt this was the way to solve the problem. This painting not only appealed to the French because of the content of this painting, but also because they got the rulers to give in on displaying it. I like how the artist used dark and light to also show the difference between Brutus and his Wife and kids, it almost seems like the artist is having the same contemplation of who was right or wrong. This painting appealed to be because of the story.

Baroque Blog

My favorite painting was “The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch” or more commonly known as “The Nightwatch” by Rembrandt. This piece of work was completed in 1642 in Amsterdam and remains in Amsterdam today in the Rijksmuseum. This painting shows the influence of the Thirty Year War clearly, by depicting soldiers heading off to battle. The entire painting is laced with symbols of victory, for instance, the multiple uses of the color yellow was thought to symbolize victory. The dead chicken the girl is holding is supposed to symbolize a defeated adversary. This painting also shows a little bit of the influence of royalty. The paintings main subject, Frans Banning Cocq, was at one time the burgemeester, or mayor of Amsterdam. He is shown dressed in black with a red sash. I liked this painting because it has many elements to make you think a little harder than the average bear. For instance, it is called the NIGHT watch, yet there are almost spot lights shown on the girl and the two main characters. Also, speaking of the girl, what the heck is she doing there at night with a dead chicken clinging to her waist? Was that normal? Enjoy!

Renaissance Bloggin’

Bruegel

Pieter Brugel’s The Tower of Babel

I thought this work of art easily related to the humanist paintings of the renaissance. This is an easy connection to make because of the religious theme of the painting. Another way this painting is distinctly humanist is the way the architecture of the tower closely resembles that of ancient Roman architecture. There was no listing of where this was painted that I could find, but it is presently located in Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria. I love this painting because it seems much brighter than some of the other Renaissance paintings. When I was younger I loved to hear the story of the Tower of Babel, and I think it’s fascinating to see how Bruegel thought the construction of the tower might have gone together.

This picture is of dinner. I helped make this.

First post: COMPLETE!