Between Wars

The movement that came about known as Dadaism, is a movement that developed in rebellion of World War I.  In this movement of art you no longer see the formal elements of art being used, in fact most of the work made in this time period was intentionally made to not make sense.  Due to the horrors experienced from the war a lot of what people thought made sense no longer did, in fact the things that didn't make sense is what actually made sense during this movement.  As you can see in George Grosz's piece of art called Victim of Society, it depicts a man being shaven by a razor.  Along with many of the abstract elements such as the patch work done to construct the face and the question mark and bagel to form the top of the head and hair, dada art had no real structure.  Most art made during this period had a message within the art.  This piece of art I think was trying to give us the idea that people didn't think much for themselves and were groomed into what the media or society wanted us to be.  The question mark taking the place of the top of the head where the brain would be and the razor as if it was grooming someone gave me this idea, as if to say people weren't sure what to think and they were what society made them to be.  Along with this style came may others in the 1900's including modernism.  In the online lecture we are shown pieces by Jacob Lawrence from his Migration series.  Lawrence was inspired by Goya, Dormier, and Orozco along with many events such as the Harlem renaissance and the history of African Americans.  In this series it depicts blacks struggling and fighting against oppression and also working and educating themselves.  He was heavily influenced by European Modernist with his excellent use of color, flat space and pattern.  The thing I found especially interesting about these painting were the colors used.  The intensity of the colors bring emotion to these pieces, whether it shows struggle, empowerment, or hard work the color brought those emotions to life in this series.

George Grosz's "Victim of Society"

The Renaissance and Baroque Art

            During my visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, there were two pieces of art that I felt really captured the essence of The Renaissance era of art, and the Baroque period of art.  These two pieces were The Miracle of Christ Healing the Blind by El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos), and Rembrandt’s Aristotle with a Bust of Homer.           

            El Greco is the name given to the greek artist Domenikos Theotokopoulos, which is Spanish for The Greek.  His painting The Miracle of Christ Healing the Blind was painted in 1570 in either Venice or Rome.  The picture shows Jesus Christ healing a blind man in front of many people.  This picture has a lot of elements that were commonly used in Renaissance art including linear perspective.  As you look at the photo you can see the building appear to be further and further away leading to a vanishing point.  To create more of an illusion of depth El Greco uses vertical perspective to make objects or forms appear smaller the higher they are placed in the picture plane.  The feel you get from this piece is very miraculous and frantic.  El Greco also uses directional force to lead us to important elements of this painting to get the feel of the story being told.  When you look at the group to the right you see some hands pointing to Jesus as he performs his miracle, while their heads lead downwards to two figures in the foreground.  The group is huddled up as if they are gossiping and are pointing to indicate that they are shocked by what they are seeing/pointing at.  When you follow the faces to the two foreground figures you can see the woman holding her chest and a man holding her back, which gives us the idea that she may be overly excited or even frantic at the sight of Jesus curing the man of his ailment, this could also indicate that they are family or close friends.  El Greco beautifully illustrated a scene in this piece using many elements that were commonly used in The Renaissance era of art. 

Miracle of Christ Healing the Blind.

            Later in his life El Greco would move to Spain and continue painting in a Baroque style.  The painting I saw from Rembrandt called Aristotle with a Bust of Homer really was as great display of Baroque art.  Rembrandt was from Leiden, which is located in the Netherlands, and he eventually moved to Amsterdam to pursue his career in art.  This piece of art was created in 1653 in Amsterdam and it shows Aristotle resting his hand on a statue of Homer.  In this piece you can see one of the main elements in Baroque art at work, which is the contrast between shadows and light.  Rembrandt masterfully uses the light and shadows in this piece to almost give the painting a story.  Along with the tremendous detail to human condition something that Baroque art shows quite a lot, and something Rembrandt utterly mastered, he’s able to show us with the detail in the face and eyes that Aristotle is contemplating something.  He uses the light and dark almost as an underlying play on Aristotle’s thoughts.  That as Aristotle is dressed well and is doing well for himself with his teachings, that the material things shouldn’t be taking him over and that there’s more to life.  The shadows hovering over and descending onto his shoulder show the idea that the material things can consume him, where the light breaking through shining onto him and the statue of Homer remind him of his ideas and things he has learned from others about life.  Rembrandt depicted the element of conflict in this piece beautifully.  A lot of artists who painted in this period seemed to love the conflict that existed in society and they all seemed to capture it in their paintings, Rembrandt and this piece was no exception.  Only Rembrandt took it to a level that very few thought possible at that time and this is why I feel this piece captures the spirit of the Baroque period of art.

Aristotle with A Bust of Homer.

Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

On The Bank of The Seine, Bennecourt

            I found the lecture about impressionism and post-impressionism very interesting.  In the Impressionism period you saw many artists focus on what the eye sees instead of their imagination. A lot of these paintings were done simply by observing the environment, or the activities of people.  Most of the paintings done in impressionism were from the middle class point of view, observing them enjoying leisure activities.  But instead of making it realistic, they painted impressions of what the eye saw, giving way to the name impressionism.  In post-impressionism artists began to drift away from observatory paintings of the environment and began to express their thoughts and feelings more through a free interpretation of nature.  To express thoughts deeper than just what the eye can see, with more of an insightful way to paint and interpret things.  Two pieces that I feel really capture the qualities of both periods beautifully are Claude Monet’s On The Bank of The Seine, Bennecourt, and Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night.

The Starry Night

             
              In Monet’s painting you can clearly see that it is his impression of a woman under a tree looking over a lake near a town.  He uses small dabs of color closely placed next to one another to give the look of brush strokes, something that was a common painting style in this era.  He also uses a strong emphasis of light and color to really make this painting come to life.  You can get a sense of a darker area under the tree and shade by the much darker greens and browns used in that area, and then suddenly feel the sun’s embrace over the town and lake as the colors lighten up giving way to the idea that this was painted on sunny day.  In van Gogh’s painting you can see a strong use of line and color, which was something common in post-impressionism.  Also when you look at the lines you can see that he used the paint almost like a pencil, very quickly and passionately.  In this piece he uses scaling amazingly, by painting the town very tiny underneath the star illuminated sky, giving us the sense that there are more powerful forces in this world than just humans.  He does that by painting the town a lot smaller than the sky and by using different designs and patterns along with the stars to give a spiritual feel, along with the church and tree reaching straight into the sky to directs us to what he feels is important in this painting.  These two pieces are remarkable examples of both periods of art.

Rembrandt

In the YouTube film "Simon Schama’s Rembrandt- Part One" it talks about Amsterdam in the 1600's and the way of life in that area at that time.  Explaining how Amsterdam went from a small fishing port to a economic capital of the world.  Not only did they speak about the city but also of the one of a kind artist, Rembrandt.  He was truly, a remarkable artist that had the gift of making us feel emotion in his painting and portraying it like the world has never seen before. In one piece he paints a fur merchant known as Nicolaes Ruts, who sold Russian sable fur.  In the painting of him he showed Nicolaes dressed in his own product, with the fur painted with great detail, very sharp eyes  and a neatly groomed beard and a glare in his eyes as if he was being bothered by someone stopping him.  Fascinating enough he was able to depict the the mans' need for rest or the lack of rest he gets by always working, by painting slight pink inside of his eyes as if he had been up all night working. This painting is known as the business man's hero, probably because of Rembrandt's beautiful display of the man's work effort through the painting.  However he was able to show other emotions and features through his work, such as the painting of the 83 year old women.  He managed to show a great deal of worry and weakness in very subtle ways that spoke volumes.  In this painting it depicts an 83 year old women with a look in her eye that isn't very focused and drifting elsewhere as if she had other things on her mind.  The droopy eyebrows show worry and concern about something that give her a sense of weakness or vulnerability.  The magnitude of detail in his paintings helped him express so many emotions or conflicts so personally that it touched people.  In his variation of Sampson an Delilah, instead of the more common way to paint this picture which was usually to show Sampson as a nude hulking man.  Rembrandt decided to depict Sampson much smaller and realistic, to give him a sense of vulnerability, while showing Delilah caressing Sampson with one hand and lifting his hair with the other.  What that very small gesture showed was the epitome of the story, love and betrayal.  Rembrandt was indeed one of a kind, and the level of detail he used was insanely genius, along with his mastery of light and shadows, it made him an extraordinary artist that embodied the Baroque period of art completely.