Non-Western (Blog #8)

I feel a little bad for not exploring different areas of “non-western” art, but I found some pieces by another artist from the Ming dynasty and simply fell in love with them.  I feel that these pieces better represent how I feel when I think about art from this time period.

Tang Yin was not only a Chinese painter, but also a scholar, calligrapher (this may seem like an un-important thing, but perfecting calligraphy is difficult, especially when writing in Chinese), and poet.  He is probably one of the most important of Chinese painters of all time.  He is considered to be one of the “the Four Masters of Ming Dynasty” for his art and also one of the “Four Literary Masters of the Wuzhong Region” for his poetry.  So it is obvious that he is  great artist of all kinds.

Court Ladies of the Former Shu, Tang Yin

I really enjoy this painting because it sort of shows daily life of women in China during this time period.  I almost imagine the Disney movie Mulan, which doesn’t “take place” during the Ming dynasty, but it still reminds me of it.

This painting shows another subject style that Yin was very good at, landscapes.  I feel that his best works are that of landscapes.  This one I especially like because, considering the weather in Fairbanks today, it shows the kinds of passes through mountains that we sometimes travel through living in Alaska.

Clearing after Snow on a Mountain Pass, Tang Yin

It was very enlightening to learn about different kinds of art than those that we are so used to (Pop Art, Impressionism, etc.).  These different areas and styles can definitely be a benefit to us students, especially as we have to take different history classes.  Hopefully more people will study these pieces after us.

1. Tang Yin, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_Yin

2. Tang Yin: Paintings, <https://classes.uaf.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_60839_1%26url%3d

Non-Western (Blog #7)

I must admit, I am not very familiar with art that was not created in America or Europe.  It just does not seem like any classes focus on art outside these areas, which is pretty appalling, in my opinion. The piece I’d like to focus on was created during the Ming dynasty, in 15th century, in China.

Welcoming Spring

No, this isn’t a painting of some kind, it’s embroidery on silk gauze. So amazing! There is an immense amount of detail throughout, with different uses of stitching to create lighting and shadows.  Here are some close-ups to see the detail–

Welcoming Spring

Welcoming Spring

I think I chose this piece because it is something I would love to see in person.  It is visible from the internet, but I don’t feel like you can truly appreciate something like this unless you see it hanging in an exhibit.  It is currently at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and has been since 2000.  Hopefully one day I can make the pilgrimage to see it.

 

1.The Metropolitan Museum of Art, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1981.410

Contemporary Art (Blog #6)

Sidewalk art is one of a kind.  Such creations do not last very long, as soon as it rains they are washed away.  That is what is extremely fascinating about these works of art.  They can only be seen if capture on film, or else they are gone forever.  There are two artists that are very well-known for this kind of art and the way they use optical illusions to create their pieces. The first artist is Kurt Wenner.

Kurt Wenner is an American artist who is known for his sidewalk art.  He uses a technique called anamorphosis which makes the creations look 3-D even though they are on flat pavement. He not only did artwork, but also worked for NASA creating illustrations of what future space projects would look like.  He eventually left this type of workplace and moved to Rome, Italy.  This is where he studied classic artwork, which seems to have greatly influenced his work as seen below. He also sculpts and works with oil on canvas, but he is best known for his chalk work on pavement.

Ghetto, Wenner (2007)

I enjoy Ghetto because of where it was drawn. The concrete is surrounded by overgrown grass, a building in ruins, yet Wenner has created something very beautiful in this chaos.  The characters in this scene also add to this picture.  It seems that they are in turmoil, some locked in little boxes, which would aptly fit into their surroundings.

Giant, Wenner (2007)

Giant is really amazing.  The detail in this image is astonishing, especially because it was drawn on the side of a road! The detail in this man is insane; it looks like his skin has something crawling underneath it, my guess is muscles because this man is become more giant by the minute.  I’m not sure if that is what Wenner meant when he drew it, but to me that’s what this represents.

Babel, Wenner (2007)

This drawing is, by far, the most intense of the Wenner creations I’ve presented here.  If you look down, the columns continue going on for what looks like an infinity! The fact that he could create such intricate details in a small scope, let alone on the sidewalk, amazing. There is also much detail of anguish on the face of the man falling in the upper right hand corner.

The second artist I’m presenting here is Julian Beever.  His works relate less to classic work like Wenner, but he focuses more on popular ideas of the time.  Julian is originally from England and also uses anamorphosis to create 3D art on sidewalks.  He utilizes the help of a camera to help him when creating his works.  He does this to gain perspective from a different view point.  I think this is especially important because he is a sidewalk artist; the only way his art lives on is through photographs of it.  If the camera does not have the right angle of his creation then we will not be able to see what he is doing.

Girl On a Beach Mat, Beever

This drawing is very realistic looking; to me, the girl doesn’t look as realistic, but the way the beach mat comes up in certain spots is very realistic.  I like that he uses the pop icon of Coca-Cola in this drawing also.

Girl In a Swimming Pool, Beever

These are two different viewpoints of the same drawing.  The first shows the 3D version and the second shows what Beever actually drew.  It’s amazing that he has the perception to draw the foot like that! It looks completely different from a different view!

Taking the Plunge, Beever

I simply like this drawing because of the realistic quality to it.  Especially because he is dressed in swim trunks, ready to dive in.

Batman and Robin, Beever

Doesn’t this one speak for itself? It looks like a real scene from a comic book/movie.  I feel like I would fall off the edge of the sidewalk if I was walking near this drawing.

Catching Crabs, Beever

Catching Crabs, Beever

That’s a really big crab! The ocean looks so realistic and the crab too.  I like that Beever takes part in a majority of his drawings, which adds to them looking very real.

One day I hope to be able to see something like this created in real life! It is truly amazing.

[In my research I could not find dates of when Beever’s drawings were created]

1. Julian Beever’s Pavement Drawings, http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm

2. Julian Beever, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Beever

3. Kurt Wenner, http://www.kurtwenner.com/

4. Kurt Wenner, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Wenner

Early Modern (Blog #5)

During the Early Modern era, people began seeing art go through a very drastic change.  There were many types of new art styles presented which were, at times, very complex and unlike anything seen before.  One of the more interesting styles to me was a style called “Surrealism.”  This type of art began after the end of WWI.  Before WWI, we saw art change drastically due to “Avant-garde,” but now artists were pushing the button and experimenting even further.  Surrealism didn’t aim to depict reality at all, it was more focused on subject matter that was irrational; many artists focused on things that would be found in dream-like states rather than real life.

I think that this happened after WWI because the world had gone through much turmoil and was finally settled back down again.  Artists were more free to create whatever came to their mind, and they seemingly did so.

I also find it fascinating that these artists were influenced by the works of Sigmund Freud.  I studied this man in a psychology class once and it was very interesting.  Dreams can tell a lot about the subconscious of a person and it is interesting to see these analyses put onto a canvas for everyone to see.

One Surrealist painting that I’m sure everyone has seen before is Salvador Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory (1931).

²

One interesting thing about this painting is the image of the soft melting pocket watch. It is a part of one of Dalí’s theories, the use of “softness” and “hardness.” “The soft watches are an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time, a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order”¹. Dalí was starting to incorporate an understanding he learned from Albert Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity. I like that this shows that Dalí was beginning to also use a sense of science in his pieces of art.  It has also been said about this painting that although it still represents the ideas of Freud, it was the beginning of Dalí’s experimentation with scientific kinds of thinking.

The figure in the middle of the picture is a “fading” creature.  It is like in a dream where you know it is some type of figure, but you cannot think of what it is exactly.

This whole work supposedly depicts a dream that Dalí once had.  I think it is very interesting to know this because by seeing this picture, one can imagine how the brain of Dalí worked.  This is an interesting thing to think about.  Although the clocks symbolized the notion of “hardness” and “softness,” they also symbolized the passing of time that we experience in dreams.  They really do go by pretty fast, we should all try and stop to remember them to better understand ourselves.

1. Ades, Dawn. “Dalí”. Thames and Hudson, 1982.

2. Wikipedia, The Persistence of Memory.

3. Wikipedia, “Salvador Dalí.”

Impressionism (Blog #4)

This is my all-time favorite blog so far and I haven’t even written it yet!  I say this is my favorite because I simply love this art movement–Impressionism. To me, it embodies everything that is free-flowing and simple, but yet very beautiful.  I love to look at any piece that is considered this kind of art.

As we all learned in our lecture this week, Impressionism earned its name from Monet’s famous painting Impression, soleil levant (or in English, Impression, Sunrise).

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Impression, soleil levant (1872)

I have really enjoyed this painting long before I realized that it is where Impressionism earned its name.  To me, that is a pretty cool thing; have your painting name a whole movement.  I think this is only fair though because Monet is one of the greatest artists in this particular movement, and as Wikipedia states, “the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement’s philosophy of expressing one’s perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting.”²

I think I am most attracted to Impression because it aims to capture a moment, or an impression, upon the mind.  I think it is also appealing because it usually depicts ordinary subject matter, but in such a way that it is not boring to look at for long periods of time.  Good examples of ordinary subject matter would be Camille Pissarro’s Boulevard Montmartre (Boulevard Monmartre in Paris).

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Boulevard Montmartre (1897)

Pissarro’s painting depicts a street in Paris, people going along on their day to day activities, nothing impressive or grandeur about it, yet I find this work very amazing.  The use of every brush stroke creates a different lighting effect or shape, and all comes together into something very wonderful.

There were many painters participating in this art movement, but there are a few that were the most popular and more involved with others.  Some of the main Impressionists were: Frédéric Bazille, Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley.  I’m sure you’ve heard of most these artists, if not all of them. I think that this artists are some of the most popular artists of all time because their paintings are very timeless.  They seem to have lasted the test of time very well and are still very much studied in today’s classrooms.

¹

Bal du moulin de la Galette (1876)

Bal du moulin de la Galette by Renoir is one of the more famous paintings created by an Impressionist.  It shows the frivolous fun of Parisians on a lovely afternoon day.  If you look closely at the picture, each stroke creates some sort of color or lighting, which you can’t necessarily see from afar.

It is also amazing how much expression can be seen on the faces of the people dancing, talking, etc. even though you can tell that Renoir is not focused on the faces of the people.  You know from looking at this painting that he was mostly concerned about the lighting and shadows that can be seen. I especially like the use of shadow that is coming from a tree overhead the people sitting at the table.  You can easily tell that the tree is shading them from the sun due to the spots of sun and shadow on the young man’s back in the front.

All-in-all, I feel that Impressionism was truly the start of art as we know it today.  I hope that everyone feels this same way, of course, but I know it is not an art form that every person enjoys.  Oh well, I like it!

1. “Impressionism,” http://www.Wikipedia.com

2. “Claude Monet,” http://www.Wikipedia.com

3. “Web Museum: Impressionism,” http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/impressionism/

Classical Era Theatre (Blog #3)

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais

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Beaumarchais (Jan 1732-May 1799) was a French playwright during the Classical Era. He is most well known for his three “Figaro” Plays, Le Barbier de Séville, Le Mariage de Figaro, and La Mère coupable.  All three plays are stories surrounding the antics of Figaro and Count Almaviva, both characters are present in all three.

Most people would recognize the name The Barber of Seville, but they would likely recognize this name due to the opera by Gioachino Rossini.  Rossini’s opera was based on Beaumarchais’ play, but it was changed to Italian and, of course, had singing instead of acting.

This video is a little on the long side, 7 mins, but it is an example of Rossini’s adaptation of The Barber of Seville. This version has much lasted the test of time, I can remember watching it as a child.

Beaumarchais’ play was written in French and was accompanied with music by Antoine-Laurent Baudron.  It is considered a comedic play and was preformed in 1775 at the Comédie-Française. It was similarly structured to the plays of Commedia dell’arte, there were characters that resembled the “stock” characters of the Italian art form.  I think

[edit after reading my comments, here is more analysis] The reason I think this play was so popular during this time was the fact that the middle class was beginning to enjoy more things than they were used to.  Plays were beginning to be performed for this class instead of only for the upper class and the royal court.  This play (along with the other two in the trilogy), also seemed to satire the royal court, and Louis XVI did not like this. Even though censorship bans were initially put on the plays, Beaumarchais still secretly performed them until the bans were lifted.  This was especially true for Le Mariage, which was banned for 3 years!¹  I also think that these plays were popular because they showed a different life-style than most people were used to.  These plays were frivolous and fanciful, and my guess is that the audience could live vicariously through the characters and the story.  Very similar to the way people watch t.v. today; you find characters that you identify with and wish you could be like.  Plus, it was like a series–you had to go to each play to be able to understand!

Le Barbier de Séville is about a Count that has fallen in love with a beautiful girl named Rosine.  He does not want her to love him simply because he is rich, so he disguises himself as a poor student named Lindor and tries to win her love.  He is unable to do so because she is intended to marry the Doctor, who keeps her locked inside so no one can steal her away.  The count meetsup with his ex-servant, Figaro, who is the local barber, meaning he has access to the Doctor’s home.  The Count promises money to Figaro if he can help the Count see Rosine.  Figaro devises a plan for the Count to enter the Doctor’s house to meet and talk with Rosine.  The Count’s ploy is spoiled at first, but the play ends with the Count and Rosine being married.²

The full transcript can be found at this web address (http://www.theatrehistory.com/french/barber_of_seville.html), it is much too long of a story to type the entire thing here.

I like this play because it has that certain comedic aspect, everyone’s plans keep getting foiled one way or another.  However, in the end, all is happily ever after.

1. “Pierre Beaumarchais,” Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Beaumarchais

2. “The Barber of Seville,” Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Barbier_de_Séville

Baroque-Style Art (Blog #2)

The Council of Trent greatly affected Baroque era art and the artists creating the art.  Paintings became more religious by evoking an emotional feeling in people ².

A very famous artist from the Baroque era, called Carrvaggio, followed the style created by the Council of Trent very well in his painting The Conversion of St. Paul.

The Conversion of St. Paul (1600) by Carrvaggio ¹

This painting depicts, as the title states, St. Paul being converted into a believer.  It also shows Christians that they can be forgiven by God if they ask.

I like this painting because of the differences between dark and light areas.  Also, there is not much color except for red, which seems to be a very symbolic color. Red is the color of blood and therefore shows some hurting of St. Paul in his repentance. This is not a bad thing, don’t get me wrong.

I really have come to like this painting even though it is unlike most art that I enjoy.

Sources-

1. “Carrvaggio.” Wikipedia online.

2. “Baroque”. Erich Hubala.

Venus (Blog #1)

The Birth of Venus (1486, Florence, Italy)

Sandro Botticelli

I have always been a big fan of this painting and after taking this class thus far, I realize that I liked it because of how unrealistic it is.  It follows the style of mannerists from this time very appropriately. Venus has a very elongated neck, all of her weight shifted onto one leg to the point where she would not be able to keep balance, and standing on a point on the shell that would not be able to hold all of her weight.

Venus is emerging from the sea as a full grown woman.  Interpretations have said her emergence from the sea can be seen as the emergence of Christ from the Virgin Mary.  There are also other allusions to the Virgin Mary; the sea and Venus allude to the Virgin Marys’ title stella maris. Maris=sea, stella=Venus.

These interpretations can be seen as Botticelli’s references to Humanism.  I believe this because Humanism aimed to bring religious beliefs through human experiences rather than the institution of religion. This depicts a religious story without the outright use of “the virgin mary” or “christ” himself. I also think Botticelli depicted Venus as a very beautiful woman to represent the inner beauty in those who follow a righteous path to heavenly experiences.

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Welcome to my blog. The picture above is of my boxer mix puppy named Chloé. ^^