Britart movement 1990s

Britart movement 1990’s:

Brit Art was a movement that began in Great Britain during the 90’s that gained international recognition and acknowledgement. The movement was called YBA (Young British Artists) who exhibited together in warehouses and factories. There form of art was mostly about creating controversial art that made people think about things – maybe demystifying objects and reintroducing them in a complete new concept of art. One of the most famous artist from the YBA is Damien Hirst known for his series of dead animals (sheep as well as a tiger and a cow) that were preserved and exhibited as an obvious symbol for death. Hirst’s work mostly revolved around the subject death and is preliminary seen in all his exhibitions and installations. He isn’t just known for his art pieces but also for his inappropriate comment about September 11 with congratulating the terrorist organisation to showing everybody that America is vulnerable – he regretted his comment a year later and apologised to the world. An interesting fact about Damien Hirst might be that he first got rejected from Art College but after taking a Foundation Diploma course he studied Arts at the Leeds College of Arts, he also studied at Goldsmiths, University of London where he studied Fine Arts.

His first famous piece that got known worldwide was when he first exhibited at a warehouse exhibition and displayed a shark that was preserved in formaldehyde – hanging in a vitrine. Some of his art was called to “disgusting” and controversial that the New York health officials banned some of his work and it wasn’t shown in New York. Damien Hirst seems to have had and still has a liking for showing dead animals preserved and displayed in different ways – there was an art piece entitled Mother and Child Divided and the art piece actually consisted of a cow and a calf cut into different pieces and displayed in different cabinets. He also had an art piece where he showed rotting animals.

The YBA was also knows for its shock art and its sometimes rather “disgusting” exhibitions. On the other hand the YBA artists showed a boldness that had never been there before in art – it was about shocking people and there seemed to have been no limits in what is okay to create and when art is not art anymore because of its subject. 

Visiting a museum for Modern Art: MARTa

Yesterday I went to visit a Modern Art Museum close to where I live. I’ve heard a lot about it in the past and my art teacher from school always wanted us to go but I never wanted to because I haven’t been the biggest fan of modern art so far, but after reading about more of it during the projects I felt like it was a good time to break this cycle of not going to modern art museums and I went. There were three different exhibitions in the museum and it was definitely an interesting experience. I knew that the architecture of the building would be a very interesting thing to look at in itself without having seen any of the exhibits inside. And it was just like that. The entrance was very impressive and the whole building had a great dynamic.

Image from http://img.fotocommunity.com/images/Architektur-Fotografie/Architektur-bei-Nacht/MARTa-Herford-a25505041.jpg (Accessed 9 Jan 2012)

The roof was build in different shapes and forms flowing out of the building and it didn’t only make the outside  much  more engaging but the inside with most of the light entering through windows in the roof.

                   Image from                                                                                                                     http://www.aknw.de/presse/downloads/tag-der-architektur2009/bilder-gross/Herford_1331_MARTa.jpg (Accessed 9 Jan 2012)

The first exhibition was called “Personal map (to be continued)...” by Nezaket Ekici and it consisted of different installations, a lot of them were video installations with music that the visitor could listen to, photographs and material that played a role in making her art as well as one piece of actual “live” art. While I was looking at her art I came up with a few questions and there are a few things that I really wonder about. Her art involved lots of physical action e.g. being completely dressed in white and then lighting candles that are stuck to a plate on the ceiling and the standing underneath it waiting for the hot wax to drop on her body – I am not sure what that specific art piece was trying to express and I read about it in the book that was supposed to explain the reasons for this art piece but unfortunately I couldn’t figure out why she did it – and to be quite honest to me it looked more like self destructive behaviour and if that is what makes modern art modern art then people shouldn’t pay for going to art museum and rather join volunteering work at a psychiatric institution and they would probably see as much self destructive behaviour as I felt I have seen in the exhibits yesterday.

Maybe it’s only modern art that is displayed in Germany that is so stereotypical for what I think about modern art as it was the main influence about modern art that I had in the past so far – said this – I still wonder why modern art seems to need to be disgusting, shocking and disturbing to be recognised and exhibited. Everybody is complaining about the world and how “ugly” and destructive it became and I wonder why art doesn’t want to be opposite to that statement and why artists don’t just create something more light-hearted and more positive – I am not saying that all modern art has to be depressing but from what I’ve experienced it is pretty much just like that. And about some works of art I wonder who would really like looking at it – do the artists from today even work from their heart or if the art is really a mirror to their soul – are they all just depressed black holes in a big universe?

People who are visiting modern art museum in Germany also seem to follow some kind of stereotypical role model – the majority of these people is dressed in black, flat shoes, short hair, colourful reading glasses, the same facial expression trying to force an interesting look on their face. I have noticed all these tiny details and I wonder if that is a resemblance of the people the artists wants to reach out to with his or her work. Why do these people resonate with this kind of modern art?

I really hope that not all modern art is like this and that there is more to this generation of artists because I think what the world needs is not more depressing art and black holes in the universe we rather need positive feelings expressed and more stars added to the universe and the night sky. 

Notes

I was just researching works of art for the exercise that I did yesterday but wasn’t satisfied with and it is fun so far – I designed my own ground plan and it is much easier this way. I found this amazing sculpture artist – his name is Ron Mueck and his sculptures are over life size sculptures of heads, bodies in different situations –very inspiring!

Ron Mueck Seated Boy

 Image from http://neosurrealism.artdigitaldesign.com/modern-artists/?images/midsize/fine-art/seating-boy.jpg (Accessed 5 Jan 2012)

Project 1 Exercise: Exploring modern art

Project 1 Exercise: Exploring modern art

Surrealism:

-          Began in 1920s

-          Surprise and unexpected ways of presenting a subject

-          Developed form Dadaism

-          Wanted to free people from false rationality

-          Dream analysis was a bag part of the movement – believed that dream was a big part of art

Surrealism and politics and social change:

-          Artistic idea and political change is what they wanted

-          free revolution

-          anti-colonial revolution

-          Embraced anarchism?

The Golden Age of Surrealism:

-          Dali and Magritte were the most famous artists from the Golden Age

-          Recreating normal objects into an environment that isn’t usual for it and then moving it away from its original purpose and creating new meaning with it

-          Combination of depictive, psychological and as said above the estrangement of objects, abstract

Examples of Surrealistic Art:

Rene Magritte (1964) The Son of Man (oil on canvas) Private Collection

Image from  http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/surrealism/images/ReneMagritte-The-Son-of-Man-1964.jpg

(Accessed 4 Jan 2012)

Rene Magritte’s art has been used for book cover, CD covers, postcards; it has even been used in advertisements for brands like Huge Boss.  His art look familiar as almost everybody has already seen bits and pieces of his work – he is famous for using apples as a dominant feature in his paintings as well as not showing the face of the person he is drawing.

For example:

Rene Magritte (1928) The Lovers  (oil on canvas) New York: Museum of Modern Art

Image from http://www.moma.org/collection_images/resized/921/w500h420/CRI_215921.jpg (Accessed 4 Jan 2012)

Creating some sense of intimacy but that being separated by the fabric covering up their heads – separation of intimacy – what did he want to say? Maybe they wanted to be lovers but weren’t allowed to be lovers? Maybe those two were a couple, maybe married but they kept things from each other that might be why there is no real intimacy. Hiding true feelings/ identities? Is there something that they are both not saying – or not allowed to say? Does is represent death?

After doing some research: Magritte’s mother drowned when he was still young and he watched her body being fished out of the river – a nightgown was covering her face. That might explain why in a lot of his paintings faces are covered up by some sort of object whether it be fabric, apples, flowers, et cetera. Magritte didn’t agree with the explanation of trying to cope with his mother’s death he only pointed out that his images were visual art of mystery/nothing/dream – Magritte wondered if people are reading too much into art – instead of just letting it be art they interpret images and sculptures.

References:

Web pages:

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A3692&page_number=4&template_id=1&sort_order=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Son_of_Man_(Magritte)

Bibliography:

Murray, P. And Murray, L. (1997) Dictionary of Art and Artists. Revised 7^th ed. London: Penguin Group

The next exercise that I’ve been working on was the “Finding affinities” one and I have to say that it looked easy at first but when I started looking at ground plans I realised that it would be more than I thought it would be. I finally found a ground plan that satisfied me and because while reading in the big book about architecture and the International style I had laid an eye on the Villa Savoy and it was great that I found a ground plan to work with – I enjoyed looking at paintings, sculptures and furniture. This was actually the first time I actually looked into furniture a little more and I found it very interesting what I found – for example finding the Astor Hotel magazine rack was great I love the design and it fits perfectly in the living room of the Villa. What I also enjoyed was the difference between the art that was displayed in the public areas of the house e.g. foyer, living room, terrace and the difference to the paintings that were hanging in the mast bedroom and the dressing room where the paintings became more abstract and colourful. I enjoyed this exercise but I also found it quite hard as it was something where I wasn’t a 100% sure of what I was doing. But I feel like it would be great to actually see the art pieces that I chose hanging/standing in the Villa Savoy. I am actually not completely satisfied with my report about the house - that's why I am thinking about doing it again...

Research point

Research point

Seurat’s painting technique: “pointillism”

-          Small distinct dots of “pure” colour (on palette, colours weren’t mixed but kept separate)

-          Blending of colour dots into various colours

-          Colours were used in system of colour wheel

-          Most paintings with pointillism technique are done with oil paint (reasons for using oil paint: thickness and because it doesn’t run down the canvas)

-          Short even brush strokes, every stroke separate from another one

 Seurat was more working-class than other Impressionist artists and although his political stance isn’t certain some speculates if he was involved with the ideas of Diversionists as this could explain why he “developed” a new painting technique that is called Divisionism/pointillism.

References:

Web pages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divisionism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointillism#cite_note-artcyclopedia-0

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/pointillism.html

I am now going to annotate a Post-Impressionist painting and I was looking forward to this annotation and I am very excited now to choose a painting. I chose Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” and I found it very interesting to do some research on the background and look at things that Van Gogh wrote to his brother it is very fascinating to see what was going on in the mind of such a great artist. I am also still very fascinated by the fact that Van Gogh made about 800 paintings in his life time and 70 paintings within the 70 before he committed suicide.

I decided to do my virtual town house visit to Haworth Parsonage as I admire all the books that the Bronte sister wrote and I am very excited that the house where they lived can be actually visited I didn’t know that that was possible. As I am a lover of those classical novels I can’t wait to dive in to their home and see where they came up with their amazing stories on longer winter evenings. 

Project 4 Exercise: Depicting everyday life

Poppy Field in Argenteuil, 1873, Claude Monet, Musée d’Orsay (oil on canvas)

Image from http://colalexgallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1304431309-17.jpg (Accessed 2 Jan 2012)

Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881, Renoir, The Phillips Collection Washington (oil on canvas)

Image from http://www.artunframed.com/images/artmis59/renoir31.jpg (Accessed 2 Jan 2012)

They are very attractive images to the viewer as for the choice of colour, scenery, subject. It shows the cheerful life without any worries, just a pleasant time with friends in a beautiful setting. Everybody looks happy and it is still the idealised version of a life even today. The first image by Monet doesn’t tell the viewer anything about city life but it shows a harmonic scene, a woman and a child, probably mother and daughter walking through a field of poppies.  A house in the background and blue skies underlining the light-hearted atmosphere. The painting from Renoir tells the viewer more about city life although it isn’t set in a public place e.g. restaurant etc. But it shows the general idea of how communication and getting together in the 19^th century looked like. Men and women both dressed in formal clothes except for the boats men. Enjoyment of food and wine, laughing and drinking. I am wondering what the woman on the right who is covering her ears means to this painting – if it is an indicator of something deeper in meaning that the image shows when you first look at it. 

Notes

I just finished annotating a realist image and analysing a painting of a historical event and I have to say that annotating became more fun with every image I annotated so far as I start knowing more about the background of things and for me art becomes more interesting when it transfers from Romanticism to Realism and I am about to start reading about Impressionism which is one of my favourite art periods and it is very interesting to not only get a glimpse of things and bits and pieces of art history but to actually understand the context and how one art period transferred to another one and how it was influenced by different things and how every art period also wants to express something else. It is a lot of fun doing this! I still have a hard time with reading about architecture and photography as I don’t know much about it and I mostly went to museum to see actual paintings from different art periods rather than looking at architecture and photography from back then.  

Project 3 Exercise: David and neo-classicism

Notes on David’s portrayal of the event “The Tennis Court Oath 20^th June 1789”

-          Use of light shines very brightly on the most important persons in the painting

-          The gesture of people

-          Use of colour as the people who are supposed to stick out wear red, blue or other colourful clothes and people in background wear brown, grey or black

-          Use of perspective – background: you can see a crowd cheering, discussing, etc.

-          Foreground: Man on podium, men pointing at him, reaching for something

-          People are even looking over the windows from outside

Now I am going to read Chapter 15 “Romanticism to Realism”. Looks like a lot to read and I hope it is easy to read and an interesting topic because then no matter how much it is to read I still enjoy it.

Caspar David Friedrich’s “The Wanderer above the Mist” is one of my favourite paintings of all time – I love its simplicity and it speaks to me through its sensitive and gentle use of colour - I wonder what the wanderer would see if the mist would be gone and he could overlook the valley. I love the way the wanderer stands on the rock, with an elegant outfit and a cane. The colour of his hair perfectly integrates in the colour of the painting and I never get tired of looking at it.

                        Image from http://hoocher.com/Caspar_David_Friedrich/The_Wanderer_above_the_Mists_1817_18.jpg (Accessed 28 Dec 2011)

Notes about whether mythological themed paintings have become irrelevant as not many people did have a classical education:

-          I don’t think that it necessarily became irrelevant but I rather feel like it became more important to artists to express themselves individually, their feelings for current events and the longing for being more involved in society some even politically.

-          It is also interesting to see how specific persons were portrayed in painting of contemporary events as far as size, clothes, rank are concerned.

Project 3 Exercise: Decorate a town house

I am not sure how to do this exercise – as for this I am going to skip this exercise for now and come back to it later.  

Research point

Enlightenment:

The Age of Enlightenment or the Age of reason was a movement of intellectual thinkers in 18^th century in Europe. The great thinkers of that time wanted to change the thinking of people, they wanted to change the power of reason, they wanted the church not to have as much power as they did, they wanted the individual to create in a tolerant environment and they wanted intellectual communication. Baruch Spinoza was the first man to think about these things in 1650 and 1700 – lots of people followed soon – the most famous are John Locke, Pierre Bayle, Isaac Newton, James Cook, Cesare Beccaria, Francis Bacon, Joseph Haydn,Montesquieu, Mozart, Mary Wollstonecraft and Voltaire. The Age of Enlightenment originated in France and then spread all over Europe during the 18^th century. During the 18^th century in North America Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were influenced by the Enlightenment in Europe and transported it with them which highly influenced the American Revolution and the American Declaration of Independence, the American Bill of Rights and the Age of Enlightenment also influenced the French version of the Declaration of Independence when the French got the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Immanuel Kant was a big Enlightenment thinker and played a very important part in the German Age of reason. It was the age of change from the ages where church dominated the visual arts to a new age where artists would be able to express their own individuality more. The goals of the Enlightenment weren’t easy to define but Immanuel Kant defined it in one of his essays as “freedom to use one's own intelligence“ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment). The Age of Enlightenment cultivated the Arts which brought some drastic changes to music and visual arts. Concerts and big crowds gathering to see an opera et cetera became very popular and musicians reached out to other people through their music. It also allowed women to become more active as musicians and although they didn’t get considered professional they still had a chance to express themselves as an amateur singer, performer. Music magazines, reviews and critics first started coming out in the Age of Enlightenment.

The style of Rococo moved away from the style of Baroque where architecture and arts mirrored the love for symmetric designs as well as the strict regulations to a more floral, freer art of design and lots of ornamental elements in architecture and the arts. Rococo was more playful and full of wit. The style  in architecture also got lighter and more graceful. In contrast to the style of Baroque Rococo actually brought love for the asymmetry to life, it was also know for the different purpose that buildings had – from mostly being a space for the public and that had to represent certain things it went to a more private style of design during Rococo. In painting landscapes, portraits and the painting of love and its different aspects became popular motives for the painter to express on a canvas.

References:

Web pages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rococo

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/us/11beliefs.html?pagewanted=all

Project 2 Exercise: Prints for sale

Catalogue:

The Raising of Lazarus, ca 1630, Rembrandt, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Image from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrusP9EN8nnKjysvNpD5KBEKoLrmDuxYKRAmRgMFWCwUDGE5FaZDAJqWwOYGk053242HYLifuHMqGVhNI8f1w96K27YW_ukHkSzb84XP7AVWweag3UfrezfLIpwGe6K_69xL1_OlNdOYAx/s1600/Rembrandt,+the+Raising+of+Lazarus.jpg (Accessed 22 Dec 2011)

I chose this image because of its great contrast of light and shade, that makes the paintig very intriguing. Also it shows an interpretation of a miracle happening, angels and saints surrounding Saint Lazarus.

Temptation of St Thomas Aquinas, 1631, Velazquez, Orihuela Cathedral Museum (oil on canvas)

 Image from http://uploads8.wikipaintings.org/images/diego-velazquez/temptation-of-st-thomas-aquinas.jpg 

                                                                                 (Accessed 22 Dec 2011)

I chose this painting as it is grand in its use of light, soft and difussing, underlingin the atmosphere of the painting. The setting is also very beautiful and the biblical theme is also a very interesting one to paint.

Ascension, 1636, Rembrandt, Alte Pinakothek (oil on canvas)

                     Image from http://www.chinatownconnection.com/images/Rembrandt-Ascension-1.jpg (Accessed 22 Dec 2011)

I chose this painting because of Christ illuminating the room as he is one of the most important figures in the bible and the religious scene. The use of light and shadow shows again the light of Saints and Christ. What is also interesting about this painting is the fact that angels are shown carrying Christ on a cloud but then you can see the “normal” people in the darker parts of the painting, connecting heaven and earth.

Musical Allegory, 1626, Rembrandt, Rijksmuseum (oil on panel)

                                    Image from http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/images/aria/sk/z/sk-a-4674.z (Accessed 22 Dec 2011)

The Musical Allegory from Rembrandt gives the viewer an image of Music which is a very noble intention of Rembrandt and it is also very beautifully painted in the particular Rembrandt style that was very popular during the 17^th century.

The Allegory of Painting, c. 1665, Johann Vermeer, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (oil on canvas)

          Image from http://www.themasterpiececards.com/Portals/40667/images/vermeer%20allegory%20of%20painting-resized-600.jpeg (Accessed 22 Dec 2011)

Another beautiful image of a very sophisticated thing like music and painting, poetry, literature. Use of ligthing and the softness of the colours make it very intriguing, the whole design of the painting invits the viewer to have another look.

Allegory on the blessings of peace, 1629/30, Rubens, The Trustees of the National Gallery, London

              Image from http://www.oceansbridge.com/paintings/collections/16-17th-century-european-paintings/big/Peter-Paul-Rubens-xx-Allegory-on-the-blessings-of-peace-1629-30-xx-NG-London.jpg (Accessed 22 Dec 2011)

I chose this painting because of the variety that this painting shows, the viewer has a lot to take in while looking at this painting, the use of colour, the different figures and characters and the combination of classical elements and mythological stories.

The Mill at Wijk near Duurstede, 1670, Jacob van Ruisdael

                                                           

                     Image from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt0eKeTT8SvwcS3BgVMw81JMSxflIEPRR6X02lgDVvnzuzF4SIfBjd-ceTBynMaJhg1veShcwcGOCVIugWrwrfnp5U3qdl121LMzwA_t7gOuskIKpKsziCKnDscfcJBCq0tDBJSrLQTLo/s400/+landscape4edit.jpg (Accessed 22 Dec 2011)

Very interesting because of the use of colour and the composition of the painting, showing an open landscape on the left side of the painting and only putting a sailboat in there as a detail and then the right side adding more detail and more depth into the painting by using stronger and darker colours.

Landscape with Cottage and Figures, 17^th century, Jacques Goudstikker, Getty Museum

    Image from http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef014e602d575a970c-500wi (Accessed 22 Dec 2011)

A typical Dutch landscape enriched with a Cottage on left and the harvest on the right, farmers at work, soft colours underlining the atmopshere of a Dutch environment.

Rembrandt Laughing, 17^th century, Rembrandt

                                                                                      

                             Image from http://www.shockleyartclass.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/rembrandt.jpg (Accessed 22 Dec 2011)

A portait of the master himself, a portrait of Rembrandt laughing. Viewer gets to see who is behind all those amazing painting shown earlier in the catalogue.

Project 2 Exercise: A Roman palace

For the main reception room I would choose a scene from the bible e.g. a scene where Christ is involved to show the visitor the presents of the son of god in my home, to show the strength and the power of the church as in – rising from the dead. I would probably also choose a scene that would reflect my own beliefs in a way that would show my dedication to religion and Christianity and how much I honour and respect God and his followers; a scene that would maybe show some form of “brutality” or something that can be compared to Caravaggio’s “The Flagellation of Christ”. What would also be important for me would be the choose of colour and the use of darker colours to impress visitors with the strength of the painting, not showing any background but black makes it also look much more other worldly.  For my study I would rather choose a painting to be displayed that shows a peaceful scene from the bible, a loving image as it would be my own personal room for “retreating” from the world and concentrating on my work. I would make sure that the painting that would hang on the walls of my study would add to the warm atmosphere of the room, soft colours, diffusing light maybe a landscape in the background of the scene that is shown. I would make sure that there aren’t any nude women or men to see but more of the big coming together of different saints and important (church) people of the time that I would live in. For my study I would rather choose a painting from Ruben’s for example the painting “The Miracles of St. Francis Xavier” (from 1616-17). I would want the feeling of miracles might actually happen so I would like a setting that shows a huge crowd and some kind of connection to heaven, God, or relating to a story from the New Testament.

This exercise is very difficult. I don’t know why but I can’t really get the hang of it. I am not sure if this is what they are asking for and I can’t make a brief between 500 and 1.000 words, all I have to say can be seen above and I am not sure whether this fits the criteria of this exercise or not.

Now I am going to complete the reading part for the second project.

Notes about Rembrandt and Velazquez compared to Ruben:

-          Theme of Rubens painting display more of religious fervour (p.595, Honour&Fleming, A World History of Art, Lauren King Publishing, London, 2009)

-          Rembrandt shows more spiritual rather than physical healing as Rubens did

-          Velazquez and Rembrandt interpreted scenes from the bible but weren’t religious painters like Rubens

Notes

I was just googling for images from Rubens to annotate one and I found a painting from Rubens that is similar to the one that I annotated yesterday when I annotated “Leda and the Swan” by Michelangelo. It is the same motive the only thing that has changed is maybe a little bit of colour and the background but the pose of Leda and the Swan was copied from Michelangelo’s version of that mythological story.

 Image from http://www.only-apartments.com/images/only-apartments/643/rubens-ausstellung-madrid.jpg (Accessed 22 Dec 20111)

 I find that very interesting that famous painters copy another ones work – I also realised that that happened quite often.

Comparing and contrasting the two annotations that I just finished:

I annotated Poussin’s “Pharaoh’s Daughter Find Baby Moses” and Ruben’s “The Three Graces” and one of the main things that I noticed is the fact of idealising the human body. In Poussin’s painting the idealisation of a woman’s or a man’s body was still obvious, the well proportioned shape of a woman’s body and the muscularity of a man’s body. In Ruben’s painting the idealised shape of a woman’s body seems to have changed to a curvier, fuller, more feminine body shape with flushed cheeks, a smile on the lips, adding all the attributes of a feminine woman. What I also noticed is that Ruben’s painting looks more natural as in the colour of the skin and the whole posture than Poussin’s. 

Notes :)

The main difference between art of the Protestant north and the Catholic south can mainly be found in the choice of the image that they painted. In the Protestant north people asked for reformers e.g. Luther etc. to be portrayed, stories of the bible got a little twisted as seeing Moses receiving the Law on Mount Sinai contrasting with the infant Jesus who is carrying a cross towards the Virgin or Adam and Eve repenting their sins on which followed death – all these stories were big contrast to the art of the Catholic south where they believed that salvation could happen through faith and grace.

Today I annotated a mythological painting and first I found it quite difficult to find an image that had good quality so I could also see details of the painting. Analysing a sixteenth-century Italian painting was a fun thing to do, especially because I found the painting “Leda and the swan” by Michelangelo and I love that the use of perspective and proportion isn’t perfect as it makes the painting so much more interesting.

I also just finished reading about Baroque and I have to say that reflecting on my reading – I am better without taking notes but underlining in the actual book, taking notes if necessary on the side and just highlighting the most important words and sentences. This works for me so far and I learned so many things over the last 3 weeks and just thinking about it makes me proud. I am a full time student and I don’t just have 8 hours per week I almost spend 8 hours a day studying so I am kind of flying through the course. I love doing extra research on things that interest me and sometimes I just forget to put it in my learning log but it is good for my individual learning and I feel like sometimes it gives me great background information and because I am a detail person I really enjoy studying like this. 

Research point: Mythology and art

I feel great that art history comes so easily to me – I have lots of fun and I enjoy reading about it and researching about it. I think the independent research is one of my favourite parts of the course plus I love making sketches and drawings of things. I like getting different books from the library and read in them, look at the images of paintings they show and how I understand things better sometimes when I have two different sources.

So today I am going to research stories behind mythological themed paintings and I am excited to see how the same story was expressed in a different way by various artists.

 “Mars and Venus United by Love” (1570s) by Paolo Veronese

                 

                                                                                                     

Image from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h2/h2_10.189.jpg (Accessed 20 Dec 2011) 

It shows cupid tying something around Venus and Mars leg, uniting her and Mars in love. It might represent and show “Chastity transformed by Love into Charity” (http://www.wga.hu/frames-.html?/html/v/veronese/10/index.html)

The image shows that Mars is wearing a cloak as men did in the Roman Empire. The story behind the painting originates from Homer’s Odyssey (266-369) where Mars gave many presents to Venus (see pearl necklaces, jewellery), but Venus was married to Vulcan and Vulcan got angry and made Mars and Venus a trap so if they were going to see each other again they were going to get caught in a net and then he could catch them united by love. After the gods came together to talk about what to do about it they let Mars and Venus free and they both went separate ways to different areas.

“The Birth of Venus” (1485) by Sandro Botticelli

 Image from http://www.reproductionsart.com/img/Sandro_Botticelli_BOS001.jpg (Accessed 20 Dec 2011)

The mythological story behind this painting stems from Greek mythology where Venus (Aphrodite) emerged from the sea as a full grown woman.

Thinking about how these 2 mythological stories might have been of use to promote Christian values:

-          Venus stands for fertility, chastity before marriage, love, sensuality

à promoting the Christian value of chastity before marriage, fertility

 “The Birth of Venus” (1879) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

                                                                                                                 

   Image from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/William-Adolphe_Bouguereau_%281825-1905%29_-_The_Birth_of_Venus_%281879%29.jpg/300px-William-Adolphe_Bouguereau_%281825-1905%29_-_The_Birth_of_Venus_%281879%29.jpg (Accessed 20 Dec 2011)

“The Birth of Venus” (1863) by Alexandre Cabanel

                                                                           

                 Image from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/1863_Alexandre_Cabanel_-_The_Birth_of_Venus.jpg/300px-1863_Alexandre_Cabanel_-_The_Birth_of_Venus.jpg (Accessed 20 Dec 2011)

Both paintings show a portrait of a nude woman with long hair with an idealised body (proportion etc.) emerging from the sea and surrounded by angels. One of the biggest differences is the pose of Venus as in Bouguereau’s painting Venus is standing in a sea shell (symbolising a woman’s vulva) and in its design it very similar to Sandro Botticelli’s Venus 400 years earlier. Cabanel’s Venus is laying in a sea shell and she looks like she is in a state of dreaming and being awake maybe listening to the angels singing. What is also important to notice is that Bouguereau’s Venus is surrounded by more figures than Cabanel’s. Cabanel might have wanted to copy parts of the original, traditional, typical birth of Venus from Botticelli and revive the traditional way of portaying Venus, Bouguereau thought about giving Venus another look/pose/gesture to make another aspect of her being obvious.

References:

Web pages:

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/aresmarsmyth/a/102110-Mars-And-Venus-Caught-In-A-Net.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus_(Botticelli)#Classical_inspiration

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus_(Cabanel)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus_(Bouguereau)

Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer

I went to the library today and I found a book about Albrecht Dürer. I got interested in his work and in his life while reading the 10^th Chapter about Pre-Renaissance and humanism. I started reading this book tonight and I am just very fascinated by his life. First because he was one of the first artist to make accurate, detailed self portraits of himself throughout his life, second because his work shows the individuality of a person and other than just showing the look of a person and how other people viewed them he rather focused on the expression of the feelings, soul-like expressions in the portayed person’s face and gesture.

He described himself as melancholic and sometimes it showed in his art. Today we know a lot about him as he portrayed himself often and he kept a diary throughout his life with sketches, texts, things he observed while travelling and paintings of his own. He was born as the 3^rd of 18 children (21 May 1471), his father was a goldsmith and as it was common at that time Albrecht Dürer started working in his father’s shop during his teenage years. The first self portrait that is known is from when Dürer was about 12 years old. His father saw his talent and Dürer studied under the artist Michael Wolgemut for three years until he was 18. He developed his skills not only in painting and sketching but also studied xylography (woodcarving). After finishing his studies he traveled for 4 years unfortunately there are no detailed documents about where he traveled but it is possible that he went to the Netherlands and throughout Germany.

Documents found about Dürer describe him as very charming, fond of traveling, open to new places and people, very religious; an ingenious, adroit good looking man. He married a goldsmith’s daughter when he was 23 years old and he had a quiet family life – the only source of information about his family life comes from a “family chronic” that he published himself.

He also went to study Renaissance and Humanism in Italy, he was under great influence of Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione and during his time travelling through Italy he learned about the importance of perspective and proportion. Dürer was finally able to live his passion. Most artists during the Renaissance set themselves to a specific type of painting or subject that they painted, but Dürer did all kinds of things although portraits seem to have been his favourite. Instead of just capturing the uglyness or beauty he wanted to capture their inner world, their feelings, their soul, the pressure that they felt inside, their passions and secrets, he tried to capture what was for most people unseen.

Some of his most famous work include portraits of himself and different people, Mary with child or without child paintings, printmaking and Adam and Eve.

Albrecht Dürer died in 1528.  

References:

Bibliography:

Stefano Zuffi, Albrecht Dürer, DuMont Buchverlag, Köln, 1998