Georgia O'Keeffe

We would briefly discuss famous women painters in different time periods but in the early 20th century we didn't discuss any female painters. There was one female painter in the early 20th century named Georgia O'Keeffe. She was born in 1887 in Sun Prarie, Wisconsin. In 1905 she attended the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1907 she studied in the Art Student League in New York City under an artist named William Arthur Chase.

It seems that Georgia O'Keeffe had an easy time being a female artist in the 20th century but that isn't the case. At the time women were discouraged into being artists and, due to this discouragement, Georgia O'Keeffe briefly gave up on her dream of being an artist. However, she was pushed by her family to continue her studies, leading her to study with an artist named Alon Bement. Alon Bement would teach her how to paint abstract which is the style she became famous for. We see in her painting called 'Red Canna' that she enlarged the flower to the point of abstraction. At first glance, it is hard to tell what it is but the title gives it away. She has given a reason why she paints flowers. She said "Most people in the city rush around so they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see them whether they want it or not."


She is also famous for her paintings with skulls. The painting of the skull here is called 'Ram's Head, White Hollyhock, and Little Hills' painted in 1935.



~Raquel Heller

At the start of this class i was excited to be learning about some of my favorite artists. Raphael, Michelangelo, DaVinci, and of course Caravaggio. These artists are my inspiration for my own paintings, Caravaggio especially.

Caravaggio, to me is the epitome of painters in his time period. Using dark backgrounds and harsh highlights, he gives us a story that beautifully captures the emotion of the people involved. To me his ability to capture depth and emotion through the use of highlights is an amazing one. Whenever i look at his paintings i hope that one day i will be able to capture light and shadow so beautifully. One thing that Caravaggio keeps the same within his pictures is his use of a dark background. With little detail in his background, he can put more emphasis on the detail of the foreground, specifically the people who are telling his story. Caravaggio uses extreme highlights and shadows on his subjects to illuminate their faces and actions.

Caravaggio's Narcissus is one of my favorite paintings. What i love most about the painting is the Greek mythology story that it is based off of. In this story, Narcissus who scorned the love of all women, died looking into his reflection. As he died his body turned into the flower narcissus. Caravaggio's painting expresses the moment in which Narcissus first gazes upon his own reflection. The moment in which his body will forever be trapped along the banks of the lake.

As i looked at paintings for inspiration for my own Narcissus painting, Caravaggio's painting immediately grabbed my attention. The artist was able to capture the exact moment in which the story is told. For my own project i wanted to capture the same feeling, however i would never want to outright copy Caravaggio. In my painting Narcissus i decided to interpret the moment right after he died, but right before he has fully turned into flowers. To me this in between point captured a story, similar to that of Caravaggios. T wanted to make my painting with the same feel. To be able to tell a story without having to illustrate the whole thing.

Jennifer

Progressing...

As a business major, I walked into this class to complete a requirement. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to get out of the class. I wondered how the class help me in the long term? By the second week though, I realized I was starting to become interested in what was being discussed in class. It was a personal transition that I was going through. The way I perceive a concept was starting to change.
I am more accostumed to numbers, business trends and organizational behaviors. It was hard to work with art which is not confined or defined. It was an alien feeling to think about aesthetics, colors and the emotions they are meant to evoke. My world is about the finite, the discrete, the dicotomy of yes and no, the binary of 0 and 1. Initially, I could not make the transition to the world of if's and maybe's. I was not able to decipher the purpose of the paintings.
However, as the class progressed, I became more and more comfortable with the idea Art. I tried to put myself in the shoes of the artist. I thought, 'someone spent their time and effort creating this, why?', 'What were they thinking?', 'How did they feel?'. Some of their thoughts and emotions are common to all us, to me. I started to relate to the Art, through the artist. This made the Art real to me. It forced me to piece the puzzle together to uncover what the artist tried to express.
This ability to mentally switch gears was an added bonus that I did not intend on getting out of this class. I learned to take my time and look at the big picture, (pun intended). I now attack the numbers, business trends and organizational behaviors with a different pair of eyes. Eyes that look at people for who they are as well as what they bring to the table. For this, I am grateful for the opportunity to take this class. Thank you.

-Priya Diana Kichenamourty

Hieronymus Bosch- Mystic of his Time Period?

In the beginning of the course, a majority of the images that we covered dealt with religion. We saw so many different takes on certain scenes. These scenes include but are certainly not limited to the Virgin Mary being told that she would become the mother of the Son of God, and Jesus Christ being hung on the cross. While I personally have nothing against religion, I found little to nothing pleasing about the art. No matter how much time was spent discussing how the angle at which the angel was facing Mary or the left to right orientation of movement while Jesus was being brought down from the cross, they all seemed like safe depictions.

A little while after the midterm, we were asked in class what our favorite painting was, or who our favorite artist was. Determined to break the silence in the classroom, I tried to look through what I felt were monotonous interpretations of holy happenings. Hieronymus Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights” popped into my head. Created from around 1505 to 1515, it remains one of his most famous pieces to date. It also fascinates the modern day viewer, myself included.

Upon initially viewing this, I thought that this triptych was supposed to perhaps be satirical, or even mock religion. Surely such an act would have been scandalous during this time period? The middle panel, with its depiction of sin is what draws the most attention. The numerous fruits that are scattered throughout this painting are a repetitive motif for sexual pleasure. Yet the fruits are not subtly placed in the background, nor do the people seem to be repenting for their sins. Instead, the people on earth are frolicking around naked. The fruits are used constructively, imaginatively, and considering what they symbolize, even scandalously. Another thing to point out is that unlike the panel of hell on the right, this panel features a rather saturated color palette, something that I felt I hadn’t seen previously in the course.

Because the middle panel seemed to represent a world where people embraced sin, I thought of Bosch as a revolutionary. After doing some research (and rereading the textbook) it seems that so is not the case, which makes Hieronymus even more fascinating a painter to study. He was a social critic, and according to the Dutch scholar Dirk Bax, he was a moralist who looked down upon the lower class. He seemed to believe this group to be sinners, as depicted in the image.

Despite standing out from the crowd for me, Bosch seems to be no more outstanding than the rest He relied heavily on the use of symbolism during a time when symbols were used to constitute a basic visual language. Also, in the left and right panels (which have been purposely ignore until now) there is a traditional representation of Adam and Eve and hell. Hell is depicted using a strikingly darker palette, a technique that has already before seen. Bosch believed that the world was teeming with sin, and he used this painting to represent his criticism of what had then been contemporary society.

I had never heard of Bosch prior to this course, but he is now my favorite artist from the time period. Though he was not working against the religious codes of his times, his images depicted sin and infidelity as seemingly bright and joyous, even though they served as criticism. He was not ahead of times necessarily in what he chose to believe in, but I feel as if he was ahead of his time in how he chose to represent these views. The Garden of Earthly Delights is almost fully abstract in its representation of sin.

Citations:

"Morbid Outlook - Hieronymus Bosch." Morbidoutlook. Web. 14 Dec. 2011.

Stokstad, Marilyn, Michael Watt. Cothren, and Frederick M. Asher. "Sixteenth-Century Art in Northern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula." Art History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall/Pearson, 2011. Print.

Vincent van Gogh and Japanese Block Prints

For all artists, there is a source of inspiration. Vincent van Gogh--during his stay in Paris in 1886--has amassed a large collection of Japanese woodblock prints called ukiyo-e. These prints were quite affordable. He was quite inspired by the composition and flat colors of the prints. Ukiyo-e prints focuses on fleeting moments of beauty, such as the seasons and flowering trees. Other motifs of these woodblock prints are historical events, kabuki, courtesans and geshia. Famous Japanese artists Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Houkisai made most notable impressions on van Gogh's works. What may have spurred his interest in Japanese woodblock prints is the May 1886 edition of Paris Illustré, with articles written by Tadamasa Hayashi.

The Courtesan (after Eisen) by Vincent van Gogh, 1887 (Left)
Title page of Paris Illustré "Le Japon' vol. 4, May 1886, no. 45-46 (Right)

The Plum Orchard In Kameido, by Hiroshige (Left)
Japonaiserie: Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige), by Vincent van Gogh, 1887  (Right)

Hiroshige's composition focuses on landscapes. What sets it apart from the rest of the prints was that he uses interesting vantage points and western style of perspective, which also influenced Monet's works. The most notable difference between the two are color and the border around the print. Vincent van Gogh uses a more bolder, earth-tone color palate compared to the original. The brush strokes are also clearly visible when van Gogh was replicating the gradient effect of the print. The characters on the border only serve as a decorative purpose. The clarity is also different. The figures in van Gogh's piece are yellow, which blend into the background. 

Evening Shower at Atake and the Great Bridge, by Hiroshige (Left)
aponaiserie: Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige), by Vincent van Gogh, 1887 (Right)

Achieving straight parallel lines in woodblock prints, as you may imagine, is quite a feat. Vincent van Gogh, again, changes up the color palate dramatically. The bridge is now a bright yellow, the water is an olive green, and the landmass is clearly defined in van Gogh's work compared to the silhouette in Hiroshige's. Even though the title of the print says that it's raining, van Gogh added a bright blue sky, making it seem like it's clear and sunny. He also added definition and texture to the support structure of the bridge, giving it more depth.

If you want to see the process of making a woodblock print (with color!), here's good video on how they do it. It's about 9 minutes long but worth a watch.

--Joann Chan

Titian's Venus and Adonis - Erick Ashvil

The Venus and Adonis is one of two mythological fables of clearly erotic intent that Titian painted- the other being the Danae.

The Venus and Adonis that hangs in the MET in actuality is just ONE replica of ONE of the compositions of this work. Titian painted two versions of the composition—one in 1554 for Philip II of Spain (now in the Prado, Madrid), and the other shortly before 1570 for the Farnese family (lost). Research shows that there are at least SIX copies of the two versions of Venus and Adonis.

Now that we know the back story of the works called Venus and Adonis, it is interesting and curiosity provoking to look at some alterations Titian made to Ovid's original account of the myth of Venus and Adonis. Basic research unveils a crucial difference between the story told by Ovid, and the story portrayed by Titian. In Ovid’s Metamorphases series Venus abandons her mortal lover Adonis and cautions him to heed her warning and not go out to hunt wild game. By abandoning Adonis she is depicted as the stronger and more dominant of the two as is expected from her Godly status. Adonis is left vulnerable without her guidance and presence. But in Titian’s interpretation of the episode Venus is shown to be holding on to Adonis desperately and is made to be the vulnerable one entangled in an emotional trap by her mortal male love. This twist of the story changes a great deal of the psychological make up of the relationship between the female God and mortal man. The reasoning behind his choices lie within the context of his work. Titan is painting for a patron and he has the freedom to paint with personal choices. Titians patron, Phillip II, is a powerful man in Italy during the fifteenth century, a time within which women were never portrayed as dominant or sexual beings. Women were considered to be vulnerable and emotional and dependant on the men they “loved”. Taking this into account, had Titian painted the original story he would be working against the expectations held for women during the fifteenth century in Italy not to mention that Phillip II was a man of power and was expected to uphold those ideals. Titian was satisfying a man who believed women were lesser in nature and a man who enjoyed being in a position of power and enjoyed the freedom of his sexuality. If the painter will take liberties that will satisfy his patron he is sure to be compensated well for his choices.  Also being that it is something he is well known for, it is very apropo of Titian to be enhancing his paintings with a psychological atmosphere.

It looks like Titian set the feminist movement back a good couple of hundred years to satisfy yet another upper class heterosexual white man. Hmmmm. Shame shame Titian.

The Descent from the Cross - Post by Haydee Feliciano

The image discussed in class that I would like to blog about is “The Descent from the Cross,” painted by Roger Van Der Weden. This painting has Jesus set up as the center image and the Virgin’s body mimics His to emulate an emotional connection. The symbolism is that His pain is her pain as a mother.

There is a book that was made into a movie, called, What Dreams May Come, by Richard Matheson. This movie centers around a main character who dies; at first he has a difficult time acknowledging his death and then an even more difficult time leaving his wife and moving on into the afterworld. His wife kills herself and he has to go to Hell to save her.

This film has a connection to this painting in that it is very visually compelling and engaging. Both hold an intimacy and emotional resonance with the audience. The painting shows the figures in life size so the viewer cannot escape the scene. The film not only has a husband and wife’s bond that is severed by death but a child of the family dies as well. The movie and book reach out to love bonds between spouses but also a child and parental bond. The painting’s other figures not yet mentioned all have different reactions to the anguish and grief as does the characters in the film, from the wife, not being able to move on to the son guiding the main character to the afterlife.

For both the film and painting the colors and color patterns enhance the composition; there is a lot of color in the image and yet Jesus, the most important part of the image, wears white, the brightest color. In the film, the main character, Chris, where’s neutral colors, to connect him to his earthly bond but also to have him stand out in the very colorful film, as the most important character.

This painting moved me very much and inspired me to share the idea that, regardless of the aesthetic used, emotional connections can be a very strong muse.