Myself, I can't see enough on the canvas to feel one way or the other. The only feeling I get is - again - that nagging sense that somebody is Bull$#1tting me. I've seen more evocative patterns on the FLOOR of a paintbooth...
Well George, I'd have to agree with you to a certain extent.
My comment about the painting making me feel nervous... I picture myself having to paint that painting. (Forget about the BS and the paint dropped on the floor...) It feels like I'd have to be high on three day old coffee and just buzzing big time to paint that piece. The brush strokes are almost manic to me.
Some people like that sense of energy - but for me it's way, way, way too much. I get a mind picture of some mad-artist running at his canvas and slinging paint in wild fashion only to lie exhausted on the studio floor when it is all done.
Go American and do a google on Norman Rockwell and Andrew Wyeth and see what you like. Or go to Williams College in Williamstown, Mass and visit some of Rockwell on permanent? display with covers of the Saturday Evening Post. :)
Or go to Williams College in Williamstown, Mass and visit some of Rockwell on permanent?
Bumpy-- the land I told you about this morning on the other thread is 12 miles from Williamstown--strange that you should bring that up
(Williamstown also supposedly has the largest collect of French Impressionists collected anywhere outside of France at the Clark Art Museum. The Clarks who had the world class collection, originally had ideas for either New York, Paris or Rome to house them, but decided on Williamstown, because a war would never be fought there.
Being in 'my neighborhood' (about 25 miles)Its good for me to be able to walk into complete rooms of Monets and Renoirs anytime that I get the urge....
unfortunately having seen them, after a quick search I cant find any online images that do them justice, the colors are just to rich in person...
I've always wondered if maybe "genius" isn't just another form of insanity, i.e. - your brain isn't functioning in a manner that's healthy for the rest of your body (or those around you). But I must confess that I find his later work to be kinda neat. I also can't help but laugh when I see his progression from mildly amusing cartoonist to spaced-out acidhead - I guess there's enough distance between him and me that I can afford to find humor at his expense.
I also wonder if numerous other artists of note had similar mental afflictions. Certainly Van Gogh comes to mind, among others...
also wonder if numerous other artists of note had similar mental afflictions.
I read a story that a friend walked in on William Blake while he was working. He was desheveled , thrashing about incoherently, unaware that a vistor had come, and in the midst of a conversation with God, Jesus Mohammed, and the Devil .
To me his stuff is brilliant--but I have seen the same type of behaviour from diagnosed shizophrenics at the homeless shelter
Blakes work is populated with God, Devils, Angels and visions ---eh---also just like at the shelter
If you look through his illustrations they at the very least cover a much wider array of emotions than your average Joe--whther its mental illness or not --who knows
but If I pulled these two illustrations of his out of a pile , you wouldnt have to be Freud to guess that he might just might be bipolar
Dooj, I've seen your work up close and personal...I really think you would have to be drinking 3 day old coffee, taking no-doze and have a gun to your head to paint such a piece. I also think that you are being kind when you say that it has too much energy. Thats kind of like saying a great white has a tooth. For the little amount of actual picture it is way too busy and hurried.
Now as for Blake's stuff. I have to agree that his paintings (at least the two pictured) show two very different directions of thought. Schizo, ya I can see that and they do kind of look like what you would find in a homeless shelter. Could I live with either of them? Not for very long. The second picture intrigues me and I could probably waste several pages of perfectly good paper and ink writing something speculative concerning it but then I would be done and want to move along.
And on to Wain. I love cats so of course I find his stuff adorable and yes I could live with it.
Last but not least on to Le Bump. I love classical art and am always fascinated by the incredible amount of detail that the artist placed in one huge painting. Ceilings and grand walls and such are so packed with so many images that blend by using a central theme. I love how they all go in so many directions at once and use so many different colors and the way that they use shadow and perspective and the actual lighting that hits the surface...just so much I could go on and on. I dont know all the technical terms but the way that the frescos use the architecture and blend with it is simply wonderful to me. Could I live with it? Need you ask?
I saw several of his works at the MOMA in NYC a few years ago.
I left with the distinct impression that someone had been blowing smoke up my azz.
Just how is it that drizzling paint on a canvas is art?
I'm sorry, when it takes a self-important, snobbish, condescending dweeb with a Doctorate in Art History a half an hour to explain to the unwashed heathen (like me) why a given work of art is "Important" or "Vitally important" to the collective Ouevre of "art", I'm afraid something is missing. That something is some indication of talent or ability on the part of the artist.
I don't get it at all. Pollock, Jasper Johns, even Andy Warhol did little that impressed me much. But, whuddu I know? I'm not an art Historian.
A true story about a 72 year old woman truck driver from rural Texas who bought an "ugly painting" for $5.00 as a joke for her friend as she moved into a new trailer. When it wouldnt fit in the door of the trailer they put it in a Yard Sale , where the local High Scoll art teacher told her that it may be by Jackson Pollack..her reply of course was " Who the #%@& is Jackson Pollack?
Long Story short, it is a Pollack and is worth about 100 million dollars .The real gems of the movie are the clips of the battles between the uppity art critics and dealers of NYC and this cantankerous , crass but charmingly smart woman from rural texas who knows nothing about art --It addreses a lot of those issues in your post and more
Its worth renting or Netflixing at some point...
Not a "great" movie but I liked it and it gave an interesting view of the inside of the art world....
anyway-----
Since Rockwell and Pollack have been both named in this thread
Here is Rockwell doing Pollack (I actually think he did Pollack better than Pollack did)
Ok sorry dooj for my ADD, after this I'll start following the rules of this thread
Yeah, I saw a T.V. news magazine piece on that gal.
I don't know if it's in your linked story or not (I haven't read it yet), but the hotsh1t art critics and collectors all dismissed her painting as crap. "It couldn't possibly be a Pollock, it doesn't have the power, the energy, or his fluidity, yadda, yadda" and such blather.
Then they tested the paints from her painting and found they matched the paints still on display in Pollock's studio, and also found his fingerprint on the back of the painting (of the same paint)!, but the "experts" still couldn't believe it. No, mere forensic evidence couldn't convince them!
Sorry if I'm just reiterating what's in the link. I'll read it now, I promise...
This artist, Ota Masamitsu, did a series of 12 Kabuki prints in 1949 and then another 12 in 1955. I'm slowly collecting all 24, but this one is the one I looking for the hardest. I think it's the best of the lot. I found it at a gallery in Honolulu, but I wasn't willing to part with the $1800. she wanted for it. One will come along with a more reasonable price tag, I'm sure.
I'm more impressed by the technique than I am of the actual image. The carving of the keyblock is simply a tour-de-force. Can you imagine carving all those strands of hair into a block of cherry? Anyway, so I'm more taken with the complexity of the details of execution than I am with the finished product. That and the printing (and the quality of the paper) is all first-rate with this series of prints. Even woodblock neophytes are blown away when they see one of these in person. They're incredible little gems of design and the skill of the carver and printer...
Ok, I see I'm gong to have to keep up with this thread a little bit more.
George, if you aren't familiar with Hokusai (you probably are) you should take a look. He is one of Japan's most famous painters. Many people know his print "The Great Wave." It was one of his series of thirty-six(?) prints of Mt. Fuji. He also had another series of 100 views of Mt. Fuji. He was a huge influence on many impressionists, post-impressionists, and other artists of that time. He also had a major impact on Dutch landscape painting. I'm definitely a fan of his prints and could live with any of them.
Another painter he influenced is another one of my favorites, James McNeal Whistler. He is famously known for the painting often referred to as "Whistler's Mother", but is actually called "Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Artist's Mother." He had an interesting take on the relationship between painting, color, and music. Many of his paintings had titles like "Symphony in Grey and Green: the Ocean." I'll come back to him in another post.
I've never been a fan of de Kooning and not because I don't like abstract expressionism, because I do like a lot of pieces from that period. With a few exceptions I think his sense of color was not the greatest, perhaps by choice. The painting Dooj posted has a very muddy palette, as does much of his work, IMO. I too used to think of his paintings as having too much energy. I often imagined him going crazy with the paint brush and flinging paint here and there much like Pollock dancing around his canvas, except with more anger or something. His paintings seem almost violent at times, which I think leaves many people uneasy looking at his work. Then I saw a video of him painting at a museum. He was so slow and methodic. He stroked the canvas almost in slow motion. I was even more disappointed. lol What kind of "expressionism" was that?
I'm not sure that education (as in someone giving a long explanation for a piece, or going to art school) is necessary or if it changes one's view towards the work or whether one likes it or not. I think as with all painting, the viewer has a gut aesthetic reaction. That changes as we change and perhaps that is where the education part come in. Sometimes learning about the background, the history of the era, the science and discoveries of the era, the artist's life and views and those of his/her peers lead to an appreciation even when we don't like the work or the style of the art per se. I have found that this can sometimes go from appreciation to actually enjoying the work. Other times, like with my experience with the de Kooning video, it leads to just more distaste.
Another factor is in the viewing of the piece. The size, the light, the details, seeing the strokes or the apparent lack of strokes and the skill, or lack there of, that was involved in making it can effect your impression of the piece . Your view of what art is and what it is supposed to be obviously effects your like or dislike of certain art and artistic styles, as well.
When I went to art school I was still in the Way and had a much more conservative view of art than I do now and I had long not appreciated things like color field painting. I didn't expect it, but going to the National Gallery in DC for the first time (first major museum I had been to) and seeing the work of Franz Kline and Mark Rothko and many others for the first time in person totally changed my view of their work. Walking in and seeing the gigantic black and white Kline paintings had an awesome impact. The Rothkos I saw there gave such a nice warm, calm feeling and rather quickly I became a fan of abstract art... more specifically non-representational abstract art. As I learned more about it, it reinforced my first aesthetic reaction. Understanding more the science behind the power of color, color theory, composition, and concepts like "art for art's sake" helped change the way I approached and thought about art. Now having moved into interior design as well, I see the impact of simple non-representational and expressionistic work can fit in a space as part of the whole, the space itself being a form of art.
Still, it all comes down to the eye of the beholder, your own sense of aesthetic and how you approach art.
Still, it all comes down to the eye of the beholder, your own sense of aesthetic and how you approach art.
So I guess after all the art school bs and slit wrists from abstract eastern emigres...you still need glasses as the eye of the beholder and some dumb money to purchase the modern garbage?
Yeah, I'm pretty familiar with all the major names (and most of the lessers) of "Ukiyo-e".
Hokusai was the "Old man, mad about painting". He lived in something like 80 different places in his lifetime. Went through wives and lovers as aften as he did socks (tabi?). Considered all his contemporaries as unworthy of holding a brush, and said of himself that one day he hoped to be able to paint properly. His output was voluminous. But he cared nothing for money. Lived in wretched poverty and embarassing excess. A real character, but is now the most famous of any Japanese artist of any medium.
Hokusai's "real" works are mostly too spendy for a mere human to collect, but I do have a repro. of "The Great Wave" and "The Fisherman" (both from the "36 Views of Mt. Fuji" series). I do have a couple of original prints of his, one from "100 poems as told by the Nurse" series and some from unknown series, but they all have condition problems (the only reason I could afford them).
Yeah, the impressionists really took to Japanese prints in a big way. They seemed to like the flat perspective, and lack of a focal point. Van Gogh and Monet both had large collections, I'm told. Monet's house still has several of his JWPs hanging on the wall, (completely faded to B&W, from accounts. Japanese Woodblock prints are not well-suited to be displayed for long periods of time in the light!)
I've sorta grown tired of Ukiyo-e prints lately, though. And find I like Shin-hanga (the "New Print" movement) and even "Sosaku Hanga" ("creative print" ) designs much better.
Thanks for posting that art George and Lindy. I really love Japanese woodblock prints. I've done a few woodblocks - and the detail in these pieces is truly amazing. The blocks themselves are works of art. Then add to all that detail some masterful watercolor...
I'm going to take a liberty and post some work by Picasso:
Guernica
In this case, knowing the history surrounding this piece really helps:
In April 1937, Guernica was the first city to be deliberately targeted for aerial bombing. Guernica was the ancient capital of the Basques - a group who had withstood the advances of the army since the Spanish Civil War begun in 1936. The region's resilient stand was punished by Franco when he allowed the unprotected city to be bombed by Hitler's air force.
<SNIP>
The Condor Legion attacked in daylight and flew as low as 600 feet as it had no reason to fear any form of defence from the city. It was market day so the city centre was packed with people from the outlying area around Guernica. The first bombs fell on the city at 4.30 in the afternoon when the main square in the city centre was hit. The first target of the bombers was a main bridge that lead into the city. Apologists for the raid have stated that the Condor Legion had selected strategic targets and that the one failing of the raid was the Legion's inability to accurately hit targets from height. The bombers that came in after the first wave instinctively targeted the area already on fire -again, the city centre.
By the time the Condor Legion had left, the centre of Guernica was in ruins. 1,654 people were killed and 889 wounded. The world was horrified but Franco denied that the raid ever took place. He blamed the destruction of Guernica on those who defended it.
And here is some more of what Picasso was dealing with on a more personal level:
For three months, Picasso has been searching for inspiration for the mural, but the artist is in a sullen mood, frustrated by a decade of turmoil in his personal life and dissatisfaction with his work. The politics of his native homeland are also troubling him, as a brutal civil war ravages Spain. Republican forces, loyal to the newly elected government, are under attack from a fascist coup led by Generalissimo Francisco Franco. Franco promises prosperity and stability to the people of Spain. Yet he delivers only death and destruction.
Hoping for a bold visual protest to Franco's treachery from Spain's most eminent artist, colleagues and representatives of the democratic government have come to Picasso's home in Paris to ask him to paint the mural. Though his sympathies clearly lie with the new Republic, Picasso generally avoids politics - and disdains overtly political art.
<SNIP>
On April 27th, 1937, unprecedented atrocities are perpetrated on behalf of Franco against the civilian population of a little Basque village in northern Spain. Chosen for bombing practice by Hitler's burgeoning war machine, the hamlet is pounded with high-explosive and incendiary bombs for over three hours. Townspeople are cut down as they run from the crumbling buildings. Guernica burns for three days. Sixteen hundred civilians are killed or wounded.
By May 1st, news of the massacre at Guernica reaches Paris, where more than a million protesters flood the streets to voice their outrage in the largest May Day demonstration the city has ever seen. Eyewitness reports fill the front pages of Paris papers. Picasso is stunned by the stark black and white photographs. Appalled and enraged, Picasso rushes through the crowded streets to his studio, where he quickly sketches the first images for the mural he will call Guernica. His search for inspiration is over.
The link to the above quote has got a lot more information if you click on the small "paintings."
Maybe like "Shock and Awe" in Iraq, without the German bombers. All you need is phony intelligence and some liberal artists to portray the scene, and you've pretty much captured the artistic genre of the Bush regime!
The artist at the time, like Hemmingway, was "covering" (his foot) reporting reality at a VERY safe distance during the Spanish Civil War. De Gaulle worked the same deal without the paintbrush a little later. When Hitler met Franco some years later at the border train station to make a deal, Franco showed up a few hours late...mentioning he had been late due to a dental appointment.
...and speaking of other artistic stories, some may want to research the bombings of Mad Bomber Harris and the fire bombings of Dresden when the show was over.
I see what you're saying George. Picasso once said:
“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child”
Pablo Picasso's father was a formal university teacher and started teaching him at the age of 7. Picasso learned by copying the Masters and using plaster busts as models. By the age of eleven Picasso did indeed paint much like Raphael. Perhaps that is why he tried to hard to go back to the simplicity of childlike drawings.
The more I read about him the more I see him seeking to communicate more and more with less and less. I may not like or even admire the finished product all the time - but I do have a certain admiration for the chances he took.
I loved this guy's murals. I'm not even sure why. I just like the look. This is a pretty tasty little pic as well.
He was a thoroughly peculiar guy too (seems a recurrent trait amongst the art set) and an altogether unlikeable sort, from what I've heard. Good stuff all the same...
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doojable
Well George, I'd have to agree with you to a certain extent.
My comment about the painting making me feel nervous... I picture myself having to paint that painting. (Forget about the BS and the paint dropped on the floor...) It feels like I'd have to be high on three day old coffee and just buzzing big time to paint that piece. The brush strokes are almost manic to me.
Some people like that sense of energy - but for me it's way, way, way too much. I get a mind picture of some mad-artist running at his canvas and slinging paint in wild fashion only to lie exhausted on the studio floor when it is all done.
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cheranne
Looks like my grandsons fingerpainting work,I'm sure someone likes it maybe the artist mother has it on her fridge?
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Bumpy
Go American and do a google on Norman Rockwell and Andrew Wyeth and see what you like. Or go to Williams College in Williamstown, Mass and visit some of Rockwell on permanent? display with covers of the Saturday Evening Post. :)
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mstar1
Bumpy-- the land I told you about this morning on the other thread is 12 miles from Williamstown--strange that you should bring that up
(Williamstown also supposedly has the largest collect of French Impressionists collected anywhere outside of France at the Clark Art Museum. The Clarks who had the world class collection, originally had ideas for either New York, Paris or Rome to house them, but decided on Williamstown, because a war would never be fought there.
Being in 'my neighborhood' (about 25 miles)Its good for me to be able to walk into complete rooms of Monets and Renoirs anytime that I get the urge....
unfortunately having seen them, after a quick search I cant find any online images that do them justice, the colors are just to rich in person...
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George Aar
Then there's the ever present question, What makes an artist?
I've always been fascinated by this guy in particular:
http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/n...%20Page%202.htm
I've always wondered if maybe "genius" isn't just another form of insanity, i.e. - your brain isn't functioning in a manner that's healthy for the rest of your body (or those around you). But I must confess that I find his later work to be kinda neat. I also can't help but laugh when I see his progression from mildly amusing cartoonist to spaced-out acidhead - I guess there's enough distance between him and me that I can afford to find humor at his expense.
I also wonder if numerous other artists of note had similar mental afflictions. Certainly Van Gogh comes to mind, among others...
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mstar1
I read a story that a friend walked in on William Blake while he was working. He was desheveled , thrashing about incoherently, unaware that a vistor had come, and in the midst of a conversation with God, Jesus Mohammed, and the Devil .
To me his stuff is brilliant--but I have seen the same type of behaviour from diagnosed shizophrenics at the homeless shelter
Blakes work is populated with God, Devils, Angels and visions ---eh---also just like at the shelter
If you look through his illustrations they at the very least cover a much wider array of emotions than your average Joe--whther its mental illness or not --who knows
but If I pulled these two illustrations of his out of a pile , you wouldnt have to be Freud to guess that he might just might be bipolar
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Bumpy
http://www.mackeyinc.com/images/Art/Burial...0El%20Greco.jpg
I love these Artistos, especially when you spend a few days in Madrid, some of the best nightlife in Europe!
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Eyesopen
Dooj, I've seen your work up close and personal...I really think you would have to be drinking 3 day old coffee, taking no-doze and have a gun to your head to paint such a piece. I also think that you are being kind when you say that it has too much energy. Thats kind of like saying a great white has a tooth. For the little amount of actual picture it is way too busy and hurried.
Now as for Blake's stuff. I have to agree that his paintings (at least the two pictured) show two very different directions of thought. Schizo, ya I can see that and they do kind of look like what you would find in a homeless shelter. Could I live with either of them? Not for very long. The second picture intrigues me and I could probably waste several pages of perfectly good paper and ink writing something speculative concerning it but then I would be done and want to move along.
And on to Wain. I love cats so of course I find his stuff adorable and yes I could live with it.
Last but not least on to Le Bump. I love classical art and am always fascinated by the incredible amount of detail that the artist placed in one huge painting. Ceilings and grand walls and such are so packed with so many images that blend by using a central theme. I love how they all go in so many directions at once and use so many different colors and the way that they use shadow and perspective and the actual lighting that hits the surface...just so much I could go on and on. I dont know all the technical terms but the way that the frescos use the architecture and blend with it is simply wonderful to me. Could I live with it? Need you ask?
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mstar1
From Geo, on the previous page
There is a humorous and interesting documentary out that you might enjoy seeing entitled "Who the F#&k is Jackson Pollack".
A true story about a 72 year old woman truck driver from rural Texas who bought an "ugly painting" for $5.00 as a joke for her friend as she moved into a new trailer. When it wouldnt fit in the door of the trailer they put it in a Yard Sale , where the local High Scoll art teacher told her that it may be by Jackson Pollack..her reply of course was " Who the #%@& is Jackson Pollack?
Long Story short, it is a Pollack and is worth about 100 million dollars .The real gems of the movie are the clips of the battles between the uppity art critics and dealers of NYC and this cantankerous , crass but charmingly smart woman from rural texas who knows nothing about art --It addreses a lot of those issues in your post and more
Its worth renting or Netflixing at some point...
Not a "great" movie but I liked it and it gave an interesting view of the inside of the art world....
anyway-----
Since Rockwell and Pollack have been both named in this thread
Here is Rockwell doing Pollack (I actually think he did Pollack better than Pollack did)
Ok sorry dooj for my ADD, after this I'll start following the rules of this thread
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doojable
Rules? We don't need no stinking rules! I was just pretending to stay "on task."
I once read (or heard that Pollock was painting and dropped a cig in his paint while... dropping paint ... and he decided "It works!."
I'm pretty jaded in this area of art history...
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George Aar
Mstar,
Yeah, I saw a T.V. news magazine piece on that gal.
I don't know if it's in your linked story or not (I haven't read it yet), but the hotsh1t art critics and collectors all dismissed her painting as crap. "It couldn't possibly be a Pollock, it doesn't have the power, the energy, or his fluidity, yadda, yadda" and such blather.
Then they tested the paints from her painting and found they matched the paints still on display in Pollock's studio, and also found his fingerprint on the back of the painting (of the same paint)!, but the "experts" still couldn't believe it. No, mere forensic evidence couldn't convince them!
Sorry if I'm just reiterating what's in the link. I'll read it now, I promise...
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George Aar
O.K., I guess I've said enough about what I DON'T like.
Take a look at something I DO:
http://www.hanga.com/viewimage.cfm?ID=3393
This artist, Ota Masamitsu, did a series of 12 Kabuki prints in 1949 and then another 12 in 1955. I'm slowly collecting all 24, but this one is the one I looking for the hardest. I think it's the best of the lot. I found it at a gallery in Honolulu, but I wasn't willing to part with the $1800. she wanted for it. One will come along with a more reasonable price tag, I'm sure.
I'm more impressed by the technique than I am of the actual image. The carving of the keyblock is simply a tour-de-force. Can you imagine carving all those strands of hair into a block of cherry? Anyway, so I'm more taken with the complexity of the details of execution than I am with the finished product. That and the printing (and the quality of the paper) is all first-rate with this series of prints. Even woodblock neophytes are blown away when they see one of these in person. They're incredible little gems of design and the skill of the carver and printer...
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cheranne
I could live with Wain
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lindyhopper
Ok, I see I'm gong to have to keep up with this thread a little bit more.
George, if you aren't familiar with Hokusai (you probably are) you should take a look. He is one of Japan's most famous painters. Many people know his print "The Great Wave." It was one of his series of thirty-six(?) prints of Mt. Fuji. He also had another series of 100 views of Mt. Fuji. He was a huge influence on many impressionists, post-impressionists, and other artists of that time. He also had a major impact on Dutch landscape painting. I'm definitely a fan of his prints and could live with any of them.
Another painter he influenced is another one of my favorites, James McNeal Whistler. He is famously known for the painting often referred to as "Whistler's Mother", but is actually called "Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Artist's Mother." He had an interesting take on the relationship between painting, color, and music. Many of his paintings had titles like "Symphony in Grey and Green: the Ocean." I'll come back to him in another post.
I've never been a fan of de Kooning and not because I don't like abstract expressionism, because I do like a lot of pieces from that period. With a few exceptions I think his sense of color was not the greatest, perhaps by choice. The painting Dooj posted has a very muddy palette, as does much of his work, IMO. I too used to think of his paintings as having too much energy. I often imagined him going crazy with the paint brush and flinging paint here and there much like Pollock dancing around his canvas, except with more anger or something. His paintings seem almost violent at times, which I think leaves many people uneasy looking at his work. Then I saw a video of him painting at a museum. He was so slow and methodic. He stroked the canvas almost in slow motion. I was even more disappointed. lol What kind of "expressionism" was that?
Anyways, I do like some of his work, but it is the stuff that leans more towards color field painting. Paintings like this: http://www.improvis.org/walden/Files%20-%2...ighway_1958.jpg
I'm not sure that education (as in someone giving a long explanation for a piece, or going to art school) is necessary or if it changes one's view towards the work or whether one likes it or not. I think as with all painting, the viewer has a gut aesthetic reaction. That changes as we change and perhaps that is where the education part come in. Sometimes learning about the background, the history of the era, the science and discoveries of the era, the artist's life and views and those of his/her peers lead to an appreciation even when we don't like the work or the style of the art per se. I have found that this can sometimes go from appreciation to actually enjoying the work. Other times, like with my experience with the de Kooning video, it leads to just more distaste.
Another factor is in the viewing of the piece. The size, the light, the details, seeing the strokes or the apparent lack of strokes and the skill, or lack there of, that was involved in making it can effect your impression of the piece . Your view of what art is and what it is supposed to be obviously effects your like or dislike of certain art and artistic styles, as well.
When I went to art school I was still in the Way and had a much more conservative view of art than I do now and I had long not appreciated things like color field painting. I didn't expect it, but going to the National Gallery in DC for the first time (first major museum I had been to) and seeing the work of Franz Kline and Mark Rothko and many others for the first time in person totally changed my view of their work. Walking in and seeing the gigantic black and white Kline paintings had an awesome impact. The Rothkos I saw there gave such a nice warm, calm feeling and rather quickly I became a fan of abstract art... more specifically non-representational abstract art. As I learned more about it, it reinforced my first aesthetic reaction. Understanding more the science behind the power of color, color theory, composition, and concepts like "art for art's sake" helped change the way I approached and thought about art. Now having moved into interior design as well, I see the impact of simple non-representational and expressionistic work can fit in a space as part of the whole, the space itself being a form of art.
Still, it all comes down to the eye of the beholder, your own sense of aesthetic and how you approach art.
Gotta go... but this is cool, I'll be back.
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Bumpy
So I guess after all the art school bs and slit wrists from abstract eastern emigres...you still need glasses as the eye of the beholder and some dumb money to purchase the modern garbage?
Otherwise you become an art critic!
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George Aar
Lindy,
Yeah, I'm pretty familiar with all the major names (and most of the lessers) of "Ukiyo-e".
Hokusai was the "Old man, mad about painting". He lived in something like 80 different places in his lifetime. Went through wives and lovers as aften as he did socks (tabi?). Considered all his contemporaries as unworthy of holding a brush, and said of himself that one day he hoped to be able to paint properly. His output was voluminous. But he cared nothing for money. Lived in wretched poverty and embarassing excess. A real character, but is now the most famous of any Japanese artist of any medium.
Hokusai's "real" works are mostly too spendy for a mere human to collect, but I do have a repro. of "The Great Wave" and "The Fisherman" (both from the "36 Views of Mt. Fuji" series). I do have a couple of original prints of his, one from "100 poems as told by the Nurse" series and some from unknown series, but they all have condition problems (the only reason I could afford them).
http://www.andreas.com/pixs/hok-1b.jpg
Yeah, the impressionists really took to Japanese prints in a big way. They seemed to like the flat perspective, and lack of a focal point. Van Gogh and Monet both had large collections, I'm told. Monet's house still has several of his JWPs hanging on the wall, (completely faded to B&W, from accounts. Japanese Woodblock prints are not well-suited to be displayed for long periods of time in the light!)
I've sorta grown tired of Ukiyo-e prints lately, though. And find I like Shin-hanga (the "New Print" movement) and even "Sosaku Hanga" ("creative print" ) designs much better.
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doojable
Thanks for posting that art George and Lindy. I really love Japanese woodblock prints. I've done a few woodblocks - and the detail in these pieces is truly amazing. The blocks themselves are works of art. Then add to all that detail some masterful watercolor...
I'm going to take a liberty and post some work by Picasso:
Guernica
In this case, knowing the history surrounding this piece really helps:
And here is some more of what Picasso was dealing with on a more personal level:The link to the above quote has got a lot more information if you click on the small "paintings."
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Bumpy
Maybe like "Shock and Awe" in Iraq, without the German bombers. All you need is phony intelligence and some liberal artists to portray the scene, and you've pretty much captured the artistic genre of the Bush regime!
The artist at the time, like Hemmingway, was "covering" (his foot) reporting reality at a VERY safe distance during the Spanish Civil War. De Gaulle worked the same deal without the paintbrush a little later. When Hitler met Franco some years later at the border train station to make a deal, Franco showed up a few hours late...mentioning he had been late due to a dental appointment.
Not really, but that's another story.
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Bumpy
...and speaking of other artistic stories, some may want to research the bombings of Mad Bomber Harris and the fire bombings of Dresden when the show was over.
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doojable
Back to art...
Here are some pictures that show Picasso's way of simplifying things
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George Aar
And here's how his "sculpture" reduced the bull even further:
http://www.masksoftheworld.com/images/Art-...ike-Skull-a.jpg
This is where he crosses that line isn't it?
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doojable
I see what you're saying George. Picasso once said:
“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child”
Pablo Picasso's father was a formal university teacher and started teaching him at the age of 7. Picasso learned by copying the Masters and using plaster busts as models. By the age of eleven Picasso did indeed paint much like Raphael. Perhaps that is why he tried to hard to go back to the simplicity of childlike drawings.
The more I read about him the more I see him seeking to communicate more and more with less and less. I may not like or even admire the finished product all the time - but I do have a certain admiration for the chances he took.
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George Aar
http://www.upenn.edu/ARG/archive/mexican/i...vera_sawing.jpg
I loved this guy's murals. I'm not even sure why. I just like the look. This is a pretty tasty little pic as well.
He was a thoroughly peculiar guy too (seems a recurrent trait amongst the art set) and an altogether unlikeable sort, from what I've heard. Good stuff all the same...
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George Aar
Here's one of his more famous murals:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1...ustry_south.jpg
Sorta like playing "Where's Waldo" you have to look to see where the picture of Lenin is in the crowd.
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