Art for Art’s Sake
November 6, 2014
Someone took a candid photo of a fight in Ukranian Parliament that is as well-composed as the best renaissance art.
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The timeless conflict…
Blondes vs Brunettes
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/books-magazines/the-inside-story-behind-hollywoods-most-infamous-photo/story-fna50uae-1227114761833
Postmodernist sand sculpture, artist unknown.
Allan Ramsay, King George III, c.1762, National Portrait Gallery, London.
“The eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, George was the first Hanoverian King to be born and bred in England. His reign from 1760 was one of the longest and most eventful in modern times. Although plagued by apparent bouts of insanity, he maintained a meticulous personal interest in government until 1811. A patron of the arts and sciences, he amassed an extensive library and fostered an interest in agriculture. His obstinate attitude towards the demands of the American colonies led to the loss of these territories and the close of the first British empire. This portrait shows the King in his coronation robes; it is one of the numerous replicas issued by Ramsay of the coronation portrait which he painted in 1761. Many of these found their way to Britain’s newly acquired colonial territories where they represented the authority of the nascent British empire.”
Bronze statue of some horse that won a few Melbourne Cups, apparently.
Oaks Day, rider.
Postmodern horse
Thomas Gainsborough, The Blue Boy 1770.
In historical perspective, it was the year Captain Cook camped at Botany Bay.
Joshua Reynolds, selfie aged around 24, National Portrait Gallery, London
“Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA FRS FRSA (/ˈrɛnəldz/; 16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an influential eighteenth-century English painter, specialising in portraits. He promoted the “Grand Style” in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was a founders and first president of the Royal Academy, and was knighted by George III in 1769.”
The devastating Egon Schiele, Mime van Osen (detail) 1910.
A plea to return to ‘foundation skills’.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/lost-art-lamented-as-drawing-goes-belly-up/story-e6frg8n6-1227116389087
I loved this when it was in Sydney
http://twistedsifter.com/2014/11/austin-light-illustrates-movie-titles-with-one-letter-removed/
http://twistedsifter.com/2014/07/thrift-store-painting-remixes-by-david-irvine/
We may have had this one already, but it’s worth repeating.
Van Gogh, Starry Night Over The Rhone, 1888
‘Daughters of Revolution is a satirical painting by American artist Grant Wood, who claimed that it was his only satire. The painting depicts the founding fathers as cross-dressing members of the Daughters of the American Revolution standing in front of a recreation of Washington Crossing the Delaware. It is part of what Henry Adams called Wood’s fascination with “changes of gender”.’
“Robert Delaunay (12 April 1885 – 25 October 1941) was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstract, reminiscent of Paul Klee. His key influence related to bold use of colour, and a clear love of experimentation of both depth and tone.”
Champ de Mars. La Tour rouge., 1911
“The Wedding at Cana (c.1563) is a massive oil painting by the late-Renaissance or Mannerist Italian painter Paolo Veronese. It is on display in the Musée du Louvre in Paris, where it is the largest painting in that museum’s collection.”
“Sir George Hayter (17 December 1792 – 18 January 1871) was a notable English painter, specialising in portraits and large works involving in some cases several hundred individual portraits. Queen Victoria appreciated his merits and appointed Hayter her Principal Painter in Ordinary and also awarded him a Knighthood 1841.”
“This painting by Sir George Hayter (now in the National Portrait Gallery) commemorates the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832. It depicts the first session of the newly reformed House of Commons on 5 February 1833 held in St Stephen’s Chapel which was destroyed by fire in 1834. The picture includes some 375 figures and although Hayter abandoned the idea of depicting all 658 Members of the reformed Commons he maintained the relative proportions of the parties. In the foreground, he has grouped the leading statesmen from the Lords: Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (1764–1845), William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (1779–1848) and the Whigs on the left; and Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) and the Tories on the right. Painted without a commission it took Hayter ten years to complete and another fifteen to sell. Ironically, it was the Tories who finally agreed to purchase it, in 1858, for the then recently founded National Portrait Gallery.”
Created by Japanese artist using Excel.
The Gleaners, Jean-Francois Millet 1857
Russell Drysdale
Sydney Charm School
Camille Corot, Oak Trees at Bas Breau 1832-33
Barbizon School
The young Barbizon School grew from the naturalism of English painter John Constable, who won a gold medal at the Paris Salon in 1824 for this painting.
‘In 1799, Constable persuaded his father to let him pursue a career in art, and Golding granted him a small allowance. Entering the Royal Academy Schools as a probationer, he attended life classes and anatomical dissections, and studied and copied old masters. ‘
‘Among works that particularly inspired him during this period were paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, Claude Lorrain, Peter Paul Rubens, Annibale Carracci and Jacob van Ruisdael. He also read widely among poetry and sermons, and later proved a notably articulate artist. By 1803, he was exhibiting paintings at the Royal Academy.’
wiki
“Edgar Degas (19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917) was a French artist famous for his paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings. He is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, although he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist. He was a superb draftsman, and particularly masterly in depicting movement, as can be seen in his renditions of dancers, racecourse subjects and female nudes. His portraits are notable for their psychological complexity and for their portrayal of human isolation.” – Wikipedia
Achille De Gas in the Uniform of a Cadet, c.1857
Degas, Woman in the Bath, 1886
Degas, Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers, 1865
Constable was initially influenced by Lorrain and later by the Dutch school and van Ruisdael. This winter landscape around 1670.
Its the tail end of the Golden Age and van Ruisdael was selling landscapes because that is what the buyers wanted.
‘Although Dutch painting of the Golden Age comes in the general European period of Baroque painting, and often shows many of its characteristics, most lacks the idealization and love of splendour typical of much Baroque work, including that of neighbouring Flanders.
‘Most work, including that for which the period is best known, reflects the traditions of detailed realism inherited from Early Netherlandish painting.’
wiki
The Box Hill Art Show is on this week.
http://www.boxhillrotary.com.au/art-show/mccubbin-medal/
Early Netherlandish
Jan van Eyck, Arnolfini 1434
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the corn harvest 1565
Degas, L’Absinthe, 1876
She doesn’t look very happy with her Absinthe by all accounts. Maybe it was a bad batch…
‘In a 1985 edition of The Art Bulletin, art critic Carol Salus hypothesises that the work “… has traditionally been interpreted as representing young women challenging young men to wrestle or race, is instead a presentation of Spartan courtship rites”. This position was challenged in the same publication the following year, with Linda Nochlin arguing that the work could encompass a variety of meanings, and by referring to Degas’ own reluctance to explain the work in any great detail, allows the viewer to interpret the work to their own merit. This view is echoed by Christopher Riopelle, curator of 19th-century painting at the National Gallery, who in 2004 stated that the painting, “…starts as a traditional historical painting, closely based on classical accounts and meticulous research. It ends as something much more enigmatic.’
Degas, Young Spartans Exercising, c.1862.
“She doesn’t look very happy with her Absinthe by all accounts.”
Or she was already off her head.
Good point ToSY… I’m pretty sure that’s the expression that adorned my dial in most gay bars when I was a teenager… LOL…
Heh! I’m sure I’ve looked and felt that way plenty of times, too. Half way between euphoria and a coma.
“Half way between euphoria and a coma.”
NTTAWTT… 🙂
No, not at all. 😉
This is a picture of a circus performer, Miss Lala, swinging by a rope held between her teeth.
Edgar Degas [pronounced “daygar”, btw], Miss Lala at the Cirque Fernando, 1879
I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like
The style really only works with dogs…
http://api.ning.com/files/*SEjID8wtNgKtTaesLDrdoCchytE8i7CdizayELtPnuOOHQqaEJoAW-uD0NUd1MKUHlVBvxVWeHSWRJizwpLh596WR0rPEZ-/PokerCats.jpg?width=737&height=498
Degas, The Singer with the Glove, 1878
Degas, Portrait of Miss Cassatt, Seated, Holding Cards, c.1878
This looks ridiculous compared to dogs playing cards…
Degas, Rehearsal On Stage, 1874
Degas again, The Millinery Shop, 1885
The reason the colours in that last picture feel ‘right’ is beacause Degas uses the traditional red-green complementary colour scheme.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complementary_colors#The_traditional_color_model
(There’s also the secondary use of orange and blue.)
http://www.harding.edu/gclayton/2ddesign/crits/crit017_degasmillinery.html
Jean-Leon Gerome, The Tulip Folly (1882) represents “tulipomania” in the Netherlands. Soldiers were ordered to trample the flowerbeds in an effort to stabilize the market.
“Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits and other subjects, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax. He is considered one of the most important painters from this academic period, and in addition to being a painter, he was also a teacher with a long list of students.”
Arnaut and his dog. Arnaut is oriental name for Albanian – This Arnaut warrior fought for Muhamed Ali (an Albanian), founder of modern Egypt.
Victorian Artists’ Society, Greg Smith
Degas, The Parade, c.1868
Degas, Place de la Concorde, 1875
“The art of Degas reflects a concern for the psychology of movement and expression and the harmony of line and continuity of contour. These characteristics set Degas apart from the other impressionist painters, although he took part in all but one of the 8 impressionist exhibitions between 1874 and 1886. Degas was the son of a wealthy banker, and his aristocratic family background instilled into his early art a haughty yet sensitive quality of detachment. As he grew up, his idol was the painter Jean Auguste Ingres, whose example pointed him in the direction of a classical draftsmanship, stressing balance and clarity of outline. After beginning his artistic studies with Louis Lamothes, a pupil of Ingres, he started classes at the Ecole des Beaux Arts but left in 1854 and went to Italy. He stayed there for 5 years, studying Italian art, especially Renaissance works.”
NGA slideshow: Degas: Master of French Art
http://nga.gov.au/Exhibition/Degas/Default.cfm?MNU=04
Went to Box Hill Art Show today. Very impressive standard from local artists.
Box Hill has history, of course.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_Hill_artists'_camp
Perhaps you have a pic of the winner?
And many thanks for all your support, I’ll make sure you are mentioned in dispatches.
This was Best in show.
Doug Sealy, Sidewalk Takeaway, Cusco, Peru
The other prize-winners are here:
http://www.boxhillrotary.com.au/art-show/mccubbin-medal/
A meditative quality.
I’ll be doing some workshops with David Chen next year.
http://www.davidchen.com.au/
That’ll be cool, half your luck.
The Frozen Thames
Abraham Hondius 1677 (Dutch Golden Age)
I like this pic of a blog pioneer …
I see your pioneer and raise you.
‘Bruegel was a pioneer of the Netherlandish genre painting. His earthy, unsentimental but vivid depiction of the rituals of village life—including agriculture, hunts, meals, festivals, dances, and games—are unique windows on a vanished folk culture.’
The Hunters in the Snow, 1565
My Mate Gavin Crawthorn’s work
David Chen, Corner of Federation Square
“Nasmyth was born in Edinburgh on 9 September 1758. He studied at the Royal High School and the Trustees’ Academy and was apprenticed to a coachbuilder. Aged sixteen, he was taken to London by portrait painter Allan Ramsay where he worked on subordinate parts of Ramsay’s works. Nasmyth returned to Edinburgh in 1778, where he worked as a portrait painter. Offered a loan by Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, Nasmyth left in 1782 for Italy, where he remained two years furthering his studies. In Italy he devoted most of his attention to landscape painting, and is recorded as having copied a work by Claude.”
Alexander Nasmyth, View of Tantallon Castle and the Bass Rock
Chen’s work is very good. I like his simple palette and the romance of an empty space.
A few last words on Bruegel. He was cataloging human folly at a time when it was extremely dangerous to deviate from Catholic doctrine on any matter. The world was turned upside down.
Neatherlandish Proverbs 1559 Pieter Bruegel
‘Pieter Bruegel lived at a time when northern art was strongly influenced by Italian mannerism, but despite the requisite journey to Italy for purposes of study, he was astonishingly independent of the dominant artistic interests of his day. Instead, he deliberately revived the late Gothic style of Hieronymus Bosch as the point of departure for his own highly complex and original art.’
Hieronymus Bosch, ‘Christ Carrying the Cross’ (1510-35) this image is a section of the crowd.
Edgar Degas, Dancers in Blue, 1895
Bosch was the beginning of a general movement which stretched to the Barbizon School. Millet, ‘The Gleaners.’
Brett Whiteley, Cover. Dire Straits, Alchemy
The Barbizon school was a melting pot of ideas, Constant Troyon was influenced by Paulus Potter of the Dutch school.
‘Return of the flock’, Constant Troyon.
Narcisse Virgillio Diaz, Forest of Fontainbleau 1868
‘In 1865 Claude Monet and Frederic Bazille left Paris for Barbizon, a small village on the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau, forty miles South-West of Paris. They came to this district to paint from nature in the open air and to make studies for landscape paintings, far from the pressures of city life. Together with Renoir and Sisley, they were following a well-trodden path taken by painters and tourists some thirty years earlier.’
Zhang Xiaogang, Bloodline: Big Family No 2
Fang Lijun
A pack of falling wolves (installation) Cai Guo Qiang,
I see now why google did that, ao. Today is his birthday.
One of the best Galleries in Sydney.. one of the largest multidisciplinary Chinese art collections outside china.. a must see
http://www.whiterabbitcollection.org/
David Chen’s solo exhibition is opening this week.
http://www.withoutpier.com.au/gallery/david_chen
Xiang Jing (installation)
Chen has an impressive body of work, I particularly like his streetscapes.
Not in Chen’s class, but Chen’s classes might help …
I expect you’ll be doing nude women or wet streetscapes without humans.
Very astute (the bit about “without humans”).
Apparently, I’ll be doing portraits.
Oh, fair enough.
Talking of self portraits, here is a novel experiment.
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/30-self-portraits-drawn-while-artist-was-under-influence-30-drugs
Fiorina’s the front ‘man’, but that guy is the creator of most of this (except the beady stuff).
http://www.fiorinajewellery.com.au/
Staying in the Celestial Kingdom, ‘combining Chinese elements with his individual style’, He Jiaying.
Edgar Degas
When money is scarce and fresh canvas out of reach I scavenge old works that have not quite come good. Salvage or white over and has become the norm.
Fortunately on this occasion the salvage operation has been highly successful, mainly because I’m finally taking the colourwheel seriously. Thanks professor.
Japanese woodprints became popular in late 19th century Paris art circles, all the main players were influenced, apparently.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Another repeat, but so what? Radio stations have a rotating playlist, don’t they?
Vincent, Cafe Terrace at Night, 1888.
“Japanese woodprints became popular in late 19th century Paris art circles, all the main players were influenced, apparently.”
It’s no secret Van Gogh was influenced by Japanese art.
Courtesan (after Eisen), 1887.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keisai_Eisen
Vincent was also influenced by Japonisme (sic), but I’m not sure in which way. It would be an interesting exercise for the class to join the dots on this.
That was quick.
Also, finishing a head and shoulder portrait I had the model looking just to the right and in this way the eyes never follow me around the room.
Eisen.
Utagawa Hiroshige, Niwaka, Short Performance of Shin Yoshiwara, c.1839–1842
Impressionism. Art Nouveau and Cubism all were influenced by Japanese prints.
Hiroshige
A Geisha and Her Servant, Kitao Shigemasa, 1777 (Edo Period)
I’m not a huge fan, but Lichtenstein done good.
Appropriation big time.
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon 1907
Picasso was influenced by Cezanne’s ‘Bathers’ and he made a better fist of it through Iberian sculpture and African art.
‘And I think that is what’s interesting people these days that before you start painting the painting, you know exactly what it’s going to look like – this kind of an image, which is completely different from what we’ve been schooled in, where we just let ourselves interact with the elements as they happen.
‘This highly restrictive quality in art is what I’m interested in. And the cliche – the fact that an eye, an eyebrow, a nose, is drawn a certain way – is really the same kind of restriction that adds a tension to the painting.’
Roy Lichtenstein
Realism.
Henri Biva, Matin à Villeneuve (From Waters Edge), c. 1905-06
Hyper-realism.
Gustavo Silva Nuñez
http://www.ritebook.in/2014/09/hyper-realistic-water-painting-by-gustavo-silva-nunes.html
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/v/t1.0-9/1010516_10151442522202063_505383011_n.jpg?oh=d8ac6c7f86b1c0e81c3c4c7a11f57559&oe=5506AAEA&__gda__=1427179813_7311ba18415841cf942818d765723ed0
Vincent c.1873 aged 19. This photograph was taken at the time when he was working at the branch of Goupil & Cie’s gallery in The Hague.
Van Gogh, Portrait of Pere Tanguy, c.1887-8
Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of Postman Joseph Roulin, 1888
an Gogh, Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette, 1885–1886
Van Gogh, Skull, 1887-88
VvG, Skull, 1887-88
Paul Cézanne. Pyramid of Skulls, c.1901
Cezanne, Still Life, Three Skulls, c.1900
Paul Cézanne, Still Life with a Skull, 1895-1900
Pieter Claeszoon, Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, 1628
Calaveras, Skulls typical of Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico. Photograph taken Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico
Phillipe Halsman, Photo of Salvador Dali with Women Forming Skull, 1951
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, The Skulls, 1882
From the series, ‘A New Selection of Strange Events’, Taira no Kiyomori sees the skulls of his victims.
Someone on the innerwebs.
Picasso, Mandolin and Guitar, 1924
Picasso, Tete de Mort et Poireaux (Skull and Leeks), 1945
“Death’s heads are found throughout art history – a fact of which Hirst is acutely aware. His jewelled skull is one of the images of our age.”
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2008/may/02/skullartisnotanewidea
Damian Hirst, For the Love of God, 2007
‘Yorick is a fictional character in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. He is the dead court jester whose skull is exhumed by the gravedigger in Act 5, Scene 1, of the play. The sight of Yorick’s skull evokes a monologue from Prince Hamlet on the vile effects of death:
‘Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? (Hamlet, V.i)’
Eugene Delacroix, Yorick
C. Allan Gilbert, All is Vanity
“Skull symbolism is the attachment of symbolic meaning to the human skull. The most common symbolic use of the skull is as a representation of death and mortality, but has changed with modern times as in clothing most skulls are designed for fashion rather than the historical symbolism.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skull_symbolism
Screen of Flesh, Niku Byobu
Complementary colours.
Ova and ova and ova and ova and…
Tony I’m putting this up again because I’ve been greatly influenced, I left out the tree and put in a tinnie with a couple of Oz fishermen to replace Hiroshige’s character and it worked surprisingly well.
A limited palette, complimentary colours, a feeling of suspended animation.
Also, in case I get beamed up prematurely, you can always find me at Jonova (Denialati HQ) or the barricades with a bunch of Communists at C21st Left.
Heidelberg School.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg_School
Tom Roberts, Shearing the Rams, 1890
No worries. Good on ya. 🙂
so authentic
so credibility
so desperationment
Skull.
(Homo erectus may have doodled on shellfish. Alternatively, Homo sapiens may have doodled on “an animal such as Homo erectus”.)
Cezanne, Still Life with Skull, Candle and Book, 1865-1867
Cezanne, Three Skulls on a Rug, c.1904
Cezanne, Young Man with a Skull, 1896-1898
Pieter Claesz, Vanitas, 1630
The skull of Adam at the foot of the Cross: detail from a Crucifixion by Fra Angelico, 1435
Glen Preece
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Glen-Preece-Fine-Art/250095748406140
“The dramatic resignation to death informs several still life paintings Cézanne made in his final period between 1898 and 1905 which take the skulls as their subject. Today the skulls themselves remain in Cézanne’s studio in a suburb of Aix-en-Provence.”
Self-portrait with Beret, 1898–1900
An image referred to in the Hardcore History I just mentioned in the other thread It shows pretty much how it was described in my mind.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/files/styles/fullsize/public/verdun-painting.jpg?itok=KPRhR1kh
“Throughout history, images and representations of skulls and skeletons have been seen in art all across the world. Yet when one looks more closely at the progression of these images throughout time, specifically the 20th century, it becomes evident that skeletons have become steadily more frequent in art, and thus have come to have less of an impact on the viewer as was originally the case – an almost desensitization of the representation of death. World War II and its skeleton related propaganda brought a new appearance of skeletons to the art world, and the modern art era utilized this new appearance, incorporating skulls into all sorts of art. Skeletal art is not limited to the United States, however, and is in fact more prevalent in greater death-accepting societies like Mexico. Wherever skeletons show up in art, they are a constant and obvious reminder of man’s most tangible aspect – our mortality.”
Dali, Atmospheric Skull Sodomising A Grand Piano, 1934
Atmospheric Skull Sodomising A Grand Piano
😯
Dali, Untitled – for the campaign against venereal disease, 1942
I see your skull sodomising a piano and raise you a David Sedaris…
Oookayyy.
Do ya think this thread might be getting a bit long in the tooth, so to speak?
Pete makes this stuff for Fiorina.
I do try my best to accommodate your wishes…
https://thedailytrash.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=4388&action=edit&message=6&postpost=v2