Wk 12: Sunflowers

Sunflowers 1996 by Anselm Kiefer 435 x 349 cm Guggenheim Bilbao



When you look at this painting, at first you just see a couple of tall sunflowers but after taking a closer look you can see that there are many sunflowers and they seem to all look dead.  The edges of the flower appear old and cruppled like they're about to fall off. Once you see all the dead flowers drooping, you see a white figure at the bottom.  This figure is the form of a body that has been burried.  There is no face or distinct features on the body but it looks like the body of a man.  The body is white and colorless almost like a ghost or a memory burried in the ground after it has dies.  There is a leaf that lays over the body as if it is sheilding him from the world.  All around this grave, sunflowers have grown. 

Any unwanted plant is considered a weed and i think that that is what the artist was trying to show the viewer.  The flowers aren't healthy and they are dying amongst the dead.  They seem to be looking down over the dead body as if he was just burried.  The sky is glooming and the plants are dead, representing sorrow or loss of someone of great meaning to the world.  Much of his work was related to the Holocaust in Germany.  This painting could either represent the Holocaust or just be linked to his ideas like death.  I think this painting is amazing.  The way the sky is drawn makes it look like a vintage a photo and I really enjoy looking at vintage photos.

Wk 11: The Seed of the Areoi

The Seed of Areoi 1892 by Paul Gauguin 36 1/4 x 28 3/8" MOMA

This painting is of a naked woman with a blue bird sitting in her hand.  She appears to be holding something in her hand that the bird would be eating out of because it's head isn't clear.  She is an African American woman sitting on a cloth with several different symbols embroidered along the edges.  In her hair, she has beads that probably can be linked to a tribal tradition.  Her feet and arms are abnormally painted on the canvas and she is sitting straight up and looks very proper.  Her legs are turned but her torso is facing the front although her head is slightly turned and looking off in another direction.  In the backgound, you can see mountains, clouds, blue skies, and green grass.  Gauguin painted the palm trees a sunflower yellow to make the trees more pronounced so that they didn't blend in and to add a little contrast.  In front of her you see a table with different exoctic fruits, which would tell you that she is somewhere exoctic.  Her eyes seem to have a calm and relaxed look to them as if she is more comfortable when she is around nature.

Gauguin was considered a Post-Impressionist.  He would express a spiritual meaning in many pieces of his artwork.  He would paint his pictures about "the disease of civilization" mainly of the islands in the South Pacific.  The Seed of Areoi was painted after Gauguin had been in Tahiti for about a year.  He wasn't painting what he saw in Tahiti, he was painting of what he dreamed it would be and what he wanted to find.  He thought that it had been ruined by missionaries and colonists.  I think that Paul Gauguin was trying to show us that without all the buildings and technology, nature is quite calming and more spiritual.  We forget the beauty of nature when we don't really look at it.

He is the European, who fleeting from it's overdeveloped culture and the complicity and artificiality of its life, sought simplicity by a desperate attempt to identify himself with the life of the Polynesian natives of Tahitit and the Marquesas Islands.

Title:  Paul Gauguin
Author:  Carl O. Schniewind
Source:  Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (1907-1951) Vol. 43, No. 3 (Sep. 15, 1949), pp. 43-51

Wk 10: Raku Ware

Raku Ware - late 16th-early 17th century by Hon'ami Koyetsu 3 3/8" tall Smithsonian Instituition

This is a piece of artwork that was made in Japan.  It is made out of clay by hand as it spins millions of times on a potter's wheel.  When the Japanese thought the pot was molded good enough they would put it through the firing process and then it was put directly in cold water or left out to cool.  "Raku" means enjoyment or ease.  These pots were made so that when there was hot food in it, you could still hold the pot and not burn your hands.  These types of pottery were marked in Japanese history for their great developement of ceramics.  The metallic glow is created from a glaze.  The potter puts glaze, which is a mixture of metal and oxygen, so that it gives the pot a metallic glow and makes it appear shiny.

The Raku family worked very hard on their pottery to keep the family tradition alive.  The actual name was diiferent but when the creator came up with "Raku Ware," he changes his name after it.  I think people who can hand craft things like this are truly talented.  It takes a lot of time and patients to create a piece of artwork like this.  You have to be very disciplined to your work and not get frustrated easily.  I tried making a pot in junior high and it was too hard.  This type of artwork is very hard and not everyone can create things like this.  I believe that pots like this will always be remembered for their beauty and special creations.

The most important piece in the Raku group is the bowl attributed to Koyetsu, one of the most famous painters of Japan, who took up pottery making as a hobby.  He apparently never devoted a great deal of time to it, but, because of his artistic genius, the stamp of individuality on the few examples of pottery attributed to him more that compensates for any technical imprefections.

Title:  The Howard Mansfield Collection: Japanese Potteries. The Gift of Mr. Mansfield
Author:  Unknown
Source:  The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 32, No. 5 (May, 1937), pp. 115-126

Wk 9: Rembrandt

The Night Watch 1642 by Rembrandt 12'2" x 17'7" Rijksmuseum

The painting is of a captain and his crew.  The man in the center is the captain and the center of attention.  This man is meant to catch the viewer's eye.  Next to him you see a man dressed in cream colors.  He is a rank lower than the captain and is always by his side like you see in the movies.  In his hand he has a weapon and he is talking to the captain.  The man to the left of them is also holding a weapon.  He is holding a gun and appears to be preparing for a battle.  In the background you see a little girl dressed in bright colors.  She has a fearful look on her face.  Rembrandt dressed her in cream also to show the viewer the fear.  Behind the captain you can see men getting read for battle and holding their flags high for pride.  There is a man holding a drum which could mean that he is about to play the drums to battle. 

Rembrandt learned to paint this style through Pieter Lastman.  This is where he learned the powerful contrasts of light and dark.  Rembrandt refused to do what was popular.  He would paint the only way he could, the way he wanted it done.  He uses a lot of red, black, brown, and cream.  Not a lot of bright colors are used in this artwork, but there is just enough so that it still catches the eye.  Rembrandt used his skills very well.  He knew exactly how much color he should and should not use.  That is what makes this painting so famous.

The tonal balance now works even better, in particular the way in which Banning Cocq in his dark suit is flanked by the two lightly coloured figures of the little girl with the chicken at her waist and Lt. Willem van Ruytenburch.

Title: "The Night Watch" Restored
Author: Unknown
Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 118, No. 884 (Nov., 1976), pp. 731+781

Wk 8: Giovanni Bellini

Madonna Adoring the Sleeping Child 1460's by Giovanni Bellini 28 1/2 x 18 1/4 in. Met Museum

This portrait is of a woman watching over a sleeping child.  The child is naked but the woman is fully clothed.  She has long, flowing sheet-like material drapped over her head and shoulders.  Her hands are in front of her chest and are loosly touching.  Her face seems to have a look of worry and fear for the child.  It appears that while the baby sleeps, she watches over him and prays for him.  In the background you see houses, roads and trees through an arched window.  The sky is a soft, calming color that is almost the same shade as the woman's cloak.  The baby is resting it's head on a dark brown pillow that catches the eye.  "Madonna" has a peach color dress underneath and it is seems like it should represent how reserved she is.  The lines have a verticle manner to them that have your attention mainly on the woman but with the contrasting color of the pillow it also draws your attention to the baby. 

Bellini was considered to be the one who revolutionized Venetian paintings.  He was the first to use oil paintings to create such color and detail that no one else could.  Giovanni had a strong sense of christianity in most of his paintings.  He was a very religious man.  His color scheme changed over time.  First it was sunrise colors with lots of gold and yellow in them, and then the colors tamed down to more calm and relaxing colors.  The themes of them also changed.  It started out as romantic paintings and then it shifted to the "Dead Christ" type of paintings.  Many artists stick to the same topics but Giovanni was different.  You don't change the world by being like everyone else.

Giovanni Bellini, who appeared continually to deny is own nature, whose talent was constantly increasing in scope and who worked on an infinite number of levels, has provided us with one of the most profound lessons of history and, at the same time, ethics: we see him as a sort of Proustian Elstir of Quattrocento painting.

Title:  The Giovanni Bellini Exhibition
Author:  Roberto Longhi
Source:  The Burlington Magazine

Wk 7: British Museum

Basalt Door-Jamb 880 B.C. 100 cm x 55 cm x 40 cm British Museum

This door jamb came from Neo-Hittite city of Carchemish. It has different shapes all over the top half of it while the bottom half is plain.  The interesting thing about it is that there is no noticeable repetition.  There are five different levels of decoration on it.  There are tools, birds, crops, and many other symbals that appear on this door.  The decorators of this piece must have thought these items were special and had a certain importance.  In the past, the sculptors would paint of things they either saw or were very meaningful to them.  The texture is very rough and the stone appears to be chiselled.  The lines and shapes within this structure are very parallel.  There is a lot of space between the different objects that makes the object appear very open and almost larger.  This door-jamb seems to have a lot of balance and is relatively proportionate.  The different levels could almost be seen as line breaks and the objects could be relevant to a visual/objective language.

The Hittite's carved different things in to structures.  I believe that the things they would sculpt were the things the felt were important to their culture.  Some of the objects on this door-jamb are just every day things like tools and animals.  The simple things that the Hittite show great appreciation for are the things that most people don't truly look at today.  We have grown so used to seeing these things that we forget the importance of them and how to appreciate them. 

Wk 6:

Rock Paintings 5000 B.C.E. in Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria

This rock painting is of a group of women and cattle.  The women appear to be talking amongst themselves and just relaxing.  The cattle seem to be grazing food on the ground.  The faces of the women and cattle do not have the features of a normal face.  The women seem to have large calves and thighs with a skinny torso and arms.  The cattle, on the other hand, are large and look like they have strong muscles.  The cattle are a red/orange color while the women are black.  The arms of the women are all straight and have no curves like their legs and butt.  The bodies are all about the same length and size.  The cattle are two completely different styles though.  One cow is small with straight legs and a bowing head.  The other cow is jumping and kicking in the air.

The artists didn't know that what they were creating was art and that it would be famous thousands of years later.  They had a certain way of painting different objects.  Men and women have basically the same shape to them.  Long, skinny torsos, long, build legs, and tiny arms.  The cattle all took the same shape but sometimes were different sizes to emphasize the strength and necessity of the animal.  I think that they the way they painted their pictures are very neat and precise.