Showing posts with label Painting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Painting. Show all posts

Thursday, December 29, 2011

His Most Famous Painting (The Course of Empire) - Thomas Cole

!: His Most Famous Painting (The Course of Empire) - Thomas Cole

Famous nineteenth century American artist, Thomas Cole (February 1, 1801 - February 11, 1848) was born in Lancashire, England. His family moved to the United States in 1918, where Cole received his basic training in art from Stein, a portrait artist. However, Cole was not successful as a portrait artist and his focus shifted towards 'Landscape Art.' He is considered as the founder of the Hudson River School, a mid-nineteenth century American art movement. 'Naturalism' and 'Romanticism' were the two major themes that characterized Cole's works, portraying American landscape quite realistically. The human forms in his paintings were always of secondary importance in comparison to the landscape around. He had the ability to paint landscapes with very fine detailing and he was also skilled in making dramatic paintings with a lot of imagination and bold light effects. Although Cole was mainly a landscape painter, he also made allegorical works. One of his most popular creations in the latter category is the "The Course of Empire," a five part series, created during 1833-36, and 'the Voyage of Life,' a four part series.

The significance of Thomas' "The Course of Empire" lies partly in the fact that it was a representation of the sentiments and the emotions of Americans at that point in time. At this time, pastoral was considered the ultimate factor for human civilization to flourish and there were the fears of the possible decay of the empire. The series includes "The Savage State," "The Arcadian or Pastoral State," "The Consummation," "Destruction," and "Desolation." This series of paintings reflects an imaginary city's rise and fall and portrays the growth of a society from savage conditions to the peak of luxury, ending in destruction.

The city is shown located in a river valley close to its intersection with the sea. A unique landmark, present in all five of the paintings in the series, is a huge rock perched dangerously over a cliff overlooking the river valley. "The Savage State" reflects Native American hunter wearing animal skin on a stormy day. "The Arcadian or Pastoral State" lands on a clear summer/spring day, with an organized landscape typical of pre-urban Ancient Greece. "The Consummation of Empire" shows a noon of summers. Depicting the Ancient Rome, both the banks for the river carry marble structures of architectural finesse. "The Destruction of Empire" depicts the Vandal sack of Rome of 455. The canvass is full of destruction at all level, architectural to humane. "Desolation" is a scene after a year of destruction, leaving the land with its some ruins, reminding of the glorious past. The very stunning "The Course of Empire" is now a part of the collection at the New York Historical Society and remains one of the best pieces of artwork by Thomas Cole.


His Most Famous Painting (The Course of Empire) - Thomas Cole

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Friday, November 11, 2011

Western Painting - Neo - Dadaism - Dadaism Revived the American Way

!: Western Painting - Neo - Dadaism - Dadaism Revived the American Way

Neo-Dadaism - The Concept
Neo-Dada is the term given to the mid 20th century, 1958 to be specific, art movement, including Fine Arts, literature, theatre, and graphic design, which was similar to the earlier Dada artworks. This genre challenged the concept of 'Aestheticism' associated with the traditional form of art and extended the boundaries of the category arts.

The History
In 1960, American art historian & critic Barbara Rose (born 1938) helped promote the term 'Neo-Dada.' The same year, another American art critic Irvin Sandler (born 1925) explained the term as "an avant-garde fad." Two years later, Neo dada was considered the most popular and talked about art movement. An alternate name 'Junk Culture' was also given by English art critic Lawrence Alloway (1926-90) to describe the artwork of the likes of American artists Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) and Claes Oldenburg (born 1929).

The Details
In the art mediums other than painting, like performance, dance, films, and Installation Art, Neo-Dadaists used their own bodies as the base. Even unsettling or threatening performances involving destruction, violence, and aggression did not deter them.

The Correlations
Neo-Dadaist works include the ones faring between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. The artworks themed on everyday life, visual philosophy, and/or spirituality, with a focus of depicting positivity and optimism in life. This inspiring art form came to people's notice towards the end of the Abstract Expressionist (origin 1950s) reign and dispersed as the other similar movements, such as Assemblage Art (origin 1950), Pop Art (origin late 1950s), Nouveau Realism (origin 1960), Happenings (origin 1957), Junk Art (origin 1960s), and Fluxus (origin 1960s), gained momentum. Neo-Dadaism formally ended in 1962.

The Artists
In 1958, the first bunch of artists were designated Neo-Dadaists. They were American artists Jasper Johns (born 1930), Robert Rauschenber, and Kaprow Allan (1927-2006). Marcel Duchamp (French - 1887-1968) and Kurt Schwitters (German - 1887-1948) are considered as the strong influences to the Neo-Dadaism. The versatile Robert Rauschenberg delivered exemplary artworks in right from painting to performance art to collage. He had challenged the modernist outlook of paintings, art, and sculpture as a spiritual journey and believed that there was no limit to creativity. He felt life was open to art. Owing to his revolutionary approach and disinterest in typical art style, formal art critics hated him.

Some other artists include Nam June Paik (Korean-American - 1932-2006), Joseph Beuys (German - 1921-86), Yoko Ono (Japanese-American - born 1933), Yves Klein (French - 1928-62), Jean Follett, Edward (American - 1927-94) and Nancy Reddin Kienholz (American - born 1943), and Jim Dine (American - born 1935).

Recently, the term Neo Dadaists was used to refer to an international group of art performers from Kroesos Foundation, led by Mark Divo. In 2002, they took over the origin point of Dadaism, Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. They displayed their artworks there, until they were evicted on Mar 02, 2002.


Western Painting - Neo - Dadaism - Dadaism Revived the American Way

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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Understanding Modern Art - American Painting, Color Field.


Image : http://www.flickr.com


The extraordinary artistic movement known as American Color Field Painting both continued and challenged prior esthetic traditions. Beginning in the late 1950s and continuing through the 1960s, this movement influenced the entire world of art.

American Color Field Painting was a combination of shared revolutionary techniques and unique individual solutions to the traditional problems and considerations of artistic expression. This new type of art reevaluated traditional pictorial elements including naturalistic perspective, color use, the function of line and shape, and the role of formatting.

Although individual Color Field painters developed distinct modes of expression, they shared a common emphasis on color as a central aspect of painting. They also shared a rejection of the contemporary focus on the conscious social and political responsibilities of art. Their love of materials and their joyous and strenuous endeavors to redefine the boundaries of art are among their exceptional contributions to the ongoing evolution of modern aesthetic values.

Four of the major legacies of the Color Field Painters were an emphasis on the infinite potential for variations in light and color; the practice of creating multiple interpretations, known as a series, on a single theme; the relentless pursuit of the dual identity of art as both illusion and reality; and the use of landscape elements. These legacies were an extension of the practices begun by the Impressionists almost a century before.

The Impressionistic emphasis on distinct patches of solid color was carried to an extreme by Color Field painters like Kenneth Noland who created concentric rings of color in his "target" series. The scientific approach to color that was prominent in the 19th century asserted that a pure color placed next to another color will result in a more dramatic optical effect than colors that have been muted through traditional shading And impressions of favorite American Impressionists innovation Field. Color for painters to study the phenomenon of different colors in deep and easy to use. Part of them could pave the way for free - flowing to the beautiful paintings that focus on one element rather than trying to re-image the world around us.

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