Friday, 19 August 2016

Timeline for Modernism ( Projects and Researches)




Timeline for Modernism

 

Romantic opens the timeline something we called Modernism. It started around the 1790 and lasted up till 1850.

From Romantic epoch personally I have seen a lot attending to different art galleries but the one worth of mentioning is "Ramsgate" painted by J.M.W Turner who was the son of William Turner and he painted this art work around 1824. This painting was displayed in the Turner Contemporary in Margate in Kent few years ago; however we can currently watch this watercolour at the Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings room by appointment only. I also have been lucky to see the other painting from the same era created by John Constable which is displayed at the Victoria and Albert museum in London. It is beautiful art work so delicate and full of light brush strokes combined with architectural precision. It gives us amazing impression of a life from Constable times.

Romantic is very interesting part of the art history that is based on the emotions which were reflected in the paintings. It was also focused on the nature by giving it an extra power just as it should be another very important player in the picture. Artists also were showing some fears and worries by personification and anthropomorphism of the nature and the animals. A very good example of this could be a selection of art work by Spanish painter Francisco Goya such as "Caprichos".

 

My passion for art started to develop from Pre-Raphaelite. This is time where my fascination with paintings began. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has a large collection of art from this period. Their magic is based on the way how most of the paintings were painted such as finesses. They also tell such a moving stories just like the one painted by John Everett Millais called "Ophelia" in 1851 located in Tate Britain gallery in London.  We all know more or less story of the Ophelia from "Hamlet" written by Shakespeare however this painting gives us something more. We all treat this painting as her portrait in my opinion.  There is a big colour contrast where the deep dark water takes away her pale body and the light bright little flowers in the background. This painting is one of my favourite of all that have been created ever.

 
My heart started to be excited just when I say the name of another period called Impressionism. We marked it on the timeline from the 1870 till 1890. It was only 20years but very important for the art.   
We think of artists such as : Mary Cassatt, Eugene Boudin, Camille Pissarro.
 
I recently watched documentary program on Sky Arts about the Impressionism from Musees De Luxemburg & Orsay ................................... and found few interesting information. This secondary source was great way of refreshing my art knowledge gained already at school as I may say long time ago.

 



Talking about the Expressionism we think about the time from the 1910 till 1915. This was very short time in the art history however also very important. There are names such as : Egon Schiele, Franz Marc, Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Edward Munch. This movement was based on the emotional experience. It is very hard to make a judgement on this period int the art as most of the artists created rather disturbing images. They are sometimes uncomfortable to watch for us as we have not been able to experience what they have seen. Saying that I do wonder why? We live in such a cruel world and we have been surrounded by media where the access to the current news is faster. We can see current world afers and wars unfortunately. When the Expressionism was established artists had enormous power to translate their emotions on the canvas by this way the viewer could relate to their emotions. Most of the models from the paintings look tired and sad even depressed. There are many paintings about the death and sickness.


Tate Modern was exhibiting Norwegian artist Edward Munch work in June till October 2012. I was very impressed by his talent and the emotional impact he made on me that time. I do remember when I had an idea to produce some painting based on my experience while I was working in a care home. Edward Munch painted very disturbing paintings of ill and sick people which I could not forget as they looked so upsetting and intriguing at the same time. I started to put some of my images which I had in my memories hoverer I thought I would rather forget about them than keep digging in the uncomfortable memories. At the end of the day I was there to help elderly people not to use their difficult and sad moments as an inspiration for my art work. I decided to keep them to myself, although I thought it could be a good way of healing and a type of therapy as this job was very hard physically and emotionally. Maybe one day I will paint something what I have seen at that time but for now I would rather forget and crate something that would bring a smile on someone face. Talking about that exhibition I was disappointed I could not see his famous painting called “The Scream”, not knowing why it was not on display at that time.


Wassily Kandinsky is another artist who impressed my with his work. Unfortunately I have not been able to see any big exhibition of his work only managed to look closer on his painting at the Vatican Museum a few year ago. Tate Modern has also one of his paintings on display and is the “Cossacks1910-1911. However his book under the title “Point and line to plane” written by himself helped me to understand the meaning of art of his time. It is easier to understand the art that has just some images like portraits or landscapes rather than an artwork constructed on the lines and some shapes therefore I could recommend his books to everyone who has problems to red different art.


Marc Chagall's art at that time was gloomy, scarry and the shapes were more looking as a cubs.


Fauvism is the next movement and last only a few years from 1915 till 1920. This movement decided not to copy anything that was created before them and took massive step forward forgetting about the Impressionism. The surnames that represent this movement are: Andre Derain, Henri Matisse, Raul Duffy,

Henri Matisse was the main artist standing behind this movement as he decided to use the space of the canvas in a different way. He wanted to define the space by the movement of the colours. He used a space and filled it with mainly a one colour then moving to another part of the canvas and using another colour. His models look like there are build from different blocks and geometrics shapes. At the first glance we may have an impression there was something wrong with their proportions however when we look closely we find out that there were absolutely fine. The style of his painting is rather messy and looks like Matisse was satisfied with the painting at the first stage just like he made a sketch and decided to move to another project. Why do I have this impression? The canvas looks like has just one layer of the paint and some spaces look like there is not enough of to cover the canvas. It looks like he used too much of paint that was not thick enough. However this is the style we fall in love with. His most famous art work is: The open Window (1905), Women with The Hat (1905), Blue Nude (1907), Dance I (1909).

Andre Derain created Regent Street, Fishing Boats and many more. The Regent Street is very charming painting with loads of movements and running horses. The colours are bright and light. His srt work looks like from the Impressionism rather than the Fauvizm.


Cubist started from the 1920 up till 1925 with two main artists Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. They used the subjects that were recognizable in normal day life. In Tate Modern Gallery we can get close to the paintings fro this movement such as : “Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass,Guitar and Newspaper” or “Still Life” by Pablo Picasso. “Clarinet and Bottle of Rum on the Mantelpiece” by Georges Braque. Speaking about Pablo Picasso I cant forget the exhibition I have seen at the Museum of Picasso in Barcelona in 2014. This museum has an amazing collection of his work and it is really worth of going there once you are in Barcelona.

The main Polish artists who represented this movement was Tadeusz Makowski and I can proudly say I am a graduate of his school in Lodz. This school is called Tadeusz Makowski School of Fine Arts in Lodz. One of the paintings created by him were:”Palacze fajek”, “ Three Children Near a Road Sign”, “ The Shoemaker”, “ Winter”. His paintings are very much like the kids were painting them not and adult therefore he has never been taken as someone as good as Pablo Picasso for instance.



Surrealism 1925 till 1930 thinking about this time we have the artis such as Marcel Duchamp, Joan Miro, Dorothea Tanning.



Bauhaus starts from 1930 till with the artist such as Paul Klee, Lazslo Moholy-Nagy, Naum Gabo.

 
 
Research point


Laurence Stephen Lowry

Laurence Stephen Lowry in documentary movie about his art work expressed his passion towards the art in such a simply way. He often says that he paints what he sees and he likes what he sees. He was incredible good in executing the urban composition and in such a naïve but yet charming way he knew how to paint people walking and moving from one place to another. He was also painting on the white background many times.

 My plan for this exercise is to go to the nearest town and sit down on the fence to paint a couple of little quick paintings. I will go to Harlow Town with my little easel and acrylic paints as they dry quicker and they are nearly as good as oil paints. I am not sure how will I paint surrounded by people but it will be good experience for me as a developing artist.

 

This first one does not look very impressive to me I have to admit. What should I change ? What do I like about it? The first thing I am pleased with is the freshness where the brush line is till looks like it needs to be corrected it makes it look as it is just a sketch. I am pleased with the colour of the background the reason for this is the medium I have used by this I mean a small cardboard. What I do not like is look of the people where I can not show their small individual characters. It is not easy to paint while you are sitting on the edge of the fence in the busy shopping street. I will use different colour to paint the people on the street.







This one looks more interesting and the people have great look. Much more specific than on my first attempt. I am very impressed how much different it looks by only changing  the colour. I decided to paint only a shape of some people I have met on the street. If gives a charm to this naïve small sketch.





This third one is much more advanced in my opinion as I already knew what to do to guide my brush in the way how I liked. I am very impressed and really happy with this little painting.



 
 
Research point – practical

Matisse

I was not aware of Matisse creative carrier life. After a little research I found out that the most important for us pieces were created when he was bit older and he was not able to paint as he use to do it when he was young and healthy. It was really inspiring to read about him and how devoted to the art he has. Not many artists can do something like not giving up on dreams and keep creating despite of disability and limitations of different kind. I do remember when I broke my left wrist and was off from work for six months I was so determined to not to waste that time and I created the biggest paintings and most colourful from my all collection. The mind try to take away you from the worries and physical pain that you can be in that is why creativity is very helpful to survived the difficult times.
How did I do with my attempt of crating an art work based on Matisse  cut out style? I admit I had lots of fun with quick cutting out some round shapes and placing  them on the big paper. Actually it did not make me think of some childish paper art work as I thought at the beginning. It was a great relaxing creative time.


 
 
Research Point
 
Automatism in art.
 Automatism in art is all about letting your unconscious mind to create whatever it wants. I had no idea how does it work until I decided to try sketch a few pages wile my little one was watching a telly. After w while my hand was drawing some amazing shapes I had no idea of existing in my head. Some of them are bit sharp and some shapes are loose and soft. It is bit like with dancing when  your body to relax and you  just let go then body creates some new moves.  
 

 

 
 
 

 
 

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