Max Ernst 1891-1976

German-born painter, sculptor and printmaker; one of the leading Surrealists.

Born at Brühl, near Cologne.

Began to study philosophy at the University of Bonn in 1909, but became increasingly preoccupied with painting; self-taught, but influenced by van Gogh and Macke.

Artillery officer in the First World War. The paintings of de Chirico helped to stimulate his interest in dream-like fantastic imagery, and he founded the Cologne Dada group with Baargeld and Arp 1919-21. Made collages and, later, paintings with irrational combinations of imagery. First one-man exhibition at the Galerie Au sans Pareil, Paris, 1921. In 1922 moved to Paris, where his friendship with Breton and Eluard led to active participation in the Surrealist movement. His discovery of the technique of frottage (rubbing) in 1925 provided him with a means of evoking hallucinatory visions. Collage novels and illustrations, including La Femme 100 Têtes 1929 and Une Semaine de Bonté 1934. Made his first sculpture in 1934. Went to the USA as a refugee in 1941, living first in or near New York, then in Sedona, Arizona; from 1950 again lived mainly in France. Awarded the main painting prize at the 1954 Venice Biennale. Died in Paris.

L'ange du Foyeur

African Sonata

Vladimir Kush was born in Russia, in a one-story wooden house near the Moscow forest-park Sokolniki.

At the age of seven Vladimir began to attend art school until late evening where he became acquainted with the works of great artists of the Renaissance, famous Impressionists, and Modern Artists.

Vladimir entered the Moscow Higher Art and Craft School at age 17, but a year later he was conscripted. After six months of military training the unit commander thought it more appropriate to employ him exclusively for peaceful purposes, namely, painting propagandistic posters.

After military service and graduating the Institute of Fine Arts, Vladimir painted portraits on Arbat Street to support his family during the hard times in Russia.

In the year 1987, Vladimir began to take part in exhibitions organized by the Union of Artists. At a show in Coburg, Germany in 1990, nearly all his displayed paintings sold and after closing the exhibition, he flew to Los Angeles where 20 of his works were exhibited and began his “American Odyssey.”

In Los Angeles, Kush worked in a small, rented home garage, but was unable to find a place to display his paintings. He earned money by drawing portraits on the Santa Monica pier and eventually was able to purchase a ticket to his “Promised Land,” Hawaii.

In 1993, a dealer from France noticed the originality of Kush’s work and organized an exhibition in Hong Kong. Success surpassed all expectations. In 1995, a new exhibition in Hong Kong at the Mandarin Fine Art Gallery brought more success. In 1997 he had a new start in the USA exhibiting in the galleries in Lahaina, Hawaii and in Seattle. In 2001 Kush opened his first gallery, Kush Fine Art in Lahaina, Hawaii. He now has 4 gallery locations in the USA with future plans to open more galleries around the world.

Man Ray 1890-1976

American painter, maker of Surrealist objects and photographer. Born in Philadelphia. Worked in an advertising office and then part-time as draughtsman for publishers of books on engineering, atlases and maps.

Attended life-drawing classes at the Ferrer Center, New York, under George Bellows in 1912. After seeing the Armory Show in 1913, began to paint in a Cubist style.

Met Duchamp in 1915 and collaborated with him in initiating a proto-Dada movement in New York. First one-man exhibition at the Daniel Gallery, New York, 1915.

Began to make abstract paintings in 1916, with flat forms and vivid colours, and also experimented with airbrush paintings and sculpture-objects.

Moved to Paris in 1921 and was introduced by Duchamp to Breton and his circle.

Participated in the Dada and Surrealist movements with paintings, assemblage-objects and photographs.

Mainly active for some years as portrait and fashion photographer, and as pioneer of new photographic techniques such as rayographs and solarizations.

Painted regularly again from the mid 1930s, at first in an illusionistic style inspired by de Chirico and Magritte.

Spent 1940-51 in the USA, living in Hollywood, then in 1951 returned to Paris. Died in Paris.

La Fortune,Oil on canvas, 24 × 29 in. (61 × 73.7 cm)

Artist Tara Donovan

DATES

Born 1969, New York, New York

Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York

EDUCATION

1991, Corcoran College of Art and Design, Washington, D.C., B.F.A.

1999, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, M.F.A. Sculpture

Tara Donovan (b. 1969, New York) creates large-scale installations and sculptures made from everyday objects. Known for her commitment to process, she has earned acclaim for her ability to discover the inherent physical characteristics of an object and transform it into art. Donovan’s many accolades include the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award (2008); and first annual Calder Prize (2005), among others. For over a decade, numerous museums have mounted solo exhibitions of Donovan’s work including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2007-2008), UCLA Hammer Museum (2004), and Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1999-2000). Donovan’s first European presentation is currently on view at the Arp Museum Bahnhof, Rolandseck, Remagen, Germany, an exhibition that originated this past year at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark. The artist joined Pace Gallery in 2005.

Michelle Griffiths

Michelle Griffiths is a professional artist/teacher, living and working in South Wales. She is the World Shibori Network representative for UK/Ireland.

Her work is on permanent exhibition in her gallery/studio at Model House Craft & Design Centre, Llantrisant, where she continues to develop the shibori study centre with its shibori workshop programme, textile collection, and reference library.

The World Shibori Network (WSN) was founded in 1992 in Nagoya, Japan, as a grass roots organization dedicated to the preservation of Japanese shibori and similar traditional techniques across the globe.

Her own work explores the natural rhythm of traditional shibori techniques in order to create contemporary three dimensional sculptures. Working predominantly in whites and creams Michelle records the actions found within shibori; stitching, binding, gathering, manipulating and folding - not through the expected dye process, but purely as texture and form.  

Artist

Louise Baldwin

Born

1956 in Walsall West Midlands UK

Region

Arts Council England London

Work Made

Wall Hangings

Materials Used

Mixed media - fabric paper paint

Methods Used

Hand and machine stitched collaged

Louise has exhibited her work throughout Britain, in America, Japan and Germany. Baldwin's recent pieces now incorporate found imagery colour and domestic packaging alongside fabric and simple stitch to produce rich small scale textiles that explore some of the complexities of contemporary life.

The most recent works are constructed mainly from the mundane waste of domestic packaging; biscuit wrappers, medication boxes, card form toys etc. It is collaged together and then machine stitched to just take it back a level before 'idyllic' or 'naive' imagery is hand stitched onto the surface. ‘I have become interested in the different levels at which humans operate on a day to day basis; the ordinary and the throwaway elements placed alongside our imagination, ambitions and desires; one forms the background for the other and realities become blurred.’

 

Artist

Alison Willoughby

Born

1977 in Truro Cornwall

Region

Arts Council England London

Work Made

Hand constructed skirts

Materials Used

Cotton, wool, silk, linen, taffeta, chiffon and print pigments

Methods Used

Printing, embroidery, cutwork

Alison Willoughby is a textile artist who designs and constructs individual hand made skirts. Her interest in skirts grew from researching the kilt and disrupting the tradition of the kilt how the kilt is constructed and how it is used in today's society. Her research was transferred into skirts and the idea of a skirt as a "canvas" for her textile knowledge and designs - with no darts just flat simple and plain. Alison combines new and salvaged materials with a number of techniques: print hand and machine embroidery fabric manipulation and appliqué. She is constantly collecting elements which are woven and sculpted in to her garments. Inspiration is taken from external locations and inner city environments. Through photography Alison captures the disintegration of layered fly posters. The mixture and juxtaposition of the printed image placement colour texture and shape that occur through the slow build up and break down of these surfaces are of particular interest to her. Alison has had her work selected by The Pure Living in Selfridges. Labour of Love Dialogue -between art and fashion Mint and Johnny Moke in London and Ysh in Tokyo have all sold her work. She recently completed solo shows in the British Council's window gallery in Prague and Urban Outfitters in London and Glasgow. Alison has been commissioned by Liberty and the Arts Council of England has designed for Oilily ZPM Susan Cianciolo Julian Roberts and Tait and Style Knitwear in Orkney and regularly undertakes private commissions.

Branded 1992

Jenny Saville

Branded  (1992)

Oil and mixed media on canvas

82½ x 70½in. (209.5 x 179cm.)

Artist Jenny Saville was born in Cambridge, England in 1970. She received her BA of Fine Art with Honors from the Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow, Scotland. Her medium of choice is oil paint, and she uses this to layer the paint with thick brush strokes to give character and dimension to the skin of the bodies she paints.

Jenny Saville is one of the female artists of the late-20th century who has truly reinvented the self-portrait. “Her work is a textbook example of the way contemporary women artists have expanded the self-portrait tradition, in this case to raise questions about accepted ideals of beauty in fine art and life”. She challenges the male fantasy of the perfect body and opens doors to alternative notions of beauty.

Saville fights society’s ideal of the perfect body by showing her own enlarged and distorted body, which becomes the opposite of the skin and bones we see on the covers of magazines. In many paintings, she uses her own head and face and the body of an obese woman. "Jenny Saville has visualised her concern about the tyranny wielded over women by the fantasy of the perfect body in a series of larger-than-life-size nudes overlain with contour lines, words, and the kind of marks made by plastic surgeons in preparation for their cuts.

As well as addressing perfection, she also addresses imperfection.

Both of the following paintings are perfect examples of the freedom of the modern artist to explore the reality of the female body. No longer is the female body an object to view; it has become a vehicle to express ideas and emotions and to ignite introspection about the viewers own ideas and emotions surrounding body image. "Saville originally began making her large-scale painting of female nudes by using photographs of parts of her own body to explore the role of model and artist at the same time. Both seductive and disturbing, Saville's images present the female nude pushing out towards the viewer, rather than being safely contained within a frame" (Phelan and Reckitt 187).

"Branded" is one example of Saville using her own face on top of her enlarged body. Here, the obese body is raw and shows every imperfection. The body is inscribed with words such as "delicate," 'supportive,' 'irrational,' 'decorative,' and 'petite.'

Saville has used very raw colours, she uses these colours to show others how they see bigger bodies and scars, this means that when others see it they think its unattractive or ugly, so Saville uses the colours to create a dirty body and a dirty background, it takes a brave confident person to show their own body to everyone, Saville is saying to us how it doesn't matter if you're big or small or you have scars on your body, if you're confident with yourself and love your body then people are going to accept you for who you are, today's society/media tells us how they think we should look, when really we shouldn't look like anyone, we should be original, ourselves.

David with the Head of Goliath c1610

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio 29 September 1572 – 18 July 1610) was an Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1592 (1595) and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, shining a spotlight directly one direction at the object. Had a formative influence on Baroque painting. 

Caravaggio trained as a painter in Milan under Simone Peterzano who had himself trained under Titian. In his twenties Caravaggio moved to Rome where there was a demand for paintings to fill the many huge new churches and palazzos being built at the time. It was also a period when the Church was searching for a stylistic alternative to Mannerism in religious art that was tasked to counter the threat of Protestantism.

He burst upon the Rome art scene in 1600 with the success of his first public commissions, the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and Calling of Saint Matthew. Thereafter he never lacked commissions or patrons, yet he handled his success poorly. He was jailed on several occasions, vandalized his own apartment, and ultimately had a death warrant issued for him by the Pope.

David with the Head of Goliath is a painting by the Italian Baroque artist Caravaggio. David with the Head of Goliath is, according to art historians, a self-portrait of Caravaggio

The painting has been dated as early as 1605 and as late as 1609–1610

The immediate inspiration for Caravaggio is a work by a follower of Giorgione, c.1510.

The painting shows a young man, David, with his chest partially bared as though his shepherd’s tunic had fallen in disarray in the heat of the conflict. David’s left hand grips the hair from which the decapitated head of Goliath is suspended. Goliath’s mouth is partially open, as though the moment of death was mid-scream. His sightless eyes glare dazedly beneath hooded lids at nothing, as blood drips grotesquely from his detached head.

As David holds the head, he looks at it with a downcast expression that has been the subject of much conjecture. Some believe the look is pensive, compassionate, and filled with remorse. Others see a look of quiet triumph, exemplified by the brightness of his face in contrast with the rest of the painting.

The weapon in David’s hand is not the famous sling of the Biblical story, but Goliath’s own sword which was used by David against him. A close look at the sword shows the following inscription: “H-AS OS” which is believed to be an abbreviation for the Latin phrase “Humilitas occidit superbiam” (humility shall kill pride).

The colours used in this painting are dark and warm, the background is dark, it was painted black in order to make David and Goliath stand out, we can see that David is standing out the most, showing he is a hero for killing a giant, half of his right arm is shaded dark because of the spotlight shining directly at one spot which is mostly his arm holding Goliath's head and David's his chest. 

This painting is a realistic depiction, it has very real features and very realistic details on David's body and Goliath's head.

David with the head of Goliath's painting has a 3 dimensional feature, the fact that David and Goliath stand out from the dark background gives this image a 3 dimensional look but the canvas is a flat surface otherwise.

This Painting is very interesting, there is so much history behind it, I adore how the light shines only at one spot and giving that area so much details to look at, it truly is a great piece, Caravaggio had very realistic painting skills, he could paint a human with so much accurate details, showing every small part makes it stand out a lot from the dark background, 

Self Portrait With Thorn Necklace
1940

Oil on canvas
25" x 19 ½" 

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter who is known best for her self-portraits.

Kahlo's life began and ended in Mexico City, in her home known as the Blue House. Her work has been celebrated in Mexico as emblematic of national and indigenous tradition and by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.

Kahlo had a volatile marriage with the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera. She suffered lifelong health problems, many caused by a traffic accident she survived as a teenager. Recovering from her injuries isolated her from other people, and this isolation influenced her works, many of which are self-portraits of one sort or another. Kahlo suggested, "I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best'.

Kahlo faces the viewer with her head and shoulders taking up much of the space. She is surrounded by green leaves of similar size and shape with one yellow leaf behind her head. On the left side of the painting a spider monkey holds a piece of the thorns that encircle her neck. There are several drops of blood on her neck from the piercing thorns. A black cat looks over her other shoulder. A black hummingbird hangs from the thorns with its beak in the hollow of her throat. Her hair is piled with a purple textile into a figure eight-like design with two butterfly-like creatures with lace wings visible on either side. Two creatures fly above her head with a flower body and dragonfly wings. Kahlo's expression is solemn and appears to be patiently enduring pain. Her focus is inward and not engaging with the viewer.

A rounded arched shape is repeated throughout the composition. It is seen in the wings of the hummingbird, the shapes on the leaves, the mustache, the eyebrows, the hair braid, and in the wings of the insects. The portrait uses symmetrical balance with Kahlo placed in the center of the composition, the bird position, the eyebrows, the mustache, and the hair part all dividing the figure into two symmetrical halves. The environment is less symmetrical with two different creatures behind her shoulders and the more random placement of leaves and the contrast of the yellow leaf behind her head. The background uses mostly cool colors. The color on the figure is mostly warm with very pink cheeks and red lips. Her neck appears uncomfortably long. The repeated arched shape unifies the work by connecting the figure to the environment. The placement of the hummingbird is unusual and draws attention to Kahlo's facial expression.

The unusual creatures and placement of the figure in the environment suggest that Kahlo is not painting a purely realistic scene, but is arranging symbolic elements to communicate a feeling or idea. A bird often symbolizes freedom and a hummingbird is often thought to be colorful and hovering above a flower, yet this bird is black, lifeless, and tied to her necklace of thorns. Frida Kahlo spent much of her life in physical pain after a streetcar accident at age fifteen which resulted in thirty five operations to try to repair her body. In her recovery she was often confined to her bed. She could not have children, but she did have several pet monkeys that were her beloved companions. Kahlo painted many self-portraits often with animals surrounding her.

This painting makes me feel upset because it shows how much pain Frida Kahlo has suffered, even though it ended like that, Kahlo's seemed to be a very strong artists and whatever accident or reason Kahlo's had, art would not be given up, Kahlo's has been painting at home, in her own time.

This piece of work is very powerful, it is showing us a lot about Frida Kahlo's past and how Kahlo's lived, suffered a lot of pain from a divorce with Diego Rivera and couldn't seem to get over him, Kahlo's was also alone most of the time, hence why the art work Frida Kahlo's has painted was mostly self-portraits.

The Persistence of Memory

Artist                   Salvador Dali

Year                    1931

Type                    Oil on canvas

Dimensions          24 cm × 33 cm (9.5 in × 13 in)

Location               Museum of Modern Art, New York City

Salvador Dali was a Spanish Surreal Artist (1904 - 1989).

The well-known surrealist piece introduced the image of the soft melting pocket watch in landscape. It epitomizes Dali’s theory of "softness" and "hardness", which was central to his thinking at the time Dawn Ades wrote "The soft watches are an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time, a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order.’’

This interpretation suggests that Dali was incorporating an understanding of the world introduced by Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. Asked by Ilya Prigogine whether this was in fact the case, Dali replied that the soft watches were not inspired by the theory of relativity, but by the surrealist perception of a Camembert cheese melting in the sun.

Although fundamentally part of Dali’s Freudian phase, the imagery precedes his transition to his scientific phase by fourteen years, which occurred after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

The iconography may refer to a dream that Dali himself had experienced, and the clocks may symbolize the passing of time as one experiences it in sleep or the persistence of time in the eyes of the dreamer. The orange clock at the bottom left of the painting is covered in ants. Dali often used ants in his paintings as a symbol of decay.

The Persistence of Memory employs "the exactitude of realist painting techniques to depict imagery more likely to be found in dreams than in waking consciousness.

The craggy rocks to the right represent a tip of Cap de Creus peninsula in north-eastern Catalonia. Many of Dali’s paintings were inspired by the landscapes of his life in Catalonia. The strange and foreboding shadow in the foreground of this painting is a reference to Mount Pani.

The Persistence of Memory is a very interesting surreal piece, seeing melting clock at the beach is a little odd for us to see, the title is pretty straight forward though, 

The Persistence of Memory, a memory is something we store in our head from the past and persistence is to be passionate about something, or to not give up on something you're doing and can't seem to succeed at it. you'll be fighting for it till you get it right. 

Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion c. 1944

Francis Bacon was born on 28 October 1909 - 28 April 1992, Francis Bacon was an Irish-born British Figurative painter known for his bold, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. His painterly but abstracted figures typically appear isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages, set against flat, nondescript backgrounds.

Bacon began painting during his early 20's and worked only sporadically until his mid-30s. Unsure of his ability as a painter, he drifted and earned his living as an interior decorator and the designer of furniture, rugs and bathroom tiles. Later, he admitted that his career was delayed because he had spent too long looking for a subject that would sustain his interest. His breakthrough came with the 1944 triptych Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion which sealed his reputation as a uniquely bleak chronicler of the human condition.

Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion c. 1944 as titled above, painted by Francis in London, it is an abstract painting, painted with oil paint on Sundeala fibre boards, measuring 116.2 x 96 x 8 cm

Colours in this art piece represent the mood, and meaning behind it, the red and orange background represents how shockingly disturbing it was what humans have done to other humans in the World War II, the disfigured creatures in the painting look devastated and broke, angry, they are screaming for help, one image, this powerful can show a lot about the war, how shocking it was, how badly people/animals suffered.

Francis Bacon's painting, this particular one makes me shocked about the meaning of this image he painted, because the meaning behind it is very disturbing and unpleasant, imagining people how they suffered and died.

Overall I love this piece, it's so powerful, the whole point of this is to make people realise how horrible and selfish they were to each other between World War I and World War II.

Cubism

What is cubism? Cubism was an art movement invented jointly by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Picasso and Braque shared their ideas and the result of their combined vision was called cubism. The foundation of the movement was Picasso’s early work including Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, which gradually developed into the style we now recognise as cubism.

Cubism was the first of the Abstract Art movements of the 20th century. It was praised by the avant garde and seen as the future of art. It quickly took hold amongst the arty elite in Europe. The public however gave this radical new movement a luke warm reception at first. An art critic at the time said one canvas looked like a sheet of broken glass.

Some say the name was suggested by Picasso’s friend and rival Henri Matisse others credit the French art critic Louis Vauxcelles with coining the term.

In cubism, traditional ideas of painting such as proportions and perspective were abandoned in favour of a minds eye or total view of an object.

Cubists argued that the mind sees an object from many different viewpoints simultaneously and can hold all these in the memory to create what we know as the object. When seen from above or below or from behind or to the side, the mind can put all these viewpoints together simultaneously to recognise an object.

Perspective had been used in painting since the 15th century to reproduce a three dimensional image on a two dimensional canvas. This wasn’t enough for the cubists who wanted to capture the notion of several viewpoints at once to create a multi dimensional image on a two dimensional canvas. They wanted a total view, a multi dimensional view.

Organic shapes were distilled into geometric angular patterns of colour. Cubism was not haphazard but very analytical and each shape was created with purpose and design. Subjects were carefully deconstructed and then reconstructed as if seen from several viewpoints simultaneously. This shattered the ideals of conventional art at the time which Picasso, Braque and their contemporaries considered too stuck in the past.

There were two stages of cubism, first came Synthetic Cubism between 1907-1911 followed by Analytic Cubism 1912-1921. Although artists continued working in the cubist style, around this time the vitality of the movement petered out. The Surrealist movement came along and gradually replaced it.

Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square 

The Fourth Plinth is a plinth in Trafalgar Square in central London. It was originally intended to hold an equestrian statue of William IV, but remained bare due to insufficient funds. For over 150 years the fate of the plinth was debated; in 1999, a sequence of three contemporary artworks to be displayed on the plinth were announced. The success of this initiative led to a commission being formed to decide on a use for the plinth. Eventually that commission unanimously decided to continue using it for the temporary display of artworks.

There is a plinth at each of the four corners of the square. The two southern plinths carry sculptures of Henry Havelock and Charles James Napier . The northern plinths are larger than those as they were designed to have equestrian statues, and indeed the north eastern plinth has one of George IV. The fourth plinth on the north west corner, designed by Sir Charles Barry and built in 1841, was intended to hold an equestrian statue of William IV , but remained empty due to insufficient funds.

   

              

Mystery and Melancholy of a Street (1914)

Mystery and Melancholy of a Street (1914) was painted by an Italian Surrealist Artist called Giorgio de Chirico. Giorgio de Chirico was born in 1888-1978, born at Volo in Greece.

Giorgio de Chirico has studied drawing and painting at the Athens Polytechnic 1903-6 and for eighteen months at the Munich Academy, where he discovered the work of Bocklin.

The title of this painting is 'Mystery and Melancholy of a street' the meaning of this title is, surrealism, mystery, magic, dreams, we can see that in this painting there's a young girl with a hoop and possibly a man in the distance, the title has the word melancholy in it, which means sad, does this mean the people in this street are sad and lonely? maybe there's a powerful meaning behind this, but what we see it as, isn't really what it might be, that is why the title has 'Mystery' in it, it's all hidden meaning that is for us to figure out. 

The street in this painting has been captured on an afternoon, almost sunset time, in Autumn.

Long shadows entering the street as the sun is slowly setting down, not yet a sunset, but it is clear the day will soon end. The shadows capture every movement or object in the painting, seeing as the shadows, night has already come. Two people are seen in this painting, a girl, and possibly a man in the distance, not his body is showing but his shadow, as its growing from the sunlight 

Mystery and Melancholy of a street (1914) was painted with oil paint in Italy, canvas measuring 88 x 72 cm. Mystery and Melancholy of a Street is a surreal painting, the image was painted really smoothly, also really sharp and edgy, the painting is full of beautiful warm colours, greens, yellows, whites, reds, blues, and light shades, mostly its dark as the shadow is blocking the rest of the street leaving it a dark diagonal line. 

Self Portrait 1997

'Self Portrait 1997' is a portrait painted by Chuck Close, he was born in America in 1940, Chuck Close has been a leading figure in contemporary art since the early 1970's. Over the years, Close's works have evolved from harsh black-and-white images to colourful and brightly patterned canvases of an almost abstract painterliness.

The self portrait is of a man looking directly above him or looking up into space, it can mean anything, he might be thinking about life, or he might be looking at something that is above him, like admiring a painting at the museum or watching builders build. 

The paint used on this canvas is oil paint, with canvas measuring 8' 6'' (259.1 x 213.4 cm).

The colours used in this painting are, pink, red, blue, green, black, brown, dark green. white, peach, purple, grey, burgundy, dark blue. The image is placed in the middle of the canvas, making the mans face fill up the whole of the canvas.

The art piece has a very unique style of painting, Chuck Close uses diamond shapes instead of lines, in each diamond there's little circles of different colours inside, giving it extra colour. the self portrait also looks three dimensional and bumpy, the art piece has a very realistic illusion. 

I really like this piece of art because it has amazing details, I like how from a distance you see it as just a good self portrait but once you get closer you see all these little diamonds and little bubbles bursting with colours, its amazing, and a very unique piece also, I would say the atmosphere in this painting is very straight forward, the mans staring up, but it questions its viewers if he is just looking up or if he's thinking about something precious to him, or if there's a hidden meaning behind this painting. 

 

The False Mirror.

This image was painted by Rene Magritte, painted in the year 1928 in Paris.  This image Rene Magritte painted questions people whether what they are seeing corresponds with what they think they know.  Rene Magritte was a surreal artists and liked to paint surreal paintings, this was taken part in Paris between the World War I and World War II The style of this type of art work has also been referred to as “magical realism.”

The colours used in this particular art piece are blue, light blue, white, shades of brown, red and pink.  The colours were used to relate to a real eye but add a surreal image instead the eye to make the image look very unique. 


On this image, I can see the artists used round shapes, oval shapes mostly to show that it's the shape of a real eye.  The surface on this image is very round and sharp, it stands out a lot because it looks 3 dimensional, the eye is centred in the middle of the canvas.

The artist has painted the image full size, the image covers the whole canvas, leaving no gaps.

This image can relate to people who have been confused between the World War I and World War II also questioning why there has to be a war between people and why it's so hard to find and give peace, it can also relate to a person daydreaming.

Surrealism artists have painted a lot of images during the 1920's, such as Max Ernst with his art piece The Elephant Celebes in the 1920's in London.

This painting 'The False Mirror' is of an eye, but instead of painting a real eye instead, Magritte painted an image of the sky and clouds, making it more surreal and imaginary, it looks like the person is daydreaming, or they're unconscious, the image is looking at its viewers making them question the image.  This painting is a landscape, Dimensions  L54 cm x W81 cm.  Rene Magritte has called this art piece 'The False Mirror' because it looks like a reflection of a mirror or a glass, it is named 'The False Mirror' because it isn't real, his work is surreal, by the name 'The False Mirror' tells us it isn't real. 

'The False Mirror' painting was painted with oil paint and a brush, the artist made this piece look very clear for us to see, he didn't add any marks or any extra lines, he made it very sharp, to add in more of the surreal like texture.

This art piece makes me feel relaxed as I love looking at the sky, but in an unusual way, it also doesn't make sense to me why he added the sky into the eye, but that was his aim to make it unrealistic.  The atmosphere in this particular art piece is very edgy and sharp, its very clear, you're looking at the sky, it's a little bit creepy that the eye is looking directly at it's viewers but it adds the unrealistic vibe to it, the atmosphere is relaxed and wide, opened and bright, this art piece overall is remarkable.

Check out this Cubism video to help you learn more about it!
http://youtu.be/_jRan3u4ndc

Vincent Van Gogh

Van Gogh is now one of the most well-known post-Impressionist painters, although he was not widely appreciated in his lifetime.

Vincent Van Gogh was born on 30 March 1853 in Zundert in the southern Netherlands, the son of a pastor. In 1869, he took his first job, working in the Hague branch of an international art dealing firm. He began to write to his younger brother Theo, a correspondence which continued for the rest of Van Gogh's life.

Van Gogh's job took him to London and Paris, but he was not interested in the work and was dismissed in 1876. He briefly became a teacher in England, and then, deeply interested in Christianity, a preacher in a mining community in southern Belgium.

In 1880, at the age of 27, he decided to become an artist. He moved around, teaching himself to draw and paint and receiving financial support from Theo. In 1886, Van Gogh joined Theo in Paris, and met many artists including Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Pissarro and Gauguin, with whom he became friends. His style changed significantly under the influence of Impressionism, becoming lighter and brighter. He painted a large number of self-portraits in this period.

In 1888, Van Gogh moved to Provence in southern France, where he painted his famous series 'Sunflowers'. He invited Gauguin to join him but they soon began to quarrel and one night, Van Gogh threatened Gauguin with a razor. Deeply remorseful he then cut off part of his own ear.

This was the first serious sign of the mental health problems that were to afflict Van Gogh for the rest of his life. He spent time in psychiatric hospitals and swung between periods of inertia, depression and incredibly concentrated artistic activity, his work reflecting the intense colours and strong light of the countryside around him.

On 27 July 1890, again suffering from depression, Van Gogh shot himself. He died two days later.

Portrait of Vincent Van Gogh

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was born on the 25th October 1881 and died on 8th April 1973 (aged 91).
He was born in Malaga, Spain but he grew up in Barcelona.
He was married to Jacqueline Rogue (1961).

During Picasso's blue period his friend Carlos Casagemas died.
In 1937 following the Nazi Germany's bombing in Guernica.

Guernica.


When Picasso's friend Carlos Casagemas died, Picasso painted several posthumous portraits of him.
Picasso then Produced a piece called Guernica after the Nazi Germany's bombing.

Cubism

Cubism is an early-20-century-avant-garde art movements by Pablo Picasso, a modern approach to painting.

Picasso's aim was to influence other artists and painters, also to look at his work as a new way of art,
to look at it in a number of angles and ways.

Pablo Picasso had influence on the 20th century art and he also admired El Grecos works.

I have chosen Picassos's work because it's really interesting how he gets his ideas for his art work and paintings, it has so much meanings and so powerful yet it looks so simple, his techniques are incredible.
I would love to learn the techniques for his art work and make it as powerful as his.

Picassos' quotes:
''Actions is the foundational key to all success.''

 ''Cubism''

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