20th century art history: April 2012

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Andrew Klein, week 5 homework

This piece is representative of the works done by Pablo Picasso in the 1930s. During this period he built upon the foundation of Synthetic Cubism he developed in the 1920s and started to add elements of political and social commentary. One of most used symbols was that of the bull or minotaur, which depending on which translations of his work you ascribe to, acts as a sort of heraldic national symbol for Spain or as a symbol for the brutality which the Spanish people endured in the 30s and 40s during the civl war and WW2. In this piece, the bull is attacking a citizen, while others, fenced off, watch helplessly. The portrayed idea is one of helplessness in the face of modern "total" war.

This piece was created in maya with a few layer adjustments in photoshop.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Journey of Colin Cherlin by CBell weeks1-3

Week one

Colin Cherlin was raised in Parma, OH. His mother was a elementary school teacher and at young age took him to museums in a attempt to give him the culture she felt their poor neighborhood was lacking. His father worked impossible hours in the salt mines below Lake Erie. Taken by the art he saw prior that day, he attempted to recreate his own. The result was this first portrait of his father, arriving home from work.

Week two

Years later, Colin’s mother left to meet her sisters new husband in Fort Riley, Kansas. Upon her return she became deathly ill. She was soon diagnosed with Spanish flu and died like most of the infected. Colin’s father was in shambles. The lost of his wife compounded with her suspected infidelity, forced him to renounce everything she stood for. No longer given supplies or opportunity for art, Colin would not let his passion die. Using the often uncompleted newspaper puzzles his father would disregard, Colin created this work in secret.

Week three

Longing to be released from mundane life of factory work his father had planned for him, Colin stowed away aboard a merchant marine freighter. At the end of the cruise, he found himself in the heart of where he was surrounded by numerous other kindred spirits, the city of Paris, France. Now immersed in artistic culture, Colin was able to start to full explore his potential but not without lingering regrets of home. This early painting shows the struggle he had deciding his true path in life.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Andrew Klein's week 3 Homework

This piece was inspired by the Greek Surrealist artist Giorgio de Chirico. He was influenced by his Mediterranean surroundings in much of his subject matter, which he painted in an austere and lonely sort of way. The piece created here attempts a painterly style, outlined, and with strong harsh shadows, including neo-classical elements such as towers, arches, and greco-roman styled sculpture.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Surrealism

"Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings.

Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur; however, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Leader André Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was above all a revolutionary movement.
Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities during World War I and the most important center of the movement was Paris. From the 1920s onward, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film, and music of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, philosophy, and social theory."

Wikipedia

Andre Breton - wikipedia - artcyclopedia

Max Ernst - wikipedia - artcylcopedia - google images

Georgio De Chirico - wikipedia - artcyclopedia - google images

Jean Arp - wikipedia - artcyclopedia - google images

Man Ray - wikipedia - artcyclopedia - google images

Joan Miro - wikipedia - artcyclopedia - google images

Rene Magritte - wikipedia - artcyclopedia - google images

Salvador Dali - wikipedia - artcyclopedia - google images

The Magnetic Fields (first literary work of surrealism)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Champs_Magnétiques

Andrew Klein's week 1 and 2 Homework

This piece is inspired by the work on Constantin Brancusi who created the bulk of his most famous work in the 1910s. As a pioneer of abstract sculpture, he was drawn to the minimization of form and created an aesthetic designed with the same treatments as primitivistic and tribal/neolithic sculpture. For Brancusi, the "visible world veiled mystic truths and obscured the essence of reality" (1). The piece I have created in 3d displays a similar interest in the primitive essence of the human form as subject matter.

(1) Modern Art, Sam Hunter, John Jacobus, Daniel Wheeler. 2000. Prentice Hall

This piece from Week 1 is based off of the work from Emil Nolde, a member of the Die Brucke (the Bridge). It is representative of the time he spent in the tropics, and uses a limited color palette with flatly applied color.