Ash4227's Blog

The “Rank Badge” from the Ming dynasty made in the early 15th century in China. This piece of Asian art was done in honor of Myron S. Falk Jr. in 1988.

This is an embroider piece of silk floss with wrapped gold thread, and a flat gold on silk gauze.

Dragons are what I image when talking about Asian art. In restaurants I always see statues or paintings of dragons put up as decorations.

Why are dragons important in the Asian cultures??? It is because dragons traditionally symbolize strong and promising control over water, rainfall, and floods.

I liked this piece primarily because of the dragons face; I think its face expression looks strangely nice and friendly. The detail is amazing and just imagine how long this took by silk floss.

Le koriste Diola was created by max macodou diop in 1999. He says that his paintings give and impression of his traditional  culture that is slowly getting lost from his society. He says that his painting these day are mostly colorful pieces that resemble a puzzle.

The reason I chose this painting to preview was because of the patterns. To me the pattern makes the picture look like it could be tiled. I know it is not tiled but I like that i would have had me guessing if i did not already know that it was acrylic on fabric. Another reason I fell in love with this painting is because of how expressive it is. It makes me think of music and dancing.

Citation:

http://www.hollowear.com/gallery/macodou1.html

http://www.africaserver.nl/diop/

My theme for this virtual exhibit is the power of a women, I want to show off some of the women artists in history. The first women artist is Judith Baca. She was raised in an all women household, and was raised by her grandmother who was an herbal healer. Below are three of her pictures, under each will be a description. Eleanor Antin is the second female artist that I will preview. Eleanor Antin was born in New York City in 1935. She is an influential performance artist, filmmaker, and installation artist.

# 1 Dancers: This mural was done in 2009 and is still in progress. She is working on this picture for Latino Fine Arts Center in Dallas, Texas.

# 2 This Durango mural project, called Recollections was done in 2002.It was commissioned by the Latino Education project for the City of Durango Fine arts Center. This mural was the first by means of Internet in new processes used in the digital mural lab.

# 3 this mural Guadalupe was done in 1990, it was commissioned by the County of Santa Barbara Art commission. Local participants participated in the development of the picture. Currently it resides in Guadalupe City Hall.

# 4 Love’s Shadow by Eleanor Antin was created in 1985. This black and white film is a classical art form. Antin said, ” I adore the ballet, but in some ways it’s a completely ridiculous are form. It is so stupid, but it can be very beautiful.” I like this quote because it reveals Eleanor Antins emotional reaction to her piece of art.

# 5 This painting called Before the Revolution was done created by Eleanor Antin in 1979. It resides in the Ronald Feidman Fine Arts in New York. This piece of art is a humorous piece. Antin says that she sees the funny sides of things. She said that with laughter is mixed with tears you will get the best experience. This reaction to me is priceless. Her expression of this painting makes me laugh just because I know she enjoyed making this piece of art due to the humor it brought her.

#6 The Angel of Mercy was created by Eleanor Antin in 1977. The reason I chose this picture for my virtual slideshow is because of the character in the photo. Eleanor Nightingale, she was the founder of nursing as a profession. This women could easily be one of my idols simply because I feel that nurses are such an important profession and a much needed one for that matter.

Now that you have learned a little bit about each one of these pictures I will tie in the theme. The Power of a Woman is my theme, and the reason I chose these six works of art to represent that theme.

Pic #1 is called “Dancers” This pic is of a women and a man dancing. My reaction to this was gracefulness; she looked so graceful as well as the mixture of colors.

Pic #2 Is called “Recollections” In the upper half of this piece is a mother and her child, nurture is my reaction to this picture.

Pic #3 Is called Guadalupe; this is the angel of Guadalupe. The picture is a beautiful piece and the look on the angels face reminds me of patience.

Pic#4 is called “Loves Shadow” and the artist of this piece interprets the ballet as beautiful.

Pic# 5 Is called “Before the Revolution” and the author thought this painting resembled humor.

Pic #6 Is called “The Angel of Mercy” and this photo resembles a nurse.

To me the words gracefulness, nurture, patience, beautiful, humor, and nurse all resemble the nature of a women.  I choose these pictures from the two artists because they made me think of women and how they contribute to life.

“The Fountain” by Marcel Duchamp is a sculptor that was one of the most shocking pieces of art in the early modern period. Marcel Duchamp was one of the artists in the Dada movements, so this meant that his goal as an artist was to rebel against all the traditional values of art in the early modern period. The Dada artists believed that tradition had caused the WWl, therefor tradition had to be kicked to the curb. Marcel Duchamp sculpted a porcelen urinal that he named ” The Fountain.” This was a blunt attack on tradition, but who is to say it was the wrong move, this type of art is still being done today. His intentions were to reveal the objects taken out of their everyday traditional contexts. He hoped that his piece of art would someday be thought of as an accepted piece of art if it was framed as art. In 1917 Duchamp put his sculpture in and independant exibition in New York city. I think he is a genius for doing this, who is to say that people can’t change things up a bit. If it was not for him and his Dada movement this type of art may not be here today, which would be a shame 😦

The reason this sculpture was done was because of the Dada movement, and the Dada movement was because of WWl. WWl caused a group of artists to get together and rebel against tradition and this is why pieces of art like ” the fountain” were created.

-Ashley

I prefer the impressionism style of art; this is because I love the blurred light paintings. The loose brush strokes and the dabs of color that make the art look blurred but completely defined at the same time. Impressionism style art catches pleasant moments, but does not focus on history or religion. Impression, Sunrise written by Claude Monet in 1873 is a picture of a piece of water with two boats, the sun and the clouds, which are lightly shining. Critiques say that if he painted the sun any brighter then the clouds the painting might be less interesting. The second type of art style I will compare is the neoclassical style. This style focuses on moral virtue and goodly deeds. Hero’s are a popular topic to paint. Stark, linear, and hardships are characteristics of neoclassical style. Jacques Louis David is a painter of this style. He painted the Oath of the Horatti in 1793. He uses a more plain and linear technique in this painting.

The reason I prefer impressionism art compared to neoclassical style art is because I like the soft but gracefulness of the art. In Neoclassical art the paintings are more bare and ordinary. Take a look at Monet’s painting Impressionism, Sunrise, and Jacques’s painting the Oath of the Horatti, they are two very different paintings that show different characteristics. Look how impressionism painting is soft but very delightful, compared to the neoclassical painting which is sharper and more subtle. Don’t get me wrong they are both amazing pieces of art, but I am simply justifying why i prefer impressionism style over neoclassical style.

Impression, Sunrise        Oath of Horatti

The Death of Socrates is a piece by Jacques Lois David in 1787. The painting depicts the last moments of Socrates life. He was killed by the Athenian government due to his way of teaching. The government thought his methods of teaching was causing his students to think more skeptically. He willingly accepted his death and is now remembered as a genius to philosophy.  The Painting of the Death of Socrates shows him on his death bed (literally), he is in the act of willingly drinking hemlock (a poison). He stated, “ The unexamined life is not worth living.” He chose death over going into exile, which would cause him to give up all his philosophic work. In the painting Plato and Crito are surrounding him while in his last moments.  I think this image is very powerful, being that they are some of the most highly thought of philosophers in history, and for them to all share that moment together makes the energy in the picture so stronger. The painting now resides at the Princeton University Art Museum.

I think Socrates sacrifice of giving his life for an abstract lesson was a huge movement for the middle class. It showed people how self-control and dignity must be respected. This could have given the middle class people a better feeling about what their roles were in society, and could have sprouted the ideas that their opinions should be valued and their actions should not be smothered by the high class in society. Socrates showed the middle class that they could stand for what they believe in. His morals and drive have made a huge impact on most people who know his story, I think this is exactly how he wanted everyone to remember him by.

References:

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/socrates.htm

The sculpture of David by Gian Lorenzo Bernini is my favorite piece of art during the Baroque period. The sculpture of David was completed in a seven-month time frame, from 1623 to 1624. Its location of creation is Falleria Borghese, in Rome and that is where it resides today. The reason I choose this sculpture is honestly because I love the intensity and the how masculine this depiction of David is. I have always imagined the one who was responsible Goliaths fall as a boy. This new image of David has changed the image I grew up learning about in Sunday school tremendously. Bernini’s image of David was almost opposite of Donatello’s sculpture. Donatello’s David looked like a young boy. Compared to Bernini’s David, who looked like a broad handsome filled out man. The face of Bernini’s David is said to be a mirror image of his own face. He had someone hold a mirror up while he did the sculpture. One fact that intrigued me was that it is believed that David was Bernini’s favorite sculpture because at the time of the creation of David, Bernini was the same age David was. He thought that creating David was the test that determined his future, just as he perceived was the same kind of test David was going through when he took down Goliath. He obviously saw a little bit of himself in David, which accounts for his great liking for piece of art.

I believe that Bernini’s creation of David is an example of a piece of art that helps people be reminded of their faith. The Council of Trent was made up of three sessions that discussed faith and art. The catholic leaders said that through art people should be reminded of their faith. With the sculpture of David I think that anyone who knew the story would think of the faith David had as a young boy.  David put all of his faith in Gods hand and went out into the battle field and did what was thought to be the impossible.

* Scroll down to the bottom of this page and look at the differences between Bernini’s David and Donatello’s David

Citations:

http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Choir/4792/david.html

http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/edavid.htm

Bernini’s David

Jan Van Eyck was one of the founders of oil painting. There were old ancient ways of using oils like bee’s wax, but those ancient ways were not documented and are now not used. Jan Van Eyck was not the first to use oil paint but his accomplishments go to the use of siccative oil as a stable varnish to go over top of the final pieces of art. I think this technique used by Jan Van Eyck significantly influenced the reinvention of Rome through the visual arts. It is said that if the Italians are still using his pigment technique today, the use of siccative oil has increased the brilliance and intensity of colors.

The Adoration of the Lamb was a painting started by Hubert Van Eyck, and finished by Jan van Eyck his brother. The work of art was finished by 1432. The place of the painting is not clearly stated in any of the research that I conducted. However, I know it was some where in the Netherlands. The painting had many panels. The upper front panels, the lower front panels, and the closed view panels. There were three central figures, one was a picture of the Virgin Mary, another was God the Father and Jesus, and the upper panel is of John the Baptist. Then there is the lower center panel, which shows the adoration of the Lamb of God, with people streaming in from all sides to worship the lamb. The lower side panels, have a right and left sections. The left two panels show the “Just Judges” and the “Knights of Christ.” On the right side panels there are the hermits and pilgrims and among those people is Saint Christopher. Just a little side note, the lower left panel of the Just Judges was stolen in 1934 and has yet to be recovered, but has been replaced with a copy.

I found the complexity, and depth of this painting perfounding. I loved how he included so many of the important aspects of what was happening into the painting. For example he included the judges, St. Christopher, the Virgin Mary, and the angels surrounding the center.  This is such a powerful scene and example of Christianity.

 
Size of this preview: 800 × 597 pixels

Picture retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lamgods_open.jpg

Information about Jan Van Eyck was retrieved from http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/eyck/

Hello everyone, this is my first time blogging. I am a rookie, i hope it goes well for every one.