Sculpture I

 

 

These are the pictures of my geometric sculptures.  The first photo is made of bass wood and cellophane wrap and the second is of cellophane wrap made into balls and into a pyramid.  It's a play on the glass pyramid at the Louvre.

Week 14 Progress

I've been thinking about painters that have left an impression in my mind in abstract art.  We study Picasso in Art History so we get an introduction to his work.  He certainly went through many transitions and became known for his Cubism and Blue Periods.  I sometimes wonder if he had an art teacher who expressed his work as just plain crap.  Makes you wonder, doesn't it?  How it fits into my realm of modern art is that in his final days he became very simplistic.  His bulls which were on display here were works of minimalism.  Maybe, it just really is a maturing that leads one to want to make everything a little bit easier.  He certainly did and everyone applauded his style.  He is an interesting character.  That covers my outside influence and critical thinking categories and that leaves material developments and images.  The development that certainly played its part, of course, was the sabotage of my Southwest piece which I had to bring home to try and repaint the background so I could try and progress toward an end.  I've been working on that as well as my last work with geometric forms.  The photos follow.

Sculpture I

The facial sculpture I did in class I chose to paint so that I thought it looked more like myself.  I made a black satin background board for presentation which I think made it stand out.  I wanted it to be a play-on of the old silhouettes that were popular some time ago with there contrasting black or white backgrounds.

Progress Week 13

I've managed to finish my work on the All Seeing Eye piece in time for the critique last Monday; and have started my painting on my tribute to the Southwest.  The Southwest piece I am leaving at the studio to work on in class.  I have prepared the last board, have it drawn and have started painting it.  This work I am leaving at home to work on.   I was pleased with the Eye piece when it was completed and the other two paintings I've commented on previously.  All have been a very creative and outside the box adventure for me.  It was fun, original, and lastly, a lot of rewarding hard work.  I hope the last two will also be even more fun and more rewarding.  As I have noted previously, I was impressed by  Albers work.  His simplicity of form and his use of coloration appeals to me greatly.  I enjoy all art at some level, but I am drawn to simplicity the more time passes.  Maybe, I just think that not everything about life should be a struggle and should have a degree of contentedness.  I have always been drawn to the Impressionists and their gauze-like depictions of Paris life and the effort to prettify the everyday.  I remember seeing the tour of Monet's Giverny art works and thinking how Eden-like and lovey this place seemed to be.  I will always have that impression in my mind.  Now that my two reports are complete, I will continue to be reminded by the articles that art can be an escape from the turmoils of life and that going with the flow of your feelings can lead to the production of a piece you can enjoy and be pleased with.  The progress pictures will follow.

Week 12 Progress

I've just about completed my third painting and have started painting number four.  My thoughts on my current work is that you suggested since some of the drawing is not exact, that I might consider doing something textural on some of the forms to take the attention from their deficiencies.  I'm thinking about trying some stippling which I think would do the trick by creating some unexpected interest.  I am happy with the piece but I still have some work yet to finish it.  I'm going to include my report on Surrealism which will complete my research.  It is an interesting approach to art and I enjoyed the association of detachment to your work and just going with the flow.  I posted two works of Surrealism last week, so I've got that covered.  Photos of work in progress follow.

Painting II

Leslie Robison

Surrealism

Mary Ross

 

            Surrealism appeared in 1910-1920’s as a new mode of expression called automatic writing or automatism which was to unlock the subconscious.  It became an international, intellectual, and political movement.  Andre Breton was one of the pioneers of the movement, who was influenced by the studies of Sigmund Freud and the politics of Karl Marx.  Looking beyond traditional reason and societal limits, and using free association, the results produced the unexpected in imagery.  This movement was a disregard for the past tradition of Dadaism. 

            Surrealists did not align themselves with visual artists because they believed that the structured style was opposed to their belief of the free spirit in their methods of free association and automatism. 

            The first prominent surrealists were Max Ernst, Andre Masson, Joan Miro and Man Ray.  Their work used free association, was flowing, with curving continuous lines, with strange and symbolic figures.

            Ernst experimented with the process of decalcomania and grattage.  Decalcomania is a process of pressing a sheet of paper into a painted surface and peeling it off.  Grattage is the process of scraping pigment across a canvas that is laid on top of a textured surface.  With the use of these techniques, Ernst produced works which typified the themes of violence and annihilation found in Surrealist art, especially in his work The Barbarians.

            Illusionistic Surrealism appeared when Rene Magritte painted erotic and explicit objects in dreamlike surroundings.  Surrealist artists that followed in a similar erotic style were Dali, Delvaux and Tanguy.

            Salvador Dali expanded on the dream imagery with his own erotically charged, hallucinatory visions.  He used Freudian symbols to represent his overwhelming sexual desire.  Dali found praise from Andre Breton with his representations of the unconscious in his work, Second Manifesto of Surrealism.  The two became partners in a Surrealist-oriented publication founded in Paris called the Minotaure.

            With the onset of World War II the Surrealist movement dissolved.  Most of the prominent artists of Surrealism left Europe and headed for New York.  A revival of the movement in the U.S. was featured by Peggy Gugenheim’s Gallery, Art of This Century, and the Julien Levy Gallery.  Breton organized the Fourth International Surrealist Exhibition in Mexico City and included Freda Kahlo and Diego Rivera.  Although, they never actually became members of the movement.

            The Surrealism movement with its surprising imagery, symbolism, refined painting techniques and disdain for convention, influenced future generations of artists, notably Joseph Cornell and Arshile Gorky.  Gorky’s work formed a continuum between Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.

            In conclusion, I am back to the link between my choice of abstract painting in forms and bright colors, and the link with Abstract Expressionism and Abstract Modernism and my research in completed.

 

Source:  Voorhies, James.  In Heilbrunn Timeline of History.  New York:  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-.  http://www.metmeseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd (October 2004)

Week 11 Progress

The painting I took home to redo has turned out really well and I am very pleased with the results.  The painting I've been doing in class I finished and am also very pleased with it.  I've prepared another board by sanding and applying gesso.  It is now drawn and I'm working on the background.  As far as my research is concerned I've found an article on Surrealism and have started reading that.  It is really interesting and this will be my second paper instead of Kadinsky's article.  Although my work is not in the surrealist vein, it is abstract and different, which I believe is how my work connects with Surrealism.  The photos below are of my completed work. 

Pictures of Nature Sculpture