This week I present to you a collection I stumbled upon not too long ago by chance and found my new favorite artist. If I could own the painting of just one artist, this would be the one. As for who Mrs. Boswell is, she was my 8th Grade Geometry teacher. Bob Ross? He was the painter of happy clouds and lakes with mirrored images of trees and those happy clouds.
The style might seem familiar to other artists but the truth is, this person’s background fed directly into this style development. One hint, as I do hope you will perhaps cheat this week, this artist is still alive today, but at an age that makes it a true joy and wonder that that age has given to a rediscovery and appreciation of this talent.
Cheating allowed this week in this guessing game and challenge of your cultural level of artistic knowledge.
Comment your opinions about the piece and if you know what, when and who about it then all the better to let everyone know. Look at the details. (Click on the image to see a larger version.)
Write a piece of poetry or even a post. If you create a post, link back to here or even put your link in the comments, just like with the Haiku Challenge. Or you can simply share your poetry in the comments. Good luck ,good viewing, good inspiration, and finally, good creating. Also, if you are artistic and create something inspired by this, share it with us.
Two weeks ago in Guess That Art I shared the below sketch. Not quite what you would expect from what people think of as the splatter method. Jackson Pollock started out in the basics of artistic techniques, just like the rest of us, but fortunately under the eye of Thomas Hart Benton of the Art Students League of New York.
New York, Early Twenties by Thomas Hart Benton
During the late 30s and early 40s Pollock worked for the FDR‘s WPAFederal Art Project, a program that ultimately employed over 200,000 artists and artisans during The Great Depression, to help give financial relief while also building up the country culturally.
Most of you may be more familiar with Pollock’s Drip style in a painting such as Number 5 1948 by Jackson Pollock, considered his most famous work.
Number 5 1948 by Jackson Pollock
One of my favorites is The Deep from 1953. A Drip method on white with touches of yellow.
The Deep 1953 by Jackson Pollock
The sketch I shared, Untitled 1941, one of two untitled pieces that year, was a sketch he did during years he was in therapy for his alcoholism with Jungian psychothearpy sessions. His therapist encouraged him to make works to help him during this time to express and deal with his troubles.
If you don’t know who this one is instantly, then you very likely won’t figure it out. Let’s just say the artist isn’t well known by us lay people for this kind of work. I liked it a lot. The almost sci-fi/alein appearance of it appeals to my teenage years. (Who am I kidding? It appeals to me now.) All that organic like tangled up pieces of what might be carbon life form mixed with plant life and stone is all just kind of creepy to me in a good way. It makes me think the Alien and Predator costume designers might have been fans of this artist.
No cheating allowed in this guessing game and challenge of your cultural level of artistic knowledge.
Comment your opinions about the piece and if you know what, when and who about it then all the better to let everyone know. Look at the details. (Click on the image to see a larger version.
Write a piece of poetry or even a post. If you create a post, link back to here or even put your link in the comments, just like with the Haiku Challenge. Or you can simply share your poetry in the comments. Good luck ,good viewing, good inspiration, and finally, good creating. Also, if you are artistic and create something inspired by this, share it with us.
Last week for Guess That Art 2 I shared Guernica by Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973). Yes, even genius artists have middle names and now you are one of the few outside of the art community that knows it.
For once I have a real reason for putting the dates of a persons life. Picasso lived during some of the biggest and most wide ranging events in history. That range is reflected in his art, just as it would be in someone who was as forward searching as Picasso was.
He was classically trained as an artist, beginning with his father. This piece from 1896 of his sister shows just how good he was with realism, something most of us don’t associate the name Picasso with.
As the decades past he with through these different periods, often denoted by colors, his Blue Period, his Rose Period.
He then had his African and primitivism period, which once you see examples of you can see the beginnings of Cubism, created by Picasso and Georges Braque. And Cubism is what people commonly know Picasso for. And that is where Guernica comes in. One of the most important pieces of Protest Art around, and what some have called “the Mona Lisa” of our time.
Now onto Guernica. It’s not just a Cubist oil painting by a famous Spanish guy. It’s also a city in the Province of Biscay on the Atlantic in Northern Spain, the center of the Basque community. You see, Spain is made up of different regions, languages, and peoples. Not all of those peoples want to be, as they see it, unfairly. and often in history they have been oppressed or worse. Much worse.
Picasso working on Guernica
While Picasso was in France, Spain was in a civil war between the years 1936 and 1939. I’m not going to get in to that. My head hurts just thinking of how it all worked. Just know that a man named and his Nationalist won by 1939, and he stayed in power until his death in 1975, believe it or not.
Franco, in 1937, gave the German Luftwaffe a target to test what it would take to level a city from the air. Most of the men of the town were away fighting in the civil war. The women and children were gathered in the town on market day. The Bombers dropped over 100.000 lbs of bombs and fighter planes shot anyone trying to escape.
Picasso read the description of the horror when he read the eye-witness account of journalist George Steer on May 1, 5 days after the bombing. Picasso had been commissioned by Spain to paint a piece for the World’s Fair. He had made sketches of ideas (The Dream and Lie of Franco) when his friend, Spanish poet and essayist, Juan Larrea dropped by and insisted he paint something about Guernica. Now, I believe you can see the symbolism throughout the painting. Picasso stated in an interview that in the painting that certain images were what they were and not symbols. But you can click here to see what some say about that. It’s not the nicest piece of Cubist art to learn how to interpret what you are seeing, but I think through its story the eye and mind grabs the details easier and can apply to other works.
Warning ahead of time, no cheating is allowed in this guessing game and challenge of your cultural level of artistic knowledge.
I have to say that although this may look rather simplistic it is perhaps one of the most dramatic pieces of art you will ever see. Once you learn the why of this particular masterpiece of emotion you’ll be able to understand each detail, well maybe not, but clarity will come.
Comment your opinions about the piece and if you know what, when and who about it then all the better to let everyone know. Look at the details. (Click on the image to see a larger version.
Write a piece of poetry or even a post. If you create a post, link back to here or even put your link in the comments, just like with the Haiku Challenge. Or you can simply share your poetry in the comments. Good luck ,good viewing, good inspiration, and finally, good creating. Also, if you are artistic and create something inspired by this, share it with us.
Last week I began a new, hopefully, weekly bit of a challenge and cultural growth posting called “Guess That Art!” In this challenge you’re not to cheat but to see if you know what it is and comment, comment about what you think of the art, and even write a piece of poetry inspired by the art and share it through a link in the comments.
The at below is called The Garden of Earthly Delights by Dutch artist, Hieronymus Bosch, born 1450 and died 1516. The work is actually known as a triptych because there are three individual panels/paintings. The triptych was painted sometime between 1490 and 1510, so when he was between 40-60. He is well known for his iconography. I believe that is what makes his work so interesting and engaging. Also it gives it a futuristic feel, especially when you consider the pieces is over 500 years old. (The painting has been known by other names throughout history.)
The first panel is a scene of the Garden of Eden and most often interpreted as the moment God introduced Eve to Adam who is just coming awake from his surgical procedure. Click the link to go to an enlarged view of the panel that you can see the details and interpret the symbolism of the artists imagery. The man had a serious opinion about some things it would seem. Click here to see the first panel.
The second or middle panel is similar to the first panel with the continuation of the horizon and terrain. It might even be possible that the second is future of the first when you look deeper. There is an obvious air of sexuality in the middle panel and thoughts have been it is a warning of where the world is heading. You get a feeling of condemnation from it and when you look at many of the individual scenes it becomes apparent what he may have thought. The large pink tower in the upper left corner is one that I was a bit surprised by. Click here to see the middle panel.
The third panel is the result of what Bosch saw as humanity’s wild forays into indiscriminate selfish pleasure. This is either a Hell on Earth or actual Hell. I especially find the pig nun disturbing. Click here to see the middle panel.
What are you thoughts and interpretations? Share in the comments. Friday I will be sharing another work that I came across during some research.
Here is what the work looks like when the panels are closed. If you look closely you will see what is thought to be God in the upper left corner looking down on earth as light is first appearing over Earth.
Warning ahead of time, no cheating is allowed in this guessing game and challenge of your cultural level of artistic knowledge.
Comment your opinions about the painting and if you know what, when and who about the painting then all the better to let everyone know. Look at the details. For me, it almost gives the impression of some other world you might find in the mind of a Creative if it were the child of H.G. Wells and Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel). Next week sometime I’ll do a post with the details about the painting for your enjoyment. Click to enlarge and take in the mind altering images, but remember to return and comment. In addition, look at the painting fully, closely, take your time with it and see if it inspires you to write. Write a piece of poetry and if you create a post, link back to here or even put your link in the comments, just like with the Haiku Challenge. If you don’t want to create a post then simply share your poetry in the comments. Good luck ,good viewing, good inspiration, and finally, good creating. Also, if you artistic and create something inspired by this, share it with us.
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