Diego Riviera

 

The work that I chose is one of Diego Riviera’s famous murals, Class Struggle which was painted by Diego in 1935. Diego Riviera was a famous Mexican Painter born in 1886 in Guanajuato Mexico. He married Frida Kahlo who is also a very famous and influential mexican artist. Diego Riviera is most popular for his murals which can be found all over mexico. His work is very politically, and socially influenced.

I chose this work because I am a fan of his work to me it reminds me of art found in the renaissance, painted in the domes and ceilings of chapels across Europe. The idea of having many different characters, sometimes in direct contrast to each other so close together is very interesting to me. His style of art is very complex as a whole and tells many stories in one piece. This piece is so interesting to me also because of its location, having a mural hidden away in a stair way attracts a certain kind of audience, and was aimed more at a working class audience. His work describes the friction between the different classes in mexican culture at the time, and his views of politics at the time with the focus being the mexican revolution from 1910-1920.

 

Works Cited

“Diego Rivera Biography How Mexican Art Lives in Diego Rivera’s Prints.” Diego Rivera Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 July 2013.

“Images of Murals by Diego Rivera in the Palacio Nacional De Mexico.” Images of Murals by Diego Rivera in the Palacio Nacional De Mexico. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 July 2013.

Modern Art

The work that I chose from a non-western culture is an oil on canvas painting called “Kalahari Wildlife” by S.Sobe painted in 2000.  I chose this painting because I like the way the artist depicted the animals which are all painted from a side view.  The simplicity of the animals clearly shows inspiration from animals painted on rock by the artist’s past ancestry.  The colors the artist chose to use in this painting are very pure which makes the animals standout against the background.  I also like the way the artist painted the trees which appear as strong, stylized forms dividing the painting into sections.

     This work is part of a collection of works by San artists.  This group of artists from D’Kar in the western Kalihari came together in the early 1990’s.  Their works were inspired by their visit to  the Tsodilo hills in N.  Botswana where they viewed rock painting created by their ancestors.  Their works show a time of the past when there was abundance and less struggle.  They create this work as a desire to preserve their past and to also show the world the land and culture they lived in and love.  As artists, they are working to belong to a new world.  Their work became very renowned in just one decade and displayed all over the world.

     Work cited- www.artprinsa.com/ the-kuru-art-project.html

 

Contemporary exhibit BMW Art Cars

 

 

This piece is was done by Andy Warhol in 1977. BMW Came to Andy to create The color scheme for this M1 race car which raced the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1979. The car was painted as an interpretation of speed, as if the car where going fast. All of the lines are abstract and blurred, like it was moving at high speed. This is one of the most iconic pieces of BMW Car Art, and is a priceless work created in just 23 minutes.

 

This work was created by Alexander Calder in 1975 by request of race car driver Herve Poulian. It is a BMW 3.0 CSL and was one of his last works of art before he died in 1976. Calder used different clashing colors which give the car an illusion of movement when it standing still, and adds to the over all flare of this car as a race car. This car also raced in the 24 hours of Le Mans, being one of the first art cars to race in this legendary event.

 

Ernst Fuchs was one of the first to create a BMW art car with a stock production style car, up to this point all of the cars where race cars not available to general public. He used a 1982 BMW 635 CSI for his work, and his designs where more centered around his emotions, and fears. This is a very unique and detailed piece and reflects his rich artistic background. This piece of work was designed to be a museum piece, and was never made to be driven, or raced.

 

Michael Jagamara Nelson was born in 1949 in Pikili Australia. He was raised in a traditional Aborigine village of the Warlpiri tribe. He left when he was 13 and alter studied art. He was most famous for his work with mosaics which can be reflected in his work with this 1989 BMW M3 Group A Race Car. The graphics of this car where centered around animals and landscapes in a semi abstract mosaic fashion.

 

On the more contemparary end of BMW car art is a work done by Jenny Holzer. Holzer was born in Ohio in 1950, and is most famous for her style of rejecting laguage traditional art. Her work was displayed on a 1999 BMW V12 LMR race car. While the car appears to be fairly traditional, and understated in artisitc design, it was never ment to be a loud and in your face kind of work rather grab attention through a series of phrases these are 

“PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT

THE UNATTAINABLE IS INVARIABLY ATTRACTIVE

YOU ARE SO COMPLEX YOU DON’T RESPOND TO DANGER

LACK OF CHARISMA CAN BE FATAL

MONOMANIA IS A PREREQUISITE OF SUCCESS

WHAT URGE WILL SAVE US NOW THAT SEX WON’T?”

This work was aimed at the general public and was designed to deliver her artistic ideas in the same way t-shirts, billboards etc expressed their ideas.

 

The final piece of BMW Car Art that I chose was done by Jeff Koons. This is my favorite piece of car of art because of the phenomenal amount of detail and modern abstract form put into one car, it truly stands out in the line up of cars at any Le Mans race. His work was done for BMW Motorsport’s racing devision when making their 2010 BMW M3 GT2 Race Car. The inspiration for this design was the raw performance of this machine. It was designed to reflect on the amount of technology and engineering that was put into this car. The car looks to be exploding with speed, and creates the illusion of the car passing through the work of art at high speed.

 

 

Works cited

“The BMW Art Car Collection.” The BMW Art Car Collection RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 July 2013.

“BMW Art Cars.” BMW M1 Art Car from Andy Warhol. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 July 2013.

“Jeff Koons’ BMW Art Car Doesn’t Suck.” Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 31 May 0010. Web. 26 July 2013.

“A Look At BMW’s Most Sensational Art Cars.” Business Insider. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 July 2013.

 

Early Modern Visual Art

In the early modern era art took a very interesting turn away from traditional styles of art. Many different forms of art in this time period when out of their way to escape the traditional methods, as well as what was considered socially acceptable at the time. Avant-garde was one of the style thats grew in popularity, and directly rejected the traditional forms of visual art. In Avant-garde art there are 4 main sub-forms, they are fauvism, cubism, futurism and expressionism. Out of these styles I liked expressionism the most, specifically the work done by Wassily Kandinsky. The work from Kandinsky that stood out to me as an example of expressionism is called Summer in Bavaria. I like this work of art because Kandinsky did not make the painting subjective in nature, rather he focused on the raw colors. Je used broad brush stoked that do not create a sharp image or tell a story mainly through life like visuals, but instead the story is told through the tones and colors. With exaggerated lights and darks, as well as well as lines giving the painting structure, this is a very interesting piece of work in an almost abstract kind of way. I believe that the work done by Kandinsky was most influenced by science in the advancing technology of the music world. Kandinsky was an accomplished musician, and his art has direct ties to the type of inspiration and spiritual effect as his music. Kandinsky compared his paintings to his musical process, as well as the feeling his music brought to him in the way as his art. 

 

Works cited

“Expressionism – The Spirit of Expressionist Art.” Expressionism. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 July 2013.

“Kandinsky, Wassily.” WebMuseum:. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 July 2013.

Impressionism

Originating in the 19th century, impressionism was one of the most influential art movements in art history. The style was started in France, it was a step away from conventional and more socially accepted art at the time. Using small brush strokes, open composition and an emphasis of making the painting as life like as possible in scale, and light gradients became the basis of impressionism. Many great painters came from impressionism like Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and many more. One of my favorite impressionist artists and possibly the most famous one at that, is Claude Monet. He was a French painter born and raised in the impressionist era. His work in the eyes of many I believe is considered the golden standard of impressionist painting. My favorite painting by Claude Monet is Cliffs of Etretat. This painting depicts the Famous cliffs of Northern France in an impressionism style. I like this piece of work because growing up near the Puget Sound and spending lots of time on the west coast, parts of the coast remind me of this painting.

In The Cliffs of Etretat the themes of impressionism are strong. You get the feeling of Monets impression of this beautiful place as he was looking at it, not as he imagined it could be. The textures of the rocks as well as the water mixed with the changing light range throughout the painting give the work the light natural feel that made impressionism so famous. This painting directly contrasts the later style of postimpressionism. This was a late style of art in the impressionist era. The contrast is in the over all structure of the painting, as well as the method itself. Postimpressionism broke away from the structure of impressionism. The method was thick brush lines with a defined contrast between each color, where in impressionism every tended to blend and flow naturally together. The example of post impressionism I choose is a painting by Henry Rousseau called The Centenary of Independence. This painting embodies the dramatic difference between the styles of art.

 

 

Works cited

“The Cliffs At Etretat.” Fine Art America. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 June 2013.

 

“Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.” Post-Impressionism. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 June 2013.

 

“Home»Artworks»Rousseau, Henri.” Art Print Collection. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 June 2013.

 

 

 

Art and Science of The Classical Era

The classical era has produced some amazing works in both science and art that have advanced us into our modern day. With the founding of America, the Declaration of independence, and further revolution and reformation in Europe and in the Church. 

With many advances in science during the classical era, Sir Isaac Newton’s work to me stands out among the rest. Sir Isaac Newton was a brilliant physicist and mathematician, he changed the way we view how things in the world work though explaining the unexplainable with math and the study of physics. One of his works that directly impacts many of us as college students is  calculus. Sir Isaac Newton was one of the first creators of calculus. This allowed scientist to account for the theoretical outcome of a situation and still account for a variable. This discovery was became the corner stone of many great scientific advances later on and is still used to this day.

 

During the classical era two main genres of visual art where king, these where Rococo style and Neoclassical. Rococo was considered to be late Baroque art in many ways. It was composed of soft, light lines and colors. It was usually low in drama and had an inorganic glow to the paintings. The paintings where often decorated with cherubs and myths of love. It was exageration, of a persuit of the higher class. It was very popular with this class in society at this time, nit this is what eventually lead to its down fall. Neoclassic art became popular with a great majority of people because of the way the higher classes and ruling classes behaved led to a rebellious art form called Neoclassic style. This was the opposite of Rococo style. It used very organic colors, strong lines and depicted people how they where in real life. They held strong political references  and compared to Rococo style could be described as over simplified. It was a reflection of some art found in earlier eras.

An example of Neoclassical style is Jacques Louis David’s painting Crossing the Alps

 

The contrasts between neoclassical and rococo style can easily be seen between this painting and Jean-Honore Frangonard’s rococo painting Happy Accidents of the Swing

Baroque era painting Assumption of the Virgin

The Baroque era gave us many great works of art, that still capture the imagination. While many of us are not fine art philanthropists, or experts for that matter it may be difficult to fully appreciate every element of the works of art presented. Many works of art where made for people who spent their life time investing in and supporting the arts, and have developed a highly refined taste above many of ours. This being said we may not all be able to understand the different levels of the art simply speaking for myself, I am just a firefighter EMT not a an english or art major at the very least. With this in mind I chose a work of art that I thought would be nearly impossible not to enjoy and be captured by. This piece is The Assumption of the Virgin created by Antonio Da Correggio. Painted between 1526 and 1530, this piece is considered an early Barque painting, done in Baroque style. This piece of art is a phenomenal example of a illusion ceiling style which became popular during the Baroque era. He did his work in the dome of the Parma Cathedral  in Italy. The painting is a swirling mass of the heavens full of angels and the Virgin Mary with Jesus coming down to greet her. I chose this piece because of the depth in the painting, it is something that is not very common today in paintings. It gives the feeling of looking straight up into the heavens. Correggio’s ability to create nearly perfect perspective give the painting a true 3d feeling. This piece was influenced by the catholic church in n attempt to continue rebuilding the image of the catholic church in religion and in political power. 

 

“Correggio.Parma.Cathedral.Assumption of the Virgin.1526-1530.” Flickr. Yahoo!, n.d. Web. 14 June 2013.

 Storey, Alex. “Artwork: Assumption of the Virgin, by Correggio.” Helium. Helium, 15 May 2012. Web. 14 June 2013.

 

Blog 1 Renaissance artist Titan

This painting was done by Tiziano Vecellio, better know in english as Titan. Titan was a renaissance painter from Venice, and was said to be the greatest 16th century painter in Italy. This piece of work I choose is called “The Death of Actaeon” which was painted over the coarse of a few years from 1559 to 1575. I choose this piece because to me it was very interesting. The story being told in the painting is one centered around greek myth. Actaeon was a hunter in the woods with his dogs, he stubbled across the greek goddess Diana bathing naked in the woods. When she found him she was furious, and he fled. As he went to flee he was impressed with the speed he was able to run at. Diana had turned him into a stag, to punish him for what he did. As he fled his own dogs chased him down and killed him. In the picture you can see Actaeon, running away and his head has already turned into that of a deer’s. In this painting I think that there are elements of humanism. Although Diana is a goddess her form is very human and I think is a reflection of perfection in Titan’s eyes. In this painting neither character is really human, but at the same time they shown with very human features, minus the head of the stag obviously. The colors and tines used in the painting as well as the stance, and positioning tell the story in this piece. The elegant and powerful stance of Diana as well as the lighter tone and forward placement of her gives her a commanding presence in the painting. In contrast to Actaeon, who is in a unbalanced position in much darker tone towards the bottom of the painting. This communicates the pain, and fear of Actaeon and very dramatically splits the two appart in the same piece and effectively tells the story in great depth.