Self Portraits

It is very difficult to know about oneself, but it is not simple to paint oneself either.” The Vincent van Gogh From about 1885 in the course of 1890, the van Gogh painted above 30 self-portraits, an amazing number of similarities to the complete in such short time span. They stand for his most lively years as the master artist, as well as carry all the distinctive van Gogh strength with which each picture that he ever made was instilled.

Many of the early self-portraits look like the great self-portraits that were carried out by the Rembrandt van Rijn in 1600’s. The comparison between two elicits numerous points of similarity, like the serious manner, elegant as well as dramatic lighting plus a certain similarity in the visage itself. These are the portraits of the two master Dutch artists from very much different times, but the viewer making in such comparisons tends to sense that the two would have almost certainly been the great friends.

A tour in Vincent’s lots of self-portraits displays not only his aptitude to paint the character in intensely individual way, but also by his comfort with the different styles. During his short but almost supernaturally creative ten years as the artist, the van Gogh made transition from the realism to the impressionism particularly pointillism to the expressionism with nary the glitch. His own style was much quite firmly in the place by the most recent few years of his life, as well as is now either labeled as “expressionistic” or else “post-impressionist.” Two of his famous self-portraits will never have been painted not for his friend as well as eventual nemesis, the Paul Gauguin. One is the haunting as well as disquieting painting that was called “Self-Portrait Dedicated to the Paul Gauguin,” and other was simply titled as the “Self-Portrait with the Bandaged Ear.”

The incident that caused the van Gogh to piece off most of the earlobe is perhaps the most famous in the art history. During the aggressive difference with one of his companion Gauguin, Vincent heard the terms “Kill him” in ear that he opted to take away rather than follow. This wonderful artist suffered all throughout his life from disorderly emotional seizures as well as great mental strife that led him to enter the asylum for a year plus then to commit suicide.

It is simple to romanticize such bigger than life nature whose work constantly creates an enormous impact in the spectator’s heart as well as mind. We always say, “Oh you were get the wrong idea, but we always understand, Vincent.” And certainly, we do also understand. The fact is, his supreme gift was the aptitude to make the paintings that are at once extremely moving as well as also very simple enough to converse with diamond like clarity. Though mainly unrecognized during all his lifetime, Van Gogh used believed in himself to be the true artist. His thirty-seven years on earth were not very easy nor enjoyable, being complete depressive as well as violent episodes. But in his body of self-portraits inform us anything, it is that he identify, loved with accepted himself as the beloved friends as well as peasants he depicted lots of care as well as compassion.

Understanding abstract art – Part 13

Playing the Game

Kate Husar

Spring 2003

“It does thus seem that abstract art and its discourse is without some definite arbiter of cognitive significance which is even marginally within the realm of some defensible realism. The production and its justificatory support, that is to say, is not treatedcannot be treatedas open to possible refutation. It follows that abstract art and its means of delivery or justification are merely dogmatic, formal, and authoritarian ideology.”

– Charles Harrison

“‘Art’ is an invention of aesthetics, which in turn is an invention of philosophers What we call art is a game”(Columbia np). If, however, art is a game, who primarily are the players: the artists or the viewers or both? Through his words, Mexican poet, essayist and 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature winner Octavio Paz (b. 1914) raises a variety of interesting notions. Art is, surely, an inventionan invention derived from the workings of the creative mind as well as that of the philosophical, of the intellectual, as Paz so states. However, to denote art as a game is to imply that there also exists in art a challenge, a set of rules and an end. And if art is in fact a game, is it a game worth playing?

To look at art as a kind of challenge where those in contest are the artists versus the viewers (society) is to bring light to the contentions of art critic Charles Harrison. According to Harrison, the nature of abstract art as “pure” ideology results in it being closed to outside refutation, as there is no “definite arbiter” by which to translate the meaning of such work (if in fact one even exists) from artist to viewer. That is to say, while art may be a game, there is no referee mediating the opponents. There is no third party enforcing the rules, as the product of the artist is, in and of itself, the rule of the game. However, to take the contentions of Harrison at face value is to take abstract art in precisely the same manner. An “invention of aesthetics”, “an invention of philosophers” isit is truea product of the inventor, and thus being an ideology of its own, cannot be refuted. Yet, to stop there is to use this notion as a cowardly excuse by which to, in a manner of speaking, forfeit the game. For one must remember that if the artist claims to be fully trained in the game, so too can the viewer. Therefore, through an examination of the theory and practice of such abstract artists as

Art history: Understanding impressionism – Part 8

Those who follow art and its history understand the importance in creating a work of art that depicts real life in an artificial way. Many artists are famous for the realism that their paintings provide, and others are famous for how long it captures the imagination as it presents what excites our visual senses.

This could be the form of art that is known as impressionism, which from the 19th century Paris it gained worldwide attention. The artists sought to duplicate on canvas what they saw with their eyes, but with a flair for imperfection in that detail was not of utmost importance.

The focus was mainly on the subject matter without the painting taking on a realistic looking rendition so as it may tease the senses. Painting is just what it is, a means to express what the artists sees and what those who view what he paints imagines.

The paintings always would look more detailed the further away one would observe. We see this today with computer graphics whereas the graphic is composed of thousands of pixels. If a small graphic was enlarged 100 times its size it would make little sense when you view the graphic up close. But stand at a distance far enough the graphic then is recognizable for what it is.

What comes to mind, are some of the famous Claude Monet paintings which to some at the time may have appeared as amateur, because of his particular way in which he depicted scenes in his painting. However his style was able to capture the imagination of many art lovers which in turn gave him the notoriety as one of the most famous of painters in his time and is still revered as one today.

His colors, his brush strokes, the scenes he decides as the subject for his creative arts style, is still considered the model for which many painters follow. One might say he is the father of impressionism in art.

Portrait Artist