Poetry: Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh

The quest that you embarked on

oh so many years ago

To try and find a place

for one named Mr. Vincent Van Gogh.

The colors on your palette

swirled around inside your head

From yellow gold elation

to angry firey reds.

In bouts of isolation

you would turn to brush and pen

Trying to purge the feelings

that would plague you to the end.

Emotional and passionate

no one understood your kind

Making you sink deeper

into the madness of your mind.

The love that you had searched for

from the moment of your birth

Would never come to find you

and would undermine your worth.

A night so dark and dreary

filled your room with untold black

You chose to leave this world

without ever looking back.

And since you’ve gone away

it’s no longer “Vincent who?”

For your paintings tell the story

of the very special you.

The sensitive, the beautiful,

the complex, Vince Van Gogh,

The likes of one I’m certain

the world again will never know.

Biography: Vincent Van Gogh – Part 12

Vincent Van Gogh, dutch born and an exquisite painter. I visited the place that Vincent spent his last 90 days and the place he ultimately took his life. The field where he painted his last paintings with the black crows and ominous skies and where he wrote disturbed letters to his brother about his state of mind.

We walked the cobble streets, and winding pathways into the natural green ancient trees that probably shaded Van Gogh as he walked to the fields everyday.

We went to the place where he died, the small room where he hung his paintings – everything had been left exactly as it was before he died. No one had changed it since then, the hooks in the wall.

Watching the paintings flick up on the slide show, they displayed his words of emptiness and despair, and one felt desperately for this man who wanted to paint for a

living and felt like a burden on his brother.

Auvers sur oise is a beautiful town that still remains old looking. Not much different to the paintings that he did of it that are placed outside the famous church, the garden, the steps, the fields, the buildings that he painted!

This took my breath away. This man, who didn’t ask for much in life but felt too hopeless to continue, ending his brother’s torment, he ended his life.

When I returned from Paris and our trip to England and Ireland, I read his letters to his brother Theo and began to delve deeper into his suffering and into why he killed himself. I also wrote an account of his death, from his point of view.

So special was the bond between the brothers that Theo died within six months of Vincent, he never recovered from the loss of his brother. His devoted wife after burying Theo in Holland, moved him to be with Vincent in the field where he died and now they have this wonderful grave with ivy growing over their graves, they are together, as in life, they are in death.

It is one of the saddest and most touching stories that I know of, not only his beautiful art but the love between these two brothers and their devotion for each other. Even Theo’s wife’s determination to keep them together in death.

Amazing story. Vincent there is so much more to say about him, but I couldn’t possibly fit it all in. I have done a lot of reading and studying about him. However this was my most profound experience of Van Gogh. Leaving this town felt like we were leaving Van Gogh. It was a truly moving experience.

Art defined

Art is defined when the creator of the piece of artwork has something to express to the world or viewers. Art is not just about making it beautiful or just a piece of craft work.

Personally I define art as when there is a meaning behind every choice of the outcome. When it is not produce out of fun or merely an accidental work. As much as accidents, or rather, experiments are part and parcel of the process of the work; there has to be a reason on why the artist produced the artwork. What is he trying to tell the world, what does he want us to feel when we look at the artwork and finally the success of his artwork does not lies whether we agree to his or her view, but rather is he/she able to express his views through that piece of artwork.

I am still an amateur in art histories but I have an example of such successful artist and he is none other than Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh’s later works had reflected the way he viewed the world, the fragmented paintings were not merely a style but it shows how he viewed the world, how he viewed life- as broken. As much as the artist himself was influenced by his environment and the Impressionist and Post Impressionist, there were still something more to just following the Impressionist and Post Impressionist.

When we view an artwork, we are viewing through the eyes of the artist.

An overview of the best documentaries on artists – Part 1

I enjoy the PBS show, Simon Schama’s The Power of Art. I have watched several of the episodes and have learned so much and fallen in love with artists that are new to me. My favorite was about Gian Lorenzo Bernini focusing on his sculpture The Ecstasy of St. Theresa. I have always been amazed by sculptors and how they can take a chunk of rock and make it come alive so realistically.

The show focuses on one main artist and has actors portraying pivotal times in the artist’s life. Viewers are shown the artwork and home towns or villages where these artists grew up. It takes you to the cathedrals and town centers. The re-enactments whisk you away to feel as if you are right there seeing the artist create his masterpiece. Schama takes the viewer deep into each artist’s life to divulge little known facts. It’s not only a history lesson, but a lesson in fine art as well.

Artists featured on The Power of Art are:

* Vincent van Gogh

* Pablo Picasso

* Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio

* Gian Lorenzo Bernini

* Rembrandt van Rijn

* Jacques-Louis David

* J.M.W. Turner

* Mark Rothko

Featured artist listing provided from www.pbs.org

An overview of the best documentaries on artists

Simon Schama’s, Power of Art is a three disc set that explores eight key figures of Western Art. The series is by far the best produced, most insightful, and well told of any art series I have yet to see. Schama is a passionate story-teller, capturing our attention at the beginning of each segment with a dramatic presentation of a particular work by the featured artist. After rousing the viewer’s interest with the premise of a mystery, Schama then takes the viewer back to an earlier time in the artist’s life, eventually tying it in with the original work. Through keen observations, he skillfully weaves the chronicles of both art and artist.

There are several other factors that make this series so compelling. For starters, Schama has chosen a wide variety of artists whose careers collectively span from the Italian Renaissance through the Modern Art era: Disc 1 features Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Rembrandt van Rijn; Disc 2 with Jacques-Louis David, Joseph Mallord William Turner and Vincent Van Gogh; and Disc 3 has Pablo Picasso and Mark Rothko.

In addition to the diverse assemblage of artists, what makes Power Of Art more intriguing relative to other documentaries within the genre is that it provides an acute viewpoint, enabling the viewer to dig deeper into details without being overwhelmed by them. Each artist’s unique story focuses on a single work (and in one case, a single series of works) that the viewer may or may not be familiar with. Other documentaries tend to offer more expansive narratives complicated by amassed events, romances, characters, and larger bodies of work. This comprehensive perspective often leads to ambiguous and dry presentations. Power Of Art, on the contrary, offers a smart and stimulating approach not only for those new to art history but for seasoned art connoisseurs as well.

Schama’s verbal descriptions are supported with cropped shots and close-ups focusing on the nuances of each work of art. This, coupled with full-view images of the work, really provides the viewer with an intimate look of the artwork, making up for the inability to see it first-hand. The biographies are further augmented by occasional character acting and on-location scenes that really help the viewer immerse visually into the artist’s world.

An interesting point to mention is though Schama certainly respects all the artists and work shown here, it doesn’t necessarily mean he is necessarily fond of all of them. That said, he never lets his own opinions get in the way of revealing each individual’s significance in the greater context of art and history.

I thoroughly enjoyed the entire series, learning more about artists I wasn’t all that familiar with while discovering more still about those I thought I knew a great deal of. Simon Schama’s passion for art is contagious. Power Of Art is a must-see artist documentary.

Museum reviews: The Musee dOrsay, Paris, France

The Musee d’Orsay is the second most well stocked museum in the world right next to the Louvre itself. It is an enormous museum that specializes in famous art created from the late 19th to early 20th century. It contains pieces by Van Gogh, Renoir, Manet Monet, and many other masters. As one traveller put it, “If it is not in the Louvre, it is in the Musee d’Orsay!”

The most noteworthy aspect of this museum is one that differentiates it from all others of its kind. The Museum is actually housed in an old railroad station and thus the building itself becomes half the attraction, art in and of itself.

It specifically shows art created from 1848 to 1914. The categories are vast but a sampling of them reveals emphasis on Decorative Arts, History, Literature, Furniture, Painting, Photography, and Sculpture.

As far as specific pieces it contains many that are considered the best representations of the Impressionist (Manet, Monet, Renoir) and Expressionist (Van Gogh) movements. Even someone who would not normally feel inclined to travel to a museum would find great value in something at the museum; if not the pieces, in the unique structure of the building itself. This is one of the few museums that has the potential to turn virtually anyone into an art lover!

If I had recommend one piece for the reader to check out it would be Vincent Van Gogh’s self portrait. It is a brilliant piece and one of the best of his great and storied career. “Blue Waterlillies” by Monet (1919). The museum also houses his excellent Rouen Cathedral’ series in its entirety! The highlight of the Rodin collection in the Orsay museum is the monumental composition called The Gates of Hell’ and they also contain The Thinker, which even non enthusiasts are well acquainted with. Rodin’s works are especially monumental to the point of almost overwhelming the viewer.

This is one of the best museums on the planet and should be recommend to everyone. It’s common to hear people sigh about the Musee d’Orsay, saying they preferred it even to the Louvre. Although much smaller than the Louvre, those comments are understandable, given the concentration of beautiful 18th and 19th century artwork and the variety of the pieces. It is really a matter of preference, but everyone who knows art knows this was one of the best periods on the timeline, and this museum captures the era in epic fashion. You have to see it at least once in your lifetime.

The Modern Art Movements

“What distinguishes modern art from the art of other ages is criticism.”

-Octavio Paz

The Modern Art movements can be said to have begun in the mid 19th century. Up until this point, the artists of the world focused their artwork on realistic depictions of the world around them. They made their living solely on commission work, government sponsorship, and exhibitions chosen by government officials. Needless to say, a change was about to come. Insisting that there was more to express and teach through art was not only an artistic movement, but a social development as well.

The first group dedicated to this change were the Impressionists in Paris, circa 1860. The term was coined by a Claude Monet painting called Impression, Sunrise. The artists belonging to the movement were the same artists who had been rejected by the Academie des Beaux-Arts–the largest art institute in France. This indeed caused tension, and upon exhibition in 1863, it also caused the beginning of the movement. The impressionists concentrated on the light of objects in painting and the change of light over time. They insisted that painters should paint with natural light, concentrating on landscapes and scenes of daily life.

Artists:

Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Frederic Bazille, Edgar Degas, Gustave Caillebotte, Edouard Manet, Elena Filatov, Peter Severen Kroyer and the American Mary Cassatt.

Fauvism

Comes from the French word ‘fauve’ meaning wild animal. This movement, first exhibited in 1905 took inspiration from Impressionism. At the time, Vincent Van Gogh , Paul Gauguin and Paul Cezanne had taken Impressionism to its limits. Teetering on the brink were the Fauvists who used astounding color in its most bold form. Henri Matisse who sought to create “art to delight” is thought to be the leader of this movement. Although it wasn’t long lasting, it was an interesting movement, based more on aesthetic than philosophy.

Artists:

Albert Marquet, Andre Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, Giovanni Giacometti and Henri Matisse.

Expressionism

Began in Germany around 1905 and lasted throughout the thirties. Dark and emotional, the goal of Expressionists was to express their view of reality through distortion. Not the most gleeful movement of all, but very poignant. Two groups of artists contributed. One in Dresden called Die Bruecke meaning the bridge, and one in Munich calledDer Blaue Reiter,meaning The Blue Rider. One of the most famous pieces of the movement is The Scream by Norweigen Edvard Munch–an excellent example of the inner artist coming to life through his work.

Artists

Die Bruecke– Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, Otto Mueller, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, American Mark Rothko, Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani, Franz Marc, August Macke, Gabriele Münter, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Alexei Yavlensky, Egon Schiele, Chang Shi-Jun, and Heribert Elzer

Art Nouveau

Is a French term meaning New Art. The movement began in 1880 and lasted through 1910. It was very popular in its time and became a worldwide phenomenon. The Germans called it Jugendstil, the Italians Liberty, the Austrians Sezessionsstil and the Spanish Arte joven. A highly decorative and intricate style of curves and organics, it spread to architecture, sculpture, furniture, and jewelry.

Arists

Gustav Klimt, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Alphonse Mucha

Art Deco

In the 1920s and 1930s was a reaction to Art Nouveau in that it counteracted with strong geometrics and symmetry. Less of art and more of architecture and design, this movement brought on skyscrapers and high rise buildings.

Artists

Tamara DeLempicka, Georgia O’Keeffe

Cubism

Was initiated by Pablo Picasso from Spain. Its subjects were broken and reassembled in strange and abstract ways. Fragmentation through geometric forms expressed painting in an entirely new way. Depth isn’t shown in this art form, instead, planes of indistinguishable area. This was the beginning of truly avant-garde and abstract art.

Artists:

Pablo Picasso and Georges Braques, Robert Delaunay, Marcel Duchamp, Juan Gris and Lyonel Feininger.

Surrealism

Began in 1924 strangely enough by a poet named Andre Breton who focused on the unconscious, the importance of dreams, and the psyche in art form. Surrealism spread as a cultural, artistic, and intellectual movement. It’s artists included self proclaimed communists, feminists, atheists, and anarchists. They claimed a sense of transcendentalism, and focused on a more true means of life through the unconscious. Their work was highly criticized by journalists, but gained a cult following that still endures today. One of the most intriguing and still popular movements in art.

Artists:

Salvador Dali, the Italian Giorgio de Chirico, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Joan Miro, Yves Tanguy, Rene Margritte and the Russian Marc Chagal

Abstract

Art, fathered by Wassily Kandinsky is better viewed than explained. Vivid colors, indiscernible shapes, and depiction of anything but natural and worldly objects are characteristic of this style.

Constructivism (1915) and De Stijl (1917) were parallel movements which took abstraction into sculpture and architecture. Abstraction, or non-figurative form, is a widely used term and still a much utilized form of art. In modern design, abstract art is often chosen to for wall coverings by designers and art consultants.

Artists:

Wassily Kandinsky Beate Emanuel, Emilie Gerard, Spencer Lee, Escha Van den Bogerd, Silverio Dominguez, Milene De Kleijn, Vincent Mond, Ingrid Thaler and Piet Mondrian

Pop Art

Was a reaction to the impersonal and too elite form of abstract art. American and British artists of the mid 20th century felt it was time to bring art back to the everyday life of ordinary people. Andy Warhol was the carpenter of the Pop Art movement and serigraphy or screen printing was his tool of choice. He used everyday images of kitchen items, or movie stars faces to bring this movement to life. Comic books, advertisements, and album covers boasted pop art. Although the idea behind the movement was a good one, Pop art or Popular art has been heavily criticized for blurring the lines between fine art and mass produced art.

Artists:

Andy Warhol, Jaspar Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, David Hockney, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein, Georg Segal, Wayne or James Rosenquis

Every Modern Art movement has something to teach us. These are such brief explanations of subjects that could be discussed and debated incessantly. What an interesting past has lead to our present day. And what interesting people have paved the way.

The Museum Of Modern Art: New York’s Premier Cultural Stop

The image of New York has always been one of America’s greatest exports. From Frank Sinatra to Sarah Jessica Parker, the city that never sleeps has at been the centre of the entertainment and art industry for the better part of the twentieth century. At the forefront of this cultural scene is The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), founded as the first New York gallery dedicated exclusively to modern art in 1929.

Located in Midtown Manhattan, Abby Aldrich Rockerfeller was among the first patrons of MOMA, and her influential position as part of the Rockerfeller family helped to cement its exclusive status. Opening with only eight paintings and a drawing, MOMA’s first director, Alfred H. Barr Jr, was quick to see its potential as a sphere for exposing new forms of modern art, claiming: “This museum is a torpedo moving through time, its head the ever-advancing present, its tail the ever-receding past of 50 to 100 years ago.”

What made MOMA so unique for much of the last century was its constant change of location: between 1929 it moved location three times in ten years, before its permanent home was opened to the public in May 1939. Between 2002 to 2004, MOMA was temporarily closed as its building was redesigned by the celebrated Japanese architect, Yoshio Taniguchi. While Taniguchi’s design was initially controversial, it has since been lauded as one of the city’s most exemplary features of contemporary architecture, making the museum itself, as well as its collection, a piece of modern art to behold.

MOMA’s collection houses some of the most celebrated pieces in the art world, including ‘The Starry Night’ by Vincent van Gogh, Salvador Dali’s ‘The Persistence of Memory’ and Frida Kahlo’s ‘Self Portrait with Cropped Hair’. It is also home to the works of a multiplicity of celebrated American modern artists, Edward Hopper, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol included. While its paintings are highlights in the history of modern art, its art photography collection is also one of the most important in the world, with works by Cindy Sherman and Andreas Gursky.

MOMA’s seminal position in any tour of New York makes it a clear stop in the itinerary of any fan of modern art, and its uniquely accessible nature means that even novices will be enthralled by the artistic delights it has to offer. A stone’s throw away from New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel means that luxury accommodation is right at your doorstep. The hotel itself will please any modern art and architecture fans: its first home on 5th Avenue, on the site of what is now the Empire State Building, was designed by Henry J. Hardenbergh, also responsible for New York’s Plaza Hotel and The Dakota apartment building. Its current location dates from 1931, an Art Deco landmark designed by Shultz and Weaver. The hotel is ideally placed for modern art fans, located close to the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as MOMA.

Important artists in European history

Edouard Manet

In the late 19th century, the Impressionists, who held their first group exhibition in Paris in 1874, began a revolution in art. Manet flourished during this period in Paris, however, his art was never truly respected until after he died.

Camille Pissarro

The Impressionists sought to reveal in their paintings something more than reality, almost a combination of realism, romanticism, and interpretation of the subject by the painter. This new form of art was used to capture emotion, light, and scenery at the very instance it occurs.

Edgar Degas

Romaniticism sharply contradicted the views of realism, simply because realism was only capable of capturing the artificial. People really want to know what life is like for the subjects when the day is over, and the faade is weakened. I think that people who are anchors on TV might be interested in the real people behind the position.

Claude Monet

Impressionist paintings were done quickly, and mostly outdoors or in a changing condition. The painters would paint scenery using all types of colors in order to go fast. People who with that they can live in the last room, if she wants to come over.

Auguste Renoir

Another French impressionist was Renoir. He was famous for his works, and the morale boosting impact his words gave upon the class. His 19th century ideals would be shortlived, because of the new advent of strict realism.

Paul Cezanne

Vincent Van Gogh

After the French impressionist period, Vincent van Gogh used his abilities to transform form and color into beautiful shapes and people. This ability to perform well I think was attributed to a healthy commitment to experimentation, which is very positive.

Henri Matisse

One proponent of Fauvism and Cubism was this French artist. He used bold and often dis-coordinated colors in order to give the audience a grasp of the emotion that was put into the painting.

Pablo Picasso

Picasso was the founder of Cubism. His paintings and sketches were very unique because he used a new type of thinking to solve a problem. Most of the previous pieces in history included freee-form drawings of the human figure. Contastly, Picasso will present our honor society in terms of shapes rather than curves or color.

Eugene Delacroix

This French painter used color and light to achieve dramatic effects. His flamboyant paintings manifested his rejection of classicism’s insistence on restraint and order. In The Massacre of Scio, he depicts Turkish violence during the Greek war for independence, while in Liberty Leading the People, he paints a celebration of revolution in France.

Fransisco Goya

This early 19th century artist gained recognition both for his revealing portraits of the decadent Spanish Bourbons and for his powerful portrayals of the brutal French repression of the Spanish rebels against Napoleon in 1808. The Third of May 1808 is one painting of his that stands as a powerful condemnation of war’s cruelty.

Jacques-Louis David

This painter used his finesse and style to leave a long lasting impact on the creative minds and of 19th century painters and literature. The literature that was present, or to, I typed into the program, and it will only take me 15 minutes

The History of Abstract Art

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