There are so many ways to depict art. It can range from photography and paintings to sculptures. One artist, Fernando Botero, is known for painting oversized and exaggerated figures of humans and animals. His works do not just exist for the humorous aspect of it but also consists of political criticism. Botero is able to reflect his beliefs of politics and social ideals in his paintings and sculptures. Fernando Botero was born on April 19, 1932 in Medellin, Colombia (Biography.com Editors). Like many people his dream job as a kid did not become his future career. When he was a young boy he dreamed of becoming a bullfighter. Botero attended a matador school for several years to fulfill his dream. He actually never knew of art or such a thing …show more content…
His “youth is reflected in his paintings in the small town Colombian life: middle-class family groups, heads of state, prelates, military men, and prostitutes” (Rogallery). Though some of Botero’s paintings show the rounded figures as something meant to be humorous, they also serve as a means to represent his beliefs on social and political ideals. Botero dedicated 87 of his paintings to Abu Ghraib showing the torture of Iraqi prisoners by Americans (Baker). The abuse of the prisoners consisted of sexual abuse, torture, and murder. Botero reflected what happened in his paintings by visualizing what he was reading from articles. Botero commented on his paintings saying, “The United States presents itself as a defender of human rights and of course as an artist I was very shocked with this and angry” (Baker). One of his paintings from the Abu Ghraib series is shown below. The painting above portrays the Iraqi prisoners naked, tied, and bloody enduring the torment of the Americans. Unlike in the original photographs, Botero does not show the faces of the prisoners. In a way, it restores the prisoners’ dignity. The painting isn’t focusing on an exact individual per se but what happened at the Abu Ghraib detention center. This painting reflects Botero’s stance on human rights. He donated the paintings to Berkeley as a reminder for the Americans. Another painting of Botero shows the death of Pablo
There is no hope at that place because violence is painted on the man’s face, positioned on the left side. Consequently that barbarity calls our attention to how torture happens to those people. Another point in this painting is the position of the tortured man. His aspect shows pain and his suffering. This man reminds Christ unjustly suffering because this man is almost without clothes and wearing a red shirt in one of his arms, like a mantle. Also his arms are positioned above his head and her face shows her suffering and his agony. In addition, Gonzales portrayed nature showing bad weather and symbolic animals on the dry tree. Consequently nature is expressed dark as the mood of the painting. Also the possum is painted screaming representing all that brutality. However the white dove, positioned on the left side of the tree, represent the necessity of hope and peace. For of all those reasons Contraband & Treason brings to mind human values, what we believe, critic and reflect about the difference between good and
Pablo Picasso declared that “Painting is not made to decorate apartments. It is an instrument for offensive and defensive war against the enemy”. Art had been utilized as a means of depicting sociopolitical concerns in the past but the twentieth century artists wielded it to a much further extent. They endeavored to expose the harshness of reality. As war afflicted Europe, art became a revelation of the human condition and it had a visceral intensity never quite seen before in history.
He sought to capture the aura of a subject, concentrating on the unique physical features of an individual (Howlett 2). Over his time as a muralist, Rivera’s style had changed. From Mexico’s realistic, pre-Colombian work (Mujica 30) to abstract modernism learned over in Europe (Howlett 1), Rivera’s signature style was his mastered displays of form and composition, as well as a large concern for texture and his usage of vibrant, contrasting colors (Mujica 29). However, no matter his style, Rivera always managed to incorporate either his political views and stand points or his Mexican background into his work, even if his political views were controversial to the point of igniting riots and harsh criticism around the world. Rivera’s importance was great, and not just to America, but too many other world countries as well. In America, he was a strong, forceful voice in the fight supporting both Communism and Capitalism (Goldstein 50). Through his life, his works have become known worldwide. Diego Rivera’s painting, Man at the Crossroads, reflects his strong stance in standing up for ones beliefs in a style of Latin American Modernism at the high times of Mexican Muralism and the Mexican
Another form of expression and bringing awareness was through the way of art. The style of art and representation solely raised from the Chicano movement. Murals played a big part in the activism and progression people wanted to see. Most, if not all murals represented native Mexicans and their struggles of being oppressed. All murals told a story whether it was Mexico’s poverty or the farming industry. Many popular symbols and images were used again in the Chica...
Diego Velàzquez was called the “noblest and most commanding man among the artists of his country.” He was a master realist, and no painter has surpassed him in the ability to seize essential features and fix them on canvas with a few broad, sure strokes. “His men and women seem to breathe,” it has been said; “his horses are full of action and his dogs of life.” Because of Velàzquez’ great skill in merging color, light, space, rhythm of line, and mass in such a way that all have equal value, he was known as “the painter’s painter,” as demonstrated in the paintings Las Meninas, Sebastiàn de Morra, and Baltasar Carlos and a Dwarf.
In His painting called Hobo (1999) exhibited at MOCA, Museum of Comtemporay Art) Downtown San Diego, the size of the painting was about 3 feet by 2 feet, a moderate-sized canvas paintings.. Framed with thick wooden round frames painted in creamy white color, presenting a naïve, child-like object that is just harmless approach to the viewers perhaps asking for the acceptance of his work as a child’s play. However, the subject matter he decides to depict in his paintings makes the viewers wonder if the artist is a sexist. In his figure of woman whom he portrays as voluptuous yet somewhat not in proportion, anatomically impossible human figures which tells me that the artist is inspired by Hollywood, run way models, His main interest seems to be woman, especially breasts. Most of the shapes in his painting Hobe seems to assimilate the shape of woman’s breasts. The waves in her hair the bag she’s carrying and the most obviously the small yellow bag that’s attached to the wooden stick that she’s holding with delicate touch. The woman’s arms are so thin and they are almost as thin as the stick which seems to give the fragile image of women. The color of this paining is quite extraordinary, not very modernistic. He seems to imitate the styles of taken in the styles from old Renaissance painters such as Michaelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci. The texture of the painting is seems to generate the feeling of age and tradition yet the subject matter is so contemporary. the title Hobo seems...
Dan teamed up with a worldwide human rights organization called Amnesty International with a campaign called “Wailing Walls” to bring attention to prisoners who are locked away and hidden because of their political views. The campaign uses eight photorealism images that Dan created and social media to expose the injustice. Each image is a prisoner locked away; some are blindfolded, leaning on a prison cell door and others show fingers reaching through the tiny holes of a prison cell. The images are compelling. Iin addition, the images become a part of social media with a QR code and a phone app to learn more about each person represented in the piece. People can instantly leave a message for government officials on the wall to protest the imprisonment of the individual they are viewing. As a result, the art campaign has become a voice for the prisoners who have been silenced behind prison
Also, Basquiat engages Afrofuturistic elements, merging traumas of the past with technologies of the future by including a robot in the painting’s right corner. Furthermore, this Afro-bot holds a religious significance, as its arms are held in a crucifixion-like stance. With Xs on its eyes, the robot’s troubled expression and sacrificial positioning symbolizes the death of freedom during an apocalyptic era.
The painting is significant for its anti-war message, but from the time it was created Picasso directed the message for Falco. This can be inferred by the bull that is included in the painting. The bull has been interpreted as representing the onslaught of fascism. Although it is obvious that fascism was not responsible for the bombing of Guernica, by painting the bull it portrays how Picasso believes that fascism is tied to death and destruction. The mother in the painting is also a symbol against fascist. The mother represents how individuals have no control over the power of fascism in Spain. This is what makes the painting so powerful. An artist giving his open opinion on politics publicly and the containing the universal emotion of suffering. Which is profound considering the mural was created in 1937. Involving the painting in the exposition in Paris, Norway, Denmark, and Sweeden, provided Picasso with an opportunity to make anti-fascism a larger message. He also used his painting in these expositions to raise
Expressionism evolved with a need to confront the traumatic and devastating experiences of World War One and its aftermath. This art movement reflected very primal emotions that sought to express inner life by painting harsh and realistic subject matter. It provided them an outlet to express the silence that civilization fell into as the war shattered the sense of vitality and optimism that originally gave birth to Expressionism. Many expressionists’ artists depicted the psychological impact the war had on them in the hopes that their emotionally charged paintings would inspire revitalization in humanity. For example, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who was considered to be one of the most talented and influential Expressionists following World War One, illustrated the disillusionment that came as a result of the war. In his painting, Self Portrait as Soldier (1915) Kirchner portrays himself dressed in a uniform displaying an amputated arm while standing in a studio rather than on a battlefield. Although Kirchner never fought in the war, the painting was more of an exploration of his personal fears. Kirchner’s self-amputation can be seen as a metaphor for the innocence and community that was shattered in society as a result of the war. Kirchner’s depiction of a potential loss of identity can also be seen as an attempt to reflect societies feelings of deprivation. As the war influenced the harsh emotional responses through the art movement Expressionism, it also influenced a criticism or disapproval of the war once society realized how terrible it
During my visit there was an artwork that caught my attention. It was painted by Sue Coe, born in Tamworth, England in 1951, and living in New York. The name of this work is Pinochet, and it is a mixed media collage on paper. The painting shows the tunnels under the National Stadium of Santiago de Chile that were used by the putschists as centers of detention, torture and execution during Pinochet’s dictatorship. At the left, there is a pile of corpses with blood on them. In fact, the red of the blood is the only color different to the black, white and grey that predominates in the painting, giving a sense of death, cruelty and nightmare. In the middle, we can see soldiers pointing their guns to a group of civilians that will probably be executed. To the right, we can find a group of prisoners, probable awaiting to be executed (in the middle), to be moved later to the pile on the left. The fact that the author included a Pepsi vending machine, is a clear reference to the complicity of the United States corporations with Pinochet’s unconstitutional government, due to the privatization of many industries that were previously run by Salvador Allende’s government. This masterpiece is the reflection of t...
Pablo Picasso is one of the most recognized and popular artists of all time. In Pablo’s paintings and other works of art, he would paint what he was passionate about and you can see his emotions take control throughout his paintings and other works of art. Pablo Picasso works of art include not only paintings but also prints, bronze sculptures, drawings, and ceramics. Picasso was one of the inventors of cubism. ” Les Demoiselles d'Avignon” is one of Picasso famous paintings; this is also one of Pablo’s first pieces of cubism.
Knowing a masterpiece is first knowing a little bit about the artist behind the masterpiece. Sandro Botticelli was born in Florence, Italy and lived from 1445-1510. His real name was Alessandro Filipepi but he was brought up by his brother who nick-named him Botticelli meaning “little barrel”. The book Sandro Botticelli Life and Work by Ronald Lightbown talks about how Botticelli spent his entire life in Florence, experiencing some of the most common hardships that were expected during the fifteen century such as plague, flood, hard winters, and famine. Botticelli was a famous early Renaissance painter and is recognized for his well-known painting Primavera, which was known as the largest mythological painting of the Early Renaissance. This work has a humanistic nature and is said to reflect contemporary ...
However neither of these artists would be as highly considered, as they are, if these were the only images in their works. Indeed, it is the ambiguity of these images that makes them so great. Picasso overlaid in Guernica the images of Harlequins. The largest is hidden behind the surface imagery and is crying a diamond tear for the victims of the bombing.
Pablo Picasso can be considered one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. He was a pioneer for art styles such as cubism, realism, and surrealism. Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain on October 25th in 1881. Picasso’s father was also an artist; he worked as a teacher at a school of fine arts. Growing up Picasso would watch his father paint pigeons that would be outside of his home. Sometime Picasso’s father would ask him to finish the paintings for him, which he was more than glad to do. By the time he reached the age of 13 his raw talent was that of a prodigy. Picasso’s earliest works were based off of common subjects that artist at that time trained on at that period of time. He used figure studies which were based on plaster casts as well as bullfights were of much interest to him as well.