Artists have a knowledge of all the artists that preceding them, creating a visual vocabulary from the art that they have seen and understand. For Jean-Michel Basquiat, that knowledge translates into his work, despite never having formal training in an art school. It is his awareness and understanding of the culture that surrounds him that brings a layer of sophistication to his painting, setting it apart from street graffiti that has been painted on canvas. Basquiat’s Untitled (Julius Caesar on Gold) (1981) is a confrontation of his own identity that is created with the visual vocabulary of artists that preceded him. On a square 50 x 50 inch canvas, Basquiat uses acrylic and oil paint stick to create a black figure that is outlined in white. …show more content…
The colors that Basquiat uses in Untitled (Julius Caesar on Gold) contrasts with each other as well as introduce a mood. The yellow and the gold are chosen to uplift the painting and bring in the feeling of brilliance but the spots of red that are hidden underneath suggests the idea of violence. The black figure is brought out with the help of the white lines to help define the features, however, it is the light blue underneath it all that balances out the variations in mood. The colors are unmixed and pure, but it is the violent brushwork that gives the painting some agency. How he handles his brush and how Basquiat applies his paint in his painterly style suggests confrontation. He paints viciously because this is how his mind works through the problems in this head. Yet his painting style also helps hold the picture together, from his violent strokes in the background to his planned outlines on the figure and the black lines in the background. This idea of how he paints, using the strokes to become part of the narrative while also being a technique to approach painting, is something that Basquiat picked up from the Abstract Expressionists, like Pollock, before him. By understanding which artists he looked at reveals how to read Basquiat’s painting because he learned how to appropriate their …show more content…
The title of the piece suggests that the figure that is painted is Julius Caesar, with the bloody sword and crown as a signifier. Yet the pose alludes to Jesus Christ, with the arms stretched out to the side. With this certain iconography and painting the figure in black, Basquiat turns the figure into an abstract self-portrait and thus a representation of his own identity as well as his fears of being betrayed. Both of the figures, religious and fictional, have a history of being the underdogs of their narrative. Both of their minority, rising above their status to help the betterment of their people against the stronger opposing power. This narrative parallels to Basquiat’s own life, where he lived homeless at the beginning of his art career and lacked formal training, but always wanted to rise to fame and be one of best. However, in the end of both of their narratives, they are betrayed by the people they tried to help: Caesar stabbed by Brutus and Christ betrayed by Judas. This presents how Basquiat was afraid of what could be laid out in the future ahead of him. It is well-known that he was never the type to take criticism well. He never wanted his art to come into question, just loved and praised, which suggests his fear of failure and his fear of the community that embraced him so quickly and widely to turn on him, as this
“A picture is a poem without words” – Horace, the purpose of art is to reveal the sensations of life but also allows humans to express their emotions and views on certain aspects. Jean-Michel Basquiat was a Neo-Expressionist painter throughout the 1980’s who was known for his style. He was an African American artist and musician that was part of the SAMO. The SAMO was a graffiti group that wrote epigrams. While growing up, one of Basquiat's inspirations that encouraged him to paint was his diverse cultural heritage.
Other colors used in this painting include green, black and white. Several shades of green are used on the grass and bushes. The use of green adds contrast to the painting specially with the pink tones. A single shade of white is also used in this painting. It plays a role on the shadow parts of the flamingo adding dimension and depth, showing which flamingos are closer or farther within the picture plane. The use of green, black and white in the painting help the red, and different shades of pink stand out to the viewer and making the flamingos the focal point of this painting. The use of several shades and tones make the piece appear more realistic creating the illusion of depth. Each object on the painting has its own unique brush stroke, pattern and mixture of colors adding a more detailed look to the painting. When moving closer to the painting, many details become clear. One can see how organic and loose the brushstrokes are, with the use of a wide range of line weight on the different strokes. Bas started with thicker and bigger lines in the background. And in the middle ground of the picture plane Bas used more detailed and thinner lines with a horizontal movement making the flamingos look
Though most works of art have some underlying, deeper meaning attached to them, our first impression of their significance comes through our initial visual interpretation. When we first view a painting or a statue or other piece of art, we notice first the visual details – its size, its medium, its color, and its condition, for example – before we begin to ponder its greater significance. Indeed, these visual clues are just as important as any other interpretation or meaning of a work, for they allow us to understand just what that deeper meaning is. The expression on a statue’s face tells us the emotion and message that the artist is trying to convey. Its color, too, can provide clues: darker or lighter colors can play a role in how we judge a piece of art. The type of lines used in a piece can send different messages. A sculpture, for example, may have been carved with hard, rough lines or it may have been carved with smoother, more flowing lines that portray a kind of gentleness.
If one came close to the figure’s stomach where there’s the seafoam green, one can see the strong mark makings of the paint brushes and knife strokes, making the paint come out of the canvas. Similarly, Brown also uses big paint strokes of different colors to direct viewer’s eyes around the artwork. For instance, on the left side of the figure, there is a big vertical downward motion of a brush stroke in maroon, that connects to a green streak that goes up and encompasses the figure’s head and then downward to the body of the figure, which outlines and pushes the figure to stand out. And to make our eyes go back to the figure, Brown paints a blue triangle on the chest, making it a focal point due to it’s dark color that stands out of the light colors. And if someone stood facing the side of the painting, one can see the thick globs of paint that would make the viewer take a double glance to see if it was either a painting or a sculpture, which reinforces the idea that the painting is coming alive and making one feel
Throughout the 1980’s, the graffiti scene was very familiar with the name “Basquiat.” Jean-Michel Basquiat is an American graffiti artist who was born in Brooklyn, New York. His artwork is mostly defined as neo-expressionism with a bit of primitivism. His medium was usually a combination of oils, acrylics and spray cans. One could look at Basquiat’s pieces and say they are as if a child scribbled on a canvas, but to me, there is more than that. I admire Basquiat not for what he is, but for what he is not. I believe it requires a lot of bravery to showcase your art that is less than perfect as in the social standards for fine art. Basquiat did just that and was still well respected for it. I feel as if he conquered in keeping his childhood creativity
The article Artists Mythologies and Media Genius, Madness and Art History (1980) by Griselda Pollock is a forty page essay where Pollock (1980), argues and explains her views on the crucial question, "how art history works" (Pollock, 1980, p.57). She emphasizes that there should be changes to the practice of art history and uses Van Gogh as a major example in her study. Her thesis is to prove that the meaning behind artworks should not be restricted only to the artist who creates it, but also to realize what kind of economical, financial, social situation the artist may have been in to influence the subject that is used. (Pollock, 1980, pg. 57) She explains her views through this thesis and further develops this idea by engaging in scholarly debates with art historians and researcher, and objecting to how they claim there is a general state of how art is read. She structures her paragraphs in ways that allows her to present different kinds of evidences from a variety sources while using a formal yet persuasive tone of voice to get her point across to the reader.
Walter Benjamin projected the future of art in the age of mechanical reproduction, providing the basis of aesthetic evaluation for photography, film, digital and reproducible art. In the film Basquiat, directed by Julian Schnabel and starring Jeffrey Wright, Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, and David Bowie as Andy Warhol, the art world is explored in the midst of defining itself in light of the changes brought about by the technology of the twentieth century.
The composition of the painting takes place with the square of the canvas. The square is approximately 5' x 5'. A black frame surrounding the painting protrudes approximately 4" off the canvas. There is a 1" inlay between the canvas and frame. From this square, Reinhardt breaks the composition into six equal squares in three even rows. Texture is no where to be found in the painting. No visual indication of the artist's brush stroke is present. No varnished glare is given off by the piece. The entire work, including the frame, is completely matte. The squares take up the entire canvas in a checkerboard type arrangement. Each square is a slightly different shade of blue-black. It almost becomes impossible to see the difference between each square. The middle squares in the top and bottom rows shift more towards blue than the rest of the squares. The division of these middle squares become more obvious than the others. When the painting is looked at from a distance, it is almost impossible to see any of the squares at all. When looking from a far, all a viewer can see is a blackish blue canvas. As you stare longer into the painting, a halo begins to form around the corners of the canvas, creating a circle inside the square. Once you look away from the canvas, the circle is gone. With this observation in mind, we could say that the painting most definitely relies on the viewer. A viewer is required to look at the piece for its full affect. We could say that the squares in the painting are self-contained.
Picasso would go through various periods throughout his career during his creation of this painting he was in his, Rose Period. During this time his styling of painting would change in color. As well in line quality, some say that this painting foreshadow his Cubism movement through his use of lines. For this painting his style would became more expressive and his using in warmer colors increased. The line quality would also form a change in its appearance.
The image located on page 997 by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Horn Players is an acrylic and oil paintstick on three canvas panels. The artist colored this painting to make a tribute to two legendary African American musicians. This painting features bold colors, fractured figures, and graffiti to capture the dynamic rhythms of jazz and the excitement of New York. The painting is divided into three panels. On both of the end panels, the artist has painted the pictures of the musicians. Also, the painting demonstrates random words which probably has to do with the musicians work perhaps. The painting style is abstract expressionism and art brut which the artist took inspiration from Pablo Picasso. The artists used bold colors on the black background.
Upon further review I was instantly intrigued by the technique in which it was created. Not a single brushstroke of what is commonly used in paintings but rather small perfectly round dots in vibrant yellows, greens, oranges, and blues. Small dots of color perfectly marrying together to form a single image. One could instantly imagine the painstaking hours and the amount of effort that went into creating such a beautiful piece.
When I imagine an artist, I picture a Parisian dabbing at a sprawling masterpiece between drags on a cigarette seated in an extravagantly long holder. He stands amid a motley sea of color, great splashes of vermillion and ultramarine and yellow ochre hiding the tarp on the studio floor. Somehow, not one lonely drop of paint adorns his Italian leather shoes with their pointed toes like baguettes.
Georges Didi-Huberman is critical of the conventional approaches towards the study of art history. Didi-Huberman takes the view that art history is grounded in the primacy of knowledge, particularly in the vein of Kant, or what he calls a ‘spontaneous philosophy’. While art historians claim to be looking at images across the sweep of time, what they actually do might be described as a sort of forensics process, one in which they analyze, decode and deconstruct works of art in attempt to better understand the artist and purpose or expression. This paper will examine Didi-Huberman’s key claims in his book Confronting Images and apply his methodology to a still life painting by Juan Sánchez Cotán.
Art is a constantly evolving process. The previous style of work serves as a roadmap for what will follow. As often is the case with any form of growth, there exists a transitional period. Because of this evolution, there are traces of a style’s illustrious history embedded in the adaptive art’s metaphorical DNA. The transition from early to late Renaissance established two styles of art known as Baroque and Rococo. While, on the surface, the Rococo style can appear to be very similar to the work produced by Baroque artists, the two also demonstrate distinct differences in their use of subject and theme, the manner in which they created the art, and how that art was perceived in their time. These factors establish both styles from one another, making them unique.
For over two thousand years, various philosophers have questioned the influence of art in our society. They have used abstract reasoning, human emotions, and logic to go beyond this world in the search for answers about arts' existence. For philosophers, art was not viewed for its own beauty, but rather for the question of how art and artists can help make our society more stable for the next generation. Plato, a Greek philosopher who lived during 420-348 B.C. in Athens, and Aristotle, Plato’s student who argued against his beliefs, have no exceptions to the steps they had to take in order to understand the purpose of art and artists. Though these two philosophers made marvelous discoveries about the existence of art, artists, and aesthetic experience, Plato has made his works more controversial than Aristotle.