Paul Gauguin, a French Post-Impressionist artist, tried to commit suicide in December, 1897 during his second stay in Tahiti. At that time, he did not have enough money to treat himself, and miserably, he was abandoned by people who owned his money, so his mental and physical conditions were poor. Moreover, In April 1897, he got news from his wife, Mette. There was written that his daughter Aline, who is only twenty, was dead due to pneumonia. Gauguin was absolutely depressed at this news and seriously thinking to kill himself. Before leaving the world, he wished and attempted to paint his last great testamentary masterpiece, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? which is one of his most famous artworks. He said, “I wanted …show more content…
He put his all strength and energy into the largest single artwork. His most ambitious masterpiece, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? Paul Gauguin, who attempted to commit suicide after completing to draw the masterpiece, implied various meanings in this work. The painting, which is widely recognized as one of the best masterpieces in his works, is depicted about appearances and life of local people living in Tahiti. Gauguin believed that Tahiti was the last paradise for mankind. The artwork is so superbly organized into three scenes. People with three scenes are drawn from right to left in painting represents a title of this work. Firstly, the three people depicted with a baby on the right side of the screen represent the beginning of life. Behind them, there are two women, supporting each other's body, confide their thoughts to each other. A huge crouching figure, showing its back, raising its arm, and staring at these two women, think of their destiny and is surprised. The scene represents the title, Where Do We Come From? Secondly, each person in the middle means adulthood. The scene represents …show more content…
For instance, the two shaded figures by the tree of knowledge are used from Te Arii Vahine (The King’s Wife) created in 1848 - 1903. The old woman accepting the death on the left are derived from a lot of his earlier works, and the example of one of these works is Soyez amoureuses vous serez heureuses (Be In Love and You Will Be Happy) drawn in 1889. In addition, the child who is eating a fruit looks like a child in Nave nave mahana (Delightful Days), depicted in 1896. The two women who are squatting on the right, look their faces front are sisters of those that are referred from Nafea fas ipoipo (When will you marry) created in 1892. Also, the girl with a faint smile on her rips next to the old woman, learning on one hand, is staring at a mysterious white bird beside her, are depicted from Vairumati, which is the name of Tahitian goddess, drawn in 1879. There is also a white mysterious bird beside the woman in the artwork. Thus, he used the actual figures which he depicted in his earlier artwork to draw his most ambitious
Watteau’s last painting, the Enseigne de Gersaint, a gift to his friend, the picture dealer Edame Gersaint, was a signboard. It has to be acknowledged, that Watteau’s signboard however, is of a somewhat different nature. The painting transcended the boundaries of the commercial genre and was recognized as a true work of art.
Jean-Michel Basquiat was born on December 22, 1960 in Brooklyn, New York to parents Gérard Basquiat and Matilde Andradas. Little did they know at the time that Jean-Michel Basquiat would soon go down as one of the most important contemporary painters continuing to leave a legacy for decades to come after his passing. Basquiat would live a difficult life and experience many hardships until he later dies of a heroin overdose, but what he experiences during his lifetime is what shaped the way Basquiat expressed himself through his art. Basquiat’s exceedingly personal and relatable art is what guided him to being such an influential artist. “His work is likely to remain for a long time as the modern picture of
“There are no ghosts in the paintings of Van Gogh, no visions, no hallucinations. This is the torrid truth of the sun at two o’clock in the afternoon.” This quote that Antonin Artraud, stated from, Van Gogh, the Man Suicided by Society, explains the way in which Van Gogh approached his artwork. He believed in the dry truth and as a result his work was remarkably straightforward in the messages that he portrayed. While visiting Paris, France this past April, I was fortunate enough to have visited Musée d’Orsay, a museum that contains mostly French art from 1848-1914 and houses a large collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces and 19th century works from the Louvre [The Oxford Companion to Western Art]. I was also favored in having the opportunity to see the Vincent Van Gogh/Antonin Artaud exhibition, The Man Suicided by Society. The exhibition captured Antonin Artaud’s text about Van Gogh’s, “exceptional lucidity that made lesser minds uncomfortable,” or better known as his mental illness that had a major effect on his artwork [Musee d’Orsay]. In this exhibition, Vincent Van Gogh’s works visually present his life experience having spent 9 years in a mental institution and the way his imbalanced mind played a direct role on the outcome of his artwork. The darkness of Vincent Van Gogh’s illness that had a major impact on his art, was a form of expressionism which led to a collection of works that both told his life story, and later, led to his own suicide.
Jules Bastien-Lepage creates a realistic atmosphere, including a supernatural, religious-like presence within his painting. Oil on canvas was used to create the realistic quality of the work. By closely examining the artist’s technique, it is clear that he uses delicate brush strokes in a true to life manner. The colors, and use of light seem to be painted in a layered fashion to give the landscape a sense of depth. The background of the painting is a garden which include foliage and brush that surrounds the primary focus of the painting, Joan of Arc. The artist put a great effort into the details of the scene. Bastien-Lepage uses a distinct realistic quality in his painting which is visible in each individual leaf and branch. Various hues of earth tones, green and brown being the most evident, are blended together in the garden scene.
images in this painting, all of which have the power to symbolize to us, the viewer, of the painter’s
Art is a severe Goddess, who in return for her smiles demands many sacrifices. No one did more to please her, and no one was so insufficiently rewarded as Van Gogh. Several times the blows that she dealt him were painful enough to make any reasonable man resign. Only fanaticism and faith in her would permit one to leap the abyss between reality and desire. With cruel, merciless method, art asked from Van Gogh everything. It was a loan that multiplied with time and was never paid back. It haunted him within the recesses of his soul, it flirted with him and raises his hopes, it took away from him everything that was dear, and when it could finally take no more, it decided to take his life.
...individual human being, worthy of our own unique individual response” (Weschler, p. 21). As we look at these paintings it is easy for us to connect to the subject matter, they all pertain to ethics. The contemplation of life and death, picking the right path for our highest and best good, forgiveness and taking pride in what you are doing. Each day we are faced with moral dilemmas and for the most part people choose to be good and do the best they can. These four paintings allow us to see the intersubjectivity in others as well as in ourselves.
“ I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.” These are the words of the wise Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, a famous and talented artist in the 19th and 20th century. Many have crowned him the most influential artist of his time. Many of his works including Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Ma Jolie, and Girl Before a Mirror have set the tone for many artists to follow after. However, Guernica was one of his most famous of his pieces, painting a nearly perfect emotional picture of what was happening during these times of despair. Guernica, one of his many contributions to the art world, will be described first in purely formal terms, and then a comparison and evaluation of three different critiques will be made.
The painting is organized simply. The background of the painting is painted in an Impressionist style. The blurring of edges, however, starkly contrasts with the sharp and hard contours of the figure in the foreground. The female figure is very sharp and clear compared to the background. The background paint is thick compared to the thin lines used to paint the figures in the foreground. The thick paint adds to the reduction of detail for the background. The colors used to paint the foreground figures are vibrant, as opposed to the whitened colors of the Impressionist background. The painting is mostly comprised of cool colors but there is a range of dark and light colors. The light colors are predominantly in the background and the darker colors are in the foreground. The vivid color of the robe contrasts with the muted colors of the background, resulting in an emphasis of the robe color. This emphasis leads the viewer's gaze to the focal part of the painting: the figures in the foreground. The female and baby in the foreground take up most of the canvas. The background was not painted as the artist saw it, but rather the impression t...
“Picasso painted from a model who sat in front of him, facing him”. Thus, you are “in the position of the artist”. The unique element of the painting is that use of cubism, which allows for the painting to carry a form of mystery behind it, as it does not simply give you the image, rather, it provides the elements of a complete composition that then the viewer must piece together. What the image truly shows us, however, is that of a naked female playing a mandolin with us as the viewer able to see the profile of her face looking down towards the strings of the mandolin, while her body faces towards the viewer, giving a good usage of twisted perspective. “The colors in this painting are shades of light brown, tan, yellow, and olive green. They all seem close to each in color, and they are all muted or dull” with “no bright color standing out. These factors make the entire surface of the painting appear unified in color.” Thus turning the piece into more of a puzzle that the viewer mush piece together rather than merely a painting one could simply
This painting has deviated from the standard Renaissance model in that it goes beyond depicting subjects and scene, and employs exaggerated form, color emphasis, abnormal planar depiction, and visual directionality. The aspects of this painting have become the embodiment of the story told and the characters there held. The artist has used various techniques of color, line, and juxtaposition in order to portray an idea which supersedes the sum of its parts, and thereby leads the viewer through a thought.
He used rich naturalistic color to create gently, winding forms and silhouettes creating a picturesque scene on the left, and local color creates a hazy unifying blanket of light in the scene on the right and delivers a beautiful, peaceful mood. His harmoniously balanced compositions evoke the tranquil, undisturbed celebration of sublime nature. Van Gogh used color to express feelings and spirituality, and this coloristic composition creates a joyful, yet peaceful mood. The omnipresent strokes of yellow flowing from the sun provides the feeling of continuous energy and warmth. Van Gogh’s vibrant colors in the painting range from cool blues and greens to singed reds and bright yellows, a hue that he used to great effect. There is an inherent variety of colors in the dense green foliage. In the shade, the bark and leaves appear to have bluish-grey
Le Grenouillere is a typical example of how much the style of painting had changed. The piece has been painted outdoors using light and bright colours, and is of a fairly ordinary everyday scene. It is a work in which we see his art losing the last of its stiffness and clean cut edge.
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.
The iconography of the picture could represent art in the view of the fauvists. Fauvists wanted to be free from tradition and natural colors. They wanted to be free to explore their world of colors as they saw fit. Fauvists and expressionists did not like to be held to strict rules when it came to painting. It could be that Le Bonheur de Vivre was a state in which they where trying to reach, but in reality could get never get there. On the other hand, could it be a place where they could only reach in their dreams? Critics have struggled with the interpretation of Matisse’s painting since the first display. That may have been Matisse’s meaning after all.