Paul Strand (1890-1976) was born in New York and attended the Ethical Culture School, based on the principles of John Dewey , a popular choice for those middle class Jewish families wishing to assimilate into secular US society.(Encarta) In 1907 he joined the photography classes and club taught by Lewis Hine, the greatest American documentary photographer of his time, who was photographing living conditions in slum areas and the treatment of immigrants on arrival at Ellis Island, and campaigning for the appeal of child labor laws through photographs of "Children Working" on the streets, in factories and in mines. (Capa)
Hine took his students to Alfred Stieglitz's "Gallery at 291", which had an overwhelming impression on the seventeen-year-old Strand, who later returned to discuss his photographs with Stieglitz. After leaving school Strand started work in the family business, continuing his photography in his spare time.(Encarta) His early work followed the pictorialist model of the photo secession, but further visits to 291 and other galleries, and discussions with Stieglitz meant that Strand was kept up to date with the new modern art from Europe. He shared Stieglitz's growing disillusion with pictorialism, and in particular his growing insistence that photography should make use of the unique possibilities it offered, particularly its ability to describe the scene with greater detail and accuracy than the human hand, rather than attempt to mimic painting or drawing. (Rosenblum) Strand expressed his views clearly and forcibly in a number of articles.
Strand was one of the first photographers to take up the visual problems and approaches which he saw in modern art. By 1915 this was showing clearly in his work, with an interest in geometrical forms, patterns, rhythm, space and the division of the frame; the pictures were like a knife cutting through the butter of Pictorialism . Stieglitz greeted this with enthusiasm, showing it in the gallery and making it the feature of the final issues of Camerawork. (Web Galleries)
The "White Fence", perhaps the best known from this period, shows the white painted pickets of a fence across the lower half of the picture, setting up a rhythm which is syncopated by their imperfections. The spaces between the posts show a dark grass area, pictorially of equal weight to the white wood, setting up a 'figure-ground opposition' (we can see it as either light areas against a dark background or dark areas against a light background) in this part of the picture, producing the spatial illusion of bringing the horizontal grass expanse into a vertical visual plane.
The print of art is a Hiroshige, Plum Garden at Kameido, 1857, woodblock print. The print shows a calm and peaceful color of a regular day. The background consists of wash colors like reddish-pink that fades into white, and transfers once more in a green hue of the greenish ground. The image is showing a view of a several plum trees, with the stems, the flower, and the people on the other side of the fence. This work has a light pink background symbolizing the sunset and warm colors of the spring. The middle ground in the light white color shows the piece where there are people on the other side of the fence and appears to be walking around the garden or going throughout their daily business. The middle ground also has a view of several plum trees, which all of them seem to be inside of the fence. The focal point of the piece is the main plum tree with its branches swinging from the left at a sharp angle and moving to the right.
Upon returning to his studio Storrier picks a photograph that can be associated in a variety of ways. He makes works similar in subject matter, but which give different overall impressions. 'I never work from photographic documents. The little polaroids are just mental records. I paint pictures about, not from, photographs.' He explores the concept, and makes preliminary sketches and small studies of his ideas to decide the colour and tone. He chooses the size to make his artwork oncer he has his idea.
At the left-bottom corner of the painting, the viewer is presented with a rugged-orangish cliff and on top of it, two parallel dark green trees extending towards the sky. This section of the painting is mostly shadowed in darkness since the cliff is high, and the light is emanating from the background. A waterfall, seen originating from the far distant mountains, makes its way down into a patch of lime-green pasture, then fuses into a white lake, and finally becomes anew, a chaotic waterfall(rocks interfere its smooth passage), separating the latter cliff with a more distant cliff in the center. At the immediate bottom-center of the foreground appears a flat land which runs from the center and slowly ascends into a cliff as it travels to the right. Green bushes, rough orange rocks, and pine trees are scattered throughout this piece of land. Since this section of the painting is at a lower level as opposed to the left cliff, the light is more evidently being exposed around the edges of the land, rocks, and trees. Although the atmosphere of the landscape is a chilly one, highlights of a warm light make this scene seem to take place around the time of spring.
...hese repeated vertical lines contrast firmly with a horizontal line that divides the canvas almost exactly in half. The background, upper portion of the canvas, seems unchanging and flat, whereas the foreground and middle ground of the painting have a lot of depth to them.
In the Wood’s painting, it shows a wider scale of the town while in the N.C. Wyeth’s illustration it shows a close up of Paul Revere galloping by on a horse alarming the people in the
2. Strand was the first photographer to acheive a really decisive break with pictorialism and apply some of the lessons of the new modern art to photography.
"History of Art: History of Photography." History of Art: History of Photography. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2014. .
Spending time looking at art is a way of trying to get into an artists’ mind and understand what he is trying to tell you through his work. The feeling is rewarding in two distinctive ways; one notices the differences in the style of painting and the common features that dominate the art world. When comparing the two paintings, The Kneeling Woman by Fernand Leger and Two Women on a Wharf by Willem de Kooning, one can see the similarities and differences in the subjects of the paintings, the use of colors, and the layout
This is an image that I think of when I consider Japanese culture. They love gardens like this and you see similar images often when considering their culture. It is difficult to tell for sure, but the people in the distance appear to be dressed up. It is as though they have put on their best clothes to step out and enjoy this relaxing setting. I believe that this print is successful at capturing a moment in the mid 1800’s very well. It causes me to sense and experience what the artist was trying to capture. This print seems to conform to the formal theory of art. The print has only images of each object. None of them are particularly detailed or real to life but they do a very good job of organizing and describing the basic elements of the scene. It uses similar colors, shapes, and lines to those one might find in this garden in
This work shows impeccably drawn beech and basswood trees. It was painted for a New York collector by the name of Abraham M. Cozzens who was then a member of the executive committee of the American Art-Union. The painting shows a new trend in the work of the Hudson River School. It depicts a scene showing a tranquil mood. Durand was influenced by the work of the English landscape painter John Constable, whose vertical formats and truth to nature he absorbed while visiting England in 1840.
Moreover, the effect achieved by the current painting technique is often that of a human face behind glass or of a reflection rippling in the water surface: for instance, Shirley (2007), Susan (2011), Self-Portrait (1997) and others. Although these gridded paintings look fragmented from the small distance, they form an easily recognizable and identifiable figurative whole. The tendency towards application of pixelization in painting might be perceived as a skillful allusion to the legacy of Gustav Klimt, for Klimt, an Austrian Secessionist of the early 20th century, often ‘infused’ geometric elements similar to Close’ marks into his paintings. In other words, Close seems to have revived use of geometry in figurative depiction as he entered the third stylistic phase and endowed his photorealistic vision with more complex optical
There is a lot of repetition of the vertical lines of the forest in the background of the painting, these vertical lines draw the eye up into the clouds and the sky. These repeated vertical lines contrast harshly with a horizontal line that divides the canvas almost exactly in half. The background, upper portion of the canvas, is quite static and flat, whereas the foreground and middle ground of the painting have quite a lot of depth. This static effect is made up for in the immaculate amount of d...
As most people who have lived a long while, John Mahtesian can look with amazement on the events of his life and the twists and turns that have shaped his journey. Although he began his commitment to learning and creating art in his early twenties, he didn't start taking photographs in a serious way until the age of 40.
Dr. Feldman revealed that the approach to art education should be seen as a discipline and as a philosophy. His foundational practices included the earlier thoughts of Manuel Barkan. Doctor Feldman felt that there was a conflict between our capitalist and socialist nature, which could generate personal and professional creativity. His beliefs were that art teachers are conditioned by political forces and that the power of art education comes from the psychological impact of the visual image and the power of the art teacher comes from their ability to relay these images.
...rivers of paint rush across the dark black ground, creating writhing intertwining shapes that suggest figures in a landscape setting, but without any specificity whatsoever.