IN THE VISUAL ARTS, TRAITS WHICH STRESS THE Expression of feeling occur so often that we refer to a "style of emotion." Very often, an artist cannot "speak" in any other language. Van Gogh and Soutine were such men: their pictures of people, flowers, trees, or even chairs seem to be bursting with intensity. For such artists, what matters most is not accuracy or the measured expression of order; rather, the communication of anxiety, pity, or rage—any emotion—takes precedence over everything else.
If we say that emotion is important to a certain kind of artist, do we mean the emotion he feels or his arousal of emotion in others? The reference might be to both. Usually, however, we have only a secondary interest in the artist's feelings; we are mainly concerned with the way art objects are responsible for our responses. Sometimes the language used by critics to describe the emotional impact of a work gives the impression that the artist experienced the same feelings in advance of creating it. In fact, he may or may not have. And it is not our purpose to find out. Certain theories of art criticism assume that artistic excellence depends on whether the viewer is convinced that the artist truly experienced the emotions we see in his work. The study of style, however, focuses more sharply on the art object than on the artist's behavior. When examining a work of art, the viewer ought to be more interested in his own biography and his own emotions than in those of the artist. He should ask, "Does the work convince me of the reality of the world it attempts to create?" rather than, "Did the artist really feel the emotions portrayed here?"
There are differences of opinion about what constitutes the "expression of emotion" in art. The view taken here is that emotions are the names we give to neuromuscular reactions - feelings - which have been triggered by the organization of elements in an art object. The energy for such feelings comes from the viewer, but the feelings are organized by the work of art. Consequently, emotions are caused and shaped by the art object, they are portrayed in it.
There are differences within the style of emotion. That is, works of art have the capacity to arouse a range of feelings and dispositions in viewers—all of which are emotional but differing in their content. It is obvious that we can be elated by one work and depressed by another. Each particular emotional response may be caused by the subject matter or theme of the work; or it may be due to the type of aesthetic "signal" the work transmits. For example, abstract art often has no apparent subject matter, yet it can cause complex emotional responses. Something in the visual organization of abstract works must be responsible for these reactions. Consequently, we shall be dealing in this chapter with two sources of emotion in works of art: thematic or subject-matter sources, and organizational or design sources.
The style of emotion refers to any means of arousing feelings in a viewer. Its most stirring examples reveal the mutual influence of theme and design. Examples might be seen in the Side of Beef by Chaim Soutine and The Bat by Ger-maine Richier (1904-1959). Both subjects are distasteful, and the organization of forms in each case reinforces our normal feelings of revulsion —feelings clustered around the idea of slaughter, or attack by a hideous creature. On the other hand, Henry Moore's Falling Warrior deals with killing, too, but the simplification of forms and freezing of movement divest the sculpture of any gory qualities the theme would be expected to have. In other words, what we know about Moore's subject does not interfere with the formal order of his sculpture. But the carcass by Soutine dramatizes the mutilated character of eviscerated forms which once housed organic life. The carcass records the slaughter of a beast, not the slaying of a hero.
Richier's bat, with its webbed limbs radiating from a mammalian trunk, strikes a note of primeval terror because of some instinctive fear it arouses in us. Its resemblance to the human is stressed by the artist to arouse mixed emotions— emotions of dread and recognition. In this case, design is assisted by the manipulation of symbolic meanings to mount an assault on the viewer's feelings.
Themes of violence and an interest in mutilated forms are not uncommon features of the style of emotion today. However, we are not concerned with discovering whether we like or dislike these style features. We examine this art to gain insight into the world we live in. If art reflects the times, it is worth attention whether we enjoy it or not. The style of emotion should help us to see what it is about life in the twentieth century that leads to the expression of terror and despair—or hopefully the expression of joy.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
The Legacy of Impressionism
Impressionism had freed painting from the conventions of tonal chiaroscuro, giving new emphasis to colour, pure bright luminous spectral colour. It had offered new approaches to space and to composition, which liberated art from the window-on-the-world illusionism dominant since the Renaissance. It had freed brushwork from its purely illusionistic or descriptive role, pointing the way both to greater emphasis on abstract, formal qualities in painting, and to a greater expressive potential in touch.
The Impressionists had fused line and colour, drawing and painting, resolving the centuries-long dichotomy between these two elements of art. They had found new, more appropriate techniques with which to exploit the full potential of modern materials. Yet, still faithful to the nineteenth century natural philosophy, they all remained more or less committed to a depiction of the natural world.
It was in his transformation of their ideas that Seurat. in his late paintings, suggested a new. more stylized and non-naturalistic art-form, which Gauguin, in his entirely different way. pursued in his Symbolist Tahitian paintings. With the Fauves. and Matisse in particular, the final legacy of Impressionist naturalism was overthrown, as colour was freed from its imitative function, paving the way for the twentieth century abstraction already implicit in the avant-garde art of the 1860s and 1870s. Thus, until 1907 and the advent of Cubism, the radical approach and techniques of Impression¬ism remained a powerful force with which successive generations had to come to terms.
The Impressionists had fused line and colour, drawing and painting, resolving the centuries-long dichotomy between these two elements of art. They had found new, more appropriate techniques with which to exploit the full potential of modern materials. Yet, still faithful to the nineteenth century natural philosophy, they all remained more or less committed to a depiction of the natural world.
It was in his transformation of their ideas that Seurat. in his late paintings, suggested a new. more stylized and non-naturalistic art-form, which Gauguin, in his entirely different way. pursued in his Symbolist Tahitian paintings. With the Fauves. and Matisse in particular, the final legacy of Impressionist naturalism was overthrown, as colour was freed from its imitative function, paving the way for the twentieth century abstraction already implicit in the avant-garde art of the 1860s and 1870s. Thus, until 1907 and the advent of Cubism, the radical approach and techniques of Impression¬ism remained a powerful force with which successive generations had to come to terms.
Toward Impressionism
While photography afforded a new and - broadly speaking - more naturalistic vision of light than the conventionalized lighting in chiaroscuro painting, it still presented form in i terms of strong tonal lights and darks. Although in their studio-painted studies of interiors the younger independent artists relied greatly on the example of Manet. Degas and Courbet during the 1860s. their landscape work shows them moving away from tonal handling. Thus Monet's reworking of Manet's radical subject of 1863. Luncheon on the Grassin 1865 to 1866. of which only fragments survive, attempted a more authentic depiction of outdoor light effects. A more successful painting. Monet's Women in the Garden (1866). begun outdoors and finished in the studio, created a new unity between the effects of sunlight on landscape and figures.
In their pre-Impressionist work of the 1860s. artists like Monet and Renoir already gave hints of later developments. The shadows in Monet's Women in the Garden, like those in Renoir's Use with a Parasol (1867) and The Pont des Arts (1867) were filled with reflected light and cool blue-violet hues picked up from the sky. contrasting with the pervasive warmth of the sun¬light. Monet's early experiences in outdoor work with his mentor Eugene Boudin (1824-1898) along the Normandy coast, in the late 1850s and early 1860s. gave him an advantage over Renoir who only began painting outside in 1863. He did this at the instigation of his tutor Charles Gleyre (1806-1874). in whose sympathetic anti-academic teaching studio he had first met Monet. Sisley and Frederic Bazille (1841-1870) in the autumn of 1862. Since they all worked together regularly, both indoors and out in the 1860s and early 1870s. they were able to benefit from each other's growing expertise and competence.
When in Paris, they all joined Manet's gatherings of artistic and literary figures at the Cafe Guerbois. on one of the new boulevards -now avenue de Clichy - in the Batignollcs quarter on the fringe of Montmartre. These discussions often included writers and critics like Emile Zola. Edmond Duranty and Theodore Duret. Artists who joined them included Degas. Cezanne. Renoir. Fantin Latour and Pissarro. Monet later recalled that "from them we emerged with a firmer will, with our thoughts clearer and more distinct.' As they only painted during daylight hours, in the evenings they were free to meet, argue and exchange the latest ideas. It was during this time that many of these artists began to formulate the project for independent group shows, which would provide an alternative venue to the official Salon exhibition. This idea finally came to fruition in 1874. the year of the first group exhibition, at which a critic coined the name Impressionism'.
The year 1 869 is now commonly seen as the turning point in the development of the Impressionist style. That summer. Monet and Renoir worked side by side along the banks of the river Seine at La Grenouillere. one of the new leisure spots just outside Paris. With their portable easels and travelling paintboxes, they painted rapid studies in free sketchy brush-work, attempting to capture the fleeting effects of sunlight on mobile water, to note down their impressions before the transitory scene. Although their methods and palette were to change considerably in the following decade, the basis for the new Impressionist techniques was already established.
In their pre-Impressionist work of the 1860s. artists like Monet and Renoir already gave hints of later developments. The shadows in Monet's Women in the Garden, like those in Renoir's Use with a Parasol (1867) and The Pont des Arts (1867) were filled with reflected light and cool blue-violet hues picked up from the sky. contrasting with the pervasive warmth of the sun¬light. Monet's early experiences in outdoor work with his mentor Eugene Boudin (1824-1898) along the Normandy coast, in the late 1850s and early 1860s. gave him an advantage over Renoir who only began painting outside in 1863. He did this at the instigation of his tutor Charles Gleyre (1806-1874). in whose sympathetic anti-academic teaching studio he had first met Monet. Sisley and Frederic Bazille (1841-1870) in the autumn of 1862. Since they all worked together regularly, both indoors and out in the 1860s and early 1870s. they were able to benefit from each other's growing expertise and competence.
When in Paris, they all joined Manet's gatherings of artistic and literary figures at the Cafe Guerbois. on one of the new boulevards -now avenue de Clichy - in the Batignollcs quarter on the fringe of Montmartre. These discussions often included writers and critics like Emile Zola. Edmond Duranty and Theodore Duret. Artists who joined them included Degas. Cezanne. Renoir. Fantin Latour and Pissarro. Monet later recalled that "from them we emerged with a firmer will, with our thoughts clearer and more distinct.' As they only painted during daylight hours, in the evenings they were free to meet, argue and exchange the latest ideas. It was during this time that many of these artists began to formulate the project for independent group shows, which would provide an alternative venue to the official Salon exhibition. This idea finally came to fruition in 1874. the year of the first group exhibition, at which a critic coined the name Impressionism'.
The year 1 869 is now commonly seen as the turning point in the development of the Impressionist style. That summer. Monet and Renoir worked side by side along the banks of the river Seine at La Grenouillere. one of the new leisure spots just outside Paris. With their portable easels and travelling paintboxes, they painted rapid studies in free sketchy brush-work, attempting to capture the fleeting effects of sunlight on mobile water, to note down their impressions before the transitory scene. Although their methods and palette were to change considerably in the following decade, the basis for the new Impressionist techniques was already established.
Impressionism
Landscape painters move outdoors As the technical difficulties in chiaroscuro painting increased, and dark brown transparent shadows became harder to depict with assured permanency, this form of traditional studio setup gave way to newer environments. The rise of landscape painting was a key factor in this change, for as artists became more committed to an accurate depiction of outdoor sites and lighting, the studio gradually moved outdoors too. At first, in spite of the brilliant sunlight and reflected ambient atmospheric light found out-doors, artists, as it were, took their studio light out with them - they still saw their outdoor environment in terms of chiaroscuro and the browns of studio shadows. To some extent this vision was determined by the types of site and lighting preferred in the first half of the century. Dramatic storms, dawns, sunsets, forest or craggy scenes all tend to create strong contrasts of light and shadow, which could be translated in a broadly chiaroscuro technique. In any case, many such works, although based on outdoor studies, or even begun outdoors, were normally completed under darker studio conditions.
However, the example of outdoor studies by Corot. with their gold or pale lighting and ! luminous shadows, provided an important alternative to younger independent painters in the 1860s. Increasingly, artists began to complete their paintings out of doors in order to retain the unity of natural light effects and the I impact of the first impression. This renewed determination to capture the quality of light observed in site brought a freeing of artistic vision, which stimulated painters to study brighter, lighter scenery in full daylight.
One of the major problems with studio-executed landscape paintings, especially those including figures, had always been the creation of a convincingly unified lighting. In such paintings, the background lighting was usually quite distinct from that on the figures, which were executed from models under the strictly controlled abrupt lights and darks of the studio.
On figures under natural outdoor light, the gradations from light to shade are softer and the shadows more diffused and attenuated, filled with reflected light from the sky. Even in works like Manet's Luncheon on the Grass, in which a high academic studio lighting was abandoned, the stark tonal contrasts of interior light are still in evidence. Manet adopted a dramatic frontal light, falling directly onto his figures, which obliterates halftones and reduces shadow to little more than striking black con-tours. This flattening, full-face light familiar to the artists from contemporary photography, produces broad blocks of light and dark when used indoors. During the 1870s the same full-face light was to be exploited by the Impressionists outdoors, where, by contrast, it suppresses tonal contrasts because shadows fall behind the objects depicted.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Painting Post Cards Issued by International Painting Exhibition Event Organizer
Influence by western impressionism and expressionism, also studied Chinese Brush Painting, so the western and eastern philosophy of expression are merged and expressed in my art work creation to get maximum free expression in brush work, color and composition.
To realize this concept of painting in technical solution, I always make a lot of sketching and drawing, also keep exercising in Chinese Grass style calligraphy.
Are my paintings achieved the concept that I mentioned above?
The answer is from you.
Born in Indonesia in 1950, painting day to day Indonesian life and nature is my favorite.
Sipin Lim.
Contact :
Phone : 62 - 22 - 70235311
email : sipinlim@gmail.com
To realize this concept of painting in technical solution, I always make a lot of sketching and drawing, also keep exercising in Chinese Grass style calligraphy.
Are my paintings achieved the concept that I mentioned above?
The answer is from you.
Born in Indonesia in 1950, painting day to day Indonesian life and nature is my favorite.
Sipin Lim.
Contact :
Phone : 62 - 22 - 70235311
email : sipinlim@gmail.com
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