What does it mean to be black, not only in America but around the world? (Even a person of color)To be black is to be tired, anxious, ambitious. But also to be an extremist, rational, radical and irrational; to struggle from generation to generation, to be unequally disproportionate ! You may disagree w/ me but it is truth, that you can not argue. To be colorblind, disillusioned by reality, to feed into the illusions of society is to be childish and naive in comparison. I am an American citizen but i am not american; nor am i proud to be an American. There is nothing proud about america, unless of course, you pride yourself, your wealth and your great fortune off the misfortune of others. I am of a people who built this country, yet still reps none of the wealth benefits or opportunities allotted. Instead we are dehumanized, exploited, silenced made an example of through propaganda. There is nothing proud about a country that stills a culture away from its homeland by force in aims to work for it. Take this message how you will, but in your best interest it would be wise to remove the shades in-which, you hide behind. As the old American saying goes "On doit se réveiller et sentir les roses"...WAKE UP AND SMELL THE ROSES!
Inspired by: Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael and Louis Farrakhan....Black Panther lingering!
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
WK10-Renaissance Art
Renaissance art overall particularly the High Renaissance was very enjoyable. I was strongly drawn to, and intrigued by Historia paintings Baroque and Romanticism. In most instances, if not all I was intrigued visually by the details of art within any period with a few exceptions. Theodore Gericault’s piece The Raft of the “Medusa” intrigued me not only visually but historically. A piece with Romanticism characteristics all over it, the historical context caught my attention more than the painting itself because I had seen works equally striking. It was the story behind the painting that blew me away. The thought of something so tragic conveyed into a painting was unreal. It persuaded me to take a second glance at the image before me; “The Raft of the Medusa”, and examine it thoroughly. I endlessly compared the story to the depictions in the painting visualizing the event as it happened. In the painting, the back corner of the raft floats in the bottom middle foreground; while it’s other two visible side corners reach to the left and right bottom appearing to extend off the sides of the canvas. The composition is very visually striking, and it evokes great emotion. The lifeless pale dead bodies lying about on the back edge of the raft is saddening. Some partially on the raft and partially in the water it is a very dramatic driven piece. It is a horrifying nightmare in which, one can only sympathize for the individuals. I felt like this piece emphasized the importance of each person upon the raft. This was very much a tragic Romanists work of art. It definitely stresses emotion, intuition not in the common since but just a characteristic of Romanticism, and reason. His painting looked inwardly and focused on an aspect of the past.
Baroque art is one of my favorite styles thus far simply because of the lighting. One of my most beloved pieces is by Joseph Wright the Blacksmiths Shop. It was very much in my opinion, a Baroque style with slight classical influence in subject matter but a strong diagonal composition. It possessed naturalism and illusion in a dramatic setting. I felt slightly involve with the painting myself because of the strong transition of lighting. My reaction was almost similarly to the blacksmiths, reacting to the light as if I was actually a part of the painting. Joseph’s “An Experiment on a Bird in the Air-pump” was also a fascinating piece. Quite similar in style to his Blacksmiths Shop, it’s a depiction of men, women and children gathered in the dark around a science experiment conducted under a small bright light. This light highlights the garments and faces of each individual, giving the viewer a visual detail. The man conducting the experience is actually the center of the piece along with the equipment he’s using. The light doesn’t highlight him as much. The piece is both calming and unsettling.
Historia Art are paintings with narrative that tell a story in which, instruct the viewer in a pleasurable sense. It contains a variety of colors and bodies in the composition that moves the viewers through the expressiveness of the figures represented. I feel like Baroque and Romanticism all have characteristics of historia to some degree. I enjoy a good story and if a painting is well painted, with all the above criteria such as Baroque style etc, it has my interest. Historia art is what drives my interest because I like to know the meaning or story behind a painting. But not just any story, a story that is dramatic, emotionally driven like Baroque art. It must be a painting that focuses on individuals and stress emotion like Romanticism.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii.
Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii.
The Oath of the Horatii, was painted in 1784 and is considered the true cornerstone of Neo-Classicism. This painting according to scholars gave visual form to the ideas of the French Revolution before the events of Greek history. The Oath depicts three warrior brothers extending their arms toward “the handful of swords that their father thrusts aloft” (Smith), and a group of women and children huddling off to the side in the background. The focus in this painting is described as “too complex”, resistant and versatile, a political concept in history. The painting slowly reveals itself or rather its meaning in bits and pieces. David assures his knowledge of anatomy in the image by depicting an ideal sense of smooth polished skin, and developed muscular structure. There were many French painters of the 19th century who followed him, like his student Ingres, Delacroix and Gericault. Jacques-Louis David was the image “personification” of the Academy in the 19th century.
Jacques-Louis David was born in 1748 in Paris into a family of master masons and architects. He entered the French Academy at age 17 but struggled to establish himself as a decorated artist. It took nearly a decade for him to find his style and five tries to win the Prix de Rome (award), in which at one point he attempted suicide by starving himself for two days. David was describes as an ambitious person who strived to stay ahead once he attained his status. In 1793 David was elected, deputy to the National Convention during Louis XVI trial, where he voted for his execution. He organized revolutionary festivals and painted “Marat Assassinated,” years later he served a year in prison “after the fall of the Jacobins” (Smith). He served as Napoleon’s first “named” painter a position in which he initially turned down.
In 1980 Empire to Exile, the first major exhibition of David’s (his) work was shown in the United States featuring twenty-six paintings and twenty-two drawings. The Empire to Exile, Clark show was organized in collaboration with the J. Paul Getty Museum, and overseen by Philippe Bordes, a teacher at the University of Lyon. The exhibition concentrated on portraits that depicted Napoleon and mythological scenes; as well as drawings done in Brussels. The exhibition showcased a rare look into the innovative painter who apparently admired the work of Michelangelo. David also grew up admiring Boucher, and his work closely aligned with Boucher’s. David’s heroic image of Napoleon Crossing the Saint-Bernard, scholars speculate that he was hinting at the impossibility of Napoleon’s heroic crossing of the Alps, referencing the tiny soldiers trudging in the background. It is fact that Napoleon originally made the trip on a mule but he was painted on an elegant steed. David later died in 1815 after his exiled to Brussels; in the event of his unfortunate death during his life he expanded his understanding of the human body from his collections of antique sculptures, he was considered the first painter of modern life.
ROBERTA, SMITH. "ART REVIEW; Sizing Up Jacques-Louis David, in a Compact Way." New York Times 10 June 2005: 39. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Mar. 2012.
Theodore Gericault, the Raft of The Medusa.
Theodore Gericault, the Raft of The Medusa.
In recent years researchers have been trying to establishing the timeline of Theodore Gericault most controversial project, the Raft of the Medusa. Gericault is thought to have completed his studies for the Raft during the spring and summer of 1818. Then worked out his composition during the summer and autumn, in which he transferred his completed design onto canvas by November 1818.
The French painter Jean Louis André Théodore Gericault style is considered to be the first true romanticist. The son of a lawyer, born September 26, 1791 in Rouen; Gericault in 1808, entered the studio of the famous painter of horses Carle Vernet. Shortly in 1815, Gericault joined the royal musketeers and was stationed at Versailles for 2 or 3 months. He return to Paris in 1817, where he created his first lithographs the following year he began work on what become his largest and best known composition, the Raft of the Medusa; a tragic shipwreck in which Gericault conveyed into a painting. Gericault painting was intended to be a confrontational piece, both politically and artistically. He transformed a contemporary subject into a historical painting. The story of the painting “The Raft of the Medusa”, is a depiction of a real historical event described to him by two me he met in 1818; whose accounts of the shipwreck inspired his piece.
The voyage of la Meduse was first published in 1817 by Henri Savigny and Alexandre Correard, a surgeon and a geographer on the Medusa; also the two men Gericault encountered in 1818. The ship was transporting soldiers, passengers and the governor Colonel Julien Schmaltz; when the catastrophe occurred. The ship ran off the west coast of Arica on July 2nd 1816, when it claimed over 150 lives including the Captain. The ship was abandon, and approximately 250 people were put onto six life boats leaving the vast majority whom were ordinary soldiers, low ranking officers and civilians to a makeshift raft. In haste to get to shore the tow-ropes were untied leaving 149 men and one woman stranded; with no provisions and no navigational equipment. “Outbreaks of mutiny…mindless violence occurred from the second day” (Christine). By the fourth, survivors was practicing cannibalism and the eighth day, survivors through the injured and dying overboard to extend provisions. The final fifteen men survived for another five days until their rescue, five died shortly after.
Gericault chose to use the first sighting of the “Argus” prior to rescue as his composition from a number of scenes. His painting visualized, “the fallacy of hope and pointless suffering, and at worst, the basic human instinct to survive…[which] superseded all moral considerations and plunged civilized man into barbarism” (Christine). The second edition of the Medusa narrative depicts abolitionist sympathies, interpreting the black figure as a symbol of hope. The ordinary soldiers on the raft were in fact multi-racial. The selection of a black man in France at the time was a highly controversial decision. Scholars believe the exhibition for this second edition was timed specifically to coincide with British anti-slavery agitation.
Rosenthal, Donald A. "Gericault's Expenses For The Raft Of The Medusa." Art Bulletin 62.4 (1980): 638. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Mar. 2012.
Riding, Christine. "The Fatal Raft" History Today 53.2 (2003): 38. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Mar. 2012.
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=4023bf02-1300-462d-a74d-32d13936ab55%40sessionmgr4&vid=7&hid=15&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=9075377
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