Conversations about Modern Art - Assignment Example

Part 3 Starry night by Vincent van Gogh a) Van Gogh depicts a peaceful night in a small town in his painting. A magnificent moon together with stars all over the sky portrays a cool night for people in the town. In his paintings, Gogh presents his religious nature by painting a tall steeple of the church. It is the tallest of all the buildings in the picture showing a strong foundation of religion therefore resembling peace and stability. The eleven stars on the sky also come from an inspiration from Genesis 37:9 a verse from the bible. The stars and the moon illuminate the small town. The curling clouds also depict peace and stability in the town. b) The use of spiral lines in his painting also depicts a slow cool night in the small town. The orange illuminating color of the moon creates a picture of peace. The white colors of the stars also surround the little town creating a peaceful horizon. The swirling wave motion and curling nature of the moon also creates a cool horizon as can be seen in the painting. The slow motion movement of the trees surrounding the houses in the town also proves a peaceful environment. On the, stands a massive dark structure resembling a tall tree. Gogh brings this image out of seclusion from the rest of the town and shows stability in the town. c) Gogh in the painting represents a peaceful emotion. This is by use of stars and the fact that people are missing in the streets or in the town. By use of spiral and curly lines in his painting, various contrasts in colors also create a good balance of peace in the representation. d) The painting represents a good aspect of modernism. Gogh painted this picture while in asylum in 1889. The age of the painting depicts an age where artists created modern artistic work moving away from neoclassicism. The picture of well-organized houses in a small town represents modernity. The church represented in the drawing at the centre of the houses also shows a modern way of life. The houses also show new forms of buildings a real difference from the ancient kind of buildings in that age. Part 4 poetry Limerick by ( (Lansky) There was once a small girl known as Jill Who freaked at the site of a drill She brushed everyday So her dentist would not say Your teeth are perfect. No bill Part 5 Conversations about art Early in the 1840 the Realist movement of the French flourished. Positive thinking resulted into realism and artists presented their feelings in a more realistic form. The French society fought for democracy and reforms and the artists expressed their ideas and feelings through art and this became the beginning of new contemporary art. The development and creation of photography by Emile and Robinson led to realism when artists started embracing and advancing their level of creativity. First, there was a disagreement of how the medium of photography was to be promoted. Some groups were attached to the artistic nature of photographs while some groups wanted the accurate capacity reproductions of the camera. The division became an advantage to the history of art as impressionism style of art emerged from this point. Robinson rejected an impressionist photograph in one of the exhibitions and this created a division in the British royal art (Michel). The Agrarian revolution brought a mixture of different cultures that artists represented in their paintings. The production of pictures and printing increased during the industrial revolution. Images and pictures circulated in the newspapers, magazines and various articles and journals. The creation of prints increased popularity of artists and this influenced the production of fine art. The commercial viability of printings also influenced many artists into art (Colta). Women in the 19th century were restricted from performing their skills in art and training denied to them. Women were only allowed to engage in paintings of flowers and fruits and this influenced the field of art in the 19th century. Marie Bacquemond was forced to quit her career as it brought tension with his husband a fellow artist (Nicole). The pre-Raphaelite brotherhood rejected the royal art taught to them and instead advocated that art should take its natural nature bringing realism into subject. They rejected the idealism that the culture of painting should be according to Raphael. Their paintings varied widely bringing a lot of realism into focus. The international group of artists in Paris rejected the old and traditional way of art. They advocated into scientific study of art by focusing on the effects of different shades of ling on their paintings. The French artists formed academies that helped establish landscape and motif paintings. The Napoleon wars also created an avenue for realism as artists depicted several events that they made public through their paintings. Jean Francois Millet also depicts a contrast of peasant farmers rearing sheep at a time when rural – urban migration was at its peak in France. The realist proved in his painting the hard life undergone by the villagers while the middle and upper class enjoys their lives in the city. The political and legal cases involving several paintings brought realism into lime light. The rejection of Courbet’s nude paintings and his six months imprisonment made his method of painting famous hence welcoming realism. The imprisonment of Daumier for making a painting of Louis Philippe showing his ruthless and brutal way of leadership also increased the depth of realistic art. This showed the confidence the artist had to reject authoritarian way of leadership (art). The graffiti’s and paintings became tools for politics and were used by sovereign leaders like Napoleon to communicate certain messages. The artists also used their paintings to ridicule mediocre in the society expressing their dissatisfaction on what they felt was wrong in the society. New technology and architecture also brought realism into focus making artists to venture into new ways of painting. Works cited Metropolitan Museum of. "19th Century French realism." Heilbrunn time line of art and history (2002): Colta, Ives. The Print in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Metropolitan museum of art publishers, 2000. Lansky, Bruce. Rollling in the Isles. Minnetonka, MN 55343: MeadowbrookPress, 2004. Michel, Frizot. A new history of Photography. Cologne: Konneman Publishers, 1998. Nicole, Meyers. Women artists in the 19th century. New Yok: Metropolitan museum of art, 2008. Read More