A Comparison and Analysis of Two Works of Art - Term Paper Example

Comparative art Woman with Book vs. Woman Fernand Leger, Woman with a Book, 1923 At a first glance, this work ofart is similar in style to that of Pablo Picasso. The anonymous woman in the picture is devoid of facial expression making it hard to read her mood or feelings. Her unsmiling lips are neither sad nor happy and her eyes are blank. Despite the clear lack of expression, the painting is clear on its contents. There is a woman in the painting; from the color and the lighting on the skin, anyone can ascertain that she is black. She is holding flowers in her fingers and an open book against her bosom. The simplicity of the art is appealing to the eye and the intrinsic blend of color is magnificent in a unique way. One of Fernand’s common quotes is creating art that everyone can understand.l2 “Woman with a book” supports the latter claim by the simplistic, yet magnificent nature of its presentation. The technique and simplicity captivates the eyes of viewers visiting the gallery on the fifth floor at the MOMA. The plain background of art brings out the type of lines that Fernand uses to bring out the features of the woman. The most captivating thing about the piece of art is the expressionless face of the woman. This arouses curiosity from the art viewers trying to perceive the mood of the art and its context. Understanding a little about Fernand could shine a light on the latter. Léger’s career started after he began showing talent in fine art. Since his birth in rural France, his family prepared him to take over the family business of cattle dealership. He enrolled in architecture school after showing a talent in art and later to various colleges where he mastered several methods of artistic impressionism. Between 1905 and 1907, Léger had no cubism painting; it was mainly impressionistic. By the time he went to fight as a soldier in World War 1, however, Léger had fully adopted cubism and his work recognised along Pablo Picasso. Léger’s form of cubism was unique due to its simplicity, in place where other artists used monochrome palettes he used primary colors. His work further differed from others due to the patterns of his cubism. His patterns seemed to float separately, and then compiled to form a whole figure; they were not continuous. Léger started painting on issues bordering to society and justice after returning from the war. He became a communist due to his strong belief of equality for everybody. He associated with modernists interested with machinery and themed his paintings in this manner. He painted people undertaking several activities as a community but the characters in the painting looked robotic. The combination of cubism and machine orientation led to the rise of the tubist style of painting. The uniqueness of his painting style is evident in the art ‘woman with a book’; each body part fits to the other as two different entities mechanically joined. The use of simple colors and lighting techniques is also evident in this piece of art. There is also a mechanical aspect to the expressionless face of the woman in the portrait; it resembles that of a robot. He defends his unique style of cubism in the following quote, "Nationalism in art is superficial. You have to take the beautiful where you find it, without worrying about the signature."l1 Willem de Kooning, Woman 1, 1950-52 Kooning’s art is a source of controversy due to the aggressive nature of his impressionism. In the fourth floor of MOMA is the above portrait, ‘Woman 1’. A great piece of work captures the viewers’ attention due to its ‘weird’ style. The woman in the portrait has huge eyes and a huge violent grin. The woman is huge with huge breasts and limbs. She is intimidating to look and quite threatening. At the same time the woman is not there, she is an imaginary monstrosity. The emphasis on the sexuality of the woman and the erotic nature of the painting show sexual desire that is unreachable. The brush strokes are aggressive but quite gentle in bringing out the pink fit sticking out beneath the dress. Kooning was born in Rotterdam in 1904 and he came to New York as an illegal immigrant. He adopted Pollock’s style of freeness in art, which depicts ones true feelings. His work though aggressive has an order that brings out gentleness in his colors. Unlike his predecessor (Pollock) who preferred to paint nature, Kooning was dirty-minded and preferred to paint people or other surroundings. Pollock’s work was ordered and unchaotic while Kooning’s work is chaotic but alive. He used art to release pent up anxiety and ‘pour it on the canvas’ as he said. Woman 1 is a work of art that proves the latter as he ascertains when asked,” Woman I "did one thing for me: it eliminated composition, arrangement, relationships, light, because that [motif] was the one thing I wanted to get hold of. I thought I might as well stick to the idea that its got two eyes, a nose and mouth and neck." It best represents his nature of painting known as ‘abstract expressionism’k1. It is one of the clearest pieces from his series ‘Woman’. Despite the chaos in his art, he manages to express himself in a unique way that revolutionized the culture of abstract expressionism. He defends the chaos in his art by stating that, “The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves.”k2 The two pieces of art analysed above are masterpieces in their own rights. Each piece depicts what the artists intended but they have numerous differences in the mode of painting. The two artists are uniquely suited to attract the intended perception from the viewers, but they do so in very different techniques. The first difference occurs due to the difference in the art movements that the portraits belong. The difference occurs is in the strokes between the two portraits. ‘Woman with a book’ has a soft hue with gentle strokes to the paint used by Léger. In the latter, the geometry of the woman’s body is under emphasis. The cubism movement emphasizes on this art form and Léger adopted its use. ‘Woman 1’has aggressive strokes on the canvas and it belongs to the abstract expressionist movement. The technique in this movement is splattering of the paint on canvas to mirror the artist’s inner feelings. The background in Léger’s work is plain with bright color in order to emphasize the portrait of the woman; it shows that the artist has a good perception of the woman. She is strong and despite her race, she has a robotic calmness about her. In Kooning’s case, there is emphasis of color in the background with numerous colors in use. The whole canvas is in a mixture of different colors that almost obscures the woman within the picture but he brings out her legs clearly. This shows attention of the artist to this aspect of the woman’s anatomy. This shows that Kooning’s focus is on the legs of the woman, which signifies lust for the woman. The paintings belong to different artistic movements; however, there is use of similar characters in the artwork. Both Léger and Kooning use a woman as a channel for their artistic message. Kooning, the dirty-minded New Yorker uses a woman to portray the sexual desire within him. Léger uses a calm, simple composition to bring his art to life. The seemingly blank eyes stare at the user expressionlessly but the flowers in the woman’s grip depict passion. The blend of colors used by Kooning brings out the anxiety within the while the simplicity of those used by Léger compliment the expressionless face. While Kooning uses aggression to bring out the anxiety within, Léger uses expressionless artwork to display the same feelings. The woman is neither sad nor happy; she has a contemplative look as if considering something deeply. The similarity in their depiction is not visual but rather interpretive. Both artists made a great contribution to art through their respective movements of art. Each piece is a masterpiece; Léger’s portrait best portrays the belief that art should be simple while Kooning’s shows his belief that art should relieve frustration on the canvas. An analysis of the two pieces of art gives the viewer a chance to perceive the artist and relate to him. It also portrays cubism with a blend of futurism with abstract expressionism. Bibliography Butler, Cornelia H. and Paul Schimmel.  Willem de Kooning : Tracing the Figure. Los Angeles, Calif.: Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2002.   Elderfield, John.  De Kooning : A Retrospective. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2011.  Lanchner,  Carolyn.   Fernand Léger. New York : Museum of Modern Art, 1998.  Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  Legers Le Grand Dejeuner. Minneapolis : Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1980. Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan, "de Kooning: An American Master", Knopf, Borzoi Books,2004. Cowling, Elizabeth; Mundy, Jennifer. On Classic Ground: Picasso, Léger, de Chirico and the New Classicism 1910-1930. London: Tate Gallery, 1990. Read More