The Human Narrative Art: The Human Condition and Understanding - Assignment Example

The Human Narrative Art: The Human Condition and Understanding Artworks often have their own information that the artist usually intends to communicate to the viewers. Therefore, different artists usually have different target audients and information. Nonetheless, different artists may at some point have portraits giving the same information to the audients. However, such information may not be portrayed in the same way and style of representation (Kleinman 172). Therefore, different artistic works have since been noted to portray the elements of sorry. Being sorrowful usually result from mistreatments, lack of some things in life, and or lacking love from quarters it’s supposed to be got. It is worth noting that different painter in history displayed their work communicating sorrows in the society (Bednarik 92). These artworks depict that the society can make individuals to be sorrowful in different ways and under different circumstances. Some of the artists who exploited this vice in the society included Hammershoi (before 1900s), Kathe Kolwitz (1900s-1950s), and George Segal (post 1950s). Vilhelm Hammershoi was a Danish printer who started his artwork in 1883, but it is noted that as he continued his work, he was fond of repeating some elements of his work. Hammershoi’s works were mainly of women portraits most of whom were depicted as being unhappy while performing certain chores (Bednarik 68). This fact may have been based on the fact that he mother gave her private drawing tuition at the age of eight; therefore, it is most likely that her mother mainly used portraits of women to train him. Notably, Hammershoi used colors carefully of communicate his ideas and subject matter to the audients. In most cases, he used oil on canvas to bring the deeper feeling of his artworks (Kleinman 182). In other words, Hammershoi painted mostly images that formed his immediate life or environment. However, he developed his techniques and skills of painting, which have been depicted in numerous masterpieces. In his 1885, he painted an “old woman at the window” with varying brown shades. This portrait was of a woman seen in a full-length posture. The work seems have been borrowed from Vermeer. However, it had a special skill where the shoulder of the woman has been tilted three-quarter way towards her back (Tymieniecka 179). This sowed how Hammershoi made it possible to display difficult physical characteristics in portraits from virtual images. This made him earn legacy in abstraction techniques. Additionally, he worked on an image of a 35 years old woman sweeping the interior of a house. Notably, the paint brings the sense of melancholy is Hammershoi’s work and the emptiness of the room may depict the loneliness the woman is experiencing in her life (Hall 66). The woman’s inner feeling may be associated with items around her. For instance, the floor of the room is bare as well as the door, this may be depicted that she nothing to hold on but her own life. The color of her dress show that she might be morning since dark full dress have since in history been associated with mourners or those who grief the death of their loved ones (Tymieniecka 240). Additionally, the environment to which the portrait is still, quiet, and straight edged showing the elements of sorrow. Source: http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/list.php?m=a&s=tu&aid=2536 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/vilhelm-hammershois-show-at-the-royal-academy-proves-he-should-be-better-known-872712.html Hammershoi also shows sorrow that may have originated from a love gone sour. This is as per the pain of a young lady sitting on an empty ground with a bowed head (Rey and Rouart 135). The color of her dress and the length depicts that it might be a nightdress. Her loneliness shows that she has problems with her male friend; therefore, her heart is full of sorrow. Käthe Kollwitz also painted on sorrow that may strike a society or individual at different in life. The society is ever unpredicted and seems be unjust at some points in life thereby leaving its constituents full of sorrowful hearts (Onians 283). In her 1908, the Prisoners’ portrait, Kollwitz shows how the society can create sorrow in the hearts of individuals. Kollwitz artworks were mainly made from wooden sculptures and brilliant paints made from dark and charcoal etchings as well as drawings. Kollwitz was the first woman whose artworks were appreciated in Germany; however, in 1936 Nazi barred her work painting out that they were degenerating (Drucker 158). Despite numerous challenges and difficulties she went through, Kollwitz’s work still had distinct message to the society. For instance, her work-showing person denied freedom was intended to make the society learn the oppression nature of the then governments (Wasserman et al. 74). On the other hand, the images shown in the painting had broken hearts. The sorrows of these prisoners emanated from how the society treated them. Image 2: Kollwitz depicting sorrow through painting Source: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/legacy/programs/sunmorn/stories/s1419860.htm Finally, George Segal also painted portraits with the soul main of depicting how the society or individuals in the society can be sorrowful. Notably, in the year 1991, Segal sculptured a portrait showing how sorrowful a society can be when all do not go as planned (Wilson 87). In his Fireside Chat sculpture, Segal portrayed how the effects of the great depression led to a sorrowful people or society. Segal’s sculpture was a creation to commemorate the FDR. It depicted alone barefoot man who sat on a broken chair. The nature of items in this portrait shows that the individual in it had no happy life. Notably, he had no shoes neither could he afford proper chair (Mayer 102). All he could afford is a chair whose other legs were missing. The physical state of the man speaks it all; he had nothing left to hope for. His closed eyes can only be read as a sign of dreaming of a better times following the talks of the president promising the better economy over the radio on his side table. Everything to him was small or improper, or lacking. The color is dull depicting his low social class. This state of life could not cheer him up but only made him sorrowful (Tosh 136). Therefore, combining the state of events in the portraits prompted by these three artists, it is clear that different kinds of sufferings from the society only lead to sorrow and one source of sorrow is similar to another regardless of social, political, or economic status of the affected person. Source: Works Cited Bednarik, Robert G, and Dean Falk. The Human Condition. New York: Springer, 2011. Internet resource. Children's Book of Art. New York, N.Y: DK, 2009. Print. Drucker, Johanna. The Century of Artists' Books. New York City: Granary Books, 2007. Print. Hall, W D. Paul Ricoeur and the Poetic Imperative: The Creative Tension between Love and Justice. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007. Internet resource. Kleinman, Arthur. The Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing, and the Human Condition. New York: Basic Books, 1988. Print. Mayer, Ralph. A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques. New York: Crowell, 1975. Print. Onians, John. The Art Atlas. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 2008. Print. Rey, Jean D, and Denis Rouart. Monet, Water Lilies: The Complete Series. Paris: Flammarion, 2008. Print. Tosh, John. A Man's Place: Masculinity and the Middle-Class Home in Victorian England. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1999. Print. Tymieniecka, Anna-Teresa. The Phenomenology of Man and of the Human Condition: Ii: the Meeting Point between Occidental and Oriental Philosophies. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 1986. Internet resource. Wasserman, Krystyna, Johanna Drucker, and Audrey Niffenegger. The Book As Art: Artists' Books from the National Museum of Women in the Arts. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007. Print. Wilson, Colin S. J. The Other Tradition of Modern Architecture: The Uncompleted Project. London: Black dog publishing, 2007. Print. Read More