Blog assignment 6 "Jasper Johns"

Diver by Jasper Johns. Since the marks are of Jasper Johns's feet and hands, it could be thought to be a kind of self-portrait. We think that the way in which he got his image onto the paper was to grease the hands and feet, imprint them, and then sprinkle charcoal on top. It has a very strange emotional tone and part of this, I think, is because of the gray, and the sense of internal light which comes up from the brown paper and the white chalk, the little touches of red and blue paint. Charcoal, pastel, and watercolor on paper mounted on canvas, two panels.

Blog assignment 6 "Jackson Pollock"

The Flame by Jackson Pollock. "On the floor I am more at ease, I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting." Agreed upon by many critics as one of the greatest painters in the United States in the 20th century, Jackson Pollock would devise a new art, free from brushes and easels, where his body and mind worked to produce an abstract image. It was his early studies in art that led him to his discovery and his influence can still be seen in America’s avant-garde art movements. Jackson Pollock was the first American abstract painter to be taken seriously in Europe. It was not until 1947 that Pollock began his "action" paintings, influenced by Surrealist ideas of "psychic automatism" (direct expression of the unconscious). Pollock would fix his canvas to the floor and drip paint from a can using a variety of objects to manipulate the paint.

Blog assignment 6 "Charles Burchfield"

In May by Charles Burchfield. Like many of his contemporaries, Charles Burchfield viewed nature as a source of revelation. Each season, every time of day, called forth a distinct mood that he wanted to capture and communicate through visionary forms. Burchfield wrote on the back of this painting in pencil, describing it as “an attempt to interpret a child’s impression of noon-tide in late May—The heat of the sun streaming down & rosebushes making the air drowsy with their perfume.”

Blog assignment 6 "Rembrandt van Rijn"

View of Amsterdam from the North West by

Rembrandt van Rijn. This landscape etching is of a recognizable view (but in reverse) of the North East of the 'St. Anthonis Poort, outside the old bastion de Blauwhoofd' (Hind, 1923). Buildings include the Haringpakkerstoren, the Oudekerk, the Montalbaanstoren, the East and West Indian Dockhouses, the Mill on the Blauwhoofd and the Zuiderkerk. Rembrandt had sketched the local landscapes but his etchings of the subject matter were a new departure between about 1640 and 1652. Differences in technique among his landscape etchings and drypoints suggest that, just as he sketched in situ, he may have sometimes sketched directly onto his copper plates in drypoint or with an etching needle.

Blog assignment 6 "Emil Nolde"

The servant by Emil Nolde. It was painted on Woodcut on thick tan Asian paper. Etching with stipple and tonal effects on wove paper. Emil Nolde added a special, mystical dimension to German Expressionism, and his career illustrates a number of the moral dilemmas which faced German Modernists of the first generation, since his instincts were nationalist and conservative even though his art was regarded as experimental from www.artchive.com.

Blog assignment 5 "Scale and Proportion"

Snow on Mount Fuji, porters climb uphill by Hokusai in 1836. Scale refers to the size of an object in relationship to another object. In art the size relationship between an object and the human body is significant. In experiencing the scale of an artwork we tend to compare its size to the size of our own bodies.Proportion refers to the relative size of parts of a whole. We often think of proportions in terms of size relationships within the human body. the mountain is what you can get the scale of the people and the ships in the water.

Blog assignment 5 "Visual Movement (Continuation)"

Madonna della Quercia by Raphael in 1519. Continuity in the form of a line, an edge, or a direction from one form to another creates a fluid connection among compositional parts. Raphael's value transition is dynamic. The parts of the highest value are left almost white, while the lowest value parts are painted almost black.  In order to dramatically express the high and low value, Raphael reduces the value variation of the midtones.