Post Impressionism Flashcards
Post Impressionism
some artists here did exhibit with impressionist movement but eventually would go out on their own
admired impressionists felt that there were inherent problems with impressionist
some are independents : Society of Independents (1884)
Monet’s gothic cathedral paintings: take solid, geometric, stone cathedral and turnded into a dissolving, shimmering, vaporizing
Monet did do a lot with color and brushwork, but he didnt’ do well with shapes, poor distribution with lights and darks
What is the painting?
Georges Seurat Sunder Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-86)
Seurat Analysis
drawn from the artists own time period and people recreating; subject matter is impressionist; sun-drenched, happier
but application of paint is different: pointillism –quantified application looks stiplled; dotted; points of paint not strokes
dots of pure unblended color
very scientific approach to colors; influenced by modern color theory
painting very laborious; huge painting, lots of details; very very hard to do, he would do prepatory sketches of small parts of painting, working out details
not a lot of detail on the figures; believed that all nature can be reduced to cone, sphere, cube, cylinder; GEOMETRIC SIMPLIFICATION
shadows tie together different groups of people, if not shadows, then other objects; uniformity, unity, one form touches another touches another
not dreary, sad,; decorative excitment, enthusiasm;
divisionism: breaking down spectrum of light into its components
a little whimsical; will interrupt scenes of serenity, tranquility with something unusual
Who is Paul Cezanne?
the father of us all— trace artistic lineage to him
HUGE historical significance
greens, oragnes, yellows color schemes
make of impressionism something solid, durable, as the art of museums
not an easy guy to work with; very critical of people; his models often complained
didn’t just do figure drawings (due to model complaints)
geometric equivalents –reducing nature to shapes; takes grids of small cubes, places it over painting to give it substance
give nature a sense of underlying geometry
What is this painting?
Paul Cezanne Still Life with Onions (1895)
Cezanne: Still life with onions analysis
not a photographic impression
top of table scene as if you are looking down on it, but at the bottom distorting perspective
distorting literal perspectives of nature
multiple perspectives: looked at the table from the top looking down, looking at part from the side; looking from the bottom up;
perspective point of view
integrating fourth dimension into paint; artist is not fixed painter standing still; injecting elements of time into his art–artist moves and examines his subject
What is this painting?
Paul Cezanne Mont Sainte-Victoire (1886-88)
Cezanne Mont Sainte Victoire Analysis
background relatively warm and neutral
from bottom of picture up, objects start to be further away; vertical location; things higher up in the picture frame are further away from you; things lower in picture frame look closer to you
plastic organization: color and space are closely related (associated with fauvism); warm and cool colors both affect musculature of eye, but in different ways
warm colors pop-out, cool colors recede
create space, depth using warm colors to advance towards viewers and cool colors to recede from viewers
Who is Vincent van Gogh?
not as cerebral, more expressionistic; origianally from Holland
painted a lot of self portraits; didn’t have a lot of money for a model; cathartic to express what he was going through
color of impressionism to express himself forcibly –forerunner of expressionism; only sold one painting during his lifetime
dealing with agitation and torment he is experiencing
father was a minister of Dutch Reformed Church
had a brother who was named Vincent van Gogh, died in infancy, so they later named him after deceased brother; on way to school would see tombstone with his name on it
enrolled in seminary; failed Latin test, did attempt to go out and minister to people; would work with sick, improvished, but not a pleasant person
came into impressionism at the urging of his brother, but tried too hard
moved to south of France, get out of the city, and paint; wanted to have people/artists come live there; Paul Gauguin came and lived with Vincent; Gauguin was stockbroker, Gauguin couldn’t stand to live with van Gogh
Gauguin got so upset and left, van Gogh ran after him with knife, Gauguin sppoked him, he ran away, cut off his ear (some say it was Gauguin that cut off his ear) sent ear to prostitute, police came and put him in mental institution
fell in love with relative; wanted to live with her, but she said no
lived with a prostitute; had veneral disease
white paint=white lead; would lick paint off brush to clean paint (took lead)
alcoholic; drank absinthe
What is this painting?
Vincent van Gogh Self-Portrait (1889)
Van Gogh Self Portrait Analysis
last self portrait before he killed himself
role of artist to communicate, to express
not a lot of therapy available for mental health
died of self-inflicted gunshot wound
intensity of gaze (struggling to hold on)
the background is too much, moving, serpentine, wriggling
might have had schizophrenia–starburst effect, brushstrokes out of center, writhing, serpentine
a lot of pairing off in his paintings
rebelled against traditional color: terror, passion of humanity, using blood red and yellow green
color not naturalistic, but emotive
What is this painting?
Vincent van Gogh Starry Night (1889)
Vincent van Gogh Starry Night Analysis
is this work spiritual?
in western cultures, death is something to run away from; not so in eastern cultures
church is in the center of the village–dominant focus of the painting
not just his agitation being transferred out onto nature
“is the whole of life visible to us or isn’t it rather that this side of death we see one hemisphere? Is that all or is there more to come? Looking at the stars makes me dream…we take death to reach a star”
not fearing death but death as natural cycle
van Gogh spoke many languages; smart and intellectual; demonstrated an interest in astronomy
fascinated with theme of working at night; colors burst at night
starry night suggestive of Christ’s agony in Gathsemane; feeling the weight of it all on you; van Gogh identififed with Christ’s feelings here couldn’t bring himself to paint Christ or himself, so he painted the night
writhing patterns borken up by broad storkes
Paul Gauguin
participated in impressionist exhibitions
began career as wealthy stockbroker
1883: stockmarket brash–decided to pursue painting
1886-1891: abandoned wife and five kids; went to Brittany
1887: panama and Martinque
1888: lived with van Gogh
1890-1900: lived and worked in Tahiti (French colony)
watned to escape somewhere primitive, civilization is what makes you sick; revolts gainst impressionism and french culture
escapes and gets away from sophisticates, and christia community (felt like christianity lost its spiritual power–loved the primitive; primitives are more in touched with how to live life to the fullest
color exclusively without freedom–speaking of impressionism; heed only the eye, exlcude the mysterious parts
color as highly emotive, spiritual level rather than cerebral, scientific approach to color
art is an abstraction…think more of creating than result; rise to God by creating; God is creator; share God’s divinity
art is about dreaming not about observable reality; world of subconscious
What is this painting?
Paul Gauguin Day of the God (1894)
