The artistic stylization used by early 20th century artists endeavors a distinctive approach in the depiction of the Great Depression in both methodology and aesthetic portrayal. Philip Evergood’s Dance Marathon (c. 1931) and Reginald Marsh’s Chatham Square (c. 1931), which both are exhibited at the Blanton Museum of Art, are artistic representations of the American culture during the “Dirty Thirties”. Although both paintings were created during the same time period and ultimately share the thematic downheartedness of the decade, Evergood and Marsh cultivate their own independent approach in constructing their individual artworks. Marsh focuses his piece on the basis of composition, detail, saturations and highlights to construe a melancholic …show more content…
By analyzing both paintings, it proves to show how the differences in artistic approach still demonstrate an analogous theme of depression.
Reginald Marsh incorporates many key characteristics into his painting that serve to embody an overarching dreariness in the atmosphere. The painting depicts a small crowd of middle-aged men, cloaked in dark bronze coats, soliciting and wandering their gaze among the shadowy floors and the other inhabitants of the New York street. One of Marshall’s key elements in the painting is his utilization of color and painting technique. The painting emcompasses unpolished brushstrokes that serve to produce a haze-like quality to its people and the environment. Many of the subjects throughout the painting have a sketch-like quality that are animated by the saturation of oils. A variety of dark, rich brown palettes coat the backs of the people and surrounding structural supports that effectively contrast with the illuminating yellow hues that radiate from the local fur boutique. The highlights incorporated by the artist brings forth emphasis to areas that may
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1934) approaches his portrayal of the Great Depression in a more exaggerated way to convey a sense of pity among the viewers. Dance Marathon depicts a party of dancers competing amongst each other for the sole prize of the dancing contest. Unlike Marsh, Evergood does not rely heavily on capturing crisp and realistic details; instead he serves to emphasize on imagery and characterization through hyperbolic design. The painting’s first notable detail is the stylization. Evergood composes all his characters in bold details, applying a dark, black outline on body images and clothing. The physicality of facial features holds recognizable detail, in terms of capturing proper facial composition; the detail of body physique, however, embodies a subtle abstract stylization--and a sense of mannerism--that uses a variety of proportions to emphasizes focal points throughout the painting. For instance, the two central dancers mark their significance by consuming the central column of the painting with their stature. Another key element is Evergood’s utilization of color. The painting is surfaced with a multitude of vibrant and flamboyant hues that contrast with one another to create a chaotic atmosphere through the meshing of colors and contrasts. Shading, highlights and the overall colorization of the figures are illustrated with careless and simplistic brush strokes that work accordingly to give animation to the subjects. Following
The Great Depression was one of the hardest eras America has ever had to face. It tore families apart, leaving them with nothing but despair. Wood and Shahn use their pictures, American Gothic and Rural Rehabilitation Client, to depict this feeling of anguish. American Gothic displays the anxiety of those who experienced the first ripples of the Depression and Rural Rehabilitation Client shows the sheer desperation of those who lived during the worst days of the Depression. Through these two works of art, the feelings of hope and hopelessness are powerfully represented.
The painting is organized simply. The background of the painting is painted in an Impressionist style. The blurring of edges, however, starkly contrasts with the sharp and hard contours of the figure in the foreground. The female figure is very sharp and clear compared to the background. The background paint is thick compared to the thin lines used to paint the figures in the foreground. The thick paint adds to the reduction of detail for the background. The colors used to paint the foreground figures are vibrant, as opposed to the whitened colors of the Impressionist background. The painting is mostly comprised of cool colors but there is a range of dark and light colors. The light colors are predominantly in the background and the darker colors are in the foreground. The vivid color of the robe contrasts with the muted colors of the background, resulting in an emphasis of the robe color. This emphasis leads the viewer's gaze to the focal part of the painting: the figures in the foreground. The female and baby in the foreground take up most of the canvas. The background was not painted as the artist saw it, but rather the impression t...
...hese repeated vertical lines contrast firmly with a horizontal line that divides the canvas almost exactly in half. The background, upper portion of the canvas, seems unchanging and flat, whereas the foreground and middle ground of the painting have a lot of depth to them.
Many of these artists' works contain subtle hints to the author's opinion on the subject. By analyzing their central compositional effects, the viewer can obtain a greater appreciation and understanding for the art.
Her goal was to move, not dance. She challenged the notions of what a quote on quote “female dancer” was and could do. Dance to her was an exploration, a celebration of life, and religious calling that required an absolute devotion (pg. 11, Freedman). She considered her dancers “acrobats of God”. An example of a dance which symbolized the “essentialized” body was Martha Graham’s Lamentation, choreographed in 1930, which served as an expression of what person’s grief, with Graham as the solo dancer in the piece. The costume, a tube-like stretchy piece of fabric, only allowed her face, hands, and feet to be seen, and, as Graham stated, “The garment that is worn is just a tube of material, but it is as though you were stretching inside your own skin.” In the beginning of the piece, she started out by sitting on a bench with her legs wide spread and arms held tight. Her head was going back and forth as if she was feeling sadness or maybe replaying thoughts in her head. By the way she was holding her hands so tight and close to her body, it symbolized the deep pain within her––the essence of her piece was grief, and she danced it from inside out. Russel Freedman, the author of Martha Graham A Dancers Life, stated, “She did not dance about grief, but sought “the thing itself”- the very embodiment of grief (p. 61).” Graham, dancing with strength and power, was encapsulated with her movement and was completely surrendered
I will compare the emotions that both artworks send to the viewers when they first look at them. When I look at the portray 1, I fell sadness. That’s what the artwork is conveying to me. No one in the picture is happy or smiling. Everyone is sad, upset or indifferent. When we look at their gaze, the father is looking traight away, with tired eyes. His gesture shows that he doesn’t want to hear what his wife has to say and is asking her to stop. The mother’s gaze is on something in front of them. Her eyes are big and she seems to be giving more attention to things than the man. She seems sad sad to be spoken that way. On portray 2, the atmosphere is visibly different. The man and woman have a little smile on their faces and the kids are playing next to them. The people in the portray don’t look indifferent to each other or sad like in the other portray, they look pleased and caring. The man and women gaze are relaxed and they seem to be enjoying themselves. They are looking straight away in a pose as if someone is taking a picture of them. The kids gaze are in their
... after nine at night, but in those days [we] ... did not think of our day in terms of hours. We liked our work, we were proud to do it well, and I am afraid that we were very, very happy.” The 1930s were a time of struggle and sadness. However, American citizens continued to work and search for the happiness they once knew. Although the Great Depression stretched through the 1930s, putting a damper on the economy and liveliness of the nation, the decade cannot be solely defined by it. Art and photos illustrate the decade’s sentiments, while acts of society and architecture reveal much more regarding a common citizen's lifestyle. A tragic photo, a vast-spread psychological struggle, and a famous building, are all examples of artifacts taken from the 1930s that have changed, they way we perceive our country, the American way of living, and America’s skyline forever.
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, located in the Art Institute of Chicago, is one of the most recognizable paintings of the 19th century, a painting made by Frenchman Georges Seurat. Finished in 1886, it has gained much of its recognition over the time of its completion; the pop culture of today has played a pivotal role into the popularity of it. An example of that is being apart in one of the most recognizable scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, where one of the main characters is solely staring at the painting until he can’t even recognize the artwork. This painting also gets much attention because it was an early example of the style of pointillism, at the time; pointillism was becoming a new way of expressing one self with the new technique. It also brought upon about the way we saw paintings, and what we gained from the artwork as whole. In all this painting has become an icon in the art scene, due to the technique it used, and how much of an impact it has had in today culture.
Art is a very important part of humanity’s history, and it can be found anywhere from the walls of caves to the halls of museums. The artists that created these works of art were influenced by a multitude of factors including personal issues, politics, and other art movements. Frida Kahlo and Vincent van Gogh, two wildly popular artists, have left behind artwork, that to this day, influences and fascinates people around the world. Their painting styles and personal lives are vastly different, but both artists managed to capture the emotions that they were feeling and used them to create artwork.
Though most works of art have some underlying, deeper meaning attached to them, our first impression of their significance comes through our initial visual interpretation. When we first view a painting or a statue or other piece of art, we notice first the visual details – its size, its medium, its color, and its condition, for example – before we begin to ponder its greater significance. Indeed, these visual clues are just as important as any other interpretation or meaning of a work, for they allow us to understand just what that deeper meaning is. The expression on a statue’s face tells us the emotion and message that the artist is trying to convey. Its color, too, can provide clues: darker or lighter colors can play a role in how we judge a piece of art. The type of lines used in a piece can send different messages. A sculpture, for example, may have been carved with hard, rough lines or it may have been carved with smoother, more flowing lines that portray a kind of gentleness.
Black smoke stained the sky and scarlet blood darkened the earth, as global war, once again, ravaged twentieth-century society. The repercussions of the Second World War rippled across the Atlantic and spread like an infectious disease. As the morality of humankind appeared to dissipate with each exploding bomb, anxiety, frustration, and hopelessness riddled the American public and began to spill into the art of New York City’s avant-garde (Paul par. 4). By the mid-1940s, artists reeling from the unparalleled violence, brutality, and destruction of war found a shared “vision and purpose” in a new artistic movement: Abstract Expressionism (Chave 3). Critics considered the most prominent artists of the movement to comprise the New York School
When I imagine an artist, I picture a Parisian dabbing at a sprawling masterpiece between drags on a cigarette seated in an extravagantly long holder. He stands amid a motley sea of color, great splashes of vermillion and ultramarine and yellow ochre hiding the tarp on the studio floor. Somehow, not one lonely drop of paint adorns his Italian leather shoes with their pointed toes like baguettes.
“Compare the ways in which the authors of the two texts convey ideas about art through their central characters?
Jackson Pollack and Vincent van Gogh are some of most famous artist before and after their time. Each artist has a similar and different painting methods that they use when painting pictures. There most well-known paintings are called “Number 1” and “The Starry Night”. The paintings give off emotion by how they look, but each one is painted in different ways. The public did not find their paintings wanting when they were made. The difference was how long it took for them to get recognized for their work. Lastly, the paintings gave different and similar reactions to people that have changed over the years of their existence.
Still although different in many ways they still share many similar aspects such as the use of large canvases, an “all over approach” in which the whole canvas is treated equally, every part of the canvas is important, quality of brushstrokes and textures, the use of accidents that play an important role to the entire work and the attempt to express pure emotion directly onto a canvas.