The art world gained a great talent when Jenny Saville chose art as her path. Rejecting the idea of conventional beauty displayed in classical painting, Saville paints women as beautiful in their own individuality, while still taking inspiration from classical painters. This paper will explore her life, art, and how she is associated to some influential artists.
Jenny Saville was born in 1970, in Cambridge, England, on the seventh of May, and had three siblings. Before college, Jenny studied at the the Grove School Specialist Science College, previously known as Lilley and Stone School. Saville spent the the years of 1988 to 1992 getting her degree from the Glasgow School of Art and then went on to accept a six-month scholarship in the university
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They both paint people they way happen to be, and explored the significance of skin. Fleshiness, stretchiness, and distortion of skin on the human figure (Dodds, 2012). Freud’s nude paintings suggested the subject was in some sort of sorrow or dejection, specifically in his paintings of nude women (Dodds, 2012). Saville’s paintings have the same characteristic. They are also similar in the way that their subjects usually have a certain captivating, sometimes daunting, glare to them (Dodds, 2012). Almost as if they are looking deeply at the audience. Moreover, their paintings similarly first evoke a strong reaction of disgust. However, pushing past that initial feeling and actually observing their paintings reveals the curves, textures, the truth, and feel of the individual brushstrokes (Dodds, 2012). Saville wants the audience to notice all those facets of a painting. She says “I want people to know what it is they're looking at. But at the same time, the closer they get to the painting, it's like going back into childhood. And it's like an abstract piece, it becomes the landscape of the brush marks rather than just sort of an intellectual landscape.” (Eccher & Saville, 2007).
Other than her nude’s paintings, Saville’s had countless portraits that were just as striking and provoking. For example, the expressive brushwork in “Bleach”, as well as the red under painting that
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It also evokes very strong emotions, such as sadness, shock, as well as initial disgust. Here, Saville moved away from her usually color pallet of fleshy skin tones and instead focused on tones of red. She depicted herself as someone who seems to have been through some sort of trauma, physical or otherwise. The viewer can feel her sense of defeat and it looks like the person might be dead or on the cusp of it. Here, Saville moved away from her usually color pallet of fleshy skin tones and instead focused on tones of red. The cuts and cracks on the skin, coupled with the reds, make it seem like blood is smeared everywhere. The focal point in this painting is the mouth area, the way it is painted to look swollen and bloody draws the viewer in. Moreover, it interested that the title is Reverse, this could be due to the fact the subject is laying on a reflective surface with a flipped version of her is also included in the painting. The viewer is struck by a third eye that has also been watching them the whole
Surprisingly, fifty years later, artist John Sloan happen to meet all the qualifications Baudelaire has designed for Monsieur G— making urban life observations and drawing from memory. Sloan adopts and employs Baudelaire’s idea of urban watching and further expands it for an American audience. Born and raised in Philadelphia, John Sloan first begun his art career as a newspaper illustrator. After years of working, he developed his own artistic style and started making paintings and etchings. When he moved from Philadelphia to New York, he has found that city life scenes of great interest that he then started observing and making etchings for scenes of modern life. He was well-known and celebrated as the founder of the Ashcan School and was most celebrated for this urban genre scenes. (Lobel, Chapter1)
The face of the portrait is detailed, and more naturally painted than the rest of the composition. However, the left iris exceeds her eye and extends past the normal outline. The viewer can see every single brush stroke resulting in a unique approach to the capturing human emotion. The streaky texture combines with the smoothness flow of the artist’s hand creating contrast between the hair and the face. The woman’s hair is painted with thick and chunky globs of paint. The viewer can physically see the paint rising from the canvas and flowing into the movement of the waves of hair. Throughout the hair as well as the rest of the portrait Neel abandons basic painting studies and doesn’t clean her brush before applying the next color. Because of the deliberate choice to entangle the colors on the brush it creates a new muddy palate skewed throughout the canvas. Moving from the thick waves of hair, Neel abandons the thick painting style of the physical portrait and moves to a looser more abstract technique to paint the background. Despite the lack of linear perspective, Neel uses a dry brush technique for the colorful streaks in the background creating a messy illusion of a wall and a sense of space. The painting is not clean, precise, or complete; there are intentional empty spaces, allowing the canvas to pear through wide places in the portrait. Again, Neel abandons
My initial thought about this painting is that it seems to be incorrect. The reflection in the mirror shows that the lady is looking in the direction of the man standing in front of her. If the lady is looking at the man their reflections should not be off to the side. The second observation is the lady is sad or disappointed and is looking past the man standing in front of her. My last observation is there are three sections from left to right; bottles and the audience, the lady, and the reflections of the lady and man. The most interesting concept about this artwork is how the reflections seem to be inaccurate. If the bottles and the reflections of the lady and the man standing in front of her are at an angle, then why are the vertical lines perpendicular to each other?
Subject: Our docent, Mary, shared with us that this artist loved to paint the human body and was well known for his painting of the human body and skin. This piece certainly highlights those skills. The colors of the hair and skin are incredibly life like.
While visiting the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, the works of Archibald Motley caught my attention. Two paintings by the same artist are the focus of this compare and contrast paper. Both are oil paintings during the same time period. Portrait of my Grandmother was painted in 1922 and Hot Rhythm was painted in 1934 only 12 years later. Although the paintings are by the same artist and have similarities, there are also differences which make the artist’s work interesting. Portrait of My Grandmother and Hot Rhythm are two paintings by Motley that capture different emotions (aspects would be a better word) of African Americans.
Georgia O’Keefe is a famous American painter who painted beautiful flowers and landscapes. But she painted these images in such a way that many people believed she was portraying sexual imagery. “O’Keefe’s depictions of flowers in strict frontality and enlarged to giant scale were entirely original in character . . . the view into the open blossoms evoked an image of the female psyche and invited erotic associations.” (Joachimides 47) O’Keefe denies these allegations and says that she “magnified the scale of the flower only to ensure people would notice them.” (Haskell 203) O’Keefe’s artwork was misinterpreted because of cultural prejudice, her non-traditional lifestyle, and gender bias art criticism. But despite these accusations, Georgia O’Keefe’s artwork was not based on sexuality.
The composition of this painting forces the eye to the woman, and specifically to her face. Although the white wedding dress is large and takes up most of the woman’s figure, the white contrasts with her face and dark hair, forcing the viewer to look more closely into the woman’s face. She smokes a cigarette and rests her chin on her hands. She does not appear to be a very young woman and her eyes are cast down and seem sad. In general, her face appears to show a sense of disillusionment with life and specifically with her own life. Although this is apparently her wedding day, she does not seem to be happy.
Visceral. Raw. Controversial. Powerful. The works which Kara Walker creates have elicited strong and diametric responses from members of the art community. She manipulates the style of antebellum era silhouettes, intended to create simple, idealistic images, and instead creates commentaries on race, gender, and power within the specific history of the United States. She has also been accused of reconfirming the negative stereotypes of black people, especially black women, that the viewer and that the white, male dominated art world may hold. This perspective implies that both her subjects and her artworks are passive when confronted with their viewers. Personally, I believe that more than anything, Walker’s work deals in power -- specifically, the slim examples of power black individuals have over their
Throughout history art has played a major role in society. It started out with paintings and went to photography and eventually to films. Artistic interpretation depended on whom the artist was and what he or she wanted to present to the audience. When it came to portraiture, whether it was paintings or photography, the idea of mimesis was very important. However important this may have been, the portraits were mostly products of the media and fashions during that time period. Whatever was popular during the time was used such as columns or curtains in the background. The face was the main focus in the painting and there was little focus on the body. Later on during photography the body was focused on more. Even though photography was used much later after paintings were used, it allowed the artist even more artistic interpretation because of the ability to play a different role and not having to be ones self. The artists that will be focused on are Frida Kahlo and Cindy Sherman. They lived during different periods and their artistic intentions varied because of that. They also had similarities in that they thought outside of the conventional roles. These women were both self-portraiture artists and although they were considered that their interpretations did not always make their portraits self-portraits. Traditionally the artist was an outsider, but when it came to self-portraiture they became the subject and the audience became the outsider. The similarities and differences of Frida Kahlo and Cindy Sherman’s art were tied into the strength and also vulnerability they had because of their roles as women. They wanted the audience to see a background story to the portraits and not just an image of a beautiful face.
The first painting analyzed was North Country Idyll by Arthur Bowen Davis. The focal point was the white naked woman. The white was used to bring her out and focus on the four actual colored males surrounding her. The woman appears to be blowing a kiss. There is use of stumato along with atmospheric perspective. There is excellent use of color for the setting. It is almost a life like painting. This painting has smooth brush strokes. The sailing ship is the focal point because of the bright blue with extravagant large sails. The painting is a dry textured flat paint. The painting is evenly balanced. When I look at this painting, it reminds me of settlers coming to a new world that is be founded by its beauty. It seems as if they swam from the ship.
that draws the strongest contrast. When I see his painting, I see someone that is trying to express
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.
When first approaching this work, one feels immediately attracted to its sense of wonder and awe. The bright colors used in the sun draws a viewer in, but the astonishment, fascination, and emotion depicted in the expression on the young woman keeps them intrigued in the painting. It reaches out to those who have worked hard in their life and who look forward to a better future. Even a small event such as a song of a lark gives them hope that there will be a better tomorrow, a thought that can be seen though the countenance by this girl. Although just a collection of oils on a canvas, she is someone who reaches out to people and inspires them to appreciate the small things that, even if only for a short moment, can make the road ahead seem brighter.
When I saw Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring about five years ago at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., I felt something about the painting that I had never felt before when looking at artwork. I felt as if this girl, this young woman in the painting was real, hiding in the museum behind this canvas. She was in the flesh. Her skin was still dewy from three hundred-something years ago, the light across her face still glowing. She was in the round, her eyes followed mine, she was real. She was about to speak, she was in a moment of thought, she was in reflection. This girl was not crimson red or titanium white, she was flesh. Vermeer caught her, a butterfly in his hand. She was not just recorded on canvas, she was created on canvas. She was caught in a moment of stillness. Vermeer creates moments in his paintings. When viewing them, we step into a private, intimate setting, a story. Always, everything is quiet and calm. I realize now it is no wonder I had such a strong reaction to Vermeer the first time I saw him: he is a stillness seeker.
Their intellectual horizons which were previously limited to light poetry or novels, have grown to include the vast fields of painting and music…I refer not here to those who, mistaking the vocation of their sex, are filled with the desire to be painters in the same manner as men. Even if the noisy, over familiar atmosphere of the studio itself were not essentially antipathetic to the codes of decency imposed on women, their physical weakness, and their shy and tender imagination would be confused in the presence of the large canvases, and of subjects either too free or too restricting, such as those which normally for...