.... Discuss the relationship between colour and space in the writings and paintings of Rothko. “The fact that people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions. The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when painting them. And if you say you are moved only by their colour relationships then you miss the point.” – Mark Rothko There is no quote but the one I have mentioned above that really and truly culminates the message that Rothko (figure 1) wanted to communicate. Rothko forms part of the movement today coined the Abstract Expressionism, or which also became known as the New York School. This is a period in American art when the debt to European art is overcome and this new vivacious spirit takes over, emerging from Paris and New York. This movement took place after World War II. When studying the works and writings of an artist, one must keep into consideration the political background of the artist where there is a sense of tragedy, the writings which were taking place at that period of time and also in Rothko’s case as in his contemporaries like Newman and Reinhardt the religious background. Judaism will play a big part in Rothko’s works, which are ultimately there to bring out emotion. This school focused on two separate directions: one being that of gesture, which was brought out by artists such as Jackson Pollock (famous for his drip paintings) in his work...
Words: 2118 - Pages: 9
...Rothko chapel – NOTHINGNESS MATTER The Rothko Chapel is one of a modern of art’s object to prove how the simplicity within art objects and space, work together to send the message to the viewers. How the spatial memory, evokes emotion, sets up parameter and boundaries can govern the way people see and feel the space. Introduction The processing of visual sensation into perception of the world around us involves a complex interaction of the eye and brain. (Lawson 1999, p. 61). According to this quotation, people tend to experience the space to feel the ambient. When memories take part, it is responsible for retaining visual shapes, colors, information about locations and movement (Spatial memory n.d.). This allows one to remember where an object is related to another, recall the information about the object that also can produce their feelings about the object. There are many elements triggered by the memory that are able to evoke emotion, creates boundary and sets up parameter in perceiving the space. All circumstances evoke as an emotion for its viewers, such as happiness, awe, excitement, and fear. It justified by the situation when people are in a place which they do not like, a gallery with all blank paintings for example, they say: "this does nothing for me." I believe what they are actually saying is that the paintings did not evoke any sort of emotion in them. However, it does not mean that the paintings are bad, because it is not about the object itself but...
Words: 1503 - Pages: 7
...oppression, many leading artist fled Europe for the United States. and settled in New York in 1945 (ArtForms 397). Devastated and scarred by the aftermath of war the artists settled in New York and joined “The New York School” and became a huge influence to other artist’s in a new art movement called Abstract Expressionism (“ArtForms 397”). There was no certain rules or characterisitics in Abstract Expressionism however, the artist’s shared an interest in painting as a way to express their subconscious. Abstract Expressionism was a movement strongly influenced by Surrealism which was started by Andre Breton in 1924. Andre Breton (1896-1966), was originally a Dadaist, which was a group of artist that painted silly, distorted, non conformed paintings to depict their rage and rebellion against the war. In 1924, Breton founded the Surrealism Art Movement, which were artist’s who based their art on feelings, dreams and memories. In his online article “In Search for Nothingness”, Charles Moffat tells us that the Abstract Expressionist’s like the Surrealist wanted to express their subconscious mind with their art. Brooks 2 Some of the most important figures in Abstract Expressionism was Mark Rothko, and William De Kooning however, the most powerful influence was Jackson Pollock. According to Patrick Frank, in the late 1940’s Jackson Pollock introduced a new technique called action painting (ArtForms 397). In 1950 he created a large drip painting called, Autumn Rhythm. The...
Words: 849 - Pages: 4
...A new vanguard emerged in the early 1940s, primarily in New York, where a small group of loosely affiliated artists created a stylistically diverse body of work that introduced radical new directions in art—and shifted the art world's focus. Never a formal association, the artists known as "Abstract Expressionists" or "The New York School" did, however, share some common assumptions. Among others, artists such as Jackson Pollock (1912–1956), Willem de Kooning (1904–1997), Franz Kline (1910–1962), Lee Krasner (1908–1984), Robert Motherwell (1915–1991), William Baziotes (1912–1963), Mark Rothko (1903–1970), Barnett Newman (1905–1970), Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974), Richard Pousette-Dart (1916–1992), and Clyfford Still (1904–1980) advanced audacious formal inventions in a search for significant content. Breaking away from accepted conventions in both technique and subject matter, the artists made monumentally scaled works that stood as reflections of their individual psyches—and in doing so, attempted to tap into universal inner sources. These artists valued spontaneity and improvisation, and they accorded the highest importance to process. Their work resists stylistic categorization, but it can be clustered around two basic inclinations: an emphasis on dynamic, energetic gesture, in contrast to a reflective, cerebral focus on more open fields of color. In either case, the imagery was primarily abstract. Even when depicting images based on visual realities, the Abstract Expressionists...
Words: 1343 - Pages: 6
...Watching television for two hours straight is not something I partake in on a usual basis, but it was interesting to see the elements and principles of design used in the programs and commercials to attract the viewers. I decided to watch a sitcom program, “Seinfeld”, which is nearly the greatest television show in the history of television. During this television show I noticed a lot of use of mass and form and rhythm on the buildings and other things that were shown during the television show. The show takes place in the heart of New York City so during the show; you can see much of the architecture and art that surrounds the big apple. I also see lots of texture on some of the clothing that is depicted on the actors and actresses in the comedy show. Obviously it wasn’t just the program I was watching, I unfortunately had to sit through some pretty boring and irrelevant commercials, but it was intriguing to see all the use of the elements and principles of design in order to promote the product the company is advertising. During the commercials, I definitely found it to be more colorful and more usage of shape than the television program. In order to be able to successfully market the specific product or business in commercials, one needs to make the advertisement attractive, non-controversial, and informational. I believe that I also saw many commercials involving balance and proportion. In order for a commercial to be not all crazy and well done, it should have some balance...
Words: 1231 - Pages: 5
...People have, since antiquity, been aware of the essence of the spiritual, the presence of a higher power, and have been exploring their connection to something above themselves. Naturally, humanity's connection to dreams, emotional expression and prayers can be differently interpreted,— but throughout, art has been the favoured medium of conveying glimpses of the ultimate. Drury and Anna Voigt explore these connections in relation to spiritual art: Spiritual art is finally about essence, about the intangible — and the sacred. It is about greater, and perhaps even ultimate, meaning. It is about a dimension of reality occasionally glimpsed and not always fully realised, but which nevertheless conveys to the artist that a deep sense of Oneness...
Words: 1213 - Pages: 5
...Art Criticism Art criticism involves art description, formal analysis, interpretation and value judgment (Elkins, & Engelke, 2003). The paper gives an art criticism of a piece of art I saw at Lyman Allyn Art Museum by L.F Baeles titled On the Lake. [pic] Identification Title: On the Lake Artist: L.F Baeles Date: 1885 Medium: Oil on Canvas Size: Na Location: Lyman Allyn Art Museum Description On the Lake is a painting art done by an American artist L.F Beales in 1885. The painting was exhibited at Lyman Allyn Art Museum during 2015 august exhibition at the museum. The art is done on canvas using oil paint. In the painting, one can see a boat on the lake with two sailors. One sailor is a man, and the other is a woman. The woman in the boat is decently dressed, and she is peddling the boat. The man is gazing at the large landscape at the end of the lake. At both edges of the lake, there is a landscape covered with big bush. At a distance, there is another boat occupied by two sailors. The two sailors at the distant boat can be seen conversing with each other. The sky is very brighter with scattered brown clouds indicating that it was on a summer evening (Leiber, Alden, Mœglin-Delcroix, & Purves, T. 2001). From the look, the painting represents a couple enjoying a date at the lakeside on a summer evening. However, the man is depicted as naïve looking on how he is dressed and is being distracted by the large landscape covered with bushes. The woman is...
Words: 1436 - Pages: 6
...Tattoos are Art Patti Fuller DeVry University Professor Schnee Research Paper December 12, 2010 Great art inspires. Art can evoke strong emotions; compassion, joy, sorrow, anger...the list is extensive. In the words of the artist, Mark Rothko (2010): The fact that people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions...the people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when painting them. And if you say you are moved only by their color relationships then you miss the point. I’m not an abstractionist. I’m not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on. (Art Quotations) Fig. 1 Lopez, J. paco1 Fig. 1 Lopez, J. paco1 Interpretation of art is subjective and depends on the individual viewing it. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and one man’s deviant, anti-social, rebellious behavior, in getting a tattoo, is another man’s gaining a piece of traveling, semi-permanent art. Ancient tattooing often signified a rite of passage, coming-of-age or tribal affiliation, while tattoos in modern sub-cultures are more like badges and tattoos today have evolved from the anchors and pin-up girls sailors once sported to the reproductions of the masters and fine art works created by a new breed of masters, elevating tattoo to art. Tattooing is one of the most ancient forms...
Words: 3435 - Pages: 14
...along with alienation and loss of faith led artist to explore different kinds of art. Hence, abstract expressionism began in New York in the 1940's -1950's as a sign of rebellion. The two modes of this new form of art in the United States are Action Painting and Color Field Painting. Action painters wanted to portray paint texture and the movement of the artist hand by dripping and splashing paint. Color Field Painting were mostly focused on the color and shape to create more peaceful and spiritual paintings which was a more mythic type of art. Paul Jackson Pollock also known by only Jackson Pollock was considered an action painter. I chose Pollock because he was a major figure in the movement of Abstract Expressionism and the New York School among other colleagues. He wanted his painting to be portrayed for what they were and eventually started numbering his art pieces rather than naming them. Willem De Kooning was also known to influence the New York School and was considered an action painter. I chose him mainly because his wife also became influenced by the arts and became an action painter herself. He was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon Johnson. Mark Rothko was considered a Color Field Painter. I chose Rothko for this type of abstract expressionism since he was one of the artist in New York that was instructed by Arshile Gorky. Rothko was label as an abstract expressionism although he himself denied the label....
Words: 1348 - Pages: 6
...during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. It was shared by independent groups in New York, Berlin, Paris and elsewhere. * The movement was a protest against the barbarism of the War; works of anti-art that deliberately defied reason. * Dadaism primarily involved visual arts, literature, poetry, theatre, and graphic design. Its purpose was to ridicule what its participants considered to be the meaninglessness of the modern world. In addition to being anti-war, dada was also anti-bourgeois and anarchistic in nature. According to its proponents, Dada was not art; it was anti-art. For everything that art stood for, Dada was to represent the opposite. Where art was concerned with aesthetics, Dada ignored them. If art is to have at least an implicit or latent message, Dada strives to have no meaning. Interpretation of Dada is dependent entirely on the viewer. If art is to appeal to sensibilities, Dada offends. Perhaps it is then ironic that Dada is an influential movement in Modern art. Dada became a commentary on art and the world, thus becoming art itself.” * The Dadaists channelled their revulsion at World War I into an indictment of the nationalist and materialist values that had brought it about. They were united not by a common style but by a rejection of conventions in art and thought, seeking through their unorthodox techniques, performances and provocations to shock society into self-awareness. The name Dada itself was typical of the movement’s anti-rationalism. Various...
Words: 3548 - Pages: 15
...ALEX KATZ: “GIVE ME TOMMORROW” TURNER CONTEMORARY MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, MARGATE THOMAS SIDNEY COOPER: THE BEANEY HOUSE OF ART AND KNOWLEDGE, CANTERBURY THOMAS SIDNEY COOPER ALEX KATZ The two exhibitions that I have visited and about which I am going to discuss are both taking place in Kent. The first one is entitled ‘’Give Me Tomorrow,, and its author is the American contemporary painter Alex Katz. He is exhibiting in Margate at Turner Contemporary Museum and the concept of the exhibition focuses on a collection of works chosen by the author himself. The other exhibition that opted for is taking place in the Beany Museum in Canterbury and its author is the British painter Thomas Sidney Cooper. This exhibition is composed by a collection of paintings that are very representative for the author’s artistic life. Both exhibitions are opened to the large public and offer useful information about the paintings presented in the collections and about their authors, approaching a less sophisticated atmosphere but a very welcoming one were even the people who are not so much involved in an artistic life can relate to the compositions and understand them without much efforts. The reason for choosing these particular exhibitions was the fact that they are so different in many aspects and this reveals how prolific the artistic action can be and here I am referring in particular to painting. Also putting both of the exhibitions into the...
Words: 2388 - Pages: 10
...05/03/16 POP ART -realism had been gone for a long time but pop art brought it up -comprehensible, straight forward -Roy Lichtenstein - Robert Rauschenberg, canyon – abstract, consumer culture and materials of everyday mixed -tom wesselmann, landscape no. 4 – reproduces Mt. Hood (albert berstadt), typical landscape of foreground/middle/background, faces in car not carrying about the scenery of nature, car represents machine -mark Rothko -warhol’s 50’s work – contrast, rigorous serial composition, confident line work -andy warhol’s brillo box vs. duchamp’s fountain: -> brillo box just fake found object, no mediation, just the damn box but Duchamp turned urinal upside down to create interest ->brillobox stacked in gallery ->warehouse? -warhol starts to hand paint in 60’s -> later his style gets more edgy, sharp (tomato soup, etc) -everything you eat and wear, mass produced -pop art seem ambivalent, recognizable but hard to read the meaning -jan davidsz, sumptuous Still Life with parrorot vs. tom wesselmann, still life ->parrot still life is very realistic vs. flatness of t.w’s still life -> wildlife fruits vs. daily life packaged factory products -warhol’s Marilyn Monroe series: gold halo (her hair) represents the religious/celebrity, repetition represents exposure -warhol’s red race riot: mistitled this work, piece is about technology of production, we were made not to feel outraged of man’s inhumanity because the imagery makes viewers’ eyes move around...
Words: 281 - Pages: 2
...YEAR 11 ART THEORY TASK YEAR 11 ART THEORY TASK BY BRODIE O’BRIEN BILL VIOLA- WORK METHODS * Bill Viola has been a discoverer in the use of video and moving images since early in the 70’s, Viola uses state-of-the-art electronic technology and his multimedia installations explore the phenomenon of sense perception. * Viola uses the basics of art making and transforms them to fit his medium (video making). Sometimes he uses more than one screen, playing either simultaneous images of different images but of the same theme in one project, Viola strives for technical perfection in his chosen medium in the same a painter tries to be perfect in a painting. * Viola creates an aesthetic experience just like a painting does by manipulating the focus and sensual colour in his videos. (e.g. “reflecting paradise”) * Frames are slowed down to a point as were the viewer feels connected and drawn into the artwork, his images are left on the screen long enough to disturb and challenge the viewer, the sounds accompanying the images become more apparent to the viewer the longer the artwork continues by becoming deeper, louder or even changing the pitch at a rapid point so the viewer notices. (e.g. “the crossing” 1996) * The artwork doesn’t just simply “begin”, people fade in, out, dissolve and come into focus of the camera, mainly in the centre of the frame so they are portrayed as the main object in the frame. (e.g. ”the fall...
Words: 590 - Pages: 3
...Art Genre Paper Peaches University of Phoenix March 23, 2009 MMus Abstract Expressionism Genre art evolved from the Dutch Baroque painters in the 17th century. The term “genre” generally refers to the pictorial representations in various media types that represent events of daily living. Such representations can be people, places, activities, parties, a building’s interior or a scenic outdoor setting. These scenes can be realistic, imagined, or even romanticized by the artist. This paper will examine abstract expressionism’s historical development and evolution of style, characteristics of the genre, influential styles or its influence on other styles, the influence of styles on three different visual or performing arts, and any significant contributions to the development and evolution of this style. Historical Development and Evolution of Style Abstract expressionism was developed in the context of diversity and an overlapping of sources and whose major contributors came from the 1930s. During this time “The Great Depression” had begun to yield two different art movements: Regionalism and Social Realism but neither of these appealed to this group of artists. This group was seeking significant content in their work. Having broken away from accepted conventions in both technique and subject matter, these artists used work that was monumentally scaled and reared reflections of their individual psyches. Valuing spontaneity and improvisation their style...
Words: 1950 - Pages: 8
...London art fair on 16 October 2013. Photograh: Oli Scarff/Getty Images I was one of those idiots who passed by the Banksy stall in Central Park last weekend. Like everyone else, I presumed the look-a-like canvasses to be fakes. At $60 a pop, how could they be otherwise? Except they weren't. It was another one of those now-you-see-me-now-you-don't Banksy tricks. Had I known better, I would have been thousands of dollars up. And that, I suppose, was Banksy's point: modern art is all about the dollars, something to discuss seriously with your financial adviser. I wasn't kicking myself because I missed out on an affordable Banksy. I was kicking myself because I missed out on a whopping profit. And seeing all those flash silver cars from Frieze art fair chauffeuring VIPs around London to yet another champagne reception, one can readily see his point. Contemporary art has become the purest expression of modern capitalism, embodying that irritating amoral dictum: something is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. Over at Tate Britain, they are staging an exhibition of British iconoclasm. Beginning at the Reformation, the exhibition tells the story of art under attack, of smashed statues and defaced paintings. Originally, of course, iconoclasm was a religious phenomenon. Abraham's father, Terah, was an idol-maker from Ur. One day Terah left the young Abraham in charge of his shop, whereupon he smashed all the idols with a stick. "It was terrible," Abraham explained to his father...
Words: 639 - Pages: 3
