Art History Magazine

If you can’t be bothered reading all 2500 words, here’s the finished magazine.

Magazine_FINISHED

I want to make the magazine look as if it were a house, so I’d have the front of a mansion on the front page and the back of a mansion on the back page.

I want to have a kind of fictional narrative within the magazine.  My idea is to have some kind of deity art collector in the afterlife, but instead of collecting artworks, he collects the dead artists themselves, against their will.  I want this character to be like a psychotic god with a short temper.  He will serve as a guide to the through the magazine as if he is taking the reader on a personal tour.  All the information that I’ll write about each artist and movement will be in the form of his speech.

So each page will be dedicated to the most famous artist in each of the 11 movements that I’ve researched.  Each movement will be in a different room.  I will draw each artist in some kind of cartoony style, or make a collage.  In each room, the art collector will talk about the artists.

I need to figure out the general layout of the pages, like I was thinking I could make it like a comic book, with multiple panels on each page, which would work for my more narratively driven idea, but that would take a lot of work, and I don’t really want to do that.

It’s so weird, I came up with this idea by myself, and now I’ve heard that at least two other people in my class have portions of the same idea, like one person is doing the house idea and is having the front page be the front of a house and the back page being the back of the house, and another person is doing the tour guide idea.  I guess that the only unique aspect of my idea now is that it’ll be set in the afterlife with a demonic god-like tour guide.

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about this character is an old fashioned, posh robe like the meerkat from the compare the meerkat.com adverts.  Whatever character I come up with I want them to wear a robe like the one that the meerkat wears.

So I guess that one of the first things I need to do is design the tour guide character.  I’ll make a mood board below for inspiration.  If the character is going to be a god or devil-like figure, I could start looking at different kinds of religious iconography.

 

 

I like the idea of having a skull-like face with creepy eyes in the eye sockets.

 

 

 

I started doodling some ideas, starting with trying to draw the witch’s face from The Theif and The Cobbler, as seen above, and the witch’s nose from the other picture.

I then drew one of the skulls as a head for the robe in the picture above and used the picture below for reference.

I really liked this design, but I kept experimenting.  I used the shape of the skull in the reference picture to try and make a gaunt, thin-looking face, but it didn’t really look too good, so I drew the skull again, but gave it the witch’s nose from earlier.  I really like the result, he looks kind of spooky, but the nose also gives him a kind of likeable aspect.  I’m going to go with this design.

Next, I’m going to make a vague template for the magazine pages.  Below are a bunch of images that I used for inspiration.

 

 

 

 

 

And these are my thumbnail sketches.

I then drew my skeleton tour guide in Krita.

Then I started work on my front cover.  Here is the tree I drew in Photoshop.  I duplicated and flipped it a couple of times, to make the eventual image more crowded with trees.

After messing around in Illustrator for a couple of hours, here is the final image.

Next, I created the hallways that were shown in the thumbnail sketches.  I found this image and used it for reference.  I followed the design of the picture so closely because I can’t portray perspective accurately out of my imagination.

This is the result.

I want there to be a really long hallway, with a bunch of sets of pillars, so that for every 2 pages, I’ll decrease the length of the hallway, so that it will appear to the reader that they’re slowly progressing through the art gallery hall.

So this is what the hallway before the above image will look like, and so on.

This will be the 1st page of the gallery.

For the last page of the gallery, I’m going to make a double-page spread of a close up of the back wall, which will have some tools lying around, and an “Under Construction” sign hung up on it, and the skeleton tour guide will explain that he’s waiting for the next great artists to die, and art movements to spring up.

I’m going to create the tools I just talked about.  Here are some reference images I used.

 

So then this is what the result looks like.

And then I copied and pasted it onto every back wall.

But first, I need to draw the bog-standard frame which all of the paintings are going to be held in.  Here are some reference images that I used.

I copied the design very closely, except for the fact that I couldn’t be bothered to add the flowery details, and I made my own design for the middle top and bottom bits.

Now that I have all of the hall artwork done, I’m going to make the individual artworks for each art movement, starting with one of my favourites, Andy Warhol from Popart.  I’ve had the idea to show him eating out of a Campbell’s soup can, so I’mma go do that now.

I want my drawing of Andy Warhol to look kind of ill and malnourished, hence why he’s scoffing Campbell’s soup, so I found this picture which seemed fitting.

I wasn’t sure how I wanted to draw these artists, then I realised that I could draw them in my creepy style, which would fit with the whole afterlife idea.  This is a drawing I did of Bob The Builder recently, in said style.

So I drew over the picture of Andy, and just went all out with the creepiness, and had a lot of fun doing so.  I would not want to see him in a dark street, that’s for sure.

I like the result so much that I’m going to draw every artist like this.  Yay!

Now I’m going to draw some Campbell soup cans.  Here’s the image I used for reference.

This is my version.

Now I’m going to compile everything into a handsome little page.

I made the background the same colour as the pillars, so it looks like it is on a pillar.  I realise now that some of the soup cans and the details on the frame are wonky, but I just can’t be bothered to change it so I’ll just leave it wonky and imperfect, like most art.

I’m also going to put some text on that little box under Warhol, but I’ll do that later when I have more time.

Next is Surrealism, and Salvador Dali!

Here is the photo that I used.

And 5 hours later, here’s my drawing.  I did pretty much the same thing as the Andy Warhol drawing, but I added white spots in his dark eyes, which looks more stylised and really adds to the creepy vibe.  I’m probably going to do most of the artists with those white eyes now.

Now I’m going to draw a surrealist, Dali-esque background.  This is the image I used for reference.

I created this.

Then this is the whole scene put together.  I can’t figure out how to crop Dali, but I will.

I went into photoshop and edited that overlapping black bit out.

I’m drawing my favourite artists first so that it is more interesting.  Right, next is Edvard Munch for Expressionism!

Because I couldn’t find many pictures of Edvard Munch when he was younger, I’m using this self-portrait drawing by the man himself, Edvard Munch for reference, as it is the most useful self-portrait of his, in terms of contrasting tones in the face.

I had an idea that I wanted to make the drawing look kinda like the scream, so here it is.

This is my drawing.

 

I tried drawing a background for the painting that was inspired by the background in The Scream painting, but it looked like a toddler with no artistic talent had made it, so I opted for a much simpler background inspired by another one of Edvard Munch’s self-portraits.

And here is the result.

Okay, onto Picasso for Cubism!!

I used this picture as a reference photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is my drawing.  My mate @outlawzipi (Instagram) had the idea to draw the creepy teeth, which really helped the picture to be extra creepy.

Now I need to make a background for good ol’ Pablo.  I found this Picasso painting and used it for inspiration for the background.

So then I made this.

Then I duplicated it a bunch of times, and this is the final result.

Next, onto Abstract Expressionism and Jackson Pollock!

This is the reference photo I used.

And this is my drawing.  I realise now that his cigarette is just kind of floating there in his mouth… oh well, I still like it anyways.  You’ll just have to suspend disbelief.

So because I’ve made all of the drawings from this point on in Krita, instead of Photoshop which I’ve used for all the others, I couldn’t figure out how to export my drawings with a transparent background, so no all of the drawings just look like is.

So I’m now going to go into Photoshop to try to solve this.

Tada!

And then I went back into photoshop to get rid of those black bits.

So I’ve got to go through that process for all of the drawings from here on out, and because it is going to be extremely tedious to show all the screenshots for each drawing, so just assume that I’m doing it behind the scenes.

So I’m now going to make the background to the frame.  This is the reference photo that I used.

And this is my terrible Pollock-Esque painting that took me about 30 seconds to make.

And then this is everything together.

Next is Art Deco and Erte!

This is the reference photo I used.

And this is my drawing.

This is the reference photo that I used for the background.  I don’t think this image was made by Erte, but it is very reminiscent of the Art Deco period, so it still works.

So I made my own version of one of the diamonds.  It is not quite symmetrical, but oh well, I don’t have time to change it now.

Then I duplicated it a bunch of times, and this is the end result!

Next, onto Dada and Marcel Duchamp!

This is the reference photo that I used.

And this is my drawing.

For the background, I used this piece of his art as a reference.

And then this is my version of it.  It’s not perfect, but it’ll do

I was messing around with ol’Marcel, and I did this.  I’m not going to use it because it doesn’t fit in with everything else, but I really like the effect.

Okay, actually, turns out I’m going to use this.  I duplicated the toilet thingy a bunch of times and made a repeat pattern with them.  This is everything put together.

I felt like the background was too bright, and took too much attention away from the main drawing, so I put a dark blue square with very low opacity in front of the background to mute the colours somewhat.  I’m happier with the result.

And next, onto Futurism and Umberto Boccioni!

This is the reference photo that I used.

And this is my drawing.

This is the reference photo that I used for the background.  It is one of his paintings.

So using this as I reference, I made these shapes.

I then threw them all together to make a messy background and put a big dark blue square over them and turned the opacity way down, to make the shapes darker, because I felt like they were too distracting from the drawing in the middle.

This is everything put together.

Okay, next up is Modernism and Henry Moore!

This is the reference photo that I used.

And this is my drawing.

I feel like I’m cheating by drawing over the photos, but oh well, I don’t have time to draw these pictures freehand.

And this is my drawing.  I put two little white eyes in his mouth to try to add to the creepiness.

 

Because Henry Moore seemed to mostly do sculptures, I couldn’t think of how to make a background for the painting, so I just did a simple blue square with a white radial gradient.

So this is everything shoved together.

So next up is Postmodernism and Han Sai Por… well, at least she was going to be next, but then I realised that she isn’t actually dead yet, and that’s the whole idea behind this magazine, these are all dead artists.  So I’m instead going to do Robert Rauschenberg, who is, in fact, already dead.  So yay!

So this is the reference photo that I used.

And this is my drawing.

I used this photo of one of his works for reference for the background.

And so I made this.

and then everything squished together looks like this.

 

And now onto YBA (Young British Artists) and Mat Collishaw.

Now, we have a problem, because Matt Collishaw is not actually dead yet, but I really want to include him in this magazine because he is my favourite artist, and is one of the reasons I’m so passionate about art.

So instead of drawing him, which would imply that he’s dead, I’m going to stick a picture of him up on the wall, as if the skeleton tour guide has done it, and he’s waiting for him to die.

So this is the picture that I used.  I like this picture because it kind of looks like a formal mugshot of him.

 

And this is everything.

I then made the back cover image.  It’s got weird lines over it because I screenshotted it in Illustrator.

I then went into Adobe Indesign and compiled everything together.  I made it very comic book-like, with speech bubbles and whatnot.  I also tried to make the magazine more interesting by adding dialogue between the skeleton and the artists, which develops a tiny bit of narrative, so that as you read through it you gain insight into what kind of a person the skeleton really is.

 

ITS FINALLY FINISHED HA HAAAAAAAAAAA

Wandering Around The Tates

I went to these museums to gain primary research from these artworks, by seeing them in person and then sketching a couple of the artworks.

 

Right-hand painting of Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (1944), sketch with a ballpoint pen.

 

Middle Painting of Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (1944) sketch with a ballpoint pen.

 

Tate Modern

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1990’s Brit Art (YBA)

The Young British Artists or YBAs is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988. Many of the first generations of YBA artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Goldsmiths, in the late 1980s, the second rather from the Royal College of Art.

They are noted for “shock tactics”, use of throwaway materials, wild-living, and an attitude “both oppositional and entrepreneurial”.  They achieved considerable media coverage and dominated British art during the 1990s.

I love these artists, the YBA is my favourite art movement, followed closely in 2nd place by expressionism.

Damian Hirst

Born in 1965, is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector.  He is reportedly the United Kingdom’s richest living artist, with his wealth valued at £215m in 2010.

Death is a central theme in Hirst’s works. He became famous for a series of artworks in which dead animals (including a shark, a sheep and a cow) are preserved sometimes having been dissected in formaldehyde. The best-known of these was The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a 14-foot tiger shark immersed in formaldehyde in a clear display case.

He has also made “spin paintings”, created on a spinning circular surface, and “spot paintings”, which are rows of randomly coloured circles created by his assistants.

Some of the materials and techniques that he (or his many assistants) use to create his artworks are; spin painting, sculpture, installation art, steel, glass, acrylic paint, shark corpses, cow corpses, diamonds, flies, platinum, human teeth, sheep corpses, stainless steel, bronze, and fiberglass.

Some of the artists and art movements that have influenced him are;  Conceptual art, Young British Artists, Modern art, Modernism, Contemporary art, Expressionism, and Francis Davison.

Some of the major world events in his lifetime were; The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975.  9/11 in 2001.

I like Damian Hirt’s work, it is very shocking and thought-provoking, which is always good.

 

Mat Collishaw

Born in 1966, is an English artist based in London.

Collishaw’s work uses paint, sculpture, installation art, photography and video. His best-known work is Bullet Hole (1988), which is a closeup photo of what appears to be a bullet hole wound in the scalp of a person’s head, mounted on 15 lightboxes. Collishaw took the original image from a pathology textbook that actually showed a wound caused by an ice pick.

Some of the artists and movements that have influenced him are; British pathologist, Austin Gresham, wrote a handbook, A Colour Atlas of Forensic Pathology, in 1975. Collishaw said it became “the Britart bible”, as a source for explicit images of dead bodies for artwork, Contemporary Art, and Young British Artists,

Some of the materials and techniques that he uses to create his artwork are; oil painting, sculpture, installation art, photography, video, Acetal, Acrylic, Brass, electric circuitry, PVC, Resin, servo motors, and steel.

Some of the major world events in his lifetime were; The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975.  9/11 in 2001.

He’s my favourite artist by far.  I can’t explain in words how much I love Mat Collishaw’s art.  It was his art that originally made me interested in art, and without its influence, I may not have been where I am today.  I love his dark and creepy aesthetic, I love his obsession with death, and I love how he’s constantly creating new and innovative artwork, even incorporating virtual reality into one of his exhibitions.

 

 

Tracey Emin

Born in 1963, Tracey Emin is an English artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and sewn appliqué.

Her work is mostly installation art, where she shows the viewer a metaphorical window into her mind and life.  Her art is very personal.  Like, her most famous artwork is her real bed that she practically lived in for a couple of months whilst dealing with some pretty heavy mental health problems.  Apparently, it was said to smell really bad.  It even had real used condoms strewn around at the foot of the bed.  But she has also made a lot of drawings, paintings, and sculptures; all of which are very personal as well.

Some of the materials and techniques that she uses are; drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text, sewn appliqué, her literal bed, a tent, fabrics, graffiti, pen, and pencil.

Some of the artists and movements that have influenced her are; Conceptual art, Young British Artists, The Medway Poets, Billy Childish, Edvard Munch, and Egon Schiele.

Some of the major world events in her lifetime were; The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975.  9/11 in 2001.

I love her work, it is emotionally charged and powerful.  She’s not afraid to completely open up her life and mind to the big wide world, which is a very brave and respect-worthy feat.  Art instantly becomes better when the artist shows parts on themselves in their art, in my opinion, anyway.

 

Research

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_British_Artists

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Hirst

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mat_Collishaw

https://matcollishaw.com/works/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracey_Emin

Post Modernism

a late 20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism, which represents a departure from modernism and is characterised by the self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories.

While encompassing a wide variety of approaches and disciplines, postmodernism is generally defined by an attitude of scepticism, irony, or rejection of the grand narratives and ideologies of modernism, often calling into question various assumptions of Enlightenment rationality. Consequently, common targets of postmodern critique include universalist notions of objective reality, morality, truth, human nature, reason, science, language, and social progress.

Postmodern thinkers frequently call attention to the contingent or socially-conditioned nature of knowledge claims and value systems, situating them as products of particular political, historical, or cultural discourses and hierarchies. Accordingly, postmodern thought is broadly characterized by tendencies to self-referentiality, epistemological and moral relativism, pluralism, and irreverence.

 

Han Sai Por

Born in 1943.  Wow, this is the first artist in all of these movements that I’ve been looking at that is actually still alive!  Yay!  Anyway, Han is a Singaporean artist who probably best known for her stone sculptures with organic forms, examples of which include Growth (1985), Spirit of Nature (1988), Object C (1992) and Seeds (2006).

Her works are made up of a compact, entirely solid mass of material which she shapes but does not perforate or open up. They are the outcome of a single-minded concentration on mass and volume. This approach leads to the creation of what can be described as kernel sculpture. The works have the strength and durability of primal or elementary forms. They retain the presence and weight of the monolith and appeal to us with their provocative simplicity.

Some of the art mediums and techniques that she uses are; stone, granite, marble, sandstone, and hewing.

Her art is influenced by Post Modernism.

Some of the major world events in her lifetime were; World War 2 between 1939 and 1945. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.  The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975.  9/11 in 2001.

I like her sculptures, they are very beautiful.

 

 

Don Ed Hardy

Born in 1945, Don Ed Hardy is an American tattoo artist raised in Southern California. Hardy is best known for his tattoo work and his eponymous apparel and accessories brand Ed Hardy.

His tattoo artworks are very influenced by Japanese cultural art, and often feature tigers and Japanese dragons floating around angrily.

To create these tattoos, he used, well, tattoo ink, and the technique he used to make them was tattooing.  Obviously.

The artists and art movements that influenced him were; Sailor Jerry Collins, Horihide, and Japanese tattoo aesthetics.

Some of the major world events in his lifetime were; World War 2 between 1939 and 1945. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.  The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975.  9/11 in 2001.

I like his tattoo designs, and seeing as I was born in the year of the dragon, I would totally get one of his designs tattoed on my skin.

 

Abdulnasser Gharem

Born in 1973, Abdulnasser Gharem is a Saudi Arabian artist and also a lieutenant colonel in the Saudi Arabian army. In April 2011, his installation Message/Messenger sold for a world record price at auction in Dubai

His artwork is characterized by innovative use of materials, including rubber stamps, a collapsed bridge, and an invasive tree.

Some of the mediums and techniques that he has used are; photography, sculpture, and performance art.

He is influenced by Post Modernism.

Some of the major world events in his lifetime were; The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975.  9/11 in 2001.

His art is interesting, but it is not really my thing.

 

Research

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Sai_Por

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Ed_Hardy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdulnasser_Gharem

 

Pop Art

Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the United Kingdom and the United States during the mid- to late-1950s. The movement presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular and mass cultures, such as advertising, comic books and mundane cultural objects.

Andy Warhol

Alive between 1928 and 1987, Andy Warhol was an American artist, director and producer.  His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture. Some of his best-known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental film Chelsea Girls (1966), and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable.

Andy Warhol’s paintings are known for being portraits of famous people, painted with very bright, contrasting colours, and often in a big series of paintings comprising of the same face, but with different colours.

Some of the mediums and techniques that he used to make his artworks were; acrylic paint, charcoal, pencils, pen, synthetic polymer paint, silkscreen, and photography.

Some of the artists and art movements that influenced him were; Brigid Berlin, Roy Lichtenstein, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art.

Some of the major world events in his lifetime were; World War 2 between 1939 and 1945.  The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.  The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975. 

I love Andy Warhol and his art.  He was such a unique person, he really sold art to the masses, and made it cool.

Keith Haring

Alive between 1958 and 1990, Keith Haring was an American artist whose pop art and graffiti-like work grew out of the New York City street culture of the 1980s.

Haring’s work grew to popularity from his spontaneous drawings in New York City subways, chalk outlines of figures, dogs, and other stylized images on blank black advertising-space backgrounds. After public recognition, he created larger-scale works, such as colourful murals, many of them commissioned. His imagery has “become a widely recognized visual language”. His later work often addressed political and societal themes, especially homosexuality and AIDS through his own iconography

Some of the mediums and techniques that he used to create his artwork were; graffiti, acrylic paint, and silkscreen.

Some of the artists and movements that inspired him were; Pop Art, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein,  Jean Dubuffet, Jackson Pollock, Mark Tobey, and Pierre Alechinsky.

Some of the major world events in his lifetime were; The Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.  The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975. 

I really like his work, it is funny and playful, and it has a lot of character.

 

Roy Lichtenstein

Alive between 1929 and 1997, Roy Lichtenstein was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. His work defined the premise of pop art through parody.

His work defined the premise of pop art through parody.  Inspired by the comic strip, Lichtenstein produced precise compositions that documented while they parodied, often in a tongue-in-cheek manner. His work was influenced by popular advertising and the comic book style.

Some of the mediums that he used to create his artworks were; oil paint, acrylic paint, Magna (acrylic resin paint), and enamel paint.

Some of the artists, movements, and other things that inspired him were; cartoons, comic strips, popular advertising, Hoyt L. Sherman, Cubism, Abstract Art, Contemporary art, Abstract expressionism, Modern art, and Expressionism.

In 1918, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead.  World War 2 between 1939 and 1945. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.  The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975. 

I love his artwork.

 

Research

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_art

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Haring

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Lichtenstein

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_(paint)

 

 

Abstract Expressionism

Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York City at the centre of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris.

 

Jackson Pollock

Alive between 1912 and 1956, Jackson Pollock was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his technique of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a horizontal surface, enabling him to view and paint his canvases from all angles.

His paintings have been widely criticized, with people regularly stating “my cat could’ve painted that”, but despite this probable truth, his artwork has also risen into international acclaim, and his name is one of the biggest in the art world.  I mean, everyone and their artistically inclined cat has heard of Jackson Pollock.

His paintings usually look as if a couple hundred of sickly cats have violently puked all over a gigantic canvas, and then hung in an art gallery.  I could go into more details of the characteristics of his artwork, but I feel like that sentence sums it all up perfectly.

His tributes to the accidental ejection of stomach acid were painted with oil paint and enamel paint.

Some of the artists and movements that influenced Pollock were; his wife Lee Krasner, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Abstract expressionism, Expressionism, Modern art, and Action painting.

Some of the major world events in his lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903.  The titanic setting sail and inevitably sinking in 1912.  World War 1 between 1914 and 1918.  In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead.  World War 2 between 1939 and 1945. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.  The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975.  So Pollock never lived to see the end of the Vietnam War.

Even after I’ve criticised his work so much, I actually like the utter chaos of his work, but I also like that he was an example of how you can be an acclaimed artist without actually possessing any real talent.

 

Helen Frankenthaler

Alive between 1928 and 2011, Helen Frankenthaler was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades, she spanned several generations of abstract painters while continuing to produce vital and ever-changing new work.

Her work mostly consists of large blobs of paint spread out across the canvas, in a multitude of colours that sometimes blend into each other.

The mediums that she used to make her messy artworks were; oil paints, pens, acrylics, and watercolour.  She also sometimes painted on woodcuts.

Some of the artists and art movements that inspired her were; Abstract Expressionism, Color Field painting, Cubism, Lyrical Abstraction, Jackson Pollock, Hans Hofmann, and Paul Freeley.

Some of the major world events in her lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903.  The titanic setting sail and inevitably sinking in 1912.  World War 1 between 1914 and 1918.  In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead.  World War 2 between 1939 and 1945. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.  The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975.  9/11 in 2001.

I’m not a big fan of her artwork.  I guess that I just don’t really understand it.

 

William De Kooning

alive between 1904 and 1997, Willem de Kooning was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter, Elaine Fried.

His paintings are mostly lots of seemingly random, multicoloured brushstrokes, which sometimes form into people and objects.

Much like Jackson Pollock, Kooning used a technique called “action painting”.  Action painting, sometimes called “gestural abstraction”, is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied. The resulting work often emphasizes the physical act of painting itself as an essential aspect of the finished work or concern of its artist.

Some of the mediums he used to make his artwork were; Graphite, Crayons, Pastels, Oil paint, and bronze.

Some of the artists and art movements that inspired Kooning were; Abstract expressionism, Expressionism, Abstract art, Modern art, Jackson Pollock, Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Franz Kline, Arshile Gorky, Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Nell Blaine, Adolph Gottlieb, Anne Ryan, Robert Motherwell, Philip Guston, Clyfford Still, and Richard Pousette-Dart.

Some of the major world events in his lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903.  The titanic setting sail and inevitably sinking in 1912.  World War 1 between 1914 and 1918.  In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead.  World War 2 between 1939 and 1945. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.  The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975. 

I’m not exactly a big fan of his artwork.  I don’t really like abstract expressionism to be perfectly honest.  Although I don’t understand it either, so that doesn’t help much.

 

Research

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_expressionism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Frankenthaler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_de_Kooning

Modernism

Modernism is both a philosophical movement and an art movement that, along with cultural trends and changes, arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Modernism refers to people in these times who thought of themselves as modern because they were breaking away from the then society’s ideals.

 

Anita Malfatti

Alive between 1889 and 1964, Anita Catarina Malfatti is heralded as the first Brazilian artist to introduce European and American forms of Modernism to Brazil.

A lot of her artwork is paintings of people, painted with lots of bright colours.  These colours don’t accurately portray the colours of peoples’ realistically, but they instead they make the painting very colourful, and so it feels very alive and full of emotion.  It is more expressive than realistic.

I think that she mainly used oils and watercolours.

Some of the artists and movements that inspired her were; expressionism, German expressionism, pointillism, Fritz Burger-Muhlfeld, Lovis Corinth, and Ernst Bischoff-Culm.

Some of the major world events in her lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903.  The titanic setting sail and inevitably sinking in 1912.  World War 1 between 1914 and 1918.  In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead.  World War 2 between 1939 and 1945. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.  The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975, so she never got the chance to witness the end of the Vietnam War.

I like her art, the colours she uses are always very expressive, and always seem to work well together.

Georgia O’Keeffe

Alive between 1887 and 1986, Georgia O’Keeffe was an American artist. She was best known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O’Keeffe has been recognized as the “Mother of American modernism”.

All of her paintings are very bright and colourful and are all very experimental with different colour palettes and shading.  Her art is so beautiful.

She used gouache, watercolour and oils for her painting.  She also liked using charcoal for drawing.

Some of the artists and movements that inspired her were; Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Paul Strand, and Edward Steichen, Arthur Wesley Dow, abstract art, American modernism, and Precisionism.

Some of the major world events in her lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903.  The titanic setting sail and inevitably sinking in 1912.  World War 1 between 1914 and 1918.  In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead.  World War 2 between 1939 and 1945. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.  The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975.

I like her art, it is so beautiful.  She seems to focus on nature a lot, and she portrays it as inexplicably beautiful.  It is very cool.

 

Henry Moore

Alive between 1898 and 1986, Henry Moore was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art.

His forms are usually abstractions of the human figure, typically depicting mother-and-child or reclining figures. Moore’s works are usually suggestive of the female body, apart from a phase in the 1950s when he sculpted family groups. His forms are generally pierced or contain hollow spaces. Many interpreters liken the undulating form of his reclining figures to the landscape and hills of his birthplace, Yorkshire.

As well as sculpture, Moore produced many drawings, including a series depicting Londoners sheltering from the Blitz during the Second World War, along with other graphic works on paper.

Henry Moore was known to make sculptures out of Green Hornton stone, various types of stone, wood, bronze, plaster, and concrete.  But when drawing, he was known to have used pencils, charcoal, chalk, and pens.

Some of the artists and art movements that inspired him were; modernism, medieval sculpture, Constantin Brâncuși, Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, and Frank Dobson.

Some of the major world events in his lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903.  The titanic setting sail and inevitably sinking in 1912.  World War 1 between 1914 and 1918.  In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead.  World War 2 between 1939 and 1945. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.  The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975.

I’ve never been a big fan of his abstract type of sculptures, and thus his don’t really appeal to me.  But I absolutely love his drawings, they’re moody and very atmospheric, and I just love them.  When I went to the Tate Britan I actually found the above drawing, and I loved it but didn’t know who Henry Moore was, so I’m really happy to have found the artwork and its artist now.  Also one of the reasons why I love his drawings so much is because the more scribbly ones are similar to my drawings.  I love seeing how realistic forms can be made out of scribbly lines.  One of his scribbly drawings is below.

 

Research

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Malfatti

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_O%27Keeffe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Moore

http://catalogue.henry-moore.org/objects/11138/the-artists-hands;jsessionid=C15D5592C9795DACE69D764F05C5EE15

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that started in 1917 and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself.

Salvador Dali

Alive between 1904 and 1989, Salvador Dali was a Spanish Surrealist painter born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain. Dali was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of the Renaissance masters.

Salvador Dali’s paintings often comprise of a series of seemingly random objects and bits of people.  Sometimes these anatomical parts and objects are clumped together in a large blob.  These strange amalgamations are often positioned in a barren, sandy coloured wasteland with a bright blue sky.  His weird shapes can often be linked to rocks around the rocky coastline of where he grew up, like the painting below.

Dali hated the idea that art and artists always had to be very serious, so one of his goals was to make some of his art funny, silly and bizarre.  He loved putting things and objects together that don’t normally go together, like a sofa in the shape of women’s lips, and a lobster telephone that actually worked.  This is one of his most iconic works.

His most famous artwork by far is The Persistence of Memory, also sometimes referred to as “the one with the melting clocks”.

Dali painted with oil paints.

Some of the many people and movements that inspired Dali were; The renaissance masters, Diego Velázquez, Pablo Picasso, surrealism (obviously), cubism, expressionism, and dada.

Some of the major world events in his lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903.  The titanic setting sail and inevitably sinking in 1912.  World War 1 between 1914 and 1918.  In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead.  World War 2 between 1939 and 1945. The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975.

I love Salvador Dali’s work, it is extremely creative, unique, it makes fun of art and itself, and he definitely wasn’t afraid to turn art conventions on their head.

René Magritte

Alive between 1898 and 1967, René Magritte was a Belgian Surrealist artist. He became well known for creating a number of witty and thought-provoking images. Often depicting ordinary objects in an unusual context, his work is known for challenging observers’ preconditioned perceptions of reality.

Looking at his paintings, he seemed to have had great fun inventing the compositions of all of his paintings; some play with combining two different anatomical parts and objects, some play with what looks like cut out shapes.

Most of them feature men in old-fashioned bowler hats, and almost all of his paintings look like the dumb experiments someone starting out with Photoshop would attempt.

His most iconic painting is a fruit suspended in front of (I bet you can’t guess) a man in a bowler hat.

He mainly used oil paints.

Some of the many artists and movements that inspired him were; surrealism, expressionism, futurism, cubism, dada, impressionism, Jean Metzinger, and Salvador Dali.

Some of the major world events in his lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903.  The titanic setting sail and inevitably sinking in 1912.  World War 1 between 1914 and 1918.  In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead.  World War 2 between 1939 and 1945.   The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975.  So Magritte never lived to see the end of the Vietnam War.

I really like Magritte’s work, it’s bizarre and hilarious.  Just looking at it makes me feel like what I imagine trippy drugs would make me see.

 

Marc Chagall

Alive between 1887 and 1985, Marc Chagall was a Russian-French artist of Belarusian Jewish origin. An early modernist, he was associated with several major artistic styles and created works in virtually every artistic format, including painting, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramic, tapestries and fine art prints.

A lot of his paintings are mainly painted with blues and greens and seem to suspend crudely-painted figures and animals in some kind of land that can’t exist in our 3-dimensional world.

He used oils, acrylics and watercolours.

Some of the artists and art movements that inspired him were; avant-garde, cubism, surrealism, expressionism, symbolism, fauvism, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.

Some of the major world events in his lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903.  The titanic setting sail and inevitably sinking in 1912.  World War 1 between 1914 and 1918.  In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead.  World War 2 between 1939 and 1945.  The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975.

My opinion of his work is that it is okay, I’m not really a big fan, but his colour palettes are very nice.

 

Research

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Magritte

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Chagall

Cubsim

Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. Cubism has been considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century.

 

Pablo Picasso

Alive Between 1881 and 1973, Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France.

His earlier works were very realistic, as he had an extraordinary ability to draw and paint as a child.  This amazing talent just kept on improving from then.  In his early 20s, his very close friend shot himself dead in front of Picasso.  this brought on what’s known as Picasso’s “blue period”, which is when he only painted with blue.  During this time, he mainly painted society’s outcasts.

Years afterwards, he and his good friend Georges Braque created the art technique and movement known as Cubism, which allowed them to almost mess up the normal anatomy of a figure like a Rubix cube, and to play with light and shadows.  And from here on out Picasso’s paintings just got weirder and weirder.

As well as sprinkling powdered pigment direct on to the canvas and mixing paint with materials like sand and newspaper, Picasso liked to use industrial paints alongside the more traditional oil brands, to create some of his unique colours. He particularly liked a type of enamel paint made by a firm called Ripolin.

Some of the many other artists and movements that inspired him were; Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Rossetti, Steinlen, Toulouse-Lautrec, Edvard Munch, El Greco, surrealism, and African art.

Some of the major world events in his lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903.  The titanic setting sail and inevitably sinking in 1912.  World War 1 between 1914 and 1918.  In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead.  World War 2 between 1939 and 1945.

I love Pablo Picasso’s artwork, it is very unique and creative, and he completely broke most painting conventions, and priced the pieces together to create something new… then he did that several times over.  He was so cool.

 

Georges Braque

Alive Between 1882 and 1963, Georges Braque was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most important contributions to the history of art were in his alliance with Fauvism from 1905, and the role he played in the development of Cubism.

He spent his time on this planet making cubist paintings, and paintings landscapes.  The cubist paintings tended to have mostly very dark, earthy colours, like greys and browns.

But his more (but still very far off) realistic landscape paintings were made with bright, pastel colours, which is an interesting contrast to the darker, moodier colours of the majority of his cubist paintings.  The colours used in these landscape paintings almost convey a dream-like feel to the viewer.

He mostly used oils and watercolours for the landscapes, and oils for the cubist paintings.

Some of the long list of fellow artists and art movements that inspired him were; impressionism, fauvism, Henri Matisse, Aldo Crommelynck, André Derain, and Pablo Picasso.

Some of the major world events in his lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903.  The titanic setting sail and inevitably sinking in 1912.  World War 1 between 1914 and 1918.  In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead.  World War 2 between 1939 and 1945.

Braque’s work isn’t something I’m really drawn to, I guess that it just doesn’t have enough angst for me.  But nonetheless I don’t mind his art, it looks quite nice.

 

Paul Klee

Alive between 1879 and 1940, Paul Klee was a Swiss-born, natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually deeply explored colour theory and wrote about it extensively.

Paul Klee’s paintings are very abstract, and normally feature lots of multicoloured squares of flat colour.  He explored the effects that using different colours next to each other, and how overlapping shapes and colours effect each other and the overall picture.

Amongst other mediums, he mainly used oil and watercolour paints, and chalk.

Some of the many artists and art movements that influenced Klee were; Alfred Kubin, Robert Delaunay, Maurice de Vlaminck, pointillism, and abstract art.

Some of the major world events in his lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903.  The titanic setting sail and inevitably sinking in 1912.  World War 1 between 1914 and 1918.  In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead.  World War 2 between 1939 and 1945.  So Paul Klee didn’t live to witness the end of ww2.  It’s sad that the last glimpse he had of this world was when it was in one of its darkest and scariest periods.

In all honesty, I do not like his art at all.  I just find in unimaginably boring.  But I do kind of like looking at it.

 

Research

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubism

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/photography/10758308/Why-Picassos-palettes-were-a-work-of-art-in-themselves.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Braque

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klee

 

Dada

Dada was an art movement formed during the First World War in Zurich in negative reaction to the horrors and folly of the war. The art, poetry and performance produced by dada artists is often satirical and nonsensical in nature.

Basically, Dadaism is art that is against the idea that art needs to have deep meanings.  Dada art can be made spontaneously and it very rarely has any meaning at all.

Marcel Duchamp

Alive between 1887 and 1968, Marcel Duchamp was a French-American painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art.  Duchamp only made very few Dada artworks, because he didn’t want to make “retinal” art that was just nice to look at, he wanted to make art that would make people think, and he was deliberately not associated with Dada groups.  But the reason that I’ve put him on this list is because he made one Dada artwork that some say changed the way people think about 20th century art forever.  Because of the very small number of his artworks being dada, I’m only going to talk about one.

In 1917 Duchamp was working for an art gallery who were putting on an exhibition and stating that anyone could enter their art, and it would be accepted.  So Duchamp wanted to test this, so he anonymously submitted an upside-down urinal with the initials R.Mutt painted on.  The gallery went back on their word and denied its place in the exhibition because they thought it was too impolite.  This then sparked the idea that literally anything can, and should be considered art.

This is a Dada artwork because there was no real reason for Duchamp to choose a urinal, he could have chosen a toilet or even a jar of pee itself.  I guess that he was just in the mood for urinals.

Just some of the many people and movements he was inspired by were; Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Cubism.

Some of the major events around the world in his lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903.  World War 1 between 1914 and 1918.  In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead.  World War 2 between 1939 and 1945.

I like his urinal, which was titled “fountain”, I like that he showed the world that you don’t need to have great drawing, painting, or even culture skills to be an artist who can produce good art.

 

Man Ray

Alive between 1890 and 1976, Man Ray was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. He produced major works in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all.

He was very good friends with Marcel Duchamp, and they helped each other pursue their passion for art.  During this period, he would make weird compositions out of anything and everything he could get his hands on, which he would then photograph, like the image below.

After accidentally discovering the photogram technique which he named after himself “rayograms”, he produced hundreds of photos, experimenting with light and shadows. During this phase of his life, he also ventured into using this technique with portraiture photography, fashion, and even advertisement.

He would put great effort into creating weird and wonderful compositions that played with the ideas of time and space.

Some of the many artists and movements that inspired them were, as I already mentioned, Marcel Duchamp, Katherine Sophie Dreier, Salvador Dali, and Surrealism.

Some of the major events around the world in his lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903.  World War 1 between 1914 and 1918.  In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead.  World War 2 between 1939 and 1945.

I like his work, it is experimental and I love the fact that he purposefully set out to break as many rules of photography as possible, which he did.  Because that’s how you progress a movement, you break the rules and open up a whole new area to artistically mess around in.

 

 

Max Ernst

Alive between 1891 and 1976, Max Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism.

After being traumatised from being in the war, Max Ernst co-created the Dada movement.  After witnessing firsthand the utter stupidity of war, he found solace in Dadaism.

He loved making collages out of cut-up bits of old encyclopedias.  These later inspired some of his paintings.

A lot of his art is very surrealist, and very closely resembles a lot of Salvador Dali’s paintings.

He mainly painted with oils.

Some of the major events around the world in his lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903.  World War 1 between 1914 and 1918.  In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead.  World War 2 between 1939 and 1945.

I like his work, it is fun to look at these absurd collages and painting compositions that he created.

 

Research

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Ray

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Ernst