Art History

"The history books will tell what happened… but the art will tell them how we felt about it."

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Analysis Formal Elements

Pattern and Repetition:

There are no patterns and repetitions in the house.

Rhythm:

There is a small bit of rhythm in the windows on the front of the house.

Symmetry / Asymmetry:

The front of the house is asymmetrical. The windows and the door are placed more towards the right. This gives the illusion that the house is leaning towards the right side. The rooms however are symmetrical.

Balance:

The house isn’t very symmetrical but the house doesn’t feel too unbalanced. The inside of the house and the sides are more balanced.

Contrast:

The house has a very contrasting colour with the green and grey of the mountains. The windows, through which you can see the inside of the house, also contrast with the mountain but also with the rest of the house. The windows, especially the one on the roof, let more light through. This way you get more contrast between the light and the shadows, bringing the light parts to the front.

The lines of the house are very sharp. This also creates a contrast with the less sharp lines of the mountains and the rocks. Making it stand out as human made while still remaining a bit hidden because it’s in the mountain.

Proportion/Scale:

The back part of the house is the sitting area, it has an ‘open’ ceiling. This is to give more space so it is comfortable to be with more people there. The sky light is also to have more natural light, because the lower floor is in the mountain, there is not a lot of open light. The house has normal proportions. On the second floor a great portion of the wall is window. This also gives the illusion of being outside.

Theme and Variation:

The theme of the house is more modern or geometric. The house is all rectangles and corners. there are no round forms or circles in the house. The variation is the mountain around the house, who is softer and the lines are less sharp.

Coherence and Unity in Variety:

The unity in the house is the geometric theme. This ties the house together and gives it a sense of unity.

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My final work for the shoe composition.

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Composition

Research

Over-all Composition

An Over-all composition is when the whole surface of the canvas is worked on in a more or less uniform way, and there is not really a center, top, bottom, or a main point of focus. There are usually multiple points of focus or none. The term was originally used in response to Jackson Pollock's drip paintings, like the one shown above. 

Asymmetric Composition

An asymmetric composition if the image cannot be mirrored. Usually an asymmetric composition is unbalanced but it does not have to be. They  have a clear point of focus, which is usually on the side.

Symmetric composition

A symmetric composition is when the image is mirrored and looks almost or exactly the same on 2 sides. Symmetric composition are  well balanced and have a main point of view which is usually in the middle.

Negative space composition

There are two types of negative space compositions. The first one is where there are actually two images depending on the one you focus on. These are often used in optical illusions (is the top picture a vase or two faces?).

The second one is where the negative space is used as a neutral or contrasting background which draws attention to the subject of the composition.

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Comparison Picasso & Modigliani

Mandolin and Guitar, Picasso 1924

Colours: Brown, red, orange, black, white, pink

Shapes: Curved shapes, angular shapes

Marks: Clear lines and shapes

Surface: No texture, flat

Scale: 140,7 x 200,3 cm

Space: There is some depth in the room, shadows

Materials: Oil with sand on canvas

Process: Picasso painted the painting himself

Composition: There is one big piece/shape in the middle of the room with smaller shapes in the back of the room

Portrait of Lunia Czechowska, Modigliani 1919

Colours: Red, yellow, green, white

Shapes: Curved, round shapes, flowing lines

Marks: Modigliani didn’t paint the eyes of the woman, he only paints the eyes of people if he knew their soul, so he didn’t knew the soul of the woman on the painting.

Surface: Texture in the background

Scale: 65,4 x 50,5 cm

Space: There is some depth in the painting between the woman and the wall

Materials: Oil on canvas

Process: Modigliani painted the painting himself

Composition: The woman is central in the painting

Comparison

Picasso used a lot more and brighter colours in his painting than Modigliani. Picasso also uses more clear shapes, straight lines and cubes in his painting, Modigliani makes more natural and flowing lines and curving shapes in his painting. Modigliani has a very recognisable mark in his painting (the eyes). Modigliani uses more texture in his paintings whereas Picasso’s painting appears more smooth and flat. Picasso’s painting is much bigger than Modigliani’s. They both use depth in the paintings but in a different way, Modigliani’s looks more real. They both used oil on canvas but Picasso also used sand. They both have the central objects of the painting in the middle but Picasso also has more shapes in the background.  

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Classics

1. Kandinsky 1866-1944 - Composition VII

2. Degas 1834-1917 - The Dance Class

Modern

1. Elie Saab 1964-Now 

2. Jean Paul Gaultier 1952-Now

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Edward Hopper, Nighthawks

René Magritte, Not to be Reproduced

Santiago Calatrava 

Rem Koolhaas

Beyoncé

Amy Winehouse

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1. Kisling - Portrait of Jean Cocteau

I like this painting because it has a lot of warm colours and I think is is very nicely painted.

2. Utrillo - Church a Beaulieu

I don't really like this painting because it looks really sober and dull and makes me kind of sad.

3. Soutine - Still Life with Lamp

I don't really like this painting because it is just a still life and a bit boring.

4. Modigliani - Lolotte

I like this painting because I think he painted the girl really nice and she looks really pretty.

5. Picasso - The guitar

I don't really like this painting because I think it's really boring and doesn't have a lot of colours.

6. Renoir - Landscape with cabin

I really like this painting because it has a lot of bright colours and looks like summer. 

The paintings were all made in 1916

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Memory (Recuerdo)

This painting is called Memory. It is made by Frida Kahlo in 1937. It's original title in Spanish is recuerdo.

Colour

Frida Kahlo used the colours; red, green, blue, white, brown, gray and black. To me it looks like she used it a bit like in a Yin Yang circle because the colours of the left dress come back in the right side and the colours of the right dress come back in the left side. I think she did this on purpose to give the painting more balance and contrast. The sky is a dark gray kind of blue with gray clouds. The dress that she is wearing herself in the middle doesn't really belong to one side colour wise, it is more neutral with the white and brown. The colours red and green are very intense in this painting. The colours create and overall dark and sober effect. 

Shapes

the shapes in the painting are mostly curved and a bit pointy, you don't have a lot of sharp lines. She used normal objects in this painting. The shapes don't create a very soft effect even though they are mostly curved, this can be because some of the colours are very intense.

Marks

You can see that this painting is made by Frida Kahlo, her painting style is very visible in this painting. Her painting style is very detailed but also a bit rough. She also used a lot of symbols in her painting, these all have a meaning. She painted this painting to express what she felt when her husband, Diego Rivera, had an affair with her sister. The size of her broken heart at her feet symbolises the intensity of her pain. Her missing hands symbolise her feeling of helplessness and despair. She made a lot of self portraits, that is also one of her marks and as you can see this is a self portrait. 

Surface

The surface looks normal to me you can't really see any texture. I think she didn't really care about the texture and just about the picture. Unlike in maybe a Van Gogh painting where you can really see the brush strokes, even in pictures. You can't see any texture in pictures of this painting. 

Scale

The painting is 40x28.3 cm big. I think that it is this size because she didn't really want to bring a message with the size of the painting. The painting is just normally sized and I think that she probably didn't really think of the size, maybe she chose it because it is the most common one. If the size would have been bigger the heartbreak would've looked bigger. 

Space

There is definitely a sense of space in the painting, for example: The mountains are further away at the horizon and the dress on the left is also further away. But you can see that something isn't right with the depth of the painting because not everything has realistic proportions and if you look better you can see that there are a lot of things wrong, while at first sight it looks normal. This is also characteristic for surrealism.

Materials

The materials used in this painting are medium oil. She painted on a canvas. She used basic materials for her paintings, she didn't choose specific materials to create an effect

Process

Frida painted the painting herself. She learned herself how to paint. You can't really see the process of making this painting. It isn't a very famous painting so I can't find a lot about it either. In 1938 it was shown in her first ever solo exhibition in New York. After that Frida gave the painting to Michel Petitjean, head of the Renou and Colle gallery in Paris.

Composition

Frida herself is clearly the center of the painting. The dresses on either side of her give the painting more balance as do the land and the sea that are divided in the middle. The dresses are two of the most important objects in the painting that is why they are positioned close to Frida, the center. The heart is placed on the bottom left side of the painting. 

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The first 4 paintings are my own paintings I listened to Intro by the xx while making painting 2, 3 and 4.

The 4th painting is made by André Masson in 1924.

The 5th painting is called Departure of the Winged Ship. it is made by Vladimir Kush in 2000

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Roots

This painting by Frida Kahlo is called Roots. It is made in 1943.

It depicts a dream of birth. Her torso gives birth to the vine. Her blood flows through the vine into the ground, she seems to be nourishing the Mexican earth. With her elbow propped on her pillow she sees herself as the tree of life. 

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The first painting is from Frida Kahlo and the second painting is from Diego Rivera

I chose the this painting from Frida Kahlo because of the colour and because of the animals in the painting.

I chose this painting from Diego Rivera because of the flowers which are very nice painted because they look really big in comparison with the girl.

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Colours:

The Pointe shoes, the candleholder and the smaller candle are light pink/beige. The big candle is orange and the flower is orange yellowish. The bag is broken white with black letters . The big perfume bottle is mat white and has an iron cap. The smaller perfume bottle is brown glass with an orange label and a golden cap. the candlelight is white in the middle and becomes more yellow as you go further outside. the candlelight gives everything a bit of an orange glow, which changes the colours slightly. The background is white and the table is dark grey.

I used these colours because they looked nicely together. I picked an orange candle a yellow flower and a brown perfume bottle to give the still life a little bit more colour. The colour scheme looks a bit romantic with all the pink and beige.

Shapes:

The shapes of the pointe shoes, the brown perfume bottle, the candleholder, the small candle and the flower are all a round and they give kind of a soft effect. the shape of the bag is more of a rectangle with sharp corners and that gives of more of a sharp effect. The big perfume bottle and the big candle are both more of pointed form. 

The more curved forms of the objects give the still life a more romantic effect. The more sharp objects still get this romantic effect because of the candlelight, which makes them look softer.

Marks:

I made a still-life with romantic and old fashioned looking objects, like the perfume bottles, the pointe shoes and the candles. I got the old pointe shoes from my aunt. The bag is also from a classic perfume brand. 

Surface:

The objects have all kinds of different surfaces. The pointe shoes are made of very soft fabric, almost silk like, which is very soft and smooth. The smaller perfume bottle has a surface of glass which is a very smooth surface. The bigger perfume bottle has a mat glass surface which is a little bit less smooth than glass but looks really soft. The bag is made of paper. the flower also has a very soft surface. The candles have a wax surface which looks very smooth. The surface of the caps of the perfume bottles is made of iron. 

The surfaces create an overall soft effect, especially the pointe shoes.

Scale: 

The still-life is on a normal scale. The meaning wouldn’t change if it would be bigger or smaller.

Materials:

The materials that are in the still-life:

- Tulip

- Jo Malone bag

- Two candles, partly used for the light effect

- A candleholder

- Two Perfume bottles

- Pointe shoes, are associated with ballet

The objects are all really feminine. 

I found all these materials in my room except the big candle and the candleholder. 

I used a normal camera to make the picture.

Process:

I started with finding a good background. After that I placed the big candle an the pointe shoes on the table, these objects are the base in the still-life.Then I took some other objects and started putting them all together in different compositions, removing and adding different objects until I found a composition I liked most. Then I put on the candles and turned off all the lights. After That I took pictures from different angles and then I picked this one because I liked it the most.

Composition:

The composition is Asymmetrical. The big candle is the highest point and also the focus of the still-life, but even though the big candle is the focus of the still-life it doesn’t stand in the middle so it is not a pyramid composition. 

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These are my practice still-life pictures.

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Golden Age

Portrait

Portrait were made in the Golden Age because wealthy families wanted portraits of themselves to show to friends and for themselves.  In the golden age were between the 750,000 and 1,100,000 portraits produced.

This is a portrait of painter Maria van Oosterwijck. Made by Wallerant Vaillant in 1630.

A lot of artists also made self-portraits, these were usually for practice. The most famous ones are those of Rembrandt van Rijn. 

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Golden Age

Pronkstuk

A showpiece in the Golden Age was a still life. They were to show the wealth of the owners. On a still life is usually food and other things (violins, vases) painted, but no humans. This still life is called: Pronkstilleven. It is painted by Adriean van Utrecht in 1644.

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Golden Age

Genre Piece

In the Golden Age Militia Company Portraits (Schuttersstukken) were very populair. The people in the portraits are usually portrayed very rich and important. The Portraits didn't have a name But are usually called with the name of the group (and sometimes also an event, like a banquet). This painting is called: De company of captain Allaart Cloeck (De compagnie van kapitein Allaart Cloeck), painted by Thomas de Keyser in 1632.

Probably the most famous militia company portrait is: The company of Frans Banning Cocq and lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch preparing to march out. Better known as The Night Watch.

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Golden Age

Vanitas Still Life by Jacques de Gheyn made in 1603