Transcript Slide 1

Understanding
the Artist
Emotional Art
‘Art for me is not an end in itself, but a means of evoking that mystery’
Rene Magritte
1898 –1967
Belgian
Surrealist artist
Witty and thought-provoking images
Challenges viewers perceptions of reality
Ordinary objects in an unusual context
Giving new meanings to familiar things
evoke mystery
poetic imagery
contradiction
ordinary objects in unfamiliar spaces
reality and illusion
The Empire of light
1950-1954
Le Beau Monde
Oil on canvas
1962
Personal Values
Franz Marc
1880 –1916
German
Painter & Printmaker
Expressionist
Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) movement
Characterized by bright primary colour
Use of colour and futurist method
futurism and cubism
woodcut and lithography
portrays animals, usually in natural settings
Increasingly stark and abstract in nature
stark simplicity
profound sense of emotion
BLUE used for masculinity & spirituality
YELLOW represented feminine joy
RED encased the sound of violence
Tiger
1912
The Fate of the Animals
1901
Die großen blauen Pferde
(The Large Blue Horses)
1911
Salvador Dali
1904 –1989
Spanish
Surrealist painter
striking and bizarre
influence of Renaissance masters
highly imaginative
film, sculpture, and photography
eccentric manner and attention-grabbing
indulging in unusual and grandiose behaviour
classical and modernist techniques
accessing the subconscious extraordinary universe
personal obsessions and fantasies
The Persistence of Memory
Oil on canvas
1931
• Theory of "softness" and "hardness",
•The soft watches are an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time.
They are inspired not by the theory of relativity, but by the surrealist
perception of a Camembert cheese melting in the sun
• The strange "monster" that Dalí used in several period pieces represented himself
– an abstract form was a self-portrait, reappearing frequently in his work
• Dalí often used ants in his paintings as a symbol for death
• The fading figure in the middle of the picture, often appears in dreams where the
dreamer cannot pinpoint the creature's exact form and composition
• The creature has one closed eye with several eyelashes, suggesting the creature is
also in a dream state.
• It may refer to a dream that Dalí himself had experienced
• The clocks symbolize the passing of time as one experiences it in sleep.
• Dali uses images more likely to be found in dreams than in waking consciousness.
Swan Reflecting Elephants
1937
"I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best”
Frida Kahlo
1907 – 1958
Mexico City
Painter / self portraits
Began painting after she was severely injured in a bus accident.
suggestions of pain
Self portraits
Surrealist
Graphic
Personal
Christian and Jewish themes are often depicted in her work
symbolic portrayals of physical and psychological wounds
She painted to occupy her time during her temporary illness
Drawn from personal experiences,
marriage / her miscarriages / numerous operations
symbolic monkey portrayed as tender and protective symbols
“I painted my own reality."
Influenced by indigenous Mexican culture,
Bright colours, dramatic symbolism and primitive style
classic religious Mexican tradition with surrealism
What The Water Gave Me
Environmental Artist
“I believe that art is more powerful than money”
Damien Hirst
1965
Young British Artist
Contemporary British artist
Life
Death
Existence
Dead animals
direct and challenging
Beauty
question our awareness and convictions
glimmer of hope
4 important things in life
fear, life, death, reason, faith, love, hate
iconography of science and religion
‘Mother and child, Divided’
Cow, formaldehyde, vitrine
1993
‘For the Love of
God’
Damien Hirst
Human Skull, platinum, dimonds
2007
£50,000,000
8,601 diamonds
£15,000,000 worth of diamonds
Platinum human skull
“The Physical Impossibility of Death in the mind of Someone Living”
Tiger shark, formaldehyde, vitrine
1991
£50,000
‘a portrait of the artist touching the earth’
Richard Long
1945
British
Landscape artist
Relationship with the landscape
photographs, maps, drawings and sculptures
lines or circles
Gathers natural materials
arranging objects
concern for the planets condition Impermanence
time, distance, geography and measurement
action of walking in a natural landscape
Circular outlines, circular spirals, solid circles and concentric rings
geometric
mobility, lightness and freedom.
Simple creative acts of walking and marking
place, locality, time, distance and measurement.
raw materials and the human scale
‘Small White Pebble Circle’
Marbled pebbles
40 x 2000 x 2000 mm
1987
‘the whole work should look balanced and circular’
‘South Bank Circle’
Delabole slate
100 x 1997 x 1997 mm
1991
A LINE IN SCOTLAND
CUL MOR
1981
WHITE RIVER LINE
BRAZIL
1994
"I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They're so beautiful.
Everything's plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.”
Andy Warhol
1928 - 1987
American
Pop artist
relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture and advertisement
mass-produced images from American
popular culture
consumerism
silkscreens, films, sculpture
POP ART
Fascination with Super-stars
appreciation for intense Hollywood glamour
Controversial artist
comic, decorative, and whimsical
open embrace of market culture
Hollywood celebrities reproductions based on
advertisements
Bohemian
Campbell's Soup Cans
1962
Marilyn
Silkscreen
1967
Brillo Soap Pads Box
1964 silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on wood
“I think it’s incredibly brave to be working with flowers and leaves and petals.
But I have to: I can’t edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature
as a whole.”
Andy Goldsworthy
Sculptor
British
1956
Ephemeral sculptures made from elements of nature,
rocks, leaves, icicles brightly-coloured flowers, mud, pinecones, snow, stone,
twigs, and thorns
Intensity
Each work grows, stays, decays
looks into the heart of nature
Explores and experiments
The seasons and weather determine the materials
Relies on what nature will give him
natural materials
Energy from nature
‘Stone Egg’
‘Yellow and Gold leaves around a hole’