Monday, April 25, 2016
The Old Guitarist by Picasso
The Old Guitarist
is an oil painting created around 1903 when Picasso was in his 20s. It shows an old, blind, haggard man with
threadbare clothing weakly hunched over his guitar, playing in the streets of
Barcelona, Spain. Picasso had rejected a
traditional art education and was searching for his place in the world. A year after he and a dear friend moved to
Paris, that friend committed suicide from a failed relationship. Living in poverty and depressed by his friend’s
death, Picasso found himself relating to the downtrodden outcasts of
society. He entered his Blue Period,
which lasted several years. It is marked
by flat expanses of blues, greys, and blacks with sad figures lost in
contemplation.
The overall muted blue palette creates a general tone of
melancholy, tragedy and sorrow. The guitarist shows no sign of life and appears
to be close to death, implying little comfort in the world and accentuating the
misery of his situation. Details are eliminated and scale is manipulated to
create elongated and elegant proportions while intensifying the silent thoughts
of the player. The large, brown guitar stands out against the blue background,
becoming the focus of the painting. It represents
the guitarist’s only hope, as he depends on his income from music for survival.
Some art historians believe the painting expresses the solitary life of an
artist and common struggles that come with such a career. Music, or art, can be
a burden and an alienating force isolating artists from the rest of the world. And
yet, artists depend on society for survival.
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
MODERN: Famous Expressionist Paintings
Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh
The Scream by Edvard Munch
Blue Horses by Franz Marc
I and the Village by Marc Chagall
Squares with Concentric Circles by Wassily Kandinsky
Senecio by Paul Klee
MODERN (Art Nouveau): Paintings by Mucha
Spring, 1896
F. Champenois Imprimeur-Éditeur (a printing business ad), 1897
Chocolate Ad, 1897
Monday, April 11, 2016
Is Art Forgery OK?
The Christian response to this is that it is NOT OK. It is financial gain by deception.
MODERN (Pop): Why is Warhol's Soup Cans Art?
Brief male nudity –
the painting Creation of Adam 1:35 to
1:38.
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
NEOCLASSICISM: Paintings by Jacques-Louis David
Oath of the Horatii
The Death of Socrates
Napoleon Crossing the Alps
REALISM: Paintings by Courbet
The speaker over exaggerates in saying the picture is very dark, but you get an idea of what it’s about.
Examples of ROMANTIC Paintings
The Third of May by Francisco Goya
Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich
Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix
Examples of ROCOCO Paintings
A Young Girl Reading by Jean-Honore Fragonard
The Breakfast by Francois
Boucher
Pierrot by Jean-Antoine Watteau
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