Comparing Edvard Munch 's The Kiss

In art, there are qualities that speak louder than words. It expresses many different messages and emotions and each person has an experience different from the next. In this paper, I will be discussing two artworks I encountered. The piece is a good example of how people can encounter different experiences in one piece. I attended the Orlando Museum of Art a while back with family and overall enjoyed my experience. On my visit, I found the museum quite impressive and felt a deep connection with specific pieces.

Although examining art requires a huge knowledge, my intention in this essay is to analyze a piece of art, besides lyrics and the context, I’m going to examine it by following the steps presented by Alain de Botton.

In a world that has become immune to accepting all types of art, Marya Mannes believes we have lost our standards and ability to identify something as “good” or “bad”. In her essay, “How Do You Know It’s Good”, she discusses society’s tendency to accept everything out of fear of wrongly labelling something as being good or bad. She touches on various criteria to judge art, such as the artist’s purpose, skill and craftsmanship, originality, timelessness, as well as unity within a piece rather than chaos. She says that an individual must decide if something is good “on the basis of instinct, experience, and association” (Mannes). I believe that by using standards and the process of association, we will be able to judge what makes an art piece good in comparison to others. However, Mannes forces me to consider the difference between what may be appealing versus what is actually good, and when deciding which art we should accept, which is truly more important. I believe that “good” and “bad” are two ends of a large, subjective spectrum of grey area. It is possible for a piece of art to be good in some areas and bad in others, and if something does not live up to all of our standards, it does not necessarily mean it should be dismissed. Thus, I believe my personal standards for judging art are based on which my standards are largely based on the personal reaction evoked from a piece of art. Though I agree with Mannes’ standards to an extent, I believe that certain standards, such as evoking a personal response, can be more telling of if a piece of art is good as opposed to its timelessness, or the level of experience of an artist in his/her craft.

Students through the process of art appreciation will build connections through the exploration of textures, lines, colour and shape when describing, analysing, interpreting and judging the artworks before them (3 chosen images). They are asked to describe what they see, the artist’s use of colour, lines, shapes and texture. They then move onto analysing; what catches their eye, is the composition balanced and do the paintings look flat or do they have depth. The discussion then progresses onto interpretation where students are able to express what type of emotion they feel when looking at the pictures, perhaps the kind of sounds they might hear if they could step into it, and why they think the artist chose this particular subject to paint and what may have inspired the artist.

Whether pride, fear, or peace, art is intended to make the viewer feel an emotion. The visit to the St. Louis Art Museum had me excited to discover a new revelation. Being the second time that I had visited in two semesters, I was looking forward to a new angle to take, writing about some of my favorite pieces I was unable to include in my last paper. This semester we have been focusing on the Renaissance era (1300-1700), also known as the Rebirth. During this time, scholars and artists looked back towards the classical learning. Purposefully looking past the middle-ages, they focused on the classical past of Rome and Greece. During this time period many works of art were created, however, throughout this semester every major artist we studied

Today was a beautiful day for a drive to Chicago. My purpose would be to visit my first art museum, The Art Institute of Chicago. The Art Institute of Chicago is a must visit. I was tasked to choose a piece of art, study the piece, and then write about this piece. It was a very difficult task, to choose just one single piece. The Art Institute is the home to an enormous amount of art work, from paintings to pottery, from Impressionism to Contemporary, from Van Gogh to Monet, and the list goes on. I did however choose one piece, Georges Seurat’s; A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884).

When one marvels at a painting it is tempting to take in one section at a time so as to not miss anything. Certain work entices the audience to come forward, into the scene. Yet the whole painting in its entirety is made to be experienced from a distance, a place where the expanse of the scene can be taken in fully for all it was created to be. Certain brushstrokes or movements only come together when viewed from three yards away. An art museum is a sanctuary filled with these temptations. Each illustration depicts a different story that can only be fully understood once one stands at a distance, senses the mood, researches the historical background, and asks the question: “Why did the artist make the choices he/she did?”

[Topic Justification] Before I started taking a survey of art class at ISU, this disquieting painting was all I knew about Edvard Munch’s work.

Edward Munch piece of art titled The Scream (1983) was created in Oslo, Norway. It is one of the most popular work of art in the world and it is currently located at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Most of the paintings created by this artist were done in oil, pastel on cardboard; including this one. The characteristics of this piece of art present a subjective perspective, the artist didn't fail to capture the feeling or experience of the figure, even though he didn't achieve complete or accurate depiction, which makes this painting of a impressionism style.

The purpose of this essay is to fully employ all of the new observational skills that I have learned from the start of the semester to now. With that in mind, I was feeling very excited to use these new “abilities” as I was observing art. The San Diego Museum of Art was very interesting indeed, and I have never experienced art in such a way that is sort of hard to describe. The museum had paintings and galleries ranging from the Renaissance era all the way to the eighteenth century and even Impressionism and Post-Impressionism as well. However, my eyes instantly caught Henri Matisse’s painting, Bouquet, this painting had so many details, elements, and meanings as well as similar characteristics from past chapters that I have read this semester.

- The lines of traditional art have blurred over the years as new artistic movements have appeared and transformed the notion of what is considered art. As these movements have revolutionized the art world, popular culture has branched off from art, causing a shift; art is no longer a representation of popular culture and visa versa. In contemporary society art doesn’t exist to win any popularity contests, it exists to please the viewer, and is often deemed art by highly acclaimed art critics who don't speak from a popular culture standpoint. Art highly regarded by critics often goes against the grain and makes a statement, while popular culture is dictated by what the general public likes,

Klimt’s purpose of the painting is known to show a kiss in an erotic way, with much details, while Brancusi’s sculpture is simple and to the point, expressing the idea of love.

Gustav Klimt’s oil on canvas Adele Bloch-Bauer II is just as striking as the first painting he did of Mrs. Adele Bloch-Bauer. When I saw the actual painting up on the wall it gave me a feeling of amazement because I had the opportunity to see the beautiful details and the structure up close. This art piece stood out to me because it had similarity to Klimt’s type of work, but I didn't think it was one of his pieces until I saw his name by the piece. Since the art piece is new to me I decided to focus on it and observe how I would describe this painting, how others describe this painting, how I would describe this painting given others description of it, traditions this painting partakes in, how the painting is influential,

The art world has a limitless array of mediums and different artistic periods, challenging the opinion of what should be accepted by the masses. "Expressionism is the art of the emotive, the art of tension provoked by consciousness of the forces which surround modern humankind." Challenging the academic traditions of the previous centuries, Edvard Munch impacted the art world as an instrumental leader in the development of modern German expressionism. His painting The Scream has made its mark in questioning the ideals of what is acceptable concerning the history of art. The paper will discuss Munch’s life history, uncovering the influences which led him to expressionism, as well as a detailed description and analysis of The Scream,

The Kiss is a work that was painted by the Austrian artist, Gustav Klimt, between the years 1907 and 1908. Klimt utilizes his personal experiences and life changes as his inspiration for the creation of perhaps his most famous work yet. He links modernity and eroticism at the center of his work, the couple’s embrace. This embrace is a quintessential expression of one of the deepest passions known to mankind, sensual love. Klimt’s color choices, use of depth, line, and balance, are all techniques that contribute to the message he is trying to convey. This couple’s love radiates passion at its strongest, the love between man and woman, and the disconnect from reality they experience as they embrace.