The Chapel of Vence: Art and Enlightenment

Growing up near a city filled with museums, I was lucky enough to be exposed to amazing works of art. My visits to the Frick Collection, housed in one of the only remaining Gilded Age mansions in New York, have clearly been my favorite throughout the years. In that special ambiance, I discovered the glowing and extraordinarily clear tranquil paintings of Johannes Vermeer. I was drawn to the three Vermeer masterpieces in the permanent exhibit. The personal qualities of both the mansion and the paintings captured my fascination and I returned frequently. With extraordinary clarity, Vermeer was able to capture objects precisely through light and space. At first I wasn’t sure why his paintings appeared so different from the other works of his time, but I soon realized they were infused with light and

One must look at the root of the person creating the art to truly understand the beauty of the piece. Matisse attended law school in

The shift from Realism to Impressionism in the 19th century represented not only a change in form, but it also represented a shift in ideology. As one of our module videos notes, rather than focusing on accuracy and clarity, Impressionism emphasized “what the mind and the eye sees” and the “impression of light and color.” We will briefly discuss how the differences in the approaches of the Realists and the Impressionists had interesting implications for arts and how these ideologies can be applied to the ways in which believers and unbelievers interpret art.

The primary focus of this section is to explain the “act of painting.” Flack begins her book with notes on the creative process and what it means to be an artist. Everything from the perception of color to confronting a blank canvas is addressed in this section. Audrey Flack briefly touches on the spiritual

Diebenkorn admired the way Matisse flattened his paintings while still creating a special tension within them, which he also incorporated into his work in the 50’s (“Richard Diebenkorn”). Using space and color, Diebenkorn

To the viewer, this work does not appear vivid or aggressively bold, for Marin’s use of gray and black hues compose the majority of the background and bridge foreground. However, even though the most dominate color is gray, it is not the first noticed by the viewer, for the small sized, vivid hues in the near center background of the painting initially capture the eye. The four intense colors of blue, yellow, purple, and red pop against the monotone city and structural surroundings. These colors instantly give the painting a rush of energy, standing out in the work and drawing the attention of the eye. The darker, black colors of the foreground bridge is proportionately balanced by the brighter colors in the background, contributing to a feel of color balance and evenness. All of the colors are also very saturated and deep, for none are too “light” or unable to be seen, except for a few gray tones, helping to achieve dimensionality and variation. Considering that Marin’s work is overwhelmingly dominated by cool hues, the audience could infer that this painting would possess a soothing, calm feeling, which opposes the thesis analysis. Conversely, through the small use and implementation of these four vivid hues, the feeling of this work is changed in its entirety. Instead of a serene “cool” feel, the painting emits a blast of speed and energy,

In the paper I would like to focus on a painting that is almost 120 years old, however it appears provocative even today - in the world of contemporary art, where there seems to be no room left for astonishment. What I find so special about this beautiful painting is the technique and the artist’s vision of the scenery. Even though the second half of the 19th century was the time of rebelliousness in the art world, Henri Matisse managed to find his own niche and create his own style of painting. While “Still Life with Oranges II” appears as a primitive piece of work that neglects canonic rules of proportion, shade and volume, it opens doors to the personal world of the artists, where there is a place for imagination and flirting with the audience. Bright colors and swirls of brush strokes celebrate life and create an uplifting mood, which we often under appreciate in a painting.

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

On September 4, 2016, I visited the Matisse in His Time exhibit at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. This exhibit is home to a plethora of pieces by many different European artists from the 19th and 20th centuries. While it is focused on Matisse and his extensive works, containing more than 50 of his pieces, there are many portraits and sculptures by other influential artists from that time period including Renoir, Picasso, and Georges Braque. Three of the most appealing works that I encountered in this exhibit are Maurice de Vlaminck’s Portrait of Père Bouju, Pablo Picasso’s Reclining Woman on a Blue Divan, and Henri Matisse’s sculpture series Henriette I, Henriette II, and Henriette III.

“The process starts out in an incredibly open way with endless possibilities; the addition of each plane of colour, however, progressively limits the work’s evolution and, ultimately, when a painting ‘works’, it coalesces into a composition that is intuitive and carefully controlled.” GS

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.

However, wandering further into the exhibition, one encounters a room filled with purely abstract, monochromatic master pieces. While perfectly rendered, single color abstractions vary in scale and proximity, they create the semblance of space which is very endearing and peaceful. The pen and ink sketches are crisp, and precisely executed, with the consistency of a wood or linoleum block print.

Artists create an experience not just a painting. The painting of Jenne-Marguerite Lecadre in a garden shows bold impressionistic movement. Brash brushstrokes create movement within the still landscape. Fawning trees reach to the Heavens. A woman swaddled in a drapery of soft cream and white, stands eclipsed by the tranquility of flora. Calming overtones of floral color transcend beyond the lush backdrop. The powder blue sky creates a warm and serene softness. Spherical garden beds create an enthralling depth to the picture. And the draping shadows conjure a realization that this divine image will may only last a minute second.

Vincent van Gogh’s work is a personally expression of art history for many viewers of his work. The lines used in his work are loose and free and seem barely controlled to form the paintings created by the famous artist. These forms of lines have become van Gogh’s trademark or a autographic. Sol LeWitt’s art approaches us the viewers with lines of mathematical perfection, precise, and controlled. While Van Gogh’s work was about self expression with emotionally input with almost chaotic lines that were captured by only Van Gogh himself. Van Gogh seems to be connected to his work emotionally and physically unlike LeWitt whose work is created by staff instead of the artist himself. If LeWitt’s work is featured in a museum, his work tends to complement

When one considers the term “Art Nouveau,” what comes to mind most immediately is “images of a European-wide invasion [characterized] by the restless dynamism of organic form”(Silverman 1). For me it is usually the work of Alphonse Mucha– his mysterious women surrounded by the beauties of nature. Often my Art Nouveau fantasies take shape in the odd fungal-shaped stained-glass lamps of Tiffany. Or sometimes they surface as the romantic Parisian posters I’ve seen at Pier One, advertising champagne or cats noir or bicycles or the like. But no matter what ones notion may be of what Art Nouveau looks like, there is a feeling that accompanies it that is at the heart of the style’s appeal. It is difficult to define or describe what