followed it, was created in a rush of emotion (L44). In 1889, Van Gogh painted The Starry Night. Kloss states: it is “majestic, expressionistic and unexpected. It is often cited as one of the most important precursors of German and Nordic Expressionism.” “At least one art historian has observed that it is more powerful, and more imaginative, than anything in later Expressionistic art, which proceeded from a similar charged vision of Nature (L44). Van Gogh’s work around this time was full…
While not as famous as Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, or Mark Rothko, artist and painter Morris Louis was kndown to be instrumental in developing the Color Field movement, which is an abstract painting style that was commonplace during the 1940s and 1950s. The movement is largely described as large fields of solid and flat color stained into or spread across a canvas; thus, creating unbroken surface areas and picture planes that are flat. Such examples of Louis’ paintings in the Color Field…
father Vasily Kandinsky on December 16, 1866 in Moscow, Russia and at the age of five him and his family moved to Odessa. Kandinsky was educated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany. He is best known for his abstract paintings and was part of the expressionism and abstract art movement in his lifetime. Kandinsky did not, however, just create art. As a young boy, he learned to play the cello and piano, and also wrote poetry. In school, Wassily did not just study art; he also studied…
of industrialism and revolution. In response to this change in society, artists were more and more influenced to produce art that coursed intense emotion through the veins of the viewer’s body. Right before the 20th century, the period of Early Expressionism, art contained symbolism, where subjects…
Vincent van Gogh, born on March 30th 1853, became an influential contributor to the Post-Impressionist art movement and impacted the development of 20th century art. Through his “impulsive, gestural technique and symbolic colours” (Callow, 1990), he encouraged artists after him to interpreted the world through their eyes, mind, and heart. By challenging the natural representation of his subjects, incorporating themes of deeper symbolism and emotional content into his works, as well as his bold…
Alwin Nikolais: Visual Artist Extraordinaire Alwin Nikolais was a modern dance genius whose contributions to dance as an art form are numerous. Known for his innovative dance works and performances, he was a master of all trades who wanted to encompass a variety of visual and auditory art forms to create one large spectacle. Many considered him to be a pioneer of modern dance, and Anna Kisselgoff, a journalist and dance critic, was quoted in The New York Times obituary for Nikolais as saying:…
fellowship. She's not only a painter, but a professor and author as well. In 2011, when she released her painting "Full Bloom", she was set to accomplish abstract nature in it's best forms and that's precisely what she did. Taking a look back at the historical value of the painting, the techniques she used gave a greater perception of abstract reality. By gracefully placing each stroke of paint it allows the eye to feel emotion from up-close and even more from afar. Using a 74 by 110 sized…
worked as a casual laborer and watercolor painter. Hitler applied to the Academy of Fine Arts twice and was rejected both times. The realistic paintings of buildings (figure 1) and landscapes that he preferred to paint just wasn’t in the favor of abstract and modern styles that the school were looking for. Lacking money and funds from selling postcards, he stayed in homeless shelters until he volunteered to…
Basquiat's work is an example of how American artists of the 1980s could reintroduce the human figure in their work after the wide success of Minimalism and Conceptualism, thus establishing a dialogue with the more distant tradition of 50s Abstract Expressionism. SAMO Graffiti (1980) Al Diaz and Jean Michel chose to separate their artistic partnership, SAMO, with this three-word announcement. Carried out episodically at various cities as a piece of fleeting graffiti art, the phrase surfaced…
To attract and keep the attention of the audience in a genre as stale and traditional as still life painting can be a difficult task, but many painters have risen to the challenge in the hundreds of years since its invention. These methods are numerous and involve the exploration of tensions such as those that exist between abstraction and representation, or moralizing versus hedonistic. Considered one of the lowest types of art by the French Academy, Still Life with a Bottle of Rum, Shoes, and…