Abstract expressionism

Painted in 1891 by Paul Gauguin, “Tahitian Women” (also known as “Tahitian Women on the Beach”) is very popular oil on canvas painting. It features both bold vibrant colors, as well as many subdued tones. Other notable aspects of this painting include its visual texture, the people portrayed, and the overall subject matter. Although there may be some story behind this artwork, it is up to the viewer to decide what they believe the piece is about. Focusing on the colors, it is obvious that some…

Throughout our lives, we encounter many people, groups and ideas who leave a sort of impression on us, both positive and negative. Similarly, in art history there have been multiple preceding artist movements like the impressionists, who have impacted artists that were a part of other subsequent movements, like the fauvists or expressionists. The similarities between Maurice de Vlaminck's "Chatou Bridge" (1907) and Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night" (1889) reflect some impressionism qualities…

Paul Cezanne was a talented artist that both Matisse and Picasso have said; they owe Paul Cezanne much respect and gratitude for getting them to the levels that they achieved. In this short paper we will look at what was important to Paul Cezanne and how he constructed his works of art, and then compare this to works of art by Matisse and Picasso. We will pull out examples of how Cezanne inspired these two artists and also how these two artists were trying to break free from Cezanne and become…

felt when viewing Picasso’s Old Guitarist). These emotions that we in turn feel can help us gain a more concrete understanding of certain events, according to Jane Adam’s disruptive emotional epistemology. While facts and statistics can provide us abstract knowledge over a certain subject, it is with the emotion (emotive knowledge) that one can gain a concrete understanding off of the original propositional knowledge. This could be demonstrated by the song about Gallipoli that was shown in…

The decisions an artist makes are typically determined by the materials they use, and the techniques that the artist apply to those certain materials. The combination of materials and techniques these artist use are called media. All media is art, and artist use it in their works to visually communicate a message to their audience. Media describes the items that the artist used to make that particular art. Vincent Van Gogh is an artist who used two mediums; oil and drawing to create his work of…

Venus’ body doesn’t look like a human bodily figure and it’s not supposed to. Her body wasn’t supposed to be exactly the same as the human body, it was supposed to be structural and flow within each other. For example her shoulders run down into her arms in an unbroken stream of movement like her floating hair. It looks like she’s standing but she is supposedly floating on top of the shell. Her body is very in proportionate with her elongated neck and torso. She stands in a classical stance that…

Alex Colville’s piece titled Horse and Train from 1954 depicts a dark horse, viewed from the rear, galloping past the viewer’s right and toward a black train, which emerges from the works horizon to face the viewer. This painting is a gift of the Dominion Foundries and Steel Ltd. and can be found hanging on the walls of the Art Gallery of Hamilton. This piece combines contrasting shapes and lines to aid viewers in imagining the speed of both the horse and train. High-speed objects utilize…

ainting Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) by Marcel Duchamp is more thought-provoking and artistically relevant than Dorothea Tanning’s painting Birthday. These pieces were painted in different time periods, when different styles of art were common, but when the viewer considers the aesthetic qualities of the piece, the historical value and the ease of which one can draw an interpretation of the piece Duchamp’s is more thought-provoking. Though both pictures have compelling titles that…

The portrait of postman Joseph Roulin was one of artist Vincent van Gogh’s favorite artwork. In 1888, van Gogh moved to Arles, France where he met Joseph Roulin. Roulin lived on the same street as van Gogh and they quickly became close friends. He became one of the most supportive person van Gogh has encounter during his difficult and lonely times as an artist in Southern France. The appearance of Joseph Roulin left a great impression on van Gogh, with his dark blue uniform, sturdy golden beard…

In the nineteenth century the Royal Academies of Art in France and England were significant art societies in Europe. The schools held annual or semi-annual exhibitions, where artists could display their work to gain critical notice, known as the Salon. The Salon was run by the art academies, as a result the art that was selected to be shown had the technique and style that was taught there and nothing else. Edouard Manet was one of several artists at the time that challenged the academic…