Project Four - Art Movements research & David Hockey research

These are some of the art movements which I've been looking at throughout this project.

Caspar David Friedrich's Wanderer
 Above the Sea of Fog.

Romanticism

Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson's Receiving
the Ghosts of the French Hero's.

The first Movement i looked at during this project is Romanticism, this was a movement that occurred from 1800-1840, as a revolt against the industrial revolution - a movement that really emphasised the beauty in nature, during the time allot of science was being discovered, not long after the movement Darwin published his theory on natural selection. Not only was it a painting movement, but a movement in literature and music, so overall an artistic one. Most Romanticism paintings are landscapes, so that they present the Beauty of the natural landscapes, they were also known for containing mythical creatures, with dramatic scenes, they all tend to be painted in a very realistic style.

The relevance of this movement in my project is mainly the influence it has had on other movements that came after it, but also the way it portrays nature and landscapes, I probably won't be taking much from this movement.

Gustave Courbet's Bonjour, Monsieur
 Courbet.

Realism


The second art movement i looked at is realism, It is similar to Romantics in the style that it is painted, but the subject matter is much different, Romanticism was created to show strong emotion and passion towards nature but Realism is against that Exaggerated emotionalism, Realism painters believed in truth and accuracy when painting, this shows in their paintings as some of them are painted like photos, photography was introduced around the time of Realism, photography could also be seen as a form of realism as an art.

Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin's
Woman Cleaning Turnips.

Once again, i don't think I'll be taking much directly from Realism in my work, as it's one of the older movements that inspired proceeding movements.











Impressionism

Claude Monet's Impression, soleil Levant.

Impressionism was an art movement that rose in the 1870's, the name of this movement originates from a Claude Monet painting, 'Impression, Soleil Levant', pictured to the right, Impressionism differs from classic painting of the time in the way it's painted, by the colours applied, and how they're mixed. Characteristics involved in typical Impressionist paintings include: Usually brush strokes are small but visible to the eye, Bold colours are placed side by side creating vibrancy in the paintings, Allot of attention is paid to natural light in the paintings, as well as shadows, to add a previously unseen freshness in paintings.

Claude Monet's Haystacks, (sunset).

I see this is a major turning point in landscape painting, as well as art in general, so i think this movement is highly likely to influence my work, both in graphics and art and design.






Surrealism

Salvador Dali's The Persistence of
 Memory.

Max Ernst's L'Ange du Foyer
ou le Triomphe du Surréalism.

Surrealism is an art movement that originated during the 1920's, the paintings are known to contain what some people might see as randomness - this is usually the juxtaposition of objects within the painting, this is to create surprise for the viewer. the style they were painted in is very much like impressionism, but most surreal paintings contain a broad spectrum of colour, take Max Ernst's painting pictured to the right for instance - it contains a skyline and landscape in the background, which appear to be painted normally, and would in fact make a typical Impressionist painting but the creature in the foreground is a major juxtaposition in the image, the name of the piece translates to 'an angel of the fireplace or the triumph of surrealism' so maybe the creature is a representation of what surrealism is to Ernst, either way this 'angel' isn't painted like the angels you would see in a Romanticism painting, firstly because it has a heavy use of strong obvious primary colours, it's also a very aggressive image with lots of movement, i can see this theme of horror re-occurring in many different surrealist paintings, maybe it's that shock factor that makes up a large amount of surrealism.
I really like the image of surrealism personally, I find it has a lot of depth to it and a humorous aspect. It has made it's way into modern graphic design, because with programs such as photoshop the potential to make unusual and surreal art has increased dramatically, even from a photo or image that has no surreal element before hand, you can turn into something with much more life.
I would to try and give my work a surreal touch





Pop art

Roy Lichtenstein's Whaam!

Pop art is an art movement which began in the mid-late 1950's, it has a very recognisable style, this is from the imagery that is used within it, a lot of the time pop art contains commercial advertisements but out of the context which they would have originally been intended. A slightly different example of pop art is Whaam! by Roy Lichtenstein, picture to the right, this has been based on a comic frame from 'All American Men of War' by DC comics, this is a very emotionally effective piece, but it leaves the viewer to decide on what that might be themselves, it's comes across as quite a simplistic idea and having said that it is, but to the viewer it comes across as a powerful and exciting art piece, it may even attract comic book fans..
Pop art is quite a step away from traditional fine art, in the way that it's very commercial (in some cases it uses actual advertisements) and seen by come critics as manufactured, I see Andy Warhol, one of the founding and most public Pop artists 's work as being very similar to alot of modern graphic design work, I would image that he's inspired many generations of graphic based artists and will continue to for years to come.

Richard Hamilton's
Just what is it that makes today's
homes so different, so appealing?

 My round personal round up of a piece Pop Art is - usually bold prints of recognisable isolated, sometimes commercial images presented for the viewer to give his or her own interpretation, the boldness of works is achieved in a way that is also done in graphic work.

Andy Warhol's
Campbell's soup 1.

David Hockney


David Hockney was born in Bradford in 1937.
He was educated at the royal college of art, while studying there as a student, his work was featured in an exhibition called 'Young Contempories', Artist Peter Blake also had his work featured, this exhibtion sparked the beggining of British Pop art.

He was strongly Accossiated with Pop art, but alot of his earlier work has similarities to Expressionism.


Winter Timber.

In the mid sixties he traveled to america, where he met Andy Warhol in New York, then he headed to california where he lived for many years. When in Los Angeles he was inspired to paint a series of swimming pools, he painted these in the then relatively new medium of acrylic paint - he painted these in a very realistic style and used vibrant colours.

Although Hockney is known well for his earlier Pop art work i'll be focusing on his more recent landscapes instead as they have a strong relevance to this project.


Winter Turned.

In class we watched a documentary on Hockney and how he's been chosen by The Royal Academy of Arts to exhibit his landscapes. The exhibition, named "David Hockney RA: A Bigger Picture" showcases Hockney's landscape works that span a 50 year period, it will also contain some of his recent ipad landscapes, we watced as he went out to the ountry to make these paintings and ipad drawings, he usually does them in one go and whats even more astonishing is the scale of these paintings, one of the largest of them being made up of 50 canvases and measuring 12.2m by 4.6m.

The Road to Thwing.

These paintings and prints fill entire rooms of the gallery, being surrounded by these towering paintings must have overwhelming effect, like you're alomost in the landscape.

What i really like about these landscapes is the way you can break up the group of canvases to make singular works of art that work well either seperated or grouped. This is something i would be interested in doing for an outcome.
This type of painting (one image on everal canvases) also gives you some freedom on layout for instance, if you wanted you could lay each canvas just a few inches apart, have them with no gaps or have them with enormous gaps.