Henry Moore

When Henry Moore was 81 and in ill health he created drawings of his own hands as his subject was of the 'Aged Body'. He was fascinated by hands saying 'Hands can convey so much. They can beg or refuse, take or give, be open or clenched, show content or anxiety. They can be young or old, beautiful or deformed'. Moore did not only appreciate the form of human hands but what they can produce when being used 'Throughout the history of sculpture and painting once can find that artists have shown through the hands the feeling they wished to represent,' Henry Moore was part of the art movement 'Modernism'. The medium of this piece is Lithograph on paper. This print has a lot of texture due to the etching lined of the hands. The texture around the hands shows depth. The tone is visually effective as the dark shadows around the hand makes the detail of the hand look incredible; line is used well doe the fingers as it makes the subject of the print 3D.

Modernism

 As an art historical term, ‘modern’ refers to a period dating from the 1860s to 1970. What modernist artists all agreed on together was the desire to break away from the conventions of representational art. They ditched the old rules of colour, perspective and composition in order to work out their own visions and movement. Their attitudes were strengthened by scientific discoveries of the day that seemed to question the consistency of the ‘real’ world.

In addition to art, ‘Modernism’ affected a wide range of subjects such as music and architecture. There was also a big change in the nature of society which were machinery, faster travel, increased wealth of individuals causing the creation of the ‘middle class’ of society, greater individual freedoms, individuality of the creative ideas of artists, increase of consumerism, new discoveries and inventions and a sense of forgetting the past influences and traditions therefore the beginning of a new 'modern' world.

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau Movement swept through the decorative arts and architecture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement came from certain artists desire to abandon the historical styles of the 19th century. Art Nouveau was part of the bigger Art movement, modernism. The movement took inspiration from what artists saw around them in particular the natural world. there was outrage; people either loved it or hated it. Within the style itself there are two distinct looks which were curvy lines and the more linear look. Some aspects of art nouveau were revived again in the 1960s.

Aubrey Beardsley

  Frontispiece to Chopin's Third Ballade  

(Inspirational piece)

The work by Aubrey Beardsley is based on the Third Ballade which is one of the greatest compositions by the Polish pianist composer Frederic Chopin. The third Ballade was painted in 1895 the medium is ink and wash on paper. The Artist, Aubrey Beardsley, was part of the Art Nouveau  Movement that swept through the decorative arts and architecture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially this work seems to be just an equestrian painting however the image may be showing the dominance of the woman due to the way she is handling the horse also the expression of her face; she looks determined. Art Nouveau was about abandoning the historical styles of the 19th century and to start movement's towards modernism therefore maybe Beardsley may be abandoning the view of society at the time that women were inferior to men due to the way the woman is handling the horse which shows she is as powerful and can control an animal as well as a man .  

Beardsley seems to have used block colour for this work with different tones of Gray which is very effective on the viewer as it seems ‘dark’ and ‘dangerous’ as by looking at the background it is obvious the woman is in a Wood. The bushes in the background have some texture however the whole image is rather flat and two-dimensional. Beardsleys work will inspire me as I would like to experiment with dramatic changes in tones and block colour.

Surrealism

Surrealism was an art movement that developed in Paris and spread across Europe from the early 1920s; Surrealism grew from the earlier Dada movement. Artist went against tradition painting methods and toyed with the viewers mind and challenged their imagination. Surrealism embraced the idea that, if traditional art were an expression of the conscious mind, then the unconscious mind could also be captured. The goal of Surrealist artists was not to produce lifelike replications of people or objects.  Many Surrealist artists were heavily influenced by the works of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. 

Most famouse surrealist artists were Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Francis Picabia, Yves Tanguy and Joan Miro.

Rene Magritte

The Red Boot

Rene Magritte  was part of the 1920 art movement of ‘Surrealism’. ‘The Red Boot’ is an oil on canvas painting which was created in 1937 at that time surrealist art was becoming more acceptable.

Magritte uses Juxtaposition in this painting as he puts real toes on a pair of boots. Magritte was known for his style to place objects where they aren't usually found or to combine two or more contradictory images together. The setting of this painting is realistic compared to the surrealist object. The colours and tones used for the piece gives it a three-dimensional effect. Shortly before this was painted Magritte's mother committed suicide by drowning herself the feet look cold as if they are the feet of a dead person therefore maybe they represent his mothers feet also next to the feet is a piece of fabric which seems to be covering something underneath which is the shape of a body.

I am unsure whether Magrittes wants the attention to be on the realistic parts of the painting or the surrealist parts however I believe for him surrealism was a way of escaping from the reality of his mothers death.

5 Artists

Cecily Brown

Born: 1969

Medium:oil on linen

Title: The Girl Who Had Everything

Date:1998

Meaning:. Created with a pastel decorative palette. I believe this abstract painting is of a gruesome death of a ’Girl Who Had Everything’ as the colours are done in the fleshiest of pinks and there seems to be figures twisting as if they entangled dead bodies.

Niki de Saint Phalle

Born 1930 died 2002

Medium: Plaster, paint, string, polythene and wire on wood.

Title: Shooting Picture Tirage

Date: 1960

Meaning: This work show the violent gesture in post-war abstract painting therefore I believe this work  is the result of built up anger and violence's which Saint Phalle had felt.  Spectators were invited to shoot at these constructions, releasing the paint. This one was shot by artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns

Jackson Pollock

Born:1912

Death:1956

Title:Yellow Island

Date:1952

Medium: ‘When I am painting I am not much aware of what is taking place’, Pollock said in 1947. By dripping and pouring paint, he was able to work in a free way, he creates patterns which express his thoughts and feelings. Pollock began this painting by pouring black paint onto the canvas, over which he added areas of yellow and crimson with a brush. He then lifted the canvas upright while the paint was still wet, allowing it to run.

 Daniel Spoerri

Born:1930

Title:Prose Poems

Date:1959-60

Medium: Mixed media on wood

Meaning:  In this work, the remains of a meal are preserved on a wooden board that the artist used as a table while living in a small room in a Paris hotel. This work was made to disturb the viewer.

Richard Long

 Born: 1945

Title: South Bank Circle

Date: 1991

Medium: Delabole slate

Meaning: Long bases his work on walks made outdoors in nature, often in remote locations. The documents these walks in a variety of different forms.  Long has picked up and arranged stones on his walks in many of the world’s most remote locations. It is one of his preferred materials and he has said: ‘I like the idea that stones are what the world is made of.