My name is Eric Medina. I am a full-time student with a major in Art/Art History. For this blog I'd like to discuss and analyze artwork from the Modern art era. I plan to specialize in Modern Art in grad school, so this is a way for me to get a head start for what I want to do with my life. I love art with a passion. I only hope I can make others feel the same way.
Pablo Picasso is one of those Modern artists that many people know of, but don't really know any of his paintings. He is not like van Gogh where people know Starry Night. He is the kind of guy where we say, "Oh, yeah, I've seen his paintings before. I didn't know that was him." I think he is one artist we should actually thank. Without him, the world of Cubism would not have been as strong. His works are uniquely tasteful as well as culturally driven.
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon is perhaps one of Pablo Picasso's most famous works. The image depicts five women, who are prostitutes modeling for Picasso. One is squatting while the others are standing in a more seductive manner. For one thing, the women are all nude, but they flaunt their body in order to attract. However, one might take a second look at this painting and begin to feel a bit puzzled. Some of the faces seem to look almost normal, but the two women on the right actually seem to have distorted faces. This was not an accident or because Picasso did not know about human anatomy, but because he was influenced with African art. African art plays not only a big part in Picasso's art, but in the world of Cubism.
I have a video here from the movie Titanic. The quality is not good, nor is it in English, but it was the only video I could find. The video shows Rose holding Les Demoiselles, but that always makes me laugh because in reality, there would be no possible way for her to hold it. It's not because she wouldn't be able to obtain it, and yes, that is true, she would never be able to own it, but she would not be able to hold it mainly due to the fact it is about 90 inches long, which is about 7.5 feet high and 7.5 feet wide. Her arm-span must be huge to be able to hold it.
Another most notable painting is Guernica, a reflection of post-war and the effects is has. It was painted in the response to the Spanish Civil War in 1937. German and Italian planes bombed the city of Guernica, and this painting is to show the aftermath of such destruction. The image depicts a series of chaos and strong emotion from various figures who are trying to take shelter from the bombing. In the foreground lies a dead body while a woman in the background holds her dead son. A horse and cow scream out as they also feel the terror of the bombing.
I couldn't find a video, so I brought in an image from the blockbuster hit Children of Men starring Clive Owen and Julianne Moore. The actual painting is displayed in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain, but in this movie, the government has taken control of the world's great works of art, including a very familiar looking piece....
Here is a clip from the show Family Guy where Meg does a cutaway scene to Picasso.
When we think of Vincent van Gogh, two things always come to mind, 1) he’s the crazy guy who cut off his own ear, and 2) he painted The Starry Night. Well, yes, he did cut a part of his ear off, and he did paint The Starry Night. However, why should one man be only known for two things when there is so much more to be known about him? I think many of us have at least seen an image of The Starry Night, if not the actual thing. Just because so many people have seen it or because it’s on postcards and puzzles, what makes that particular painting so worth its popularity? I feel the only reason The Starry Night is famous is because we have made it out to be famous. When I think of this situation, I call it the “Paris Hilton effect”. As silly and ridiculous as that may sound, it is definitely true. This effect takes place when a person or thing becomes famous for being famous. We have seen this many, many times and this painting is no exception. The Starry Night came into the spotlight mainly due to becoming marketed by companies who wanted to incorporate the image on a product and make a few bucks off it in their wallet. After being seen by thousands of people, the painting itself has somewhat been depreciated in value. It has not gone down in dollar value, but the value of what it truly stands for artistically. Personally, Vincent van Gogh is considered one of my favorite artists, but not because of what he paints, but because of what he incorporates into his paintings. Sometimes we have to dig deep and go beyond the oil paint to discover the true feelings and emotions of an artist. If we just go to a gallery, stand in front of a bright and colorful painting, we can say the artist had good artistic abilities, but would that be all we see? Will we just see colorful paint, or a story behind it all?
First of all, let me begin by first discussing the physical part of the painting. In other words, what the eye sees when looking at The Starry Night. I think what the viewer typically notices first are the bright and cool colors of the image. There are a few greens and oranges, but the main colors are blue and yellow, two complimentary colors. Within the landscape (Saint-Remy, France), there are several houses, trees, a church, and a flame-like cypress tree to the very left. Though the landscape is an important feature to the painting, the sky does take up the majority of the painting and is part of the reason why the image has received such great attention. The sky contains white swirly clouds, a golden crescent moon (waxing crescent), and eleven pulsating stars. To the common eye, these are simply just objects that the artist added to make the painting look pretty. However, to the one who lives and breathes art history, these are merely images, but a hidden story of an artist.
Because I have discussed incorporated imagery of the painting, I can now look at the history of The Starry Night. Painted in 1889 in Arles, France, Vincent van Gogh painted The Starry Night not from observing a landscape, but relied on his own memory. There are two possible reasons why van Gogh painted the picture from memory and not from direct observation. The first possible reason may have come from the constant competitiveness from van Gogh’s best critic, Paul Gauguin. Paul Gauguin, another impressionist artist of the time, most notable for Yellow Christ with the Artist (1889) and Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897), was an artist and man who found common interest with van Gogh and later befriended him toward the end of his life. Gauguin and van Gogh constantly traded opinions about each others artwork, with some comments hitting harder than the last. Like most artists, even today, they tend to have a huge ego. It happens and it is quite common, whether it’s in art, music, or film. I suppose we can say that Paul Gauguin had a major problem with his ego. Gauguin seemed to feel that he was much of a better artist than van Gogh simply because he could create an image from his memory or imagination, and Vincent could only paint from direct observation. This lead van Gogh to feel less of an artist, but it challenged him to work from his memory to prove Gauguin wrong.
The second reason was because of van Gogh’s present situation during that time. When we look at The Starry Night, we usually tend to get this warm fuzzy feeling that makes us feel good inside. The blue and yellow are both cool colors that incite calmness, so automatically we assume the painting to be cheerful and pleasant. What if I said the painting was created not in an art studio, but in an asylum? Well, I’d probably get a lot of confused looks, but, yes, it is true that Vincent van Gogh did, indeed, create The Starry Night from inside his room within an asylum in Saint-Remy, France. Known as Saint-Paul Asylum, van Gogh was treated there after he checked himself in for mental instability. The artist did, however, take frequent strolls in the yard of the facility, which provided him with the imagery he needed to create The Starry Night. However, The Starry Night was not created under a “starry night”, but during the day. Van Gogh did have a view of the landscape from his room, perhaps not the best, but going back to the competitive relationship of van Gogh and Gauguin, this was a way to prove a point.
Now that I have discussed the painting from a direct observational perspective and from a historical account, I can put all this together to explain the symbolic significance of the imagery within the painting. As I have mentioned above, it is somewhat depressing to know that the painting we’ve all come to know and love was painted in an asylum during a time of pain and suffering in the mind of a brilliant artist. Aside from painting The Starry Night in an asylum, the image itself still remains dark, but at the same time, spiritual. A fact most people may not know about Vincent van Gogh was that he was such a spiritual and religious figure. Growing up, Vincent was raised in a Methodist home where he dreamed of some day becoming a pastor. Vincent had failed every exam he took at a theological school to become a pastor and was left depressed and eventually called it quits. As a teenager, Vincent struggled, as most teenagers do, but he started to suffer mentally to the point his own family disowned him. However, most people would expect van Gogh to lose sight of his spiritual beliefs after so much turmoil, but his hardship only led him to God even more. Though van Gogh was not as religious during his final years, remnants of God still remained with the artist, and it can be seen in some of van Gogh’s final paintings such as this one and his previous painting Starry Night over the Rhone (1888). All of this information may seem a bit much, and perhaps overwhelming, but every bit of information helps us understand The Starry Night a little easier. To restate what I discussed earlier, The Starry Night is dark and spiritual at the same time, but why is this so? Let me first discuss the dark imagery of the painting and then I will leave off with a more spiritual and uplifting conclusion.
For those who are not as familiar with The Starry Night, the painting is simply, again as I have previously stated, just a painting done by a well-known artist. However, for the art historian’s at heart, this is an image of life and death. To say this image deals with life and death is not an assumption, but a fact that has always been sitting under our noses, or in front of our eyes, the entire time. If we take a look at the flame-like plant at the left, we will easily find our answer to this mystery. The object may just look like a flame or plant, but it is actually called a cypress. This cypress plays a very important part in this painting, because a cypress is not any kind of plant that we see everyday. This specific plant is found in some gardens, but mainly in cemeteries. The cypress is definitely flame-like as it leads the eye upward into the night sky. However, just to the right of the flamboyant cypress is a chapel that coincidentally resembles the shape of the large plant. The body of the church is wide, like the cypress, and eventually comes to a sharp point, which also leads to the starry night sky. Because of this strange anomaly, this may be referring to the inner spiritual struggles van Gogh dealt with toward the end of his life. Both of these symbolic subjects point upward to the sky, but in reality, it’s not pointing toward the sky, but to heaven. Van Gogh may be confused about death, or overjoyed that his suffering is not going to last forever, but end in heaven.
As we have already noticed, the painting’s main colors are blue and yellow. Again, both are complementary colors that incite calmness. I believe van Gogh wanted to create a feeling of calmness and peacefulness because of how he was feeling during the time of this painting. One cannot even fully imagine what van Gogh was going through. His ill mind must have caused so much misery. When people become sad they try to make themselves feel better by being around uplifting things or people. Though blue is considered the color of melancholy, the colors really do provide a feeling of calmness.
One of the biggest mysteries about this painting begs the question, is there really a yin-yang in The Starry Night? The answer is, we do not know for sure. However, if we take a look at the giant cloud in the center of the image, is it not in the shape of a yin-yang? Though this is not a known fact, it would seem very possible, due to the spiritual background of van Gogh. In the Asian philosophy, or belief, the yin-yang refers to opposite forces (i.e. life and death, good and evil, and etc.). In this case for van Gogh, the issue would possibly be the conflict between life and death. This may prove his struggles with how he lived and the fear of what may happen after he passes.
What makes The Starry Night such a memorable piece is the painting itself, but I do believe the stars and the moon do, in fact, give the painting a lot of credit. As I promised, I would leave off with a spiritual and uplifting conclusion, so with everything we just went over, can we say there was no hope for van Gogh? In Starry Night over the Rhone, van Gogh uses stars to not only symbolize the divine, but as well as to create the Big Dipper (Ursa Major). In The Starry Night, we do not necessarily know if van Gogh was trying to incorporate actual astronomical knowledge, but it is safer to say he was incorporating the heavenly divine. Historians believe van Gogh was referring to biblical scripture when he added the stars and the moon into The Starry Night. In Genesis 37:9, there is a small, but important part that may connect the Holy Scripture to van Gogh’s painting, but in short, “… the moon and eleven stars bowing to me”. The eleven stars in this piece may simply be coincidental, but then again, maybe not.
Here is a video of a song that is solely dedicated to the great artist. It is Don McLean's Starry Starry Night. Listen to the lyrics, because without having to look at any paintings we will get a better understanding of the man who truly lived.
Rene Magritte is perhaps my all time favorite Modern surrealist artist. One of the main reasons I really enjoy his artwork is the fact Magritte makes the viewer think. I know that's really the point of Surreal art, but his work is not so surreal that it's chaotic or demented like Dali. In many of Magritte's paintings, he creates the theme of "hidden identity". If we look at the below images, not one single painting provides us with the true identity of anything.
The first image, which is probably the most hilarious, but well-known, image of Rene Magritte. People know it as simply The Pipe, but it should go without question that the image is actually known as Images of Treachery. There are a couple images with the same theme, but this one is more well-known. The image is simple, a pipe with a French caption underneath it: Ceci n'est une pipe. For those who need a quick lesson in French, the statement reads, This is not a pipe. Most people would argue until they are blue in the face knowing that the image is indeed a pipe. Yes, the image is of a pipe, but it is not a physical pipe you can hold or smoke from. It is a painting of a pipe. In the hit TV show Family Guy, they always make a quick reference to this image. The characters would go out to a stereotypical restaurant, might it be French or Italian, but if you look closely at the name of the restaurants they go into, the sign reads Ceci N'est une Restaurante. It's quite silly, but I enjoy it every time I see it.
In the next image, Son of Man depicts a man, self-portrait, in a suit and a bowler hat standing in front of a floating green apple. Perhaps a reference to Adam and Eve, the apple hides the true identity of the man. We see the outer portion of his face, but yet, his identity is concealed, if referenced to Adam and Eve, it may be concealed by a sinful nature.
Here is a clip from the movie The Thomas Crown Affair starring Pierce Brosnan as an art thief, who in the movie, stole a Monet, but now, as shown in this clip, he is returning it back to the museum... and he's doing so in a familiar looking style.
The image Human Condition, is not necessarily hiding the identity of a person, but of a place. In the painting is a picture of a painting, a paradox so to speak. In the foreground we see the painted canvas on an easel, and in the background we see the landscape that the artist has painted. However, what we don't see, and what Magritte is trying to convey, is the mystery of what is really behind the canvas. If the artist decided to pick up the easel and put it somewhere else, what would be hiding behind it in the landscape?
Moving to the next image, Not to be Reproduced, depicts a man looking into a mirror, but instead of his own reflection staring back at him, he is faced with the back of his own head. Again, we are forced to not know the true identity of a figure, although in reality the figure is Edward James, an acquaintance of Magritte. To the right of the man on the fireplace mantel is a small book of Edgar Allan Poe poems and stories. This may be due to the fact that Poe was Magritte's favorite author and, oddly enough, is also mine.
The next image is a painting of The Lovers, a enigmatic and quite disturbing image of a man and a woman kissing with a cloth wrapped around their heads, again, concealing their identity. The reason Magritte may have done this may be due to the death of his mother. When Magritte was a child, his mother drowned, and when his father brought her onto land little Magritte could not see her face because her dress was covering it.
Time Transfixed is the bottom center image. It is a very simple, but mysterious painting. The room is clearly empty, including the fireplace, but the only things seen are two unlit candlesticks, a clock that reads about 12:40, and the obvious protruding locomotive train flaring out of the fireplace. Originally, the title was meant to be called Ongoing Time Stabbed by a Dagger, the dagger being the locomotive as people walk across the painting as it hangs on the wall.
The final image on the bottom right corner, Golconda is a clever and somewhat funny image. Everytime I look at this image the first thing that pops into my head is the song It's Raining Men. However, that is actually the point Magritte was trying to make. I think it's every girls dream to have hundreds upon hundreds of men falling from the sky, but the men are in raincoats and bowler hats, so the seductive nature that wants to be present is not. I actually have a video here that is in perfect reference to this painting. One of my favorite musical artists Rufus Wainwright sings a cover of the Beatles Across the Universe. In the video, a little girl in red is walking around the city streets and well... I think it's just best if you watch it and see for yourself.
I just wanted to show how the media portrays modern art, and art in general. If you grew up in the 90s you might remember the classic Cartoon Network show Two Stupid Dogs. Secret Squirrel was a short cartoon that always played in between segments of Two Stupid Dogs, like an intermission. I thought this clip was not only funny, because it's art related, but funny because it's on a show called Two Stupid Dog's.
This other video is of a more recent show on Disney Channel. It isWizards of Waverly Place. In this clip, Alex has to do a art exhibition report, but is running out of time due to the museum closing in five minutes. Instead of looking at the art, she uses magic to bring the art literally to life. Now, I know Disney only used these artworks for fun, but in reality, these pieces do not belong in the same gallery. For one thing, the Mona Lisa is located in the Louvre, in Paris, France. Also, it would never be hung on the wall. It would be, as it is now, behind bullet-proof glass with hundreds of people forcing their way through a crowd just to snag a peek at it. However, again, I know Disney only did it for entertainment purposes.
A Sunday Afternoon, for short, is perhaps one of my most favorite paintings of all time. I think the majority of us have witnessed this painting whether we know it or not.
By the way, Brian incorrectly calls the museum by the wrong name. it is not Chicago Museum of Art, it is actually Art Institute of Chicago. The video was to show whether we were teenagers of the 80's or teens of the millennium, we've seen this painting before from the media.
Aside from seen the painting, have we really actually "seen" the painting? I don't mean going to Chicago and standing in front of it in person, but looking at it from an artists point of view.
With a technique known as Pointillism, Seurat created a large scale painting of everyday socializing. The painting is consisted of millions if not billions of tiny little dots of paint all blended upon each other to create an image. Usually when artist paints they move is strokes across the canvas or plaster, but here, Seurat literally grabbed a paintbrush, dabbed it in paint, and pinned it on the canvas. Pointillism is a very, very tedious and straining process. I can't describe it any other way. One way to think of Pointillism is to closely examine a photo. When we look at a photo we see the image as a whole, but the closer we get, the pixels begin to expose themselves as colors upon colors. With that, we have pointillism (as seen in the above video).
The image itself is a still life portrait of people at a recreation park, but the stillness is then suddenly disrupted by two figures who actually seem to be in action. In the foreground, a small dog running toward a larger dog creates the first action, and in the foreground to the right is a little girl dancing and twirling. The people in the painting are either facing the left or to the right, but we don't actually see a full frontal view, except with the two central figures, a young girl is a white dress and a woman with an orange umbrella, who are actually the vanishing point of the image. They seem to break the mold of the entire scene. It is a painting that expresses the simple pleasures in life and the little things that we tend to over-look. I think most of us have forgotten what it is like to just go outside and enjoy life without television or any other distraction.
