Showing posts with label Unit x11 - 19c realism to romanticism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Unit x11 - 19c realism to romanticism. Show all posts

Friday, 25 June 2010

Unit 11 - Project reflections

Project 11 - The project involved taking an 18th centuty painting that depicts an event and analysing how the event has been portrayed. 

I chose Goya's Third of May 1808.  I started by looking into the history and story behind the event depicted and found out that this is one of a pair of paintings.  (It is thought possible that there were in fact 4 or more paintings in the series but the others have been lost.)

I then looked into Goya's depiction of events.  Other Spaniard's painting similar events portrayed their countrymen as heroes wheras Goya decided to depict them as matrys.  He showed the true events of 100s of rebels being shot by the French troops before dawn following their uprising in Madrid.  His stark method of showing the corpse, the next victim and those waiting in line forces the viewer to think about the numbers involved and the effects of the event. 

At the time Goya's picture was not exhibited as it was thought to be too brutal and unusual. 

I enjoyed this project as it was interesting to find out more detail of the story behind the painting and to maek myself thing about the way that the artist has chosen to depict the event.

Tuesday, 22 June 2010

Unit 11 - 19th Century

Chapter Romanticism to Realism
DVD Episosde 13 - Painting the Modern World

There were loads of changes in the 19th Century both in society and the arts.   French revolutionary ideas travelled around Europe and further afield.  Conflict aimed at the monarchy, aristocracy and the church.  Industrialisation led to larger prole populations in the cities and growth of new social structures.  Marx and Engels wrote manifestos in mid century. 

History dominating everything (taking place of reason in 18C). 

New ideas about art and artists.  Different styles of art coming about due to technological advances e.g. caricature (lithographs allowing mass reprodcution of images for newspapers) and photographs.  Although lots were political they were more concerned about artistic freedom.  Mainly working for and coming from the middle classes.  Rise in female artists but they still weren't allowed in the official art schools and definately not allowed to do any life drawing.

ROMANTICISM - Early part of century
Artists "sought to express only thier own feelings, beliefs, hopes adn fears in all their myriad forms" (page 641)  Not coming after neo-classicsim rather lots of different styles coming out of it.
  • artists individual creativity
  • uniqueness of their work
  • relationship to society
  • importance of expression and representation
  • power to go beyond consiousness
PHOTOGRAPHY
Came about through 2 main different sources.  Fox Talbot and Louis Jacques Daguerre.  Talbot (British) developed methods as wanted to sketch beautiful landscape when on honeymoon but frustrated by his lack of ability.  He thought how nice it would be if could print camera obscura images on to paper.  He experimented in England and came up with a wawy to record negative images on to paper which then had to be fixed and through more chemical processes to make a postive print.  This process allowed a numbe of prints to be made from a single print.  Daguerre (French) worked on the dageurreotype - image fixed on to a copper plate coated in silver.Dagerurreotypes were better qual images initially and were used in Europe and America for 2 decades (From 1840).  Early portraits were similar to painted - same formal poses. 

PRE-RAPHELITES
Group of artists in England who wanted to return to nature and stop immitating Raphael.  Name misleading cos nothing to do with Raphael.  Wanted to go against frivoulous art.  Holman Hunt, Millais, Rossetti and more.

REALISM - after Romanticism
Art should be concerned with our own time.  Current social and moral problems.  Heroes and people and places of the day.  Political ideas.

IMPRESSIONISM
Started as radicals.  As often the case term was first used in a derogatory way (after a Monet painting exhibited named Impression, Sunrise).  The artists were called inept, incomprehensible and immoral.  Critics didn't like the subjects they chose or the way they painted them - e.g. as they were seeing them, the greens and purples on flesh, the blur of faces in a crowd, the same emphasis given to faces, clogthes, fences and chairs.  They liked to paint at the scene rather than in the studio and also would paint anything - lots of subjects not previously thought of as art

ARCHITECTURE
Architects were much more bound to what there patrons wanted and technical possiblites so couldn't go with romantic ideas.  Not much changes or much to make it stand out.

(Artists in artist post)

Friday, 18 June 2010

TO DO LIST - Unit 11 - By Friday 2nd July

  • Read Gombrich relevant chapters
  • Watch DVD - Painting the Modern World
  • Read - Chapter 15 - Romanticism to Realism
  • Annotate - Impressionist painting
  • Collect - 2 realist, 4 from different artists and stages of impressionism
  • Project - Painting or variety of images commemorating 19c event.  Illustrations with text 500 - 750 words.