Week 12 100 cans

100 Cans, Andy Warhol, Size: 6 ft X 4 ft 4 inches, Date: 1962, Museum: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y.

            100 Cans is a painting of oil on canvas that is viewed or cultured as “pop art”. Andy Warhol produced objects, materials, or images such as Coca-Cola bottles, Brillo boxes, even people such as Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, and Elvis Presley. A famous painting of Andy’s is this painting dealing with 100 cans of Campbell’s soup. He used a repeating pattern and rhythm in the way the cans all line up evenly across from one another as well as up and down. There are lines vertically and horizontally which place the cans of soup in order. The bright red labels and yellow dots on the cans of soup make each and every one stick out with emphasis. Andy used a unique style of painting, with the use of photographic silkscreen with gave the images a different look along with actually painting the picture. Art work such as this had to deal a lot with the media and presenting company’s or manufacturers products.

            Andy Warhol enjoyed this type of art work and painting. Pop art was meant to be able to draw art closer to peoples life’s, and by the 1960’s, life was already converted from actual artwork to movies, books, images, famous people, so Andy’s art work helped with advertising and media.  

            “In their paintings of comic-strip of figures or soup cans, and in their repetitive images of movie stars, they recorded a frozen moment that did not have planted within it and implied movement forward or backward in time”

Title: American Painting: On space and time in the early 1960’s.

Author(s): Matthew Baigell

Source: Art Journal, Vol. 28, No. 4(1969), pp. 368-374+387+401.

Week 11 View of Collioure

View of Collioure. Andre Derain. Size: 26 X 32 and 3/8 in. Date: 1905. Museum: Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany.

            The View of Collioure shows us a painting of Oil on canvas. A painting called a Fauve or “wild beast”. It’s a painting that is based upon a small port or village on the Mediterranean coast off of France. Derain places the viewer in a position that we can look down or in the distance from above, he shows us numerous hills and grass, a brick wall with trees and the port located behind it with the ocean and sky beyond that. Derain uses vibrant colors in orange and red to visualize the grasses and hills. He uses emphasis with the bright colors, as well as a feeling of visual texture in a way, that we can almost feel the texture of the painting. The painting is full of lines through the way he used the stroke of the painting to depict the grasses, trees and the port. He used red to point out the top of the houses. In the sky is colored light blue with some dark blue mixed in to maybe show clouds. The tops of the trees are green which are between the sky and ocean. The brick wall is colored in light brown or grayish colors. Derain’s use of complementary colors (red/green)(blue/orange) allows the viewer to feel the intensity, emotion and warmth that the painting portrays in the way of feeling the warmth from the sun as well as the ocean breeze or air. Derain uses short strokes of the paint brush and instead of mixing the paint, he sometimes used it straight from the tubes.

            Derain worked with numerous paintings of Van Gogh, in the way he painted his painting through short brush strokes. Van Gogh’s paintings dealt a lot with poverty and poor to which he related. I think that Derain also experienced a deal of this, so that’s why he related many paintings to Van Gogh’s. I think Derain wanted to show a place where the people could experience condolence or relief from reality and feel the beauty or majestic peace that nature gives.

            “Fauvism’s greatest in depth achievement was the painting of the landscape. The mood of the fauvist landscape, its real celebration of landscape, of the delights of a colorful vacationers world, an intensified impressionist painting.”

Title: A Preview of “The Wild Beasts’: Fauvism and its Affinities”

Author: MOMA (JSTOR)

Source: Museum of Modern Art, No.7 (Spring 1976), pp. 1-2.

Week 10 The Burning of Sanjo Palace

The Burning of Sanjo Palace. Heiji Monogatari Emaki, Kamakura period. Size: 16.25in X 22ft 9in. Date: 13^th Century. Museum: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

            The Burning of Sanjo Palace shows the viewer a hand scroll of war between the Minamoto and their rivals, the Taira. This war takes place in the 13^th century, around 1159. It all started when Taira warriors abducted the emperor in a nighttime attack. The viewer can see the warriors on horseback, armed with bow and arrow and dressed with an array of armor and dressings compiled of a tan, brown and black color. We can see dead warriors on the ground along with a few horses falling to the ground from maybe being shot and unable to stand. Court ladies and their young maids are trying frantically to make it to a well to get away from the fighting, but some don’t make it. To the right of the picture, we can see the grey colored smoke coming off the brightened array of orange flames from an explosion of some sort. The artist used emphasis of the bright flames to obtain our eyes on it and to show the heat and intensity of the burning. There is a principle of rhythm in the way the warriors, horses and the emperor are fleeing towards the left towards a gate in fright and fearfulness. The artist uses lines in the way he angles the wall towards the gate on the left and to show maybe a hallway that extends to the back of the picture.

            The Burning of Sanjo Palace is a hand scroll that depicts a war between two opposing forces trying to kill or catch the evil emperor. Many young girls, women, horses and warriors lost their lives, either in running and trying to escape the madness or in war, fighting for what they believed and it relates to the now day war of Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. soldiers are out there putting their lives on the line, each and every day, fighting for freedom and peace.

“Those who tried to escape were shot or slain. Many, in hope of saving their lives, threw themselves in a well. Court ladies of all ranks, with their young maids, shrieking in terror, dashed out to only fall and be trampled by horses and kicked by men. Countless lives were lost”

Title: The Burning of the Sanjo Palace (Heiji Monogatari): A Japanese Scroll Painting of the Thirteenth Century.

Author: Kojiro Tomita

Source: Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin, Vol. 23, No. 139 (Oct. 1925), pp. 49-50 + 53-55.

Week 9 Fur Traders Descending the Missouri

Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, George Caleb Bingham, Size: 29 X 36.5 In, Date: 1845, Museum: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

            The Fur Traders Descending the Missouri shows us a painting of a French trapper and his son, canoeing down the Missouri river in a dugout canoe. The canoe is in a parallel line to the water, showing some motion in the canoe. In the background you can see maybe steam or fog, rising above the water, setting a chilly environment, showing the water is warmer than the air outside, and there are trees that are can be outlined through the fog. George places a different kind of light towards that area so it can noticeable. In the canoe are their luggage and a rifle across the sons lap. It shows both father and son looking at the viewer through the painting, the father looking more focused where the son is open, a better train of thought. A strange and unique part of the painting is the bear cub that is tied up to the end of the canoe. The bear cub is putting off a mysterious or ghostly feeling in the way they have it placed in the painting, with the reflection off the crystal clear water. George uses colors of blue and red in the trapper’s clothes, making them stick out, and a tan color to represent the air in the background, and black in the bear club, as well as the trees in the background.  

            George Caleb Bingham was the first major painter who lived in the west and worked on the Mississippi river. He shows us a painting of a lifestyle through trapping and how necessary trapping meant to the French trappers, who did it for a living, providing money or food for their family and to French trappers, the environment meant everything, the same as in some people’s lives in today’s world. I think he also wanted to show the bear cub and the air or fog in the background, depicting a eerie time of day, just as though the environment can be at times.

“After the middle of the eighteenth century adventurous French traders were constantly working their way through the wilderness far up the Mississippi valley into the region of the Great Lakes and along the Missouri and its tributaries. Their object was to barter various wares, supplied, for better or worse, by their own civilization, for the furs which the Indians could furnish.”

Title: An American Frontier Scene by George Caleb Bingham

Author: Harry B. Wehle

Source: The Metropolitan Bulletin of Art, Vol. 28. No. 7(1993), pp. 120-122.

Week 8 The Last Supper

The Last Supper, Tintoretto, Size: 12 ft X 18.8 ft, Date: 1592-1594, Museum: San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.

            The Last Supper shows us Christ and his disciples sit at a table to eat the bread that Christ breaks and gives them to eat. There are angels above the disciples and servants watching down on top of them, in a swirling motion. The Last Supper shows us a painting of the standard theme of Christian sacrament of communion. There are servants who are filling the food on the table, the bread and all Christ disciples are watching in excitement. Tintoretto uses an array of diagonal lines in the way the disciples are sitting at the table and in the way the servants are diagonally placed on the left of the picture. The diagonal lines are leading up to Christ, who has an very brilliant array of light above his head, leading to the center of the painting, the main point or emphasis of the painting. A lantern or light of burning flames positions itself above the opposite end of Christ to give off light, to show the miracle taking place. All of Christ disciples have a shine or glow above their heads who are waiting impatiently to be saved or blessed from Christ. Tintoretto uses colors, red, blue, yellow, green and the arrangement of the shine and glow as a way to provide emotion, or movement to the picture. 

            Tintoretto places the viewer in the bottom left hand corner of the picture, with our eyes drawn to the disciples glowing heads and then to the emphasis or Christ, with a brilliant light above his head putting off light, showing him breaking bread and giving it to his disciples through communion. The Christian sacrament of communion has been a holy part of worship in Christian religion for many years. Religion places a vital role in communion in remembering what Christ did for us, in his life, death and resurrection. The importance of Christ being the emphasis of the picture places an importance in the meaning of Christian sacrament of communion.

            Tintoretto surely intended the ambiguity, for he wanted his paintings to embody the most important events of The Last Supper

Title:  Tintoretto’s paintings for the Banco del Sacramento in S. Margherita.

Author: Thomas Worthen

Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 78, No. 4 (Dec 1996), pp. 707-732.

Week 7 English and French Fall in Battle

English and French Fall in Battle, detail of the Bayeux Tapestry. Size: 20 inches high X 231 feet long, Date: c. 1073-1088, Museum: Town Hall, Bayeux.

            The embroidery English and French Fall in Battle shows the viewer a scene that was embroidered onto a woven background of the conquest of England by William of Normandy in 1066. It is part of a 72 part episode of scenes, similar to this one. The scene shows us soldiers or Anglo-Saxons, on a hill who were fighting on foot compared to the soldiers of the Norman cavalry who had horses that were attacking the Anglo-Saxons. The embroidery shows us falling soldiers and horses everywhere with the casualties lying on the bottom border.  The artist used a great deal of detail, especially with having to sew colored yarn, he had to be very precise.  The embroidery shows us different lines between the top border and the bottom border, sort of separating the fighting and war from the death of other fallen soldiers and horses on the bottom with pictures of a bird of some kind on the top border, being separated by angled lines between each object. There are lines of the horses bodies that can be depicted if looked closely enough and also in the Anglo-Saxons bodies as well as other objects on the soldiers body and the weapons used. There is a line that depicts the hill the Anglo-Saxons are standing on. The colors used in this embroider represent some primary and secondary colors, red, green, black and a tan color. The Norman cavalry have circles all around their whole body, maybe representing protective gear whereas the Anglo-Saxons are wearing robe like gowns. Both groups are using axes or long arrow like objects during the battles for weapons. The texture of the embroidery can be felt because of the yarn woven into a background of woven material and the rhythm of the embroidery is similar in a way because of how big it is, the scenes depict a similar contrast to one another, with the same figures and objects in each.

            The Bayeux Tapestry shows the viewer a huge magnificent pictorial of scenes embroidered onto this cloth material, of a battle between two opposing forces with William of Normandy trying to conquer England. I think the Bayeux Tapestry shows us how dramatic and influential the violence of the battle really was, many men lost their lives but the King, William of Normandy got what he wanted in taking over England.

In seventy-two scenes, the Bayeux Tapestry presents the Norman justification for the 1066 invasion of England: Harold of England broke his solemn oath of allegiance to Duke William of Normandy.

Title: The Bayeux Tapestry: A 900-Year-Old Latin Cartoon

Author: John D. Anderson

Source: The classical journal, Vol. 81, No. 3( Feb-March, 1986), pp. 253-257.

Week 6 Lion Hunt

Lion Hunt, From the palace complex of Assurnasirpal II. Size: 85” X 39”. Date: 850 B.C.E. Museum: The British Museum, London.

            The relief Lion Hunt on the Assyrian ruler, Assurnasirpal II, palace walls is Alabaster or Limestone relief sculptured depicting a lion hunt of which the king is shooting the ferocious beasts. The sculpture shows exactly how it is shown. There are armed guards who would release the lions or powerful beasts into an enclosed or certain area where the king is placed into a chariot, drove around this area, and shoots these magnificent creatures. The sculpture is created with 3-dimensional space, as we can see the outline of the king, lions, chariot, horses, and armed guards. The texture of the sculpture emphasizes numerous details sculptured into each thing on the relief, such as in the lions, their muscles are erupting through their body. The artist used mass to depict the 3-d sculpture and the overlapping of figures as well. The sculpture moves the viewer from left to right,

            The walls of Assurnasirpal II palace were sculptured with Assyrian triumph and power. This particular sculpture, the lion hunt depicts the king killing these strong, powerful creatures. It was a ceremonial hunt that showed the kings power, authority and war-like manners.  

            The sculptor shows us the Assyrian Kings power depicted through war-like and military strength, as well as a ceremonial sculpture by placing the King as the authority in relation to gods. It was the kings duties to serve and protect his people through war and battle. The power and the importance that a king displays, is shown in the sculpture of the battle scene of Assurnasirpal.

Title: Ashurnasirpal II Lion Hunt Relief BM124534

Author: Pauline Albenda

Source: Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Jul., 1972), pp. 167-178.

Week 5 Executions of the Third of May

Executions of the Third of May, Francisco de Goya, Size: 8 ft 9 in X 13 ft 4 in, Date: 1808, Museum: Museo del Prado, Madrid.

            The painting Executions of the Third of May depicts a scene of soldiers holding rifles to their shoulders in attempt to kill French soldiers during the invasion of Spain by Napoleon.  A lantern spreads bright, yellow fire glowing light on the French soldiers under surrender, a couple who have been shot and one guy who has his hands extended out above his head in gesture of crucifixion, such as god might have done, a symbol of giving up, a symbol of surrender. In the background, a deserted hillside and Madrid can barely be seen through the darkness.  Francisco uses warm or primary colors of red, yellow and white. He uses these colors to direct our attention to the fire lit lantern or the focal point, that is beaming rays of exhilarant light on the French soldiers, particularly the one soldier with his arms in the air, he applies emphasis and subordination to draw our eyes towards the main focal point of the painting.  He also uses emphasis in his horizontal lines he uses, in the way the rifles are pointed directly towards the focal point or the French soldiers.

            Francisco de Goya was a romantic painter and printmaker but also painted pictures for French patrons and sympathizers, but his involvement with the Peninsular War or invasion of Spain by Napoleon is unknown. He shows us sympathy through the emphasis of the warm colors he possesses on the French soldiers showing them under surrender in the Peninsular War of 1808. I think he wanted to remind people that the violence and the war can be ultimately gruesome and many people lost their lives fighting for their country, religion and beliefs such as the man with his hands in the air, showing us a gesture of crucifixion, such as he had given up and is tired of violence.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s rampage across Spain is shown in all its brutality, and these representations have come to symbolize war in general. According to senior Curator Klaus Biesenbach, the scenes in the etchings were so shocking that they were suppressed for two generations.

Title: The Disasters of War

Author: Mark Swartz

Source: MOMA, Vol. 4, No. 1(2001), pp. 10-13.

Week 4 Mountain Scene

Albert Bierstadt, Mountain Scene, Size: 14 ¾ X 21 in, Year: 1880-1890, Museum: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

            The painting Mountain Scene by Albert Bierstadt is presenting a peaceful setting of a lake, that is dead calm, there are three birds flying low over top of the water, maybe trying to catch the cool air off of the lake and the beautiful mountain range of the background in the sky that is lit up with the sun hitting the main mountain range with snow on it. Albert uses an arrangement of cool colors or darker colors in the water, the trees along the edge of the lake reflecting onto the lake and the shading of the mountains closest to the viewer.  He uses the lighter tones to show the image of the main mountain range that the viewer is looking at with the snow on top of them and light blue sky surrounding them with an array of clouds to the edge of the mountains. Albert spatially puts us looking at this painting from the level of the lake looking into the mountain range with snow on it between the other sets of darker mountain ranges. He uses atmospheric perspective to draw our eyes from the lake and trees to the mountain range beyond them and then to the main mountain range with snow on top of them.

            Albert Bierstadt was very passionate about nature, beauty and wilderness that it presents to us.  He focused on those attributes through many of his paintings and how he painted. He was a man of the environment, making trips across the country just to paint several mountain ranges, lakes and river bottoms.  I think he wanted to show everybody the elegance, the passion, the beauty, the spectacular scenery that nature or the environment had to offer. It was a place to escape, to get away from the city or towns and explore the world through a different point of view, the view of majestic country.  

This was to our present knowledge, Bierstadts first contact with the vastness, awesome grandeur, and wild solitude of the mountains. It must have made a tremendous impression on a young man used to the flat sea coast.  

Title: Albert Bierstadt and the White Mountains

Author: Catherine H. Campbell

Source: Archives of American Art Journal, Vol. 21, No. 3(1981), pp. 14-23.

Week 3 Threshing Crew

John Falter, Size: 30 X 40 inches, Date: 1980, Museum: MONA

The artwork Threshing Crew shows an artwork of a crew of people, neighbors and family members, helping one another in using horses and a threshing machine to cut the beautiful golden wheat fields and piling the wheat in huge piles and then hauled off by a wagon with horses which can be seen in the distance.  There are a couple of kids talking and watching the adults working, along with a couple of dogs laying around.  The artist uses an horizontal spacing which would show us how far the wheat fields beyond the artwork to the left and right and makes the threshing machine and workers stand out.  The coloring in the artwork uses light colors in the light blue sky to make the dark golden wheat and threshing machines, the farmers and wheat pile stand out. 

The meaning of this artwork shows us how hard people had to work, to make a living.  Threshing time meant, being able to survive, through money, food, clothing and shelter.  Farmers, neighbors and family members teamed up to help out with the threshing, it was a time  of year that stood out, not only because it meant making money or surviving, it was a time of farmers and family of accomplishing one goal, harvesting that brilliant bright golden wheat and this relates to the social issue of family.  Family is an important, valuable thing.  When harvest crews made up of many family members and neighbors, it in a way brings the families closer together because it’s the time of year when they know that harvest means clothing, food and a source of revenue, which gives them a feeling of urgency, a feeling of pride and joy.   

This artwork could influence many farmers in the way they look at farming and their attitudes towards farming.  Now days, farmers and ranchers are using combines which cuts the work in  half and it’s very hard to understand the feeling of accomplishment that families felt when accomplishing harvesting wheat with horses, wagons and a threshing machine which takes a dramatically amount more time to do than a combine can. So I think it can make farmers and ranchers today, think about how nice or great they have it because they don’t have to do what farmers had to back then. “ In that setting, the season produced a sense of urgency, of total involvement, finally of accomplishment, that was largely lost when the combine made harvesting a one-stage, one-man job-another routine, another chore”.

Title: The Golden Spell of Harvest

Author(s): Charles Vindex

Source: JSTOR: Montana: The magazine of western history, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Autumn, 1976), pp.2-11.

Week 2 Buffalo Hunt on the Platte

Buffalo Hunt on the Platte, Titian Ramsay Peale, Size: N/A, Year: 1873, Museum: MONA

The artwork Buffalo Hunt on the Platte is artwork that shows us Indians on horseback, during a buffalo hunt on the Platte River with beautiful trees and mountain ranges in the background and a village full of tepees as well as a bare dusty ground with a few old buffalo skulls. The artist uses a variety of dark colors, in the buffalo, grass, the shading under the mountain range and on some of the horses. The light colors are used in the reflection of the water, the light blue sky and clouds and the tepees. The artist used an overall light coloring scheme to get the full advantage of the picture itself, to be able to understand the meaning of the picture.

The purpose of the picture is to show and understand a “ritual” buffalo hunt that took place often with groups of Indians. Indians used buffalo as a way of life. They used everything from a buffalo, from the meat for food, the hide for tepees and clothing to keep them warm in the winter months, to the bones for weapons, tools, eating utensils, bowls, etc…The Indians lived by using the environment, by using their surroundings, vegetation, buffalo, water and their knowledge to survive in a sometimes harsh and rough environment.

When people think about Indians, most think of the bad ones, such as in Indians VS cowboys and how the Indians were mean and gruesome. Dances with wolves is a famous movie that shows some Indians were not only nice and helpful but would do anything for anyone, and when talking about environment and living off the land, white people would many times kill buffalo and leave them rot, as an Indian would kill buffalo for their everyday needs. So Indians were very successful at how they managed to live off the natural environment and survive. “Anticipating scores of artists who would pay indirect tribute to the plains Indian-Buffalo connection by showing the material culture that buffalo had made possible, Peale was also the first to depict the distinctive conical hide tepees of the Plains Indians”. The quote talks about how a buffalo’s materials made an Indian basically be able to survive and make their tepees out of the buffalo’s hide.

Title: ‘Flying Buffaloes’: Artists and the Buffalo hunt

Author (s): Brian W. Dippie

Source: JSTOR : Montana: The magazine of Western History, Vol. 51, No. 2 (Summer, 2001), pp. 2-19.

Week 1 Sandhill crane

Hooping Crane (Sandhill Crane), John James Audubon, Size: N/A, Year: N/A, Museum: MONA

The artwork Hooping Crane (Sandhill Crane) depicts a very large artwork of a sandhill crane, standing on a hillside, overlooking a vast arrangement of lakes, ponds and in the background, a mountain range along with other cranes that are standing along the water or flying. The artist uses a blend of dark colors as well as light colors. The dark coloring he uses on portions of the cranes body, such as on the back, the red part around the eye, the legs and feet.  The light coloring he uses for the water, the light blue sky, the other cranes, some parts of the body such as part of the wing and neck and the mountain range in the background.  He also uses shading, such as around the edge of the hillside surrounding the crane, maybe to depict a shadow of the crane or to make the crane stick out better.

The meaning or purpose of this artwork is to show just how majestic these birds really are.  Their coloring, they way they look, their features, especially with the red eye patch and their lengthy legs and neck.  The artwork shows the migrations of sandhill cranes in a way because cranes will migrate through mountain ranges and will stop along lakes or ponds and rivers and they use a wide range of corridors every year on their migration north and south. This picture pertains to my social issue of economy because not only is sandhill crane hunting legal in certain states and provide revenue or money to those states through hunting licenses, gas, hotels, food, but also through tourism.  People travel far and wide to see sandhill cranes, such as right here in Kearney, NE, so it boosts our economy in a way through revenue and money as well.

This artwork  can help change or influence people’s perceptions because many people just think of them as a “bird” but they are really more than that, they are a highly regarded species of bird that many people see as majestic and beautiful. “His father was always careful to direct his attention to rare flowers and beautiful birds, pointing out the variegated plumage of the latter, and speaking to him of their instincts, their mode of life, migrations and desire to preserve the beautiful appearances thus presented to him”.

Title:  John James Audubon, The Naturalist

Author (s):  N/A    

Source: JSTOR: The Illustrated Magazine of Art, Vol. 3, No. 17 (1854), pp.305-307.