Fauvism

Kess Van Dongen’s painting entitled Modjesko, Soprano Singer, 1908

I choose to write on the topic of fauvism. Fauvism has always interested me because of the vivid colors patterns and textures. Fauvism falls under the category of modernism. The term ‘fauve’ means ‘wild beasts’. It was originally used in 1905 by a conservative art critic named Louis Vauxalles. The artists that he was criticizing took his word/ term and made it their own term to commemorate their own logic of artistic freedom. Modern artists have used wild color but the term ‘fauve’ is only used to describe a very small collection of artists, (most were friends), that were working in France between the years of 1898-1908. Some of these ‘wild artists’ include Andre Derain (1880-1954), Kees van Dongen (1877-1968), Henri Matisse (1869-19554), Georges Rouault (1871-1958), and Maurice De Vlaminck (1876-1958). Some descriptions that can be brought to mind when talking about fauvism are patterns of color, simplified scenes, flatness, intensity, and non-naturalistic. Fauves were heavily influenced by Vincent Van Gogh and Gauguin. Andre Derain, Kees van Dongen, Henri Matisse, Georges Rouault and Maurice De Vlaminck all exhibited together at the Salon d’ Automne of 1905. Their art work caused a sensation. It was at this art show that the term ‘fauve’ came from. Derain and de Vlaminck often painted with incredibly powerful colors with especially thick very heavy brush strokes that were reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh’s art work. The Fauves used strong colors straight from the paint tubes and then applied them directly to the painting canvas all without mixing or shading. An example of this technique is shown in Kess Van Dongen’s painting entitled Modjesko, Soprano Singer, 1908. The woman in the painting is shown as a flat yellow shape. She is not shown in a three dimensional human body form. She casts a red and orange shadow on a solid pink background thus the stark brightness of the yellow with the other blocks of color helps to show a brightness and intensity to the woman in the painting. This work of art is located in the Museum of Modern Art located in New York City.

Fauvism is all about bright vivid colors. In fauvism landscape and distant hills don’t look like landscape or distant hills; they are just patterns of bright beautiful intense colors. The Fauves were not tied down by the idea of the actual color of their subject matter, they would instead paint trees orange, sky pink, and a person’s face green. Shadows were mostly shown by using a different color rather that a darker color of the same. For example a shadow from the grass would be more like a navy blue or a red, rather than an expected green.

In closing I think that fauvism as well as art is about being creative, having fun, making things that no one has ever seen before, and as well as making people think and react/talk about as well as appreciate art!

Written by: Gutter Chic 2011

Source(s): …isms understanding art written by Stephen Little

Source Type: book

Renaissance Art

Michelangelo Buonarroti's David

I choose to write on the topic of the emergence of learning renaissance art. What is meant by the term “Renaissance man” and how does the art reflect the learning ideology?

I support the idea that the Renaissance was a time of rebirth, and was plainly named as such by the European community after its surfacing from the Middle Ages as humanist scholars sought to extend themselves further than worldly theology. They then rediscovered the classic literature and art of Greece and Rome.

I think that for many Europeans, that in the Renaissance period they wanted to (and did) express themselves through art. They expressed their outward feelings, attitudes, inner feelings, and thoughts through their art (without the use of words). I strongly believe that the artists of the Renaissance period looked back at art from the past and recreated it into what they perceived what they wanted to tell a story about but in their own way while drawing inspiration from earlier works of art.They called the period that they were living in the Renaissance period (meaning literally the rebirth) because they were looking back at art work from the past and recreated it (gave it a rebirth), Their art work was inspired by artwork from the past they just gave it new life you could say put a new spin on it. A wonderful example of this is the marble sculpture called David by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1501-1504. He made a sculpture of David the biblical hero that gave the most powerful expression to the idea of David as a hero. The marble sculpture depicts David as the Greeks did by positioning David’s weight of his body on one foot. But Michelangelo Buonarroti gave his sculpture of David a spin/ different take by the positioning of the hands and tense frown indicating anxiety and readiness for a fight. Michelangelo Buonarroti gave David more humanized characteristics than the classical style of the Greek athlete that the Greeks depicted in their art work/sculptures. It took Michelangelo Buonarroti three years to make the sculpture of David but it was well worth it because most of the citizens of Florence were filled with admiration for his work. He was known after that as the greatest sculptor since the Greeks. So the term “Renaissance man” would fit Michelangelo Buonarroti very well. Do you think so as well?

Sadly to say though women were not regarded as good artists like men were. In chapter 16 on page 289 it discusses that in the Renaissance period “the idea was simply to produce women who could write poetry, dance, sing, paint, and excel in the art of conversation so that they would make good companions for artistic men.” Some women did become good at art but were denied access to the training necessary for professional careers. I believe that the term “Renaissance man” is very one sided. There were plenty of good women artists such as Sofonisba Auguissola, Artemisian Gentileschi, Marietta Robusti, and Rosa Bonheur. It very unfair and women should have been treated just as men were. There were probably women that were just as good or better that the men that became famous in that arts. Maybe our history would have been altered/changed if women would have been given the opportunity (the right) to peruse their dreams of doing art!

Written by: Gutter Chic of Gutter Chic Inc. 2010

Sources: Preble's Artforms

Source Type: Text book