Art History Proposal
In the past couple of weeks at school, I have learned about the different art movements from my peers. Amongst these movements, abstract art and Renaissance really interest me. Abstract art portray a lot of emotion and contains imperfection. Perhaps this is what makes it weird, yet captivating. Renaissance, on the other hand, is art that depicts human being in a realistic way . Throughout this paper, I will go into detail on the characteristics, influences, and artists of both of these artistic movements.
Abstract expressionism began in 1919 and until the present day. During the outbreak of World War II, many surrealists of abstract expressionism left Europe to go to New York. This movement led New York to replace Paris as the center of the art world. In 1960, the movement weakened while other movements such as pop art came to light. The term abstract expressionism was first used in Germany in connection with Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian artist, in 1919. There are two major groups within abstract expressionism, which was influenced by Surrealism and Cubism. The first group is called, Color Field painters and the second one is Gestural painters. Color Field painters such as Kenneth Noland and Joules Oliski used new artificial ways of paintings. The art was sometimes sprayed on or soaked into unprimed canvas. Gestural painters such as Jackson Pollock used brushwork and splattered paint on the canvas. The characteristics of abstract expressionism include: expressive feelings, diverse styles, geometric shapes, dramatic colors, lines and curves, vivid imagery, and unrecognizable objects.
The artists that I enjoyed learning about were Jackson Pollock and Wassily Kandinsky. Jackson Pollock was the first American abstract artist taken seriously in Europe. He was born in Cody, Wyoming on January 28, 1912 and died on August 11, 1956. Jackson was raised in both Arizona and California. In the 20th century he was named one of the best painters amongst abstract expressionism critics in the United States.
In the year of 1950 Jackson and his wife divorced. This separation led Jackson to experience a great deal of depression and to become dependent on alcohol. In addition, he started using dark colors, making his paintings dull and less colorful. Unfortunately, his alcoholism led him to a deadly car accident. However, Jackson was still able to create his last masterpiece, Blue Poles, which was sold in Australia for over two million dollars by the 1970s.
Wassily Kandinsky was a great Russian abstract artist. He was born in Moscow on December 16, 1866 and died in 1944. His inspiration for creating great abstract paintings was music. At the age of thirty Kandinsky decided to start his career as an artist, he faced some challenges of the art world in 1910. He became a professor at the Bauhaus, a school of art, architecture, and design in Weimar, Germany in 1922. The last painting he made before his death was “The Watercolour”, in my opinion one of the most beautiful. Today, Kandinsky is one of the many abstract artist admired around the world, for his great paintings and for being the creator of abstract expressionism. Overall, abstract expressionism has a lot of liberty within its art. Renaissance movement, though, follows a very different style.
The Renaissance means “rebirth”, it started between the years of 1400- 1600. During the 200 year period, the Europeans witnessed the amazing reawakening of fine art painting, drawing, sculptor and architecture, which originated from Italy and spread through Europe and all around the world. The key characteristics of Renaissance art involved realistic view on the relationship of light and shadow and an admiration of nature and the human figure. In my opinion, the characteristics of renaissance art are so beautiful and amazing. Renaissance art progressed; the paintings of people look realistic.
There are many great things that the renaissance achieved. It re authorized the Western art and the importance of humanity which had been one of the most considerable accomplishments. Humanism minimized the importance of religion and attached great significance to the art values of the individuals. Renaissance was influenced by the growth of modern American society, artistic expression and culture. Before the Renaissance everything was religion based: Writers, painters, sculptors, to name a few. They focused on making their work solely about religion and its issues. This continued until the Renaissance came about and influenced everyone. Writers abandoned the traditional of religious based writing and presented a more realistic version of life. This allowed ordinary people to enjoy reading fiction, tales, folktales, and many more unrealistic/imaginary stories. These established practices have carried on in today's civilization.
One of the artists that caught my attention, because of his beautiful paintings and sculptures, was Michelangelo. He was born on March 6, 1475 in Caprese Italy. I admire him because he was full of talents. He was an Italian renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer. He was known as the best documented artist in the 16th century. What makes Michelangelo interesting to me as a person is that even though his father opposed his desire of becoming an artist, because he thought it wasn't something worth reaching for and tried to discourage him; he still pursued his dream and became one of the best known Renaissance artists. One of the different approaches that Michelangelo used in 1475-1564 was to include brilliant and contrast colors in his paintings. A famous painting with this technique was the Sistine Chapel. Personally, I love the way the drawings look in the wall of the chapel; they look so amazing, full of life and talent.
Another artist that I would like to mention is Leonardo Da Vinci, one of the most famous artists known around the world for painting the indescribable Mona Lisa. Da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in Vinci Italy. His paintings and style are mind blowing because not only was he an artist, but he was an Italian polymath: sculpture, engineer, architect, scientist, mathematician, inventor, anatomist, musician and writer.
The painting, the Mona Lisa, is a half length portrait, with a women that has confusing facial expressions. No one knows whether the Mona Lisa is really smiling. An interesting fact that I have heard is that there has been a various attempts to steal the Mona Lisa..
My ideas for creating a play about abstract expressions will be making a play that represents the t life of Jackson Pollock and his struggles throughout his life and how he became one of the best known artists of abstract expressionism. I am also considering many ideas on how to write a story on the Renaissance art movement. I put a lot of thought into the story I would like to create but I am still not one hundred percent confident. I was thinking to talk about how the church was in control of everything and everybody and how they were really manipulative. Then talk about how everything changed drastically when the renaissance came about. How people started changing the tradition of not only focusing on religious beliefs, but on their own experiences and their interest.
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/renaissance-art.htm#achieve
http://h.whyville.net/smmk/whytimes/article?id=165
http://www.articlemyriad.com/204.htm
http://www.ehow.com/facts_4857007_characteristics-renaissance-art.html
http://www.mos.org/leonardo/bio.html
http://www.jackson-pollock.com/biography.html
http://www.biographyshelf.com/jackson_pollock_biography.html
http://www.notablebiographies.com/Jo-Ki/Kandinsky-Wassily.html