Non-Western 8

Cheik Ledy

I had a friend who lived in Africa for a few years and he told me that when he would go to church there the people sang the same hymns that we do in our churches but instead of singing in four part harmonies they would sing in eight and twelve part harmonies.  I am reminded of that story when I look at this painting.  There are several things going on in this painting, one it is a painting of  paintings in a gallery and two the colors that the artist use speak very poignantly to the viewer.  The men in the painting seem to be gazing on the paintings presented with quiet contemplation yet the paintings shout with a wild abandon of color.  One of the most glaring thing to me in this painting is the room that the paintings are in is done with earth toned color and the paintings and the clothes that the men are in a riot of primary colors, this gives off a harmony of visual music that I believe that anyone would enjoy.

Non-Western Art 7

The Non-Western painting that I chose is the Illustration of the Panguxu, it is both a painting and a poem.  The artist Tung Chi-Chang painted this beautiful mountain scene and then wrote the poem on the left.  the poem is of Li Yanu, who fails to become a government official  and decides to return to his home of Pangu.  Chang describes in the poem that Pangu is the perfect place to lead a secluded life and seek harmony with nature.  The paintings that we have studied in this class have all been done with lots of color and usually with heavy oil paints and done on thick canvas.  This Chinese style uses little color and more hints of what is there rather than painting the actual subject, it leaves a lot to the imagination yet gives a soft serene image that is pleasant to look at.  One of the things that I find really interesting about this painting is that it is d0ne on silk.  Without knowing the manufacturing techniques of the time in china it leaves one wondering if maybe the artist of the time just used what they had at the time or if the silk was the desired material for this kind of painting.

Gallery

Gallery

I am drawn to contrast.  Lights and darks, soft lines against hare ones, pictures that show the fight against good and evil, a devil and a beautiful princess are all contrasting themes or images.  The pictures that i chose for this gallery all show the contrast of light and shadow, how the light and shadow create softer or more severe  images, how the artists use the direction of the light to achieve the desired affect.

In these first three images the angle of the light and amount creates a softer more beautiful image, yet each one will draw a different emotional response as it is looked upon.

In these two photos the photographers use black and white film to gibe the picture a more severe look, making the lines and shadows more defined.

These next three by Van Renselar Imagined Music, Night Vision and Raised From Gold are all beautiful examples of using light and shadow in a painting.  The first one, Imagined Music, shows the softening that light gives to the painting, helping to emphasize an almost etherial look in the woman in the dress on the stair.  The second one Night Vision just the few sunbeams coming through the forest give contrast to the darkness and the woman in the white shirt sitting against the blackness of the forest.  The third painting, Rise From Gold, the bright light coming through the window helps to define a more clear lined picture and the dancer dances as “bright” as the sun shines.

The final work is a photo of the Vietnam Memorial, and it has two contrasting elements in it; the first is how the morning sunshine comes over the wall, giving a soft light to the dark brooding wall.  The second is the reflection of the Washington Monument a symbol of triumph reflected against the Wall that stands as a monument to the soldiers who died in a war that America couldn’t win.

Photography

Photo shop, before there were computers, that is what photographer William H. “Dad” Martin had accomplished. Martin created fantastic photographs by combining facets of everyday life into incredible unbelievable photos. With the photography spreading around the world and being known for recording life as it is, without fallacy, Martin took something that was supposed to be held as truth and made it into fiction.

 He created such wonderful works as Rabbitism, Geesling and Bassism using trick photography to create his own version of surrealism. In 1889 the Reverend Hannibal Goodwin of Newark, New Jersey invented film by suspending the silver bromide in gelatin on a plastic film.

 

This enabled photographers to take as many pictures as they had film and develop them later as they could. Martin took it a step further and combined several negatives to develop one picture, creating such fantastic scenes as we see shown here, and the American public loved it. Martin took his new technique and made a fortune selling them as post cards between 1909 and 1912 and eventually sold his business and founded the National Sign Business. Now from an artistic point of view Martin was simply following, throwing out all the rules and creating his own Martin unbeknownst to him fell in to the surrealistic style of art.

 

Impressionism

Impressionism- love it, or hate it? Yeah…………I think I am one of those in the middle, I like some works and dislike others. Impressionistic art to me seems to not be finished, I know I know it is supposed to look that way. The painting Sunrise by Monet I know is a very famous painting and it is probably worth a million dollars but to me it looks like a something that isn’t finished almost like a child painted it. The nothing is clear in it that is the issue that I have with all impressionist art.

 

Another painting that makes me think this way is, On The Hudson at Newburg, by Gifford Beal, it looks out of focus to me and I know again that is the way it is supposed to be yet it is like looking at a photo that could be a wonderful picture if it was focused. The techniques that the painters use like impasto, colors applied side by side without mixing and putting wet paint on wet paint softening the detail and the lines are what make the paintings look blurry or unfinished.

 

 

Now this is the part of impressionist paintings that catches me up. Some of it is beautiful. The painting Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose by John Singer Sargent it a striking painting and it probably speaks to me because I can see one of those girls in the painting as my daughter out there catching fire flies.

 

This painting gives the illusion of detail but if you were to blow up any section you would see that it is only that, clever illusion yet beautifully done.

 

 

Johann Michael Hadyn

Johann Michael Haydn, born 1737, in the village of Rohrau, Austria, to a father who was a wheelwright and local mayor, a mother who had worked as a cook for the local aristocrat, Count Harrach.  Hadyn’s father dabbled in music even teaching himself to play the harp and with that he also made sure that his children learned to sing.  Both Johann and his older brother Joseph sang in the choir at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, very prestigious at the time.  After his time in the choir Johann was appointed Kapellmeister at GroBwardien, or music master and later at Salzburg where he worked for forty-three years.  During his tenure as Kapellmeister at Salzburg he wrote over 360 compositions for the church and many other instrumental pieces.  It was during this time that he wrote Incidental Music to Voltaire’s ‘Zaire’.  I actually chose this piece by random because I wanted to write about something that wasn’t main stream, yet after researching the music and looking at what it was written for an interesting comparison comes up.  Here you have a composer who has written over 360 works for the church, a church that is trying to adhere to the credo of the Council of Trent, and you have a theatrical work about Muslimism.  In addition to writing the music for the play he also used a musical style that was popular at the time but not an accepted Christian genre.  “Turkish” music was the genre of music that was used, it included five segments and many special effects were expressed in the music.  The play by Voltaire is written about some Christians that were slaves of Osman a Sultan of Turkey and their lives growing up in his palace. One girl Zara accepts Muslim faith and agrees to marry Osman.  The question that I mule about in my head is; what is a christen, who has written hundreds of works for the Catholic Church doing writing music for Voltaire’s play about a christen converting to the Muslim faith?

THE MESSIAH

The Messiah is an oratorio, a large music composition of orchestra choir and soloists, written by George Frederic Handel in 1741 with the libretto written by Charles Jennens. Growing up in a well to do home his father decided that Handel would practice law, even though at a young age Handel had shown considerable music talent. Until the death of his father Handel split his time between the study of music and law, once his father died Handel gave up music and devoted all his time to law at the University of Halle. That was short lived however as that he soon abandoned law and became a organist for a protestant cathedral and accepted a position to play in the orchestra there. Growing up in Germany and studying in Italy post reformation period and having played the organ for a time in a protestant church may have been what influenced Handel to write his pieces as he did. Having a great interest in primitive Christianity may have been what influenced Jennens to write the libretto, a composition of the life of Christ, that Handle later put to music. In 1741 Handel composed the Messiah, amazingly enough he did it in 24 days, yet before its premier he still shifted and changed parts of it right up until the day it was performed on April 13, 1942 at the Music Hall in Dublin, Ireland. Sense its first performance it has been tweaked and changed a little by each director, including one composition by Mozart, so that there is no record of an original score. Here I have included The Glory of the Lord, one part of the 14 part Messiah. I think this is a good representation of oratorio, because it shows the orchestra, has small solo pieces and the choir.

www.alaskangiraffe.wordpress.com

The first thing that strikes me about this painting is, dirty. Now that may be the intent of the Pieter Bruegel however all the brown and the clutter of the painting turns me off to it. I do see the humor in the painting, and it is even more humorous knowing that it was painted during the time of the Reformation. During a time when men were speaking out against the leaders of the Catholic Church and breaking away because of the corruption so evident in it’s clergymen. So with this in mind I find it ironic that a priest, who is supposed to represent god here on earth, is holding a mock battle with a fat drunk man on a ale barrel, representing the world. Another thing about this painting that turns me off is, nothing is clear. Again this may be the intent of the artist, but it almost looks like he hurried through his work just trying to get it done. I may not be seeing the detail that I am supposed to be seeing because there is a lot going on in this painting. It almost seems divided in half with all the merry making on one side with dancing and playing games, and on the other there are many in long robes with hoods up even a couple giving what appears to be alms to the poor. Defiantly not a painting I would hang in my house or recommend to a friend but, it is an interesting piece to analyze.

Albrecht Durer The Knight, Death and the Devil

The Knight, Death and the Devil

At a time when new lands were being discovered, technology was advancing and some of the most precious works of art were being created Albrecht Durer created a wonderfully poignant work of art, The Knight, Death and the Devil.  Durer took an idea that was becoming extinct, you could almost call it a fantasy, a pure knight in a world surrounded by death and corruption, and he engraved it on copperplate.  Durer engraved this idea around 1513 during a time of reformation when good Catholics were in disgust over the corruption in the church and such reformers as John Wyclif, Erasmus of Rotterdam and Martin Luther and were making their observations known to the world.  Some of these ideas and thoughts may have inspired Durer to engrave his masterpiece.  As I look at the piece the first thing that I see is the knight, unblemished armor, head held erect, lance in a relaxed position and face calm.  Next is the knight’s horse stepping high and head held proud.  To the knight’s right is the devil on a horse that looks like it has seen better days, the devil is looking at the knight as though talking to him and holding an hour glass.  Behind the knight is death eyeing him hungrily, and underneath the knight’s horse is his dog keeping pace with him. In the back ground is a castle on a mountain top that looks to be the knight’s destination.  The reformers were men who saw the corruption in the church and were speaking out against it, letting the world know that here was something wrong, these men who were supposed to teach the virtues of Christ and be advocates on Christ’s behalf, were taken by the temptations of the world.  I see the same views expressed in this masterpiece, Durer may not have spoken it out loud but as they say a picture is worth a thousand words.  In the knight I see the pure follower of Christ, steadfast on the path of righteousness with his faithful companions, his horse and dog ever going forward toward the kingdom of god.  On his right side is the devil tempting him in the ways of the world, as the serpent did to Eve in the Garden of Eden and holding an hour glass as if to tell him that time is running out, that he won’t make it.  Finally death, how final that sounds, death at his heals constantly reminding him of the price of failure.  Albrecht Durer may not have been an out spoken Reformer but I believe that he held with the same ideas, and that his paintings and especially his three engravings, The Knight, Death and the Devil, St. Jerome in his Study and Melancholia I, are evident of his belief in Reform.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!