Realism, Pre-Impressionism, & Pre-Raphaelites Impressionism & Post-Impressionism

by | Nov 8, 2020 | IDES 131

Alfred Sisley

Alfred Sisley was a Paris born impressionist painter. Sisley, after deciding business wasn’t his thing, started studying painting under Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre. This teaching would put him in contact with Baizille, Monet, and Renoir, whom he would make friends with and paint with. The group would go to paint landscapes en plein air and work to capture how the sunlight fell on the world.  Later in life, his father who gave him allowances would die and Sisley would live the rest of his life in poverty. Sisley would go on to paint practically only landscapes in the impressionist style his whole life as he found fulfillment in them.

Portrait of Sisley done by Renoir

Alfred Sisley – The Overshadowed Impressionist

Bridge of Moret

Alfred Sisley Paintings

Sisley’s style was consistently that of an impressionist landscape painter. He gave his paintings a strong sense of atmosphere and wonderfully rendered skies and stands out from the rest of the impressionists for his softer harmonies. Although he painted beautifully, his work would be overshadowed by Monet due to the more restrained colours he used.

Church in Moret

Alfred Sisley – The Overshadowed Impressionist

Sources

https://www.alfredsisley.org/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Sisley

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/alfred-sisley-1948

Survey 6

by | Nov 4, 2020 | IDEA 141

The Vienna Secession

“To every age its art, and to every art its freedom”

The Vienna Secession was a group founded by Austrian artists in 1897. initially it has 50 members including such designers and artists as: Josef Hoffman, Koloman Moser, Otto Wagner, Gustav Klimt, and Wilhelm Bernatzik

 

Culture

The idea of the group was to go against the extremely conservative culture in the arts and design prevalent in Austria at the time and do something new. their plan was to exchange ideas with countries and areas outside Austria and no longer be rooted in historical art. they have coined the Austrian Art Nouveau and would go on to help pave the way to expressionism. This movement helped break Austria out of the artistic rut they were in and brought not only just the secessionists but many artistic movements from around the world to the public eye.

 

Architecture

pictured here is the Secession building by Joseph Maia Olbrich

It was made as the headquarters for the group and shows off their ideas on architecture perfectly. It is considered the first permanent exhibition space for contemporary art. The building would (and still does) show off a wide array of paintings, sculptures, architecture, and graphic design pieces that show off the secession ideas. Inspired by neoclassicism, The secession architecture had simplicity in architecture and focused on the shape. But as they did not look to history for their style they went for a more art nouveau style of extreme levels of detail and strong use of organic ornamental detail. The massive floral dome on top of the Secession building shows off this embellishment perfectly as well as the whiplash designs dotting the facade.

Sources

https://www.theartstory.org/movement/vienna-secession/

https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/vienna-secession

Vienna Secession

A HISTORY

Typography Zine!

by | Oct 26, 2020 | IDEA 141

I did my zine on blackletter and how it changed and was used throughout history. blackletter has many forms and evolved over time so I decided to have my titles and use of blackletter follow the time period I was talking about as best I could. For my title, I decided to put the title in the typesetter and over top of the boxes of extra letters as this is how it would have been printed when it was first used in print. I decided not to go for too much colour as for a good portion of blackletters history it would have been used purely black and white or with one accent colour. overall I feel I worked hard, spent a long time thinking and researching for this project and came out of it with a project I am very happy with and a lot more knowledge on something I was interested in. I would give myself an 8.5-9/10 as I followed the brief to the best of my abilities and made something I feel is unique.

Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, & Romanticism

by | Oct 25, 2020 | IDES 131

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Self portrait

J-A-D Ingres

Ingres is a painter hailing from France who worked under Jaques-Louis David and is famous for his neoclassical work. Ingres hated romantic artists with a passion and made his style to be the antithesis of their work- using purity of colour, distorted proportions, extreme levels of realism, and stiff portraits. His warping of anatomy and figures was inspired by the Mannerism movement (late renaissance).

La Grande Odalisque

this piece is a prime example of the distorted anatomy.

Napoleon I on Imperial Throne

His piece titled “Napoleon I on Imperial throne”  was controversial and critics deemed him “Gothic”, a title it would take him years to get out from under.

Self portrait at 78

Survey 4

by | Oct 20, 2020 | Uncategorized

The start of the French revolution. 1789

geopolitics

The French revolution had quite a few causes but two main ones were an incompetent king and economic struggle. King louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette were hated by the public for living a posh life as they fell into poverty and the lack of help they received. Philosophers like Voltaire and Montesquieu wrote of reform and taking power away from the monarchy, and giving rights to the working class but it was clear the only way to put these ideas into action was a revolution. So a revolution they had!

Art

Although the French revolution would push France into a new era, it would send the artists of the time looking back at the style of the past. At this time, as a sort of reaction against the grandeur and pastel colours of the Rococo period, artists looked to the Neoclassical movement as the next big thing. As Pompeii had been re-discovered, Ancient Greek and roman art and architecture was back on the rise and being used for inspiration. Art from this period is characterized by its use of subject matter from ancient Greece, duller colours, no noticeable brush strokes, and the return of “ideal beauty”.

A notable painter from this period is Jaques-Louis David, Known for such pieces as Death of Socrates and The Death of Marat.

Citations

History.com. “French Revolution.” HISTORY, A&E Television, 2009, www.history.com/topics/france/french-revolution.

Nechvatal, Joseph. “How Artists of the French Revolution Embraced Neoclassical Revivalism.” Hyperallergic, 2019, hyperallergic.com/495416/how-artists-of-the-french-revolution-embraced-neoclassical-revivalism.

Irwin, David. “Neoclassical Art.” Brittanica, www.britannica.com/art/Neoclassicism.

Survey 3: The age of Rococo

by | Oct 14, 2020 | Uncategorized

Colour

One of the key defining features of Rococo art and architecture are the colours. The palletes used in Rococo art often used many pastel colours, golds and whites which paired well with the themes of the art: love, romance, playfulness, and childish innocence. Rococo colours were far different from those of the Baroque period that came before as Baroque had a strong focus of heavy chiaroscuro and deep dark colours.

Architecture

Rococo architecture is an offshoot of Baroque that emerged in the 18th century. This style is categorized by its ornate decorations and asymmetrical stylings. Much like Rococo art, bright pastel colours and a more playful approach were synonymous with the architectural style. This style was a response to the much harsher, far less decorative Baroque architecture and intended to bring a bit more cheerful feel back into buildings. Buildings from this era often had an abundance of curves, arches, and floral reliefs and gold accents that gave rooms and buildings a sense of wonder and draw the eyes in.

Citations

“Rococo and the Elegant Designs of the Late Baroque Period.” ThoughtCo, 2019, www.thoughtco.com/rococo-art-architecture-4147980.

“Rococo.” Encyclopedia Brittanica, 2019, www.britannica.com/art/Rococo.

Mood board

by | Oct 13, 2020 | IDEA 141

My mood board experience

for my mood board, I was tasked with writing about events from 1925-1930 so I chose- the Bauhaus, Jan Tshichold, and the Exposition des arts decoratifs. I decided on these topics as they all were largely influential to the design and art world and also influenced people and things outside their scope. This project I found rather difficult as Invision didn’t cooperate a lot of the time and work would be lost sometimes when I closed or refreshed the page. I also found moving images around to be crazy frustrating as it wouldn’t do as expected and instead would scramble all the ones you weren’t trying to move. Overall I feel I tried my best and spent a long time on this project so I would give myself a 7.5/10

High Renaissance & Mannerism

by | Oct 5, 2020 | IDES 131

Hieronymus Bosch

Hieronymus Bosch was a painter hailing from the state of Brabant in the netherlands. Bosch is credited as being the first surrealist due to his portrayal of creatures and landscapes utterly unknown to man. His art, full of fantastical imagery and nightmarish hellscapes, was something wholly new at the time and although seen as bizarre at the time were still reasonably popular. 

Bosch’s most famous work is a triptych called “The Garden of Earthly Delights” and depicted on the three panels are the garden of Eden, an otherworldly garden, and the last judgement. This piece has many interpretations as the symbolism is so heavy but the two majorly believed ones are that it is a warning as to the dangers of sinning or that it is a piece depicting a paradise long since gone. The depiction hell he painted is done with deep blacks, browns and fleshy tones to give an unsettling feeling to the image. The hellscape is littered with torture, demons, mutilation and surreal images the likes of which people had never even dreamt of.

 

 

 

Bosch’s works were not wildly popular at the time but were an inspiration to many painters going forward such as Bruegel the Elder, Arcimboldo and Dali.

Survey 1

by | Sep 30, 2020 | IDEA 141

Babylon 1792-1750 Geopolitics & Typography

Babylon, a small town along the Euphrates river, started out with not too much going for it but was destined for great things. This small city state located in modern day Iraq was largely overshadowed by larger states like Assyria, stayed mostly to itself until a ruler with ambition and ideas was sworn in. This ruler, Hammurabi, was to change the tide for this town and leave a lasting legacy.

Geopolitics

Hammurabi ruled from 1792 B.C. till 1750 B.C. and made the most of his time as king. He worked hard to build Babylon into a far larger city and set on a conquest of the surrounding lands, eventually taking over most of lower Mesopotamia and creating the empire of Babylonia. This expansion allowed culture to grow and change significantly and also allowed for more precious materials to be used in the arts among other things. Due to the conquest of Hammurabi, Babylon became the “holy city’ and cultural capital of the empire. after doing all this for the small town of Babylon, Hammurabi was to do one final thing for his empire that would put his name down in history- the code of Hammurabi! 

typography

During Hammurabi’s reign he put together a set of 282 laws which he had inscribed on a large block of diorite. Hammurabi’s code is one of the earliest forms of law and one of the longest deciphered writings discovered to date. This code went over such things as fraud, slavery, theft, trade and various other subjects that related to both crime and home life.  This code along with his major building projects allowed Babylon to thrive and go through massive cultural changes and eventually take over the surrounding area and become the empire of Babylonia. After taking over the surrounding states and towns he would give smaller clay tablets with the rules inscribed to the annexed cities to keep the laws uniform across his empire. It is also known now that most towns had a library as they believe both men and women should be educated in order to be prosperous. Many of these texts were translated from sumerian and many of these works still exist today 

 

Bibliography

History.com Editors. “Babylonia.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2 Feb. 2018, www.history.com/topics/ancient-middle-east/babylonia.

“Babylonia.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Sept. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonia.

“Babylon.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Sept. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon.

“Code of Hammurabi.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Sept. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi.

Visual Research II

by | Sep 26, 2020 | IDEA 121

Closure

matt Meiners- grandson a modern tragedy vol.1

I chose this album cover for closure as the child in the piece doesnt have a torso but yet you still know where his shirt is and where it ends. I chose this image over others from teh same designer as the break in the element was rather large and yet still worked very effectively.