Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) is a well-known Austrian symbolist painter. He was one of the founders and representatives of the Vienna Secession.

Life

• Gustav Klimt was born in Vienna in 1862 and was born in the middle and lower classes in Moravia. Klimt’s father Ernst Klimt the Elder was a gold engraver. Klimt has two younger brothers who are also talented in art, they are Ernst Klimt and Georg Klimt.
• From 1876 to 1883, Klimt studied at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule). He revered the foremost history painter of the time, Hans Makart.
• In 1877, Gustav’s brother Ernst, who would become an engraver just like their father, also enrolled in this school. They began to work together with their friend Franz Matsch. By 1880, this team of three had received numerous commissions and they claim to be “Company of Artists”. They even helped their teacher painting murals in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. After school life, they formally founded a studio that specialized in interior decoration.
• In 1886, they were asked to decorate the Viennese Burgtheater. When the works completed in 1888, they were awarded the Golden Service Cross (Verdienstkreuz). Klimt was commissioned to paint the Auditorium of the Old Burgtheater which then brings him unprecedented fame.

• Unfortunately, however in 1892, Klimt’s brother and father had both died. This seriously influenced his life. He largely reduced public movement and then focused on the analysis of contemporary styles of art, as well as historical styles that were within the establishment, such as Japanese, Chinese, Ancient Egyptian and Mycenaean art.
• In the early 1890s, Klimt met fashion designer Emilie Louise Flöge who was to be his companion until the end of his life.
• In 1897, Klimt and forty other notable Viennese artists resigned from the Academy of Arts. They established the “Union of Austrian Painters” which usually known as the Vienna Secession. Klimt was immediately elected the president. 

• In 1902, Klimt finished the Beethoven Frieze for the 14th Vienna Secessionist exhibition.
• In this Klimt’s “Golden Phase”, many of his paintings from this period truly used gold leaf.
• In 1904, Klimt collaborated with other artists on decorating the Palais Stoclet, that this building later became one of the grandest monuments of the Art Nouveau age. The famous Stoclet Frieze, a series of three mosaics, was created at this time.

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• By 1910, Klimt had moved past his Golden Style. In 1911, his painting Death and Life received first prize in the world exhibitions in Rome. However, he then changed this work’s background to blue from the initial gold because this made him more satisfied.
• On February 6, 1918, Klimt died in Vienna with having the worldwide influenza epidemic of that year.

Style

At the most beginning, because of the conservative education in the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule, Klimt’s early style was absolutely traditional and academic. The mentioned Auditorium of the Old Burgtheater is an extreme manifestation of this style. This might also relate to his idol Hans Makart who an academic history painter. In this period, it is obvious to see that Klimt’s works pursued reality and details in the figures and environment.

The death of his brother and father was one of the direct reasons for Klimt’s style changing. The sudden tragedy might just hit his cognition and pursuit. After he founded the Secession, this first transformation started to be demonstrated to the world. The feeling of traditions almost disappeared in his pictures.

Klimt began to flatten his painting, the shading was largely simplified. The original realistic details are erased and replaced by the purer colour and pattern. The overall version became more distorted but no more the past extremely careful scale and outline. Medicine is one of the works best displays those changes because it was created during this period.

After further development in the next few years, Klimt’s new style became more and more impressing and powerful. Women became an important topic and a lot of costumes were designed in his works.

Gold leaf was one of the biggest characteristics of his creation, Klimt used it because he wanted to achieve a planar effect. Klimt even used casein paint on dry plaster, which will make the colours look matt once it dries. By this comparing, the brightness of the gold will be much increased in the audiences’ eyes.

Although the time is not long, at the end of his life, Klimt’s style changed again and his art achievement got a breakthrough. This time he abandoned the appearance of arts but focused more on the deeper interior. Death and Life are the best proof of this development. Klimt removed the showy gold background. The overall version became much more balanced. Each part is more connected.

Personal Opinion

Klimt’s timeline of life is a standard pursuit of many artists. At the most beginning, get the systemic education for the foundation building. Then, developing a self-owned unique style. Finally, before the end, exceed the limitation of himself and get rid of the old method of creation, that truly achieving self-transcendence. I think I like the way how Klimt pursued his life and opposes the stubborn academic arts in Vienna. I also like that he truly tried to use everything in his works. The gold leaf worked very well for the memorable first impression.

References

https://www.gustav-klimt.com/Biography.jsp https://mouseinterrupted.wordpress.com/tag/allegories-and-emblems/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Klimt https://www.wikiart.org/en/gustav-klimt/the-old-burgtheater-1889 https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frise_Beethoven http://art-klimt.com/biography.html

Self-grading: 9/10

German expressionism was more like a result of the complicated social environment. It closely connected to the German peoples’ mental cognition and anxiety towards the future. Social depression seriously influenced peoples’ lifestyles and aesthetics. People just wanted to timely squander their money in entertainment. More and more expressionism movies appeared accompanied after this social and market requirement. The movie content became a materialized emotion to help people to vent their anger and dissatisfaction. When I saw the shadow and the distorted sceneries in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari by Robert Wiene, I was astonished by how violent and powerful the movie shows. It used the simplest and the most direct way to demonstrate people’s innermost fear and anger. I tried to imitate this style by my spread. The photo and shadow painting really achieved the initial goal I want but the text does not work well. Although I still think they are combined closely, the text does not make a powerful impression on the audience. I reverse this spread to let people read the text first because I want to make readers an uncomfortable sense to let them be easier to understand what the important point that what the mood expressionism has. The title “What Ya See?” is the question I give to the audiences, actually I think this question is equal to “what the expressionism is?” There is a dot under the “I”, it is a hint for the answer that “What I Want to Say is Expressionism.” My name is written under the dot and “I” by English and Chinese is also a kind of emphasizing that my thoughts are what important in expressionism art.

Maybe because I always think that I am a self-centred person, expressionism was really what I like in the past. I want to let others see what my works mean and hope them to understand what I want to say. When I was researching the information about expressionism and German society in that period, it makes me consider and reflect on myself and my future and pursuit. I realized that I have not been the person who I thought I was. My life environment and the future road can never be what I thought in the past because I have had no time now, I am not even a teenager now. The German peoples’ anxiety and what the expressionism advocate is what my future life I need to actually plan and practice but not only just think of it. I need to do something useful, I need to make my pursuit more clear, I need to understand what I truly want to express and stand by. My life needs to be mine but not just repeating what the people did in the past. My works must not be the copy or recreation of some previous thoughts from historical masters.

Self-grading: 9/10

The idea of YunChi is from the mixed style of Eastern and Western in that period. Its colour and patterns both refer to this sort of mixture. Indeed, the real works from that time were too complicated and hard to be accepted by contemporary people. However, I think this mixed style can be very beautiful if people just remake it basing on modern aesthetics. This is also the reason I made this work. In terms of YunChi, the overall style is still not really creative, its more is a kind of imitating to that period, but I believe that I will create a more revolutionary work in this style because I like this East-West communicated result.

At the beginning of the text, I used the name “雲池(YunChi)” as the “Initial”, just kind of practicing for what I learned. The lower-right corner is my Chinese last name. I made it look like a seal just like what Chinese people always did in the past, printing their seal on something they own. The lower-left corner is the mountains means the earth and the upper-right corner is the peaks through the cloud layer means the sky. They are not the only meaningful pictures but the functional signs that help to focus audiences’ eyes in the middle. This version looks a little bit flat, and I still like the original one that the versions from three different angles make me a sense of 3D visual experience that strongly points to the lower-right corner. Making this work really makes me reflect a lot about art itself. Really before doing this research, I never realized that the western influence in Chinese decorations, at least not so much. The mix ages really changed very many things but they have become a part of common sense today. Although my personal pursuit is to make something truly belongs to my-self, this researching makes me think of that if I can truly get rid of the influence of the past people. The concealed past cognitions have already been a part of my knowledge, but how could I develop it but not only recreate a similar copy of it. I must make something mine.

Self-grading: 7/10

When I started to sketch this spread, the first idea was to list the tools corresponding to the various parts of human society. Then the ages remind me of the invention of smelting iron technology so I listed the iron-made tools and made the spread a metal texture. Initially, I was afraid that my idea cannot full fill the paper so I wrote a lot of describing sentences to label each of the tools. However, this became the same mistake as the Yearbook spread, the final version looks too busy and hard to read so many words. After the suggestion of blurring the pictures into the entirety, I drew the shading grids around the cut-paper to erase the edges. This amends worked well and maintained the entire style in the spread. Then the dotted lines are used to guide peoples’ eyes and increase the connection between each separated part. By the way, I find that the dotted line is easier to attract and direct peoples’ eyes than the solid line.

During making this spread, I have learned very much about controlling the entirety. My initial version was too scattered, each the images of the tools were just the independent sections and the overall version was less in . It did not have the power that attracting audiences to be interested and to read in detail. The title is still a little bit disjointed to the content, this is my fault in design the sketching. In the future creation, I will pay more attention to make a sense of the entirety in my works.

Bush Tower is located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was built in 1916–1918 and originally designed as a commercial display area and social place. The building is 146m high but only 15m wide and 27.5m deep, and the architects said that they wanted to create “a model for the tall, narrow building in the center of a city block.”

Style

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The main building style abided by the regular early skyscraper style with its Neo-Gothic appearance. On the outside walls, trompe l’oeil brickwork made the vertical projections with a fake shadow which enhanced its verticality. Most of the windows are on the north and south facades, and a recessed mid-facade lightwell on the east side.

Interior

As an office building, Bush Tower’s interior is full of extensive oak panelling, eastern carpets and antique furniture.

References

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/21/realestate/streetscapes-130-west-42nd-street-skinny-gothic-tower-get-modern-partner.html https://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID137.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_Tower

Henri Rousseau (21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910), was a French painter who was famous for his primitive paintings. He was a totally self-taught artist while having other jobs.

Life

• Henri Rousseau was born on 21 May 1844, in Laval, Mayenne.
• Since 1863, Rousseau joined the army for four years. 
• In 1868, Rousseau moved to Paris to work as a government employee for supporting mother after his father died.
• In 1871, Rousseau became a collector of the octroi of Paris, collecting taxes on goods entering Paris.
• Since 1886, Rousseau started to regularly exhibit his works in the Salon des Indépendants. The exhibited works included the Surprised.

• In 1893, Rousseau moved to a studio in Montparnasse that Rousseau truly started his professional artist carer. Furthermore, he worked and lived there until he died.
• In 1908, Pablo Picasso held a half-serious, half-burlesque banquet in his studio at Le Bateau-Lavoir in Rousseau’s honour so-called the banquet Rousseau. This banquet is not only an affirmation to Rousseau’s achievement but also an influential event for the next artistic development.
• In March 1910, Rousseau exhibited his last painting, The Dream. Six months later, he died from a blood clot on 2 September 1910.

Style

Rousseau’s art has a totally distinct style with other contemporary artists. Because he completely learned paintings by himself, his art also showed some kind of kid-like naive and imaginative. He used both high-level art technique and the naive aesthetics in his painting. The typical rule of traditional academic art cannot limit Rousseau’s creation.

Many of Rousseau’s works created with extremely disproportionation and exaggeration. For example, in the Boy on the Rocks, the boy can be seen as sitting on a series of mountains but not only rocks.

Personal Opinions

Rousseau is my favourite artist and his life is my pursuit. I want to create my art in this kind of freedom too, just as same as he did. The nature of art creation is not a rigid technical study, nor is it a serious discussion about human nature but the pursuit of happiness. Enjoying the process of making something, to create what truly belongs to the artist self, and to human beings.

The Sleeping Gypsy is my favourite painting by Rousseau. He used his imagination and creativity to illustrate an originally should be a terrifying lion to become peaceful and docile. In the first impression, this painting seems to be made of the separated portions, but indeed the overall combination together created this comfortable mood. Every part of this painting has its own value and be closely connected with other ones by Rousseau’s clever conception. For example, the background moon and desert together let audiences know this is a silent environment first. Then the main characters, the lion and Gypsy, are both illustrated in relaxed status. Those together build up an imaginatively peaceful scene.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sleeping_Gypsy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Rousseau http://www.henrirousseau.net/ http://www.henrirousseau.net/boy-on-the-rocks.jsp#prettyPhoto https://www.theartstory.org/artist/rousseau-henri/ https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%BA%A8%E5%88%A9%C2%B7%E5%8D%A2%E6%A2%AD

Life

• Winslow Homer was born in Boston, February 24, 1836. Homer’s mother was an amateur watercolorist and his first art teacher. They closely kept contacting throughout their lives. 
• In 1855, Homer’s father arranged him for an apprenticeship to J. H. Bufford, a Boston commercial lithographer. Then, Homer wasted two years of his life in repetitively boring and useless typing business.
• In 1857, Homer began his freelance career. In 1859, he settled in New York.
• In 1861, Homer learned a little bit about oil painting by himself. In October, he was sent to Virginia, the front of the Civil War, as an editor and design chief for Harper’s Weekly. Because of this experience, Homer created a lot of war-related works, such as Prisoners from the Front, The Veteran in a New Field and Home, Sweet Home.

• In 1867, Homer travelled to Paris countryside where he then lived and worked for a year.
• From the late 1860s to the 1870s, Homer returned to New York and had a period for freely reflecting and aesthetically attempting. He worked as a painter and designing work for magazines and illustrations for these magazines. Homer mainly painted rural or idyllic scenes of farm life in this period

• Since the summer of 1873, in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Homer started to regularly paint with watercolours.
• Homer left the noisy social life in the late 1870s, even lived a while with only the keeper’s family in the secluded Eastern Point Lighthouse. In this time, he began to closely observe the sea view which became the main theme of his later creations.
• In 1881–1882, Winslow Homer travelled to England, lived in the coastal village of Cullercoats, Tyne and Wear. His works from this period are almost exclusively watercolours.

• In November 1882, Homer got back the US, critics mentioned the change of his style and the growth behind his works and. In the next year, He moved to Prouts Neck, Maine and then worked in his studio here until he died in 1910.

Style

Winslow Homer’s distinct life experiences dramatically divided the development of his artistic skill and understanding.

In the beginning, the frontline life first time evoked Homer deeply reflecting on life, society and nationalism. Because of this affection, in the next decade, he created a lot of works which caught people’s mind to let them consider the deeper meaning behind the paintings.

Then, Homer began to pursue a peaceful rural life that became his most works’ themes later. This period is the turning point of Homer’s artistic career because he began to intentionally exercise his skill in watercolour. No matter if the material cost is the true reason for him to switch drawing media, switching to watercolour largely influenced Homer’s technique and style.

By the long-term live and observation of the coastal village, Homer found his own balance point between nature and human beings. The characters in his works are illustrated to be more detailed in spirit level but not only outline shapes. Just like the Critics said, Homer’s women were no longer “dolls who flaunt their millinery”.

During Homer’s maturity, initially, his painting became more worthful to think about the relationships between humans and nature. Especially the sea painting, the characters always have a sense of facing challenges.

In his later life, however, Homer’s works got rid of the weary thinking about the nature of human beings. He turned to display more the cheerful side of peoples’ life and of the natural environment.

Personal Opinion

Winslow Homer is the same type of artist as current me, who pursue the relaxable creation and spiritual entertainment. Drawing anything interesting in life and enjoy this process of finding art. Thinking about the deeper nature behind the phenomenon or the appearance of stuff. Finally, show happiness in art. I like how he catches the most identifiable details of subjects and the progress of finding his own understanding of art. However, I cannot decide if I truly want to have his kind of life, because at least now I want to have a more diverse life and artistic creation.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winslow_Homer https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/homr/hd_homr.htm http://www.winslowhomer.org/ http://www.winslowhomer.org/biography.jsp https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%B8%A9%E6%96%AF%E6%B4%9B%C2%B7%E9%9C%8D%E9%BB%98/6361622?fr=aladdin