POINTILLISM AND FRAMES

Georges Seurat developed his individual style of painting using dots of contrasting colours close to each other so that they would merge visually in the eye of the spectator.  His idea was that it would produce a brighter effect.  In fact the process was rather laborious and ended up with rather dead paintings.  He also wanted to remove the Romantic element that people like Degas and Monet had introduced with Impressionism.  This effectively led to a flatter painting that might be said to be one of the many pre-cursors to abstract painting.

His style was emulated by Paul Signac who used Pointillist techniques in a slightly different way, placing cool and warm colours beside each other, the strokes were more like small dashes than dots.  They result still lead to pictures that lacked animation and liveliness.

Matisse tried this technique only once as far as I can see and Pissarro too introduced it into his work for a short while, but after the freedom of the Impressionist style of painting, both artists eventually abandoned it and returned to the freer more expressive style. Howard Hodgkin uses the dot almost as a construction.

Dots, however, have always had an attraction for artists even to the present day.  Roy Lichtenstein used the Benday dot emulating the comic print process in his work.  Aboriginal painting consists only of dots arranged in mystical patterns.  Ellsworth Kelly painted Spectrum Colour arranged by Chance, and of course Damien Hirst spent sometime developing Spot Paintings, which some people said was a way of  printing  money.  One of his Spot Paintings was sent up in Beagle 2, but the space craft was lost in 2004 – maybe it is still out there somewhere in deep space.  Yayoi Kusama, a Japanese artist, uses the polka dot almost exclusively in her work.  

It begs the question, what is it about the spot or dot which captivates the artist? The circle is a natural eternal form which at the same time is enclosing, it hints at infinity through cosmic associations and for that reason is also mystical, romantic and perfect, it can be used alone to great effect as Van Gogh used it in the Sower, but when used en masse it becomes a repetitive building block, a honeycomb of strength, which is how Howard Hodgkin used it.  Can the same be said of any of the other geometric shapes, I don’t think so, the nearest might be the triangle, and the combination of both the triangle and circle, for me is the ultimate symbol of infinite perfection.

The idea of using the frame as part of a painting is an extension of Jackson Pollock’s field painting, it enables the work to spill over into real space, rather than confining it within a framed space on a wall.  I personally don’t think it quite works, it has an awkwardness about it like a constantly hovering mosquito that you want to flit away.  Ludwig von Hoffman who was part of the Munich Secession and also a symbolist decorated his frames, as indeed to Klimt and Jens Ferdinand Willumsen who did it in Jotunhein to separate those who sought a link between the infinitely great and small and those men without a goal .Also Adria Gual-Queralt and Georges Roualt. Such decoration of frames may have  engendered.   The idea of decorated frames as a contemporary interior design style, which have now become rather passé.  That is the difficulty with 20th and post 20th Century art where movements come and go almost like fashion.  If artists  wish to achieve recognition and have a particular penchant for a style that has passed, it seems they are forced to consider the current avant garde trend, i.e. installation, conceptualism and so on, regardless of which direction their own inclinations and talents lead them.  Debuffet's inclination was presaged on the notion that the public were being effectively duped by non-artists into seeing only "framed" works.  Howard Hodkin's painted frames was also a reference to a similar desire for art to evolve and expand beyond the conventional.

Physical Paint Texture - Research

PAINTING 2: Mixed Media

MIXED MEDIA

Part I TACTILE AND MULTIPLE SURFACES

Project: Physical Texture of Paint - Research

  

Rather than compare just two artists I wanted to explore those artist whom I have been inspired by because of their ‘voluptuous’ and dynamic use of paint.

I am effectively following a route from Van Gogh whose work, though not appreciated at the time, caused artists to realize the potential of the painting media in ways that had never been anticipated before.  Van Gogh, using brushes of various sizes - usually larger coarser hogss hair brushes, invented a world that explored the sensuous charm of nature.  His brush strokes gave life to what he painted through texture.  The thickness of the paint enabled him to express his emotional feel for the object before him.  His series of sunflowers, the over exposure of which has caused the image to become somewhat hackneyed, use a variety of mark making to convey the petals, leaves and central seed head.  His style did not only apply to objects he was able to give movement to the skies he produced, particularly with his Starry Night:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Van_Gogh_-_Starry_Night_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

“The meaning lies inside the paint” is what Van Gogh said of his work, it wasn’t just the meaning is was the quality of the brush strokes which helped to determine the value of his work.

Van Gogh therefore uses texture to reinforce his emotional reaction to the natural world.  Interestingly he is a precursor to many styles, pointillism, abstraction, futurism. 

 

Another artist whose work incorporates texture in a similar way is indeed the Futurist Umberto Boccioni.  He effectively follows on from Van Gogh’s idea of using sweeping and swirling strokes to indicate movement, speed and also chaos and noise.    Boccioni is quoted as saying, similar to  Van Gogh, “…to let the viewer live in the midst of the picture…” is what he wanted to achieve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_City_Rises_by_Umberto_Boccioni_1910.jpg

 

Both artists used traditional canvas boards but hogshair larger brushes, were probably included in their equipment.

Whereas Van Gogh was exploring the natural world, Boccioni, who had been influenced by Munch, as well as Cubmism and Expressionism was using texture as a dynamic tool to establish a concept, the concept of movement and speed. He was particularly interested in the movement of the horse, it is  therefore ironic that he fell from his horse and subsequently died at only 33 years of age,  Another of those artists of whom we say, I wonder what else he would have produced had he lived.

Moving into the 20^th Century the next artist I want to include is Jackson Pollock.  He is renowned for his drip paintings but before that he explored mystical works, sometimes influenced by Indian culture.  His use of tools and materials broadened the approach of artists to the availability of items which might be used in the production of works of art: house enamel, syringes, sticks, house paint brushes, palette knife and so on.  He used large canvases on the floor for his drip paintings but otherwise used conventional stretchers.

For Pollock the expression of mystical and psychological ideas were partly achieved by his use of paint which was tactile by way of an extension of himself.  He too, talked about wanting to actually be ‘ in the painting’

We can give these movements whatever titles we like Abstraction, Abstract Expressionism, Futurism, but I think with all three of these artists they are trying to bring something out of themselves and into the canvas they work on, the paint acts as an extension from themselves, a conduit if you like from the idea in their minds to the support, it is almost as though their very blood issues from their fingertips in the form of paint to produce the creative energy and dynamism they so want to achieve.

 

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://uploads3.wikipaintings.org/images/jackson-pollock/the-moon-woman-cuts-the-circle-1943.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/jackson-pollock/the-moon-woman-cuts-the-circle-1943&h=1024&w=973&sz=651&tbnid=vIuq_FYP0smTsM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=86&zoom=1&usg=__LGe8hEoCQ0ySq_k13qaLhQ8awDY=&docid=2XXDM2Ki1b6sWM&sa=X&ei=nHcHUsiBEorEPaPMgeAO&ved=0CDoQ9QEwAw&dur=2356

 

Moving on to contemporary artists, I want to include Gerhard Richter

One cannot but be impressed by the work of Richter, particularly his abstract paintings which use texture in an unusual way.  Effectively as an overpainting technique on large scale canvases using rollers, scrapers, trowels, brushes, palette knives and various other tools to produce these fascinating works.  He uses paint almost in an automatist way to convey images which project the internal, unpredetermined ideas which develop to a point which satisfies the artist, and fulfils some potential reality.  “Art is the highest form of hope” Richter says.  As a concept it is difficult to understand Richter’s rationale, suffice to say there are many different realities some of which we cannot know and I think Richter is attempting to materialize or hint at unknown potential realities, transcendentallly in the same way that Pollock was exploring those ideas, but with his feet on the ground.  Richter seems to want to reach out beyond knowledge to the realities that may or may not exist and which are intrinsically within his work, as he says “the secret is in the painting”, and it is realized through the painting method.

 

One of Richter’s pupils, Pia Fries is my next choice.  An emerging artist of the 21^st century, Fries negates the idea of painting being dead and interred during the 1960s and 1970s by Conceptual, Performance, Installation arts.  Artists like Fries have invalidated this idea.  Painting on a wooden board with multi layers of primer Fries paints with palette knives, spatulas, syringes, industrial instruments and application objects she makes herself.  Much of the pristine white of the canvas is left, sometimes she silkscreens images on to the canvas then overpaints them with textures which form abstract piles of paint twisting, interweaving smudging and folding one colour into another almost like ethnic jewellery. Her work is said to explore the musical harmonies of musique concrete. It will be interesting to see her work develop.

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.newyorkartworld.com/images-reviews02/afries/caspian-500x382.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.newyorkartworld.com/reviews/fries.html&h=382&w=500&sz=15&tbnid=JEJq5e7-TZ3sxM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=123&zoom=1&usg=__3tynBtMr_Jq4-hwFeucVjdxygkQ=&docid=Yf_3MrVPZRpHmM&sa=X&ei=hnkHUs_FEoG7Oe3GgFg&ved=0CMcBEP4dM
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Futurism - Sylvia Martin, published by Tasken 2006, Modern Art, David Britt published by Thames & Hudson 1974, Van Gogh by Brian Petrie, published by Phaidon Press 1974, Wickipedia, Vitamin P, Phaidon Press 2002, Gerhard Richter Large Abstracts by Ulrich Wilmes, Hatie Cantz 2008

 

Van Gogh Style

Parallel Project 6 - Spring
Sponteneity

As part of Parallel Project 6, I decided to paint a picture in Van Gogh's style.  He falls neither in Expressionism, Symbolism nor Impressionism, his style is unique, although I tend to think of his style as closer to the Fauves, merely because of his great understanding of colour.  I am lucky enough to have inherited an old Phaidon publication with beautiful illustrations of his work including drawings and have always been very impressed by his work.  Despite the unhappiness and mental trauma he experienced his work is vibrant and joyous, it is also produced at a rapid rate, which is why the sponteneity is so evident.

The Merzbacher Collection, founded by Bernhard Mayer, is concerned with colour with its emphasis on Impressionism, Fauvism, German Expressionism and the early Russian Constructivists, and Van Gogh's work is naturally included in the Collection.

The painting I had beside me as inspiration was The Plain of La Crau with an Orchard, painted in 1889.  It is remarkable that his houses are presented in minimal fashion and are mostly outlined with dark lines yet they do not become boxy or rigid but remain fluid.  The fluidity of his expressionistic style is what marks Van Gogh out.  His use of colour is never strident or garish because it is always carefully modulated with either a contrasting or related colour, depending on the tonal effect he wants to create.  His brother Theo whilst supporting his older brother financially and emotionally, did not always have confidence in Van Gogh's work. It was such a departure even from the Impressionists, who struggled enough to become accepted, that it is not surprising that the general public did not know what to make of his work.  For me, his most skillful portrait (next to his own self-portrait  of 1889)  is that of Camille Roulin painted in 1888 whilst the artist was at Arles.

 I tend to fiddle when painting and am fairly bogged down in representational work, which is why I decided to come on this course as I want to loosen up and feel the unfettered joy when liberated from the traditional school of painting.  I felt when I painted this, crumbs can it be regarded as a finished work, being so hastily created.  The result I felt was much freer than my usual work and I think it shows.

I used the vibrant pthalo blue for the sky with broken brush marks and explored the use of various mixed greens as well as some used straight from the tube, hints of viridian, cadmium yellow mixed with cerulian, ultramarine or pthalo blue, yellow ochre, olive green.  Van Gogh appears to use viridian and cerulian or viridian with a little white and ultramarine quite a lot in his work, he always contrasts it with orange, red or yellow.  The composition I chose was of the cottages at Shelley in Suffolk, where it is slightly hilly.  The lane is very narrow so it was difficult to park, but I did a quick sketch in a passing space and took photos. Because I wanted to emulate Van Gogh's trees, they developed foliage so the scene probably looks more like summer than spring. However he didn't allow reality to interfere with his compositions and it didn't with my own.  I was pleased with the light effect of the painting, there is air to breathe.

In addition to the above I did an A2 drawing in pastel on paper, but found it a bit unwealdy.  I used a canvas board to clip the paper to but it wasn't terribly satisfactory. I don't think pastel was the best medium to use for this project as Van Gogh was very exuberant with his paint.  I tried to be so with the pastels but I am not sure it comes across.