Friday, January 27, 2012

Chosen Art Movement

Art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artist during a restricted period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or at lease with the heyday of the movement defined within a number of years. There are so many art movements out there even I was shocked when I first started looking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_art_movements). I liked so many that I didn’t know which to pick in the beginning. Nevertheless, after much reading and understanding, the art movement that I have chosen to use is Cubism. My first impression when I saw an example of this art movement was “you call this art? What on earth is this!!!” However, after reading the picture’s caption and understanding what it actually means, this particular art movement opened a whole new eyes into a whole new world for me.  I instantly fell in love with this art movement that I would love to create my future project using this art movement.

Brief history, Key Techniques & Aspects/Topics of artwork

So, what is Cubism all about? Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. Often the surfaces intersect at seemingly random angles, removing a coherent sense of depth. The background and object planes interpenetrate one another to create the shallow ambiguous space, one of cubism's distinct characteristics.

Primitive cubism (1907-1908) 
Original style of this art movement, attempted to show objects as the mind not the eye, perceives them. They emphasized a flat, two-dimensional surface and rejected the idea that art should imitate nature, refusing traditional techniques such as perspective, foreshortening, modeling and chiaroscuro.

 "Everything in nature takes it's form from the sphere, cone or clyander." Paul Cezanne

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon - Pablo Picasso (1970)
Road near L'Estaque - Georges Braque (1908)

Vase, Bowl, Lemon - Pablo Picasso (1907)
Analytical cubism (1908-1912) 
-cubists explored the pure form of subjects. Artists mentally broke the subject into flat planes and arranged them in complex, overlapping relationships. Artists used only grays, browns, dark greens, ochre, dark yellows and monochrome in the works to maintain an emotionless scene. 
Ma Jolie – Pablo Picasso (1912)
Viaduct at L'Estaque- Georges Braque (1980) 

Synthetic cubism (1912-1920) 
Usage of more colors (yellows, reds, greens and other bright colors) and pictures were more realistic looking but still were based on geometric shapes. Artists showed much view that would not be possible in real life.
The Guitar- Juan Gris (1913)
Propellers- Fernand Leger (1918) 
Juan Gris (1887-1927)



Birth name
José Victoriano González-Pérez
Born
March 23, 1887
Madrid
Died
May 11, 1927 (aged 40)
Boulogne-sur-Seine
Nationality
Spanish
Field
Painting, Sculpture
Movement
Cubism




   
Bottles and Knife (1911)


  
Landscape with Houses at Ceret  (1913)

Still Life with Flowers (1912)

















Violin and Guitar (1913)
Violin and Guitar is a magisterial statement that marked 1913 as the beginning of Gris's mature art. Here he combines the inherent dignity and poetic quality of the objects with an exploration of their three-dimensional aspects. An essentially cruciform composition underlies the whole and lends a hierarchical air; however, as with his use of the golden section, Gris was never absolutely precise in making his measurements fit a predetermined scheme. The painting is built on a series of pictorial rhymes among the forms of the guitar, violin, and glass. Gris's predilection for rhymes, or rhythms based on visual similarities, has been compared to the techniques of the poets who were so much a part of his milieu, but it can also be found in the art of his colleagues. More fundamentally poetic is the spirited flight of artistic manipulation that occurs in the central section, juxtaposed with the conventional world symbolized by the wood molding, wallpaper, and floorboards of a surrounding room. These background details establish a representational setting as well as a pictorial plane of possibilities. This richly detailed room should be seen as having fantastic associations for Gris since he reportedly lived in utter squalor.


Elements of Design
Lines:  Interchanging lines
Shape: Geometric intersecting at random angles to create shallow ambiguous space
Values: Light and dark colours give a mild contrast
Colours: Wide range of colours (depending on the type of cubism)
Analytical cubism: grays, browns, dark greens, ochre, dark yellows and monochrome
Synthetic cubism: yellows, reds, greens and other bright colors
Proportion: The figures are stretched, contorted and twisted.

Principles of Design
Balance: The images and shapes span the entire surface
Emphasis and Variety: No emphasis more than another. Usage of several elements of designs such as lines, colours, shapes and others.
Harmony and Unity: unified Visual harmony


Thursday, January 19, 2012

Perceptual Vs Conceptual

Often you can see little children who have just learned to hold a pencil properly are often taught to colour and scribble. Art is something we learn since young even without knowing it. It is rather common that most people without deep knowledge of art perceive it as something simple. However, art has more depth to it that what we actually see. Most types of art are divided into two categories which are conceptual art and perceptual art. In other words, these are two methods of representing the world in art.

Conceptual art provides images which give the notion, idea or concept that is intended, usually by the simplification of figures and action to a few telling traits. “On a strict historical reading, the expression ‘conceptual art’ refers to the artistic movement that reached its pinnacle between 1966 and 1972 (Lippard 1973). Amongst its most famous adherents at its early stage we find artists such as Joseph Kosuth, Robert Morris, Joseph Beuys and Mel Ramsden, to name but a few. What unites all conceptual art of that period is the absorption of the lessons learnt from other twentieth-century art movements such as Dadaism, Surrealism, Suprematism, Abstract Expressionism and the Fluxus group, not to mention the attempt to once and for all ‘free’ art of the Modernist paradigm. Most importantly, perhaps, conceptual art sought to overcome a backdrop against which art's principal aim is to produce something beautiful or aesthetically pleasing” (Schellekens, 2007). Conceptual art is presenting a mental formulation of the object, rather than its appearance alone.

Campbell's painting of the Fort Wilderness Railroad
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved










The pictures above are examples of conceptual art. There are many others besides this. For further examples, go to http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/07/50-eye-popping-examples-of-concept-art/, a website full of conceptual art paintings. 

Perceptual art, on the other hand, describes the world visually based on our eye’s perception. It is an approach that details the immediate, fleeting aspect of the outward world. In fact, perceptual art is based mainly on visual experience that visual is given priority over the sensual. One of the perceptual art is opt art also known was optical art where optical illusions are made use off. "Optical art is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing." Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made in only black and white. When the viewer looks at them, the impression is given of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibration, patterns, or alternatively, of swelling or warping. These type of art stimulates one’s visual sensory. The pictures below are examples of perceptual art and optical art. Even though they are not moving but one would feel as though those line are actually in motion. How amazing is that! A moving picture, just like in Harry Potter (although not a single bit similar to each other).


           Perceptual Flux Digital Art - Perceptual Flux Fine
                             Art Print - Casey Kotas


Thursday, January 12, 2012

About Myself..

Heyy everyone! Firstly, welcome to my blog. It is indeed such an honour to have you visiting here. I am Suwarna. As you can see, my name is rather unique. The real meaning to my name is gold. However, the spelling “warna” means colour in Malay. In fact, it has earned me many other silly nicknames which I would rather not tell it out (it’s for me to know and for you to wonder). My personality is somewhat like colour itself. It can be bright and very dark depending on situations. Nevertheless, I enjoy things which are colourful and events that are happy as well as exciting.

I am currently doing my degree in Psychology, 1st year 3rd semester. It is funny really as I firstly got inspired to be a psychologist by a movie called “Freaky Friday”. It made me think that being a psychologist was so simple and you only had to ask questions such as “how do you feel about that?” However, the more I exposed myself to this field; I realized that it was actually tough and rather challenging to have a career as a psychologist. Regardless to that, I found my interest and love expanding exponentially as I immersed myself in more knowledge of psychology. Therefore, I am satisfied with my chosen career path and hope that it would bring me more happiness in the year to come.

I am taking HAA 101 Introduction to Designs as one of my electives. Since young, I have a special interest in art for I love to draw and colour. I am glad that this course would teach me many new things as I never imagined art to be this technical before. I will work hard to make my artwork remarkable and be able to sell it to the higher bidder. Keep up with it’s progress in order to understand it better. Cheers. Rock on!