Fauvism and Henry Matisse

Fauvism

An example of Fauvism

This is a twentieth century art movement which had many similarities with impressionism, the movement didn't last long it was over before the first world war and only had three major exhibitions in the time where it was popular. The forms are often simplified and the colours unrealistic. This was because it was painted in the way that the painters pictured the objects, they painted things how they saw it.

The Fauvist movement started from France and some of the key artists where Henry Matisse and André Derain who I will look at in more depth later. This movement even though it was linked with expressionism it was the first to break away from it. The work is very spontaneous it's something that isn't really thought about before doing it. The colours that are used like I've said before are very unrealistic, but they are also very vibrant and usually came straight out of the tube.

The movement was a group of artists but they had no set rules or meetings they simply had similar aims of what they wanted to create with their work. They were all seeking a new way to create space and they found this in the use of the colour. I think like what I said before that I need to look at specific artists that followed this movement, but this research has provided me with a better colour understanding and given me the idea of creating space through colour something that I hope to bring to my work.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/fauv/hd_fauv.htm

Henry Matisse

les toits de collioure 1905

Matisse was one of the most famous and well remembered Fauvist artists; he is thought to have changed the path of modern art. He worked in multi disciplines which he is most famous for his paint and sculpture. He created work on many subjects which included landscapes and figurative works as well as still life. As the Fauvist movement progressed Matisse's style developed and changed; the brushwork became more expressive and the light changed.

The composition also changes allowing him to create his own pictorial language through the composition. His early work showed more traditional values before the Fauvist movement really took off, but was then clearly influenced by the new age of modern art. Matisse also played with texture, he varied it throughout the pieces; there are some areas created with impasto others which are flat planes of colour. These lead to shadows being created on the work making a new dimension and the work more interesting.

The sculptures that Matisse produced where commonly of figures and of the human form, they lacked colour they tended to be simply black with a varnish or sheen to them. I think from looking at Matisse's work and specifically the way that the paint is applied is something that I will take on board and try the different textures and thicknesses to the paint in the week.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mati/hd_mati.htm

André Derain

Henry Matisse 1905 76 X 35 Cm

Derain like Matisse was considered one of the cofounders of the Fauvist movement, again he worked in a large amount of disciplines, but I am most interested in the paintings that he created. In his time as a Fauvist painter he mainly focused on landscapes and portraits, one he even did one of his good friend Henry Matisse. However he moved away from Fauvism in 1911 to cubism something that developed out of Fauvism.

He then joined the military, but when he came out he started painting with a duller pallet maybe due to the things that he saw and experienced as a result of the war. Going back to his Fauvist stage and the way he used colour, he applied the paint in quite a thick painterly way. He also made sure that the brushstrokes appeared separately making a texture which helped create the illusion of light and shade. To help this there was often two different shades of colour used to create a contrast between the two.

Derain and Matisse are two very similar artists and they obviously had quite a strong friendship that made them influence each other easily which is why there work is so similar. I'm going to take both the artists methods on board to influence my work and there use of thickness in paint.

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/derain-henri-matisse-t00165

Continuing to Develop my third Body of work

Ink, acrylic and biro on Canvas all 55 X 55 Cm

Like I said I would last week I have continued to experiment with ink and paint on more absorbency materials to create situations that provoke me to try and control them. I have made small series' of paintings that where ally created at the same time using the same amount of ink and water. Even thought the outcomes of the ink are out of my control by me monitoring the amount of ink that is used it my way of controlling it.

Ink and Biro on Canvas 76 X 61 Cm

the circles that I have then layered on top are my response to the unpredictable fall and like in my other work I have added enough circles until I feel that I have controlled the situation enough to make it almost stable is the word I use, I don't feel comfortable looking at it until I have finished the circles. I think that next week I need to start working on a larger scale and paint on the canvas before I add the ink to see if the ink will fall onto the paint.

I have been looking at the futurism and Dadaism movements and also the artist Gillian Ayres looking at how I can develop my work. I have been wanting to introduce more paint into my work and I think that by looking at the movement and the artist I have some idea on how I can move my project forward.

Futurisn and Dadaism and Gillian Ayres

Futurism and Dadaism

Example of Dadaism

Futurism is something that started in Italy in the twentieth century and is something that developed into many things including expressionism. This movement set out to show items of the future and to glorify them and make them be seen in a way that they've never been seen before; this was the start of abstraction. This style was used in all disciplines including printmaking and sculpture. Futurism was a key part in modern art development and remained popular until the start of world war two where expressionism started to develop.

Something that this celebrated was the age of machine, where cars, planes and all sorts of new engineering became popular. The work was very engendered and architectural, the use of line and shape within the work. The work is very subjective; it is very focused on man made things people where very proud of these inventions and of going to war. I was seemed as a good thing to the artists something that they hadn't really experienced before.

However Dadaism was a protest movement that happened at the same time as futurism, but it protested against the changes that where happening, but I quite like the changes in shape that were used in the work. I wanted to look at these movements because of their use of shape line and colour attracted me to them. I think that I'm going take into consideration the shapes and the way that they sit next to each other when creating my work next week.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism

Gillian Ayres

Distillation 1957 213 X 150 Cm

Ayres is an English painter who studied in London and continues to work in the UK. I wanted to look at the work because of her use of colour and the way that the paint is applied. In my own work I have been using similar colours and shapes. Ayres uses oil paints and often paints with her hands she believes that this gives her more control over the paint.

The works have very simple forms within it usually in the form of circles and squares. The work is very decorative; the main focus of the work is on the mark making and rhythm of the colour changes. She is inspired by Jackson Pollock and Monet's late work, the scale of the mark making is a way of showing her emotions she wanted to feel a sense of being sublime through making her work.

Ayres believes that the paintings have each have a character to them and often makes her work when it is flat on the floor, just like Pollock. She uses the paint thinner to manipulate the paint and make the colours balanced throughout the painting. I think that I will try manipulating the paint in the same way that Ayres does and also applying it in the same way to see if that brings the painterly texture that I want to achieve to my work in a better way.

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ayres-distillation-t01714

Developing My work Further

Ink, acrylic and pen on netting both 40 X 51 CM

Ink, acrylic and biro on netting 40 X 40 Cm

This week I have started where I left off last week with starting to experiment with folding materials before I would stretch them onto canvas. I wanted to try and use a range of materials not just canvas the conventional material because I didn't know whether there would be another material that might offer more to it or make the circles that I create on there first more interesting. I have been looking at artists such as Ivan Morley because of his use of layering, Agnes Martin because of her repetitive marks and Josh smith because of his use of paint. I think that these artists have helped me develop my work, but i think to take it further I need to look at more that will influence my work in a stronger direction.

I started by working with a light silky material that creased quite easily, however the ink and paint when applied spread a lot more and because of the way that the material is made in a very square form which just wasn't what I quite wanted it to do. It goes back to the fact that I like to have control over what I do even if it isn't always completely under control I have a good idea on what it's going to do, where as with this I don't and I find it harder to except.

I have then gone on to using the same method on calico and wetting the material before I drop ink on it, this created a very spread out effect that blurs into the background. I did this because it goes back to my original ideas about OCD and controlling things, having them the way that you want them and feeling uncomfortable if they aren't in the right way that they should be. This material works a lot better than the silky material because of its absorbency and I think that in the following weeks I shall continue to develop this and see how I can improve it.

Agnes Martin, Ivan Morley and Josh Smith

Agnes Martin

Morning 1965 20 X 20 Cm

I have looked at Martins work because of her use of repetitive lines and shape. She was a portrait painter until Abstract expressionism influenced her and she started creating these very pale paintings. From a distance you can barely see the detail that is on the canvas, but it is actually loads of small lines. She worked with many geometric shapes, but mainly stuck to horizontal and vertical lines because she wanted the work to be quite minimal. She said that too many shapes over complicated it.

After she discovered this style of working this is what she stuck to it didn't particularly try any other styles. The work itself looks very delicate like something you wouldn't dare to touch. Most of the work does have subjects which are usually places, but this isn't usually told, it's usually about how she feels at these specific places. For example "morning" she says "I was painting about happiness and bliss" rather than the place it was set, this information or anything that might link it to a place is left out.

Martin is also inspired by geographical things such as coordinates; these are inspirations so some of the grid paintings. I really like the fact that a lot of her work is only based on happy things which is very unusual when looking at a whole artist portfolio, it's like she doesn't want to dwell on the bad. This is something that I would like to put across in my work I want people to feel happiness when looking and walking away from my work. This is what I will be keeping in mind when I create my work this week.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/martin-morning-t01866

Ivan Morley

Tehachapel 2006 240 X 117 Cm

I wanted to look at Morley's work because the repetitive shapes that are used in the work. The work is made up of loads of small round shapes which are something very similar to my work. Morley is inspired by the history of his hometown in Americas Wild West, the works are both of stories that have been passed down and images of the landscapes that are around him.

The stories that inspire him are old Folk stories which have a very mythical air to them; he says that he wants his work to be "Poetic myth objects". So he doesn't actually believe in the stories, but it's like he wants them to be real and creating the work about them makes it more of a reality. He uses unorthodox materials such as thread, plastic, KY jelly and soap to create the work it seems that he is challenging himself, but also because of the use of material he is making them seem as if he is upset about the fact that the stories are myths.

 I find his work very visually pleasing, it is very decorative and the palette that he uses also all complement each other, but are also relevant to the culture that he is painting about. I think that I will experiment with layering the shapes in my work because that seems to give a really good idea of space and this is something that I want to introduce into my work.

http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/ivan_morley.htm

Josh Smith

Untitled 2010 24 X 18 Inches

I wanted to look at Smiths work because of his paintings, I am thinking about introducing more paint back into my work and when I saw Smith's work I really liked the painterly quality it had to it. Smith works in a great range of disciplines and media, and working in a very abstract expressionist way, which is why in his paintings they are in such a painterly way. The look as if they have been created in a very quick way as if he knew exactly how to create what he wanted and he didn't thing about it too much.

His work is very playful and aggressive at the same time, to me it's very exact the scale, marks and colours because of the way he makes the work. He is inspired by natural things such as skeletons, leaves and insects, but there has to be a process from getting from one to the final outcome. All his inspirations are natural like many artists.

Smith wants people to look beyond what they normally see when looking at an object he wants them to look at a process and focus on looking at things that they don't normally see, this is what his works are. I think that I want to bring some of his painterly qualities into my work and maybe the process in which he makes them because I think that I am being too precious in the way that I'm making my paintings.

http://www.luhringaugustine.com/artists/josh-smith/

Reflecting before Developing my Final works

On reflecting on last week I have decided to go back to the simple figures that I was drawing a couple of weeks ago with the ink and the ones that I liked the most or worked the best where the drawings with only one figure on. I think that the proportions to the size of the paper work better than loads of little ones on the same sheet.

After looking at these ink drawings I decided that I wanted to focus on what goes inside the figure rather than the outline, like when you look at a person you are supposed to "not judge a book by its cover" this is something that I'm going to focus on from now on and play around with the idea. This week I have been looking at different ways that I could fill the centre using different materials learning what works and what doesn't.

Next week I'm going to take what works and develop them in line with my concept.

Seminar Presentation Evaluation

I did my Seminar Presentation on the artist Yayoi Kusama because of her clear connection between mine and her work. I'm going to evaluate my presentation and the things I did well and can improve on and then create a new and improved presentation.

Original Presentation 

Feedback Forms

These are the feedback forms that I received about my presentation.

Analysing the feedback

I have just grouped together all the information that was included on the feedback sheets to make it easier to understand and evaluate.

From the feedback forms I found that I did these things well:

• ·         I had a good use of videos from different sources and also a variety of images.
• ·         The presentation is well laid out and organised.
• ·         I showed a good relationship between my work and the artists.
• ·         clear presentation
• ·         good presentation length about 10minutes

Issues that I bought up and discussed:

• ·         The artist doesn't mind making bad work, she's in isolation she doesn't know what other artists are making
• ·         shapes and marks that are made
• ·         how she doesn't know how to explain her work
• ·         Her mental health/ state
• ·         Explained why the work was important
• ·         Explained why female artists weren't well known
• ·         Use of space and vanishing points
• ·         How the artist uses her work as a platform for people to understand her work.

Artists that where suggested to me:

·         Damien Hirst- Spot Paintings

·         Jackson Pollock

·         Colour Blind tests

·         Andy Warhol

Improvements that I was suggested to make:

• ·         Talk louder and more clearly
• ·         Ask more questions about her process in depth
• ·         How does it relate to other artists
• ·         Could talk more about childhood influence.

What I thought of the presentation

I thought the presentation went well, but I may have rushed and skimmed over some points that I planned to go in more depth. I felt that my voice was and ok volume, but obviously it didn't project to the back of the room as well as I thought and obviously if I was to do it again or in my future Art History Seminar presentation I will make sure that I speak louder and project my voice more; maybe I should have practiced a little more in my room beforehand to see how my voice was projecting. I felt I conveyed many ideas about the artist and her work, and also gave enough basic information to understand the artist's influences and why Kusama creates the work that she does. However it was suggested that I should have conducted more research into her process's to make it clearer how the work is created which I do agree with this and when I make my new and improved presentation this will defiantly be one of the improvements.

 I touched on her childhood briefly, but I didn't want to bog everyone down with information so I kept the information about the artists early life to a minimum, but it has been suggested that maybe I need to include more to help people put the work into context better; this is something that I will again include more about on the new presentation.

 I felt that I agreed with the points that people thought that I did well as they were the ones that I was hoping to achieve when doing my presentation. I thought that my presentation was professionally constructed and it wasn't too overloaded by text as I only put a very few key points on the slide and I expanded them when taking about the artist. I tried to make links between the relationship of mine and her work whenever I could so people could see how she was influencing my work both visually and through her concepts. I didn't want the presentation to drag on and on so I made sure that it only lasted about ten minutes by practising it before and by looking at the feedback people seemed to pick up on this.

I wanted to bring up a good amount off issues and controversial statements to get people talking about the work after the presentation and I'm really glad that people picked up on so many throughout the presentation and it lead to a interesting discussion after, particularly the issue of her being in isolation and the fact that she never really sees any other forms of art anymore; people where discussing how it effects her work without any other key influences other than her home and studio. It was decided as her work came from inspiration from her hallucinations the fact that she didn't see any other work didn't really make any difference as she wasn't trying to conform to any style she was doing the work for her own benefit. Which lead onto another interesting discussion that she uses her work as a platform to try and get people to understand how she sees things, she is trying to educate people with her work and get them to see the world from her point of view. It's like trying to persuade us that she's not mentally ill. 

New and Improved Presentation