Lucy Archer
Artist Research
Otto Dix
I find myself to be drawn to more expressionist work, therefore I was rather intreged by Otto Dix's work, especially his pieces from World War One, which sparked another interest of mine, the portrayal of death in art.
'Shock Troops Advance under Gas' from Dix's 'The War', I find to be very interesting. the soldiers in this piece aren't shown to be heros, they just exist. By making their faces be hidden by gas masks, it makes them look quite ghostly, like they don't have an identity, like they're just another number. This could be how Dix actually felt while he was in the trenches, therefore it seems he is attempting to show the reality of someone who was there. The fact it is in black and white increases the feeling of misery and hopelessness these troops would probaby have been feeling.
Emil Nolde
I do enjoy the vibrant colours Nolde uses in his work, makes them quite bold statements. looking at a variety of his paintings, from landscapes to still life to portraits, most of them feel quite dark, with few seeming to output a postive emotion.
To me, his landscapes like 'Dark sea with Brown Sky', 'Dark Mountain Landscape' and 'Dark Sea Green Sky' don't appear to be very hopeful. Perhaps his intention was to show how unforgiving and cruel the natural world can be.
His portraits don't seem to differ from this pattern. For example, in his painting 'Girl with a Red Hat', this girl's face is covered mostly with the shadow from her hat, it could suggest something negative is cast over her, perhaps loneliness as it is only her in the painting and her facial expression is almost blank. The brightness of her hat is then rather contradictary to the feelings I get from this painting. 'Three Heads', to me, is also being shown in a negative way. These figures and faces barely resemble figures and faces. The dark colours and smudges make them look a little less than human, creating an ominous and unknowing atmosphere. However, his painting 'Islander' seems to contradict this dark theme. The colours are just as bold. but the yellow shadingon thisgirl brightens up the painting in a postive way. Another key factor is that this model is smiling, not many of the portraits I have seen by Nolde seem to do so.
Gwen Johns
Johns mainly painted portraits of anonymous women. It is slightly connected to my interests of painting/drawing figures, however her style of painting is quite different. It seems she taps the canvas with her brush creating a mosiac-like effect. This would suggest her paintings have facture. I also rather like paintings with more facture as to me, it gives the painting more life. When looking at a variety of her portraits, the majority of them are not looking at the viewer. This envokes a sense of shyness and fragility. To the portraits of the women, this could be seen as a stereotype. However, in her self portrait from 1902, she is directly challenging the voyeurism of the viewer, giving the painting quite a strong and powerful image.
Leonardo da Vinci
For a long time, I have been fasinated by da Vinci's anatomical drawings. The accuracy and details in them show his dedication in creating these records of human anatomy, and I find that inspiring. I enjoy how da Vinci brought other elements into this series of sketches, Architectural and geometric ways of drawing found its way into some of his sketches for example, '' and ''. I quite like the idea of adding uncoventional elements into my work, like stitching into a canvas for example.
Vincent van Gogh
My favourite van Gogh piece would have to be 'Starry Night'. The flowing spirals of the background appear to me to be the movement of stars and space, perhaps even spiraling galaxies. By painting the town below rather small, it makes it seem insignificant compared to the vast never-ending universe. The colours that he uses also aids my belief that he was seeing space beyond the sky. The variety of blues and yellows from the moon and stars, rather than the several blue tones like in 'Starry Might Over the Rhone'. This painting portrayal of the sky is quite straight, the facture is all horizontal, which also helps to show that the spirals of 'Starry Night' represent a little more than the night sky.
Paul Cezanne
Most of Cezanne's apple still life's almost always appear with another object, whether it be a skull, curtain, oranges or a jug. These pairings he has put together, made me think how I should adapt my 100 apple drawings. The skull certainly interested me the most, in two ways. I am very drawn too anatomical paintings/drawings as a personal curiosity, and I also find Cezanne's 'Still Life with Skull' rather ironic, as food helps keep you alive. I decided not to go with an ironic subject theme, I realised I wanted to keep them linked therefore I made a tree out of my 100 apples.
Amedeo Modigliani
He stood out to me as he elongated the faces of his portraits. I enjoy these works because I am interested in the abnormal and strange in art. The colour pallette he appears to use consists of quite earthy tones. Even though I usually don't lean towards this kind of colour selection myself, I feel it is well suited to his paintings. Perhaps with this pallette, he is attempting to reconnect people with the planet.
Jackson Pollock
I prefer original expressionism to abstract expressionism, but I still enjoy the works of Jackson Pollock. The vast sizes of his paintings, in my opinion, is one of the most important features. Due to the scale, the paintings would consume the viewers peripheral vision, which would give the feeling that you were being enveloped by the painting. I rather like pollock's painting 'Composition with Pouring II' 1943, as no part of the painting is more important than the other, it is equal, which is the case for several of his other drip paintings. As they are drip paintings, they are improvised, because of this it seems like it could extend beyond the edges of the canvas and go on infinitly.
Rachel Ducker
Sculpture is my least favourite aspect of fine art. However, I enjoy wire sculpture the most out of that factor. I think this is because wire can be turned into anything you want it to be and it looks/seems quite skeleton-like to me as it is like the first layer of something, you could add more onto it if you wanted. I also like wire sculpture because you could always add more to it, it doesnt just have to be one kind of wire and just silver or copper in colour. i found out that Ducker does not like to give titles to her artwork, and I quite like this idea as it will allow the viewer to see her sculptures without any prior influence, therefore each idea of what one of her sculptures represents will be a pure evalution of what the viewer thinks and not neccissarily inkeeping with what Ducker thought.
Barnet Newman
Out of abstarct expressionism, I prefer the drip painting methods of Pollock rather than the colour field painters like Newman. However, the hard edges and pure colour portray emotion in quite a simple way. It is not confused or emphasised bt the movement of the brushstroke. The colour is divided by thin lines Newman called 'zips' acting as 'a single line of energy cutting through the void'. newman was influenced by minimalists of the 60's which is quite clear to see in his work with the blocks of colour and several lines cutting through these blocks. His work, like pollock's is very large in scale. I really like pieces like this because it completely envelopes the viewer in the art as it takes over their perpheral vision.
