Giuseppe Arcimboldo

This Italian Mannerist painter was well-known for his grotesque compositions of fruits, vegetables, animals, books, and other objects, which were arranged to resemble human portraits.

By the way, the first image here is Archimboldo’s most famous work called “Vertumnus”. Actually, it is a portrait of Rudolf II, which was re-imagined by the artist as the Roman god of metamorphoses in nature and life, with Rudolf’s face composed of fruit and flowers, symbolising the perfect balance and harmony with nature that his reign represented.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, like Hieronymus Bosch, whose paintings I’ve also reviewed previously in the blog, was an artist several centuries ahead of his time. Giuseppe Arcimboldo was born, when the Italian Renaissance was in full flower.

Archimboldo’s enduring fame is based on a series of allegorical portraits composed of carefully chosen objects, particularly his “Four Elements” and “Four Seasons”. Here’s “Four Seasons” for you:

 

As you can see, the first picture on the left top corner is the image of Summer. If we go clockwise – there is then Spring, Winter and Autumn as well.

To continue the theme of times of the year, I’ll suggest you to have a look at other far more creative masterpiece by Giuseppe Arcimboldo. It has the name “Four Seasons In One Head”:

 

A little bit frightening, right? Hah obviously, that’s not Miss Universe! However…

If you look more carefully at this painting, I’m sure,  it will please you wonderfully.

A very knotty trunk represents the breast and head, some holes for the mouth and eyes, and a protruding branch for the nose; the beard is made of strands of moss and some twigs on the forehead form horns. This tree-stump, without its own leaves or fruit, represents winter, which produces nothing itself, but depends on the production of the other seasons.

A small flower on his breast and over his shoulders symbolizes spring, as well as a bundle of ears bound to some twigs, and a cloak of plaited straw covering his shoulders, and two cherries hanging from a branch forming his ear, and two damsons on the back of his head represent summer.

And two grapes hanging from a twig, one white and one red, and some apples, hidden among evergreen ivy sprouting forth from his head, symbolize autumn.

Among the branches in the head, one in the middle is loosing a bit of its bark, and pieces of it are bent and falling off; on the white area of this branch is written ‘ARCIMBOLDUS P.’.

An intresting fact is that it wasn’t until the 20th century that Arcimboldo was rediscovered by the Modernists and Surrealists. We see echoes of Arcimboldo in the work of Pablo Picasso, George Grosz, Rene Magritte and, especially, Salvador Dalí.

The 2007 release of Jape’s video for “Floating” has now — over 400 years after his death — brought Arcimboldo’s work into the 21st century. And, of course, it’s on YouTube! Have some fun! – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3OSoBFzhLI

Pablo Picasso

“If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes.”

That’s a well-known quote by Pablo Picasso. There’s something sorroful in it. But for me it’s marvelous.

Again, some words about the name of the artist. You know, writing this blog I am really wondering about the length of the artists names. So, Pablo Picasso has the shorter full name than Dali hahah who was a “so-called winner” I think, speaking about the length of names. Well, to cut the long story short, the whole name is – Pablo Ruiz y Picasso. 

Now, seriously. This guy was a famous one. Do you know, that Picasso, as well as his collegues Henry Matisse and Marcel Duchamp are regarded as the three artists who most defined the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting, sculpture, printmaking and ceramics? So, that’s true.

Prolific as a draftsman, sculptor, and printmaker, Picasso‘s primary medium was, of course, painting. He usually painted from imagination or memory.

A few words about the style.

Although he used color as an expressive element, he relied on drawing rather than subtleties of color to create form and space

Picasso began his creative work painting in a realistic manner. If you have ever seen his masterpiecies, I’m sure, you are surprised now. Because, actually, later on, Picasso’s style changed dramatically! And this new style, in fakt, rought him universal renown and immense fortune, making him one of the best-known figures in 20th century art. Some of his works:

    

In 1907, Pablo Picasso produced a painting unlike anything he or anyone else had ever painted before, a work that would profoundly influence the direction of art in the 20th century: “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,”  –

That’s a chilling depiction of five nude prostitutes, abstracted and distorted with sharp geometric features and stark blotches of blues, greens and grays.

Today, “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” is considered the precursor and inspiration of Cubism, an artistic style pioneered by Picasso and his friend and fellow painter, Georges Braque. 

In Cubist paintings, as you can see in Picasso’s works, objects

are broken apart and reassembled in an abstracted form, highlighting their composite geometric shapes and depicting them from multiple, simultaneous viewpoints in order to create physics-defying, collage-like effects.

 

Banksy

So, the theme of my today’s review is graffity. Nowadays this form of art has become amazingly popular. I would like to mark that if you want to see this modern art – there is no need to visit art galleries. Good news – you don’t need to pay hahah! Just pay attention to walls on the streets, while going to the university, for example. You can find looooots of creations on the streets! However, not all creations can be called “something special”. There’re many, which are simply about nothing. There’s no any idea in them – sometimes that’s only some stuped words.

But I’m going to talk about so-called “quality graffity”. Let’s introduce you to Banksy!

Banksy is a well-known british graffitist. By the way, Banksy is a pseudonymous.

As for me, I enjoy his works pretty much, especially for their satirical character.

        

Banky’s works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities all over the world.

Known for his contempt for the government in labelling graffiti as vandalism, Banksy displays his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls, even going as far as to build physical prop pieces.

And if you think that it is easy to be a graffitist, you are mistaken. You should know, I suppose, that graffity is forbidden. That’s why, the government doesn’t care even if your graffity pictures are really nice. A good example will be the case with Banksy’s graffity “One nation under CCTV”, which was painted over. Robert Davis, the chairman of the council planning committee told The Times newspaper: “If we condone this then we might as well say that any kid with a spray can is producing art.”

It’s also important to say that Banksy is not only a graffi artist. He is also known as political activist and film director.

Have you ever heard about the film called “Exit through the gift shop”? Well, this film was made by Banksy.  First it was shown on the “Sundance Film Festival” in 2010. Later on, Banksy was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary for the film. Obviously, this film is worth watching! – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9rnyCyLFtE

 

Andy Warhol

Yeap, that’s Endy Warhol.

This stylish american man was the leading figure of POP ART movement.

The main idea in his works is the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture and advertisement.

If you are interested in his work, well, bye the ticket to  his native city – Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania and find there the best collection of his creations in “The Andy Warhol Museum”. Oh, and just in case, if you don’t know, Warhol‘s art encompassed many forms of media, including hand drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, silk screening, sculpture, film, and music.

By the way, how much would you pay for his masterpiece if you had a chance to bye it, ah?

Let’s take this picture, for example:

The name of this work is “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)”. 

It doesn’t look very expencive, right? However, someone paid for it 105 million US $!!! I’m not kidding. It was the highest price ever paid for Warhol‘s creation. As you understand now, his creations are quite collectible and valuable.

Speaking about the artist himself, Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books, and feature and documentary films. So, obviously, he was a popular guy. If you are interested to know more about his life, I’ll suggest you to watch “Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film”. Hope, you’ll like it! Here is the first part of this four-hour long documentary – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQXpqQO4vaE.

By the way, Andy Warhol was also a highly prolific filmmaker as well. He made more than 60 films. As well as his paintings, his films were rather original. Take for example one of his most famous films “Sleep”, which monitors poet John Giorno sleeping for six hours. The 35-minute film called “Blow Job” is one continuous shot of the face of DeVeran Bookwalter supposedly receiving oral sex from filmmaker Willard Maas, although the camera never tilts down to see this.

Nevertheless Warhol’s art is really weird, to my mind, AndyWarhol has become a touchstone of the culture – and I mean more than simply painting and art history. I think he’s a touchstone of the culture we live in – a touchstone for the entire culture of the post-war period. He is probably the most important artist of the second half of the 20th century, maybe the most important artist of the 20th century.