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.

Kazimir Malevich

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was a Russian painter and art theoretician. He was a pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the avant-garde, Suprematist movement.

In Malevich‘s abstract works he used only basic geometrical shapes and a severely restricted range of colour.

   

Malevich was also interested in aerial photography and aviation, which led him to abstractions inspired by or derived from aerial landscapes.

Speaking about his the most famous artwork… Yes, that’s, obviously, the“Black Square”. 

One of the most famous paintings in Russian art, the “Black Square” marked the turning point of the Russian avant-garde movement. Before creating this painting, Malevich spent eighteen months in his studio, laboring over thirty non-objective paintings. In the end, he had created a series of non-objective paintings, of which Black Square is one. His invention of the word “suprematism” was meant to refer to the supremacy of the new geometric forms.

You know, everytime I see this picture, the only phrase comes up to my head. “As simple as that” – that is the phrase hah. However, I find this work brilliant. How do you think why?

The answer is that the painting is an icon of emptiness and death. Moreover, the “Black Square” is one of modern art’s most extreme statements, a reduction of art to an absolute zero from which a new art will be born. We can’t help looking at it with the knowledge that Russia was on the verge of revolution when this eerie object was created. It is an image full of foreboding and menace, as if something mighty is about to happen – as if world is about to end.

To my mind, the “Black Square” looks back bleakly at life. It seems to suck out energy and create an uncanny stillness. In Dostoevsky‘s novel “The Idiot”, a character gazes at Hans Holbein‘s painting called “The Daed Christ” and comments that it could destroy someone’s religious faith.

Obviously, Malevich painted an icon of emptiness that can destroy your faith in history, progress, art.

Salvador Dali

Did you know, that the whole name of the famous Spanish surrealist painter artist sounds like that – Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech? Anyway, now you know it.

Speaking about Dali’s creative work I would like to mark that he was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work.

Let’s have a look at his creations.

        

Here’s my favourite picture by Dali, which has the name – “Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening”:

Isn’t it a marvelous  picture?

One of the most popular masterpieces by Salvador Dali is “The Persistence of Memory”, which was created in 1931. The spanish name of this masterpiece is  “La persistencia de la memoria”.

Obviously, Salvador Dali was highly imaginative. By the way, the artist also enjoyed indulging in unusual and grandiose behavior. His eccentric manner and actions sometimes drew more public attention than his creations, to the dismay of those who held his work in high esteem, and to the irritation of his critics. For example, just have a look at the photo below, where you can recognize Salvador Dali having a stroll with… yes, exactly! – with his own ant-eater!!!

A good solution to understand Dali’s paintings is to read the only book with intriguing title “Hidden Faces” written by the artist. It’s a novel about lives and loves of a group of aristocratic characters who, in their beauty, luxury, and extravagance, symbolize the decadent Europe of the 1930s.

This is the exciting story of the tangled lives of the protagonists, from the February riots of 1934 in Paris to the closing days of the war, is a brilliant vehicle for Dali’s ideas, and an evocation of pre-war Europe. What is more, “Hidden Faces” is valuable not only for Dali’s own specially drawn illustrations, but also because it synthesizes all of the themes in Dali’s art

Of course, looking on Dali’s paintings and reading “Hidden Faces”, as many other people, you will have a question “Was this painter adequete or not?” So, my dear readers, I prefer to answer you by Salvador’s well-know quote:

To sum up, I will highly recommend you to enjoy this short animated film called “Destino”, which was released by The WaltDisney Company in 2003. The film is clously connected with Salvador Dali’s artwork. Enjoy! – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GFkN4deuZU

Ivan Aivazovsky

You know, some artists find their inspiration in one particular subject. A well-known russian painter of the nineteenth century, Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky was one of them.

Ivan Aivazovsky  was passionate about  the sea. His seascapes and coastal scenes are well-known world over. Even more, perhaps, there was no other painter in Europe, who depicted the extraordinary beauty of the sea with so much expressiveness and feeling.

   

However, Ivan Aivazovsky also painted landscapes, including scenes of peasant life in Ukraine and city life in Istanbul. Here are they for you to compare with his marvelous seascapes:

    

An intresting fact is that some critics have called his paintings from Istanbul Orientalist, and others feel the hundreds of seascapes can be repetitive and melodramatic. So, “tastes differ”.

The native town of Ivan Aivazovsky is the town of Feodosiya (Theodosia) in Crimea, where “the Aivazovsky Art Gallery” can be also found.  The gallery is famous fot its largest collection of Aivazovsky’s masterpieces. Obviously, Ivan Aivazovsky has made an outstanding contribution to the artistic heritage.

     

Moreover, Ivan Aivazovsky has developed a totally unique style.  The painter’s technique and imagination in depicting the shimmering play of light on the waves and seafoam is especially admired.

What is more, it gives Aivazovsky’s seascapes a realistic quality. I was surprised that, according to some experts, it also echoes with the works of a British Romantic watercolorist Joseph Mallord William Turner and Russian painter Sylvester Shchedrin. 

There’s no doubt that especially effective is Aivazovsky’s ability to depict diffuse sunlight and moonlight, sometimes coming from behind clouds or through a fog, with almost transparent layers of paint. You can notice this in his works. A series of paintings of naval battles painted in the 1840s brought his dramatic skills to the fore, with the flames of burning ships reflected in water and clouds.

To conclude, just enjoy the most famous work by Ivan Aivazovsky, which is called “The Ninth Wave”:

 

As you see, the painting depicts a sea after a night storm and people in a small boat, who are facing death attempting to save themselves by clinging to debris from a wrecked ship.

Warm tones used in this painting are not used by random.Thanks to these colours the sea appears to be not so menacing and giving a chance for the people to survive.

This painting is often called “the most beautiful painting in Russia”.

 

M. C. ESCHER

It’s always very strange to speak about something  favorite, when it concerns art. Art itself is too many-sided, too extraordionary … How can I call some artist, for instance, the best one?! However, I will say to you, that I have my so-called favourite artist. And this artist is – Maurits Cornelis Escher. There is no doubt, that his masterpieces impress me greatly…

I found his self-portrait very unsusul. We can see here, how Escher and the interior of his studio in Rome are reflected in the mirrored sphere that he holds in his hand. By the way, Escher’s preoccupation with mirrored reflections and visual illusion belongs to a tradition of northern European art established in the fifteenth century. Here you can see this self-portrait:

As concerns the technick, Escher often used his drawings as studies for prints, but he occasionally also experimented with various drawing techniques. His most important experiments are the “scratch drawings” for which he evenly coated the paper with lithographic drawing ink. He then drew on the prepared surface with a pointed tool, scoring or scratching into it to produce his image. This technique, which he first employed in 1929, led Escher directly to his work in lithography.

By the way, many of his graphical and conceptual boons are included in artistic symbols of the twentieth century paintings, and were “quoted” by other painers as well. At the same time, Escher’s artworks refer to elitism.

One of the most curious things about this artist, obviously, is that he found inspiration for his works in reading mathematical articles. Can you believe it? The articles about tiling, for instance, inspired him greatly. Those articles, where you can usually find information about a way of arranging identical plane shapes so that they completely cover an area without overlapping, made this gay to draw SUCH GREAT THINGS! It sounds very sophisticated, isn’t it?

However, he found his inspiration in such away. May be for me it will also be a useful idea to look through my school manuals in order to find some new ideas for my drawings? Why not to to read a manual of chemistry or physics, for example? Someday I should think about it.

BOSCH

To inspire myself to draw today – I decided to look at the mysterious and at the same time amazing artworks of famous painter Hieronymus Bosch. By the way, Hieronymus Bosch was not the real name of the artist. It was just his pseudonym. What for his real name, it was – Jeroen Anthoniszoon van Aken.

Speaking about the majority of Bosch’s masterpieces, they are full of various symbols. So, there’s no doubt, that his works are very interesting to investigate. Even now, no one art critic in the world is able to say exactly, what is behind Bosch‘s works.To my mind, this artist is like a big symbol himself, like a puzzle I mean.

Just have a look at his paintings. Can you imagine what was happening in his head while he was creating his paintings?

Take, for instance, his masterpiece called “The Garden of Earthly Delights”. It’s a breathtaking triptych! Looking at this painting you are beginning to doubt that this masterpiece was created about five hundred years ago. It is far from traditional medieval paintings.

As you see, this painting consists of three parts. The central part represents the Garden of earthly delights itself. It’s a panorama of fantastic “garden of love” with lots of naked men and women, extraordinary animals and plants. Lovers indulge in vice in ponds…  In spite of them, you notice birds of enormous proportions, butterflies, horses, etc. Moreover, strange fountains or castles are here  as well.

Now let’s move to the two other parts of this triptych. On the left one – God is shown with Adam and Eve. The atmosphere on this part of the painting is peaceful, combined with lively central part. As for the left part of this masterpiece, here we can see Hell. Again, the atmosphere differs greatly from the left part. Don’t you find it exiting to look at this tryptych as a whole art work, and then at all it’s parts separetely?

Coming back to my pursuit of inspiration… eventually, I found it. Of course, my own drawings are very far from Bosch, but also contain lots of polysemantic symbols. Frankly speaking, I really enjoy to use symbols in my creations. You know, using symbols – is a good idea to say what you feel or think without saying it directly. Moreover, it gives you an opportunity to rouse people’s interest in your works, because looking at your drawings they start to think “what was it exactly about”.

Have you ever tried to draw something?

If you said “no” – so, my friend, obviously, you should try it!

Don’t ask me suck rediculous questions like “Oh what’s the reason of it?!?”

JUST TRUST me, BELIEVE IN YOURSELF and BE BRAVE enough to take a pen or pencil in your hand. Oh dear, and, by the way, don’t forget about a sheet of paper – that’s quite important staff in this bussiness as well.

AND NOW ,please, START draw!! Yes, just draw something that is inside your head… (NO, I DON’T MEAN YOUR BRAINS AS THEY ARE, OF COURSE!!) I’m talking about your thoughts and emotions. Even if you’re thinking about pink rabbits – DRAW! Yes, even if you don’t know how to draw pink rabbits – draw as YOU see them, as YOU can! That’s the idea! Be creative! DON’T BE shy! On no account you should not be afraid of having a different view! That’s quite an important issue because that’s art!!! Just start…

and

KEEP IN YOUR MIND THE FOLLOWING WISDOM:

A man paints with his brains and not with his hands

                                                                                     (Michelangelo)

Oh, I should also say why I’m talkin about it. Well, I’m a so-called painter myself. It’ll be better to say – I’m trying to be a painter. But you know, I have faced an peculiar problem. That’s – inspiration. Sometimes it is really hard to inspire yourself to draw.

However, I think, I’ve find a kind of solution. I’m going to look at works of different art geniuses in order to inspire myself to create. At the same time, it is a good way to broder the knowledges about art history. I’m going to write a king of “Art history for dummies” hahah kidding 🙂 . I promise, it’ll be fun. So, if you’re interested in art, but at the same time, lazy enough to research some academic art literature, you will be welcome to my blog!