I have always been very interested in Picasso and Matisse and was excited to see a video about them both. I didn't know they were such good friends. Like our book the video explains the differences and similarities between the two. I definitely understand both much more. The video describes the nature of both men, like our book, describing Matisse as organized and Picasso as "flighty" . These personalities are apparent in their works. The video further explains how the artist created his work, Matisse with a plan, an idea, and Picasso just doing whatever came to his mind, emerging himself in the piece. We learned about Cubism through our readings, the cutting up of images, introduced by Picasso. Also the calm,beautiful effects of Matisse' works. The video showed the progress of each artist side by side and the tauntings of eachother, as well as the borrowing of styles from eachother. I really enjoyed the play between the two art giants, how well they got along although they were complete opposites, how each one pushed the other with their new ideas. Both needed anguish in their lives to create their masterpieces. Matisse kept his inside and only painted beautiful things to make people happy and Picasso painted the world as he saw it, beautiful and ugly. Matisse always needed a model when painting his Odalisque series and Picasso rarely used a model, getting his image from his memory. Picasso didn't want to paint realistic things, he wanted to remove the viewer from his world and force him to enter Picasso's. Matisse was nearly a recluse and Picasso very flamboyant, in need of attention but somehow the two remained great friends until Matisse's death in 1954. I didn't realize that Matisse's later works were actually collages because he couldn't paint any longer. It is significant to me because Picasso invented the collage, they came full circle together.
Because I had learned so much about Picasso and Matisse I wanted to learn more about the next movement, Dada and Surrealism, but got more than I bargained for because this video highlighted 6 different artists. All shared the common idea that art should imitate itself, stand on it's own, not a representation of anything real. Dadaists believed in finding nonsense with everything, as we learned in our reading. The book mentioned Hannah Hoch, who was one of the featured artists in the video but I learned alot about her and her movement from the video. She was the founders girlfriend and ended up being the most influential Dadaist. She invented the photo montage and spoke volumes about her distaste of the world around her through this media. Not only are her pictures a mockery of evil persons in power they are also a history of the times she lived in. I hadnever heard of Kurt Schwitters but recognized his "house in a house", a collection of things he had acquired to be shown in his house and how he chose to display them. Both movements weren't really movements at all, as the video and book both explained, but rather a feeling. Dadaists were playful, almost absurd. Surrealists were more focused on the dreams and psychlogical interpretations of people. They would create pictures of realistic and natural objects in unnatural settings, causing the viewer to make sense of the painting. Two of the most famous Surrealist artists were Joan Miro and Salvador Dali, both learned about in our readings. Miro's paintings were colorful, playful shapes of realistic items put together in such a way they are almost indistinguishable. Dali's work is macabre, dark, eerie. He wanted to delve into the psyche of the human mind. Although his subjects are more recognizable he distorts them in such a way that the viewer is left to try to figure out why.
I remembered from our quiz that Georges Seurat created pointillism but didn't really know much else. I have seen his painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte-1884 a million times but never put the name with the work. I learned so much from this video. I had no idea there was so much controversy surrounding it. It's meaning or theme is constantly argued about. What do the women signify, the monkey, the fishing pole. Where these hints during the time it was painted towards the women being prostitutes, as was famous on the island at the time he painted it, or just mere ladies enjoying a leisurely Sunday. Did he intend for the "dots" to blend completely or not? Our book touched on him slightly, describing his techniques with conte-crayon to achieve texture and his use of light for dramatic effects. The video focused more on his pointillism technique and what he achieved with that, I love there is so much controversy about it. Not only is it an amazing impressionistic painting but it is also a departure from that and an invention entirely his own. Unfortunately, his career as a painter lasted only 10 years as he was struck with diptheria and died at a very young age. It would have been great to see what other inventions he may have created.
The fourth video I watched is The Mystical North. This video displayed tons of artists in our book. Goya, valesquez, Dali were all mentioned. They were the forefront of modern art. A pleasant surprise was Gaudi, the architect. I know that our culture uses the word gawdy to explain something that is too much or not right, however, we use the word and explanation incorrectly. His designs are amazing and modern before their time. I didn't know that Picasso ever painted religious paintings, but learned from this video that he designed his own museum and gave tons of his work to it. I also learned that Dali built his own crypt , in the way that he would , and is buried underneath. I would love to go see both. I was most impressed to learn about gaudi as I have already learned Miro, Picasso, Goya and Valesquez. I do believe Spanish painters don't get the recognition they deserve. They were the start of modern art. Goya with his "Black Paintings", which were called so due to the use f black paint and disturbing images, Gaudi who was commissioned to design a cathedral during a time when religion was changing, and Dali who didn't follow anyone. What an amazing group of artists.
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