Art History Guide

You Tube is a vast resource of teenagers dancing and lip synching. It’s where I go to watch a good anime montage set to my favorite dramatic mall punk/goth music. For example, in this You Tube clip, Robert Raushenberg explains the process to the “Erased De Kooning“…

What’s next in art history? We’ll see…

Raushenberg, Kooning

Puns are horrible, but I always end up thinking of these whenever it’s headline time. Why? And why does everything have to be so complicated?*

As the world went complex, Mark Rothko (1903-70) gave the complex thought simple expressions. And as his works became simpler, these expressions became larger. He said, “A large picture is an immediate transaction. It takes you into it.” Enjoy his work via YouTube and an Aphex Twin song.

Rothko did away with brush strokes and subject matter, and concentrated on color and compositions of space. They were true expressions which reflected his eventual spiral into alcoholism and depression. The hushed, calm hues gave way to darkness and melancholy. And, of course, he eventually suicided himself. Is this the end of Rothko? Maybe. Maybe not if some sort of environmental toxins reanimate corpses and send him to a shrink that can enable him to paint again. But mostly yeah, it’s the end.

*A truth discovered by Avril Lavigne when she was grounded for denting her parents’ car.

Rothko, Aphex, Lavigne

Actually, Edvard isn’t envious of anything, because much like Mr. Pollack, Edvard is dead. One thing Munch is, though, is pronounced liked Moonk. And was born in 1863 and died in 1908. And is considered an Early Expressionist, the blueprint for Expressionism — where distorted forms and color was used to portray emotion, like in “Amor & Psyche”…

Moonk is famous for his “The Scream” , which early expresses his cracking mind and anxiety. He suffered from much neurosis since his childhood, which he early expressed by saying “Illness, madness, and death were the black angels that kept watch over my cradle.” His family died when he was young, except for his father, who Moonk feared. When his painting, “Puberty“, hung at the gallery his father attended, Moonk ordered for it to be covered.

He suffered nervous breakdowns and was treated for depression, yet he said he wouldn’t lose it, “for there is much in my art that I owe to it.”

Edvard, Munch, Early Expressionist, Expressionism, The Scream

How is everyone feeling tonight? Good? Yeah? You should — any time I’m in an ultimate resource for things, I feel pretty good. Usually I’m drinking coffee before I get there, because I find resources to be sort of boring, and being full of coffee makes things pretty ultimate. So maybe the question should be whether or not you are drinking coffee.

But guess who isn’t drinking coffee. Jackson Pollack isn’t, because Jackson Pollack is dead. Besides, he was more of an alcohol guy.

But really, he was an OK guy. Some of the things he’s done includes taking an ice pick to piano keys, smashing a table full of glasses so he could make designs with his dripping blood, and pounding a table so furiously that a box of matches went into flames.

Pollack was obviously intense, and advocated that art came from within rather than without. His studio had no models or sketches, and Hans Hofmann once asked “Do you work from nature?” in which Pollack answered, “I am nature.”

Some may say he was out of control, but he was definitely mindful with his work. He once sent a message to a critic, simply saying “NO CHAOS DAMN IT”

In the 1870s, Edgar Degas started going blind, and like any artist going blind, he switched to pastels. This way, he developed an original style, coloring while drawing, using the medium for finished works instead of sketches for the first time. And as his eyes weakened, his compositions became more simple and his colors more intense. As my eyes weaken, I just blink more.

Degas also went into sculpture, calling it the blind man’s art. He felt around, modeling wax figures of horses and dancers. After his death, his sculptures were cast into bronze.

Say that you’re at a bar, and you engage yourself in a conversation with a classy lady. If she says her friends (who are marrying each other) are a match made in heaven, don’t quip with “Oh, well then they should just die then.” Because it’s not a good reply. She paused and put out her cigarette, said she was too drunk, then walked away.

What does that have to do with Edgar Degas? I don’t know, but he did once say, “Women in general are ugly.” Granted, one was just my poor wit at its finest, where his declaration was probably more of a stock answer to any “you paint ugly women” comment he’d receive. It is strange though, because his paintings are beautiful, and they are mostly of women.

I admire an artist whose figures have natural weight and candid movement in their body. Degas does this well — many of his subjects are ballerinas and nude women doing very mundane things. Like this woman polishing her foot…

Or these dancers who are being eaten by ants…

There is more to say about this fine artist, but my “saying dumb things” quota is bursting at the seams. Also, I’m very proud of my post’s title.

We all know a Paul Gauguin. You know, the type who walks around with a monkey on his shoulder and spends the last years of his life in a Tahitian hut with a 13 year old girl? Yeah, those types.

Often known as a founder of modern art, Gauguin (1848 - 1903) went against painting from nature and opted for “restoring painting to its sources” — imagination and the primal emotional response to a subject. He flattened forms, distorted shapes, and used intense colors for subjective reaction to what he’s seen.

Gauguin would produce art occasionally throughout his life, but didn’t go full time until he was 35. Before that he was a stock broker and a middle-class father of five. When he left it all for art, he went through many mental and financial troubles. But ultimately it was what he called his longing for the unknown, that kept him going. Before his death, he wrote “It is true I know very little but I prefer the little that comes from myself. And who knows whether this little, taken up by others, won’t become something great?”

Maurice Denis, a painter, once said of him, “Gauguin freed us from all the restraints which the idea of copying nature had placed upon us.”

Paul Gauguin, 1848 - 1903

The other day I had some of my paintings out on West Broadway between Prince and Spring, while I hung out with a painter named La. He was telling me about his various sales during the week and an old feature film he once shot. Trying to sell paintings is as hard as any other business. But remember when the patronage system was big? I do.

Before the galleries and museums, the wealthy would commission works from artists. One of the most famous relations was between Michelangelo and the Medici patrons. It was a classic battle between the creator and the boss — being told what to do while trying to follow your muse. Many a Medici would constantly change their minds and distract him with other assignments. One incident involved two popes who made him sculpt tomb statues for their relatives. The stone faces ended up having no resemblance to their appearance, to which he said that in 100 years, no one would care what his actual subjects looked like.

patronage system, Michelangelo, Medici

Are we having fun? Of course we are. This is an exciting time right now in art history. I know I am having fun. You better believe it, art historians.

Last time you read this, you read about the Simpsons — Homer in particular. Winslow Homer to be exact. You know how he standardized watercolor painting as a recognized art medium? Well, have you ever wondered who was one of the first artists to start painting oils on canvas instead of wood panels? The answer is this Venetian guy:

Titian (TISH-un) dominated the art scene for sixty years, using strong colors with a painstaking approach involving thirty or forty layers of glazes. This made him a master of textures. For example, the texture of Venus, in his Venus of Urbino:

I saw the Simpsons movie the other day. I can’t say much about the film, but I could say something about Winslow Homer (1836-1910). “If a man wants to be an artist, he should never look at paintings,” he once said.

Homer was a self taught realist who first started out as an illustrator, and by 27, began painting in oils. He didn’t care about outside influence and theory, and went with straight observation. He has said that after choosing his subject, that he paints it exactly as it appears. As far as European art? Meh, said he.

By 38, he began using watercolors. Back then, watercolors weren’t used as a major medium. It was more for sketching than for final pieces. But Homer used it masterfully, mostly brandishing his brush with marine visions of the sea.

Simpsons, Homer, watercolors