Lesson: 4 - 15.3.2010 - Impressionism and Post Impressionism

Lesson: 4 - 15.3.2010

Impressionism and Post Impressionism

Neoimpressionists used logic in paintings not spontaneity. This was based on science.

Romanticism - Emotions used as an aesthetic, sublime quality of nature.

Photography - Complied science

Landscapes where important to early impressionists,

Eg. Monet's Water Lilies. Monet painted at various times of the day to capture the changing light.

Claude Monet - Water Lilies (1907)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Claude_Monet_-_Water_Lilies.JPG

Water Lilies, Claude Monet

http://www.loxahatcheefriends.com/Nature/0907%20Jul/03Monet-WaterLilies.jpg

Other recommended artists: Edgar Degas, Marry Cassat (Both do intimate style paintings)

Young Woman Sewing in a Garden by Mary Cassatt(oil on canvas, 36-1/4x24-3/8 inches) resides inthe Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Extract from: http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/artwork/paintings-by-mary-cassatt4.htm

Young Woman Sewing in a Garden by Mary Cassatt. Mary Cassatt completed Young Woman Sewing in a Garden between 1880 and 1882. Like Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, Cassatt experimented with bold compositions. In Young Woman Sewing in a Garden, the figure is pushed up to the very surface of the picture plane, while the garden path behind her cuts across the back of the canvas in a diagonal axis. But in contrast to Edgar Degas's tight drawing style, Mary Cassatt handled her paint with a loose and confident stroke.

Lesson 3: 1.3.2010 - Library Lesson

Lesson 3 - 1.3.2010

Library Lesson

Today's lesson was all about the resources that the library has to offer. We learnt that when starting assignments a good strategy is to identify the key concepts, the instructing words and any limiting or narrowing words.

We learnt that when searching their system if you type for example photography like this; "photography" it will be a specific search or if you type it like this; photography* it will cover similar words such as photographer.

Groove Art Online (Oxford's page) is a good resource

We also recapped on bibliography.

10% plagiarism rule for both direct and indirect quotes.

Use 3 main sources in reports; catalogue, database, online/Internet

A list of Reference - Is only things you have used directly

A Bibliography - Is everything you have viewed

Example: Freeman, M 1984, Achieving Photographic Style, Amphot, New York

Assignment 2: Masterpieces from Paris - 24.2.2010

Assignment 2: Masterpieces from Paris - 24.2.2010
Task: Are the artists embracing or rejecting modernist ideas. Choose one work; What are the formal qualities that appeal to you? Is there an implied narrative and what might this be? Is the work making you feel or think in a particular way? Write a concise response to the chosen work.

Canberra is lucky enough to have the Masterpieces from Paris featured at our own National Gallery of Australia. It features 112 post-impressionist paintings on temporary loan from the Musee D'Orsay in Paris.The exhibition runs from the 4th December 2009 to the 5th of April 2010. It is one exhibition that is definitely worth have a look at. Just last week the Gallery announced that this particular exhibition has had the most people attend out of any exhibition that they've featured at the Gallery. "Never before have so many masterpieces been brought together in one exhibition in this country," NGA director Mr Ron Radford said. (McLintock, P 2009, Viewed: 1.3.2010, www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/10/2651408.htm)

The exhibition had 6 rooms each with a different theme. In room 5 one painting by Gustave Moreau has a particular quality to it that just captivated me and really stood out from the rest. At first glance it was just another painting of a woman but open approaching i noticed that i dismembered head was in fact what she was holding. Room 5 has a high focus on symbolism and so to does Moreau's painting Orpheus. The painting has a sort of mystical quality to it, set in a barren landscape with a woman looking longingly into the head which appears to be placed on a plaque. The general narrative behind the painting is that Orpheus was a musician who was killed by a woman, in the painting Moreau does not depict the act of the killing rather he shows a scene from afterwards of a young woman starring deeply at the head of the dead Orpheus. The artist appears to be rejecting modernist idea's through the mystical qualities of his paintings. Moreau explored ideas such as mythology, philosophy and dreams through his work creating a very surreal element to his artworks. Featured in his painting appear to be three women playing music which could possibly symbolise the connection to the fact Orpheus was a musician. There is also a spiritual insight and a dreamlike quality to this work. The young woman appears to be very accepting and it almost a personal and intimate moment depicted.

The artwork really appeals to me as it is more than just a portrait of a woman. There are many hidden meanings and symbols behind it and you could spend hours breaking it down and considering all the different aspects of it. The work allows me to see the situation through the eyes of the young woman and interpret her feelings through the artwork. It evokes a feeling of sadness but also acceptance and compels a certain curiosity to understand the depicted scene.



Gustave Moreau
Orpheus
1865
Oil on canvas

Image can be found on http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/moreau_gustave.html

Lesson 2: 22.2.2010 - Introduction to Art Theory and Modernism

Lesson 2: 22.2.2010

Introduction to Art Theory and Modernism

Theory: - A tool to develop visual and contextual analysis
- A tool for inquiry
- Some type of theory used in humanities

"The masters tool will never dismantle the master's house" Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider, 1984

The biggest aim of visual culture is for the individual to develop their own understanding of aesthetics.

Positivism
An approach to theory: only uses facts.
Refuses to engage with interpretation.
"ONLY FACTS" from sciences as the only source of knowledge.
Founder: Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
Highly Descriptive of formal qualities.

The opposite approach...

Critical Theory
Contextualise and interpret.
Politics of reception, power and ideology.
Interdisciplinary, not fixed.


How we talk about art - art history and art theory.
Theory as discourse - not neutral, not impartial, not universal.


Positivism (formalist approach)
- Facts only, against interpretation
- Human behaviours follows laws/ science (Comte)
- Descriptive account of art


Contemporary Approach (Critical Theory)
- Interdisciplinary
- Cultural, social and political contexts - not fixed


Introduction to Modernism
What is modernism? Contemporary, progress, new
What are the differences between 'modern', 'modernity' and 'modernism'?
How did the modernists differ from the romantics?
Formalist and positivist approaches to art theory.


Modernism (1930's/40's - current time = post modernism)
Theodore Gericault - The raft of medusa 1818- 1819
Eugene Delacrouix - Liberty Leading the People 1830
Gustave Courbet - The Stone breakers 1947
Jean Francois Millet - Angelus 1859
Edouard Manet - The Luncheon on the Grass 1863
- Olympia 1863
Ernest Putherford (1871-1937)
Niels Bohr 1885
Francis Picabia
Jean Arp
Natalya Goncharo - Peasants Dancing
John Heartfields - Adolf Superman
Marcel Duchamp - Fountain 1917 by R. Mutt




Edouard Manet
1863
Oil on Canvas
130.5 cm × 190 cm (51.4 in × 74.8 in)
Musee d'Orsay, Paris

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympia_(Manet)

Lesson 1: 15.2.2010 - Introduction to Visual Culture

Lesson 1: 15.2.2010

Introduction to Visual Culture

Today's lesson was a basic overview of what we would be learning in Visual Culture. We learnt about to ways that the teachers would communicate with us through a private facebook page and a blog page found at: http://www.citphotographycentral.blogspot.com/

We learnt about the two major types of assessment which are;
(f) = Formative - Which is not graded
(s) = Summative - Which is graded