Project 2

Allbright Knox

First I’d like to say that I am glad that I am taking this class.  Had it not been for this class I would not have made a trip to Albright Know Art Gallery and seen the Monet and impressionist exhibit.  It was cool to be so close to such old and valuable stuff.  To think about how sought after some of these works may be it’s nice to be able to be so close to them.  For the questions for this project I’m am applying works that I was able to take pictures of, anything was free game except the Monet exhibit.

Photobucket Gallery

Question 1 – Which artworks make an impact or impression on me and why?

There was one painting in particular that made me stop and take an extra look, it was La jeune bonne (The Servant Girl) by Amedeo Modigliani.  At first glance it was just a full length portrait of a lady in old world dress with a kind of plain look to her.  But it was how Modigliani chose to paint the Servant Girls eyes that caught my attention.  They were not eyes but eyes filled in whole in a light blue color.  The blue eyes made them stand out and create separation from the rest of the painting.  This took, what could have been a portrait, and made it very interesting to view.

The next painting that I viewed that made an impact to me was Carnaval d’Arlequi (Carnival of Harlequin) by Joan Miro.  I like it because it’s busy.  It has a lot to look at and every object on the painting is not to scale and open for interpretation.  You can pick individual objects and think about what they really are and what they may signify.  For example there is what looks like a unicycle bent at a about a 135 degree angle right in the middle.  Why is it bent like that?  Is it one unicycle or pieces of two and not actually bent?  How does a unicycle relate to anything else in the painting?  I would like to own a painting like this.

Question 2 – Which artworks do I feel a connection with and why?

                A piece that I felt a connection with is Walking Soldier by Alexander Archipenko.  What I didn’t see in it was a soldier but the sculpture itself was something that was well put together.  It doesn’t look like a human but the pieces put together give it a human shape.  It’s striking that he (or she) is in motion and moving forward and onward.  The fact that the title tells me that it is a soldier makes it even better because the composition is solid, just like a soldier.

                Another work that I felt a kind of connection with was D IV by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.  It’s simple, that is what drew me to this one.  But more importantly it was the fact that it was colored shapes on a black background.  Black is my favorite color and I really like to use black backgrounds for a lot of things I do, or at least a dark color like black.  For greens, I always pick a darker one like hunter and blues are usually royal.  The yellow, red, tan and blue shapes stand out on the black.  The greys and other lighter value of black  work well.  The fact that the shapes seem to have no rhyme or reason other than to be shapes on a picture does not matter.

Question 3 – Which artworks would I like to more about and why?

                One work that I’d like to know more about is La vie paysanne by Marc Chagall.  It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me but it is a great picture to view.  In the forefront is a man and a horse.  Looks like he’s feeding the horse.  And there is green on top of the horse and behind the man, not sure what that green is.  But the thing about the painting is what’s behind these two.  A house that looks not to far away from the man and horse but at a severe uphill angle going left upwards to right.  The figures to the right of the crooked house seem to be almost level and definitely not at the same angle as the house but their size and scale is close to the house.  Lastly the white around the painting makes it look like winter time but that would not explain the people outside dancing and sitting at a table in front of the crooked house.  Interesting painting.

                The other painting I choose for this question is La Musique by Henri Matisse.  For the lack of a better reason I chose this because it is one artist that I have actually heard of, other than Monet.  It is not really the artwork itself that I’d like to know more about, it’s the artist, Matisse.  What I see in this picture is odd forms.  The lady to the left, her shoulders are like a football player but she has a petite head.  Her breasts, like the other ladies, look like they were crafted by a child, not a renowned artist.  The lady to the right looks like her left leg is detached  and her right foot is bigger than an eight foot tall giant.    The walls behind them are out of normal proportion too.  Are all works of Matisse like this?  And if so, what makes his art more special than anyone else’s?