Author: xerkss

Fauvism art in the early 1900s involved a concentrated group of painters who, although without drafting a defined artistic formula, greatly influenced the art to come. Daring and bright, Fauvism is among the most energetic and influential styles in Western Art. Besides, the artistic current boasts an exceptional pioneer: the French painter Henri Matisse.

Fauvism, art and emotion

More than loyalty to the depicted scene, the artistic current had the aim of interpreting how the scene is conceived in the mind. In complete contrast to the pastel-colored impressionist paintings from the 1800/1900, Fauvism is characterized by the centrality of the emotional and irrational approach.

Above all, more than on purpose, the matter is about freethought. Fauves deny the mainstays of the artistic styles, putting on the canvas impactful colors and images that do not aspire to realistic representations. The priority is instead to replicate the essence, the emotion aroused by the subject. To this end, Matisse and his followers created multi-colored paintings and scratchy brush stroked figures.

Following in Matisse’s footsteps, the followers of the genre embraced a type of painting that escaped the schemes of ratio. Color became the tool to represent the world mainly on an emotional level.

In particular, in the Fauvist paintings, there is the abolition of perspective and chiaroscuro. The choice of colors combine cold and warm palettes in the same work. As for the choice of subjects, although there is no strict confinement, there is a return to landscapes.

Matisse, pioneer of Fauvism

The first time Matisse exhibited his colorful paintings a critic claimed that the works seemed to have been created by “fauves” (wild beasts). The French artist and his followers chose to represent themselves with that word, defining Fauvism their artistic approach.

Matisse’s technique is particularly visible in works like “View of Collioure” and “Woman with a Hat“. In the first work, the use of color is anti-naturalistic. In particular, there is no geometric perspective and the spatiality is devoid of volume. Instead, what is evident is a bright contrast of temperature, brightness, and color scheme that defines an incredibly personal interpretation.

In the famous “Woman with a Hat“, the artist chooses the portrait to convey the idea behind Fauvism Art. The work is a portrait of the artist‘s wife. The hat and fashionable clothes offer the artist the opportunity to create a work based on the expressiveness of color.

Matisse’s companions in the new artistic approach were André Derain, Albert Marquet, Maurice de Vlaminck, Henri Manguin and Charles Camoin. These, despite having been artists with different artistic phases, have preserved over time the idea of Gustave Moreau, at the basis of Fauvism art:

“I don’t believe in reality; neither of what I see or what I touch, but only of that of my inner feeling.“

Gustave Moreau

Paradoxically, the success of Cubism followed the excess of the Fauves, seen as a desire for form and a greater organization, which put a brake on the absolute freedom of color of Fauvism.

Art has been an important part of civilization since its inception. Despite the particularity of personal tastes, it is a fact that there is some inherent and deeper reason why we love art.

Art constitutes a type of human experience that knows no parallels in nature. The human being has always shown a natural propensity for the decorative use of colors and patterns. How come this ancient affinity still accompanies us after thousands of years?

Why we love art according to Rudolf Arnheim

In recent years in particular there have been numerous studies that have tried to reveal the reasons for the primal response that the human experience with art.

According to Rudolf Arnheim, German-born film theorist, and perceptual psychologist, artistic perception is given by the analysis – single and overall – of its structural characteristics. The influential researcher deals with this theme within the work “Art and Visual Perception“, 1954. Arnheim states that there is a sort of “visual grammar” that we use unconsciously when approaching a work of art.

This breaks the links between the elements of a piece of art, allowing us to focus on detail. However, at the same time, the “visual grammar” gives uniformity to the overall view, letting us see the work in its entirety.

When we look at a painting or sculpture there would therefore be a whole series of constituents that – even if we don’t notice them – come into play in the way we perceive art. Line, shape, color, material, texture, represented subject, symmetry, balance, just to name a few.

How art acts on the human brain: expressive quality, cognition associations, and visual memory

The approach to formal qualities develops at this point in the field of expressivity. Gustav Metzger, artist and creator of the concept of Auto-Destructive Art and the Art Strike, defines those as “expressive qualities“. In particular, according to Metzger some shapes and colors create emotional associations a priori.

Cognitively there are two areas of the brain that respond to art. These cause the eye to process the artwork visually. In particular, the link between visuality and cognition leads to functional connections. For example, as soon as we see an object we immediately associate it with its use.

The University of Toronto has also conducted a study that confirms that the part of the brain that deals with logical thinking and understanding function is our posterior cingulate cortex.

To date, there are certainly many studies that investigate why and how art acts on society and individuals. Among these there is a study that highlights the relationship between art and memory. Art capitalizes on specific stored memories in the mind of the observer. That is also why a visual stimulus can affect the mental or emotional state of the viewers.

When asked why we love art, before answering, we need to choose a very specific interpretative approach. However, beyond personal opinions, it is clear that art provides much more of a mental stimulus than types of puzzles.

In the year of the Flemish master Jan van Eyck, the city of Bruges is filled with events dedicated to the forefather of oil painting in the Netherlands.

After Pieter Paul Rubens and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the Flemish Masters triennium ends in splendor. Flanders is ready to be the artistic stage of the first official painter of the Burgundian court.

The year of van Eyck in Bruges and Ghent

Polyptych of the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb at the Groeninge

At the Groeninge Museum, will be staged a review that explores the artistic and life paths of the artist. On display, there will be the absolute masterpiece of the fifteenth-century painter, Polyptych of the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb. The painting is one of the most remarkable examples of van Eyck’s genius. Painted between 1426 and 1432, it has 12 panels, arranged on two registers. Furthermore, van Eyck’s masterpiece highlights the fundamental characteristics of his pictorial style. Analytical naturalism and the use of bright colors produce a lyrical and detailed landscape. A pictorial approach that made Jan van Eyck’s works recognizable at first glance.

That at the Groeninge Museum will be an exhibition that wants to explore van Eyck’s artistic journey in toto. Not only the most famous works but a real excursus of van Eyck’s creative processes and techniques.

Jan van Eyck’s exhibitions at MSK and other unmissable appointments

Since the 1st of February, An Optical Revolution will bring together more than half of his paintings to the MSK. An unmissable appointment for Flemish paintings lovers that will see large loans from European and American museums and collections.

From June, then, the Polyptych of the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb will return to the Saint Bavo Cathedral, a jewel of the Flemish Gothic, to show itself in a new suggestive setting.

Floralies, the historic flower festival that lights up the spring of Ghent, will also be dedicated to the master. From 1 to 10 May there will be events, workshops, and installations inspired by his Garden of Paradise. At the Museum of Design, instead, the bright colors of Van Eyck’s palette are reinterpreted by contemporary designers. The exhibition, van Eyck’s Colors in Design will be on stage from the 13th of March to the 6th of September.

Van Eyck: the genius of the Flemish master

Van Eyck had the merit and fortune of working for Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, whose court moved from city to city, enriching each of its offices with works of art and valuable architecture.

For this reason, the Year of Van Eyck takes shape as a great event spread between Ghent, Bruges, Mechelen, Leuven, and Brussels. Bruges, in particular, hosted the painter from 1432 until his death and today it preserves his remains.

Among the events not to be missed is that of the Museum Sculpta. Here it will be possible to admire ten famous scenes painted by the artist in a three-dimensional version. In addition, will be inaugurated tours to discover the places frequented by the master centuries ago. These will lead the audience between the Gouden Handstraat laboratory-house, the painters’ quarter and the Saint-Salvator Cathedral.

With the evolution of art, the same development of the portrait genre has changed course towards more intimate and abstract banks. However, to learn reading a portrait it is important to know about its evolution.

The role of Portraiture

Portraiture has played a significant role in every era of art. Before the advent of photography, portraiture was the only way people could represent themselves. Initially commissioned by noble families, the portraits had to respond to a series of needs. How to testify to family value, a specific profession, or convey social and political messages. As a result, the artist was entrusted with the task of communicating a lot through a single image.

Despite the alleged total loyalty to the subject, the portrait is much more than a mechanical reproduction of physical peculiarities. In the process the sensitivity of the artist comes into play, as well as the artistic currents of an era. In the history of art there have been artists who practiced the genre extensively, if not almost exclusively. These types of works are often full of references that can go unnoticed to an untrained eye. As particular skills of the artist, or clue elements related to the person in the portrait.

Objects often serve a symbolic function. They become means by which representing particular ideas, concepts or events. The same pose and clothing of the painted person can outline the story that the painter wants to communicate. To read a portrait, in any case, you have to start with two main questions. These are: why was the portrait created? And, what purpose did it serve? Only by understanding the intent behind the work is it possible to clearly distinguish the symbols for reading a portrait.

The History of Portraiture

Hellenistic and Roman examples show that the Portrait has been of fundamental importance since ancient times. However, over time, its role has changed depending on how it was used. Emperor Octavian Augustus was among the first to use it as a tool for political propaganda. In particular, the emperor wanted a statue of him in all the colonies of the Empire. In other cases, the portrait conveys a celebratory commendation. A significant example is that of Commodus who got himself painted in the guise of the hero Hercules. If the portrait mystified, in more recent times it has become an instrument of demystification. For example, Francis Bacon’s portraits bring the pictorial representation to the extreme limit of the disappearance of the body. In those of Andy Warhol, on the other hand, the portrait becomes serial and glamorous.

The Portrait from 1400 to 1500

With the rediscovery of classical culture, the fifteenth century is definitely the period in which portraiture regains an artistic centrality. In this period the ideology at the base of all the arts recognizes the man as the cornerstone of the universe. Numerous portraits from this period reflect the social fabric of the time. Not only princely courts, but exponents of the rising bourgeoisie also become subjects of portraiture.

In the sixteenth century the genre begins to know a certain diversification. After Leonardo’s studies, the portraitists refined the physiognomic representation of the figures. If before the portrait was in profile and half-length, in the sixteenth century the portrait was mainly in full or three-quarter shape. In this century the state portrait also became the official icon of political propaganda.

With the advent of the Baroque in the seventeenth century there is a formal compositional representation. The portrait serves to enhance the European rulers and becomes a vehicle for promoting monarchical absolutism. Probably for this reason, are used canvases of large proportions in which the subject of the work is full-length.

The Portrait from 1700 to 1800

In the eighteenth century, however, the advance of Enlightenment theories meant that there was a more homogeneous representation of the society of the time. Even the most marginal classes find their place in artistic representations. Along with a series of “popular” paintings, bourgeois portraiture developed even more. Reading a portrait becomes a more intricated process. The subjects of these works are represented at work and in their homes. In colloquial and daily environments. The figure of the bourgeois hero fascinates the collective imagination and becomes an unusual protagonist of the portraiture of the time.

In England numerous painters became famous in this field: among them there are Joshua Reynolds, founder of the Royal Academy Thomas Gainsborough, and George Romney.

With the nineteenth century the genre of the portrait spread throughout Europe with a particular interest in the self-portrait. There were self-portraits already in the fifteenth century, but they appear in marginal contexts. In the nineteenth century, however, self-exhibition becomes for some a manifestation of their pictorial virtuosity. Flemish artist Vincent van Gogh is a remarkable example of this trend. Van Gogh paints himself because he considers his person central to his painting, at the point to dedicate a self-portrait to every step of his artistic evolution.

Picasso’s genius returns to surprise in an exhibition that highlights one of the characterizing aspects of his artistic approach. Born in Malaga, the Catalan artist has certainly rewritten the rules of painting. Biographies and studies have followed over the course of his life and post mortem. These helped to create the myth of a man who has determined the fate of the art. Both of his time and that to come.

The show, which will be inaugurated on January 25, 2020, counts more than 300 works by the artist.

It is said that the first word pronounced by little Picasso was “Piz!”, From “lapiz”, which means “pencil”. In particular, even before talking, Pablo Picasso draws. He succeeds so well that, a few years later, his father left him collaborating with some of his paintings, entrusting him precisely the care and definition of the details. The result surprises everyone: the young Picasso immediately reveals an early inclination for drawing and painting.

Picasso drawings 

For Picasso more than an artistic medium, the paper is a creative vehicle. It is the main tool for impressing a nascent idea to be explored later. For Picasso, the paper is a rehearsal room that allows you to pin an idea down.

As a result of this approach, today we have many paper testimonies of Picasso’s genius in the most diverse variants. Among these, there are pages taken from books, café receipts and paper scraps on which the Spanish artist noted his fantastic scenarios and his distorted realities. This is certainly a path that expands the knowledge about Picasso. The show leads the viewer to fully understand how creative thinking was born and developed in the most iconic artist of his time.

Among the highlights of the exhibition of the Royal Academy of Art there will be a collage of 4 and a half meters entitled “Women at Their Toilette“. The composition is back on display in the UK after 50 years.

Picasso and Paper at the Royal Academy of Arts

The exhibition traces a chronological journey through different stages of Picasso’s career. A remarkable path of over 8 decades in which paper is the artist’s main ideational medium. On display, there will be not only paper sculptures but collages and watercolor drawings that capture the master’s most vivid creative instincts.

The show will feature also Cubist papier-collés sketchbook studies for his great masterpiece, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), and documentary footage that offers a rare glimpse of Picasso at work.

The Royal Academy of Arts hosts the exhibition dedicated to Picasso and Paper from 25 January to 13 April 2020.

Art and culture: the concept of time

Art is an essential part of the culture of any socio-political environment. But how does Modern Art fit into this mutual and articulated relationship? First of all, art is able to mirror an era, to bring out the issues of the time with visual force.

The concept of “timefulness” precisely indicates the ability to place the viewer in specific ages. A concrete example is the artistic production of Rachel Sussman. The Brooklyn-based contemporary artist defines in an interview with Marina Abramovic Institute the concept behind her works:

 “My use of deep time is about creating perspective and differentiating between the shallowness of human timescales and the depth of natural, geologic, and cosmic timescales.”

Through her decade-long project “The Oldest Living Things in the World” Sussman creates art of scientific and environmental interest. The artist almost brings the viewer back to a primitive conception of the earth, putting nature in the foreground.

Sussman is certainly not the only artist whose artistic concept is intertwined with that of time. The New Zealand artist Honor Harger, in particular, combines the means of modern technology to create a soundscape of the history of the Universe. Through his works, it is possible to immerse in the oldest sounds in the world. Those include as well the ones of the cosmic rays left over from the Big Bang.

Not only past and present, but art also allows you to explore plausible or totally imaginary futures. The fusion of art with the tools of modern science has greatly expanded the creative possibilities. 

Art as exploration: the concept of space and protest

Art, however, allows to range not only in time but also in space. Sometimes it brings the audience to an otherwise unknowable emotional level. This is the case of the Ice Watch installation by Olafur Eliasson.

The Danish-Icelandic artist is known for his employment of elemental materials such as light and water in his artworks.

In Ice Watch the artist transported melting glacial ice from the Arctic to London. In this case, the artist creates a real experience. This translates into an audience that expands its knowledge and understanding of specific issues.

“I believe that one of the major responsibilities of artists – and the idea that artists have responsibilities may come as a surprise to some – is to help people not only get to know and understand something with their minds but also to feel it emotionally and physically.”

Another example is that of the famous Angel Bear by Richard Texier. The French painter and sculptor was commissioned with a public artwork to place in front of Gare du Nord, The Paris Nord Train Station.

The monumental winged bear emphasizes the issue related to the melting of the glaciers and the danger of the environmental change taking place for the conservation of polar bears.

Art builds culture through unpredictable paths. Not only challenging the status quo, but making totally different worlds and epochs tangible.

Above all, without any intellectual constraint, art elevates knowledge and broadens our perspectives, allowing a more impartial construction of our beliefs, over time and space.