History of Art Since 1400
- How did landscape painting develop during the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist periods? Refer to specific examples by an artist (or artists) from each movement, describing the artists’ goals and methods of Painting. How the two movements are related and yet are very different?
Impressionism and Post-Impressionism periods had a significant influence on the raising of artistic movements in France. Impressionism was a period where the painter rejected state-controlled academies salons and preferred the use of private exhibitions. Post-Impressionism was a period of reaction against Impressionism. These two were significant development era from landscape painting. During the Impressionism period, artists painted contemporary landscape that reflected leisure. The Impressionists paid more attention to the effect of light, atmosphere, and weather. Post-Impressionisms rejected the Impressionisms view of spontaneous rendering of color and light. They insisted on making of symbolic content and stricture (Brodskaïa, 2018). The Post-Impressionisms didn’t believe that color alone could be an authentic meaning bearer.
Claude Monet is among the greatest Impressionist, who had significant influence. His painting technique involved the use of pastels, earth colors, and banishing browns, which achieved light to create sensation in the Painting. His primary goal was to capture the fleeting impact of atmosphere and light. Monet paints were made on a canvas that was of a lights color like white, light yeller, pale blue, et al. He had a strong influence on Japanese art although he never visited Japan. His main goal included capturing the sudden impacts of weather and atmosphere. His painting technique was fundamental to the Impressionism, basing the perception that light color would create actual sensation.
Paul Cézanne is among the most famous Post-Impressionism artists. As one of the first Post-Impressionist painters, he challenged the existing conventions about paintings and insisted on painting integrity. His method of Painting was through the use of heavy brush strokes to create thickly layered paint on the canvas. His medium includes watercolor, oil, and Gouache. His works had a significant influence, especially on the Cubism. Post-Impressionism was the turning point to the modern form of art. However, both influential artistic movements used vivid colors in the paints. Despite differences between Impressionism and Post-Impressionism periods, the Impressionism period contributed to the rise of the Post-Impressionism that acted as a response. The main differences between the two eras included the place of practice of the art and the artist’s perspectives to a sense of light and color. However, both of these eras paved the way for today’s contemporary art.
- Abstract Expressionism is a powerful artistic movement of the mid-20th century, with two main directions or tendencies. What are those tendencies, and which artists best represent them? Describe characteristic examples of both branches of this movement, explaining individual artists’ goals and how specific works of art reflect those goals.
Abstract Expressionism is an American art movement that started in the 1940s after the Second World War in New York City. This movement made New York as the new center of contemporary art. As a new movement, it had a significant influence on art through energetic and gestural lines and sizeable abstract canvas. Despite the different approaches in Painting, Abstract Expressionism was focused on creating a more direct painting that demonstrated a strong belief in the power of abstraction to convey a meaning out of the arts (Funk, 2016).
As the new nature of the contemporary art, Abstract expressionism exhibits two different tendencies; Action Painting and Color Field Painting. Action painting is demonstrated through energetic and gestural brushstrokes, where the paint is spontaneously smeared over the canvas instead of using a systematic approach. Jackson Pollock is among the most famous action painters. He wanted to absorb by works of art completely. Despite his unfamiliar style, he influenced lots of artists across America and Europe. In an attempt to quit alcoholism, he was advised to start painting by Jungian analyst (Funk, 2016). His works showed his scattered though, fear and terror in the midst of nuclear war. These goals are reflected in his Blue Poles art. Jason Pollock remains as one of the most major figures in Abstracts Expressionism.
Color Field painting was an artistic style that was used by Mark Rothko, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Helen Frankenthaler, et al. These wetter the proponents of color field painting and aimed to provide mythic transcendences and infinite. The artists thought of deploying large amounts of paint of a large field as an expression of the power of color in mythic art. The color field painters emphasized on painting basic properties and poured the undiluted paint on to the canvas. Under color field painting, local and bright colors rea presented in specific shapes (Frascina, 2018). The analysis of these arts is based on the overlapping of the forms and colors that are used. Ochre and Red on Red, is an artistic work by Mark Rothko, aimed to avoid any vision part that distracted from the central idea of the Painting. Ochre and Red on Red is created using rectangle yellow soundings within the dark red. Various color manipulations are used.
References
Brodskaïa, N. (2018). Post-impressionism. Parkstone International.
Frascina, F. (2018). Modern art and modernism: a critical anthology. Routledge.
Funk, C. (2016). 2. Abstract Painting in the 1950s. A Quick and Dirty Guide to Art, Music, and Culture.