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Early to Mid 20th Century Japanese Art

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  Early to Mid 20th Century Japanese Art Hasui, Kawase. Moonlight over Lake Kamo in Sado Island . 1921, Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN, United States. Koitsu, Tsuchiya. Spring Rain at Matsushima . 1936, National Museum of Asian Art, DC, United States. Takeji, Fujishima. Shirahama Hot Spring . 1940, Ukiyo-e Search,  https://ukiyo-e.org/image/artelino/19043g1 Hiroshi, Yoshida. Kawaguchi Lake, from the series Ten Views of Fuji . 1926, National Museum of Asian Art, DC, United States. My Thoughts      Researching these paintings has led me to discover just how beautiful woodblock prints are. After the Ukiyo-e period of art, woodblock prints regained popularity. As such, it's equal parts surprising and appreciable that the technique- which dates back to as early as 220 AD- managed to become so widespread during the early 20th century. While woodblock printing has largely phased out today due to modern printing methods, the style is still practiced by niche artists, keeping it alive eve
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Post War Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art

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Post War Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art Dubuffet, Jean.  Site Visited . 1981.  Wikiart, https://www.wikiart.org/en/jean-dubuffet/site-visited Dubuffet, Jean.  Cow With a Subtle Nose . 1954, Museum of Modern Art, NY, United States. These two paintings are by Jean Dubuffet, a French painter who is most well known for starting the Art Brut movement. Dubuffet largely resented authority and never officially received an education in art. He would gain notoriety through his art which rejected the conventions of popular culture at the time. This is reflected in the ideology of the Art Brut movement which focusses on "Outsider art" by non-formally educated and trained artists. This style was created to reject the tropes and conventions which art followed- in essence promoting "less skilled" or conventionally talented artists. According to The Art Story, Dubuffet "described [mainstream culture] as "asphyxiating."," and "He was attracted to the art
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Early Modern Blog

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  Motley. Archibald. Gettin' Religion . 1948, Whitney Museum, NY.      Motley, a renowned visual artist, created the painting " Gettin' Religion " during 1948. This came shortly after the Harlem Renaissance, which lasted from about 1918-1937. The influence of such a movement can be seen in not just " Gettin' Religion ", but in many of Motley's other works. Born in New Orleans in 1891, Motley lived through the historic Harlem Renaissance and was not just influenced by it, but was a big influencer of it. Motley uses vivid colors and twisting shapes to create an eye catching- if not visually pleasing- scene. In this painting you can see the mingling of both black and white people during a time when segregation was in full swing. The crowded night scene pairs well with the band of jazz players on the left hand side, all the while an unnaturally tall man preaches in the middle of the street. This is all to show just how vibrant and loud the world Motley l
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Romantic Era Blog

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My blog will be comparing the Hudson River School style to that of the German Romantic Movement. The Hudson River School style lasted from roughly 1825-1890 before falling out of popularity, with the German Romantic Movement lasting from the late 1700's to the early 1800's. While the Hudson River School specifically focused on renditions of the vast, luscious American landscapes, the German Romantic Movement was more broad in what it covered. The German Romantic Movement focused on emotion and nature, trying to express the "German soul" through stoic and breathtaking paintings of scenes ranging from natural landscapes to impactful portraits.  The Hudson River School Cole, Thomas. The Oxbow . 1836, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York " The Oxbow" presents a grand scene brimming with vibrant green plant life and an expansive background featuring the Connecticut river. Cole, coming from Ohio, found great inspiration in his early 20's to paint grand pa
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Classical Blog Exhibit

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 To start, I have "The Storming of the Bastille"  (1789) by Jean-Pierre Houël. It is a painting made to depict the storming of the Bastille- a medieval fortress- by revolutionary insurgents. The importance of the insurgents taking the Bastille cannot be understated, as it was a slap across the face of the French nobility. Commoners taking such a fortified stronghold gave them not just a strategic upper-hand, but it also solidified the idea of the nobility being at the mercy of the commoners. In terms of the art itself, there's something so striking about the juxtaposition of the fortified old bastion and the contemporary weapons and clothing such as the strikingly colored uniforms and the cannons and muskets. It's gritty and hazy, which conveys the mayhem that the battles created. All the while, it represents the hard-fought efforts of the revolution and the changes in the French power that came with it.  Moving aside from the revolution and war that "The Stormin
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Baroque Blog Assignment

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 In my last blog, I covered Caravaggio's "The Calling of Saint Matthew" . While I had included this in a post meant to cover paintings from the Renaissance, it is actually a baroque. In spite of making such an embarrassing mistake, I found a new appreciation for tenebrism. This is all to say that I was drawn to Artemisia Gentileschi's "Judith Slaying Holofernes"  from the moment I saw it. The painting shows clear tones of tenebrism and humanism, with historical and religious undertones that give the painting even more depth once you learn about it. The painting depicts Judith and her maid slaying and decapitating Holofernes, an Assyrian general. Holofernes, in his lust for the widowed Judith, allowed her into his tent, then got drunk. Originally planning to take advantage of Judith due to his power as a general, it's ironic that she was the one to kill him. Judith killed Holofernes as he was about to invade and raze the city of Bethulia, where Judith liv
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Renaissance Blog

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     In researching the Renaissance, I found out about the style tenebrism. Tenebrism heavily contrasts light and dark in the painting, thus focusing your attention on the figures depicted within. Tenebrism was developed during the late 16th century, with notable artist such as Georges de La Tour and Rembrandt adopting the style in their works of the time. Though they were notable artists, neither Rembrandt nor de La Tour were the ones who created the painting I'll be discussing today, though. The painting I'm referring to is "The Calling of Saint Matthew". Caravaggio. The Calling of Saint Matthew.  1599-1600. San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome.      This painting elicits a few emotions. Upon viewing it initially, I felt that the man at the left end of the table was being shamed, with the the man on the right judging him for something he'd done. Meanwhile, the other people at the table are surprised by such a choice. You can almost feel the sense of guilt the man on the
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