CELEBRATING LANDSCAPES

Today is Earth Day! Besides actually sitting outside and enjoying nature, what is the next best way to appreciate the natural world around us? That's right! Landscapes.

Within landscapes there is not only amazing natural scenes but emotion and a spiritual element. The added spiritual elements in landscape started in East Asian art with Daoism, and in then the West there was Romanticism. Where landscapes (with no added spiritual element) started with frescos in Greece and hunting trips depicted in Egypt.

Romanticism is the type of landscapes that we think of when we think of the stereotypical landscape. There were many prolific Romantic landscapes artists: Joseph Mallord William Turner, Frederic Edwin Church, Caspar David Friedrich, John Constable, Thomas Cole, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and many MANY more. In the 19th Century romantic landscapes were prominent in Dutch and American tradition of painting where they would have special schools devoted to learning about a genre of art like the Hudson River School. It started with a craze for landscape painting with the Dutch in the 17th Century with Realism but it really caught on in the 19th Century again starting with the Dutch. Quickly American artists jumped on the romantic landscape bandwagon to show off their new frontier which was different from the European atmosphere art enthusiasts were used to.

Let's look at how not only the composition of these pieces create great strength and pride but also include an emotional feeling attached, either through the weather or the colors and brushstrokes.

Frederic Edwin Church, The Heart of the Andes, 1859, Hudson River School

Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818, German Romanticism

John Constable, Stonnehenge, 1836, Victoria and Albert Museum London

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Wreckers Coast of Northumberland, 1836, Yaler Center for British Art

Thomas Cole, The Oxbow, 1836, Metropoliatan Museum of Art New York

 Now in East Asian Art, landscape is considered their most valuable contribution to the art world. They didn't have a mad craze for landscape, instead landscape was deep within their culture and was spread out over many centuries. William Watson wrote that "It has been said that the role of landscape art in Chinese painting corresponds to that of the nude in the west, as a theme unvarying in itself but made the vehicle of infinite nuances of vision and feeling." A lot of East Asian landscapes are monochrome which is attributed to Wang Wei's paintings where he devoided the use of figures and shifted to monochrome style of painting. The Song Dynasty Southern School has some of the highest regarded landscape paintings. There is a shan shui tradition where the landscapes were never intended to represent real locations even if they were named after them.

Song Xu, Landscape After Wang Wei's Wangchuan Picture, 1574, Ming Dynasty

Tang Yin, A Fisher in Autumn, 1523, China

There is so much more in the history of landscape and how it evolved in every culture around the globe. There are many books of the topic and papers written about artists who were devoted to the landscape. So, if you are interested you should check it out!

ART QUOTES

It's Tax Day, which means (at least here in America) that it isn't the happiest of days. So cheer up fellow artists or art lovers! Here is a collection of 20 inspiring and wonderful quotes which I've collected over the years that I keep in my sketchbook and flip to whenever I need a little push. It's a random grouping of quotes that will either get you pumped up and ready to work or view art a little differently than you did before.

"Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable." -Cesar A. Cruz

"Date yourself. Take yourself out to eat. Don't share your popcorn at the movies with anyone. Stroll around an art museum alone. Fall in love with canvases. Fall in love with yourself." -unknown

"If you can't convince them, confuse them." -Harry S. Truman

"All progress occurs because people dare to be different." -Harry Millner

"Art is not what you see but what you make others see." -Edgar Degas

"The best things in life aren't things." -Art Buchwald

"Art is the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos." -Saul Bellow

"When the individuality of the artist begins to express itself, what the artist gains in the way of liberty he loses in the way of order." -Pablo Picasso

"I began to feel that the artist is not exempt from life. There is no way out from seeing art as a reflection or meditation or a comment on life. I became interested in the process, including the artist's life. I became interested in how art reflected life issues, or existential issues with which we are all involved." -Donald Kuspit

"I paint the sort of paintings I can, not the ones I necessarily want." -Lucian Freud

"I always felt that my work hadn't much to do with art" "I ignored the fact that, after all, art derives from art." -Lucian Freud

"As far as I am concerned the paint is the person. I want paint to work for me as flesh does." -Lucian Freud

"Art school has taught me that my greatest tool is myself"

"Stop thinking about artwork as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences. That solves a lot of problems: we don't have to argue whether photographs are art; or whether performances are art or whether Carl Ander's bricks or Little Richard's 'Long Tall Sally' are art, because we say, 'Art is something that happens, a process, not a quality and all sorts of things can make it happen'... [w]hat makes a work of art 'good' for you is not something that is already 'inside' it, but somethings that happens inside you - so the value of the work lies in the degree to which it can help you have the kind of experience that you call art." -Brian Eno

"The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life." -William Faulkner

"Art and love are the same thing: it's the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you." -Chuck Klosterman

"Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings." -Agnes Martin

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." -Pablo Picasso

"Creativity takes courage." -Henri Matisse

"If I do nothing, if I study nothing, if i cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost...keep going, keep going come what may." -Vincent van Gogh 

  I believe that all of these quotes can be applied to any situation and can be viewed a million different ways. That is the amazing things about art, it's always up for interpretation (I mean seriously how many of those began with "Art is..."). Comment below or tweet at me with your favorite art quotes @ArtOtter

STILL LIFES AREN'T BORING

When you first start as an artist, or if you are walking through any art museum you see tons and tons of still lifes. Many people imagine it is the basis of all art forms, you know once you've practiced with enough boring things like apples and oranges then you can start to branch out to figures. But, still lifes weren't even apart of the Western Art World until the late 16th Century. Before then almost all paintings were religious or documentary. And so if any still lifes were made they still held religious symbolism.

The first types of still lifes that were created were of course within Egyptian tombs. They would have artists paint any sort of riches from food to items on the walls of the tomb thinking that in the afterlife they would be there for the deceased. Some of the other earliest recounts of still lifes were within Pompeii and were Roman mosaics used for decoration and signs of hospitality. None of the still lifes up until the Dutch and Flemish paintings in the late 16th Century were what you'd think are typical still lifes we see covering museums today. The Dutch and Flemish painters were in a craze for still lifes because of the combination of religious images being banned in the Dutch Reformed Protestant Church (which led to the symbolism within still lifes) and the simple obsession with horticulture that the Dutch had.

Egyptian wall painting of food (http://www.timetrips.co.uk/still_life_history.htm)

uncovered still life found at Herculaneum showing Roman still life (https://sketchesandscratches.wordpress.com/tag/vanitas/)

Willem Kalf, Still Life with Ewer, Vessels and Pomegranate, oil on canvas, mid-1640s, The J. Paul Getty Museum

Jan van Huysum, 1723, oil on panel, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (http://www.essentialvermeer.com/dutch-painters/huysum.html)

Something funny and interesting that I found about still lifes is that there was a genre of still lifes known as "breakfast paintings" which would be the presentation of the upper class breakfasts while also a religious reminder not to be gluttonous.

Willem Claeszoon Heda, Breakfast Table with Blackberry Pie, 1631, Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister

As you can imagine, still lifes evolved along with the many art movements, being the cornerstone of all styles and genres of art. You can find a still life of any genre and style of art you desire and probably by any artist you desire as well. It is the basis of all artists today and a great way to study the aesthetic elements, but it shouldn't be thrown aside as a beginners form of art.

Ori Gersht, Blow Up, photographs and videos, 2007

Still lifes allow the artist to impose any sort of composition and arrangement of elements within the artwork. This sort of freedom allows for many styles and genres of art to take place, which led to how contemporary still lifes will include two-dimensional or three-dimensional mixed media and sometimes even video or sound.

Next time you think Still Lifes are "boring" or "too beginner", think again.

ARTISTS AS PRANKSTERS

It's April Fool's Day so what better to talk about than artists who are known as pranksters. There have been many pranks pulled throughout Art History but here are two artists who stand out the most.

The first is Harvey Stromberg. Now, it's hard to find any actual information about him and his art but we do know that in the early 1970's he got this idea to go to the MoMA and make exact sticker replicas of light switches, air vents, locks, and things like that. So weeks before his "exhibition" he walked around the MoMA and took notes on the structural details to create the realistic looking stickers. When he went to place them he said "When I install a piece, my adrenalin is racing. In fact, its very hard for me to come up with serious reasons why I do it." A lot of his "pieces" stayed up for 2 years before Stromberg held an fake gallery opening with plastic champagne glasses. And that's about all we know about it! A lot of people think it's strictly a prank, others like to think it's art. What's your opinion?

On another hand we have an actual artist who is known for high class pranking, Banksy. Having placed his own work in museums from the British Museum, to the Louvre and the Met, Banksy has done it all and made a statement while doing it.
In 2005 Banksy placed a stone with a cave drawing on it with a caveman pushing a shopping cart in the British Museum's Ancient Artifacts Section. This piece apparently stayed up for 3 days going unnoticed.

Image from British Museum

Again in 2005 Banksy smuggled in his works (all Anti-War related) into museums in New York City. Including a fake Andy Warhol print "Discount Soup Can" in the MoMA, "You Have Beautiful Eyes" in the Met, "Soldier with Spraycan" in the Brooklyn Museum, and "Withus Oragainstus" in New York's Natural History Museum.

Banksy, Discount Soup Can, 2005, Museum of Modern Art

Banksy, You Have Beautiful Eyes, 2005, Metropolitan Museum of Art

"You Have Beautiful Eyes" in place in the Met

Banksy, Soldier with Spraycan, 2005, Brooklyn Museum

Banksy, Withus Oragainstus, 2005, Museum of Natural History

In 2006 Banksy put a life-sized replica of a Guantanamo Bay detainee in Disneyland inside Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride. It remained there for 90 minutes before the ride was closed down and they removed the statue.

Image from www.woostercollective.com and BBC News

And possibly his biggest hoax of all, in 2010 he created a movie "Exit Through the Gift Shop" which was a documentary about Banksy and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary. But there is a lot of debate over whether the documentary is authentic or all fake.

Whether you think it is disrespectful or hilarious, it's great to see someone in the Art World with a sense of humor. Especially on a day like today!!

References/Articles:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/01/the-10-best-art-pranks_n_1388512.html
http://pranksters.com/historical-pranks/
http://www.complex.com/style/2014/04/banksy-hoaxes/#!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5335400.stm
http://www.woostercollective.com/post/a-wooster-exclusive-banksy-hits-new-yorks-most-famous-museums-all-of

WOMEN IN ART: ELAINE DE KOONING

Many of you have heard of Willem de Kooning, the widely known Abstract Expressionist Painter. But not many of you have heard of his wife, Elaine de Kooning, Figurative Expressionist Painter. Being very active in the Abstract Expressionist movement in the early 20th Century, Elaine de Kooning was a member of the Eighth Street Club in New York City, which rarely gave memberships to women. Especially during the Abstract Expressionist movement, women were not valued as much as their male counterparts. Which led Elaine de Kooning to sign her works with her initials, to prevent being labeled as feminine.

Elaine de Kooning, Fairfield Porter, 1954, oil on canvas

So a little about Elaine de Kooning's art career: As a figurative artist, de Kooning often painted portraits. Her subjects were mainly fellow artists from poets to choreographers, however she did paint John F. Kennedy as well. In fact, Elaine de Kooning kept painting JFK and made an entire series of portraits of him, one of which is in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. "Portraiture always fascinated me because I love the particular gesture of a particular expression or stance... Working on the figure, I wanted paint to sweep through as feelings sweep through..." You can tell in her work as well that there is a lot of color and heavy influence from other abstract expressionist artists at this time including her husband Willem.

Elaine de Kooning, Thomas B. Hess, 1956, oil on canvas

Elaine de Kooning in her Manhattan studio in 1964. She is with her John F. Kennedy series of paintings

Later in her life Elaine de Kooning was inspired by paleolithic cave paintings of Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain. Which really shows her knowledge of color, movement, and line through abstract representative imagery.

Elaine de Kooning, Bull, 1958, oil on canvas, New York University Art Collection

Besides being a painter, Elaine de Kooning was also a writer and wrote from Art News magazine, writing many articles about famous artists. She also taught in many colleges later on in her life. Truly an intelligent and iconic female artist, Elaine de Kooning sadly gets overshadowed by her husband Willem de Kooning. But her work is very crucial to the Abstract Expressionist movement and Art History and should not be ignored.

WOMEN IN ART: ANNA ATKINS

Some of you may have noticed that the other day (March 16th) Google had a Doodle celebrating Anna Atkin's 216th Birthday. She was a botanist and a photographer using her photographic techniques to document and study many different plants.
First learning of photogenic drawing and calotypes through the inventor, William Henry Fox Talbot and her husband's friend. Herself and Constance Talbot, William Henry Fox Talbot's wife, are known as the first women photographers. She was able to learn about cyanotypes through her husbands friendship with Sir John Herschel, who invented the cyanotype in 1842. After learning the process, Atkins created many photograms of dried algae and then created a book of her studies and photograms in 1843. This book is known to be the first book to have photographic images, even though it was privately published and not many copies were made. Less than a year later Talbot created his book "The Pencil of Nature" which is the first commercially published book to be illustrated with  photographs.

Title Page of Anna Atkins "Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions", 1843, cyanotype photogram, Spencer Collection/ Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, NY Public Library

Introduction of Anna Atkins "Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions", 1843, cyanotype photogram, Spencer Collection/ Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, NY Public Library

Cystoseria granulata, Anna Atkins "Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions", 1843, cyanotype photogram, Spencer Collection/ Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, NY Public Library

Atkins went on to create two more volumes of "Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions" and in the 1850s collaborated with Anne Dixon to create more cyanotype books: "Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns" (1853), "Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns" (1854). In addition to the photographic books she also wrote many books, without photograms, of her studies.

Poppy, Anna Atkins "Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns", about 1854, cyanotype photogra, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

I've written a previous post about Dark Room Photography and how important it is, so check it out if you're curious: link here. But I never fully described what cyanotypes are. So here's a detailed description:
-First you mix together equal volumes of a photosensitive solution of 8.1% potassium ferricyanide and 20% ferric ammonium citrate.
-Then you brush it evenly on a natural fibered cloth/paper. And set to dry in a dark room.
-A positive image will be produced when the emulsion covered paper is shown to UV light (sunlight or UV fluorescent lights) with a negative image laying straight on the emulsion. This is called a contact print because the negative and the emulsion must be in flat contact to avoid any blurriness.
-Once the image is a steely blue/gray then you take it out from under the light and wash it in a water bath washing off the yellow iron that was reduced by the UV.
-After you wash off the iron you can wash the print in another bath of water and a splash of 3% hydrogen peroxide which darkens the blues of the print.
-These prints can also be toned after they're dried through tea, bleach, and wine among other things.

You can find many scans of her cyanotypes online and the actual pages and scans across London.

WOMEN IN ART: ALICE NEEL

Throughout my education and while visiting various museums and shows I've had a chance to see many paintings by Alice Neel. Yet, up until now I haven't actually learned about her as an artist. To start, Alice Neel was an American Portrait Painter. But her life wasn't easy, she struggled and broke barriers as a female artist.
Born in 1900, Neel was taught that she wouldn't make an impact in the world because she was a woman. But she went on to pursue her art career and she took classes in art and eventually enrolled in Art School. While in school she met her husband Carlos Enriquez and she moved to Hanava with him learning more about Cuban avant-garde arts. When in this situation Alice Neel began to take her stance in political consciousness and equality for women.

Alice Neel in her studio in Harlem, 1944

A year later Alice and Carlos had a daughter, Santillana, who died a year later from diphtheria. The lose of her daughter was so strong that she portrayed themes of lose, motherhood, and anxiety in her paintings. Not long after the loss of Santillana, Neel had a second child, Isabella Lillian, in New York City. After her birth, Neel painted "Well Baby Clinic" which more resembles mothers and babies in an insane asylum than in a maternity ward. And a few year after that Carlos took Isabetta back to Cuba and in reaction to the lose of her husband and daughter, Neel broke down and was hospitalized and attempted suicide.

Alice Neel, Well Baby Clinic, 1928, oil on canvas, Private Collection

At about this time it was the Depression Era, Alice was lucky to work for the Works Progress Administration and was hired to make paintings. During this time she was seeing heroin addict and sailor, Kenneth Doolittle who set fire to 350 of her watercolors, paintings and drawings a few years later.

Alice Neel, Kenneth Dolittle, 1931, oil on canvas, Tate Modern, London

She then began to surround herself with artists, intellectuals, and political leaders for the Communist Party, who she also painted. This allowed her to become a well known and respected artist. She gave birth to another child, Richard, of her lover Jose Santiago moving to Spanish Harlem and painting her neighbors.

Alice Neel, The Spanish Family, 1943, oil on canvas, Private Collection

After Jose left she gave birth to another son, Hartley, of her lover community intellectual, Sam Brody. As for her art career, she was illustrating for Masses & Mainstream but her work for the Works Progress Administration stopped soon after leading to Alice Neel having to struggle to make ends meet. In the end of the 1960s, Neel's work gained interest because of the Women's Movement which led to Neel becoming an icon for many feminists. She became of celebrity status when she was awarded with a National Women's Caucus for Art award by President Jimmy Carter.

Alice Neel's painting of Kate Millett for the cover of TIME Magazine, August 31 1970

Alice Neel, Andy Warhol, 1970, oil on canvas, Whitney Museum, New York

Alice Neel's Website has tons of information about her life and her work: www.aliceneel.com