Tag: artist

About that Artist – Jan van Eyck

Jan Van Eyck was one of the earliest Netherlandish painters, most renowned for his religious and naturalistic oil paintings in the 1400s and is also believed to be the inventor of oil paintings. His work includes portraits, single panels, triptychs and polyptychs, most of them are speculated to be painted in the 1430s. He paid special attention to the religious subjects and realism. 

Even though the exact year and place of Jan van Eyck’s birth is unknown but is believed to be born in the 1390s in Maaseik, a territory that belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, a city now known as Belgium. He is classified under the Flemish painters (artists who were active during the 15th and 16th centuries in Flanders). He was working in Hague somewhere between the years 1422 and 1424. Van Eyck, was the official painter to John of Bavaria, Count of Holland and continued to to work in the palace of Hague until 1325, the year in which the Count died.

After the Count’s death, he began working for Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy and worked for the duke until his death. Under Philip the Good, he did not just work as a painter but was also given political and diplomatic tasks, for which Van Eyck travelled all around Europe.

He took a lot of trips around the continent on Philip the Good’s behalf working on projects that were kept a secret and was given a salary for the same and his income did not depend solely on commissions.

It is believed that Van Eyck came from a family of painters. His brother Hubert van Eyck and he collaborated on perhaps one of Jan’s famous works Ghent Altarpiece, a polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium which is considered as one of the most profound oil paintings. It began in 1420 and was completed about 12 years later in 1432. 

In around 1431 Jan Van Eyck, bought a house in Burges and married a lady, Margaret with whom he had 2 children. The prime of his career began in the mid 1430s, a time during which he painted Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, Lucca Madonna and Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele.

Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, in which Virgin Mary is being crowned by an angel while holding Jesus in her lap and presenting him to Rolin. This painting was kept in a church in  Notre-Dame-du-Chastel in Autun until a fire burnt the church down in 1793 and then later, it was moved to Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Lucca Madonna, an oil painting depicting Mary sitting on a throne with Jesus Christ sitting on her lap.

In July, 1441, Van Eyck passed away and was buried in the Church of St Donatian’s graveyard. After the artist’s death, his widow was paid Van Eyck’s annual salary by Philip as a sign of utmost respect towards the artist. His reputation continued to grow after his death and many of his unfinished works were completed after his death. His brother Lambert van Eyck conducted a workshop after his death as well. 

About 20 paintings are known to be made by him in the 21st century and all of them are still waiting for the mystery that encompasses them to unwind itself.

The Genius of da Vinci- 3

Leonardo and Science                                                                       

Leonardo’s genius went beyond art and paintings, he shared just as much of a connection with science as he did with his art if not more. His contribution to science and scientific inventions were most probably a result of his artistic abilities.             

Leonardo studied anatomy, botany, light, chemistry, astronomy, mathematics, to name a few without receiving any sort of formal education.                                                    

Leonardo kept a log of his ideas, observations, and scientific drawings. According to him science and art shared a resemblance with each other which is quite evident from his journals that seem to blend art and science together.

FACTOID  Leonardo sometimes wrote from right to left because he was a lefty. Therefore most of his writing is in mirror image.

Leonardo learned the basics of anatomy and the human body when he was working for Verrocchio. Leonardo dissected about 30 human corpses in his lifetime. The hospitals in Italy let him continue his studies for research purposes after he established himself as a great artist.

In his dissection studies, he would pull on different muscles to see the effect it would have on the movement of other muscles. His anatomy research also included his studies of facial features. He studied the changes that different emotions caused in the facial features and those of people with a facial deformity or a sickness as well. He studied the human skeleton and pointed out that the sacrum (a bony structure in the vertebral column) is a fusion of 5 bones, which now holds to be true. He did all of this back then, when relatively close to no resources existed.

He studied the human heart and figured out how the valves of the heart work but couldn’t figure out the whole circulation system. In 2005, a heart surgeon in The UK took aid from Leonardo’s journals of the human heart. His studies are being used by top surgeons in the 21st century, over 500 years later.

Leonardo da Vinci was granted the permission to perform his experiments and do all this research after establishing himself as a profound artist during that time. The hospital gave him corpses to dissect and so he did.

Leonardo’s journals contain drawings of some flying machines that he was working on at that time. One such machine had wings that resembled the wings of a bat. Though his drawings were not fully correct and would not have worked in practicality, it is still exceptional that a man like him without major resources could do so much. 

His journals contain much more than whatever has been mentioned so far and will probably remain alien to the world or even if someone is able to somehow get their hands on said journal will also need the intellect to understand it.

Leonardo was much more than an artist but sadly that’s exactly what most people know him as. His ability to blend art and science made him extremely special. Imagine the things he could have achieved if he were born in today’s time. We would know so much more about the things unknown to mankind. He was an artist ahead of his time and needs to be recognized not just for his art but his true genius.

The Genius of da Vinci – 2

Adoration of the Magi 

One of the many paintings that Leonardo left unfinished, that is a skill all artists possess. The painting portrays the Virgin Mary with her chid and the Magi (the three wise men who paid homage to Jesus as the king of Jews) kneeling in adoration in front of them. Behind them, some ruins along with a few horsemen that appear to be fighting and a palm tree which holds a significance in the Bible.

This unfinished masterpiece now resides at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.

The Last Supper                                                                               

The Last Supper is a mural painting that depicts Jesus having his last supper (the last meal of Jesus with his disciples in Jerusalem before he was arrested and crucified). In the painting, Jesus’ Apostles can be seen reacting to him saying “one of you will betray me”, “one of you”, referring to one of his apostles.                                                          This was painted by Leonardo in the late 15th century and started to deteriorate quite quickly, due to humidity and the painting techniques used by the artist. It took a long time to restore this painting with the final restoration being done in 1999 and was then returned back to where it belongs- Convent of Santa Maria Delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.

Salvator Mundi                                                                                    

In this painting, Leonardo shows Jesus wearing a robe, with the fingers of his right hand forming a cross pointing upwards while holding a crystal ball in his left.                        

This painting was sold for $450 million to Badr Bin Abdullah, a Saudi minister, in 2017.   What makes it worth $450 million?                                                                                

Well, you see no piece of art is only famous for its artistic grandeur, most pieces of art involved in some sort of controversy have a tendency to embark themselves in textbooks. Salvator Mundi went through it’s fair share of controversies. There were multiple times since the birth of this painting when it was thought to be destroyed. The painting vanished from the public eye in the year 1763 and was found in the 1900s in a rather impaired condition. Then in 2005, a group of individuals bought this painting for about $10,000 and was densely overpainted which made it look like a knock-off. Dianne Dwyer Modestini was given the job to restore this painting and the process came to an end around 2010.                                                                                                       

Even now, theories exist about the whereabouts of this piece which adds to the fascination.

Mona Lisa                                                                                          

One of the greatest paintings to ever be painted. Mona Lisa is a portrait painting of an Italian woman Lisa Gherardini painted in the early 1500s. The painting shows the woman looking directly at the observer. The woman in the painting possesses a certain amount of poise and grace. The landscape shown by Leonardo looks very surreal making the painting all the more captivating. The lady’s smile has been a subject of discussion among art lovers but a 2003 study suggested that the smile vanishes when you look directly at her mouth and reappears when you observe the face as a whole.  Leonardo used a technique called ‘sfumato’ with this one which is a technique involving the blending of colors into one another making the transition between different tones easier and giving life to the painting.                           Mona Lisa is housed by the Louvre museum in France

The genius of da Vinci 1

Leonardo da Vinci, a Renaissance man born in Italy in 1452, considered as one of the greatest painters the world has ever witnessed, was not just a painter but a man of great intellect. His scientific journals and studies way ahead of their time are to this date used by scientists to get a better understanding of them . In addition to being a painter, a sculptor, he was an anatomist and was well known in the field of engineering, architecture and astronomy as well. da Vinci was unmatched, the only artist who was able to get close to his art was the sculptor of the statue David Michelangelo. The fascinating thing is that he was able to do all this without being exposed to a speck of formal education or training in any field except in painting. He was taught how to read and do basic mathematics all the rest was his own creation.

Leonardo was a genius to say the least, he possessed curiosity ever so great. Maybe, this is what made him so great, his desire for knowledge.                                                                   

His scientific evaluations and anatomic studies are very much evident in his paintings. He used his scientific knowledge to better himself as an artist, and so he did.                                     

Here, we are going to take a look at a few of his paintings and some of his contributions in the milieu of science.

Leonardo da Vinci was born in a town in Vinci, Florence. His father was a Florence based legal notary and his mother belonged to a lower class. Not much is known about his family.

PAINTINGS

Leonardo is undoubtedly one of the greatest artists to have ever lived, but where did he start his artistic journey from?

Leonardo worked as an apprentice under Andrea del Verrocchio, an Italian painter, and sculptor of the 15th century. Leonardo first got introduced to Verrocchio at one of his workshops. He learned a plethora of skills by working for Verrocchio and later also collaborated with him for a painting called The Baptism of Christ around 1475.

Baptism of Christ was a collaborative effort of Andrea del Verrocchio and his student Leonardo da Vinci. This painting depicts Jesus being baptized (the Christian act of sprinkling water on someone, symbolizing purification), with two angels beside him, kneeling. The one performing Jesus’ baptism is John the Baptist, who can be seen with a golden cross and a halo over his head. The pair of hands shown above Jesus’ head is God’s representing approval and acceptance. A dove can also be seen above Jesus’ head as well, symbolizing the Holy Spirit.

Saint Jerome in the Wilderness Another unfinished yet wonderful piece by da Vinci portrays Saint Jerome, a Latin priest in the Christian Church, in the middle of the desert, kneeling, looking fixedly upwards with his arm extending outwards. A lion can be seen resting on the ground looking at the Saint. The lion’s presence can be accounted for by the fact that Saint Jerome helped a lion that entered the monastery where he stayed once, by removing a thorn from the lion’s paw.                                                                                                              

Leonardo used a method called tempera for this painting, which involves mixing of painting pigments with water-soluble emulsions, along with classic oil painting techniques.                                                                                     

This painting is currently present at the Vatican museum in Rome.

About that artist- Claude Monet

Claude Monet is considered as the initiator of impressionism along with Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille, who he met while studying under Charles Gleyre.

Early Life

Oscar Claude Monet was a French painter born in 1840 in France. Monet was the eldest kid in his family. He grew up around the coast, which plays a significant role in some of his works. In 1851, Monet got into  Le Havre secondary school of the arts. In his early years Monet started to show inclination towards art and would draw caricatures, which brought him initial success at the age of 15.

In 1858, he met Eugène Boudin through whom he was introduced to multiple techniques namely “en plein air” or painting in open air which he would go on to use in most of his paintings throughout his painting career .

Introduction to Art 

In 1858, Monet started studying in Paris where he was introduced to artists like  Charles Daubigny and Constant Troyon. Monet was called for military service under  Chasseurs d’Afrique

In Algeria. Every experience, every scene for an artist has the potential to serve as an inspiration for an artist and his time in Algeria did exactly that. The colors of Northern Africa were an inspiration for his later research. He was forced to return to Le Havre in 1862 due to illness. He met Johan Barthold Jongkind, who also played an important role and shaped his artistic perception along with Boudin.

In 1867 Monet had a child whom he named Jean with Camille Pissarro. 

A lot of his success comes from the work that he produced between 1865-75. One of those works include Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe which he finished in 1866 which shows a group of well dressed people enjoying a picnic. His paintings from this period portrayed very trivial, domestic scenes.

Some of his paintings from this period include The Beach at Sainte-Adresse(1867), The Woman in the Green Dress (1866), Portrait of Claude Monet, Carolus-Duran (1867).

In 1972, Monet came across Japanese paintings  which influenced his later paintings. Since then, his paintings revolved around nature. Monet is most known for his series of motifs that he started creating in the 1880s, these were impressionist paintings.

Later Years 

In 1883, Monet moved to Giverny with his family. Here he started working on a series of paintings mostly inspired by his surroundings. These paintings represented the River Thames, Charing Cross. During this time Monet frequently traveled to Lomdon and Venice. In 1893, Monet started to assemble a water lily garden and soon this garden became a subject of his later paintings. Most of his work in the 1900s remained unknown to a large population till the mid 20th century. In the later years of his life, his eyesight began to deteriorate despite that he did not stop painting, he painted almost all his life. In 1923, he went through a cataract surgery which improved his sense of sight a bit and went back to some of his older unfinished paintings. In 1926, Monet passed away. Hw spent most of his later years grieving for his friends who he had lost in World War I and perhaps this grief resulted in a series he called Weeping Willow which is regarded as one of his most beautiful series that he painted  

Why the long face? The Scream

The Scream is one of the most famous artworks on the planet. Almost everyone of us must have seen it somewhere or the other. Either in memes or maybe on some educational TV channel but very little population knows the name of the artist or even the name of the painting itself. 

Figure on cliffside walkway holding head with hands

Edward Munch

The Scream is an artwork by the Norwegian artist Edward Munch completed in 1893.

Munch was a painter and printmaker born in Norway in 1863. His paintings were greatly inspired by the expressionism movement and symbolism. All his paintings  had a certain underlying psychological tone to it which is hard to miss. Munch had a miserable childhood, and that misery manifested itself later in his paintings. His mother and sister died of tuberculosis while he was very young and later, still at a young age he lost his father and his brother too. Death and gloom always meandered around him and followed him everywhere. Another sister of his suffered from mental illness too.

To understand a piece of art it is important to understand the artist, his experiences, his life to be able to get as close to meaning the artist was trying to show because there is no possible way that we can fully understand an artist’s psyche at the time of making it even though art is interpretive.Munch depicted raw and violent emotions in his work

The scream is an autobiographical work of art where while he was walking along a path one evening with a fjord below, feeling tired and ill, when looked over the fjord the scene looked to him as if blood was covering the sky. He felt a scream coursing through the clouds. Munch had a history of ill mental health in his family and during that evening it is possible that he heard the scream inside his own head.Soon after painting The Scream abandoned this style and barely went back to it.

Theft 

A work of art doesn’t become famous just because of the beauty or the skill behind it but a multitude of things influence it’s popularity like what it represents, political environment, controversies it was involved in.

Similarly this painting is not just famous for its artistic grandeur but it was in the news a lot due to the thefts.

In 1994 thieves broke into a museum in Oslo and stole the painting also leaving a note that read thanks for the poor security and demanded 1 million USD as ransom which was refused. About 3 months later the two men were caught as a result of the sting operation carried out by the Norwegian police.

In 2004, a 1910 version of The Scream was stolen from the Munch museum in broad daylight by two masked gunmen who stole The Scream and Madonna by Munch. The Munch museum was closed for 10 months after the incident for security reasons. It took about 2 years for the Norwegian government to recover the two paintings with some major damage to the paintings which were recovered later.

About that artist- pablo picasso 1

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, ceramist and printmaker born in 1881, in Malana, Spain. His impact on art is huge. He is one the most renowned artists in the world, who left a mark for himself in the history of art and founded a movement in that he most known for, cubism

Life

Pablo Picasso was born in malana in 1881. His father was a drawing professor, this could be one of the reasons why Picasso was inclined towards art at the young age of 10. In 1981, their family moved to A Coruna, in 1891, where his father began teaching fine arts. At the age of 13, his father saw one of his paintings and was so impressed that he thought his son had surpassed him.

Four years later the family moved to Barcelona, after the death of his younger sister. In Barcelona, Pablo joined a fine arts school where he excelled but his father knew that he won’t be able to fully reach his potential in Barcelona. Therefore, about 4 years later his father sent him to Madrid to pursue his art. 

Career 

Pablo was painting professionally from a very young age. The First Communion (1896), Portrait of Aunt Pepa (1896) are the paintings that he completed at the age of 14.

In Barcelona, he barely attended classes, he would wander in museums and admire the works of other artists like  Rossetti, Steinlen, El Greco. In 1900, he held his first exhibition in Barcelona, which featured around 50 of his artwork and was well appreciated for it.

The same year he made his first visit to Paris where he discovered some of the greatest things, some great colors, colors of Vincent van gogh rendering him extremely impressed.

The Blue Period 

This was a time during which Pablo Picasso used blue as the more prominent color in his paintings. This lasted between 1901-1904. This period in Picasso’s career can be attributed to the death of his friend Casagemas who had shot himself over a girl. He painted various portraits of Casagemas that had sort of a pang of grief and the observer could feel it.

Some of the paintings from the blue period include The Soup (1902), La Vie (1903), The Old Guitarist (1904). All these paintings possess a great deal of sorrow and the blue color makes it appear even more gloomy.

The Rose Period 

Even during the blue period, Picasso travelled between Barcelona and Paris, but in 1904 he moved permanently to paris. This and many other incidents in his life inspired this period. During this time he used lighter shades. Some of the rose period paintings include Two Nudes (1906), Woman with Loaves (1906), Garçon à la pipe (1905).

Cubism

Cubism is an art movement that became prominent during the 20th century. It represents reality in the form of cubes often making it appear distorted and fragmented. Picasso is considered one the founders of this movement and he truly made it his.

These are the types of paintings that Picasso is most known for. 

Who is the girl with the pearl earring

The woman stands, a dark, ill-lit scene surrounds her, making it seem 3D, almost real; that is the girl with the pearl earring. 

Girl with the pearl earring is perhaps one of the most famous paintings to ever exist, also known as The “Mona Lisa of the North” this art piece by the dutch artist Johannes Vermeer is undoubtedly his most recognized work.

Vermeer and his style

Johannes Vermeer, a dutch painter born in 1632, in Delft, Netherlands is one of the most celebrated artists of all time. Although he was not very well known in his time, his work was posthumously recognized by critics.

Vermeer portrayed typical scenes in his art, ordinary everyday scenes. People doing everyday tasks, nothing out of the box,but these scenes were very skillfully painted. The perspective and the orientation of light was all very precise. For instance his painting The Music Lesson (1665), at first glance it seems a pretty simple painting of a teacher giving a piano lesson but there’s always more than meets the eye, the tiles show a perspective leading up to the student, the light coming through the window forces the observer to focus their attention right in the middle. The observer is not conscious of these things but influences them in some way.

What is so special about it?

A painting’s prevalence is not just determined by how good the painting itself is, but what the painting represents,the political environment during the time it was painted, and controversies it is involved in.

Girl with the pearl earring was painted in 1665, which shows a young woman looking directly at the observer. She can be seen wearing a turban, a mustard cardigan and a pearl earring. This painting is different from all of vermeer’s paintings, the lady is not doing any chore rather she just looks at the observer, this along with her inconspicuous eyebrows led to it’s comparison with the Mona Lisa. but it is not a portrait, it is a tronie.

Her lips are slightly parted, her gaze is at the observer. It looks almost 3D. Vermeer used a technique called sfumato for this painting, a technique that involves blending of colors to give a blurry or hazy appearance. Vermeer left out a lot of details,It is a tronie 

This was painted during a time when the church or the royals held power and depicted a working class girl. The pearl earring could be ironic. also the pearl is too big to be real, therefore the critics speculate that he could’ve intentionally painted it that way, to make it seem fake and also 17th century dutch women did not wear turbans.

Later assessment 

Vermeer ‘s work was assessed in the 19th century by a critic, which led to his recognition and became widely mainstream only in the 21st century.

A novel has also been written around this painting called  Girl with the Pearl Earring in 1999, written by Tracy Chevalier and later in 2003, a movie was also made, inspired from the book, with Scarlet Johansen playing the protagonist.

The painting sits Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands

About that artist- Artemisia Gentileschi

Artemisia Gentileschi is regarded as one of the most illustrious artists of the 17th century. She made a name for herself during a time when women were not allowed to be a part of art and cultural activities. Her paintings were a symbol of women empowerment of the Baroque period and yet are not well known.

Early life

Artemisia was born in 1593 in Rome Italy, to Orazio Gentileschi, a renowned painter at the time. Her father recognized her talent from an early age and encouraged her to paint. Her father was a huge follower of the remarkable Baroque painter Caravaggio and her own paintings were highly inspired by Caravagio’s dramatic realism.  

Career

Gentileschi’s earliest known work is Sussana and the Elders, who at the time of painting this was only 17. The painting shows a young woman Sussane taking a bath in her garden and two men with ill intentions and a predatory look towering over the young women. Sussane who obviously seems very vulnerable at the moment and can not do much but just confute the two men with her actions which go to waste. This painting is inspired from a tale in the book of daniel. This tale portrays Sussana taking a bath in her garden as two elders start spying and harassing her sexually. 

In 1611, an Italian landscape painter Agostino Tassi who was working under Orazio, went into their house and raped Artemisia. Orazio was under the impression that Tassi would be marrying her daughter to save the Gentileschi name from embarrassment but when Tassi refused to do so Orazio took him to trial. This was really tragic for the 17 year old Gentilesci, according to her father and all the other men in power her virginity was stolen but for her it was a part of her that was stripped away. As if this wasn’t enough torture for her she was tortured with nails and screws at the trial to attest the authenticity of her testimony. Tassi was found guilty but did not serve any sentence owing to his relations with the pope.

A short while after the trial, her father married her off to a Florence based artist and moved to florence. This period of her life brought her tremendous success. She became the first woman to be accepted at the Academy of Design, Florence. This meant that she did not need permission from any man to buy art supplies, she could do it without any men controlling her.

In Florence, Gentileschi had developed her own style. She used tenebrism in her paintings which is a style of painting that uses light and dark contrasts and the dark becomes a dominating feature.

In 1620, she completed Judith Slaying Holofernes, which is inspired from a narrative in The Bible. Throughout the history of art many versions of this tale have been painted by multiple artists, even Caravaggio but Gentileschi’s  version is more real and violent. This work of hers can be compared with her own traumatic experience, where Holofernes can be compared to Tassi and Judith is Gentileschi.

Now it is not that she was the first female painter ever but all the female artists that came before her chose still lives or aesthetically pleasing subject matters. Gentileschi on the other hand, portrayed women that were a subject to male oppression like herself and were raw. Yet she is not very well known in the 21st century. Gentileschi’s work is empowering and a mark of early feminism and needs to be celebrated.

About that artist- francis bacon-2

Saying that Francis Bacon’s life was tragic would be an understatement. He went through a great deal of emotional and mental trauma. 

Tough love

In the 1950s Bacon was moving around a lot, living ephemerally he became romantically involved with and that was Peter Lacy who was an English pilot. His relationship with Lacy was toxic in every way, shae and form to say the least. Their love was fervent and extremely passionate that perfectly enveloped the vicious and destructive side it possessed. Bacon was somewhat of a masochist and Lacy, the opposite. Peter lacy would beat Bacon and abuse him throughout their relationship. Now, an ordinary person would have been appalled by the actions of peter lacy, but this was bacon he was no ordinary man. He loved Lacy with all his might, he was obsessed with him and was blinded by this very love that was, inch by inch devouring his very existence. In fact it was so destructive that once, Lacy threw him out of the window of his house over an argument they had. Bacon’s face was disfigured owing to the assault on him by Lacy. This also affected Bacon’s artisan.

Around this time Bacon’s paintings changed dramatically, his style was much more different than the one’s he made previously.

Evolution of his work

The paintings he made in the 50s were characterized by the use of a combination of blue, black and green colors which could be attributed to the changes occurring in his life.

Francis Bacon’s series of seven paintings Man in Blue I-VII, 1954 shows men in black suits present in a murky, grey almost alien landscape seemingly estranged and bewildered.

His paintings Two Figures, 1953 and Two Figures, 1953 see two men in a rather strange setting with one on top of the other. These paintings vividly point towards the relationship between him and lacy.

A few years later lacy moved back to morocco and bacon followed him there. Francis Bacon had achieved a lot more by this time. He held multiple exhibitions and his paintings were being displayed in reputed museums and art galleries. Just before one of his exhibits in London, he was told that Lacy had passed away. This deeply scarred him.

After a little while he met George Dyer, and became involved with him too, who was a subject for a lot of his subsequent paintings. His relationship with Dyer was not as eventful as his previous relationship except just a few incidents. Dyer was found dead in the bathroom of a hotel where Bacon and Dyer were staying. His painting figure at a washbasin, 1976 resembles a man lying in the bathroom which could be about Dyer.

Over the next years Bacon’s work kept on evolving and his paintings became more polished but his desires didn’t falter. He continued to act the way he used to. In 1992, Bacon succumbed to a heart attack. His art was esoteric and he still maintained that cryptism in his art even though there was a lot that he was going through beyond his colors and canvas.

ABOUT THAT ARTIST- Francis Bacon-1 

A lot of you might think of the philosopher, but that is not who we are going to talk about in this article. 

There was another Francis Bacon, who was named after the philosopher and British Chancellor who, as the artist’s father claimed, was their ancestor born in 1909 in Dublin, Ireland an artist known for his unorthodox, borderline disturbing paintings.

A lot of his paintings were portraits of faces disfigured from some form of emotional suffering which his life was certainly full of. He derived inspiration for his paintings from an array of landscapes. For example he derived inspiration for one of his paintings from a nurse screaming in the movie battleship potemkin molded with his own fascinating imagination.

Humble beginnings 

Bacon was asthamatic and from a young age was very much in touch with his feminine side, his homosexuality was beginning to transpire and his family, especially his father considered it an abomination and Bacon, at the age of 16, was dismissed from his house. He went to London afterwards, where he did a couple of odd jobs just trying to make ends meet. Francis Bacon later started living with an art connoisseur, in France whom he met at an exposition. It was in France where the idea of becoming a painter started to grow on him. The Spanish painter Pablo Picasso was a major influence for Bacon, he was extremely in awe of the way Picasso’s ability to imagine and the uncanny geometry he used, the fragments of which can be slightly seen in Bacon’s work.

Early career 

Francis Bacon completed his first painting called crucifixion in 1933 and this brought him some success. But things did not run so smoothly for him after his artistic debut, his career saw a decline from here. His subsequent paintings did not receive critical or commercial success, instead his paintings were being criticised at this time.

Bacon did not release any of his work to the public for a while after this. During this time he was extremely self critical of his work, and was dissatisfied with almost all of it until he released his painting Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion in 1944 at an exhibition which enticed a lot of attention back to him. From this point onwards Bacon saw substantial success.

Bacon went on to make paintings such as Painting, 1946, Head I, 1948, Head VI, 1949 and perhaps his most famous, a painting inspired from Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez. 

All his paintings till now had very similar color scheming, he used quite dark, gloomy colors for a lot of his work and all of them possess an enigmatic whiff to them. His paintings seem like a hybrid of something so familiar yet something that can still manage to evade one’s imagination.

During all this while Bacon’s transformation could be seen through his paintings, his work was evolving as the years passed by and was being deeply affected by his personal experiences as one would expect.

About that artist- Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh perhaps, one of the greatest artists to have ever lived, was born in 1853, in the Netherlands. He was the eldest of six children to his parents, and was only in touch with 2 of his siblings later in life. His brother Theo Van Gogh was the closest to him.

 Van Gogh is considered as the greatest post impressionist (post impressionism is a French art movement, mainly characterized by vivid hues and exuberant brush strokes). Unfortunately, His artwork did not receive much success while he was alive

Van Gogh died at an early age of 37 and was not around to witness his work being recognized and appreciated.

Introduction to art

At the age of 16, he apprenticed at the art dealers Goupil and Cie at The Hague branch through his uncle. He worked at the Goupil in London and Paris as well in the following years. The everyday exposure to art seemed to intrigue him. Artists such as Frans Hals, Jean Francois Millet started to grow on him and greatly inspired him throughout his life.

He became extremely successful during his time at the Goupil but art dealing did not satisfy him at all, in fact he despised it and was dropped off from the Goupil during his time in Paris after which he took up a couple of different jobs and had to experience some unfortunate events led him to become devout and extremely pious. During his time back home he used to translate the verses of the bible in English and French.

One of his jobs included working as a missionary among the less privileged section of the society at a coal mining region, where he lived among the poor and gave away his possessions, this did not sit well with the religious authorities, and the church later banished him.

This left him feeling dejected and out of sorts. He felt abandoned by society and isolated himself. It was during this time that he used painting as a form of expression.

He moved to Brussels to learn drawing, and then later he moved to Hague to work under the guidance of Anton Mauve, a Dutch painter.

Van Gogh and Mental Health

Van Gogh went on to produce great paintings in the subsequent years, these years also saw his artwork evolve greatly. He worked with Paul Gaugin for an ephemeral time of about two months.

This was a time of absolute distress for him, he was tortured by his own head and his solitude did not side with him.  In fact he was so troubled that one night he cut off his own year with a blade.

After this event, he was hospitalized where he kept experiencing psychotic episodes and yet was able to give the world some of the best paintings like The Starry Night, Olive Trees, Garden Of The Asylum and many more.

Van Gogh made his best paintings during the last two, extremely disturbing years of his life. Consumed by loneliness and the voices in his head, Van Gogh succumbed to his own mind. At the age of 37, he shot himself.

Vincent Van Gogh was a highly inspirational artist who had the ability to express emotions through a simple stroke of his brush. He expressed his pain through his brush which gave birth to an alluring piece of art that can make you feel emphatic emotions. And keep in mind that he was able to do this despite his ill mental health.

Anniversaries (as of 2020)

•75th anniversary of end of World War 2 (1st September 1939 – 2nd September 1945 )

It involved vast majority of the world’s countries forming two different military forces – the Allies and the Axis. The Allied won causing the fall of Nazi Germany and also death of Hitler. It was the deadliest war in world history.

•100th birth anniversary of Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was an American author and a professor of biochemistry at Boston University. Born on 2nd January, 1920 in Petrovichi, Russia. He was well known globally for his science fiction works including ‘I, Robot’, ‘Caves of steel’, ‘End of eternity’ etc. Some of his stories have been made into movies.

• 200th birth anniversary of Anne Bronte

Anne Bronte was an English novelist and poet and the youngest of the famous Bronte sisters. She was born on 17th January, 1820 in Thornton, UK. Some of her works include ‘The tenant of Wildfell hall’ and ‘Agnes Grey’.

•500th death anniversary of Italian artist Raphael

One of the Renaissance period painters, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino was born on 6th April, 1483 and died on 6th April, 1520. St. Peter’s Basilica is one of his works. His notable artworks include ‘The school of Athens’, ‘The Sistine Madonna’ , ‘The marriage of the virgin’ etc.

•250th birth William Wordsworth

The very famous poem, ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ poet William Wordsworth was born on 7th April, 1770 in Cockermouth, UK. He was an English Romantic poet.

•200th birth Florence nightingale

The English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing was born on 12th May, 1820 in Florence, Italy. She worked hard and determined as a nurse and earned the title ‘Lady with the Lamp’.

•150th death anniversary Charles Dickens

•250th birth anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven

He was a German composer and pianist whose music ranks amongst the most performed classical music. Till date he remains the most admired composers in the history of western music. He was born in December 1770, Bonn, Germany.

•Breakfast club is 35 now.

1985 The 1985 comedy and drama movie that has been a teenagers must watch since it’s release in 1985.

Thank you for reading. Have a nice day!🌼

Are Artworks Subjective?

In my view, it depends on the artist. There are two kinds of artworks – objective and subjective. To begin with, real art is created for the spectators and audience. On the other hand, subjective art is created out of one’s desire. Though every artwork has a touch of oneself, most of them are made for the people to see, to read, and to criticize upon. Not many artworks can be entirely personal, or in other words, subjective.
Subjective art was created to pour one’s heart out without letting other people view it. It is very personal, for example, writing a journal. Objective art is designed to make people feel, make people think, observe, and analyze the deeper meaning of the artwork. To name one artist who had mastered the subjective form of painting is none other than Picasso. His paintings were created only for himself, only to pour out his thoughts, and not to please the spectators or even, make the viewers think.
Not only in painting, but subjective art is also present in poetry. To write poetry, which would include external elements, is known as objective art. But, subjective art is mostly about what is inside the poet’s mind and about the emotions he feels. Subjective poetry is very personal, for example, a ballad or an elegy. This is precisely the opposite form of objective poetry.
Now, there is a very fine line between objective and subjective art. To create the former one, an artist has to keep an object in mind, to have a prior idea regarding the outcome of his work. On the other hand, the latter comes out of the flow. It is mostly out of the artist’s mood, or imagination, or even accidental. Mostly artworks are objective, which is made for the people to comment on. There are very few artists who create individual artworks.
To answer the main question, not all artwork is subjective, though I would love them to be. But, unfortunately, they are not. It would have been so beautiful to read poetry, which got created by accident or to look at a painting, which is just a crazy endeavor of an artist’s whimsical mind. Besides, through subjective art, one can truly understand the essence of an artist’s intention or feel the artist’s emotions.
Here, I would like to mention an epistolary novel, “The Diary of a Young Girl,” written by Anne Frank. This is an extraordinary example of subjective art. The journal, which got published posthumously, was written by Anne to keep records of her experiences of World War II. In the book, she maintains a steady conversation with “Kitty,” the name of her journal, about how her days, her family, love interests, and lifestyles after they went into hiding. An excellent example of subjective art and most epistolary novels are indeed written as to express one’s experiences or thoughts, not keeping in mind about the readers.
To conclude, subjective artworks are very personal, and hence, most artists don’t publish or execute them in public, even if they create it. Most of the artworks are found after the death of the particular artist and get published. Other than that, several of the artworks created are objective.