Athabascan Artwork

The Athabascn tribe is one of the oldest to live in Alaska, from which they came across from Russia on the land bridge a long time ago. The reason I chose this tribe was because I am an Athabascan also. My great grandpa grew up in a village and raised my grandpa with all the religion and tradition that they did so I have a pretty good sense of what went on. The Athabascan tribe is located in the interior of Alaska around Fairbanks, Healy, and other close towns and villages. The Athabascan’s were very creative people in which they created a lot of different kinds of designs on their winter gear such as gloves and hats. They also included artwork into their basket weaving which was a big part of what they were recognized for throughout Alaska. They were big into mask making, which there were some very amazing masks built as a way to join in and participate in traditions and things like that. This piece is called “De Maa?” by Kathleen Carlo-Kendall. She is an Athabascan professional carver from Alaska. A little background on this mask, like I mentioned before, were used traditions and story-telling. The mask would be a way for the performer to become a character in the story such as an animal or the hunter, sharing stories of their greatest hunts till that day.

Another form of art that the Athabascan tribe created was beadwork. They were very big into this and put this on a lot of the things that they used to live for example gloves, pillows, blankets, hats, necklaces, earrings, etc. Here are gloves made by Susie Ondolo, which she is also Athabascan. She uses hundreds, almost thousands of beads when making a pair of gloves all in different designs. The actual gloves were from moose hide which were ably to keep women warm during the cold winters. Another piece she made with beads are earrings. She made them from porcupine quills which then put beads on after making the frame of the earrings.

 

 

Sources:

http://www.alaskanative.net/en/main-nav/education-and-programs/cultures-of-alaska/athabascan/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Carlo-Kendall

http://alaskanativecrafts.com/bead.htm

 

 

Post Modern Abstract Expressionism

There were many different styles of artwork in the mid and post-modern eras. One that kinda jumped out at me was the Abstract     Expressionism and why it became so popular. Abstract art was when an artist would paint very rapidly with a lot of emotion and energy. Most of the time, it would be very hard to point just what exactly the painting was but each artist had their own way of expressing their feelings and making something great. Although some of the art was not abstract, it was usually painted in a very spontaneous matter in which the artist’s creativity would kick in and take over.

One artist who was quite popular in this era was Philip Guston (1913-1980) who was born in Montreal and then moved to Los Angeles with his family a short time later.  One of his early influences was a cartoon drawing course he participated in via the US mail.  A high school friend named Jackson Pollock would later become a famous abstract expressionist painter.  Guston spent a year in New York working on WPA murals. One of his more famous pieces was called the “Green Rug” in 1976 and was painted in New York. In this painting, it represented the social anarchy of the early 1960’s. Another piece is called “Sleeping” in 1977 in New York. This painting is of what looks to be an older man trying to fit under the red blanket because he is cold. Guston painted this piece after a life threatening heart attack so he wanted to paint figurative works of art. The last piece by Guston is called “Couple in Bed” also in 1977. This paining was also done after Guston suffered from a heart attack when he was painting figurative works of and intimate portraits. The last one is called the “Ancient Wall” painted in 1976.

 

 

 

 

Another abstract artist from the era was Clifford Still. Still was born in North Dakota and after a period spent painting “farm hands and laborers” in the 1930′s, he began to paint in a more abstract manner. Arriving on the New York art scene, Still’s work began to attract attention. Still did not play well with others, withdrawing from the commercial art world in 1951 in response to fame, criticism of his work, the commercialism of the art world at the time, or perhaps a combination of all three. Images of Still’s works from 1975 on can be very hard to find. Below is a painting he created in 1976 entitled “PH-1023,” followed by a detail of the work painted in 1977 entitled “PH-1049.” Still is known for including vertical forms in his works.

Cites:

http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/a/abstractexpr.html

http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/press-room/exhibitions/2003/philip-guston

http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/abstractexpressionism/

 

WW1- The Early Modern Era

 

World War 1 had quite the impact on the art and artists of the early modern era. One reason it had a big impact was because of the “new” technology of the time that was used. WW1 influenced a lot of great pieces of art, presenting the good and bad of the war.

The piece “Over the Top,” by John Nash in 1918 was to show the tragedy of World War I. John Nash was an English painter, illustrator, and engraver born in London. Nash joined the war effort in 1916 as an official war artist. “Over the Top” depicts the Artists Rifles fighting in the Welsh Ridge counter-attack. In “Over the Top,” John Nash shows how trench warfare was fought. Trench warfare was a defensive strategy where both sides dig into the ground and fight from trench to trench. Of the Eighty men that that were in the Artists Rifles, sixty-eight were killed or wounded in the first few minutes. John Nash was one of the twelve who went without injury from shellfire. Painting from only his memory Hall recreated the scene from the counter-attack.

This piece is named “Gassed” in 1919 by John Singer Sargent. In this painting, soldiers were walking through a mustard gas attack holding on to each other. The amount of bodies on the ground is crazy which makes the energy of this painting very dark and depressing. Sargent was apart of the British War Memorials Committee to document the war and visited the Western Front in July 1918. He then was able to paint what he had saw after his visits.

Many war artists of this era painted harsh but realistic visual depictions of the death and destruction that resulted from combat. “Paths of Glory” was painted by C.R.W. Nevinson in 1917. This piece is of two dead soldiers as they lie face down in the mud, dead. We cannot identify with, or even identify these soldiers at all. Their faces are hidden and their bodies lay with the muddy battleground. The brownish grey mud almost threatens to rise up and swallow the entire scene.

 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nash_(artist)

“Gassed (painting).” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 June 2014. Web. 09 Nov. 2014.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paths_of_Glory_(painting)

Impressionism vs. Realism

In 1874, a group of artists in Paris, launched the Impressionism movement. Impressionism got its name from Claude Monet’s work, “Impression,Sunrise.”  Critic ,Louis Leroy, came up with this name while he was describing this piece of art. He claimed this to look like a “sketch” or “impression” and not a finished painting. Most of the art from this time used short, broken brush strokes to create objects, pure unblended colors, and special importance of the use of light. Instead of the normal neutral white, greys and blacks, artists used shadows and highlights in color. The loose brush strokes give a result of spontaneity and effortlessness. An example of this is Alfred Sisley’s 1878 “Allée of Chestnut Trees.”

 

Another new technique that was used during this movement was the use of bright colors instead of the more sober colors that were commonly used. Synthetic pigments were developed and it led to more vibrant shades of blue green and yellow. An example of this is, Edouard Manet’s, 1874, “Boating.” He used the new cerulean blue and synthetic ultra marine to create this.

 

The Impressionism subject were usually images of suburban and rural leisure outside the city of Paris. Most artists chose to show the rural pass times of vacationers. In my opinion, I do like Impressionism art. I feel that the art of this time is very realistic, therefore easy to view and easy on the eyes. The art depicts relaxing, everyday scenes of this time period. One does not have to think about what they are observing or try to understand what the artist is trying to convey. The paintings are lively, life-like and peaceful.

To compare the Renaissance movement with the Impressionism movement, you first can see the difference in the use of color. In the Renaissance movement, artists wanted to create a realistic picture that was life-like with the use of light and dark colors. In the Impressionism movement, artists wanted to make a scene that captured a moment in time with the use of reflections of light. They used small strokes with bright colors. The subject of the Renaissance art were myths or religious events. Impressionism art used subjects of leisure life, which showed pass times of vacations.

 

Cites

http://www.mountainsofttravelphotos.com

http://www.metmuseum.org

http://www.scituate.k12.ma.us/

Morality and the Art of the Classical Era

In the second half of the eighteenth century, many individuals were all under rule of the church. When the power of the church and the birth of new technology directed many bold individuals to begin to think for themselves, finding themselves free from the restrictions imposed by religion and traditional authority. Those individuals now followed the certain belief in which all problems could be solved by human intelligence alone. Morality became a central issue within the artwork of the Neoclassical style, mostly because it was formed as a response to what many considered the immoral nature of Rococo artwork. Since Neoclassical had strong roots within the Enlightenment philosophy of the day, where the focus was placed on the individual and reason of the mind over emotion, artwork reflected these moral values. Here we will take a look at both types of art and see how they differ from each other and how each type changed when it came to morality.

Francois Boucher was a well know artist of the Rococo style of art, spread throughout Europe for his many different types of artwork. One of his pieces known as “The Toilette of Venus” was a painting of Madame de Pompadour. Her stunning beauty while she sits on the sofa while cupids surrounding her creates an image that she is a goddess and lives that type of lifestyle. The detail in this painting is very appealing and shows a lot of the light colors and curving shapes to create a beautiful picture. There is no moral values in this painting which is why it falls under the Rococo style.

This painting is called “The Stolen Kiss” by Jean Honoré Fragonard. This is an example of the Neoclassical type of artwork. In the scene, the moral values are present. The two are sneaking away and getting alone time due to the fact that showing love or relationship characteristics in front of others were not common. The amazing amount of detail in the girl’s dress and on the walls make this picture very interesting.

Links:

“The Classical Period (1775-1825).” The Classical Period (1775-1825). University of Kansas, n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2013. http://web.ku.edu/~cmed/private/classical.html

Wikipedia. François Boucher. N.p, 2014. Web. 7 Mar. 2014.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Boucher

The Baroque Era

Rembrandt is regarded as one of the greatest artists of Holland’s “Golden Age.” His contributions to art came in a time of great wealth and cultural achievement. A very important aspect of him as an artist was his intense study of people, objects, and their surroundings “from life.” His captivating descriptions of light, space, atmosphere, modeling, texture, and human situations are evident in all of his work. One of the greatest portrait paintings of the Baroque Era was of Rembrandt’s closest friend, Jan Six. Jan Six was a merchant, magistrate, playwright, and art collector. Rembrandt is able to capture the behavior of his subjects which explains why he is one of the best portrait artists of his time. Jan Six is turning slightly and is on the point of leaving and is able to show what his subject is thinking and feeling at the time. The brushwork in the area of the hands and gloves suggest movement as if you could almost picture him getting ready to walk away. The portrait depicts a time of royalty and wealth.The details of his attire are consistent with the Baroque era.

Renaissance

In the start of the Renaissance, it was changed from medeival life and religious values to philosophical principles of humanism. Italian people were then interested in individual achievement and life in the world rather than the life after this world, which was focused on by religion. They strongly believed in the future for individual accomplishment  in the arts, literature, politics, and personal life. During this period, art had changed to focus on human forms with correct proportions and realistic clothing and expressions. Artists focused on the human body, creating a more three-dimensional and life-like quality in efforts to better understand their subjects. For example, Michelangelo’s “David” is most known for its mythological origin and for the amazing artistic detail. This piece of artwork is so life-like that muscles are full and show his strength. The viewer can almost imagine him breathing and see the blood pumping through his veins. Michelangelo was known to have studied human anatomy which leads to his anatomically correct sculptures. He depicts the male body in true perfection showing how idealism and humanism work together.

1.) SparkNotes Editors. “SpaskNotes on Italian Renaissance (1330-1550).” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. n.d.. Web. 2 Sept.

2.)http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/Michelangelo-David.html

Introductory Post

Hello, my name is Justin Woods and I am a 20 year old sophomore from Fairbanks, Alaska. I am on the Hockey team here at UAF, I’ve been playing since I was 10 years old. I am a Business Major with a minor in Sports Management. After school, if I am not able to continue playing hockey, I want to become a sports agent for hockey players.

Although I am not that experienced when it comes to art, I have taken a couple classes in that field. I have taken drawing and ceramics. I really enjoyed drawing more over ceramics. I think I like drawing more because I am better at it and I am able to express myself in a way that I cannot with making pottery. When it comes to being an audience member, I have watched several plays in my years of being a student. I have watched the Nutcracker about 3 times, I’ve also watched this very amazing choreographed dance play, I do not remember the name of the group but they were very good at what they did. The one thing in art that interests me the most is film making. I am very amazed at what people can do with the editing softwares that are available now a days. Here is a link so you can see what I am talking about.