Round 2 Artist of the Week is... !

Here are some clues as to who this week's artist is:

He was, like Caspar David Friedrich, a Romanticist painter who was way ahead of his time, in my opinion.

British!

He had a very long, controversial career.


And he shares part of his name with a famous movie character.

That's right... it's Joseph Mallord William Turner! (Sometimes just William Turner or J.M.W. Turner)

Hello, Will!

Self-Portrait, c. 1799

Turner was born in London, England, in 1775. A very ambitious chap, he was oftentimes considered (quite appropriately) to be a child prodigy considering that he was accepted into the Royal Academy of Art at age 14 or 15 and by 18 had his own studio.

He came from a well-off family, so he never had to work for money. This allowed him lots of leisure time to travel all over Europe to experience different places and study art, which he did during his twenties. Landscape painting was his specialty, but he painted other subjects early in his career, like the Salisbury Cathedral Seen from the Cloister (c. 1802).

It is important to note that Turner had a few disadvantages as an artist. One, being British. England did not have the type of artistic history that, say, France or Italy had. Not even close. Oftentimes, British patrons commissioned artists from out of the country because it was difficult to find local artists who could do the job just as well. That was partly because England didn't have a Royal Academy of Art until 1768, more than a hundred years after France established its own Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture.

Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, London. Established 1768.

Second, landscape painting wasn't necessarily the cat's meow at the turn of the 19th century. Like I mentioned in my post/paper about the first Impressionist exhibition, landscape painting was considered inferior to history paintings, which were given the most attention and admiration.

So what did Turner do? He turned landscape painting upside down. It was no longer about capturing the picturesque -- he made it complicated by incorporating allegorical themes into his work. Also, his style was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before: very precise, dramatic, sharp brushstrokes... intense compositions and atmospheric effects... an interest in historical and contemporary events, some of which had very dark themes.

This is Snowstorm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps (1812). In this painting, Turner is associating Hannibal with Napoleon. Most of the emphasis, though, is on the vulnerability of the soldiers in the face of raw nature, which dominates the entire painting.


The Shipwreck, painted in 1805, possibly depicts a real event that occurred around the time. Turner loved the sea. He loved exaggerating the immense power and force of the waves against measly man-made ships. Again, he shows that humans are at the mercy of nature.

Speaking of ships and the sea, here is one of Turner's most famous and controversial paintings, completed in 1840: Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying - Typhoon Coming On or simply The Slave Ship. It is based on the horrifying (but true) practices of 18th-century slave traders, who would throw the dead and dying slaves overboard in order to gain insurance for drowning. (They would not be able to get insurance if the slaves died on the ship.) It's about man against the brutal forces of nature and the brutal forces of mankind. See how Turner used color and a dynamic composition to emphasize the emotional appeal of the subject as well as the actual landscape.

It is no surprise that Turner's Slave Ship was not well-received by the public. Too graphic and too abstract. Mostly the latter. This was later in Turner's career when he actually used his fingers as well as brushes to apply paint to the canvas.

A couple more examples of his later work:

The Burning of the House of Lords and Commons, 16th October, 1834 (1834-35)

Rain, Steam, and Speed: The Great Western Railway (1844)

Towards the end of his career, Turner moved into almost abstraction, as indicated in the above painting. He became a major influence of the Realists and the Impressionists. His works now sell for millions of dollars. (Case in point, the most recent one which was sold this July, went for $44.9 million.)

So... did anyone else notice any similarities between J.M.W. Turner and William Turner from Pirates of the Caribbean? I mean, their fathers were both named William Turner. They're both British. Both loved the sea and spent a lot of time around it...

That only leads me to ask... could J.M.W. Turner have been a pirate?! The world may never know...

And the artist of the week is... !

I've decided that since it would be impossible to talk about the hundreds of artists I learn about in my art history classes, I should focus on one of them per week. I will choose an artist whom I consider to be extraordinary and whose artwork caught my fancy in class. (We go through 10-20 different artists every class period, so only a few of them stick out.)

This week's artist is...

*cue drum roll*

(Psst. Here... I'll give you a clue...)

It's Caspar David Friedrich!

If you don't know who he is, that's fine. I hope you two will be well-acquainted by the end of this post.

Caspar David Friedrich (Sept. 5, 1774-May 7, 1840) was a German romanticist landscape painter who grew up near the Baltic coast. He grew up during a time when people were voluntarily turning away from the materialistic and embracing a more spiritual outlook on life. Friedrich believed that nature was God's creation and he intended to show that through his paintings. Many of them contain subtle religious connotations, the most popular one being the use of the number three.

Take Cross in the Mountains (1807-08) for example.

The three rays of sunlight symbolize the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - the Three in One. I love this painting in particular because of how majestic and well-composed it is.

The Trinity is also indicated in the rocks from Woman in Front of the Setting Sun (1818-20).

Friedrich experienced several tragedies early in his life. His mother died when he was just seven years old. At thirteen, he witnessed the death of his brother who fell through ice in a lake and drowned. He later lost two of his sisters. Even though the essence of melancholy in his paintings would lead us to believe that he was a very serious man, possibly because of his childhood, his friends contended that had a warm sense of humor and a gift for telling jokes.

He first studied art at the University of Greifswald (his home city) where he became influenced by Dutch seventeenth-century landscape painters. He later settled in Dresden, which is where he took up oil painting.

None of Friedrich's paintings contain the frontal view of a person, making them rather mysterious. This is demonstrated by the previous painting, by Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (1818) [see first painting], in Monk by the Sea (1809-10), and Woman at the Window (1822).


*Side note: I was recently looking through a Dali book and came upon this painting that he did in 1925: (see any similarities?)

Friedrich first studied art at the University of Griefswald (his home city) where he became influenced by Dutch seventeenth-century landscape painters. He later settled in Dresen, which is where he took up oil painting. He became part of the Romantic movement, which was all about depicting heightened states of emotion through art.

All of the landscapes in his paintings are influenced by actual German landscapes, mainly around the Baltic coast where he spent his childhood.

Though the landscape in Nebel (fog) (1807) seems rather mundane, to Friedrich, it was beautiful.

Friedrich experienced much success and was a renowned artist in his lifetime. He suffered a stroke in 1835 which caused partial paralysis, making it very difficult for him to paint. He worked in different mediums for his death in 1840.

The things I love the most about Friedrich's paintings are the color and atmosphere. I think he demonstrated these talents best in my three favorite paintings of his: Moonrise Over the Sea (1822), Cloister Graveyard in the Snow (1819), and The Polar Sea (1823-25).




The naturalism is phenomenal, and I love the mystery that he captures in each one of his paintings. I think he, like many Romantic artists, was way ahead of his time. I mean, doesn't The Polar Sea look like something out of a Sci-Fi flick?

Anyway, I hope you and Caspar David Friedrich are well-acquainted now and will remain good friends in the future.

European 19th cent. art and sculpture project

The second research paper I did this semester was for my European 19th century painting and sculpture class. Since I love the Impressionists (who doesn't?), I chose to write my paper about them, specifically about their first exhibition in 1874 and how it came to be.

When you look at Impressionist paintings, with their bright tones, broad brushstrokes, and scenes of leisure, you probably don't think of them being very "radical."

Consider these three paintings.

Claude Monet, Impression Sunrise.

Paul Cézanne, The Hanged Man's House.

Edouard Manet, Olympia.*

* (While Manet is not technically an Impressionist painter, his loose brushstroke and innovative subject matter made him one of the greatest influences of Impressionism.)

All three of paintings above are examples of art that much of the French public found horrifying when they were first shown. Art critic Louis Leroy, after looking at Monet's Impression Sunrise, mockingly referred to the painters of this new, loose, radical style "Impressionists," which is where the term originates.

The French public and art critics detested Impressionism for many reasons. First and foremost, it simply wasn't considered tasteful. The highest regard was given to history and religious paintings, which could be viewed at the annual Salon.

The Salon, or "Exhibition of Living Artists," was basically an art show that allowed artists to show their work to the public. Getting work accepted in the Salon helped them obtain commissions, sell their works, and many times in the 1800s helped revitalize France's war-torn image. The cost was one franc, a fairly low price for most Parisians, and each show usually lasted a few months. Some Salons drew as many as a million visitors.

In order to be accepted into the Salon, the submitted artwork had to be reviewed by a jury. The jury often consisted of members of the French Royal Academy, who preferred the "academic style" of painting and, as was stated previously, history and religious paintings. Darlings of the Academy that were accepted time and again into the Salons included artists like William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Jean-Leon Gerome, and Alexandre Canabel.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Fardeau Agreable.

Jean-Leon Gerome, Un Combat de Coqs.

Alexandre Canabel, The Birth of Venus.

Precise lines, intense naturalism, and a love for mythological themes defined the academic style in the 1800s. That is part of the reason why the Salon jury rejected the Impressionists' work so frequently. That isn't to say that all the Impressionists experienced rejection - Degas and Morisot had quite a few works that were accepted. It was the jury's inconsistency, though, that infuriated them.

In 1863, a number of artists and Parisians were speaking out against the unfair policies of the Salons and the fact that so many artists were being rejected. Napoleon III intervened and decided that there should be a Salon for the rejected works - the Salon des Refuses. Poorly organized and poorly funded, the show was a joke to most of the public. Much of the ridicule was given to Manet's Olympia. Never before had a nude model been presented this way, with such a forward position and a cold stare. It was one of the first painted nudes that seemed to hold her own - an idea that was not appreciated in the mid to late 1800s.

Critics were so taken aback by the black cat in the painting, which was interpreted to represent the model's sexuality, that it became a symbol for Manet in satirical cartoons.

In my paper I also explained how the first Impressionist exhibit was influenced by the Salon of 1866 and the Universal Exposition, but I will not delve into these events for the purpose of keeping this post short. Throughout both events, the jury continued to reject a large number of submissions. Out of the 3,000 pieces that were submitted to the Salon of 1867 (which combined with the Universal Exposition), 2,000 were rejected.

It was around this time that Bazille, Monet, and the rest of the Impressionists began to throw around the idea of creating their own society. The idea came to realization in 1873 with the creation of the Société anonyme des artistes peintres, scupteurs, graveurs, etc. They decided to open their own exhibition in direct retaliation against the Salon.

So on April 15, 1874, the first Impressionist exhibition opened on the Boulevard de Capucines at photographer Nadar's famous studio.

Out of the 30 artists that presented work at the exhibition, less than half were Impressionist painters (and incidentally, most of their reputations were lost in obscurity after the show). Neverthless, the Impressionists were the stars of the show: Monet, Renoir, Morisot, Degas, Cézanne, Pissarro, and Sisley all presented works that were viewed quite positively.

Seven more exhibitions followed the one in 1874, but around 1889, Impressionism met its end. Still, the first exhibition garnered the Impressionists the attention and respect they deserved but could not obtain through a Salon.

Working on this project gave me a new appreciation for the Impressionists and their paintings. It's so interesting to think that they put so much hard work, effort, and time into getting their new style of painting accepted by other people. Today it's hard to imagine a person who doesn't admire the Impressionist paintings.

Baroque/Rococo research project

For my research project for Baroque and Rococo class, I took up the challenge of comparing and contrasting one piece from each period. Looking back, it would have been easier to compare two pieces from the same period because it was a little difficult to make connections between two artists and paintings that are so vastly different.

Nevertheless, I tried. I started with the Diego Velázquez painting Kitchen Scene with Christ in the House of Martha and Mary. It is also known simply as Christ in the House of Martha and Mary. It is believed to have been painted in 1618 during the Baroque period, shortly after Velázquez left the workshop of his master, Francesco Pacheco. It is both a genre painting and a bodegón. A genre painting is a scene of everyday life, mostly of the lower class. A bodegón is the Spanish word for a still life of food and kitchen items.

The genre painting portion is the two women in the foreground. The young woman is helping prepare a meal. Her flushed face and frown indicate that she is unhappy with the work that she is doing. The older woman gestures towards her as if to offer advice. The bodegón, of course, is the meal that is laid out on the table - garlic, fish, eggs, and a pepper.

Possibly the most curious part of this painting is the religious scene that is occuring in the top right. Velázquez was notorious for putting a "painting within a painting." (Las Meninas, anyone?) For a while, art historians couldn't decide if the religious scene was a painting on the wall, a mirror reflecting the scene from the room where the young woman is preparing the meal, or if it was occurring in the room adjacent to the working woman. The latter theory is now the most widely accepted one although the hole in the wall is a bit mysterious.

Anyway, the religious scene shows a man who is clearly Jesus talking with two women, whom art historians believe are Martha and Mary from the story depicted in Luke chapter 10. In the story, Martha gets mad at her sister Mary for sitting and listening to Jesus instead of helping her around the house. She asks Jesus to tell her sister to help her and Jesus says something along the lines of, "Mary has chosen what is best, and it cannot be taken away from her." Based on that story, it is believed that the young woman preparing the meal is a modern-day Martha (well, modern day meaning 17th century Spain.)

The painting I chose to compare and contrast Kitchen Scene with is The Shepherds, painted by Jean-Antoine Watteau around 1716 (again, no one knows the exact date).

Watteau was born nearly 25 years after the death of Velázquez. He is part of the Rococo movement, which started in France. The Rococo was a direct reaction to the extravagance and drama of the Baroque, which many people believed to be too much. It was also a reaction to the rule of Louix XIV who had recently banned the popular commedia della'arte, or Italian Comedy, which was performed in local French theaters to the delight of many. The French turned their attention away from the throne to idyllic scenes of love, pleasure, and leisure. There are no moral messages in Rococo paintings, but there is a lot of sensual symbolism.

The scene takes place in an unknown, secluded area (a popular theme in Rococo art...for more on this, see Fragonard's series of paintings called "The Progress of Love."). A boy in the back left of the painting pushes a girl on a swing. (Swings/the act of swinging were full of sexual innuendo during this period of painting.) At the bottom left, a young boy watches the dancing couple. Next to him, a man gropes a woman. Beside her, two people are either looking at the musician or the dancers.

Quick side note, it was a habit of the upper elite French aristocrats to go out in the country and dress up as shepherds or peasants, which is what this painting depicts. None of the people are poor, they basically just acted like it for fun. Even Queen Marie Antoinette had a countryhouse built for her where she liked to pretend she was a farmer.

Somehow I stretched out my research paper to be 8 or 9 pages long. I think I did a decent job on it and am very glad it's over with, but now I have 2 more research papers and a Spanish essay for my other classes... the fun never ends!

* P.S. the hyperlinks are not spam, they are legit websites.

Almost Thanksgiving

Apparently, I have been a horrible blogger. Has it really been three months since I last posted? Yikes.

I'll try to make this update short since I've got a meeting soon.

Life in St. Cloud has been wonderful. I can't say enough good things about my art history classes and the joy I feel when I'm in them. I just finished an 8-page research paper for my European 19th Century Painting and Sculpture class. Since I love the Impressionists so much, I wrote my paper about the first Impressionist exhibit in 1874. For my Baroque and Rococo class, I wrote a research paper that compared a work by Watteau with a work by Diego Velazquez. (I tried to take advantage of the fact that I could read sources in Spanish, but I didn't find any.)

As far as my Spanish class goes, I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above the water. My comprehension in class is fine, but when I'm doing Internet research for assignments and everything is in Spanish, I have a hard time discerning the meanings of most the words. It's very frustrating. I am reading my textbook, though, and trying to build up my vocabulary as that seems to be what my primary lack is.

My other two classes are not very challenging. Ethnic Studies is fairly interesting, and all we do in my Honors democracy class is write papers and meet once a week to discuss them.

I met with my Honors advisor on Tuesday to see what gen ed requirements I still needed to fulfill. Three of my gen eds from Olivet (Biology lab science, philosophy, and math) transferred but did not initially meet St. Cloud's requirements (or something). I was hoping that my advisor could pull some strings for me since I'm a double major and I would love to get finished in 3 semesters as planned. She thankfully accepted the three credits from Olivet, so now all I need for my gen eds is Communications (speech class) and a non-lab science. It was such a relief to know that I only have to take two more gen eds instead of five.

I still need to meet with both my Spanish and Art History advisors to not only talk about what classes I should take next semester but to discuss what could do with my majors after college. I haven't really thought about it too much... I know that may sound silly, but hey, it took me two years of college before I actually realized what I wanted to major in, so...

Anyway, it's meeting time. I will try to post more art-related news in the future.

St. Cloud State

Today is Sunday and it's my fourth full day at St. Cloud State University. It's been a busy but totally rewarding. I'll start from the beginning.

The trip up through Iowa to Minnesota was, to say the least, tiring. I followed Mark the entire way and am proud to say that I never got lost - woo! But it was about 10:30 when we hit Rochester, MN (2 1/2 hours away from St. Cloud) and then I-94 out of Minneapolis was down to one lane of traffic due to construction - and this was around 11:30... ridic. Our arrival time at LSF (Lutheran Student Fellowship, the house where Mark lives) was 12:15. Then it was bedtime.

Thursday was early move-in day for the Husky Sports Band. My roommate and I, with her parents' and Mark's help, moved in around 9. Mark and I managed to fit my vanful of belongings into two laundry carts, so we only had to make one trip - pretty incredible. Katie and I live on the 12th floor (aka Honors floor) of the tallest dorm on campus, Sherburne Hall. We were lucky enough to get a corner room, which used to be a former lounge and is therefore two times bigger than the regular dorms. We have two huge windows, one that faces north and another that faces east. The view is AWESOME - I will post pictures of it and everything else soon, I promise. But seriously, the eastern view overlooks the Mississippi river and both windows offer a distant view of the entire city.

I've gotta say that living in the dorms again doesn't bother me one bit. Okay, I lied - it bothered me yesterday on freshman move-in day because the elevators were occupied so I had to climb 12 flights of stairs - but hopefully that will never be a huge issue any time soon. It's nice not to have to eat in the school cafeteria, too. Katie and I decided early on that we would utilize LSF's kitchen for all our meals (her boyfriend Andy also lives at LSF), and we plus Mark and Andy picked a night each week that one of us would cook dinner for everyone else. (We decided to do breakfast/lunch/weekends on our own.) Thursday was my night, so after grocery shopping, I made tacos!

Now we come to the reason for our early move-in to St. Cloud... Husky Sports Band! There's about a hundred kids part of this band, and we all spent Thursday night having a short rehearsal and getting to know one another. The Sports Band plays for a variety of activities at St. Cloud State, including football games, basketball games, and hockey games. It's a non-marching band, although we do march from the Performing Arts Center to the football field. The shows this year are Disney, Star Wars, and uh... I'll get back to you on the third one when I remember what it is. Oh, and our instructor is Mr. Tuomaala (that's too-ma-luh), and he's pretty crazy... haha, but awesome and probably the most dedicated music instructor I've ever known.

Friday was a band camp day, so from 9am-9:30pm we practiced music and worked on the pregame setup at the football stadium. It was about 85 degrees out when we practiced on the football field, but it didn't quite seem that hot - at least, the humidity wasn't that bad plus there was a breeze. Still, it seemed like everyone was dying... except for Mark and me. We were just happy it wasn't like Illinois with an added 10+ degrees for the heat index and oppressive humidity.

Yesterday was freshman move-in day, and every Sports Band member was assigned to work in a particular residence hall as a Husky Hauler from 7am - 11am. If we didn't, we would get charged $120 for the early move-in fee. It wasn't hard work - at least for me and the other two girls I was with. We didn't have anything to do from 8:15-10:30. After our shift was over, almost everyone attended the picnic that Sodexho hosted in the quad-ish area.

Last night the Sports Band played for the freshman commencement ceremony at Husky Stadium. For having such a successful band camp, our performance was a little less than stellar... to put it positively. Next week will be better anyway. Afterwards, I discovered that I was made saxophone section leader - yay!

Anyway, the past four days have been amazing. I feel completely at home at a state university - words can't describe how much I am enjoying it so far. There are some upcoming events I'm looking forward to that include classes starting, wind ensemble auditions next week, a trip to the Quarries for swimming and such, a Twins game in September that Katie, Andy, Mark and I are attending... the list goes on. There are also a few things I have that I'd like to do eventually, including visiting the Fine Arts museum and the Renaissance faire in Minneapolis and also visiting my aunt, uncle, and cousins in nearby Owatonna.

Speaking of family, there was one point last night, while we were standing on the field waiting for the commencement ceremony to begin, that I really really missed my fam... but I know I will be fine, because even if I wasn't, I have a lot of amazing people looking after me here.

And we'll close with picture time! (btw, Katie's boyfriend Andy took all these pictures - he is an amazing photographer, if you can't tell...)

Here I be marching at the commencement ceremony.



My roommate Katie - she plays clarinet in the Sports Band.


I love this shot.



Markus! He is the section leader of all 15 trumpets in Sports Band.


Saxophones and mellos

Florida photography

My mom, younger brother, and I have been on vacation in St. Petersburg, FL since Sunday night. Yesterday my mom and I went to the Salvador Dali museum in town and today we visited the Museum of Fine Arts. Both were great trips. Here are some of my favorite photographs that I've taken during the week: