About two months before he died, Van Gogh painted the Portrait of Dr. Gachet. This painting was painted with quick slashing brush strokes emphasising his agitation and frustration. He used dark colors, even in what he wears, as a sign that his life is gloomy and miserable. Although he had made many amazing portraits, he views his life as anything far from wonderful. Even the flower on the table seems to be in the same state as him, feeling that it is time to die. The only speck of hope that seems to save him are the books he is reading. On the outside the books seem to have the answer he's looking for, but in reality they deal with the tragic end of life, hence encouraging his present state of mind. Both the doctor and the plant make slanted parallel lines indicating that both are headed in the same direction; about ready to die. Van Gogh portrays his life as misery and without any will to live.
The Self Portraits in this chapter are pretty insane. The portrait that stood out right away was the Chuck Close, Fanny (Fingerpainting). At first I thought that this was a photograph. After reading that it was a painting of a photograph, I couldn't believe it. The craftsmanship of this painting is out of this world. I mean just look at the great detail in the elderly woman's facial features! I love how the artist produced the effect of depth of field of an actual photograph in a painting. The elderly woman stands alone in this painting. She bears no mask to the viewer, nothing but a slight smirk, welcoming eyes and what seems to be a smoking hole in her throat. Now thats what's up.
While reading the image, which in this case is a photograph that really caught my eye is The Morgue (Hacked to Death II) by Andres Serrano. I have to say it attracted be due to the gruesomeness of the photo and how unexpected it was. I never expected to be reading a chapter on "The Body" with all these images of nude women and men to flip the page and see this bleeding face and to later find out with reading it was a dead person. The picture only shows the eye and part of the nose of the person along with all the real blood drippings on the face. I agree with what was said in the book how when you here of a death on the news you see nothing which gives distance and this picture you can see every little detail and hair growing on the body which gives you a connection to the person and a lot of sympathy. The face is not washed it still has the blood and the dirt unlike most body images in the chapter which are highly idealized and not realistic at all. This is how realistic it gets. The open eye with a blank stare gives you the coldness of death and I find it so interesting.
In this chapter, "The Body", the photograph of Cindy Sherman "Untitled Film Still # 35" stands out to me the most. By looking at this photograph, everyone can clearly see she's a fed up housewife that doesn't have a lot of money. The door has kick marks showing anger and violence that she might have towards someone on the other side. This image shows another side of women. Most women are defined as quiet, soft-spoken, housemaids. In this photo, we see a woman ready to fight back and ask for some appreciation and change in her household. Her face really draws the picture for the photo; her eyes show anger and the pout makes her look more serious that she wont be doing anymore housework.
"The Greeks believed that humans were capable of near perfection, defined as a fit body guilded by a keen mind" (Lazzari and Schlesier 346). In anicent Greece, the nation idealized the human body and influence many of history's famous Greek sculptors, Polykleitos. Polyklritos created a system rule called Canon, which means the ideal proportions to produce a balanced-formed figure. One of Polykleitos's works, Doryphoros (Page 346 Fig 13.14), is a interesting eye-catcher. The famous sculpture of Doryyphoros was orginally made of bronze, the sculpture did not survive either due to wreckage or such. Its hard or myself to grasp the concept that back in the anicent Greek times that it was possiable to make such an amazing sculpture which was 6'11'' tall out of bronze metal. In my own opinion, I'm thankful that the replicas of the sculpture were made in marble rather than bronze because I believe that the copies shouldn't be exactly like the original. Besides the harmonization of the body proportions of the sculpture, another famous feature is the pose of the sculpture. The pose that Polykleitos creates in his sculpture of Doryphoros is the use of a stance of shifted balance of weight; such as a standing with more weight on one foot, shoulders facing in an angle in one direction and the pelvis in another. This stance gives an calm and relaxed appearance like an S-curve and is defined as Contrapposto.
It was interesting coming across the art piece that Ana Mendieta put together in the Arbol de la Vida, in translation, Tree of Life. The piece caught my attention due to the form of a female body covered all over with mud and grass and stationed at the bark of a tree with a distinguished stance. At first I thought it was a figure of a woman made out of clay or mud, but as I read more about the art piece, I discovered the artist used her own body to create this work of art. And this wasn't her first time doing it. Based on the text, Mendieta covered her body with mud and straws and posed against a tree in a way representing an ancient fertility goddess, and leaving the traces of mud on the bark of the tree. As Medneita mentions, she had to use her living body in the art piece because it became like a ritual in which the energy from her was joined with the earth. This reminded me of Mother Nature or Mother Earth, and how the females are the nurturers and caretakers of all living things.
The human body has alawys been an important part of art. The body is how artist express emotion, sickness, death. I notice in this chapter the ideal of the human is shown alot. It refers to anicent greek ieadl of the body instead of today modern ideal.The ideal of when people die they are judge if are going to heaven or sent to hell. The figure that stands out to me is 13.25 Intra-Venus because emphsizes sexuality. It also she is sick and weak from disease and surgery because of the bandages. Their three different position she and she is nude. That makes you think of love and beauty, how relaxed she is and glaze on her face. It look like she is looking for sexual partner.
Although it was not discussed in class, I feel that a great example of the body is the physique of a body especially that of Bruce Lee and other ridiculously fit people. Even though their physique can only be in its prime once, the body serves as a canvas for that individual. Some people put a little too much "paint" on the canvas; however, that is all based on one's own interpretation.
Theres nothing more versatile in art than the body in my mind. I say that because you can straight up take a picture of it, you can paint how you feel about the body, and you can even paint on the body like a canvas. I also enjoy how all these past cultures have depicted the body from ancient ones like the greeks and how they sculpted these idealistic gods. Since I am Greek that really interests me. I also think photography to me is one of the best forms to capture the body because you can truly either show the flaws in a body or you can almost make it perfect. Basically, the body has been art since man was created and it should be because the intricacies of it and i think its still majorly important in art today.
What is the "ideal" body? No one truly knows, everything simply seems to be placed in our heads by the media. This is nothing new. The way the human body is portrayed has shaped and twisted what people think is beautiful for thousands of years. Every era seems to have a different version of what they feel is the "ideal" body in art and life. To make a recent example, Marilyn Monroe (smokin hot, right?) would not fit today’s body standard by any means. She was a size 10, and now you hear the women on diet commercials saying they started at a size 10 implying that it is an undesirable body size. Should size zero even be an option? The idea of a perfect body is shown in many famous pieces of artwork; David by Michelangelo, Doryphoros by Polykleitos, and The Birth of Venus by Botecelli. Classical artwork was heavy into showing unattainable “ideal” figures. I just feel that the "ideal" body should be like art; based on each individual’s judgment.
The Body The most interesting thing when it comes to the body is the proportion grid in times back then. The idea of just simply using a specific amount of squares to draw the ideal body is quit interesting within itself. The torso having eight and the head possibly four when it came to drawing a image or sculpting one. The thing that really stand out about this is that it shows how the human race has always been in away superficial. There has always been such a thing as an ideal body type, from the time where fat used to symbolize wealth to now where it just symbolizes poor eating habits, or that one is unhealthy. There’s only one thing that we can say about the body just like we can about art that being that it constantly changes.
the body is a most interesting piece, a great work of art. Every one knows how a body looks so we would think it would get old and no one pays attention to it, but the fact of the matter is that the body draws our eyes. All bodys are differnet. And us as humans love to look at one and onther body.So i can see why picture of the women body was a great work of art and well known in most paintings before time. You can see bodys of greeks and gods, and kings and queens how they present thmself and how they want to be known, by the posture and they body. So can any one say what is a good or bad body?
When we discussed the body it was very interesting . Especially how people used the body in the pictures. ITs amazing how much body language , they way people are standing, shaped , drawn , and look can tell the entire mood of the painting. I think body photographs are somewhat kind of hard and easy to analyze because of the body language but you can never tell what people are thinking even in a photo. The photos we looked of consisted of mood and presence .
during this week theme I learned that there are diffrent meanings in picture such as when you look at a body image its has lines and basically just things that you would never notice in a image when you look at but by you showing us the naket image of the one lady it really shows the lines and things like that in the image..it also shows the diffrent mode of images....
About two months before he died, Van Gogh painted the Portrait of Dr. Gachet. This painting was painted with quick slashing brush strokes emphasising his agitation and frustration. He used dark colors, even in what he wears, as a sign that his life is gloomy and miserable. Although he had made many amazing portraits, he views his life as anything far from wonderful. Even the flower on the table seems to be in the same state as him, feeling that it is time to die. The only speck of hope that seems to save him are the books he is reading. On the outside the books seem to have the answer he's looking for, but in reality they deal with the tragic end of life, hence encouraging his present state of mind. Both the doctor and the plant make slanted parallel lines indicating that both are headed in the same direction; about ready to die. Van Gogh portrays his life as misery and without any will to live.
ReplyDeleteThe Self Portraits in this chapter are pretty insane. The portrait that stood out right away was the Chuck Close, Fanny (Fingerpainting). At first I thought that this was a photograph. After reading that it was a painting of a photograph, I couldn't believe it. The craftsmanship of this painting is out of this world. I mean just look at the great detail in the elderly woman's facial features! I love how the artist produced the effect of depth of field of an actual photograph in a painting. The elderly woman stands alone in this painting. She bears no mask to the viewer, nothing but a slight smirk, welcoming eyes and what seems to be a smoking hole in her throat. Now thats what's up.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading the image, which in this case is a photograph that really caught my eye is The Morgue (Hacked to Death II) by Andres Serrano. I have to say it attracted be due to the gruesomeness of the photo and how unexpected it was. I never expected to be reading a chapter on "The Body" with all these images of nude women and men to flip the page and see this bleeding face and to later find out with reading it was a dead person. The picture only shows the eye and part of the nose of the person along with all the real blood drippings on the face. I agree with what was said in the book how when you here of a death on the news you see nothing which gives distance and this picture you can see every little detail and hair growing on the body which gives you a connection to the person and a lot of sympathy. The face is not washed it still has the blood and the dirt unlike most body images in the chapter which are highly idealized and not realistic at all. This is how realistic it gets. The open eye with a blank stare gives you the coldness of death and I find it so interesting.
ReplyDeleteIn this chapter, "The Body", the photograph of Cindy Sherman "Untitled Film Still # 35" stands out to me the most. By looking at this photograph, everyone can clearly see she's a fed up housewife that doesn't have a lot of money. The door has kick marks showing anger and violence that she might have towards someone on the other side.
ReplyDeleteThis image shows another side of women. Most women are defined as quiet, soft-spoken, housemaids. In this photo, we see a woman ready to fight back and ask for some appreciation and change in her household. Her face really draws the picture for the photo; her eyes show anger and the pout makes her look more serious that she wont be doing anymore housework.
Rebecca Ziegler
"The Greeks believed that humans were capable of near perfection, defined as a fit body guilded by a keen mind" (Lazzari and Schlesier 346). In anicent Greece, the nation idealized the human body and influence many of history's famous Greek sculptors, Polykleitos. Polyklritos created a system rule called Canon, which means the ideal proportions to produce a balanced-formed figure. One of Polykleitos's works, Doryphoros (Page 346 Fig 13.14), is a interesting eye-catcher. The famous sculpture of Doryyphoros was orginally made of bronze, the sculpture did not survive either due to wreckage or such. Its hard or myself to grasp the concept that back in the anicent Greek times that it was possiable to make such an amazing sculpture which was 6'11'' tall out of bronze metal. In my own opinion, I'm thankful that the replicas of the sculpture were made in marble rather than bronze because I believe that the copies shouldn't be exactly like the original. Besides the harmonization of the body proportions of the sculpture, another famous feature is the pose of the sculpture. The pose that Polykleitos creates in his sculpture of Doryphoros is the use of a stance of shifted balance of weight; such as a standing with more weight on one foot, shoulders facing in an angle in one direction and the pelvis in another. This stance gives an calm and relaxed appearance like an S-curve and is defined as Contrapposto.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting coming across the art piece that Ana Mendieta put together in the Arbol de la Vida, in translation, Tree of Life. The piece caught my attention due to the form of a female body covered all over with mud and grass and stationed at the bark of a tree with a distinguished stance. At first I thought it was a figure of a woman made out of clay or mud, but as I read more about the art piece, I discovered the artist used her own body to create this work of art. And this wasn't her first time doing it. Based on the text, Mendieta covered her body with mud and straws and posed against a tree in a way representing an ancient fertility goddess, and leaving the traces of mud on the bark of the tree. As Medneita mentions, she had to use her living body in the art piece because it became like a ritual in which the energy from her was joined with the earth. This reminded me of Mother Nature or Mother Earth, and how the females are the nurturers and caretakers of all living things.
ReplyDeleteChristine Algenio
The human body has alawys been an important part of art. The body is how artist express emotion, sickness, death. I notice in this chapter the ideal of the human is shown alot. It refers to anicent greek ieadl of the body instead of today modern ideal.The ideal of when people die they are judge if are going to heaven or sent to hell. The figure that stands out to me is 13.25 Intra-Venus because emphsizes sexuality. It also she is sick and weak from disease and surgery because of the bandages. Their three different position she and she is nude. That makes you think of love and beauty, how relaxed she is and glaze on her face. It look like she is looking for sexual partner.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it was not discussed in class, I feel that a great example of the body is the physique of a body especially that of Bruce Lee and other ridiculously fit people. Even though their physique can only be in its prime once, the body serves as a canvas for that individual. Some people put a little too much "paint" on the canvas; however, that is all based on one's own interpretation.
ReplyDeleteTheres nothing more versatile in art than the body in my mind. I say that because you can straight up take a picture of it, you can paint how you feel about the body, and you can even paint on the body like a canvas. I also enjoy how all these past cultures have depicted the body from ancient ones like the greeks and how they sculpted these idealistic gods. Since I am Greek that really interests me. I also think photography to me is one of the best forms to capture the body because you can truly either show the flaws in a body or you can almost make it perfect. Basically, the body has been art since man was created and it should be because the intricacies of it and i think its still majorly important in art today.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the "ideal" body? No one truly knows, everything simply seems to be placed in our heads by the media. This is nothing new. The way the human body is portrayed has shaped and twisted what people think is beautiful for thousands of years. Every era seems to have a different version of what they feel is the "ideal" body in art and life. To make a recent example, Marilyn Monroe (smokin hot, right?) would not fit today’s body standard by any means. She was a size 10, and now you hear the women on diet commercials saying they started at a size 10 implying that it is an undesirable body size. Should size zero even be an option? The idea of a perfect body is shown in many famous pieces of artwork; David by Michelangelo, Doryphoros by Polykleitos, and The Birth of Venus by Botecelli. Classical artwork was heavy into showing unattainable “ideal” figures. I just feel that the "ideal" body should be like art; based on each individual’s judgment.
ReplyDeleteThe Body
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting thing when it comes to the body is the proportion grid in times back then. The idea of just simply using a specific amount of squares to draw the ideal body is quit interesting within itself. The torso having eight and the head possibly four when it came to drawing a image or sculpting one. The thing that really stand out about this is that it shows how the human race has always been in away superficial. There has always been such a thing as an ideal body type, from the time where fat used to symbolize wealth to now where it just symbolizes poor eating habits, or that one is unhealthy. There’s only one thing that we can say about the body just like we can about art that being that it constantly changes.
Kandis C
the body is a most interesting piece, a great work of art. Every one knows how a body looks so we would think it would get old and no one pays attention to it, but the fact of the matter is that the body draws our eyes. All bodys are differnet. And us as humans love to look at one and onther body.So i can see why picture of the women body was a great work of art and well known in most paintings before time. You can see bodys of greeks and gods, and kings and queens how they present thmself and how they want to be known, by the posture and they body. So can any one say what is a good or bad body?
ReplyDeleteWhen we discussed the body it was very interesting . Especially how people used the body in the pictures. ITs amazing how much body language , they way people are standing, shaped , drawn , and look can tell the entire mood of the painting. I think body photographs are somewhat kind of hard and easy to analyze because of the body language but you can never tell what people are thinking even in a photo. The photos we looked of consisted of mood and presence .
ReplyDeleteSebastian Spencer
during this week theme I learned that there are diffrent meanings in picture such as when you look at a body image its has lines and basically just things that you would never notice in a image when you look at but by you showing us the naket image of the one lady it really shows the lines and things like that in the image..it also shows the diffrent mode of images....
ReplyDelete