Monday, April 16, 2012

Salvador Dali Paranoiac Visage

This oil painted piece was done in 1935. It is the second version of a drawing called Paranoiac Visage that dali did back in 1931. Dali painted a group of African villagers, a domed stone hut and trees and bush in the background. The painting is two in one. As in the villagers turn into the face, eyes, nose and mouth. The trees and bush turn into hair. The hut is the left side of the face. The chin is a vase. The wall is a neck. You can see this painting in two different ways one way is that it is a group of African Villagers living in a hut out in the dessert. Another way you can see the painting is a sideways Picasso like face. This style of artwork interests me a lot because either way you see the painting is correct. His artwork always had a lot of surreal properties to them. The background is so baron that it seems like no one can survive with the low amount of water and natural resources. His art always has real and fake properties that have such good shading and detail that it looks like it could be real. He Uses the rule of thirds in this piece of art but the main focus seems very centered. It makes me wish that he had cropped this piece of art. The color scheme is Primary (Red, Yellow, Blue) with a little bit of green. Overall I very much like this piece.          

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Native American Baby Carier

In Chapter 26 the image 26-11 there is an image of an Eastern Sioux Baby Carrier. This is a prime example of function happening before form. These were made by the mother whom was pregnant and getting ready to have the baby. The significant part about how this baby carrier was made is what it was made out of. The sewn and beaded part was made out of porcupine quills and tiny glass beads. The porcupine quills were individually dulled in order to not harm the child.  The part that goes against the mothers back was made out of a wooden board that they painted designs on. Certain areas of the bag were made of buckskin to give the carrier durability. There are animals of symbolism in the beadwork. the lama was usually a sacred animal and used to sacrifice for the gods. The thunderbird is to protest the baby from both humans and the supernatural. In other words this baby carrier both physically and spiritually protects the child. This baby carrier shows a lot of time and effort into making this baby carrier because the mother would be spending a lot of time dulling the porcupine quills and doing the beadwork. I am not too sure what the lower part was made for. It looks like they are dangling pouches that might have held toys or medicine or they might just be decorative. Overall I like this piece because of the amount of work that was put into making it.      

Monday, February 27, 2012

SHWE-DAGON STUPA (PAGODA)

The Shwe-Dagon Stupa (Pagoda) in Yangon is a religious stupa which construction went on from 14th century on into the 15th century. This temple enshrines the relics of Buddha. It has gone through centuries with restoration to keep its beauty. Even now this place goes under a lot of redecoration. In my opinion this place is so beautiful that is shows and gives off a feeling of purity, and happiness. The amount of gold paint that was used to paint this place shines brilliantly both day and night. The gold shows a sign of wealth as well as enlightenment. This is a very impressively constructed temple.      

Monday, January 30, 2012

Demons Tormenting St. Anthony

This is a finely detailed piece of artwork by Martin Schongauer. The piece "Demons Tormenting St. Anthony," is such an eye catcher to me how he engraved such detailed characters on a piece of metal then did prints of it. This piece of art doesn't even look like a print because of all of the detail, it looks like a pencil drawing that took many days to finish. The demons that are attacking St. Anthony are fictional characters that are so well detailed you can actually imagine them being real. In a sense these demons were probably actually real in a mental aspect to St. Anthony.

Monday, January 16, 2012

This is the beginning of my Blogging of artwork that I am reviewing and learning about in Art History 2.