Monday, August 6, 2012

Blog Post #5

Las Meninas (Maids of Honor), Diego Velazquez, 1656-1657,  Oil on Canvas, 125 in x 109 in
Asymmetrical balance is a concept in which the work is not exact but it is counterbalanced with different contrasts in the work through color (dull and bright), light (different shades) and different areas of activity in the work. In this work, Velazquez has asymmetrically balanced the work to perfection. Starting with the vertical balance line, the light and dark contrasts, as well as the colors, center around the white dress of the maid in the middle and balances out the work. The horizontal balance line is what makes this work asymmetric: The top of the work is seemingly empty while the bottom is full of life. However, by painting himself in the frescoes behind the maids, Velazquez has funneled the eye into the background and balances even though the background is seemingly empty.
Cow's Skull: Red, White and Blue, Georgia O'Keefe, 1931, Oil on Canvas, 40 in x 36 in

Emphasis is a very interesting concept in art. It often requires the use of multiple focal points. However, there are exceptions to that rule, such as in this case. O'Keefe uses emphasis by putting the cow's skull directly in the middle and having each side mirror the other. This mirroring emphasizes the power of the skull, especially against the red, white and blue background. It is a very stark and powerful image. 

Campbell's Soup Cans, Andy Warhol, 1962, Polymer on canvases,  Each canvas 20 in x 16 in
This work is a prime example of repetition. Repetition, by its very definition, is an element or an idea that occurs over and over again. In this work by Andy Warhol, the same image, a Campbell's Soup Can, is repeated multiple times. Time and again, the same image is put on a different canvas. However, though the works are technically all the same, all of these canvases must be together as, if one was to take a canvas away, the work would be lacking the emotion it currently has. Thus, this repetition has fostered a rhythm and an emotion that only comes by the repeated images. 

The Entombment of Christ, Caravaggio,  c.1602, Oil on Canvas, 120 in x 80 in
Contrasts are a very important aspect of artwork. In this work by Caravaggio, light and dark contrasts are on full display. The light seems to illuminate the now-dead Christ and the mourners behind him slowly recede into the darkness. Soon, there is no faces visible in the crowd: instead, there is merely a face-less hand and the rest of the body has been blacked out. Perhaps this can be symbolic, but there is no denying the contrasts present in the work. 

Luncheon of the Boating Party, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881, Oil on Canvas,  51 in x 68 in
 When the eye first falls upon this canvas, it cannot help to get sucked in to the movement that occurs. There are implied lines between almost all the characters and the eye tracks them, trying to understand and observe what those in the scene are observing. Yet, at the end of all of this movement, there is one figure, the man next to the man in the top hat, who pushes the eye back out of the canvas by staring back at the viewer. Thus, it is interesting that the same movement that sucks the eye in also pushes it back out. 

Vitruvian Man, Leonardo da Vinci, 1487, Pen and ink, 13.5 in x 10 in
Many artists are very interested in getting the scales of their work correct down to even the most minute of details. In this work by da Vinci, one can see da Vinci's attempt to get the scale of the human body into the correct proportion. This work is meant to be almost a case study into the scale of the human body and it is perhaps the first of its kind. While it is an experimental work, it does a good job to explain proportions and scale. 

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