Artists and their Art

Over the past five months I have been looking at and studying famous works of art all over Europe. I have visited the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, George Pompidou Center, Louis Vuitton Foundation, Uffizi, Accademia di Firenze, Narodni Museum Prague, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Musee des Beaux Artes Lyon, and the National Portrait Gallery. This blog post is about some of the famous pieces of art that I’ve seen, the artists who made them and their styles.

Realism, Mona Lisa

The Mona Lisa is a very interesting piece of artwork because of its history and the way it is painted. The portrait called the Mona Lisa was painted by an artist named Leonardo Da Vinci.  Leonardo Da Vinci was requested to draw a man’s wife whose name was Lisa Gherardini.  Lisa lived in a rich family that made their wealth from selling silk.  The work of art was requested by the family to celebrate the completion of their home and also to celebrate their second son being born.  The Mona Lisa was painted with oil paint.  The panel was made with a type of wood called cotton wood. Because of the materials he used, the painting stayed nice for six centuries without having to be restored.  The Mona Lisa is also known for its realism.  She looks amused like a real person would look.  An Italian man stole the painting and hid it, but later people got it back and returned it to The Louvre.  The Mona Lisa was a new style because before most portraits were in profile.  In the final analysis, the Mona Lisa is a spectacular painting.

The Mona Lisa is a great example of realism and that is one of the reasons why I like it.  Realism is when you paint things realistically.  The Mona Lisa has lots of aspects of realism.  One of them is the fact that the background is made to look a bit blurry (sfumato).  When people’s eyes look at someone usually they don’t see the things behind the person perfectly clear.  Another reason why the Mona Lisa is a good example of realism is because the way he shades her face and her clothes looks very well done.  The wrinkles in her shirt look like a real piece of clothing.  Those wrinkles were used a lot in realism.  I really like this painting because Da Vinci made her so realistic.  He makes it seem like you are in the painting and that you are looking at her.  I also think it’s interesting the way the Mona Lisa is smiling.  It looks like the cross between a smile and a normal face.  Some people joke around that she was told to smile, but when she did Da Vinci could see her nasty teeth so he told her to close her mouth.  With these details, I think the Mona Lisa is noteworthy.

Impressionism, Water Lillies and Japanese Bridge

The Impressionist movement was when young painters rejected traditionalists by painting in their own styles.  In the first place, Impressionists painted things outdoors and painted what they saw.  They drew everyday people like friends and family.  In addition, Impressionists often focused more on the scene than on the subject.  These painters were never very exact with their images and the subject was often not in the center of the painting.  Also Impressionists focused a lot on light.  They usually made lots of small strokes creating an idea of the scene.  In 1874 impressionist painters made an exhibit.  Among the artists that were in the exhibit were Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Pissaro, Manet and others.  There was a total of thirty-five artists.  Claude Monet, one of the artists in the exhibition, became very famous for his Impressionist paintings.

I really like Monet’s painting called Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge because of its aspects of impressionism.  One of the aspects of impression is that if you look up close, you can see that all of the brush strokes are very small and skinny.  It just looks like a brunch of lines, but when you go back and look at it, your eyes make out the picture.  That is very typical of Impressionism.  Another aspect of impressionism is how Monet uses light in the picture.  In the water he uses light colors to show the reflections of the trees and makes them look wrinkled to show ripples in the water.  He also puts some bright spots on some plants to show the sun shining on them.  I really like this painting for a couple of reasons.  One reason is I think it’s really interesting how Monet makes the light and reflections in the water.  I also think it’s cool how he uses green on many things but still makes them look real.  Another thing I really like is having your eyes fix the picture together.  As shown above, this is a great example of good Impressionist art.

Vincent van Gogh, Self Portrait

Vincent van Gogh made a big contribution to art.  First, he changed the style of art with the use of amazing colors.  Van Gogh used colors to show moods or emotions.  Instead of drawing it exactly like he saw, he used color to show what he felt about the scene and drawing it his way.  Van Gogh usually used dark and gloomy colors for the earth and bright colors in other areas.  Second, Van Gogh used thick graphic brush strokes and dark outlines.  He used a lot of paint to make it thick and made many different brush strokes in different directions to make images.  With these techniques created a new style of art.

One of my favorite paintings by Van Gogh is called Vincent Van Gogh Self-portrait.  Obviously by the name you can tell that it is a self-portrait.  As you can see in this painting, he uses very long and skinny brush strokes.  But sometimes when he is drawing things more intricately, he uses short brush strokes.  You can also see how Van Gogh makes twirling lines.  You can also see this technique in another painting by him called Starry Night.  One thing that Van Gogh did in lots of his painting is use lots of different colors to make images in the art.  He uses lots of color on his face, coat, and in the background to create realism.  He puts many colors on his face and makes shading with them.  Another thing that I like is how he puts twirls in the painting. For example, he uses twirls to show wrinkles in his coat.  In conclusion, because I like realistic art, I really appreciate how Van Gogh uses color to create shades.

Picasso, The Guitar

In the year of 1909 Picasso painted in a style called the cubist style. Cubist artists focused on shapes. They painted their subjects from lots of angles and reassembled facial features into different places. Cubist artists later started focusing on structure.  This period was called Analytical Cubism. During the Analytical stages of Cubism, artists used geometry to give structure to their paintings and colors became duller and less important.  Picasso painted people like his mistress and his companion Ferdinand Oliver. One of the most famous Cubist paintings was Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. In this painting there are five women all next to each other. The three on the left were inspired from a carving and the two on the right wore African masks.

The Guitar, by Picasso, is a typical cubist painting.  First, in this painting you can see the guitar from different angles all at once.  Picasso shows you the guitar from the bottom, the left side and straight on. Second, Picasso uses shapes like squares, rectangles, and circles to give the painting structure.  You can see a square at the bottom of the picture and a circle in the middle of the guitar.  Finally, the colors in the picture are very dull.  Picasso only uses shades of brown, grey and black.  There is also a sculpture by Picasso that looks just like the guitar in this painting, except it is made of cardboard and is three-dimensional.  Like the painting it uses shapes like arches and squares, it has dull colors, and the angles are unrealistic and weird. I am not a huge fan of Picasso, but I think these pieces of art show his talent at creating a new style.

Expressionism, The Scream

Expressionism focuses on emotions and feelings rather than on realism.  Expressionists usually use bright colors and agitated brush strokes to help viewers “see” the emotions behind the things they paint. The Expressionist style started in the 1900’s in Germany.  Some famous Expressionist artists were Edvard Munch, Max Beckhman and Ernest Ludwig Archer.  Abstract expressionism, a later style, started in New York.  Some of the very famous abstract artists are named Jane Frank, Franz Kline, and Barnett Newman.

The Scream, by Edvard Munch, is an example of an early Expressionist painting. You can see how the artist uses the subject, color and technique to create emotion.  The person in the picture looks terrified and the shadowy people in background look like they may attack. The colors in the sky are bright, but the dark water adds to the emotion of being afraid.  Even though the brush strokes flow, they look out of control and scary like wind.  I like this painting because the way the artist makes the person look you start to get a little scared.

Abstract Art, Untitled

The goal of Abstract Art is to create an experience for the viewer using color, line, form, texture, composition, pattern and process. It “speaks without words” and without representing people, places or things.  An abstract artist said that you have to look at the whole thing to experience it.  Abstract art came out of the United States after World War II.  This was the first time New York became the center of art in the world instead of Paris. 

In the piece above, the artist uses many shades of blue and lots of shapes to create an experience.  I can see a bright blue star in the bottom left corner and another star with eight sides at the top.  One of the reasons I like this piece is because you can choose what it is.  It reminds me of Captain America.  The skull-like thing at the bottom looks like his helmet and the blue stars remind me of the American flag. This work doesn’t have patterns or symmetrical lines, but it still creates clear ideas for me.

The styles I have talked about here are Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Expressionism and Abstract Art. Each of the artists who created these styles was trying to make a change in art at the time. They created new techniques for blending paints together, making brush strokes, and using color. They also changed how people think about art, what they notice about art, and what they experience when looking at art. Now I experience art differently. When I look at the different styles of art, I think about what it looks like to me, I notice the colors and patterns the artist uses, and I experience emotions. Out of all the styles, I think I like realism the most because I like to draw things in that style. I have learned techniques like sfumato for shading and vanishing point for making things look three-dimensional. Visiting museums can get tiring after a while, but it’s helped me learn about how to make my own art.

This is my last post for the school year because my trip is coming to an end. Thanks for reading my blog! 

Remembering The 70th Anniversary of V-E Day, May 7, 2015

Recently we went to different places in Normandy, France related to D-Day.  D-Day was when the Allied forces had their first battle to free France from Germany on June 6, 1944.  The Allied Forces included the United States, Great Britain, France, Canada and the Soviet Union.  All these countries except the Soviet Union landed at D-Day to help free France from Germany’s control.  The battle did not just end here.  It took about 100 more days until France was free.  It may seem like it was an easy battle, but it wasn’t.  The Allies ended up winning the battle, but it cost many lives. 

They all used boats starting in the United Kingdom to float over to beaches of northern France and attacked the Nazis.  The United States attacked beaches called Utah and Omaha.  Great Britain attacked Gold Beach and with some help from the Free French Forces Sword Beach.  Canada attacked Juno Beach.  At Omaha Beach the U.S. army lost many lives.  They first sent up grappling hooks which special U.S. Rangers climbed up.  At the top they were going to shoot at Nazis, but while they were climbing the Nazis shot down on them.  Only 80 men survived out of 220 men.  Also, the soldiers had to run up past barbed-wire obstacles and get through landmines that the Germans had set up on the beaches.  This was called the Atlantic wall.  The water was very rough so many small tanks boats were sunk. Eventually after a hard fought battle, the Allies took over the beaches.

This is a model of the the Atlantic wall and the obstacles the soldiers needed to cross.

These are the rocks that the U.S. Rangers had to climb at Pointe du Hoc, France.

The French resistance also helped win the war.  They could see what the Germans were planning so they sent notes to the other Allied forces.  They also killed 25 men that worked for Hitler by blowing up train tracks and the train fell. The Germans killed one French person for every killed Nazi from the train incident.  One of the most important things the French resistance did was cut down the telephone lines so the Nazis couldn’t call each other.  The French resistance were not the only ones who helped free France from Germany.  The British spies were also very important.  They convinced the Germans that the Allied Forces were going to attack Calais Beach when they actually were not.  Altogether these people were a big help to freeing France.

Here you can see the train wreck the French resistance caused.

Source:  Sharenator

While the Germans were in control of France, many innocent people were killed or injured.  First, the Allies bombed the German offense to weaken them and many innocent French were killed during those actions.  Second, the Germans would kill anyone that did not agree with them. Still, some people did political graffiti complaining about what was going on.  The Germans also killed all people who were Jewish.  The Germans killed Jewish people because Hitler convinced them that Jewish people caused all their problems when they actually didn’t. Even Jewish children were killed.  Overall, many French and Jewish people were killed during German occupation of France.

This is a memorial to the U.S. soldiers at Omaha Beach.

Many soldiers from the Allied forces also died.  I visited a cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France where U.S. soldiers are buried.  The U.S. government decided to buy a small portion of France so they could bury their men in the place where they died.  When I saw the cemetery, I was so very saddened to see all of the U.S. soldiers who gave their lives to free France from Germany’s control.  Row by row there are crosses and stars with names of men who gave up their lives for this cause.  On the soldiers’ dog tags (metal necklaces soldiers wear) it showed the name, religion, and place they were from so that they could identify the person.  They needed the dog tag to identify a person because the soldier might be so disfigured.  The soldiers had two dog tags.  One they would wear and one would be given to someone who would crack the dog tag to show the person died.  They showed a religion on the tag because if the person died a stone would be a cross if they were Christian or a star if they were Jewish.  After all, these people gave their lives for a good cause.

These are both from  the American cemetery in Normandy, France.

In the end all these soldiers and civilians did something to help bring the freedom of France and the end of World War II.  With the help of these soldiers, France could be free from Germany’s control. It started with D-Day on June 6, 1944 and ended with Victory in Europe on May 7, 1945. Other brave people also risked their lives to help free France. Together they brought freedom and helped end the war.

This is the room where Germany surrendered to the Allies in Reims, France.

Turkish Spice Bazaar

Sights and Smells at the Turkish Spice Bazaar
Sorry, this post accidentally didn't get published earlier!

I walked into the spice bazaar and smelled all the different spices. It smelled like a bunch of hot chili peppers. I tried to breathe but the smells stayed in my nose and it hurt. I kept walking until I reached an area where there was no one selling spices and I felt like I could breathe again. 

We came to a shop that sold many different colored soaps, each with a label on it that showed the scent. All the soaps were stacked together by color. My mom told me that there was a chocolate one that she didn’t like. I smelled it, though, and it smelled so good that I wanted to take a bite out of it. We ended up getting one called amber, which was brown, and a blackberry one.

After the soap shop, we went to another shop that sold dried meats and honey. We decided that we should get some honey. It was in real honey combs. I felt like grabbing it and eating it right away, but of course I didn’t. While I was waiting, something in another store caught my eye. There was a bunch of pistachios. I waited until my parents were done and we went to the pistachio store. I was so excited. The store owner told us that they were double roasted and had a small spice in it. Not until after we bought them did we realize how expensive they were. They were fifteen dollars per pound! My parents were disappointed, but the pistachios were really good. After we bought the pistachios, we left the spice bazaar. I had a great time!

Renaissance Sculptures

Have you ever seen Renaissance sculpture?  If you have, then you can see how it is different from the sculptures before that time. During the Middle Ages before the Renaissance, they sculpted people less realistically.  In Italy during the Renaissance, sculptors had the idea of bringing back the style of ancient Greek and Roman art.  In this post, I am going to talk about aspects of Renaissance sculpture and examples of art with those aspects.

The statues in the Renaissance had three important characteristics.  First of all, the sculptors used their own individual styles.  This was called individualism.  Second of all, they used something called naturalism.  Naturalism was when sculptors made their sculptures look realistic or like how people actually are.  To make their sculptures look realistic, they had to use different kinds of techniques.  Some of the techniques sculptors used were accurate proportions and anatomy of the human body.  They also used drapery in the folds of the clothing or perspective to show layers in sculptures.  Lastly, they usually portrayed classical topics from Greek and Roman works of art or scenes from the Bible.  Overall, these characteristics demonstrate how Renaissance sculptures were different from sculptures before them.

The sculptures in the Renaissance were made using specific materials.  One material they used were different kinds of metals.  Some of the metals they used were bronze and sometimes gold. Another material they used was stone like marble and sandstone. Yet other materials they used were wood and terracotta which is a kind of clay.  These six materials were the most popular during the Renaissance period.

Michelangelo’s David demonstrates all the different aspects of Renaissance sculpture.  For instance, it has the correct proportions except for the fact that the head is a bit big because you are supposed to look at it from below. In that way, it uses a sense of perspective because it looks accurate.  In addition, it is a religious topic because the story of David slaying a giant comes from the Old Testament. Another key aspect that makes it like other Renaissance sculptures is that this sculpture is made out of marble.  The marble is called carrara from the mountains around Carrara, Italy.  All in all, this sculpture is a prime example of Renaissance art.

Michelangelo's David at the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, Italy

Donatello’s David is also an excellent example of Renaissance sculpture.  The first thing to notice is the proportions on this David are also very accurate.  For example, the giant’s head is bigger than David’s head.  Also, the parts of David’s body are accurately proportioned.  A second important fact is that it tells the religious story of the David who slayed a Giant.  A third important fact is that it is made out of bronze, a type of metal.  That is one of the frequently used materials from the Renaissance.  In summary, this sculpture also shows similar aspects of Renaissance sculpture.

Donatello's David  at the Barghello Museum, Florence, Italy

The bronze David and the marble David are similar all sorts of different ways.  The bronze David the marble David are both standing in a special stance.  It is called contraposto.  Contraposto is when the person is leaning their weight onto one leg while the other leg is bent.  They also both are putting their bodies in a comfortable position like real people.  Both the bronze and marble Davids are very humble looking --they are not smiling, they are looking down, and they look serious.  They are both holding a slingshot because in the story of David and the giant Goliath he knocks out the Giant and cuts off his head.  Though in many ways they are similar, in other ways they are different.  The bronze David looks younger and less strong.  The statue of the bronze David portrays David after slaying the giant while the marble David portrays him thinking about slaying the giant.  Certainly by how I’m calling them, it is obvious that one is bronze and the other is marble.  One of the less important differences is that the bronze David is smaller than the marble David.  For the most part, these differences show that Renaissance artists’ works of art were very individual.

Out of the two statues my favorite was Michelangelo’s David.  Michelangelo’s David was cool because it was so big that when I walked below it, I felt tiny.  What I also liked a lot about this David was that it was so realistic.  I really liked how you could see all of the veins and then look on your body to find them.  The tendons were also very interesting.  My favorite tendon was the distal bicep tendon.  It is the tendon on the inside part of the elbow.  All of these features are why I am most interested in Michelangelo’s David.

Given these examples, you can see how Renaissance sculpture was so realistic.  After the Renaissance, people understood how to sculpt people and things in a very natural way. They also took pride in their individual works of art.  These characteristics help people appreciate Renaissance art today.

The Case of the Fake 20

It all started when my mom came home from shopping at the Central Market. We asked her how it went and she said that it was great and that the lady at a fruit stand that she went to was very nice. My mom told us that the lady told her to watch out for people who can cheat you. She gave my mom a free lemon and helped her pack her bags. My mom also said that the lady accidentally gave her an extra 20 Euro bill when she got her change. When my mom noticed the mistake she returned the extra 20 Euro bill.

Central Market, Florence

When my mom told me what happened I thought there was something fishy going on. Why would the lady talk about people cheating others with money and then give my mom extra money as if she was trying to show that she is not a cheat? I said to my mom, "What if she was cheating you? She tells you to be careful of cheats and then gives you an extra 20 Euros as if trying to hide that she is cheating you?" My mom told me that she doubted it because the women seemed very nice and she had a fair price.

L'ortolano, the fruit stand

It was time for lunch so we left our house to go get some sandwiches. We had to wait in line for a long time because it is very popular place. When we got our sandwiches my mom gave the man the 20 Euro bill. We left to eat our sandwiches outside the store when suddenly the store owner came out. He came up to us and showed that the bill was a fake!!! He showed us the bill and then compared it to his 20. Our bill was a bit shorter and the numbers were a bit crooked. Another difference was when you shine a light at the security thread (a shiny strip on a bill) the fake bill shined in a different way. We were shocked. Then we thought back to where we got the bill. We realized that my mom got it from the fruit stand. I was right all along!

Fake bill (top) and real bill (bottom)

Now we were not sure what to do. Should we go back to the market or should we bring it to the police? I thought it also would be cool to keep it as a souvenir.  We decide that the next day we would go back to the fruit stand and ask for a new 20.  

We were trying to look for the other ways that she was very suspicious. Here's a list of ways:

1. The lady gave my mom a free lemon to seem nice.

2. Gave my mom two 20s to pretend that she was not cheating my mom.

3.She told my mom to be careful of cheats when she seemed suspicious.

What happened in the end:

The next day we went back to the Central Market and went to the fruit stand. My dad took a picture of the store in case we needed to threaten to write a negative review on a website called Tripadvisor. It's a site that tells tourists which places are recommended or not. We went up to the stand and the lady was not there. But a man who had worked there the day before was there. The man who worked at the store asked us what we needed. My mom explained about the fake bill and asked for a new one.  The man said, "Oh, yes" like he already knew about this or that it was no surprise. He went into the cash register and took out a different 20. He took the fake and put it back into the cash register with the other bills.

We return to the scene of the crime

We left and started walking away from the market and realized that he was probably going to give the fake to someone else.  He put the bill back with the other 20s and also acted like he knew about the fake.  We were already pretty far from the market, so we didn't know if we should go back to tell him to rip it up.  It took some decision making, but in the end we thought it was best to go back. We felt like it was the right thing to make sure someone else did not get cheated like we did. We walked all the way back to the fruit stand. I could tell the man was wondering why we came back.  We told him to rip up the fake bill.  He said that he already did and that we can go. We asked him to show us the ripped bill but he didn't. We looked in the garbage for a ripped up bill but we didn't see one. We decided we should give up and go. Then we left the market for the final time. Now we are careful to check all the bills we get and I encourage you to do so too!

Renaissance Art—Paintings

From the 1450's to the 1600's, a new stage of art started.  It was called the Renaissance, which means “rebirth.” People in Europe started to have the idea of recreating the realism of Roman art.  Before the Renaissance, during the Middle Ages, artists made people look unrealistic, flat and awkwardly shaped.  For example, people’s bodies are in impossible positions. Their backs may be too straight, or their necks are too long. To make things look more realistic, Renaissance artists developed special techniques. 

Medieval Madonna and Child (by Cimabue, c.1285)

Renaissance Mother and Child (by Filippo Lippi, c. 1464)

One technique that Renaissance artists used was called linear perspective.  Linear perspective lets the artist create depth in a painting.  In the center of the painting there is a place called the vanishing point.  Actually, it is usually in the center of the painting but it doesn’t have to be.  The vanishing point can be wherever the artist wants observers to direct their focus.  The vanishing point also establishes the point of view in a painting.  As objects approach the vanishing point they get smaller and when they get closer to the viewer they look bigger. That makes the painting look three-dimensional.

School of Athens (Raphael, 1518)

Artists also created depth in paintings with a technique called foreshortening. Foreshortening emphasizes linear perspective on the body.  When artists are trying to show someone’s hand reaching towards you, for example, they would draw the hand large and then make the arm get smaller and smaller until it is accurate to the size of the person’s body.  Comic book artists use foreshortening, too, to show action in a picture.

Lamentation Over the Dead Christ (Mantegna, 1480)

Spiderman (Marvel Comics)

Artists also use light to create depth.  Chiaroscuro is the technique that uses light and shadow to create a sense of where things are compared to the direction of the light. By shading objects you can see their three-dimensional shape.  Chiaroscuro is also used to show emotion.  For example if you see dark shadows around someone you might feel sadness, anger, or fear.

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (by Caravaggio, 1601)

Putting these techniques together, Renaissance artists created art with emotion and realism. You can see real people from their times and you can imagine what people were feeling about God. You can see how people during the Renaissance were focusing on how everyone is a person. With these paintings we can understand the new ideas people had about life.

Venice, the city of water

Venice is a bunch of islands connected together by bridges and canals.  The city was started when barbarians from the north attacked the Roman Empire and the people of Aquilea retreated to the islands for safety. There they founded Venice. Because they could not build houses on the sand and mud, Venetians struck logs into the ground.  Then they put platforms made of wood or marble on top of the logs. These logs do not rot because there is no oxygen in the salty and sandy water so the bacteria and fungus that makes wood rot cannot grow.  The salt water petrifies the wood as it goes through it and makes the wood hard like stone.

In Venice, people use boats for transportation. One kind of boat that they use is called the gondola. Gondolas are flat so that they can go into the shallow waters of the canals.  But because it is flat, it can easily tip over, so in the front of the boat there is a large piece of metal called the ferro. The ferro keeps the front of the gondola level while the gondolier rows the boat from the back. On the back of the boat there is a decoration similar to the ferro called the risso.  Finally, one side of the gondola is heavier and wider than the other so that when the gondolier is rowing on the other side the boat won’t tip over.

The wood for the gondola is specially picked out.  There cannot be knots in the wood and it cannot be bumpy.  The gondolas are made of eight different kinds of wood:  oak, fir, cherry, larch, walnut, linden, mahogany, and elm. They use different kinds of wood because each wood is best for a different part of the boat. Walnut is used for the frame because it bends well when soaked in water, whereas Larch is used for the bottom of the boat because it is water resistant.

If you visit Venice you can see people regularly using boats as cars, going on bridges over canals and building houses on the water. Now you can appreciate the hard work that goes into building the city and making boats for transportation.