Artist Research Critical Analysis Part 1

   

Salvador Dalí

-          Born on May 11, 1904

-          Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Filmmaker, Printmaker, and Performance Artist.

His movement in art is surrealism. His artwork is very detailed which is why I enjoy it. The way he can include multiple different images in one piece is incredible as it can show how different people can see different images depending on whether they look at the picture as a whole or just a smaller area of it. Generally, after a second or two, the other image is easy to distinguish, like the piece “Adolescence”, made in 1941.

 In this artwork, there are two images that are visible: a woman, a child and a range of hills in the background with some houses built onto it, or a woman’s face, her nose, mouth and chin are made from the shading on the first woman and two eyes are made from the houses on the hill. Personally, I saw the larger image of the woman’s face first. This could possibly show that I might be open-minded as I see things as one instead of two (one woman’s face vs the woman and child, and the hills).

To create this painting, Dalí used gouache paint and seemingly just painted with precision and accuracy as there is no real technique visible. The painting shows a young Dalí with his beloved nurse, Lucia. It is thought that the face in the hills is actually representative of Gala, someone who Dalí was gradually becoming infatuated with at the time.

Dalí loved his nurse very much so there is a symbolic reason to use her figure as the finishing elements of Gala’s facial structure.

The elements in this painting are mainly tone, shape and pattern. I think tone is used most effectively because it shows the shading of the mouth and nostrils, and without it the larger face, of Gala, would not be easily noticeable. The patterns used are also important to the painting because the creases in Dalí’s nurse’s dress help to show the details of Gala’s lower lip.

I find inspiration from this piece as it shows that one picture can have two meanings. I really enjoy riddle type things, and so abstract art such as this intrigues me. I would want to include many meanings in my final piece and, as I like finding my own meanings, I would leave them unexplained to most so that they may interpret it as they please.

           Christo Vladimirov Javacheff

-          Born on  June 13, 1935

-          Bulgarian Sculptor

-          Known for Earth Art and Nouveau Réalisme

Christo Vladimirov Javacheff inspires me because of his quote: “The work of art is a scream of freedom”. I really like this quote because it is true in the fact that most artists use their artwork as an escape from their problems or use it to express them. In my case I would use my final piece as a ‘scream of attention’ if you will. I’d like to bring people’s attention to the seriousness but possibly also positives when suffering with mental health issues. I think that artwork is most effective when it is beautiful yet educational and meaningful. Not all art has to be educational however since meaning, in my opinion, is the most important factor in a piece of artwork.

One of his pieces was the 'Wall of Oil Barrels' or 'Rideau de Fer' (The Iron Curtain). He and Jeanne Claude created this in 1961 to 1962 as a barricade which blocked off a section of a city street.
In my opinion, it is very strange but yet creative. To me though, there doesn't seem to be a point behind it all, it is simply creating an inconvenience, however by creating this public inconvenience, the two gained a notoriety in Paris.

As they had built this wall without the permission of the authorities, they were ordered to dismantle it. Even though Jeanne Claude was able to convince them to let the build stand for a couple more hours, they did eventually take it all down. After the piece gained Christo and Jeanne a small audience, Christo decided that this would be one of the many pieces to come. He would later go on to create more 'nuisances' with various, interesting materials.

This inspires me as I think it'd be quite thrilling to build things without permission just for the sake of it, or just for attention. It would require being brave enough to take risks, which although I couldn't do, I think it'd be a great quality to have.

1                  Carl Andre

-          Born on September 16, 1935

-          American minimalist artist and murderer recognized for his ordered linear format and grid format sculptures

I enjoy the work of Carl Andre because he doesn’t model his materials, nor does he carve anything, he uses the materials he has as raw as they come. This is a similar type of genre to Realism because he is presenting the materials as they come, he isn’t altering them to suit expectation (such as that it has to look attractive or be colourful). However Carl Andre is mainly known for creating Minimalism pieces. I am quite fond of minimalist art because it shows that not all artwork has to be detailed, it is only really is important if it has a point or meaning.

   For example, Andre’s piece “Cedar Piece” (1959 (destroyed), remade 1964) was made just simply as a wooden structure at first but it also shows that there didn’t need to be any bonding substances because each plank/block of wood supports all the ones around it, therefore preventing the structure from collapsing. This could possibly imply that doesn’t need to be made a permanent structure because it’s strong enough to support itself. This could link with mental health because it is important to know that it is possible to get past the issues because everyone who loves you around you would be willing to help/support you. Everyone has the ability to help themselves also however, because only they use their own brain. It is possible to convince yourself that there’s nothing wrong.