Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali was born an incredibly shy and anxious child with the ability to draw at a very young age.  He was raised off the coast of Spain which gave him a mass amount of beautiful things to paint a draw.  Dali’s father being a lawyer was reluctant to send his son to art school but his mother encouraged him to go. 

  When Dali moved to Madrid to study fine art he quickly came out of his shell.  He began to dress in lavish clothing and was eventually expelled for claiming that his teachers where not good enough to teach him anything.   He decided to traveled to Paris to continue to learn about art.  Dali worked on his art no matter what and knew that he would make an impact.

The Temptation of Saint Anthony, Dali

Dali being born in 1904  allowed him to discover the Surrealist art movement that was flourishing in Paris, in his early twenties.  Surrealism was a cultural movement that began in the early 1920’s. The goal of surrealist’s were to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super reality.  Surrealism was inspired by the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud's theory of the unconscious, the thoughts in the mind that occur automatically.  According to Freud all of us have an inner unconscious world in which all of us have emotional and sexual repressed feelings and the only way to express them was to release them without censorship.  Salvador Dali quickly took to the ideas of surrealism, he was able to express his anxieties through his artwork however he wanted.   

Lobster Phone, Dali

Dali had a paranoiac critical method that he contributed to surrealism which said that what we are paranoid about is what we see in reality.  He believes that we see what we want to see, not what is actually physically there.  Everyone’s own perception helps create an alternative reality, a reality in which you feel most comfortable. 

The Persistence of Memory, Dali

  If Dali was not born at a time where he could discover Surrealism as a fresh new thing he probably would have not been able to become such an important figure. His ideas were the new face of surrealism.    

Dali’s ideas were beyond just painting. His surrealist ideas consumed him and everything that surrounded him which is how he surpassed the rule. He used surrealism in, cinema, jewelry, fashion, design, advertising and comedy.

During World War II Dali moved to the United States.  Dali moved to New York which is where he used surrealism to sell ordinary products such as chocolate and alka seltzer and stockings. The art of a great salesman is they don’t have to sell.  They can get you to feel something about the product and not question why you feel that way and Dali understood that.  He used element of surprise and was able to influence cinema based on his passion for surrealism. 

The Face of War, Dali

Dali took whatever was new at the time and used surrealism to make it popular.  Just like he used Freud’s theories about the unconscious in his art he used the influences of nuclear physicis in his work.  He would rework some of his old pieces to fit the time period.  He was determined to always stand out and be new.      

Dali became so committed to surrealism and getting a reaction from society that he believed he was surrealism. Dali was one of the few artists that wanted publicity.  He created things that make you think why and his answer is always why not? 

Inspiration and Influences

Andy Warhol has been labeled as an artist and an icon. His work established an art movement and has been described as controversial, revolutionary and unoriginal. A museum director once described Warhol as a serious artist who was all about the unserious.

The Last Supper, 1986. Warhol

Last Supper Series, Warhol

The Last Supper, Da Vinci

Warhol recreated Da Vinci's Last Supper.  He used his own hand drawings, black and white copies of Da Vinci's, and silkscreens.  Some of his series keep the original composition that Da Vinci had while others focused on one zoomed in image of a single character or a small group of them.  He transformed a highly religious work of art into a cliché. He played with repetition, color and orientation of the objects from Da Vinci's original piece. He started with something that had highly religious value and made those values non existent. 

Warhol’s inseparable life and work influenced the world of art and pop culture more than any other artist of his time, and his work remains one of the leading inspirations for following generations. His output included prints and paintings that have become as famous as the pop images on which they are based.

O'Keeffe and Kollwitz

I believe that there are obvious differences between Georgia O’keeffe and Kathe Kollwitz. Their use of color, they way they mark the surface and the purpose of their work is all incredibly different. 
Kathe Kollwitz (1867- 1945) was a German artists that focused on the tragedy of war.  Her work depicts her empathy towards the less fortunate and almost a fascination with tragedy.  Her work is said to possibly be inspired by the death of her siblings, the loss of her son to World War I.  
Kollwitz’s aggressive and bold marks on the page helps to intensify the message she wants the viewers to get.  Her marks on the page are spontanious, kind of an organized madness. What she chooses to draw is also and obvious statement about the way she feels about the world around her.  She depicts sorrow, sickness, death, depression and every other lost emotion you can think of.  All most all of her pieces are black and white which also contributes to the darkness of them. Yes, you can have a black and white image portray “happiness” but your brain wouldn’t typically correlate hot pink with death and sorrow.  Kathe Kollwitz’s work is very “in your face”, moving and is a clear advocate of the less fortunate that surround her.

The Survivors, Kollwitz

The Widow, Kollwitz

Self Portrait, Kollwitz

Georgia O’Keeffe  (1887-1986) is an American artist who’s work is centered around the beauty of Americas landscapes.  She is most famously known for her large, boldly colored images of flowers and still life's.  In 1929, O’Keeffe took a vacation to New Mexico and became fascinated with it’s landscapes.  She continued to vacation in New Mexico every summer in order to paint it’s beauty, eventually New Mexico became her permanent residence and her inspiration for some of her most famous works. 

Poppy, 1927. O'Keeffe

Cow's Skull: Red, White and Blue, 1931. O'Keeffe

Purple Petunia, O'Keeffe 

Unlike Kollwitz, O’Keeffe used bright imagery, abstract shapes and smooth flowing lines to create her work.  She also created “zoomed in” images of the flowers, landscapes and animal bones versus the dark portrait images that Kollwitz did. Similarly to Kollwitz, O’Keeffe’s work typically reflected her life experiences and the location she lived in.  I consider both Kollwitz and O’Keeffe’s work to be expressionism. Expressionism is presenting the world from a personal perspective, distorting it greatly for emotional effect in hopes to stir up ideas.  O’Keefe’s work is to get people to see the natural beauty that America has and Kollwitz wants people to see through the eyes of the distressed.  

Both Michelangelo and Leonardo were obsessed with the body, as were most artists during the renaissance.  Michelangelo was born in Caprese and when he was first starting to draw his father did not respect how much time he spent on drawing but he eventually recognized his talent and apprenticed him at the age of thirteen.  The man that he was being taught by died and Michelangelo was left out on his own at the young ago of seventeen.  He did most of his work for high paying royalty and sculpted only out of the finest materials.  Michelangelo was obsessed with the male body and was known for his accuracy and delicate markings of the page.  Michelangelo was such a perfectionists that when he was hired to paint the sistine chapel he fired all of his assistants and did not let anyone see it until it was completely finished.

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo

The Last Judgement, Michelangelo

Self Portrait, Michelangelo 

Leonardo was raised by his father in Italy up until he was about fifteen, at that age he was apprenticed to an artist in Florence. Unlike Michelangelo, he was not much of a sculptor and was by no means a perfectionists.  He did various sketches and inventions, many of which he never finished.  His true obsession was getting everything that he could think of down onto a piece of paper, most of what he painted is not still here today other than works preserved in a museum.  Most of what we still have today are from his note books, which were filled with his inventions. Most of his inventions were way ahead of his time 

The Last Supper, Da Vinci

Eight Barreled Machine Gun, Da Vinci

Mona Lisa, Da Vinci

Michelangelo was a artist and sculptor while Da Vinci was a artist and a scientist. They each had great masterpieces but Leonardo was more of a inventor and researcher than a artist. He put more time into trying to create new things and to see how things worked so he could improve them. Both were master painters but, Michelangelo was the dedicated artist while Leonardo was a scientific genius for his time.

Since Michelangelo studied human anatomy he knew not only how the outside of the body looks but how the inside looked and how it functioned.  All of his sculptures are focused on the human body, something real, not something abstract he made up. He took a simple slab of marble and made it look like a real life figure. Everyone knows Michelangelo's Sculpture of David.

Michelangelo depicted David before his battle with Goliath.  The slingshot that he carries (that you don't really notice) represents David's victory was of cleverness and not solely of strength.  David character traits are considered more important than his victory over Goliath, which is why Michelangelo depicted him before battle.  

 

125 years of Coca-Cola logos

When John Pemberton created his new drink in 1886, his partner, Frank M. Robinson, suggested the name Coca‑Cola, thinking that ‘the two Cs would look well in advertising. He wanted to create a unique logo to go with it, and experimented writing the company’s name in elaborate Spencerian a form of penmanship characteristic of the time.  

1887-1890's

The Arden Square logo was unveiled to the world. In a red box, the familiar Coca‑Cola script was underlined with the iconic white ‘wave’ known as the ‘Dynamic Ribbon Device’, which is still used to this day. 

1969

2003

In the above photo the Coca-Cola logo was enhanced with a yellow wave and some bubbles for the Coca-Cola Real campaign.  

The Coca-Cola logo is rectangular in shape with the hobble-skirt bottle on top. The rectangular design is simple, with a unique font the elegant red and white are bold and simple and make the design eye catching to people everywhere.  All around the world people know the Coca-Cola logo.  There is a reason that the Coca-Cola logo has not changed much over the years and that is because it is effective.  The type of script that Robinson used at the time was the "script of the era" and everyone knew what it was, which was his first smart move.  Ever since then people are comforted by the Coca-Cola logo simply because they have seen it everywhere, time and time again.    

Drawing and Painting, Rauschenberg and Sikander

Robert Rauschenberg was an American painter who had a major influence in the Pop Art movement.  He was a constant innovator and improviser, Rauschenberg moved from style to style and medium to medium, blurring the lines between painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, and even performance and dance. Rauschenberg had extremely inventive paintings, he would incorporate silkscreens, everyday images and objects in a loose, spontaneous style. By making use of non- traditional materials and questioning distinction between art and everyday life Rauschenberg was able to make a large impact on the Pop Art era. 

Robert Rauschenberg. Windward. 1963. Oil and Silkscreened ink on canvas, 8' x 5'10"

Robert Rauschenberg Retroactive I, 1964, Oil and silkscreen ink on canvas, 84 x 60" 

Robert Rauschenberg

Shahzia Sikander was born in 1969 in Lahore, Pakistan. Sikander specializes in Indian and Persian miniature painting, a traditional style that is both highly stylized and disciplined. While becoming an expert in this technique, which is more often known as an impersonal art form, she imbedded it with a personal context and history.  She blended the Eastern focus on precision and methodology with a Western emphasis on creative, subjective expression. In doing so, Sikander transported miniature painting into the realm of contemporary art. Raised as a Muslim, Sikander is also interested in exploring both sides of the Hindu and Muslim she often combined imagery from both. Mixing of Hindu and Muslim iconography is a parallel to the entanglement of histories of India and Pakistan.  Similar to Robert Rauschenberg she was passionate about her culture and used that to make her art.  Robert Rauschenberg used the combination of his beliefs and politics to create his.

Shahzia Sikander. 1, from 51 Ways of Looking. 2004. Graphite on paper, 12 X 9"

Shahzia Sikander. 12, from 51 Ways of Looking. 2004. Graphite on paper

Shahzia Sikander,51 Ways of Looking, 2004, Graphite on paper

Rhythm, Repetition and Emphasis

Rhythm depends largely upon the elements of pattern and movement to achieve its effects. The parallels between rhythm in sound/ music are very exact to the idea of rhythm in a visual composition. The difference is that the timed "beat" is sensed by the eyes rather than the ears.
Visual rhythm can be created in a number of ways. There is Linear rhythm which refers to the characteristic flow of the individual line. Accomplished artists have a recognizable manner of putting down the lines of their drawings that is a direct result of the way they make those lines, which if you look at them, can be seen to have a rhythm of their own. Linear rhythm is not as dependent on pattern, but is more dependent on timed movement of the viewer's eye.

Patrick Raymond, Rhythm Series 

Repetition involves the use of patterning to achieve timed movement and a visual "beat". This repetition may be a clear repetition of elements in a composition, or it may be a more subtle kind of repetition that can be observed in the underlying structure of the image.

Andy Warhol, 1960's

Emphasis, also known as the focal point of an image marks the locations in a composition which most strongly draw the viewers attention. Usually there is a primary, or main, point of emphasis, with sometimes a secondary emphases in other parts of the composition. The emphasis is usually an interruption in the pattern or movement of what the viewer sees in the piece and breaks the rhythm.
The artist or designer uses emphasis to make something stand out, or to vary the composition in order to hold the viewers interest.

Darren Rowse

Creating and Creativity

I think that art is all about creativity.  It’s about materializing a vision in your own head and putting it on display in any kind of way in order for others to see your vision.  When another person understands what you are trying to convey through your art, it’s a great feeling because one piece can be interpreted in so many different ways. 
Our book asks us what is creativity? Are we born with it? Can it be learned? I kind of feel that we are born with creativity.  I think it’s something that someone can always admire or appreciate but not something that everyone has.  As an artist I think that you can instantly tell if someones creative, like an artist to artist intuition.  It’s hard to explain why one person is not as creative as someone else but it’s just something that you can see.  You don’t just see it in that persons artwork you see it in their way of life.  
I believe that expressing the way that you are creative is art.  Conveying your beliefs and emotions in a unique way is art.  

My favorite quote from the section Creating and Creativity is:
“psychologists agree that creative people tend to posses certain traits: ...they redefine problems and seek connections between seemingly unrelated ideas.” p.12
I think that that is something that I see in every artist. They can draw conclusions from crazy places. An artist can relate two ideas that seem to have nothing in common and give you long explanation as to why they relate. I think that’s the ultimate type of creativity.

Ernst Haas. Peeling Paint on Iron Bench, Kyoto, 1981. Kodachrome print

Mike Kelly. Kandors Full Set, detail. 2005-09. Cast Resin and Blown Glass