Contextual Studies Lesson 2

The autonomous artwork

In todays lecture we talked about William Holman Hunt's The awakening conscience 1853/4 and were told to compare it to Henry Matisse's Madam Matisse/The green line 1905

• William Holman Hunt's painting is very narrative*, it tells a story of a kept woman in victorian times. 
• The use of warm, typical colours to represent the home, victorian life style. 
• The use of the mirror to suggest grandeur and also that we may see where the woman looking to, freedom. 
• It is a snapshot in time, the moment her morality kicks in and she is awakened to the situation she has living in for so long, being a kept woman by a married man.
• Everything around the room suggests that this is a undesirable situation to live in, there is yarn strewed up by the piano, music sheets on the floor and a mess on the table. 
• The cat under the table toying with a bird tells the story in itself, of the man and the woman's situation. 
• It is very figurative* but not to the point where if you look at it over and over again you will find something new. It's more about the narrative of the piece. 

• Henry Matisse's portraiture piece is quite the opposite as there is no narrative here. 
• He choses to be very subjective* about his use of colours, very bold, block colours and use of brush strokes. 
• The person is the the subject matter not the background although you get no information about the person, no clues about her personality or life as it is just about the colour. 
• It's very Japanese in style as it was very in at the time.
• It is figurative but not narrative it's about the painting and creating.

We also looked at Piet Mondrain (Dutch) Composition 1921

• Use of blocks, colours and lines.
• No brush strokes.
• Makes you of the rule of thirds.
• Its organised, geometric and grid like, it's about the composition of colour.
• It's none figurative or narrative, it has very limited vocabulary, it is about it's self, autonomous.
• It has it's own universal language.

Abstract takes it away from it's usual place.

Mondrain started life as a painter started very traditional and natural of the time, View of Winterswijk 1899 (not actually shown on the day, I can't find that one but this still proves the point). 

Red Tree 1909

Gray Tree 1911

 Tree in flower 1912

This shows his transformation from traditional, natural to the abstract, it became about composition of form, colours and lines, very modernist.
His art becomes none narrative, subjective and has a universal quality rather than of an exact person or event. The art work is autonomous, a thing in itself, it has nothing to do with the outside world e.g How you should behave or what it looks like. Everything you need is in the painting, it's aesthetic.

John Ruskin Trees near Ambleside 1847

 Withered oak leaves 1789

JAM Whistler Nocturne in blue and gold, Old battersea bridge 1872/5

Riskin trashed this painting as it was not exact enough.


http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/turner-whistler-monet/who-what-when/ruskin-v-whistler


The name nocturne lends itself to more musical language and is used in the painting to do with emotive power.


The desire was to change art and move it on from the traditional to the avant Garde.



Reading for the 15/10/12
Fernard Leger
Contemporary achievements in painting p159 - p160, L40.

Ask the question: According to Leger, how have changes in modern society affected painting?

Seminar - Wed 11.30 - 12.30

(for me really)

• Narrative - Tells a story through the people and the use of space.
• Figurative - It has figures in it that are recognisable, people or objects.
• Subjective - Use in colour, artists own personal preference rather then whats real.
• Autonomous - Own perspective, independant in itself, stand alone.