Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin

Two artists who had an influence on each other were Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. In 1888 Van Gogh moved to Arles in Southern France, he wanted to start an artists studio where artists could work together. He called it the Studio of the South and persuaded Gauguin to join him there. Before Gauguin got there Van Gogh started painting sunflowers to decorate the house. While they were there both of them painted similar subjects such as landscapes. They also both used jute for their canvases which made them apply paint more thickly because the material for the canvas was course. Even after they both left Arles Gauguins influence showed in Van Goghs work and vice versa. 

Van Gogh was influenced by Gauguin when he started painting from memory like Gauguin. Which made his paintings look less realistic. Which is some of the style that he is known for. Like with his Starry Night painting. As well as using thicker brush strokes and more paint. Things that were also influenced by Gauguin.

Gauguin was also effected by Van Gogh. Some of his paintings began to be more religious because he was impacted by Van Goghs religious background. Like in his painting The Yellow Christ. Gauguin also started using brighter colors in his paintings especially yellow. And he started painting sunflowers in his paintings as well. Which was from seeing all of Van Goghs paintings of sunflowers.

Van Gogh, Landscape with House and Ploughman, 1889

Van Gogh, Starry Night, 1889

Van Gogh, Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, 1889

Paul Gauguin, Landscape near Arles, 1888\

Paul Gauguin, The Yellow Christ 1889

Paul Gauguin, Sunflowers, 1888

Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo

Leonardo da Vinci was a painter during the renaissance, he is most well known for painting the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper.  He was born in Vinci, Italy, in 1452. He studied with Verrocchio, who was a painter in Florence. In 1482 he moved to Mulan where he took commissions for paintings.  His paintings show that he was able to capture light and human expression and gestures very well. He also did drawings which were much more technical, they were also sometimes drafts of his paintings. He was interested in math, science, anatomy, engineering, inventions and more, all things that were in some of his drawings. His interests were very different and spanned from art to science.

Michelangelo was a sculptor and painter, his most well known work is the stature of David and painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He was born in 1457 in Caprese, Italy. He apprenticed with Ghirlandaio when he was thirteen. He then went to study sculpture with Bertoldo di Giovanni. `He sculpted mostly people and his sculptures, drawings and paintings show he was mostly interested in drawing the human figure. 

Both Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo were from Italy, and both of them started out from humble beginnings. They both worked during the renaissance and made some of the most well known works of art of all time. Although Leonardo da Vinci painted many different subjects and Michelangelo focused mostly on the same subjects. And even though they are both known for different mediums, Leonardo da Vinci  being known for painting and Michelangelo being known for sculpting, they both worked in various mediums throughout their lives. 

 

da Vinci, Mona Lisa, 1506               

da Vinci, Head of a Woman, 1508        

da Vinci, Helicopter

Michelangelo, Pieta, 1499  
  

               
Michelangelo, David, 1504  

       
Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam, 1512

Alexandros of Antioch and Cristo and Jeanne-Claude

A sculptor from before 1600 was Alexandros of Antioch. He lived during the Hellenistic age of Ancient Greek. He is not a very well known sculptor but is famous for creating the Venus de Milo which was made sometime between 130 and 100 BC. The sculpture is made of marble and the arms have broken off. Now the sculpture is in the Louvre Museum in Paris. There is not a lot known about Alexandros of Antioch but it is believed that he created a sculpture of Alexander the Great.

Sculptors after 1600 are Cristo and Jeanne-Claude, who made sculptures with regular fabric, and put them in public places then take them down eventually. People help them set up the sculptures and take them down. And they say that they’re art is not just the end result but also the process of planning it then putting it together then removing it. One of their sculptures it The Gates which they set up in Central Park. They also cover structures with fabric like buildings and islands. 

These sculptures are very different from ones before 1600 because they are more colorful and made of fabric instead of a harder material like stone. The sculptures are also not permanent which is a very different idea from sculptures that have been preserved and put in museums since before 1600. Then those sculptures get slightly cracked or broken its considered a terrible thing, but these sculptures are meant to be taken down.

Alexandros of Antioch, Venus de Milo    

Alexandros of Antioch, Alexaner the Great

Cristo and Jeanne Claude, The Gates, 2005

Cristo and Jeanne Claude, Umbrellas, 1991

Cristo and Jeanne Claude, Running Fence, 1976

Starbucks

Starbucks is an American coffee house company based in Seattle, Washington but has become the biggest coffee company in the world, with over 20,000 stores in 62 countries. It was founded in Seattle in 1971, which was when they came up with their first logo. The founders of Starbucks wanted the logo to capture Seattles connection with seaports and the seafaring history of coffee. They found a 16th century woodcut of a Norse Siren or mermaid with two tails and based the Starbucks logo around her.

The Starbucks logo has changed many times over the years. In the earliest version of the logo, the logo was brown with the words “Starbucks” “coffee” “tea” “spices” around it, and the Sirens two tails were completely visible. That version of the logo was used from 1971 to 1987. Another logo that was started in 1992 is green around the edge instead of brown and only has the words “Starbucks” “coffee” on it. The Siren is in black and white and the tails aren’t as obviously mermaid tails. Its almost as if Starbucks wanted to get a little bit farther away from the nautical theme. And they might have wanted to focus more on selling coffee. That logo was used until 2011 until Starbucks switched to the logo that is used today. 

The logo today is just the Siren in green and white, and is enlarged because there is no circle or words around the image. The fish tails are still barely visible and its possible someone wouldn’t even know that they are fishtails just by looking at it. The logo was changed to take out the words because Starbucks didn’t want the brand logo to be just known for coffee.

The only other time the logo was changed was in 1987 before the logo in 1992. And the only difference was that the Siren was even farther back that in the 1992 version. The Starbucks logo has stayed mostly the same since 1971, mostly only changing how close up or far away the Siren appears in the logo, or taking out words from the logo.

Vincent van Gogh and M.C. Escher

Vincent van Gogh was from the Netherlands and lived from 1853 to 1890. His paintings are mostly post-impressionist, and his later paintings had more vivid colors. His paintings were usually of real life subject matter and he sometimes distorted form and shapes in the paintings.

M.C. Escher was also from the Netherlands, but he lived from 1898 to 1972. His drawings were very mathematical and precise. He often used tessellations in his art which are tilings of a plane using geometric shapes. He also used mathematical shapes in some of his drawings.

The two artists styles seem very different, Van Gogh used more colors and his paintings had a more whimsical feeling, with not a lot of straight lines and shapes that made the painting look more appealing. And Escher didn’t use as many colors when he was drawing and his shapes are all mostly symmetrical and exact with smaller details. However both artists took shapes and manipulated them to look how they wanted but to different ends, Escher made his drawings more precise while Van Gogh made his paintings less precise. 

It sometimes seems like Van Gogh’s paintings are not real objects even though he painted real objects, it looks like when he saw an object or a landscape he would change how he painted it to reflect how he saw it in his imagination. And even though Escher did more drawings of objects that aren’t exactly real, they look more real than Van Gogh’s Paintings because of the mathematical way they are drawn.

Starry Night, Van Gogh, 1889

The Bedroom, Van Gogh, 1888

House of Stairs, M.C.Escher, 1951

Gravitation, M.C.Escher, 1952

Lines in Art

Lines are an important part of creating art, especially in drawing. In elementary school one of the first things we did was draw a horizontal line on the blackboard. But lines are used for more than just drawing, artists need to use lines for painting brush strokes, or sculpting, making sure the sculpture lines up the way they want. Sometimes the lines in a painting or drawing aren’t as obvious as in other paintings.

However, in a painting by Keith Haring, Untitled the lines in the painting and the outlines of objects in the painting are obvious. The outline for an angel and a dolphin are done in green and filled in with black, the ocean also has green lines and the entire painting is a red background making the bright green lines stand out even more. 

Another painting is The Embarkation for Cythera by Jean-Antoine Watteau. Its a painting where the lines are not as obvious, and possibly weren’t intentional by the artist since it would take a person who is knowledgeable about art to realize that there are more lines in the painting besides the images curving into the background, and that there are also lines with how the peoples faces are mostly pointed a certain way. These lines are “implied” so even though they may or may not have been intentional by the artist they can still be picked up on by someone seeing the painting.

An example of art thats not drawing or painting is the photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson of Aquila Abruzzi Italy. The lines are part of the composition. The lines of a staircase directs someone looking at the photograph to a women who is framed by the lines of an archway. And a railing further back leads to a group of people. In this case the photographer used the lines on purpose to show the directions he wanted people to look in the photograph. Lines are usually a necessary part of art but they can also be used for a certain purpose to add to the piece of art.

The Embarkation for Cytheria, Jean-Antoine Watteau, 1718-19 

Untitled, Keith Haring,1982, vinyl paint on vinyl tarpaulin

Aquilla Abruzzi Italy, Henri Cartuer-Bresson, 1951, photograph

Art History

Many artists use inspiration to make art. Sometimes inspiration can be something they experienced, a story someone told them, something that happened in history, or something that happened to the artist. For example Picasso painted Guernica which tells part of the story of the bombing of the city Guernica in 1937. A historical event that happened while Picasso was alive, the painting appears to tell how tragic the events in Guernica were.

Guernica, Pablo Picasso, 1937, oil on canvas

Another example is Sahibdin who painted the poem Ramayana. The painting tells the story of Rama, a prince, and incarnation of the Hindu god, Vishnu. Sahibdin got his inspiration from the poet Valmiki who wrote Ramayana. Sahibdin retells the poem or story using images instead of words.

Ramayana,Sahibdin, 1650-52, opaque watercolor on paper

Another example is Edward Hopper’s Gas. The painting shows a man tending to the gas pumps on an ordinary evening. There may not necessarily be a story behind the idea for the painting, but the painting captures something people experience everyday. And that normal experience may be what Hopper wanted to convey with his painting.

Gas, Edward Hopper, 1940, oil on canvas

All of these examples are of paintings, but stories and histories can be told through any medium. Painting, drawing, sculpture, even forms of art such as dance, poetry, and movies can tell a story, whether its a story of a personal experience or a story of a historical event, or even a story of a myth that may not be true, art can capture the feelings and impact of any story. Art is telling stories and experiences through different mediums.