Power of Art

Power of Art

  Power of art is a documentary on Rembrandt, his life and career as an artist. Rembrandts worked in the Amsterdam 1630s. He was Born to a family of millers in Leiden. He was one of 9 children who went to Latin school and dropped out at the age of 14 to become a painter.

  Rembrandt made his own oil paints and was known for his spectacular portraits. He also made portraits of himself. The 1^st one when he was 20. Rembrandt wasn’t interested in refinement and beauty. He did realistic art of flesh and blood, art that told the truth about the existing human condition.

  Rembrandt painted portraits of rich people, as they wanted to be portrayed and he manipulated them very well. He painted theses portraits so well as if he was a psychologist of the humans condition. He painted the faces people put on to the world. He told stories through his paintings.

  He was one of the most successful and greatest painters. Rembrandt married Saskia and made drawings of her. His troubles grew and Saskia suffered from tuberculosis which eventually led to he death in 1642. From being the talk of the town he became criticised by his peers. Everything then changed for Rembrandt and his work. He then painted with simplicity and his drawings just had a few lines. His critics then saw him as old fashioned because sophistication had become important in Holland at that time.

  Rembrandt was getting darker. He abolished the difference between a sketch and a painting. He eventually became bankrupt and also lost his house but still he painted himself as I king in riches. He then painted gory paintings of an animal slaughtered. 

 He was later asked to paint for the New Amsterdam Town hall. He painted a rebellion painting that was wild. His painting came down. The Claudius Civilis was the ruin of his comeback and greatest vision.

 Rembrandt then painted the real people of who they are and have always been.

He did rough and tough paintings.

  From this documentary I noticed that various artists represent the body in different ways and forms. People put on a disguise outside and hide their true selves and when these true selves are exposed they go into denial and cannot face reality thus criticise. Just like how when Rembrandt refined and beautified his portraits of people they were happy and pleased with his work but as soon as he made portraits of them, who they are and who they’ve always been he was criticised and rejected.

Paintings Analysis

Paintings Analysis

To help us create our wall painting we visually analyzed some paintings of various times and artists.

Gond Paintings – are traditional tribal art which are bright, colourful, symmetrical and have an animal element in them.

 

Kalamkari Paintings –monotones of warm colours, traditional, abstract and detailed

 

Mughal Miniature Akbari paintings – are chaotic, fluent, event centric and tell a story.

Mughal Miniature Jahangir paintings – are single person portrait based(mainly of jahangir), within a frame and portray an event.

 

Malwa paintings – show an event in a frame and some are war themed paintings.

Deccani Miniature – are scenario based and have an outdoor scene.

Jaunpur Paintings –  realistic, architecture oriented paintings with grey, green and blur colour scheme.


Shekhawati paintings – intricate, detailed and have traditional borders.

Bundi painting – are women based, side profiled and the women are depicted in graceful poses.

Kishangarh paintings – side profiled figures.


Kerala Mural Paintings- have bright primary colours, are detailed and intricate.

Mysore paintings - south indian, mainly contain gods, detailed and use of geometric shapes.

Tanjore paintings – contain gods with lots of gold jewellery and are mainly black and gold colour contrast schemed.

Jain Pattachitra paintings – contain repetitive patterns, they are colourful and sectional.

Thangka paintings – have mandalas that have concentric circles and they are mainly bright primary colours.

Ajanta Vakataka paintings – contain elements of Buddhism and are mainly cave paintings.

Kerala Mural Mattancherry paintings – have bright warm contrasting colours, they are intricate and contain depictions of Gods.

Orissa Patachitra paintings - have a rectangular framing with thick borders, they can be flipped and viewed and they contain erotic images of Gods and Godesses.

Kalighat paintings – are female centric and generally have yellow backgrounds.

Jamini Roys paintings – contain an element of cartooning and they have thin big eyes.

Bengal School paintings – are people based.

Company paintings – contain depictions of rural life and figures have a brown skin tone.

Mohammed paintings – are colourful and detailed.

Bhupen Kakkars paintings – contain nude figures and he was the first one to deal with alternate sexuality.

Ramesh Kalkurs painting – deals extensively with the body.

Sudarshan Shettys paintings -  is conceptual and instillation art.

Guham Mohammed Sheik paintings - are colourful, detailed, bright and intricate.

Expressing Body through Wall Painting

     Wall Painting 

                                                

 Based on our understanding of the Body we brainstormed and came up with various ideas. The idea was then sketched on a piece of paper and then scaled up to be painted on the wall. We used distemper, coloured stains and glue as materials to make this painting.

  The jellyfishes represent a body that is unrestricted and free because they have no bones unlike the human body that is bound by so many restrictions including societal pressures. The framework of boxes represents structure and form that is the main components of a body.

  We used a complimentary colour scheme because they draw the attention of the eye producing a heightened visual effect and put across the message strongly. Turquoise, pink and white also give a sense of warmth and happiness to its viewers.

Barbara Kruger & Marina Abramovics work analysis

Barbara Kruger

  Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual artist. Her work consists of black and white photographs with a word or phrase caption in red or white. Her work inspires great thought, analysis and debate. Even though it may just have a word or a phrase it creates a great impact and demands attention from its viewers.

This picture symbolizes a child’s innocence and honesty. Adults in todays world are bound by social pressures that they do not voice out their thoughts, opinions and ideas as blatantly as a child. We must not be afraid to speak out and tell the truth even if it means saying No to someone or something.

This image has half a face of a man and half a face of a woman. It shows that men and women are equal and clearly justifies its caption. Gender is irrelevant in todays world as women are capable of doing everything a man can. She is trying to bring about gender equality through her work.

 Marina Abramovic

Marina Abramović is a Serbian performance artist based in New York. Her art involves using her body as a vehicle and the relationship with her audience. She tests the physical limits of her body and all the extreme possibilities of the mind. She bleeds, goes through extreme pain and torture.

The Artist is Present

She wanted to engage in “an energy dialog” with her audience. This reminds me of psychoanalysis where she is helping her audience reflect on their own thoughts, words and deeds. She acts as a silent spectator that is by far the most physically and emotionally demanding of her works. By this work she as a single person has helped many people to introspect. In this way she has impacted many lives and learnt and experienced so much.