[martin_fierro]

I find this work's Ethereal Otherness to be profound, yet insipid.

[anniegetyourgun]

How's my "impressionistic" version of Howie Dean coming along, prof?

[Admin Moderator]

In the future, post these in the arts topic on the General Interest forum.
Thanks.

[Republicanprofessor]

Ping.

Let me know if you want on or off this Art Ap "class" ping list.

BTW: Liz has a great thread going now on Klimt in general chat (which is where I should have posted this and will do so in the future). I don't want to impinge on her thread, but I went to a contemporary art musuem today and was inspired to go back to the old masters and do the next installment to this series.

[dawn53]

Thanks for the thread.

I like Gaugin. My art tastes are a little odd, I guess.

I also like Henri Rousseau (I know some art critics don't think much of his work.)

And if you asked me why I like them, I probably couldn't give you an answer, but the colors and the shapes appeal to me.

[AnAmericanMother]

Thanks for the info! This era of painting is one that I know very little about.

FYI, those aren't nuns. Those are Breton peasant women wearing the traditional costume. The elaborately crimped and trimmed starched hats are typical of French, Swiss, and some German traditional costumes.

[Redcloak]

A discussion of Impressionism should include a reference to Gustav Caillebotte. Caillebotte was an Impressionist painter himself; but more importantly, he was a patron to other painters. Many great works of the period are available to us because he willed his collection to the French government. His condition for the gift was that the paintings be displayed, not warehoused.

Caillebotte's collection can be seen in some of his paintings. This self portrait, is a fine example...



He painted this in his apartment. Notice what is hanging in the background?

[StrictTime]

Please add me to your ping list. Thanks!

[Kay Syrah]

Lets not forget the homegrown. Robert Henri.

or Twatchtman

I like the casual elegance of the ordinariness of the city affected by light, and the misty New England mood.

[billorites]

[LexBaird]

This Monet (I think it's the right one) is in the Getty, in L.A. When I was there, my niece couldn't understand what all the hubbub was about, so I told her to go over and look closely at the "white" snow. Only then did she realize that there wasn't any white, but dabs of grey, blue and pink.

[Liberty Valance]

Thank you for the 2nd art appreciation class RProf. Can't keep my eyes off that first Monet you posted. Beautiful.

[P.O.E.]

One of Monet's early influences was the "floating world" of Japanese art of the time. Was fortunate to see many of his paintings up close (or at large, rather), while visiting Chicago sometime back. I recommend it if you're ever in the area.

An aside: Monet is one reason the French will always have my undying enmity. I wanted to visit the Monet museum - the local townfolk (including a gendarme) kept giving me wrong directions. Thus, I got there late - about an hour left 'til closing. They wouldn't admit me "You would not have time to appreciate". I swore never to visit Paris again.

[Sloth]

I rather like the ones where the painting is very much like a photograph taken through something blurry, like a rain-spattered window -- if you squint at them, they could pass for photographs of real subjects.

The first one you posted of the seascape at sunrise, is a little *too* impressionistic for my taste; the boats & the water are fine, but the stuff beyond is kind of a mess -- I can't tell if the slate-colored crap at the upper left is supposed to be sailing ships, or a shoreline with mountains or buildings, or what.

But I like much of Monet's other work. I found an early one where he does a remarkable job on the water, given how little detail there is:

I don't much care for Gauguin stuff, though. The 'Vision after the Sermon' looks childish. Looks just as bad squinting at it.

I think the cow was probably just looking for a nice painting with a lush meadow and some reasonable sense of perspective (like the Monet below), but took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and ended up in Crazy Red Flatworld.

[AnAmericanMother]

BTW, that first painting reminds me of the Whistler that garnered such critical opprobrium.

Really demonstrates the difference between French light and English light -- but they're going to the same place.

And of course there was the one that led to the famous libel suit against Ruskin for his comment "a pot of paint thrown in the public's face".

[mlmr]

Ping me.

Ping me.

Gonna take a rope and ping me.

From the branches of the highest treeeeeeeeeeeeee eee!

Woman, don't you weep for me!

[Mr. Mulliner]

bump for later read

[Argh]

Thanks, Professor!

[Sam Cree]

"That flattened space of Gauguin, the flat space that also hints at a deeper space, is an essential theme of modern art. Renaissance perspective is old-fashioned, and after the invention of the camera, artists are trying to explore different kinds of space. Now, if you can see a movement back and forth between two and three dimensions, that creates a new kind of energy in painting. And, to me, this is a spiritual energy that affects my eyes, my body and my soul. Modern art can be seen as very spiritual, for it does affect the spirit and soul in a new way. This is not the traditional kind of Christian images seen in the past.

Interesting that the Impressionists purposely went for flatness. I have thought they did that because they were interested in portraying light for its own sake, without relying on devices such as chiarascuro or the artificially dark backgrounds that the academics, and even Sargent, used so effectively in portraits to make the sitter come forward. But I know also that they were influenced by Japanese art, which was flat by tradition. But I imagine that the new invention of the time, the camera, also notorious for making flat images may have been an influence.

Yeah, I agree with your provocative comment about the spirituality of modern art, though I'm pretty sure I'd like to exclude plenty of it from that characterization. Maybe most of it.

Meanwhile, I have been looking at an old photograph of that era, of bank robber and model citizen Frank James, which clearly imitates the 19th century academic tradition of painting!

[Samwise]

If you have a ping list for these threads, please put me on it. Thanks.