Impressionism

1) asymmetry—no rules or formal arrangements 22-5

2) incompleteness—a sense of things not finished or deliberately left imperfect

3) ordinary—no hierarchy or showy specimen plants (all plants have equal values—all ordinary)

4) simplicity—not too many plants, uncrowded

5) spatiousness—freedom from hindrance

6) spontaneity—so that they should be effortless, complete naturalness, playfulness, unexpected aspects

1) Bunsei—Landscape 22-2 pg. 860

The foreground reveals a spit of rocky land with an overlapping series of motifs-a spiky pine tree, a craggy rock, a poet seated in a hermitage, and a brushwood fence holding back a small garden of trees and bamboo. In the middle ground space—emptiness, the void. We are expected to read the empty paper as representing water, for subtle tones of gray ink suggest the prese

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REALISM/IMPRESSIONISM

1) Courbet—Burial at Ornans 27-48 pg. In terms of Zen Gardening—we can simplicity—not a lot of colors and it has a very pleasing composition. Frequently seen in Renoir’s work of the period, these attractive members of the middle class are shown in attitudes of relaxed congeniality, smiling, dancing, and chatting. Exactly at the point of imminent disaster, but far in the distance, rises Japan’s most sacred peak, Mount Fuji, whose slopes, we suddenly realize, swing up like waves and whose snowy crown is like foam—comparisons the artist makes clear in the waves nearest us, caught just as the moment of greatest resemblance. The figures assume motionless, statuesque poses and seem to exist in a timeless realm. Looks just like Venus of Urbino where Venus is portrayed the same way. Shallow space, enormous impression of distance, Japanese—cutoff point, flow of the branch echoes with the flow of the mountain. The way Seurat painted may be he intended to show us how tranquil it should be. Manet’s women are angular and flattened and look coldly indifferent. 36 views (tended to paint in series of picture—impressionist failed). Breathing space—there is a big gap in the middle and it’s vital to the picture. Most disturbing to contemporary viewers was the “immortality” of Manet’s theme: a suburban picnic featuring a scantily clad bathing woman in the background and, in the foreground, a completely naked woman, seated alongside two fully clothed, upper-class men. Although the man on the right seems to gesture toward his companions, the other man gazes off absently while the nude turns her attention to the viewer. The key to Seurat’s ideal may be the composure of the mother and child who stand as the still point around which the others move.

Common topics in this essay:
Zen Gardening, Renoir—Le Moulin, Manet—Le Dejeuner, Cezanne—Large Bathers, Munch—The Scream, Titian—arches Finally, Arc Valley, Renoir Paint, Ornans Courbets, Egyptians Sundays, sky figures, modern alienation, terms zen, contemporary viewers, equal value,

Approximate Word count = 1849
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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