The piece I have chosen is an oil painting by Chuck Close entitled "Robert," (1997). I observed it at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). The painting, which measures an enormous 102 by 84 inches, is a straightforward portrait of one of Close's friends and fellow pop artists Robert R...

John Berger wrote an article entitled "Ways of Seeing". In this article of his, he imposes his opinion of "works of art", what constitutes a work of art. He also talks about reproductions of art. His perception of reproductions is that they pervert the original piece, and tha...

Manet's painting, "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère," was an integral factor in the rise of a new era in art; through the emergence of a contemporary Parisian city, modern art began to flourish during the late 1800s. Being a painting of extreme complexity and ambiguity, many art critics have comment...

Art History: Cubism Picasso's Still Life with Chair Caning 1912 characterises Cubism's divergence from more conventional, academic styles of painting previously dominating French art. Marking a transition between the Analytic and Synthetic phases, Still Life with Chair Caning expresses ...

Art? I walked through the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in search of a conversation. As I wandered I saw many spectacular works of art but I was looking for something more than beauty, I was looking for an emotion, something that couldn't be explained in words. I wanted to be provoked to que...

Edvard Munch was an influential Norwegian painter and printmaker whose evocative painting "The Scream" meant to imply existential anguish and fear. However, as mass production and technology have made advances the perspective placed in a post-modernistic setting when viewing the painting can be s...

When analyzing artwork, there are often social contexts in which can be interpreted in any form. Not always making the history behind the painting needs to understand the artwork's concept fully. Yet, it helps determine if the artwork is truthful in its representation. Although in analyzing artwork...

A significant work of Japanese art that is of particular interest is the handscrolls of "The Seven Fortunes and the Seven Misfortunes" by Maruyama Okyo of the Edo period. These scrolls by Okyo are a pictorial explanation of the real-life blessings and evils that, according to Buddhist philosophy, ...

Hypothesis: Scorcese's selection of artwork serves to not only act as a separate narrative that mirrors the development of the themes and characters but also, in some instances, actually foreshadows the fate of the characters. As a Martin Scorsese film, The Age of Innocence, stands apart ...

The twentieth century brought WWI, Hitler, and the Great Depression to the world. It was a time of turmoil and out of turmoil comes change. The art world would also be turned upside down and forever changed. Fauves, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Fantasy, Dada, Surrealism, and early Abstract...

Vincent Van Gogh was born in Brabant, Holland in 1853. His 'bizarre' sense of colour disallowed his access to any art school. It was however this unique 'impressionism' that made his work so popular and valuable to this very day. Van Gogh moved to Paris later on in his life to join his brothe...

Both Cézanne and Pollock understood that although their art was turning away from traditional forms, art is continuity. Never disregarding the Old Master, Cézanne is said to be the father of modernism and Pollock the man who brought art from Paris to America. These two men, both known as avant-...

"My name is Marc. My emotional life is sensitive and my purse is empty, but they say I have talent" –Marc Chagall. I feel that art is subjective to the viewer's perspective. With that being said my perspective of Marc Chagall's art is that it is a feast for the eyes! I was immediately drawn ...

Modern art is a unique creation all it's own, and since its beginnings, there have been two very distinct groups: the Formalists and the Avant-Garde. The Formalist group believes in the literal representation of the artwork. They value the form used, whether it be how the colors are stressed or th...

Paul Cezanne: Impressionist of Life ART 293(306) Mr. Stevenson Cynthia Winters January 20, 2004 Paul Cezanne, although misunderstood as an artist, definitely made a huge impact upon the art world. With his use of true to life hues and tones, Cezanne brought ...

Both Life in the Iron Mills and The Awakening represent the tragic death of an artist. Rebecca Harding Davis describes the life of Hugh, an aspiring artist confined to his role as a lower class mill worker. Kate Chopin portrays Edna Pontellier as a talented painter similarly confined by her role as ...

Darwinian Creativity, fact or fiction? (The Evolution of Kids Stuff.) In his paper, "Could there be a Darwinian Account of Human Creativity?", Daniel Dennett ponders the origins of what society deems art, and whether art has evolved from more primitive acts of construction, or, ...

In his famous "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2" (1912) Marcel Duchamp used a limited cubist palette and faceting of forms but completely contradicted the cubist esthetic in his choice of an ironic title and stress on actual movement. When this painting was exhibited at the Armory Show in New Yo...

The Russian Avant-Garde began in Russia in about 1915. It was the year that Malevich revealed his Suprematist compositions that reduced painting to total abstraction and rid the pictures of any reference to the visual world. He is credited with being the first artist to do this; that is, forsake the...

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Riju was born July 15, 1606 in the town of Leiden, Netherlands. One of seven children, he was the only one who received a higher education; all of his siblings went into the trades. Leiden was a University town with favorable education atmosphere. Upon graduating from the L...

Many artists place the art of stained glass into the category of "minor art". To some artists, the action of making stained glass is a craft, but the final product is viewed, not only as a work of art but also an expression of the artist, the subject they were presenting, and the architecture tha...

The "reintroduction" to the arts in the curriculum has been a slow process with many detours along the way. It has also been compared to Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences in this way: "Three important truths are woven together in Gardner's characteristically perceptive trope. First is ...

Before the portrayal of the human body can be critiqued, you must understand the artist's culture. As man evolved over centuries, his views of the body also transformed. Our tour definitely showed the drastic changes in different cultures' art. Each culture and era presents very distinct character...

Art is like an onoin, it has layers upon layers creating a complex structure that when opened will make the strongest of person cry. To analyze art's structure is to box creativity, understand mystery, and harness society. Never the less art must be dissected to better understand its process an...

The term "conceptual art" is based on the simple but revolutionary premise that art should be mainly about ideas instead of material objects. In other words, artists should focus on what they think, not on how things look. Conceptual artists usually set aside the traditional processes of art like ...