Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Modigliani

One of my favousrite contemporary artist, who always inspired me and is always deep in my mind. An artist who was famous for portratis and in nudes of woman, only some of his work is landcapes. Modgiliani didnt paint interiors or still life in his work which definitley influences his painitings of the figures. Most of his work is taken out of context and dont have a link to what is happening behind them, similarly the nudes fill the whole canvas and in the composition we see only suggestions that she is lying on some fabric. Doing all this the artist focuses on the personality of the model and this ot him is the most important. The artist didnt limit himself to any one type of art, he created his own unrepeated style which deserves great recognition as we know the artist had links with Picaso and other artists. His portraits remind us of sculptures, with teyes that seem to follow you no matter what angle you are looking from and with defined facial features. The portraits have a deep psychological character. The facial features are show using strong linear markings, similar to the drawings of Toulouse Loutrec but sometimes remind us of the slim figures of Picasos Blue period but do not copy him. All this makes us that that his work is hanging between classical painting and drawing, some of his work remind us of sculptural projects where we can noctice a deep chizled relief on the canvas. In the nude figures we meet unaturally long arms and unatural shapes of thighs, we have a felling that the bodies of women are there just to show nakedness, where all academic rules, on anatomy, movement and proportions, are far from natural. I think this because especially the nudes of women are presented in very weird situations with unatural poses and it is hard to find an emotional contact with the model and we just focus on the figure and the body. I have a feeling that the artist is showing two types of models; ones that are showing us spiritail and erotical feelings, the others showing a spiritual relationship between the artist and the model, where the artist goes further adding his personal emotion onto the canvas, defining the woman as a mystic and unvailing her secrets. Modigliani is a great artist and during the course I felt very affected and infulenced by him which I did not alway like as I would like to remain independant and not be so easily lead astray.

The Jewess (1908)

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-modigliani-amedeo-artworks.htm#pnt_5

^{Modigliani’s drawing Standing Nude in Profile with Lighted Candle, c1911 (GETTY)}

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/11532201/Modigliani-and-the-Russian-beauty-the-affair-that-changed-him.html

Reclining Nude, 1917

 

(Nudo Dolente), 1908

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amedeo_Modigliani

 

Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin is the next artist who deserves attention. By some she is loved but my others hated because of her controversial art. Like I said earlier there is a difference between eroticism and pornography, nudity and nakedness. This artist is a 21^st artist who really crosses the border with her artwork, her work doesn’t show nudity in a classical way or for pleasure of viewer but shows human weakness and shows nudity in a raw way. This kind of creation draws attention because she shows dirty things that aren’t pretty or beautiful to look at yet still evoke emotion, she shows this in a real unfiltered way. To a normal viewer this might be hard to process because we are not used to seeing real life in art but in reality there are negative emotions and dirt and trying to turn this into art using photography or drawing the artist allows us to view life from a different angle. Here a question is born: is she creating art for the wider public or for a specific audience? Her work is very controversial but when I look at her work showing nudity or nakedness I do not feel any erotic emotions and I don’t feel like they are pornographic but they are just trying to show a certain reality which may be closed or unknown to some. I think these type of artist should exist and keep forming their type of art as they are filling a gap that much are scared to do.

Tracey Emin
I’ve Got It All

2000

 

Tracey Emin
Untitled

2000

Tracey Emin

Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made (detail)

http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/tracey_emin.htm

 

Graham Little and Elizabeth Peyton

I looked at the work of Graham Little and Elizabeth Peyton. Both artist are modern artists, showing mostly portraits and figures in their work. When I first looked at Graham Littles work I fell in love with it, he creates absolutely stunning work using colour pencil and has created his own style. In his work there is something amazing about pose where you can see calm and natural poses that evoke a weird feeling of peace in me. His work is like a stopped scene from a film, we see movement but the emotions are still and the same in each work. His work remind me of photographs from old magazines where the picture was softened during publishing. You can observe incredible detail and every detail is just as important as another just like a photograph. His art inspires my brain to think differently such that in one second I have millions of feelings and the next I feel calm and peaceful.

On the other hand the works of Elizabeth Peyton which are very strong and use bold lines and tones, her work is more lively and she doesn’t seem too worried about detail but in the composition she uses similar techniques as she crops the face and makes the pose look very natural, only a limited few have a static model posing in a studio. From her paintings we can not only see the human face but the thoughts and feelings of the subject in them. We can easily identify with what the subjects are doing in their lives. We can learn how to make portraits very personal from her.

Untitled (Sleeping), 2014 Graham Little

Gouache on paper

Untitled (Reflections), 2014 Graham Little

Gouache on paper

http://www.alisonjacquesgallery.com/artists/26-graham-little/works/

Elizabeth Peyton

Lunch (Nick)

Elizabeth Peyton

Spencer

http://www.moma.org/collection/artists/8042?=undefined&page=1

 

 

 

The Nude: a study in ideal form

I started by watching a series called Ways of Seeing by John Berger which inspired me to look closer at how we look at nudes in art, how nude was presented in the past, how it influenced people in the modern era and I found a publication The Nude: a study in ideal form (1956) by Kenneth McKenzie Clark.

The author’s fascination with nudes is what started the publication, the way it influences painting, and sculpting in the history of art was also a major factor.

In the book there is a focus on the difference between nudes ‘act’ and nakedness, he writes that being naked is being denied clothes and this word has some connotations which everyone feels when naked. On the other hand the word nude does not have an embarrassing or shaming feeling. An act for Clark is like clothing the body with art. To turn something into an act requires, according to Clark, the techniques mastered by the Ancient Greeks which use aesthetic, proportions, harmony and light to create the human form. Clark also believes that every act should evoke at least a slight feeling of eroticism, even if it is just a shadow of the feeling, which in some sense is what John Berger said, that lots of the nude paintings of women are there for the pleasure of the viewer. But Clark links the erotic feeling with something deeper, in other words eroticism is easy to define but each of the paintings should have deeper meaning to them and only then you create a good piece of art.

I think that Clark was right; art should evoke feeling but not depend on it. The strength of art is that it’s supposed to waken our soul, esthetical feelings and feelings of beauty. Nudity works with our imagination and sometimes in a refined way shows human nature but should be far from the animalistic desires. The author of the painting shouldn’t fill everything in, he can leave a little eroticism but not so much that it awakens our dirty minds.

In this publication the author starts by discussing the difference between nudes and nakedness but also shows us point by point what eroticism is and what pornography is. Of course his idea is very classical as it was written in the 60s but it can shield us from crossing a certain border. Clark also mentions that the point of view of the receiver matters as if his attitude towards even the slightest nudeness is that of a sexual nature even the greatest act will be pornography to him. I think that this thought is very current to our day as in our times the artist for some crosses all the borders but to others he is creating very deep artwork.

 

 

Part Four. The Figure and the Face

 

Project 1: Fabric and Form

Exercise 1 Drawing fabric using line and tone and Exercise 2 Emphasising form with cloth

In this exercise I tried to analyse a fragment of fabric on the side of the armchair, I used tone and line and for some both together to show this. Some of the sketches represent a fragment of fabric as I focused on one part of this fabric and tried to analyse how all the folds and creases look and how you can achieve that affect using different techniques, I tried to show the structure of the fabric. I came to the conclusion that on a small piece of fabric to showing structure using charcoal looked more stable than doing a line drawing using pencil or felt tip which allowed me to give the fabric more dynamics, these observations were used in the next exercise where some drawings are more stable and focus more on light and atmosphere and some using sharp lines help build the figure of the model in a more dynamic way. The model in the loose fabric was hard to draw as the figure of the model was distorted by the fabric, this made the whole exercise harder. I knew about this and so I concentrated on the fact that my model was wearing loose clothing and in a quick way define the loose fabric

   

 

 

 

Project 2 Proportion

Exercise 1 Quick studies and Exercise 2 Longer studies

This exercise was a continuation of work from the previous exercise. In this exercise I sat my model down and I did quick sketches changing my position. I used felt pen. From the first drawing I noticed that because the seat was soft the bottom of my model was hidden, this distorted the shape slightly. I tried to do the sketches quickly and so they appeared lively, I did not pay much attention to detail. For the longer study I did a drawing on a larger format of the same model with the only difference being the model was now sitting on the sofa. I also joined a live model class and started working with a nude model.  So I did a few quick sketches and longer studies at this class.

Project 3 Form

For these exercises I did work at home as well as using the opportunity at a live drawing class where I could take lots of observations of the human form and define the proportions and shape as well as observing the human figure from different angles where complications are formed as some elements are in a space that makes it difficult to portray them on paper.

In my sketch book I did a many drawing where I arranged my model in different positions and tried to build proportions in a quick way. In all theses I tried to focus on basic shapes, essential elements and stance of the human body. I came to the conclusion that the difficulty in showing the model on paper depends on my angle, position and distance from the model. It is much easier to show the model from further away which makes it easier to figure out proportions of the model with respect to itself, it is much harder to draw a model close up where I am closer or above the model and the proportions then change and I had to think harder about perspective and how the human body is placed in the space, some of my sketches I did not think about all this and just tried to create something without thinking and then looking back at some of them especially the nudes of a woman they took on a more intimate character but after deeper analysis I came to the conclusions that it is very important to look at the proportions and construction of the model.

 

 

Exercise 4 Energy

For this exercise I didn’t have many ideas of how to show energy so I looked at photographs of ballet dancers and show them in a quick and easy way, the poses themselves would be hard to do for my model so I just used the pictures. I will write about this more with the moving figures.

Project 4 Structure

Exercise 1 Structure of the Human Body

For this exercise I did a few sketches for example of my hands or asking my model to lie down and focused on for example the knees or bottom taking just parts of my models and drawing that fragment.

Exercise 2 Three Figure Drawing

I at first did quick sketches with the model in a sitting position, lying on the sofa and stood up. The seated and lying down studies I will show in my final project as I used these sketches for my final piece.

Project 5 Moving Figures

Moving figures were a natural continuation of the Energy exercise; I did a few sketches of groups of figures as well as single figures. I tried to draw really quickly and not focus too much on all the detail in the photograph; I tried to show energy and movement in my sketches. I didn’t focus too much on proportion, for example in the picture of a ballerina doing the splits I multiplied my lines and I repeated the body shape multiple times to show the effect of movement and energy of the figure. My first picture showing a pair of dancers looked too stable and you couldn’t really see movement in it and so I added vertical lines to try to show some movement around the pair, especially in this picture you can see that the legs of the dancers are in a position that isn’t moving so it doesn’t really show energy in itself.

 

Project 6 The face

Before I started the exercises I picked different pictures of random faces and drew different parts of the face for example the nose or lips. I did this without thinking about what the photo looked like just picking at random. After this I picked faces and drew the whole face, all faces have different character and shape; I tried to define the features of the face quickly. Next I started drawing self-portraits, I did this using different techniques. I tried to portray my face, know to me, in a way that showed the face differently in each picture but also made the picture more interesting. Next I did two portraits from memory, the first was a picture of an old bearded man who I used to see this was done in felt pen, and the second was a drawing of a woman using pastels. In the portrait of the woman I tried to show the face in enface and profile at the same time and this is why the nose, which is the first thing you notice, is showed from the profile, the woman isn’t looking straight and the forehead shows that the woman is slightly tilted but when you look at the face as a whole it is central. There is some influence of Modigliani in the picture, I had his work in mind while doing this picture from memory but I wanted to avoid the similarities so I drew a fuller face.