September 17, 2010

Classwork analysis over thirty minutes.

Clare Coyle Taylor- January 2, 2007
Color pencil on bristol board
Taylor's abstract drawing depicts a smudged pastel background of green, purple and pink colors. The drawing is a small square, approximately 8X8 inches. In the vertical center of the drawing there are top boxes. A top with a black center and the bottom with a red center. The boxes are both surrounded by black blurred outlines that encompass the shapes in the chaotic background. Both squares seem to sitting in a birds nest safely nestled in their black boarders. The top box, a bluish blackish color, could represent the blueness of the moon, while the red box represents the sun.
The emotions tied in with the colors boarding the boxes show chaos and wild color. The background displays bright colors that contrast with the two black boxes. The red could also represent a passion and love for something, but the bluish blackish is darker and more menacing. The two boxes could also represent life and death. Red, the color of blood could represent life, while black, the color of decaying flesh, can represent death. Life and death are both encompassed by boarders. I now notice the boarder surrounding the "death" box is somewhat distant to the box, while the red boarder closely encompasses the red box. The boarder's could be protectors for the beings in the chaos of the real world. I see the red box as a representation of life and life being closely connected to its conscious (the black) boarder and its ability to shield itself from the outside world. The "death" box's black boarder is farther from the black box. Death cannot shield itself from the outside world and has to face natural decomposition without a close shield; thus it's shield is more distant from the box and more precise because death does not have to incorporate itself in the real world, but it is still there.

The Kiss

Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss 1907

Romantic depictions in Art at the time of Gustav Klimt were at the first stages of being more “realistic” emotional than they had previously been.  For the first time, the Impressionist Movement captured the emotions of the movement rather than a snapshot. Klimt captures a young couple in an embrace.

The woman is not only knelling, but has her toes and necked curved at an uncomfortable angle. Klimt’s lifestyle reflected his view of women as objects by hiring them as nude models. The women in The Kiss is uncomfortable and has a position manipulated by the man, but sticking too his lifestyle, Klimt paints her face with a peaceful expression. Although each of the subjects clothing is embellished with gold, the male’s clothing has more rigid shapes while the women’s drapery is covered in circles—almost mirroring the flowers below her. The man holds the women in a very rigid position and does not show his face.

The couple seems to be on the edge of a cliff as they embrace. Love is an uncertain emotion because it must be shared between two people. There is a ecstatic feeling associated with love and that it can end very quickly. The edge of the cliff represents how closely to the edge a couple can be.

The landscape of The Kiss is very limited. The couple is knelling in a bed of flowers while their background is a mess of black flecked heavily with gold. The haziness of the gold along with the flowers gives the scenery of the kiss an almost dreamlike state.

The ratio of the width of the couple to the ratio of their height from the ground represents the golden mean. The mass of the couple, in addition to the platform they are knelling on takes up almost the entire height of the painting. The lightening at the scene of The Kiss is at a dark time of the day, most likely dusk. A bright background would bring attention to the couple, when they are clearly sharing a private moment.