Works of Art I Know

An Officer, 1929-1930

Rembrandt, Dutch

My First Impressions:

Rembrandt used a lot of realistic, earth tones. I like how he used shadows because one half of his face is hit by the light while the other is darker because of the shadows. Also, on the officer's collar is gleaming from the light. I wonder what he is looking at.

What I Learned: 

Rembrandt is considered to be "one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history." After attending the University of Leiden he was apprenticed to a Leiden history painter named Jacob van Swanenburgh for three years. 

sources:

http://www.rembrandtpainting.net/ 

Story Collage

The story I'm trying to tell in my collage is of me putting on a show in my living room when I was younger in front of my family. It usually consisted of me doing little dances or skits.

The most challenging aspect of making this collage was not being able to draw anything but only to use paper, scissors, and clue.

The most successful aspect of my collage is the three-dimensional hair on my mom on the couch.

The Spotlight, 2009

Works of Art I Know

Three Musicians, 1921

Pablo Picasso, Spanish

My First Impressions: 

Although there are three musicians in this picture it is hard to distinguish the three. There is are so many colors blended together that the attention really is brought to the middle musician because his outfit is the only part of the painting using warm colors and clear shapes (in this case triangles). Picasso used a lot of earth tones and cool tones in this painting. 

What I've Learned:

The middle musician is a Harlequin (recurring throughout Picasso's work, some say as a stand-in for the artist himself) guitar player with a masked Pierrot to his left and a monk to his right. Although I didn't realize it at first, there is a dog in the bottom left corner. Picasso used Synthetic Cubism to create this "jigsaw-puzzle-like composition." 

Sources:

http://moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=78630 

http://artquotes.net/masters/picasso_cubism.htm 

I See the Light Drawing

Dark to Light, 2009

The story I'm trying to tell in my collage is walking out of a movie theater, where it is very dark, and walking into the midday sun. 

I used value in my drawing to show the difference in light and dark, colors, and also to define certain aspects of the drawing such as the difference between the wall and floor. 

The most challenging aspect of making this drawing was drawing the girl walking out of the door because I haven't drawn a lot of people in my past. 

The most successful aspect of my drawing, I think, is the shading I used because, in the first steps of creating the drawing, there were tons of lines and to erase them I used shading. 

Works of Art I Know

The Two Fridas, 1939
Frida Kahlo, Mexican

My First Impression:
It seems to be one of her very famous self-portraits except in this one there are two of her. One's heart seems to be destroyed while the other's is perfectly healthy. Perhaps the healthier Frida is helping the ill one. Kahlo uses value a few times in this picture but it is also very colorful. The background has the biggest representation of value and it shows the dark sky and clouds. It makes me think that the mood is somber and sad. She also uses value to show the shadows and the creases on the clothes.

What I've Learned:
When Frida painted this she had moved back with Diego Rivera in San Fransisco where she got treatment and rest for her poor health and recovered quickly. The year later, Rivera and Kahlo remarried. Frida underwent 30 surgeries in her lifetime as a survivor of polio, and a serious bus accident which seriously injured her in more ways than one. Kahlo explains that she was very lonely as a child due to her polio so she created a make-believe friend of whom she told her deepest secrets to. Some think that in this painting, she recreated her friend as a twin of herself. Of the 200 odd paintings that Kahlo created, about 50 are self portraits.

Sources:
http://www.fbuch.com/fridaby.htm
http://www.fridakahlofans.com/biobrief.html
http://www.pbs.org/weta/fridakahlo/worksofart/index.html

Works of Art I Know

Missouri C, 1972

Charles White, American

My First Impressions: 

At first glance it just looks like a simple sketch of an African-American woman but there is a deeper meaning to it. Her face looks troubled or hurt because her eyes are closed and she seems to be thinking. The focal point seems to be on her face and the background turns for dark to light. 

What I Learned: Charles White was born in Chicago, Illinois and discovered he could draw at the age of seven. White was elected a full member of the National Academy of Design in 1972. He taught at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles from 1965-1979, his death.