Practice using the Frames.

Using the Subjective Frame, what could we say about this work by JMW Turner?

Review: the Subjective Frame talks about emotions, feelings, how you feel about the work or how you think the artist might feel. It also covers dreams and the imagination.

JMW Turner , (U.K. 1775-1851) Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps, 1812, oil paint on canvas, 146 x 237 cm

Practice using the Cultural Frame

The cultural frame looks to the time and place of an artist. It may also refer to religious beliefs, philosophies, politics. Questions may include:Are the signs and symbols specific to a particular culture? How might other cultures understand this?Is the artist attempting to reflect the attitudes of a time and place? How?Are beliefs about race, gender, social class included in the work?Does the work have a political significance?

Using the Cultural Frame, what can we say about This image?

LANDCSCAPE IV – NINETEENTH CENTURY

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926) Poppy Field, Argenteuil, 1875 oil on canvas, 54 x 74cm.

In 19th century France, landscape painting became recognised as a significant genre at last. Gradually the idealised landscapes which looked back to Ancient Greece and Rome (such as Claude Lorrain’s) were replaced by art describing the artists’ own contemporary world. This was a revolutionary step.

Claude Monet, Impression: sunrise,1873, oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm

Monet was interested in capturing the effects of light. A group of artists (who came to be called Impressionists) were interested in this idea – a quick capturing of the effect of light in a landscape, often with short dabbing brushwork that doesn’t pretend to be absolutely realistic. (These artists had various styles, they didn’t all paint the same way. However they were all interested in experimentation, rather than looking back to Classical times and traditional techniques.) This painting was really a sketch in oil paint, but was exhibited in 1873 as a finished work of art. This was a radical step at the time.

In the 19th century, new technologies meant that for the first time, oil paint was available in tubes. This made painting en plein air (outside, in front of the subject) much more manageable. Previously painters had to grind up pigment in to a powder and mix it with oil. Also new colours were available that were brighter than traditional colours. These new colours were somewhat shocking to the public.

August Renoir (French,1841–1919) Hills around the Bay of Moulin Huet, Guernsey, 1883, oil on canvas, 46 x 65.4 cm.

During the 19th century various theories about colour were developed. Ideas about how colours effect the eye, especially if they are placed next to each other. The Impressionists were Interested in exploring these new ideas. One of these ideas was using complementary colours in shadows, rather than brown or black.

Negative after-image. Stare at the centre of the coloured square for 20 seconds,then look at the black dot on the right. then look away to the black dot on the right. After a moment (it helps to blink your eyes), a faint afterimage of the coloured squares will swim into view — but the colours will be different. What colours do you see? – Handprint, http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color4.html#negafter

Photography was invented during the first half of the 19th century and became portable in the 1870s. For the first time, painting was not the primary recorder of a likeness of someone or something. The technology of photography and film, (which arrived in the 1890s as silent film) changed the visual arts enormously.

http://www.slideshare.net/zhoeben/introduction-to-landscape-photography-presentation

This image depicts a scene of everyday life, a popular subject of the Impressionist artists. It could almost be a photograph – the viewer seems to be in the middle of the action. Odd and ‘photographic’ points of view began to be used at this time.

Gustave Caillebotte (French, 1848–1894) Paris Street; Rainy Day 1877, Oil on canvas, 212 x 276 cm.

Interesting links to find out more:

Colour Theories: http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color4.html#negafter

The Impressionists: Metropolitan Museum of Art: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/imml/hd_imml.htm

Photography: http://www.slideshare.net/zhoeben/introduction-to-landscape-photography-presentation