Wednesday, May 8, 2013

True Art



“Truth in art does not mean doing accurate copies, but that the artist’s insight is rich and full, that he really has a good view of reality, that he does justice to the different elements of the aspect of reality he is representing. Truth has to do with the fullness of reality, its scope and meaning […] It is artistic truth!” ~ H.R. Rookmaaker



Rookmaaker, author of Modernity and the Death of Culture, defines creativity with these parameters: “Realizing one’s possibility, acting in love and freedom within given structures, fighting against sin and its results, all this is also what creativity means […] We are called to be creative in this sense. And we are called to bear the cross that often goes with it, for mankind often prefers darkness to light.”



“We must not love in word or speech, but in deed and truth; that is how we will know we are of the truth.” ~ I John 3:18, 19



Six Concepts that make way for True Art and Craftsmen:


1. Understanding Truth: Adherence to the Spirit of God. Only the Spirit of God convicts. Only God saves. By understanding what God requires of you (Micah 6:8) and living out the specific calling God places on your life and worldview, you allow yourself the room to live in an understanding of the truth.

2. Ability: Not necessarily a talent you’re born with but a discipline. “Genius is seldom recognized for what it is: a great capacity for hard work.” ~ Henry Ford

3. Intelligence: a backbone to deny irrationality. Art consists of law and limitation. “The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.” ~ G.K. Chesterton. The ability to be creative in such a way that the artist invents progress without resorting to the ease of creating without limits. Creativity without guidelines is not nearly as masterful as creativity with.

4. Knowledge: “pursuit of knowledge” is the “mandate for the artist.” ~ Greg Wilber “Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.” ~The Astronomer, Rasselas, by Paul Johnson

5. Craftsmanship: An artist has dominion over the craft. This requires submission to the truth “in order to subdue the media.” ~ Wilber. Understanding your craft and medium gives you the ability to create in beauty and truth. You take ownership and responsibility over your tools and your trade to communicate and express creatively the scope of reality.

6. Teaching: A true artist is a teacher. Passing on the baton divorces art and ego. The true artist exhibits a “desire to prepare the rising generation […] A true teacher desires his students to surpass his works.” ~ Wilber. A teacher comes to the understanding that a real legacy isn’t about having the world know your name, rather true legacy let’s the Lord use you to better understand God’s name. It’s God-confidence, not self-confidence.



Jan van Goyen: (1596-1656) Early Baroque/ Dutch Golden Age/ On the heels of artists such as Da Vinci and Michelangelo/ around same era as Rembrandt/ son of a shoemaker/ began apprenticeship at ten/ had six different masters, the most influential of which was Esaias van de Velde- a pioneer of naturalism in Dutch landscape/ he influenced countless other artists/ born in Leiden, the Netherlands/ very prolific, known for at least 1,200 works/ perhaps the greatest landscape painter in history/ lived rather meagerly, not very wealthy/ died in debt.
            --Techniques: used thin wooden panels/ coated with animal glue/ layers of white lead, often with earthy tones of reds and browns, etc./ trace on outlines quickly, often using walnut ink/ stuck with many monotone color schemes that created very realistic landscapes, paint appeared to be pulled right from the soil he was depicting/ used varnish oil medium to grind powdered pigments into paint--think layers, easy to mix/ kept his darks more transparent and lights more opaque, gave depth and dimension/ made low horizon lines giving a lot of sky, created perfect depiction of majesty and grandeur amidst the simple and daily life of farmers, sailors, fishermen, etc. Depicted “true truth” by displaying the balance between the grand and the ordinary.


Jan van Goyen Landscape Examples: 








 

Friday, May 3, 2013

American Painters

The Oxbow, Thomas Cole. Oil on canvas, 1863.

Thomas Cole: (1801–1848) Often seen as the founder of The Hudson River School. Made close friends with poet and writer, William Cullen Bryant. Mentored Fredrich Church, one of the best known painters for the Hudson River School movement.

The Hudson River School: 
Recognized as America's first true artistic community. Began around the time of Thomas Cole's arrival to New York in 1825. Defined much of the time by realistic style, classical influences, and the subject matter of majestic landscapes. Strongly influenced by Romanticism and Naturalism, which glorifies and exalts nature and the material, physical world. One important divergence from many of his contemporaries was that Cole aimed to depict the "visible hand of God" particularly as seen in the American landscape. Asher B. Durand (1796–1886) lead the movement after Cole's untimely death. In 1845, he was chosen as the president of the National Academy of Design. Durand published "Letters on Landscape Painting" to officially mark the standard of focus for the Hudson River School of Art.


Kindred Spirits, Asher Durand. Oil on canvas, 1849.

"Kindred Spirits was commissioned by the merchant-collector Jonathan Sturges as a gift for William Cullen Bryant in gratitude for the nature poet's moving eulogy to Thomas Cole, who had died suddenly in early 1848. It shows Cole, who had been Jonathan Sturges mentor, standing in a gorge in Catskills in company of a mutual friend William Cullen Bryant."

William Cullen Bryant's Sonnet to Thomas Cole: "Sonnet--to an American Painter Departing for Europe" 

Some of the artists to propitiate the Hudson School standards:
 
John F. Kensett (1816–1872), 

Martin Johnson Heade (1819–1904), 
Worthington Whittredge (1820–1910),  
Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823–1880), 
Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823–1900), 
Jervis McEntee (1828–1891)
Frederic Church (1826–1900)
Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902)

Over time the true standards of the Hudson River school began to change and soften. After the Civil War, the affinity towards landscape pieces had dissipated. "After the Civil War, the aesthetic orientation of the United States shifted from Great Britain, the mother culture, to the Continent, especially France. The appeal of figure painting grew somewhat at the expense of landscape, but the face of landscape painting itself altered with the influence of the softer, more intimate French Barbizon style first adapted to American scenery by George Inness (1825–1894)." 

The Hudson River School



Wednesday, May 1, 2013

The Arts in the Flow of History Chart

Ancient History 4500-1100 BC

Egypt                                        Pyramids
Assyria                                      Palace of Sargon II
Babylon                                     Ishtar Gate
Persia                                        Persepolis


Classic 1100 BC AD 500

Greek                                           Acropolis
Roman Etruscan                            Pompeii


Medieval 500 AD 1400

Byzantine                                     Mosaics
Romanesque                                 Cathedral Pisa
Gothic                                          Cathedral Chartres
                                                    Dante


Renaissance 1450 1600

Quattrocentro                             Giotto
Cinquecento                               Da Vinci, Raphael,
Reformation                               Michaelangelo
Counter-reformation                   Dürer, Cranach
                                                  Rubens


Baroque 1600 1750

Early-High Baroque                  Remembrandt, Milton


Neo-Classic 18th Century

Age of Reason                          David
                                                Schwind, Goethe


Romantic 19th Century

1st Half: Romanticism                Delacroix
2nd Half: Nationalism                Repin
               Post-Romanticism       Van Gogh
               Impressionism             Monet, Cezanne, Sisley


Age of Science 20th Century

Expressionism                      Kandinsky, Kokoschka,
                                           Munch, T.S. Eliot
Abstract                               Gris, Braque
                                           Picasso
Many Styles                         Dufy, Matisse
                                           Duchamp
Nonobjective                       Pollock