Contemporary, portrait, landscape, painting, best, top ten, paintings, oil, artist, artists, gallery, life, figure, graphite, sketch, Snowdonia, drawings, pencil, Art, geometry, composition, Master, Masterpiece, Welsh, Wales.
Contemporary, portrait, landscape, painting, best, top ten, paintings, oil, artist, artists, gallery, life, figure, graphite, sketch, Snowdonia, drawings, pencil, Art, geometry, composition, Master, Masterpiece, Welsh, Wales.
Often, when I go into a new gallery, I try to look at the paintings and register my honest gut reaction before looking at the attached information (artist, date, media, etc).
It is enlightening in that I may decide that I think that the painting is useless, only to discover from the info that it is by a highly renowned and celebrated artist. Or it may happen the other way - I sometimes see a picture which I think is pretty good, then find that the artist is considered to be derivative, out-of-fashion, or simply mediocre. It's an interesting exercise, because you have to own up to your own gut reaction, un-influenced by prior knowledge of the artist.
Have a go!
Take a look at this painting below. Before you move down the page to get the info on it, take a second or two to think about these questions.
What do you think about it?
How good do you think it is? (Would you say it is world-class, second or third rank, student level, or worse?)
How much would you expect it would achieve when sold?
What kind of person is/was the artist? (Think about this one in particular).
How would you categorise the painting in stylistic terms?
Here's another by the same artist..............,
And here's a couple more............,
I would think that by now you've probably guessed who the artist is.
Of course, they are by Adolf Hitler. They were painted when he was a struggling painter in Vienna, trying to earn money by selling hand-painted postcards. You may think they're not too bad as paintings, or that they are absolute rubbish. But I confess that I personally would find it difficult to read into these innocuous pictures the character of one of the worlds most hated mass-murderers, who emerged on to the world scene a few years after painting them.
Incidently, I've often read that Hitler and the Nazis were atheistic, (particularly when the war-crimes that they committed are under discussion). Of course, ten minutes research will reveal the truth about Hitler's religious upbringing, and the religious stance of the Nazi movement. And here are a couple of rather strange indications of this orientation.......
Mother Mary with the Holy Child Jesus Christ
Adolf Hitler, 1913
SS Belt Buckle
Gott Mit Uns (God With Us)
Mind boggling!
Often, when I go into a new gallery, I try to look at the paintings and register my honest gut reaction before looking at the attached information (artist, date, media, etc).
It is enlightening in that I may decide that I think that the painting is useless, only to discover from the info that it is by a highly renowned and celebrated artist. Or it may happen the other way - I sometimes see a picture which I think is pretty good, then find that the artist is considered to be derivative, out-of-fashion, or simply mediocre. It's an interesting exercise, because you have to own up to your own gut reaction, un-influenced by prior knowledge of the artist.
Have a go!
Take a look at this painting below. Before you move down the page to get the info on it, take a second or two to think about these questions.
What do you think about it?
How good do you think it is? (Would you say it is world-class, second or third rank, student level, or worse?)
How much would you expect it would achieve when sold?
What kind of person is/was the artist? (Think about this one in particular).
How would you categorise the painting in stylistic terms?
Here's another by the same artist..............,
And here's a couple more............,
I would think that by now you've probably guessed who the artist is.
Of course, they are by Adolf Hitler. They were painted when he was a struggling painter in Vienna, trying to earn money by selling hand-painted postcards. You may think they're not too bad as paintings, or that they are absolute rubbish. But I confess that I personally would find it difficult to read into these innocuous pictures the character of one of the worlds most hated mass-murderers, who emerged on to the world scene a few years after painting them.
Of course, they are by Adolf Hitler. They were painted when he was a struggling painter in Vienna, trying to earn money by selling hand-painted postcards. You may think they're not too bad as paintings, or that they are absolute rubbish. But I confess that I personally would find it difficult to read into these innocuous pictures the character of one of the worlds most hated mass-murderers, who emerged on to the world scene a few years after painting them.
Incidently, I've often read that Hitler and the Nazis were atheistic, (particularly when the war-crimes that they committed are under discussion). Of course, ten minutes research will reveal the truth about Hitler's religious upbringing, and the religious stance of the Nazi movement. And here are a couple of rather strange indications of this orientation.......
Mother Mary with the Holy Child Jesus Christ
Adolf Hitler, 1913
SS Belt Buckle
Gott Mit Uns (God With Us)
Mind boggling!
quiz quiz quiz quiz quiz “details, details............” quiz quiz quiz quiz quiz
Who painted these windows, and in which painting?
(The answer will be in the next posting.)
And here's the answer from the last posting -
by Piero Della Francesca, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino, 1469.
quiz quiz quiz quiz quiz “details, details............” quiz quiz quiz quiz quiz
"Abstract art: a product of the untalented sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered."
Al Capp
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. . . . and now, a Recommended Read . . .
Michelangelo Drawings
Closer to the Master
Hugo Chapman
Michelangelo, the greatest of Renaissance artists, was active as a sculptor, painter and architect. Aside from a few unfinished paintings and a handful of marbles north of the Alps, his genius can only be appreciated outside of Florence and Rome through his work as a draughtsman. This exhibition and book combine the best examples from the British Museum with studies of comparable quality from the Ashmolean Museum, and also from the small but very high-quality holdings of the Teyler Museum. An introductory discussion covers topics such as Michelangelo's life and contemporary fame, his training and choice of drawing technique, and the history of his drawings after his death. The book is then structured chronologically around the various important projects that punctuated the artist's career, illustrating the way in which his ideas evolved in the creation of such iconic works as the two Sistine Chapel frescoes. Each stage in his life is set against the backdrop of the continually changing political situation, Michelangelo's patrons, and the pupils and contemporary artists whom he so heavily influenced. The book includes colour illustrations of 90 drawings in the show, as well as comparative illustrations of the finished works and related studies showing their evolution. Amazon Review
Published on British Museum Press
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