Art Embodied: Cubism

With the skies gray and the rain falling, I was more than happy to head into the museum to do some sketching. The Picasso museum was closed, so I returned to the Pompidou, and later visited the Museum of Modern Art on the western banks of the Seine. Cubism has been the anthem of the week for my independent study project ‘Art Embodied’. Above, view from the Pompidou!

Cubism was an extremely influential artistic movement launched in Paris around 1904. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque exploded the notion of the single perspective point — an element of painting that had been taken as a given since, well, painting itself.

‘I paint what I think, not what I see,’ Picasso said in a quote that sums up the conceptual bent of cubism. Cubists instigated what some refer to as a ‘crisis of the realist illusion’ — a dramatic way to say they stopped representing the world around them as it was perceived by the eye.

Several elements of cubism have ramifications on how the human figure is represented, and how human anatomy factors into the equation.

Cubist works often feature numerous points of view at the same time. This approach is what lends many cubist works a sort of deformed quality, with planes that would normally be hidden brought into the plane of the two dimensional canvas. In terms of the human figure in these works, it means anatomy is largely disregarded. The artist’s goal is not to recreate the world, or the human body, as they see it, but rather how they interpret it conceptually and choose to represent artistically.

Cubist works are often dominated by an overwhelming planarity. Depth falls to the wayside as the entire subject matter is flattened into a single plane. Graident shading is rarely used, replaced by uniform shapes of color. It is shape and contour that gives these works their form.

On top of being flattened, the human body is often simplified in cubist works. The figures are the product of a complicated process of artistic digestion, in which the cubist takes in visual information, process it, and reinterprets it in an autonomous way. For the cubist this process often results in the streamlining of visual information. The cubist opts for the efficient mark — a triangle for a nose, a circle and dot for a breast, a large arc for a hip.

These three elements — multi perspectives, planarity, and simplification of form, guide the cubist’s representation of the human figure. To understand these principles in a more concrete way, I tried my hand at cubism in my sketches this week:

I also observed Cubist works in person to understand how the human figure was reduced to a planes.

‘La Ville de Paris,’ a large-scale painting in the Modern Art Museum of Paris, was painted by Robert Delaunay in 1910 and is a good example of human figures painted in the cubist fashion. The work features buildings in Paris interspersed with three female figures. At the same time, the simplified faces of the three figures are an explicit allusion to Pablo Picasso’s earlier work with cubist leanings, ‘Desmoiselles D’Avigonon.’

This work illustrates another prominent theme related to the human body in cubist art — objectification. Delaunay said of his work ‘Les nus feminins sont des immeubles, les immeubles des nus,’ or, ‘The female nudes are the buildings, the buildings the nudes.’ Cubism broke the prevailing hierarchy of subject matter in the art world, a heararhcy that traditionally valued human figures over objects and landscapes. Through the cubist lens everything — apple or woman — was reduced to a series of planes. In this case, the artist does not discriminate his attention between the woman or the urban context in which they exist. As a result the woman seem highly integrated into the landscape — a prevalent phenomenon in cubist art.

‘Les Baigneuses, a 1912 work by Albert Gleizes breaks down the human figure through an even more simplified prism. In this work a backs and limbs are redued to singular planes. Anatomy is foregone for capturing the movement and weight of the figures.

A third work hanging at the Modern art museum takes the crisis of the realist illusion to an even further extreme than the previous two. ‘L’oiseu bleu,’ painted by Jean Metzinger in 1913, illustrates an allegory of two children searching for a blue bird that was very ‘en vogue’ during the era. Lhotein reduces the narrative to a single image, simultaneously evoking time and space. The human figure is transformed to a peach-colored grid system of diagonal lines. Let’s just say accurate anatomy is no longer on the mind here, and has been replaced by newfound interest in the artistic process and the indivual artists unique interpretation and rendering of the subject.

Here are several more Cubist works at the Pompidou to illustrate the diversity fo cubist representations of the human form: ‘Femme Nue au Bonnet Turc’ by Pablo Picasso in 1955, ‘Explosion Lyrique Number 2’ by Alberto Mabnelli in 1918, ‘La Proi’ by Andre Masson in 1925, and one work the reduces the figure to a series of black and white planes, ‘Nu dans atelier’ by French cubist Fernand Leger in 1912.

Inspired by these works, I did some sketching myself:

I was especially intrigued by a series of marble statues and bas-reliefs by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska in 1913-14. I found it helpful to sketch each object several times to try simplifying it in different ways.

That’s all for cubism, next week we zoom into modernism and wrap up our survey of anatomy through art history!

Portfolio: 'Skin and Bones'

oil pastel, chalk pastel and charcoal on paper 16.5'' x 23.5 ''

Anatomical Drawing 6: 'Skin and Bones'

This piece is the sixth installment in my set of anatomical drawings for my independent study project 'Art Embodied.' The work is based off of my past two weeks of study focused on Post-Impressionism and Fauvism.

During my studies I have discerned a change in artistic focus that took place around the turn of the 20th century. Emphasis on representation of reality decreased, while interest in the artist's personal interpretation of a scene spiked . Impressionist works launched the art world in this direction at the end of the 19th century, placing new value on the artist's individual 'impression' and rendering of a scene. Post-impressionists deepened this trend, further emphasizing artistic symbolism and individual style. In the early 1900s the Fauvists then ran with this trend, cuttin ties with the realist illusion and opting instead for a vibrant pictoral plane in which human figures were simplified to a series of two-dimensional colored planes.

The human body's surface and gestural potential were the focus of these artistic movments in regards to the human form. The Impressionists were fascinated with the dance of light on their subject's back, while the Fauvists reveled in the challenge of  reducing the human form to a few brushstrokes. The human form's interior anatomy became less important to many of these turn-of-the-century artists.

To communicate this concept visually, I created this piece, featuring six female figures in an abstracted space. The figures themselves are rendered in the Fauvist style — vibrantly colored, simplified, and gestural. As in many Fauvist works, it is the exploration of color and form, as well as the emotional impact of this piece, that takes precedence over realistic representation of reality. The figures stand upon an abstracted space that is meant to evoke the idea of interior anatomy. Bones and flesh are literally stepped upon to symbolize the Fauvist's movement lack of interest in the anatomy of the human form.

oil pastel, chalk pastel and charcoal on paper 16.5'' x 23.5 ''

Art Embodied: Fauvism and Expressionism

Release the beasts! This week I've devoted my independent study project 'Art Embodied' to the Fauvist and Expressionist movements, with particular attention to Fauvism since it originated in France.

Fauvism was spearheaded by french artists Henri Matisse and Andre Derain around 1904 on the Mediterranean Coast in the South of France. The duo had dabbled in post-impresssion, but were ready to forge new territory in the art world. Their pioneering vision expanded into the first avant-garde wave of the 20th century. Though poignant, the movement was shortlived, and lasted only until about 1908 when many of it's member artists changed allegiances to cubism. Cubism's logic-driven territory held appeal for artists who quickly grew tired of Fauvism's brilliant colors and emotionalism.

In French, 'Fauve' literally translates to 'wild beasts'.  Art critis Louis Vauxcelles first applied the term in a positive review on Matisse and Derain's most recent colorful works — and the name stuck. Fauvist works depict the artist's subjective response to the subject matter, and the result is often a spontaneous, brilliantly-colored work rendered with levity and speed. Fauvist works are not naturalistic, but are rather governed by an abstract logic created by the artist. Completed pieces are not faithful representations of reality, but autonomous artworks that bridge reality and imagination. 

These founding principles strongly effect how the human figure is depicted in Fauvist works. Rather than concerning themselves with sub-surface anatomy Fauvists are concerned with the outward appearance of the body. Furthermore, the body's potential for gesture and color take precedence over accurate representation.

The Fauvist focus on gesture and simplification of the human figure is exemplified by works such as the one below painted by Matisse in 1904, 'Luxe, Calme et Volupte.' I viewed this piece in the d'Orsay this week when I went to check out Fauvist works in person to get a better sense of the style. The female forms are delineated with color and playful contours. The body is reduced to a combination fo color fragments, which interact to form a unified form. Anatomy is of little concern, as evidenced by the lounging woman wiht the red hair in the lower lefthand corner. Her left arm, which rests on her hip, resembles a paw or boomerang more than a realistic limb. Anatomical features, such as wide hips and sweeping waist lines, are reduced to an assembly of graceful curves. Matisse doesn't concern himself with detail, but instead applies lyrical lines to capture of the essence of the womens' gestures.

The first Fauvist exhibition was criticized as an 'orgy of pure colors,' a pointed stab at the Fauvist's use of brilliant hues applied directly from the tube. Indeed, color was how Fauvists structured their paintings. The human figure is reduced to a series of color planes. There is little effort among Fauvists to create the perception of depth. Instead, they rejected three dimensional space, and flattened the human figure to a 2-dimensional structure.

Fauvists works also boast rhythmic brushwork that makes to effort to make itself unnoticed. Paint is boldly applied, often resulting in the simplification of the human form to only a few strokes. In terms of color and fearless application of paint, Fauvism and German Expressionism are closely tied. German expressionism also features bright colors and rapid brushwork, yet these artists were generally more interested in the emotional punch of their artwork, while the Fauvists were more intrigued by the construction of pictoral space via planes of color.

"When I put a green, it is not grass. When I put a blue, it is not the sky," said Matisse. For this artist, all subject matter — grass, sky, or indeed human figure — was reduced to mere paint on the two-dimensional universe of the canvas. 

Inspired by Matisse, I spent an afternoon sketching at the Musee d'Orsday in the Fauvist style. First I planted myself in front of this sculpture in the main hall of the museum.

I began with a simple pencil sketch, striving for the lyrical line quality of Matisse's paintings.

Next I further reduced the human form, trying to provide only enough information to give the spectator a sense of the figure. I also attempted to use color to define the planes of the two female forms, opting for a simple two-toned scheme.

Reducing a smooth human figure to a series of planes proved to be a worthwhile exercise:

I found I really enjoyed translating three-dimensional human figures, such as the woman in the sculpture below, to two-dimensional, simplified forms structured by planes of color. Below you can find the model, as well as my sketch.

I switched over to colored pencils to get a slightly more complex rendering of the human form in the next sculpture. Despite this more agile medium, I stayed true to the Fauvist principles of simplification, and bright pre-fabricated color.

And with that, my d'Orsay sketching session came to a close. To summarize, this week I have witnessed human anatomy recede further from the consciousness of the artist. I have learned about how the process of creation itself began to draw attention at the turn of the 20th century. Based on my studies, Fauvism marks the ragged border between the old style of pictoral illusion and a new modernist occupation of the 1900s that would turn the artist's focus to the process of painting itself. Tune in next week as we get comfy with the cubists!

Art Embodied: Post Impressionism

This week my independent study project art embody has led me to discover the era of the post-impressionists, an artistic era that launched near the end of the 1880s.

The post-impressionist movement built off of the Impressionism's emphasis on the artist's individual interpretation or 'impression' of the subject matter. This movement, rather a non-unified group of artists pursuing their individual style, explored art's potentional as a vehicle for communicating emotion. With Cezanne, Gaughin and Van Gogh amoung their ranks these boundary-pushers boasted a diverse aesthetic that was decidedly distinct from the pastel luminescence of the impressionists. While the impressionist movement focused on naturalistically commiting fleeting light to canvas, the post-impressionists delved into the symbolic potentional of artwork. Post-impressionist works often have simplified forms and flat planes of clearly-defined color — aspects that apply directly to the varied ways in which they rendered the human figure.

Still inspired by last week's exploration of impressionism, I continued to sketch 'en plein air this week'. Here are a few sketches, the results of me planting myself in Luxembourg Gardens for a good while, stalking both carefree Parisians and the regal statues that sprinkle the park.

I also did a bit of 'impressionist' sketching in ink and charcoal on the beaches of Mallorca Island where I spent spring break:

To examine closely the myriad ways in which the diverse post-impressionist artists rendered the human figure, I headed back to the Musee D'Orsay. Embracing my inner tourist, here is a pic of me and my buddy Denise in front of the iconic museum clock. Time flies when you're creating art!

At the d'Orsay I did some sketching from paintings and statues. Here are some samples from my time there. The three photos below are quick sketches of Degas works. I focused on using ink pens or colored pastel to quickly block out form.

Wanting to commit more than just my mere 'impression' of the artwork to my sketchbook, I sat down with this statue of Hercules for a while and worked on transcribing the musculature.

The museum did not allow me to photograph post-impressionist works myself, so the following photos are taken from the web. I selected the following d'Orsay works to illustrate my main findings in terms of how the post-impressionists portrayed the human figure.

This first work is title 'Potrait de Madame M,' and was painted by Henri Rousseau in 1890.  The clearly-defined planes of color and precise rendering of detail are in stark contrast to last week's Impressionist works. The hands are planar and monotone, while the face borders on caricature with it's elongated eyebrows and small mounds for nostrils. The figure appears sculpted; Rousseau's depiction careful and calculated. Anatomy is foregone for artistic style as the hands are deformed and the facial proportions are out of whack. This piece bears an eerie quality and delves into the realm of the symbolic, as underlined by it's mystery-soaked title featuring the illusive Madame 'M'.

Paul Serusier's 1891 'La Lutte Bretonne' also encapsulates several general principles of the post-impressionist era. The figures are dynamic and interesting, yet hold little semblance to realistic anatomy. For example, the feet and hands are much too large compared to the rest of the boys' bodies. Movement is created through the interwoven planes of color. Shading is accomplished for the most part through line, rather than the traditional gradient. In sum, color and shape take precedence over anatomy in this work by Serusier.

A similar subjugation of anatomy for creative expression of artistic style is exemplified by Vincent Van Gogh's 1889 piece below, 'LeMeridienne'. In this work the figures become inextricably tied to their context — the human forms and the background meld into a unified whole. The figures embody notions of fatigue and calm, and as they sink into the earth it is clear that the emotional punch, rather than accurate anatomy, is the focus here. The faces are indistinct, yet the bold brushstrokes delineate the contours of the bodies. Van Gogh is clearly more interested in the play of light, or the physical nature of the paint on the canvas, rather than anatomy.

'Et l'or de leur Corps,' is a 1901 post-impressionist Paul Gaughin work bearing similar qualities. The title, translated to 'And gold of their bodies', gives away the fact that color is Gaughin's primary focus in this work. The figures are outlined in black but the forms are described by clearly defined planes of brown, tan and orange. The figures are simplified and resemble modeled clay, the hands and fingers not clearly defined. The overall ambiance of the painting is seductive, calm, exotic and intimate. The painting has the atmosphere of having been painted from life, and from the paw-like nature of the right hand of the figure to the left, it was the color and atmosphere of the scene, rather than anatomy, that most struck Gaughin as he produced this work.

Though the work below looks like it belongs in last week's blog post on Impressionism, given it's strong featuring of patches of light, 'Baigneuse' by Hippolyte Petitjean was actually produced later, in 1921. The work is opalescent, and while the female nude is indeed the 'subject' of the painting, she is perhaps overpowered by the unabashed presence of light. Clarity has been sacrified for an overall atmosphere of warmth. With her idealized form (large rump, slim waist, flawless skin), this female nude is reminiscient of classical iterations of female anatomy.

I'll end this blogpost with two works created by George Seurat, a post-impressionist who really spearheaded this new artistic direction. First is 'Poseuse de Profil,' a 1887 work featuring a vague female form. Seurat has abandoned clarity to play with ocular effects and experiement with his technical virtuosity. In prior artistic movements,the artist's ability to realistically and accurately depict the human form was the most greatly valued skill of all. Now, the artist is most valued for his (or her, but we sure are lacking on the XX chromosomes among this crowd) ability to filter and process a scene in a visually interesting way.

Below is a final piece by Seurat —'Cirque' — which he painted in 1891. I end with this piece because it underlines how far artists have moved from the accurate depiction of human anatomy. In this work the human figures are characterized and cartoonish. The central female figure features an exaggerated waste, oversimplified leg muscles, an elongated neck and slim limbs. Her entire anatomy is a sort of calculated spectacle (in line with the subject matter of the work) rather than a faithful depiction of her realistic form. It seems as though Seurat produced this work from his imagination, or at least a photograph, rather than from direct observation — a distinct step away from the 'in situ' style of the impressionists. Cleary, the art world has changed it's relationship with human anatomy, and is quickly moving in a new direction. We'll see where this takes us next week!

Art Embodied: Impressionism

Known as the 'peinture de l'instantaneite,' or the 'painting of the moment,' the artistic movement known as Impressionism has been the focus of my independent study project 'Art Embodied' this week.

The movement emerged around 1860, when a young group of artists side-tackled the public with a radically new group of paintings. The 'impressionists' (a term initially given to them in a derogatory way but later embraced by the painters) stressed the subjective nature of the constantly changing world and found inspiration in depicting their own personal impression of a scene.

The most striking element of this movement in regards to my independent study project is the shifting focus of these artists in terms of the way they perceived and depicted the human figure. Human figures in impressionist works are often painted from life, or 'in situ' as the French call it. The figure is created with a rapid and visible brushstroke and is often decentralized in the composition. Impressionists were blatantly unconcerned with replicating the human form with precise anatomical accuracy. Rather, they were enchanted with the way the light danced off it's myriad surfaces, the range of colors produced by shifting shadows, and the lyrical contours created by the body's subtlely shifting planes.

To take full advantage of the incredible Impressionist collections Paris has to offer, I visited the Petit Palais Museum, the Rodin Museum, and the acclaimed Musee D'Orsay. What a trio. Here's a photo of the interior courtyard of the Petit Palais — pretty pictoresque!

At the Petit Palais I was able to view a number of impressionist works featuring human figures, such as 'Le Bain' (below), painted by Mary Cassatt in 1910.

Then I scooted off to the Rodin Museum, an impressive collection of both sculpture and painting. The museum occupies Rodin's old house and well-manicured gardens. Based on the musculature in Rodin's sculpted bronze figures, the artist must have had a solid foundational knowledge and interest in human anatomy. Many of the sculptures, such as the one featured below, feel like throw backs to the days of Antiquity in regards to over-emphasized musculature and idealized forms. Rodin's figures feature several features that make them distinct from Classical sculpture, however. First, the surface of the sculpture often appears as if it has been modeled from clay, in stark contrast to the perfectly smooth surfaces of the flesh in Classical sculpture. Secondly, Rodin paid particular attention to rendering the details of the hands and feet, and as a result these body part are often much larger than in classical sculpture. Finally, the overall impact of Rodin's figure are more expressionistic; the characters are wracked with grief, regret, passion or fatigue, and their bodies reflect this host of emotions in a way that many of the stoic and noble characters of Greek and Roman sculpture never were.

While this Rodin sculpture, 'The Three Shades', appears to be three different figures, the artist in fact used the same mold for all three, and simply rotated the mold to create the illusion of three unique men. And he thought he could get away with that...

Since creating art 'en plein air' was one of the major principles of the Impressionists, I decided I better take this idea to heart. It was a gorgeous sunny afternoon in the garden, so I ripped out my sketchbook and got to work. In the following sketches I focused on capturing an initial impression of the sculpture, and then quickly translating that impression to paper using ink and oil pastels.

There was a couple getting married on the sunny steps to my left, and I couldn't resist making a few sketches from life. It was a little bit tough because the duo kept moving, but good practice for me in capturing the essence of the gestures.

My third stop was the Musee D'Orsay, and as one of the world's most amazing impressionist collectoins, it was a mob scene. I was not able to take photos of the works in the museum, thus the photos that follow are from the web and are not my own. I did however take notes while I was in front of the works, and will conclude this blog post with a sampling of 6 works I find particularly interesting with regards to impresisonism and depiction of the human form. 

To start things off is a work by Edouard Manet, an artist generally considered to straddle realism and impressionism. 'Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe' was painted in 1863. The figures are rendered in a realistic style, featuring believable proportions and overall correct anatomy. Anatomical details are present, such as the gentle line of the nude's shoulder blade, her subtely defined thigh muscles, and naturally sprawling toes. This painting stands apart from many of the works I studied during the Realism section last week, however, due it's overall softern quality and the soulful gaze of the central nude. Her skin is luminescent, nearly opalescent, making her physical body the subject of this otherwise dark forest scene.

This next piece, 'Le garcon au chat,' was painted by Pierre Auguste Renoir in 1868. This painting is similarly realistic in regards to the boy's anatomy, but features the same soft quality as the previous work. The subject is bathed in soft indoor lighting, and his dark eyes stare off in an approachable and humanistic way. The painting takes a step closer to full-blown impressionism with the soft modeling of white light on the boy's back. Rodin uses visible white brushstrokes, following the contours of the boy's body, while distinguishing more contoured areas, such as the knees and left elbow, with light blues and browns.

The piece below is another Renoir at the D'Orsay, titled 'Etude, Torse, Effet de Soleil,' painted in 1875. As evidenced in the title, 'Study of a torso, effect of the sun,' Renoir's main artistic goal was to transfer the play of light on the woman's chest and abdomen to the canvas. Many of Renoir's figures are smoothed and softened to the point of becoming vague and dreamlike. It appears the Renoir's focus was not the underlying anatomy of this woman, but rather the light on her surface. This female nude reminds me of many female figures from classical scupture in the way that the artist seems to skim over the presence of bones and muscles beneath the skin and opt for an idealized, smooth, perfected surface. Here Renior paints that surface with shades of rose, peach, light blues and greens.

The next piece that drew my attention was a series of small bronze scupltures by Edgar Degas, such as the one below. Rather than rigidly map out the muscles and bone structure of these female nudes, Degas opted for a more movement-conscious and gesture-driven artistic approach. Upon first glance these figures appear relatively anatomically-accurate, at least enough so not to draw attention to the anatomy itself. Working from life, Degas most likely did not carefully caculate proportions but rather formed the shapes of the body by referencing them to one another. Part of the charm of these figures is their un-idealized nature — the effect of the surface is mottled and varied, unlike the smooth and idealized surface of Renoir's figures. The wonderful irony of these small sculptures is that the artist's goal was to lightly capture a momentary gesture, yet the gesture itself is memorialized in heavy, longlasting bronze.

The fifth piece that caught my eye in the d'Orsay's impressionist collection was 'Raboteurs de Parquet,' by Gustave Caillebotte, painted in 1875. The musculature of the figures is more precisely rendered than many other Impressionist works in the collection. Caeillebotte may have had the underlying musculature and bone anatomy more in mind as he employed light to define the contours of the men's backs and shoulders. This may be due to the fact that the men's muscles are directly linked to the subject matter of the painting — physical labor.

The final painting I'd like to highlight is another Renior, painted in 1918 and titled 'Les Baigneuses'. This piece encapsulates the impressionist principle of depicting light and the essence of form rather than focusing on detail or exact replication of reality. In this work the fat of the women's bodies folds uniformly from their breasts to their hips. It does not appear realistic, yet communicates the eased-out, heavy and sexualized nature of these woman to the viewer in an efficient way. In this work Renoir consciously forgoes accurate anatomy and instead puts his energy into communicating the heavy soft and lush nature of the women's forms in this seductive and warm work.

This week of studies was greatly enhanced by the opportunity to visit such a varied and rich body of impressionist work in Paris. I am looking forward to continuing my immersion in this subject next week as I move on to Post-Impressionism!