Essay on Painting and Philosophy
Under the great impact of various brand-new ideologies that appear in the late 19th and earlier 20th century, the styles and the manners of art are changing and the cohesive group with previous art interests splits apart. The new mode of the artistic expression has begun to develop, an emphasis on decorative forms of artworks in place of the realistic representation gradually. Art as one of the most particular platforms empowers people to demonstrate the reality as well as to express the individual cognitive. In either way people treat arts as an efficient resource to define the term of “Reality”. Artists from late 19th and earlier 20th century manipulated naturalistic forms to reflect what they conceptualized to be “their realities”. The examination of decorative forms (colors, brushworks and Proportion/depth) that applied in specific paintings would provide the evidence of how artists interrupt the realities with their concepts and impression.
Colors and Van Gogh
Color is one of the most crucial components in the process of establishing the art style. According to Andrew and Markus’s theory of the Color-in-Context[1], color have 3 properties, which are hue, lightness and saturation. These three properties not only provide the aesthetic value of the color but also with the functional value. Basically, it means color shouldn’t be seen as the simple representation of the reality but the ideology or the cognitive that people attempting to present. Vincent Van Gogh’s artworks always applied the dramatic colors, which demonstrate the representation of his emotional experience. “The night cafe” is one of his oil paintings from 1888 and the color tone of this painting is standing out because it got plenty of saturated and non-naturalistic colors assembled together. The title of the painting suggests the content suppose to associate with the particular ‘Night’ time period. However, all the complimentary colors with heavy saturation mess around the reality. Van Gogh increased the intensity of the light in the night café and created a new version of it with his imaginary and manipulation. Because of the bright yellow, saturated red and pure green, everything in the painting provides the spectator a feeling of horror and isolation. Refer to Van Gogh’s letter[2]:
“The general effect of beauty of color in nature may be lost in painfully literal imitation; it may be maintained by recreating a parallel spectrum of colors…much, everything, depends on my feeling for the infinite variety of tones of the same family…”
According to Bekker’s idea[3], Van Gogh focused more on the intensity level of his psychological emotion but obscured part of his sensory experience purposely. The inner motion of Van Gogh dominates his production process. He put his attention close to the beauty of color and exaggerated the great effect the color has. Also, Van Gogh did interrupt the reality with his individual feelings, and meanwhile, this individual concept empowers him to depict the idea of how he sees the world and in his words, to maintain “the beauty of color in nature”.
Depth and Proportion
In the journal “On the origin of the world: ‘Expressionism’”, Donald developed the idea about the expressionism that Matisse carried in his work is reflecting an individual creative process, which covered both the result of naturalistic and pictorial.[4] Through this creative process, color and brushwork definitely play the crucial roles but the proportion of the artworks is important as well. The oil painting “Joy of life” which was done by Henry Matisse from 1906 shows how he represents the nature instead of copying it in the aspect of Proportion.[5] “Joy of life” is the painting focused on the flatness of the space by compressing multiple levels into a single platform. Regarding to Werth Margaret’s analyze of this painting, she conceptualized the proportion of the painting is divided into three different bands and has “both triangular and circular” composition.[6] All the components and figures in the painting are organized to guide the spectator’s eye toward the opening centre in the painting. Matisse recreated the reality and interrupted his individual concepts into the nature to express “his reality” to the spectators.
Brushwork is the index of artists’ manipulation
Based on Michael Newall’s study[7], visible brush marks on the painting would always be the evidence to trace the artistic movement from the artist. In another word, brushwork has the same function as the beats in a piece of music, which acts as indexes to guide spectator going through artists’ inner world. As one of the establishers of Fauvism, Henry Matisse abandoned the naturalistic style of art expression and applied the controversial movement in his works. “Woman with the hat” from 1905 is one of the earliest Fauvism painting which done by Matisse. There are two main components in the painting draws people’s attention a lot– the harsh brushstrokes and the non-naturalistic color, which was studied in the previous section. In Lauren Tracy’s journal, “Matisse emphasized the depiction of idea and feeling rather than the representation of reality, and his works served as an important shift toward the highly abstract artistic movements looming on the horizon.”[8] The free-roaming brush works that applied on the painting presents the direction of the artist’s movement with hands and arms. Bold outline of the figure demonstrates less accuracy of the reality but more depict of Matisse’s idea and emotion. This painting’s background is basically created with several color layers, for example a patch of green simply attached with the pink color on the right side of the woman. Matisse didn’t keep his eye on the delicate transaction between different colors but leave them as the separated color palettes with wild brush marks. He is presenting the reality that he sees in the world.
From Michael’s points of view: “That the action painter’s brushstroke was expressive of the painter’s mental state at the time of its application quickly became subject to the kind of objections that put paid to the expression theory of art.”[9] There are various ways for artists to express themselves but brush mark is the form could be identified with the dynamic movement that the artists made while they are creating artworks. Though those dynamic brushstrokes, the artists’ personalities and their mental stages could be presented and connected.
Conclusion
In the later 19th century and earlier 20th centuries, artists are facing the great changes from the previous art interests to the new art expression, which focus on using the decorative forms to demonstrate the particular points of view that artists have towards the reality. Specifically, colors, proportion and the brushwork in the painting are not only presenting the aesthetic value but the function value as well. Those components of decorative form connect the nature to the artists’ manipulation of the reality and show the spectator the emotional level of artworks.
[1] Andrew J.Elliot, Markus A. Maier, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Chapter two- Color-in-Context Theory (Elsevier Inc. 2012) 61-125
http://ac.els-cdn.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/B9780123942869000020/1-s2.0-B9780123942869000020-main.pdf?_tid=0e7ab44e-6ee3-11e4-ab60-00000aacb362&acdnat=1416288400_4aba50b425480bde8c969ab4e9df7a4c
[2] Bejjer, K G; Bekker, A Y, Color and Emotion- a Psychophysical Analysis of Van Gogh’s work. (University of Florida, 2009)
http://search.proquest.com/docview/894124164?accountid=14771.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Donald E. Gordon, On the Origin of the Word ‘Expressionism’- Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes (The Warburg Institute, 1966) 371
[5] Ibid. 370
[6] Werth Margaret, The joy of life : the idyllic in French art, circa 1900, (2002),163
[7] Michael Newall, Painting and Philosophy (Philosophy Compass, 2014) P.231
http://journals1.scholarsportal.info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/pdf/17479991/v09i0004/225_pap.xml
[8] Lauren Tracy, Woman With a Hat by Henri Matisse–Beauty and the Wild Beasts (JAMA Facial Plast Surg, 2014) 81-82
[9] Ibid. 232
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