"Mother and Daughter" by
David Freed (2004). He used watercolor and
pastel. He used greens and yellows of different shades, but
what impressed me the most was the theme of his work. Most of
the mother and daughter paintings are associated with infants
with the need for the mother. This one was very different, because
although the daughter was still reaching for the mother, they
were both adults, the age of the daughter was not clear but
the mother was an elderly woman. The message I got from this
painting was that no matter what age the bond between mother
and offspring is always there.
The work by
Steven Jones (2002) entitled "Lil’Gross Clinic
(Baba Yoga)," where the artist used only ink and pencil
was much different from the first drawing. Defined round and
curvilinear shapes give a clear picture of the ghost like images
and the pathways and brick walls that are all over the composition.
These shapes reminded me of some of the modern paintings with
black and white shapes we saw in our last class. It has also
a cartoon like atmosphere. Even thought the subject matter might
seem up beat, the picture gives has a comedy like tone.
"Egalite" by Brad
Birchett (2004) was one of the most abstract drawings
I saw in this exhibit. It used mixed drawing media. The basic
colors on the background were blue and gray. Yellow, green,
blue, and black were used to draw the abstract figures. The
forms were ambiguous, but I dare to say that I saw a few figures
that could be a glass of martini and/or a person’s face (of
a stick figure). It was very interesting and quite challenging
to stay there trying to figure out what the images were.
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"A Trip to the Raw Bar" by
Wolfgang
Jasper (2004) resembled Steven Jones’ work (mentioned
before) in the subject matter. Ghosts or dead people with round
and curved shapes are clustered, giving the sensation of unification
of the figures by their shapes, like in Jones’ work. The main
differences between the two works are: First, Jasper used charcoal,
which gives a more refined and rich texture and a different
finishing to the drawing. Second, the ghosts in this picture
do not have the pleasant expressions Jones’ drawing. Third,
there are body parts mixed around the ghost heads, some are
mutilated, which might explain why the figures have such desperate
expressions on their faces.
One of the reasons I liked this exhibit was
that there I could find many different styles. One that I like
the most, although you may say I am "outdated," is
"After Prud’ Hon" (2004). I did not write the
artist’s name, maybe because I was too busy admiring the drawing
itself! This is a classical subject matter: a naked female model
posing to the artist, which used charcoal on gray paper for
this drawing. I liked it because it seems to me that this would
be one of the most difficult kinds of drawing I could ever make,
but again, I have no idea (or talent) to draw or paint! It looks
like a semester project of a senior art student that probably
received an "A+", but again I am no expert…
One of the other drawings that seemed interesting
to me was "Faux Pax #1" by Joseph
DiBella (2004), which uses mixed drawing media.
This composition is divided in two frames. The top one is a
gun and a target. The colors used are yellow, black and some
green. One of the aspects that caught my attention was that
the artist uses nails in this composition, which made me think
of cubist, because of the mixture of other materials with paint
(in this case a drawing). It did not exactly look like what
we have seen during this course from Picasso and Braque,
but the mixing of material reminded me of the technique used
in cubism. The bottom part of the composition had a bedroom
as theme. There were fewer colors, giving the sensation of a
darker picture, but some white was added to the drawing of the
bed, directing the viewer’s attention to that point of the drawing.
This bottom part made me think about cubism even more, because
it used something that looks like pinheads painted in gold and
some sort of molding material, like wax painted in green, black
and a little bit of yellow. This technique of mixing other materials
to the composition that usually would be almost flat, reminds
me of cubism. Another characteristic that reminds me of cubism
is that colors, composition and the other "outside"
materials used blended well with the drawing itself.
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