Video Review; Week 8

The first video I watched was Matisse and Picasso. Gertrude Stein was the first to realize the potential of Picasso and Matisse and suggested that they meet. They met and exchanged artwork to show their respect for each other. It echos a lot of stuff stated in the book in the biography section for each artist. It uses Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and compares Picasso's cubist beginnings to the work of Matisse. Matisse and Picasso arrive at similar results in their artwork, but Matisse's work is organized and well planned out, while Picasso's work is impulsive.

The second video was The Dance at the Moulin de la Galette. I chose it because it gives an insight to the painting, and the work behind the masterpiece. The video discusses the setting in Paris and the place where people gathered on their day off to relax and enjoy themselves. Renoir enjoyed capturing people in their everyday lives, doing leisurely activities. The video also touches on the lighting, and brushstrokes used to capture it. The book tells us that Renoir liked to paint optical sensations such as the lighting coming through the moving foliage on the trees, as he did in this painting. I find it interesting that they discuss the figures in his paintings, and how they reoccur in other paintings and were sometimes reluctant to pose.

The Sunday on la Grand Jatte was the third video I watched. I wanted to know more about the piece and was hoping it would say how long it took him to complete it, using pointillism and color blending, as opposed to a normal brushstroke painting. There is a lot of mystery behind this painting that I didn't know about. It was discovered by x-ray that the monkey was a last minute add on, but a monkey behind out on a Sunday stroll is very mysterious. Maybe his painting wasn't as mysterious as he planned it to be, so he had to add something in? Seurat's figures were solitary figures, which cast shadows, and often had hidden faces. The Grand Jatte was known in Seurat's day, as a place for prostitutes, and the riverbanks were often covered with couples making love. In the painting, there are several women alone, maybe suggesting that they were prostitutes.

The video about Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art covers a wide array of artists and information. It talks about Pollock, Warhol, Lichenstein, Klein and several other artists discussed in the chapter 22. The beginning of the video is spent describing Klein's painting C&O. It discusses the color qualities themselves and the nonrepresentational approach. Each color expresses a feeling or idea. Different uses of lines and , like the flowing lines in DeKooning's work can also be used to express feelings. Like the book, it discusses the element of energy in the work, whether referring to implied movement or the brightness of colors. I like looking at the contrast between the abstract expressionism and the elimination of recognizable objects to pop art and the use of popular objects in art, often repeated, like in Warhol's Campbell's soup piece.

These videos were very educational. I chose the ones that were semi-biographical to get a glimpse into the life of the artist, and their opinions on their works. Knowing their comments on their own work helps to interpret it as well. The chapters, especially 22, which covered the two opposite styles of abstract and pop art, were filled with information, so watching the video and seeing the works described and the intentions behind it helps out.