This painting is dark, powerful, horrific, and beautiful all at once, and in that disharmony there is a balance.
Tag: expressionism
Tuesday
This painting is both jarring in its unrealistic hues and unnatural forms. And yet, there is something very sculpted and gentle about it, and something quite elegant.
Wednesday
This speaks of a desert landscape, arid, dry, broken lines and harsh, unyielding, and yet broken. I love it on so many levels.
Friday
27 December
This is my favorite iconic view of the Eiffel Tower; it’s a pop art style in bright, perfect colors that stands out, but it was done in such a wonderful 20s expressionist style.
Thursday
26 December
As opposed to The Tavern, this painting is meant to be appreciated for its open spaces, its colors, and its light. However, it is still meant to be uncomfortable in a different way – it is meant to highlight the darkness of the upper class and the plight of the invisible poor.
Wednesday
25 December
There is something about this that is just impermanent and fleeting, dark and destructive, visceral and cruel, even though it is none of those things and is just vague lines on a canvas. It might be the coloring, all primary and aggressive in a relentless way, or it might be the positioning of the figures, in a claustrophobic way, with no space between them and no feeling of dimension. But it is not a comfortable painting in any way, and it is not meant to invoke a feeling of such.
Thursday
This actually screams post-modern art deco when you look at it properly. The lines are all the fluid, geometric forms of art deco, but taken to a streamlined form ala Bauhaus.
Wednesday
The composition of this painting reminds me, funnily enough, of a candle, both in coloring and in structural elements. It has a very distinct feel to it, and even the paint reflects light and shimmers like the flame of a candle.
Saturday
This is another one of those problematic American sculptures that smacks of institutional racism but at the same time is breathtakingly beautiful for what it is and the sheer bloody talent that went into the piece. It isn’t ideal, nor is it idealized except in the artist’s eyes, and it should be said as such. In fact, the features are over-exaggerated in a way that even the ancients would likely have cringed at and thrown away; instead, it is an approximation of an approximation and rather more like an idealized caricature of a female form than any idealization of a modernization. It even has a bit of the post-impressionism expressionism or slightly pre-Art Deco about it without really managing to be any of those things.
Friday
This is straight up one of my favorite pieces. It has a richness of tone, color, composition and yet a simplicity about it. I enjoy the way it invokes a sense of dreamy, almost surreal wonder.