ANNOUNCING: LIGHT

A CURATED EXHIBITIONL. Blake

ANNOUNCING: LIGHT

A CURATED EXHIBITIONL. Blake

Sample for Final Project in Art 102Summer 2013

West Los Angeles College

Why Curate an Exhibitionfor an online Art History II course?

Why Curate an Exhibitionfor an online Art History II course?

n Sunlight, firelight, the light of spirit and even neon light are subjects and media in the history of art.

n In this Curated Exhibition we look at how several artists use the element of light.

n We consider the symbolism of light and how the historical period and culture affects the artistic expression.

Early in European art, light was used symbolically to create the aura of holiness.

Influenced by Masaccio, Fra Angelico expressed his reverence for God in a series of

frescoes on the walls of his convent.

The light coming over Angel Gabriel’s shoulder

glows diagonally onto the kneeling Mary emphasizing this important moment.

Annunciation, by Fra Angelico, 1440-41Fresco, San Marco Convent, Florence, Italy

Light in landscapescreates drama in

The Romantic Period

Albert BierstadtSunrise, Yosemie ValleyOil on canvas, 36” x 52”

Joseph Mallord WilliamTurnerThe Fighting Temeraire Tugged to

Her Last Berth to Be Broken Up1838,oil on canvas, 35” x 49”

The Romantic era championed the sublime and natural wildness

and man’s relative smallness in relation to it.

Light carries mystery and surprises.If we focus on the yellowish sun in the Breugel, we miss Icarus who is drowning in the water as his

wings were melted by the very same sun.In the Fragonard, the soft misty light is far enough in the background to keep the seductive lady

and her lover in the shadows.

Pieter Breugel the ElderLandscape with the Fall of Icarus c.1555, oil on panel, 2’5” x 3’8”

Breugel ‘s passion for landscape reflects his era: 16th century global exploration, and the Humanist approach of Petrarch.

FragonardThe Swing

1766, oil on canvas, 35” x 32”This seductive painting refers to the

leisure class in Paris of the 18th century.

Light painted with texture, turmoil, and fire.

Claude Monet J.W TurnerEl Greco

by Henry Tanner1898, 4’9” x 5’11”

oil on canvas

Light symbolically “replaces” the Angel Gabrielin this

Annunciation.Since he was a

“Realist” he wouldn’t paint an angel!

DAN FLAVIN UNTITLED (in Honor of Harold Joachim),

1977. Fluorescent light fixtures, 8 ft square across the corner.“Flavin describes this work as a “corner installation...intended to be beautiful, to produce

color the color mix of a lovely illusion...” Art Across Time, 4th ed. page 927

Much of the Art of the later 20th century

and early 21st investigates new technologies and media.