The Artistic WorldThe Artistic World

What is Art?What is Art?

“Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his

personality to the world he lives in.” - Amy Lowell

What is art? Art is everywhere. It is viewed when you look at a pretty flower swaying in the garden or when you see your father smiling with a milk moustache so big on his lips you can’t help from laughing. It is felt when you see a baby breathe its first breath as it enters a new world guided by his mother’s arms. Art is expressed every time you watch a little girl trying vehemently to remember her ballet steps or when you hear a tired mother crying her heart out to her spouse. Art is everywhere. It is a part of us.

Why Involve Yourself Why Involve Yourself With Art?With Art?

“ART IS TO BE LOVED - NOT TO BE JUDGED. PAINTING FOR ME , IS AN

EXPRESSION OF LOVE AND ENERGY”-Alan Wolton

Why Involve Yourself With Art? Artists do not paint because they want to be rich or famous some day. They do not scatter rooms with canvases and pallets because they are made of money, nor do they give up painting when people all around them tell them they can’t do it. No, artists paint for one and only one reason; simply because they love art, and art makes them happy. Once you attempt holding a paintbrush or building a sculpture, you will never know your passions, your latent talents, and your full potential. You will never feel how holding one brush can give you so much peace and confidence. You will never experience all the majestic powers that art gives you.

““How strange that Nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!”How strange that Nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!”

Art is fascinating because there is not a particular way to draw nor are there special colors we must use to paint. There are many styles of art. In this presentation, we will be focusing on realism, self portraits, cubism, expressionism, fauvism and much more.

Meet da Vinci.Meet da Vinci.“As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings

happy death.” -Leonardo da Vinci

A painter, a sculptor, a mathematician, an illegitimate son, born from poverty, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) rose to become one of the most venerated and esteemed artists of all time. He was born to Piero da Vinci, and a peasant girl, Caterina, and in his youth, studied in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, Verrocchio. Leonardo da Vinci is most remembered for his mysterious Mona Lisa with her elusive smile and The Lat Supper, a powerful painting which portrays when Jesus announces that one of his Twelve apostles would betray him. Leonardo da Vinci stands as a living example of the extent of what a man can achieve. He is in fact the greatest painter of all time.

Rembrandt.Rembrandt.“Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what now

you do not know”-Rembrandt van Rijn

A painter, a sculptor, a mathematician, an illegitimate son, born from poverty, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) rose to become one of the most venerated and esteemed artists of all time. He was born to Piero da Vinci, and a peasant girl, Caterina, and in his youth, studied in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, Verrocchio. Leonardo da Vinci is most remembered for his mysterious Mona Lisa with her elusive smile and The Lat Supper, a powerful painting which portrays when Jesus announces that one of his Twelve apostles would betray him. Leonardo da Vinci stands as a living example of the extent of what a man can achieve. He is in fact the greatest painter of all time.

Rembrandt van Rijn, born July 15, 1606, is considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in Dutch history. His works were popular all through his life, but most famous were his self portraits and moving scenes from the bible. Rembrandt’s brilliant, sharp technique brought him wealth and fame from 1632-1634 (World Wide Art Gallery) and during this period, he taught almost every important Dutch painter. Those were the high times in his life. However, unfortunately, his last years of life was marked by hardships and daily struggles after he wed Saskia van Uylenburg in 1634. The next year, their son Rumbartus died two months after his birth; In ‘38, their daughter Cornelia died at just 3 weeks; In ‘40 their daughter also named Cornelia died living barely over a month with only their fourth child, Titus, born in 1641, surviving into adulthood. His last loss was that of his wife Saskia, in 1642 from tuberculosis.

Pablo PicassoPablo Picasso““All children are artists. The

problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

Pablo Picasso .

Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 (1881-1973) in Malaga, Spain, the first son of Jose Ruiz y Blasco and Maria Picasso y Lopez. Jose Ruiz is much responsible for the masses of radiant artwork Picasso created, for he was his mentor as a painter and a professor of art from a very early age. Picasso’s career as a painter began in 1894 with a painting called “The First Communion.” Following that, he experimented with all sorts of colors and shapes creating his Blue Period, Rose Period, Cubism Period and African Influenced Period.

Marc ChagallMarc Chagall“In our life there is a single color, as

on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning of life and art.

It is the color of love.” -Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall, the first of eight children, was born into a poor Russian Jewish family in 1887. Later on in his years, Chagall’s artistic talent motivated him to study in Paris despite discouragement from his father. It was here he painted some of his most famous paintings. Chagall’s paintings are inspired by themes from the Bible, many of which incorporate elements from folklore and from religious life in Russia. (http://www.chagallpaintings.org/biography.html). Marc Chagall spent the vast majority of his 98 years preserving images for future generations to enjoy.

The artist tries to express certain feelings about some thing. The artists that painted in this style were more concerned with

having their paintings express a feeling than in making the painting look exactly like what they were painting.

Wassily KandinskyWassily Kandinsky"Color is the key. The eye is the

hammer. The soul is the piano with its many chords. The artist is the hand that, by touching this or that key, sets the soul

vibrating automatically."

A painter, a printmaker and an art theorist, Wassily Kandinsky was born on December 16, 1866. He was a man who possessed many talents. He could play the piano and the cello and was also a teacher, teaching law and economics at the Moscow Faculty of Law. In 1895, after being deeply disturbed by Claude Monet’s painting, the Haystack, because ‘it just didn’t look right’, he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts until 1900. He established himself very fast with his paintings and joined with expressionist painters, Der Blaue Reiter.

The word Fauvism is French for "wild beasts".

It got this name because the paintings had bright and unusual colors.

The subjects in the paintings were shown in a simple way, and the colors and patterns were bright and wild.

Henri MatisseHenri Matisse“Seek the strongest color effect possible.. the content is of no

importance.” -Henri Matisse

At the age of 21, Henri Matisse, while recovering from appendicitis, discovered his love for art which became his life-long passion. Matisse was born December 31, 1861 into a middle class family. He grew up practicing law, but after his life-threatening illness, gave it all up for a pallet and paint. Henri Matisse is best known for developing new means of expression through color, becoming a leader of the fauves in the first decade of the century(5).

These pieces of art were painted as if someone just took a quick look at the subject of the painting.

Claude Monet.Claude Monet.“Color is my day-long obsession,

joy and torment.” -Claude Monet

Claude Monet was one of the founding fathers of French Impressionism. Born in Paris in 1840, it was a close neighbor, Mr. Eugene Boudin, who recognized Monet’s talent and gave him his first painting lessons. In 1860, he was drafted to go to Africa for two years, but returned to Paris in ’62 to take painting lessons at Gleyre's studio, where he met Renoir, Sisley, and Bazille who helped his artistic talent begin to launch. Soon enough, Monet and his friends turned away from the conventional way of painting in a studio and painted in open air, surrounding themselves with art critics. It was not until 1880 after the Franco-Prussian war that the public recognized the value of impressionism and he could make some solid income.

“I think that if you shake the tree, you ought to be around

when the fruit falls to pick it up.” -Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt was born in 1844, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. In 1851, after a trip to Paris, Cassatt was fascinated by all the art she saw in Europe and set her mind on becoming an artist- an impossibility for a women to accomplish. At a time when women’s roles were questioned, and few had the courage to persevere in their interests, Cassatt can rightly be called the best painter in her time. Most of Cassatts paintings focus on women and children in ordinary scenes. Even though she never had children of her own, her paintings reflect a deep tenderness she’d have probably given to her own.

Mary Cassatt

Salvador Dali

SurrealismSurrealism

Their paintings were filled with familiar objects which were painted to look strange or mysterious.

Surrealists paintings were generally based on dreams.

Henri Rousseau

Francis Picabia

Yves Tanguy

Salvador DaliSalvador Dali“Have no fear of perfection -

you'll never reach it. “-Salvador Dali

The Persistence of Memory (1931)- Dali

“Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.”

Salvador Dali, a Spanish painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and designer, is best known as the most famous representative of Surrealistic paintings. He was born in 1904 , the son of a prestigious notary in the small town of Figuera in Northern Spain. Growing up, Dali’s artistic talent become highly noticeable and it prospered producing his most famous piece, The Persistence of Memory in 1931. It features “melting watches resting in an eerily calm landscape.” Dali was unlike most artists at his time, for he was not poor. On the contrary, even though not honored until posthumously, he led a life full of extravagance and stood out with his “clothing, coiffure and behavior.”

Credits1. http://library.thinkquest.org/J001159/artstyle.htm

2. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pablo-picasso-biography.html

3. http://www.chagallpaintings.org/biography.html

4. http://www.renoirinc.com/biography/artists/matisse.htm

5. http://encarta.msn.com/media_461577411_761575792_-1_1/henri_matisse_quick_facts.html