Task 1 Art.

I Visited the National museum of Fine Arts, an exhibition “Daring Complacency” in Cavalier Art Hotel , St.Julians  and another exhibition “Il-ħajja u x-xogħol ta’ Antoine Camilleri (1922-2005)” in St.James Cavalier.

• Date of visit: 24^th October 2015.
• Venue of visit: St. James Cavalier,Valletta Malta.
• Title of the Work: Wild Horse.
• Name of Painter: Antoine Camilleri. 
• Size: 73 x 115 cm
• Medium: Oil on board.

Wild Horses is a painting by Antoine Camilleri. In this painting the artist make use of cold colours. Since the hands and the legs of the horses are faded it shows that they are moving. In this painting one can notice the contrast, since one horse is black and the other is white. It represents balance between two objects such as light and darkness. The emphasis in this painting is on the horses.

 

•  Date of visit: 24^th October 2015.
• Venue of visit: National museum of Fine Arts, Malta.
• Title of the work: The Iceberg.
• Name of Painter: Albert Bierstadt.
• Date it was painted: 19th Century.
• Medium: Oil on canvas.

This painting by Albert Bierstadt take us back in the 19^th Century. This painting is a very detailed landscape. The artist gives an amazing detail in the iceberg and the reflection itself. In this painting we see different proportion as the iceberg is very big compared to the red boat.

 The emphasis in this painting is on the iceberg. The uses of different light of blues gives a cold feel in this work. This painting is very balanced and one can see the rough texture on the iceberg and the smooth texture of the sea. This painting is very calm due to the colours and how smooth the sea is.

• Date of visit: 24^th October 2015.
• Venue of visit: National museum of Fine Arts, Malta.
• Name of Painter: Frank Portelli.
• Title of the work: Agony of Christ in the Garden of Olives.
• Date it was painted: 20th Century- early 21st Century.
• Size: 102 x 102 cm.
• Medium: Oil on canvas.

This painting is a very modern and original. This painting is very religious, even by the title you can easily notice. Frank Portelli made a lot of use of shapes. As one can notice the figures are represented with shapes rather than forms. As one can see this painting is spilt in two, on one side there are the three figures and on the other side there is Christ. 

This artist wanted to keep his painting look real by making use of dark cold colours, it means that it’s a sad story. To create contrast the artist painted the three figures in blue and he painted Jesus on green and his background in red. He wanted to emphasis on Jesus. 

• Date of visit: 24^th October 2015.
• Venue of visit: National museum of Fine Arts, Malta.
• Name of Painter: Louis Ducros.
• Title of the work: View of Grand Harbour.
• Date it was painted: Late 18^th century - early 19^th century.
• Size: 211 x 128 cm.
• Medium: Mixed media on paper.
• Stylistic Period: Romanticism. 

 “View of Grand Harbour” is a painting by the Swiss artist Louis Ducros. This painting depicts a view of the Grand Harbour from Senglea point. To the right are the bastions surmounted by a look out post, while on the foreplane are groups of figures and the masts of lateen-rigged Maltese boats.

 The painting is very romantic and nostalgic and is probably one of the finest works by Ducros. The background is light blue and it reflects it was a sunny day. The brush strokes in this painting shows the texture that make the painting look more realistic. Louis Ducros used shading to take out some important lines and objects. 

• Date of visit: 24^th October 2015.
• Venue of visit: National museum of Fine Arts, Malta.
• Name of Painter: Antonio Barrera.
• Title of the work: Fishermen (Il Grano d'Oltremare)
• Date it was painted: Late 19^th century.
• Size: 140 x 166 cm.
• Medium: Oil on canvas.
• Stylistic Period: Romanticism.

“Il Grano d’Oltremare” is a painting by the Colombian visual artist Antonio Barrera. This painting has a strong social content, with workers represented in a very realistic manner. 

This painting depicts fishermen working next to the harbour. One of the fishermen stands with his back turned towards the spectator, while another sits on a sack holding a pitcher in his hand. A third fisherman carries a large sack on his shoulders. He did good texture and shading on the clothes. The faces on this painting looks very realistic. It looks like it was a sunny day. 

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Task 2.
Dada.

Dadaism was a form of artistic anarchy that challenged the social, political and culture as a reaction to the World War 1 in the early 20^th Century. It wasn’t a style of art like Cubism and Fauvism, it was more like a protest movement. Dada was not art, it was anti-art. Dada represented the opposite of everything which art stood for. Dada ignored aesthetics. If art was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend.

Dada began in 1916 at Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, Switzerland and after it spread to Cologne, Berlin, Hannover and later New York and Paris. The Dadaists published manifestos to help communicate their ideas. Dada was not restricted to the visual and literary art, its influence reached into sound and music.

One important Dadaist was Marcel Dunchamp. He was a French, American painter and sculptor whose work is associated with Dada, Cubism and contextual art, he wasn’t directly with Dada groups. He is regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. These were later to move to Paris. Man Ray was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements. After experimenting with Impressionism and Pointillism, Francis Picabia became associated with Cubism later he was one of the major figures of the Dada movement in the United States and France.

The groups in Germany were not as firmly anti-art as other groups. The intensely political environment of Berlin had a dramatic impact on the Berlin Dadaists. The influence of French poets and the writings of German Expressionists liberated Dada from the tight interaction between words and meaning.

In 1921 Dadaism authorized itself strongly in Paris in the circle of the poet André Breton. The Dada group lasted till 1922 when it was dissolved. Many artists of the group after they became Surrealists such as Man Ray and André Breton.

Its Characteristics of freedom, disrespect and experimentation influenced consecutive movements.

'Incision With The Dada Kitchen Knife Through Germany's Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch' 1920 

(Jorg,P 2006)

Fountain 1917 by Marcel Duchamp

(andrew mcinerney 2007)

Pictures Reference:

Jorg,P.2006.Incision With The Dada Kitchen Knife Through Germany's Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch 1920.[digital image online],Anders, Berlin. Available from: <http://arthistory.about.com/od/dada/ig/Dada-at-MoMA---Berlin/Cut-with-the-Kitchen-Knife.htm> [Accessed on 13 th December 2015]

Mcinerney,A.2007.Fountain 1917 by Marcel Dunchamp.[digital image online] Available from: <http://www.surrealists.co.uk/viewReviewSingle/521/> [Accessed on 13 th December 2015]

Reference from:

·        http://www.artyfactory.org/art_appreciation/art_movements/dadaism.htm

·       

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada

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Impressionism.

Impressionism was an art movement at the end of the 19^th century in France. The Impressionists were a group of artists, famous for their innovative painting techniques and approach to using colour in art. It is considered to be the first modern movement in painting. Impressionist painting include small and thin, however the brush strokes are visible and emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities.

Many artists contributed in the first exhibition of Impressionist paintings in 1874. The main artists who formed this movement were Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley and Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse Lautrec.

The Impressionists were delighted by contemporary developments in colour theory. This development helped them more to analyse the effects of colour and the light in nature. They were the first group to embrace painting outside (en plein air). These artists tried to capture freely the nature. Impressionist portraits and figure were painted by Renoir, Degas and Lautrec. The name “impressionism” was given by the art critic at the first exhibition of this art group. Early impressionists broke the rules of the academic painting, they began by given by colours and shades freely. Pissarro was the only one who exhibited his work in all eight shows.

To capture the atmosphere of a particular time of the day and the effects, the impressionist had to paint quickly. Impressionist compositions were firmly influenced by the development of photography and Japanese woodcuts. Post-impressionism developed from Impressionism.

It had a huge influence on the development of art in the 20^th century.

Soleil Levant by Claude Monnet

(Unknown)

This painting was one of the exhibited works in the first exhibition of Impressionists paintings.

 

The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

(Artpedia 2012)

Pictures Reference:

Unknown. n.d.Soleil Levant by Claude Monnet.[digital image online]Available from: <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Monet,_Impression,_soleil_levant,_1872.jpg>[Accessed on 13th December 2015]

Artpedia.2012.The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh.[digital image online]Available from: <http://artpedia.tumblr.com/post/22708338700/vincent-van-gogh-the-starry-night-1889-oil-on>[Accessed on 13th December 2015]

Information from:

• ·         http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/impressionism.htm
• ·         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism

Information Reference:

ArtFactory.2015.Impressionism.[online]Available at: <http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/impressionism.htm>[Accessed on 13 th December 2015]

Wikipedia.2015.Impressionism.[online]Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism>[Accessed on 13th December 2015]