Early Modern

My first artwork for my early modern blog is "Epidemic"(1900-1901) by Alfred Kubin.

First and foremost, I would absolutely not own Epidemic. This piece of art is creepy as hell and I would not want to see it while walking around my home. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a cool drawing but the creep factor is not doing it any favors in the ownability aspect. Much of this piece is unexceptional and wouldn't draw attention, but then there's an oddly proportioned bone colossus taking up a majority of the frame spreading what I can only assume to be death and disease(given the title) to the houses below. This drawing is closely connected to scientific innovation through the discovery of diseases and viruses. Germ theory had not become popular until the late 1800s, shortly before this piece was drawn, and I believe it derives a lot of inspiration from the then-recently popularized theory.
My second artwork is "Black Square"(1915) by Kazimir Malevich. I do not like this "painting". To call it art feels like an insult. A lobotomized koala with a crayon could create something with more meaning then this, genuinely. Like Epidemic, I would not own this painting, however I still think Epidemic is really cool and is worthy of recognition. In my opinion, art that is meant for everyone or wide audience to see should convey meaning and emotion through the art itself, not the background of the artist. It should have substance without connection. The only sense in which this painting is meaningful is because it is a "desperate attempt to free art from the ballast of objectivity". Malevich states that the achieving nonobjective art is rewarding, and I completely disagree. Malevich's art is about as rewarding to look at as stepping on legos. The only emotion I feel when looking at Black Square is disappointment that a member of the human race can be so pretentious as to think that this is art. It looks like nothing more than overdeveloped photographic paper. I genuinely thought I had uploaded the wrong file because I had to develop photos in a chemistry lab a few weeks back and it looked identical to that. The only praise I can give the artist is that he managed to get me so upset over the existence of a waste of paint and the fact that anyone would defend it.

Obelisk "Art from the 1900s" Feb 28th 2021

Sothebys "Alfred Kubin | Epidemie" Sep 26th 2020

National Institute of Health "A theory of germs - Science, Medicine, and Animals" Feb 23 2018

Design Manifestos "Kazimir Malevich: The Manifesto of Suprematism" Apr 14 2021

Wikimedia Foundation "Russian Museum" May 27 2005

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First/Test blog

Image
     Introduction: My name is Sawyer Christiansen, and I am a freshman at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. My major is in chemistry, and I do not consider art (the thing this blog is for) as an area of expertise for me. My pronouns are they/them, and besides what I've already written, I'm not super comfortable sharing much more about myself on a public space intended to be viewed by my classmates. I spend much of my time hanging out with my friends and procrastinating doing my homework, which is a trend that I'm sure will hold up in the future. I mainly just use social media for communication, and I don't upload much at all, but when I do it will usually be on my Instagram (@sawyer.christiansen). This is a piece of art I found in the Museum of the North that I find appealing because it reminds me of an image of a character from an animated film that I enjoyed watching during my childhood (pictured below) Staring Donkey meme      Relationship to art:  My relationship
Read more

Baroque

Image
      For the Baroque blog, I have chosen to write about "The Smoker" by Joos Van Craesbeek. The exact date that "The Smoker" was painted is unknown, at least to me. Some sources claim it was created in 1626, while others claim mid 1630's-ish.     Art elements: This artwork is a tronie, which is a pretty common style among Flemish baroque-era paintings. The background is divided in three vertically, with the top being blue, center being a light brown, and the bottom being a darker brown. I think that the choice to not have the background be one uniform color makes the artwork much less bland, and therefor much more appealing to the eyes. The only part that i don't like is how unnatural the smoke looks; besides the smoke the piece is very realistic.      I was immediately drawn to this painting when I saw it amongst many other tronie's because I've seen this painting in a meme before. While I can't find the meme, I think it was something to do wit
Read more

Classical Blog

Image
My chosen topic for this "virtual exhibit" is revolution and art in the 1700's. "Lansdowne Portrait" by Gilbert Stuart, 1796     " Lansdowne Portrait"  Is a George Washington sized painting of George Washington which shows him looking very cool and assertive and official, in the middle of doing what I assume is very official president related stuff. It was painted by Gilbert Stuart, a dude very well known for painting portraits such as this one. He was so well known and cool that the United States government even put his face on postage stamps, along with 34 other cool dudes(dudes is gender neutral here because they weren't all men). This painting is connected to the influences of the classical era through the American Revolution; George Washington was a general in the American Revolution and was appointed as the first leader of the independent nation that the revolution had sought to create. I do not find this painting very appealing via aesthetic
Read more