History of A & D: August 2011

“When you can't avoid something, learn to take it, adapt it, and slowly love it.”

-Unknown. A meaningful quote.

I did mentioned before in my first blog post that I actually dislike history. Moreover, the History of Art about the ancient paintings and sculptures failed to stir up my interest. Sometimes when Dr Ray requests us to blog more on the History of Art, I would sign in my blog, click on 'Create New Post', and stare at the screen blankly.

But today is somehow different. Probably because this is going to be my last post on History of Art for this semester.

That's why I decided to blog on something that I have not blogged before.

During this week's and last week's Monday lecture, Dr Ray showed us some famous artworks as usual, and most of them attracts me.

I've seen those paintings before!

*Back to Week 8*

When Ms Clare gave us the list of paintings for Assignment 3, I don't have a single clue on what piece I should choose. So I went to Mid Valley's MPH bookstore to look for some 'inspiration', and I found this book entitled “Living with Art”. It is a huge book, almost 500++ pages. Normally, I would just flip the first few pages and close it up, but I did not this time. I found a spot and flipped through the pages one by one, carrying a little hope of finding my choice of artwork inside this book.

Impression, Sunrise, by Claude Monet was the first painting that attracts me. Normally people will picture sunrise or sunset by drawing two mountains with a sun in between, adding a few two-stroke-birds on a blank paper. (At least this is what I do every time. Hehe.) But on this painting, Claude Monet uses anchoring ships at Le Havre harbor, France and 3 ships on the waters to portray sunrise. It is not a detailed painting, the strokes are applied randomly, and the colors used are just yellow and blue to mix out tones of green. Using bare eyes, I can see that there is a round, bright orange-yellow sun situated at the center left of the painting. However, it is amazing to know that if you duplicate this piece in black and white, you can hardly see the sun! The sun totally disappears from view. I immediately list it as my choice #1.

The second artwork that draws me to it is Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour). It is a very detailed painting, compared to my 1st choice of artwork. It pictures 9 person in a large room, with a dog at the doorway (bottom left). On the right hand side, there is a huge canvas, with the painter himself (Diego Velazquez) standing in front of it, probably in the middle of painting someone out of the 8 other person inside the room. It lets me wonder who is he actually painting? Research from Wikipedia shows that it could also be the two figures reflected in the mirror, King Philip IV and His Queen Mariana of Austria. This painting arouses my curiousity and I would like to do more research on it to know the complex meaning of it. Choice #2 it is.

The third detailed painting that really hit me is the Arnolfini Double Portrait. Painted with oil on canvas by Jan van Eyck, it is really fine work and detailed to a certain degree that I could hardly believe that it was actually painted using paint brushes and oil paint. It looks more like a photo to me! There is a detailed description of the artwork written on the book, about 2 to 3 pages long. It was stated that the Arnolfini Double Portrait is meant as a gift to the Arnolfini family in Italy. Well, I guess that is why the painting is drawn with such commitment. It sure took the painter a lot of time and effort to finish the whole painting. I can't imagine myself doing it, even for my best friend. First, because I am not that talented in painting. And second... Okay, I am lazy to do it. Haha.

After comparing the three paintings on my list, it took me a hard time to decide which one to choose. Considering that I will have to write an 1500 words essay, I finally chose the third painting, Arnolfini Double Portrait.

I really liked the book and thought of buying it. But... it costs RM 170++... Money is an issue to me. Uhh. If only I have the money...

Well thinking on the bright side, I can still borrow books like that from UTAR library. We really need a lot of references and secondary researches to complete the assignment. I have passed in mine last week, and is now waiting for my marks to be revealed on the next week. If I received good reviews, maybe I will consider to post it up on my blog.

Till then, I need to bid goodbye to my blog now and focus on the final exam dated on September 8. And the first paper is History of Art. I hope Dr Ray will not be too harsh on us because I don't want to get bad grades, Haha.

Thanks for reading!

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References:

1. Mark, G. L. (2008). Living with Art. New York: Mc Graw Hill.

2. Impression, Sunrise. (n.d.). Retrieved August 24, 2011 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impression,_Sunrise

3. Las Meninas. (n.d.). Retrieved August 24, 2011 from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Meninas

4. Arnolfini Portrait. (n.d.). Retrieved August 24, 2011, from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnolfini_Portrait

5. Impression, Sunrise [Oil on canvas]. (1872). Retrieved August 24, 2011 from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Monet,_Impression,_soleil_levant,_1872.jpg