Appreciating ART

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Appreciating ART Appreciating ART

Topic started by Udhaya (@ 63.89.188.180) on Mon Sep 17 14:02:48 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

I’m not a student of art. I’m not a painter. I’m just a novice art lover who appreciates paintings for how they affect me. I have often found myself unable to explain why something affects me about a certain painting. I go to art museums at least couple of times a year and frequently wade through the internet art galleries. I have my favorites and I have come across those that puzzle or intrigue me.

Recently I visited the San Jose Museum of Art and noticed a marvelous addition to the gallery: comments by visitors on what they felt about each piece. The museum had reproduced some comments and left the rest right by the paintings for perusal. I can honestly say I learned more from reading visitors’ comments on the paintings than if the artist or a curator had tried to explain it to me.

I have condensed the questionnaire that the museum had to initiate a beginner or a rusty art fan. But you certainly don’t have to limit yourself to these questions or adhere to each one. This is just a place to start.
-What’s the first thing you noticed? Why?
-What colors, shapes, and lines are used?
-How do they lead you through the work?
-What are your head and heart telling you?
-Does it move you? How?
-What do you see that makes you think and feel this way?
-Does it absorb, generate or reflect light?
-Where is it still? Where do you see movement?
-What else was happening in the world when it was made?
-What do you see that reflects or rejects its time?
-How does it differ from your experience? Are you reflected in this work?
-What do you see?

My humble hope is that you all would open yourselves up to the paintings and open my understanding of the painting as well. Let’s all discover the mystery and majesty of art. Let’s begin using the following gallery and we can add other ones as people point them out.
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/

The above is the best webmuseum that I have found. This thread is not limited to Western art alone. Art from anywhere in the world can be discussed, the only criteria is that the art piece should be available on the web and preferably scales to at least half the screen in a monitor

Responses:

Old responses
From: Udhaya (@ 63.89.188.213) on: Tue Oct 2 17:47:43

Ramji,
That's probably a chair with some garment lying on it.
From: stg (@ 12.151.162.48) on: Wed Oct 3 08:05:09

sorry guys I was not able to visit here for some time. Udhaya right no one has treated light as Vermeer has done. Every one of his painting is a study of light. He captures simple things like reading a letter or sitting inside a room. At a first glance the music lession just appears plebian and one which we see every day.. but as it is always it requires an exceptional skill to make things look simple.

I simply cannot escape the effect of light. The tiles near the wall are dark and those in center are bright and everywhere u can see play of light thowing shades and angles.
From: nakkeerar (@ 12.148.251.114) on: Wed Oct 3 13:05:42

Udhaya: no problem. wil wait for my turn.

My observations..

The student isn't sitting in a small chair before the piano.
Might been olden times. These days the piano always has a chair for the player to sit.

The teacher has a chair with some table.
May be thats where he sits listening to teh student.
He is standing by the piano, probably correcting some key stroke.

As Udhaya observed lighting is magnificient.
The sun-rays coming in are kind of dim.
The tablecloth colors differ regarding how well exposed it is to sunlight.

The flooring in kind of queer. The tiles have a strange design or the design has faded.
From: Udnaya (@ 63.89.188.177) on: Thu Oct 4 16:17:11

Gang,
It's been 4 days so let's move to the next painting. Since "hihi:)" mentioned Hieronymous Bosch, let's take him as our next artist. I picked the following painting:
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bosch/paradise/paradise.jpg
From: Udhaya (@ 63.89.188.177) on: Thu Oct 4 16:17:28

Gang,
It's been 4 days so let's move to the next painting. Since "hihi:)" mentioned Hieronymous Bosch, let's take him as our next artist. I picked the following painting:
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bosch/paradise/paradise.jpg
From: Udhaya (@ 63.89.188.177) on: Thu Oct 4 16:18:10

ouch, the dreaded double-post. sorry folks.
From: Ramji (@ 205.177.170.111) on: Thu Oct 4 22:29:15

hihi( alias someone I know?), why dont you go first? It goes over my head anyway.:)
From: hihi:-) (@ foley4.psych.ucsb.edu) on: Fri Oct 5 15:20:27

rAmji ayyA: periyarvakaL sabaiyil, i entered without knowing what i was getting in to. so i would like you all to comment on the painting. i find most of his paintings to be a satire of the puritanical ethics (i know he was a "religious person"). his paintings are not to be looked at for any technical expertise but only for content (and i dont understand that either :-) ). most common symbols are stripped of thier symbolisms (after a close study of "the garden of earthly delights - the middle piece in his triptych, you will have a totally different understanding of strawberry kaNNE :-) ). in the painting chosen by udhaya, the left part is his "vision" of paradise, the creation, adam and eve, the satan trying to "corrupt" adam, and punishment for the original sin - it's a story (top down in the picture). the right side is his vision of hell. if you look closely, the aborigines of hell are monsters, strange creatures. if you look closely at the creation part of paradise (the left half) most of the creations are strange (some of them, i think are supposed to be angels, but i don't see any :-) ). (in the triptych, everyone except "the father" is naked! where is satan?) anyways, i think, i am blabbering. i will stop here. he probably was an earlier Dali who probably suffered from severe manic depression - it's, otherwise, impossible to conceive such paintings. :-)

(yes. you know who i am.)
From: Ramji (@ 205.177.170.102) on: Fri Oct 5 16:19:12

Ofcourse I do hihi:-)- I guess with a name like that I didnt need the smiley.

hihi, naan ambEl. Sorry non-Tamils, "I pass" is as close as the inadequate English language can get to that.
From: stg (@ 12.151.162.88) on: Sat Oct 6 08:37:59

I think side by side we should also discuss other things about art which according to me is more important. Things like what is art? why do we need it? the psycho-epistemology or art? why do people pay so much for art collections? Different opinions will give a tremendous insight into many aspects. For starters lets discuss what is art?
From: Udhaya (@ 63.89.188.207) on: Tue Oct 9 14:24:10

Bosch’s Paradise:
What strikes me most about these two paintings is that, hell seems to contain animals in a beastly, uncontrolled state, pillaging and wounding humans. Somehow, having witnessed 20th and 21st century’s horrors, this pales compared to my idea of hell. Paradise or heaven doesn’t seem all that heavenly either, the angels resemble insects and there’s an admonition of sensuality in the bottom of the painting. Perhaps this is one of those works that begs to be studied keenly so as to prevent contemporary readings of dated art. This is the first painting we have looked at that deals exclusively with an ethereal context and this is probably the aspect of the painting that’s puzzling us. Regardless, this is well worth exploring on our own.
From: Udhaya (@ pool245.zambeel.com) on: Tue Oct 23 11:10:58

Well, it's been two weeks, so let's move on to Raja Ravi Varma's paintings that Nakkeerar had brought up.

I chose this interesting portrait:
http://www.cyberkerala.com/rajaravivarma/rrvhtm15.htm
From: Ramji (@ 205.177.170.144) on: Wed Oct 24 14:11:18

Unlike the photographic reality of Paris on a rainy day, this painting does not even attempt to reproduce reality. Ofcourse Ravi Varma's focus seems to be on portraying human beings and their expressions. The background is almost ignored.

I read recently - Introducing(series) "Postmodernism" - Totem Books-that photography propelled art in the direction away from reproducible reality and into cubism etc. Did Ravi Varma or any of his Indian contemporaries attempt any other genre?
From: stg (@ 12.151.162.88) on: Sat Oct 27 07:03:49

I think we should not confine our discussions only to paintings but should also discuss other things about art which according to me is more important. Things like what is art? why do we need it? the psycho-epistemology or art? why do people pay so much for art collections? Different opinions will give a tremendous insight into many aspects. For starters lets discuss what is ART?
From: vj (@ kogate3.ko.com) on: Sun Oct 28 15:31:46

Despite appearing like a portrait, this does not seem to be posed, though it could be. I do not see why this painting does not attempt to reproduce reality. The situation "Here comes Papa" with the child's eyes looking in that direction with intensity, the dog turning its face spontaneously, and the Mom gesturing mildly, is portrayed with a common-place sensibility. In our days, we just wear different clothes. What struck me was the "tepid" expression of the Mom. She is heavily bedecked, and lives in a rich household with possibly little to do, and I wonder if the painter wanted to show how such living could lead to a numbing down of human expressions in certain people. The background in this painting is strange. A few clothes lying on some table or chair, and the rest of the background is brown and dark, appearing to be a door.
From: Ramji (@ 205.177.170.111) on: Mon Oct 29 07:43:28

I think we should consider stg's suggestion and decide one way or the other. It is an interesting suggestion but I personally feel we should for the time being proceed the way we are doing. This is purely about expressing how paitings affect us.

vj, it is probably a royal setting. Wasn't Ravi Varma a king?

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