The Fusion of Art and Science

Feminist Themes in Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills

Impressionism and Water Lilies

http://tigre-de-papel.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html

The Agony of The Starry Night

Vincent Van Gogh is the artist that most people associate with cutting off his ear and sending it to his girlfriend in a manic state of depression. However although Van Gogh did go through bouts of madness and insanity, he still produced some incredible and eye-catching pieces of art during that time. One piece of Van Gogh’s work, The Starry Night, happens to be one of my favorite pieces of visual art. In her article, “Van Gogh’s Agony”, Lauren Soth discusses the piece in terms of its conceptual history, the circumstantial history, and religious undertones, arguing that the piece actually has hidden christian meanings.  

Many people do not realize the time and thought that an artist puts into just one piece of work. It is not as if an artist simply wakes up one morning and decides that he or she wishes to paint a specific subject and then does so. In fact, according to Lauren Soth, there is much evidence that Vincent Van Gogh was considering painting a starry sky long before he actually did so. Soth refers to the letters that Van Gogh wrote to his friend, Emile Bernard, his sister, Wilhelmina, and his brother, Theo, in which Van Gogh expresses his want to paint a starry scene. In his letter to his friend Emile, Van Gogh wrote, “The imagination is certainly a faculty which we must develop, one which alone can lead us to the creation of a more exalting and consoling nature than the single brief glance at reality - which in our sight is ever changing, passing like a flash of lightning - can let us perceive. A starry sky, for instance - look that is something I should like to try to do.” In her Article, Soth also includes an excerpt from one of Van Gogh’s letters to his sister, Wilhelmina in which Van Gogh tells her that he “absolutely wants to paint a starry sky.” Van Gogh proceeded to paint to different pieces that included starry nights, however as Soth says, these did not fulfill Van Gogh’s vision of what he wanted his starry night to be like. Van Gogh wanted his Starry night to be in landscape form and also wanted the piece to be an imaginative one, not descriptive. It was not until nine months later, says Soth, that Van Gogh was able to realize his more than year-long ambition of creating an imaginative starry night sky. He did so in the town of St. -Rémy, and the although the conceptual history of Van Gogh’s painting is important, it is just as important to understand the circumstantial history behind the piece as well.

In her article on The Starry Night, Lauren Soth points out that in order to understand the piece, one must also understand the circumstances behind the piece. It was May of 1889 and Van Gogh had just been admitted to a mental hospital in St. -Rémy, when he was there he made sketches out of his window of the landscape below (Soth). When he got out of the hospital, the date that he painted The Starry Night can be calculated almost to the day (Soth). On June 16th, he wrote a letter to his sister in which he did not mention The Starry Night and on June 18th he wrote a letter to his brother in which he mentioned the painting, therefore according to Soth, the piece was painted sometime in between these two dates. Although the view that is depicted in The Starry Night includes a village, the actual scene that Van Gogh used to paint the picture did not include a village, instead there was an enclosed field (Soth). In her article, Soth includes actual photos of St. -Rémy and the enclosed field that Van Gogh used as inspiration for his painting. Soth states that The Starry Night is partly a depiction of the village and landscape and partly Van Gogh’s imagination of the starry sky since historians have said that on the night when Van Gogh painted the piece, the moon was probably not in the shape that Van Gogh paints it. This was Van Gogh’s goal in painting The Starry Night, to paint an imaginative piece with subtle meanings. Some of these meanings, Soth argues in the next portion of her analysis, have religious undertones.

As Soth states in her article, in September of 1888, Van Gogh admitted to "having a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars.” Van Gogh was very interested in putting subtle religious messages in The Starry Night and Lauren Soth claims that Van Gogh was extremely interested in the painting, The Agony in the Garden, that both Dolci and Rembrandt painted. Van Gogh had a rocky relationship with the church so he was not entirely interested in painting an actual religious scene, however he was interested in conveying a subtle religious meaning through his artwork. According to Soth, Van Gogh viewed human existence as a long suffering and he believed that the most that anyone could receive in life is consultation for their suffering. Soth states that the blue in The Starry Night is symbolic of Christ, while the citron yellow of the stars and moon is symbolic of angels. These details about the painting are important in understanding Van Gogh’s meaning. In Soth’s opinion, Van Gogh’s main goal in painting The Starry Night was to display a Christian message. Obviously since Van Gogh had been in a rough patch with the church he felt that it would not be fitting to paint a purely religious depiction, however he did want to convey a good deal of Christian meaning. Soth believes that Van Gogh merged his need to paint Christ’s agony in the garden with his wish to paint an imaginative landscape and it came together to form The Starry Night. Van Gogh needed a painting that included a starry night in landscape view with religious meaning and The Starry Night fulfilled all three of these requirements. The painting is as much a religious painting as it is a painting of a starry night sky, with subtle religious messages throughout.

Van Gogh made his wish to paint a meaningful night sky clear in letters to his friends, brother and sister. According to Lauren Soth, Van Gogh was very interested in the painting of Christ’s agony in the garden and although he did not want to actually paint a depiction of a religious scene, The Starry Night is a painting that includes religious undertones, something that Van Gogh wanted to include in the painting. In order to understand the painting and its meaning one must understand the conceptual history, circumstantial history and religious undertones in the painting. As Soth states at the end of her article, “At its most profound level, the Starry Night is Van Gogh's Agony.”  

-Chris Martin

Works Cited

Soth, Lauren. “Van Gogh’s Agony.” The Art Bulletin 68.2 (June 1986) : 301-313. Print.

Who is Cindy Sherman?

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    Author, director, make-up artist, hairstylist, wardrobe head and model are all just a few of the jobs that Cindy Sherman had to embody in order to create her dramatic, identity changing photographs. Her most famous work of art, Untitled Film Stills included pictures of her acting as the stereotypical female roles from Hollywood or European movies. It is important to know about Untitled Film Stills because it’s a globally famous work of that appeals to every audience, regardless of their language. In her academic article, Female Spectatorship and the Masquerade, Jui Chi’i-Liu’s thesis statement claimed a new interpretation against the grain of the established feminist readings of the photographs in Untitled Film Stills, which I see as the usage of photography in order to get her feminist ideals across, regardless of the audience’s lack of unity in language.

Feminist critiques of Cindy Sherman’s work can be divided into three categories. The first category attacks Sherman’s usage of masks as constantly conforming to man’s eroticised view of women under a male dominated society. Iversen's claim epitomises this line of critique: ‘Sherman's photographs present the female body in the third person: “she” poses as object of the gaze in relation to “he”, actively taking up a passive, exhibitionist aim’. The second group views Sherman’s masks as making fun of female sterotypes in Hollywood. They support this statement by showing that Sherman’s film still do not look like any of the heroines in film which are meant only for the fantasies of male viewers. The third group opens up a more mobile understanding of the reactions from the male audience. The male audience’s usual control over the female body has been reinforced but destabilized. All of these critics concentrate on the relationship between the male audience and Sherman’s masquerade. The author of this academic article thinks “this exclusive focus on the masculine gaze overlooks female spectators’ desire and identification in relation to these images...might not female spectators of Sherman's masquerade be tempted to negotiate their own female-centred reception?”

Feminist criticism of Sherman should not focus on the male but rather the female audience. Although the above female criticism does reflect a woman’s point of view, feminist critics should also think about how Sherman’s work addresses themselves, the female audience.This paper will deal with reception by female spectators individually and not a female audience. Kuhn asserts that the spectator ‘is a subject constituted in signification, interpellated by the film or TV text’, whereas the social audience is ‘[a] group of people seated in a single auditorium looking at a film, or scattered across thousands of homes watching the same television programme’. It will be beyond the length of this paper to analyze the patterns and consumption approaches of female audiences.

In this film still, Sherman is responding to the view of the erotic female portrayed in Hollywood films. In order to achieve this look, Sherman uses costume and feminine poses to expose the eroticism that is attached with the view of femininity. Roland Barthes well explains this strategy of clarification: ‘[T]he best weapon against myth is perhaps to mythify it in its return, and to produce an artificial myth’. Sherman creates a dissonant and elaborate masquerade in order to expose the myth of femininity as natural and essential under patriarchy. If the mysterious glamour associated with female movie stars causing female spectators to relate with the erotic images, Sherman’s use of irony shows her resistance to women being portrayed as glamorous objects to be consumed. Sherman once explained her intention to make such images: “There is a stereotype of a girl who dreams all her life of being a movie star. She tries to make it on the stage, in films and either succeeds or fails. I was more interested in the types of characters that fail. Maybe I related to that.”

    In Untitled Film Stills, Sherman establishes the female stereotype from a female-centered perspective. Although in several of her film stills, Sherman embodies several glamorous, powerful stars she also tries to assume feminine manners and wardrobe that would satisfy the male fantasy. Plus Sherman staged ambiguous scenes and narratives in which female audience members could imagine many fantasy versions of themselves. With the first fantasy self, they sympathize and relate with the active and powerful female roles. The could also feel both intrigued and angered at the female stereotypes which serve only to appease the male fantasy. With this the female spectators may have several types of identification or desire with their imaginary communication with Sherman’s disguise. By using multiple visual pleasures, Sherman’s masquerade provides female spectators with the ability to juxtapose the images with patriarchal presumption. With her usage of photograph as her media of communication, Sherman is able to communicate her message to a broader, global audience.



Bibliography:
Liu, Jui. Female Spectatorship and the Masquerade: Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills 34.1 (2010). 12 Feb. 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03087290903361399#preview>.

Monet's Water Lilies

          The Impressionist Movement in Europe during the 19^th century completely transformed the ways in which people portrayed and perceived art, for it focused on light and shadows to bring out a more natural view of art, which had never been done before. The artistic changes that impressionism brought about contradicted much of what Europe had known to be true art. Although many did not receive this new art well, many artists rose to the challenge to accomplish this fresh art form. Desmond FitzGerald argues that Claude Monet was a monumental forefather of the Impressionist Movement in 19^th century Europe, for no other artist could achieve such realistically natural works with use of color and technique.

            While Monet may not have founded impressionistic art, he represents the genius behind the movement and the artist that comes to mind when associated with impressionism. Camille Pissarro founded the movement, and Claude Monet quickly followed in his footsteps. Born in Paris in 1840, Monet grew up as a caricaturist, but quickly transitioned into an aspiring painter on the streets of Paris. Boudin, a famous French painter, took Monet in and inspired him with the nature around him. “Monet’s path was rapidly leading to success, when he suddenly left the road, throwing himself heart and soul into the plein-air movement” (190).  This transformation dealt with the problems of separating colors, subdividing tones, and challenging the effects of light. For example, Monet’s depiction of a Venice twilight shows the importance of color in the Impressionist Movement, for no other movement encourages a blending of colors to achieve such a natural look.

Intermonet.com

Before these ideas, mixing colors “produced a dead nature,” rather than a work that truly depicted the reality of nature, as Monet accomplished (191). He began to find his own path and set the stage for many other artists to follow. He focused on many different mediums and focuses for his works, which led to different phases including the Poplar Series, the Matinée Series, the Cathedral Series, the Thames Series, etc.

Image from Monet’s Cathedral Series (Rouen Cathedral)

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Unlike most artists, Monet explored just about every kind of landscape and nature in order to broaden his repertoire. “No other landscape artist has surpassed Monet in the richness and variety of the problems which he has attacked in his active careers” (188).

            Fitzgerald argues that what makes Monet stand out amongst other artists is his variety and diverse takes on the world around him. Monet did not always have an easy time, yet he was a “genius of patient and continuous study and improvement” that got him to the status that still holds today (182). Monet sought to progress his talents, which makes him a unique artist that never just settled, which Fitzgerald credits a lot of Monet’s successes to, for “he constantly seeks new worlds to conquer and nothing seems too difficult for his technique to accomplish” (188). He transformed old art forms into modern depictions of nature that differed from anything people had seen to date. Other artists truly admired Monet as they caught on to impressionism themselves, and it became a huge movement.

Camille Pissarro, Apple Trees in Bloom                          Renoir, La Grenouille

sandiegojewishworld.com                                              raymondpronk.wordpress.com

In this way, Monet led the movement even though he may not have founded impressionism. He took nature and transformed its perception unlike any other artist could. “We have in Monet the great and steadfast revolutionary from all the precepts of landscape art that preceded him” (195). It is no wonder that artists followed in Monet’s footsteps, for he did create a sort of revolution in the modern art world that remains popular and well-accepted even today.

            It can be controversial whether Monet or Pissarro truly founded the Impressionism Movement, since Pissarro came many years before Monet. Fitzgerald tries to point out that while the art form may not have been Monet’s premier idea, he practiced it and transformed impressionism to the form that it is today. In my opinion, that makes Monet a key founder of the Impressionism Movement. “He will be regarded in the future among the greatest landscape artists” for his persistence and dedication that made him famous in the first place (195). His keen determination to revolutionize art in the 19^th century attributes to Monet’s success, for he took the view of nature to a new level through color and reality.

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, Desmond. "Claude Monet: Master of Impressionism." Brush and Pencil 15.3

(1905): 181-95. JSTOR. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25503805.

Abstract Expressionism as a Means to Fight the Cold War

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Jackson Pollock was an abstract expressionist artists who was able to perfectly encapsulate motion into his works of art.  This sense of movement was created by laying the canvas flat on the floor rather than on an easel and allowing his movements to dictate where the paint was dipped and poured.  This created an almost three-dimensional look that was also achieved by using very specific viscosity's of paint that were thick nor thin.  This unique style of painting was completely new and had a sense of freedom that linked it to American culture.  The movement filled and abstract paintings that Jackson Pollock created stood in stark contrast to communism and strict ideals and therefore promoted the United States and the freedom within the country.

            Jackson Pollock was able to capture something that was rarely expressed in its full glory in other paintings, movement.  He was able to capture the motion of his hands by laying the painting on the ground and letting the paint pour on the canvas where ever his hands moved.  This space between his hands and the canvas allowed him to create a dynamic painting without ever making direct contact with the canvas which added to the three dimensional nature of his works.  This style had challenges though because he could not stop his hands from moving while he was pouring the paint.  He was required to keep making movement until the paint ran out.  Thomas Hart Benton was his mentor and he is the person that caused many of his ideas about rhythm, energy and body movement to be created.  The abstract paintings did not contain subjects that are difficult to paint in a dynamic state, the ribbons of liquid paint made the perfect form for movement and portraying the movements of Pollock’s hands above his work.          

            Jackson Pollock was able to convey movement through the techniques that he utilized.  Both the viscosity of the paint and the orientation of the canvas influenced his artistic process.  Most visual artists place their canvas on an easel at a vertical angle, but Jackson Pollock laid his canvas on the ground horizontally.  This orientation caused him to rely on gravity to allow the paint to pour downwards with every stroke of his arm.  In order for this paint to be poured and dripped, it needed to be a very particular viscosity.  Pollock was known to experiment with different paints and he normally used an enamel paint that he thinned.  Without gravity and the very specific viscosity of the paint, Pollock would not have been able to create the painting Number 23 or any of his other masterpieces.  

Jackson Pollock’s art was classified as part of the Abstract Expressionist movement.  This movement took place post-WWII and included many unique styles that put the United States on the forefront of unique and creative new art.  The time after WWII consisted of a lot of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union that is formerly called the Cold War.  Jackson Pollock’s art is very unique and representative of freedom due to its abstract style.  This free form stands in stark contrast to the ideological straight jacket that the Soviet Union was trapped into.  Pollock’s style showed the joy and the freedom of the west while simultaneously showing the strictness and censorship that existed in the Soviet Union, here the Cold War was fought through art.       

Works Cited:

Cernusch, Claude, and Andrzej Herczynski. "The Subversion of Gravity in Jackson Pollock’s Abstractions." Art Bull 90 (2008): 616-39. Print.