After reading Praveena’s great post on Robert Rauschenberg, I started thinking about all the great artists I’ve never heard of. Whenever I go to a museum it’s usually to see a special exhibit. Well, the other day I had that chance to explore the Modern Art section of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Inspired by Praveena, I wrote down all the names of the artists whose pieces I particularly admired and decided to share them with all you fine folks.
The first artist is Yves Tanguy. This is the painting I loved, named “From Green to White”. He created it in 1954, a year before he died. He’s best known for his nonrepresentational surrealist style. This particular painting reminded me of a sci-fi version of Salvador Dali. It has a cartoon-like quality that I find amazing and I also love the vast landscape view. Just for background information, Surrealism is an artistic style founded in 1924 in Europe. Surrealist style focuses heavily on the idea of the subconscious and dreams. It represents the idea that art shouldn’t be understood logically.
This is a painting by Stephen Hannock. This painting is called “The Oxbow: After Church, after Cole, Flooded, Green Light” (2000) What I found so interesting about this work is that if you look closely you can the that tha painting is filled with little white words. His style is referred to as “Imaginary Realism” which is also linked to Surrealism. I found an incredible essay by art historian Jason Rosenfeld on Hannock. Click here to read it. He is noted for his use of light in his paintings. I particularly like the specifically American quality of this piece. I chose this piece to represent postmodern art.
This next painting represents the Fauvist style of early 20th century modern art. It’s called “The River Seine at Chatou” (1906) by French artist Maurice de Vlaminck. Fauvism is heavily influenced by Impressionism and is marked by the intense use of color. One of the more famous Fauvists is Henri Matisse.
I chose these specific paintings and artists to explore the wide variety of styles and artists that fall under the category of modern art.
