For my second non-western assignment I chose The Sixth Patriarch Cutting the Bamboo by an artist named Liang Kai.  Liang Kai painted during the Southern Song Dynasty during the 13^th century.  Liang Kai was born in Shandong and worked mostly in Hangzhou.

The Sixth Patriarch Cutting the Bamboo, Liang Kai

For this assignment I chose a painting called Turns by an artist from Ghana named Kobina Nyarko.  Kobina Nyarko is a contemporary artist in Ghana who was born in 1972.  Nyarko’s work is often characterized by painting numerous small fish on a large convas.  Turns is seven feet tall!  Many of the works that I found by the same artist depicted circular schools of fish but I really enjoyed the linear feel of this painting.

Turns, Kobina Nyarko

Living by the ocean I have always been interested in art that portrays what I get to see everyday.  Looking at two different contemporary artists and their seascapes also helped to bridge a divide between realism and abstract art that I have been having trouble with.  One of the things that makes abstract art hard for me to enjoy is difficulty I have empathizing with the subject.  I guess I’m not much good at looking at a painting without reference and feeling the emotional impact that the artist intends.  Starting from a known subject (my own experiences) and moving to some paintings by Ken Bushe that are stylized, but very discernable and finally moving to some abstract paintings by Timothy Gent that portray some of the same subject matter it helped create a link in my brain between the experience, the discernable painting and the emotion of the abstract work.  Finally! Some abstract work that I can understand and even appreciate.  I might even go so far as to say that I enjoyed it.

One of the most interesting things about this period for me was the widespread use of photography and the visceral images of the Great Depression and World War II. I have always enjoyed the black and white photography of the Depression Era.

The stories that are told in just a few photographs are touching and force empathy between us and the subjects. In 1936 in Nipomo, California Dorothea Lange (working for the Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Collection) took a series of photographs of a migrant working family. The photographs center on the mother and her children.

What a shift in style!  Although subject matter and specific developments had changed art throughout the age impressionism was the real jumping off point for modern, abstract art.  Impressionism really is the bridge between clear, lifelike paintings and difficult to see abstract art.  So the question for the blog is – love it or hate it.  Is it really that simple?  I have to admit that my first gut reaction is mixed.  I have looked at pieces that I liked and pieces that I didn’t.

My kids might say that I am old enough to have experienced a great deal of classical music firsthand.  Well, maybe not old enough to, but I have always enjoyed listening to it.  Although he was at the tail end of the classical era the music style and composition of Franz Joseph Haydn are without a doubt classical.  This Austrian composer was greatly influenced by other classical composers like Handel.

The Creation was written by Franz Joseph Haydn while at his home in Vienna between 1796 and 1798. The piece was first publicly performed in 1799 in Vienna. This oratorio was considered the great work of Haydn’s life.

When urged to bring it to a conclusion more rapidly, he replied, “I spend much time over it, because I intend it to last a long time.”

http://www.musicwithease.com/haydn-creation.html

I hate to admit it again, but I found that I know even less about Baroque era art than Renaissance.  But once again I found stuff that was interesting, eye opening and good art.

As an example of the Baroque Era I chose a painting called The Serenade painted by the Dutch artist Judith Leyster in 1629.  Although I couldn’t find information on where the painting was done it currently hangs in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.  As a guitar player I guess the subject matter appealed as much as anything else.

Not knowing much about and never claiming much of an interest in most Italian and Northern Renaissance arts I was pleasantly surprised to find art that was not only interesting in a historical context, but that was intriguing to me personally. In all of the artists and styles of art found during the period I found a real gem in Pieter Bruegel (the elder).

Greetings fellow bloggers!  My name is Brian and I am a junior in the Rural Development program at UAF.  In addition to working on my Rural Development classes I am also working to finish the rest of my required classes for my Bachelor’s Degree – Art/Music/Theater 200 included!