Robert Delaunay, Eiffel Tower 1909

SUBJECT MATTER

In this painting, the artist is portraying the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The painting is very bright and uses a lot of warm, vibrant colours. I get a feeling of joy and vibrancy of the city of Paris. I think that this painting is trying to portray the way Paris is seen through his eyes as a vibrant and exciting city full of life. He does this by using one of the most recognizable key structures of Paris, the Eiffel Tower.

TECHNIQUE

The artwork is painted using very thin washes of oil paints and uses very precise lines, all with a specific thickness and curve to them. The brushstrokes look to have been done very precisely with a smooth, fluid movement with the paintbrush. The paint seems quite watery yet bold, and it doesn’t seem to seep through the layers of different colours of paints. The subject has been portrayed form an angle that makes it seem very slender and tall. Although the painting is portrayed from a high angle, it doesn’t seem very obvious and there is no way to differentiate the different levels through tone and shading. This makes it seem very flat, but in a positive way. The colours are very vibrant, warm and unrealistic, but this adds a quirky feel to it. There are minimal uses of tonal work in this painting and even so the transition from dark to light is not blended or mixed to create a smooth transition.

ARTIST’S CAREER

Delaunay was born on 12th April 1885 in France. As a young child his parents divorced and he was raised by his uncle who lived near Bourges. He took up painting early in his childhood and by the age of 8 was producing works that were very mature for his age, showing early signs of impressionism. He served a term in the military in 1908 as a regimental librarian, where he met the then-married Sonia Terk, his future wife, who would divorce her husband soon after. In 1909 he travelled to Paris where he created a series of paintings of the Eiffel Tower. A year later he married Terk, they settled in a studio apartment in Paris. They had a son together named Charles Delaunay, who would grow up to be a famous jazz expert.

In 1914, when World War I caught up to the Delaunay’s they were holidaying in Spain and went to live in Portugal with friends until the end of the war in 1921; they then moved back to Paris. During the WWI period they worked for the Madrid Opera creating costumes. In 1937 at the World Fair in Paris, Delaunay participated in the designs of the railway and air travel pavilions. Two years later World War II began and in an effort to avoid the German forces, the Delaunay’s moved to Auvergne, central France. During this time Delaunay was diagnosed with cancer and as a result of constantly being moved around, his heath deteriorated. He lost his battle to cancer 25th October 1941 in Montpellier, France.

Delaunay’s work throughout his life concentrated on Orphism, whereas his later works showed elements of an abstract influence. His most distinctive methods are using bold colours and an enthusiastic experimentation of depth and tone. He joined a Munich-based group of abstract artists called “The Blue Rider” (Der Blaue Reiter) by the invitation of fellow artist Wassily Kandinsky.

LINKS WITH OWN WORK

I like this artist’s work because he used vibrant bold colours that are very un-naturalistic. This is something that I would like to attempt for my work as it’s a key feature of what I am trying to create. I admire the way Delaunay has made his painting appear flat in a positive way that works for him. I would also like to use the idea of replacing the colours of the subject with un-realistic colours, something that I have seen being used repeatedly in other Fauvist artists I have looked at, e.g. Maurice de Vlaminck.

QUOTES

“Direct observation of the luminous essence of nature is for me indispensable. I do not necessarily mean observation with palette in hand, although I am not opposed to notations taken from nature itself. I do much of my work from nature, "before the subject," as it is commonly called. But what is of great importance to me is observation of the movement of colours.”[1]
[1] http://www.artchive.com/artchive/D/delaunay.html

Jasper Johns 'Green Target' 1955

SUBJECT MATTER

The subject of this painting is a target motif concealed in green paint which covers the whole painting. The target is barely visible and can only be seen when the viewer looks closer. The painting is made from a beige newspaper collage and each circle of the target is laid on top of one another. Initially I get a sense of confusion as all you can see is a green square. But once investigated further there is surprise at the other contents of the painting. This is followed by curiosity, wandering what the target is doing there, why is it concealed so, why newspaper?

TECHNIQUE

The artwork has been created in levels, first by creating a newspaper collage on the canvas and each circle. They are then placed on each other in the right order and painted on together. This allows the marks made by the paint to continue of each level, making it appear to be on flat surface. The marks made by the paint are very blotchy and appear to have been done in a sort of stippling technique but on a much larger and care-free scale. The colours are slightly blended in and give an even messier appearence. The blotting technique makes some parts of the paint appear thicker than others and some are patchy and do not cover the newspaper underneath. The paint gives the illusion that it is on one level until you go up close and see the target which is layered.
The colours used in the painting are all very restricted to greens, showing only use of light, medium or dark green. This range of green tones has not been layed out to create tone, they have been mixed up to creat an almost camouflage effect. Green is a very neutral colour and its emotion can only really be distinguished by what tone of green it is. As this painting uses a variety of green tones its hard to say which emotion it conveys. The texture of the painting is obviously not flat due to the layering of each circle of the target. But this is not the only element of the texture of this painting. The newspaper that has been painted on is very thin so it wrinkles when alot of paint has been applied to it. You can see this effect on various parts of the painting. There is also a cracked effect from the end of each circle. The painting is very symmetrical and the composition has been planned out very carefully.

ARTIST’S CAREER

Jasper Jones was born in Augusta, Georgia, in 1930 and grew up in South Carolina. At the age of 22 Johns moved to New York to pursue his childhood dream of becoming an artist. In New York, Johns met numerous artists including Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage and Merce Cunningham .The year 1958 marked Johns' breakthrough as an artist. He had his first solo exhibition at the newly opened Leo Castelli Gallery in New York. His work was shown at the Venice Biennale, the 'Museum of Modern Art' bought three of his works and the art scene talked about his ouvre. After this, Johns partially began to move away from his style of painting. In the early 1960s he took an interest to printmaking. During the 1980s Johns' style of painting changed again. Johns would look back to teh motifs used in his early works and apply them in his printimaking and new works.Today, Johns lives and works in New York.

LINKS WITH OWN WORK

What first appealed to me about this artist was his use of the target motif in so many different ways. I also admired the way he does not limit himself to just paint and canvas, but uses a wide range of media that he wants e.g. plaster casts on a painting. I also admire the various textures that Johns uses in his work. I think that looking at Johns work will tell me not to limit myself when thinking about Contrasting Surface Qualities, and will enable me to think bigger.

QUOTATIONS

“Everyone is of course free to interpret the work in his own way. I think seeing a picture is one thing and interpreting it is another.”