a multi-disciplinary dialog
Paintings depicting 3-dimensional and arial views were abundant in an exhibition of current Chinese art at NAMOC, the National Museum of Chinese Art, in Beijing in March 2011.
Cheng, Wen-ji, Embracing, 114.5 cm x 200 cm, oil on canvas, 2009
This bowl, seen from a distance across the room, looked startingly 3-D. We stepped close to admire its geometric perfection. more… »
The two paintings of Edward Hopper, shown here, are part of the current exhibition in the Whitney Museum of American Art: Edward Hopper and His Time. Much has been written about Hopper’s usage of light and shadow. I will point out his usage of incongruencies that further accentuates the sense of isolation and alienation that Hopper’s painting are known for.
Subjected to the first exercise from Nicolaides ‘The Natural Way to Draw’, I drew the contours of the icicles following Nicolaides instruction:
Focus your eyes on some point – any point will do – along the contour of the model. Place the point of your pencil on the paper. Imagine that your pencil is touching the model instead of the paper. Without taking your eyes of the model, wait until you are convinced that the pencil is touching that point on the model upon which your eyes are fastened. Then move your eye slowly along the contour of the model and move the pencil slowly along the paper. As you do this, keep the conviction that the pencil is actually touching the contour. Be guided more by the sense of touch than by sight. THIS MEANS THAT YOU MUST DRAW WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE PAPER, continuously looking at the model.
First, using plants as my models, I was surprised, during the exercise, at the affection I felt for their leaves. Next, I tried the trees outside the window, and then the icicles suspended from the roof.
Being, so far, more of a photographer than a draftsman, I took a snapshot of this wintry scene.
Celebrating a promising event in my life by posting still another painting of South Manitou, freshly retouched. Same format as before.
Gladiators at rest (gladiators au repos) 1928-29, oil on canvas, 157 x 198 cm.
In the late 1920th, Giorgio de Chirico was commissioned to create a series of gladiator paintings for Léonce Rosenberg, an art dealer. One of these pieces ‘gladiators au repos’, designed for Rosenberg’s apartment in Paris, is the last but not least piece of the Guggenheim exhibition ”Chaos and Classicism”. Hang next to a grim painting depicting a military figure on horse, de Chirico’s gladiators at first glance give the impression of pseudo-classical Fascist art. more… »
The only reality portrayed here is the shape of South Manitou island.
