Solved by a verified expert:Essay on
Richter, Peyton, Murakami, Hirst: First Draft DUE 12th (Tuesday class13th) November: It should be
about 450-500 words long. Final Draft DUE November 19th (or 20th Tuesday class) The first
draft will need to be shown to me and it is mandatory for you to visit me in
office hours to discuss your essay in person with a copy of the first draft in
hand. Office is JSCE 2030. Time: 11-12 Monday Wednesday or 1 -4 Tuesday. Office
meeting will be mandatory between 12th and 14th November.
Here
are some tips for the first draft and essay:
Please
try to include the following elements.
1.
An introductory paragraph. 200 words
2. A paragraph describing one or two images. 200-300 words.
Total
450-500 words.
Details
for introductory paragraph:
1. The introductory paragraph should include a quotation by the
artist or about the artist.
2. The introduction should introduce the broad topics and themes
your essay is going to address. Do not include themes and topics you are going
to abandon or ignore later on. ( find about five quotes from/about the artist
that strike you as informative, witty or relevant to your own observations and
include them in a list at the end of the
Gerhard Richter
Linda Szabo
Art Appreciation 1050
Instructor: Daniel McGrath
October 9, 2011
Szabo 1
Gerhard Richter
“…one would
have to admit at the same time that a picture by Richter is always
identifiable, whether it is a gray monochrome or a colored landscape or an
abstraction.”1
“He is praised for being exceptionally “changeable,” but his veerings between
abstraction and representation have a predictable rhythm.”2 Everything in Gerhard Richter’s work
coheres closely and information or intended interpretation is pared down to
only the essential.
Richter’s
intellect and artistic capability clearly projects sophistication and
innovation, yet there are certain distinctions in his lifelike-to-blurred
paintings, multi-layered squeegee drug paintings, and color charts that viewers
tend to easily identify as Richter’s. His genres have a wide variance, but they
can all be classified with Richter’s style of emotional removal.
Gerhard Richter, an East German born artist is known for
turning photographic pictures into beautiful oil paintings that sometimes leave
the observer to wonder: Is that a painting or a photograph? One of Richter’s
most famous paintings, Uncle Rudi (1965) captures one of his two
maternal uncles, in a classic and clearly observable example of Richter’s photo
to blurring painting technique. To create the illusion of a blurred photograph,
Richter manipulates the surface of a painting before it dries. He smears the
paint in horizontal strokes to give it this effect. According to Richter, “I
blur things to make everything equally important and equally unimportant. I
blur things so that they do not look artistic or craftsmanlike but
technological, smooth and perfect. I blur things to make all the parts a closer
fit. Perhaps I also blur out the excess of unimportant information.”3
1Petra
Kipphoff, “Der Maler am Ende seines Mythos” [The painter at the end of his
myth], Die Zeit, December 17, 1993, 51, quoted in Dietmar Elger, Gerhard
Richter: A Life In Painting, (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago
Press, 2009), 167.
2Jerry
Saltz, “Scaling Richter,” The Village Art Voice, February 26, 2002.
http://www.villagevoice.come/2002-02-26/art/scaling-richter/
3Gerhard
Richter, “notes, 1964-1965,” in DPP, 37, quoted in Dietmar Elger, Gerhard
Richter: A Life In Painting, (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago
Press, 2009), 86.
Figure
2
Betty
1988, 102 cm x 72 cm Oil on canvas, Catalogue Raisonné: 663-5
Figure
1
Uncle
Rudi, Onkel Rudi 1965, 87 cm x 50 cm Oil on canvas, Catalogue
Raisonné:
85
Szabo 2
Richter’s Uncle Rudi was killed in the first days after
he went to war. Maternally tied to his uncle, Richter identifies with him by modifying
his photograph into a painting. He is depicted as a young enthusiastic German
soldier in uniform proudly serving his country. The heavy horizontal blurring
technique added to this painting suggests this was Richter’s attempt to take
out the emotion and lessen the trauma caused by the loss of his uncle in war.
In a less personal but potentially culturist view, the picture expresses the
horror of war and German attempts to conceal a Nazi history.
In Betty (1988),
Richter paints his daughter from a photograph taken in the 1970s. By the time
of this painting Betty is about 21 years old, yet he paints her from a
photograph when she was a very young girl. Her body tilts towards the viewer
but she is facing backwards creating a psychological line cast behind her.
Instead of blurring, Richter completes the background with a uniform negative
space leaving nothing but Betty and a small corner of the base she is sitting
on.
The painting is simple as are the
interpretations that can be taken from
this
photo. As the young girl grows into maturity, maybe she is looking behind her
to see what she is leaving behind.
In an interview with Babette Richter in 2002, Gerhard
Richter says this painting is “an idealization since it’s in essence a longing
for culture, for the beauty in art which we no longer have which is why she
turns away.”4 Since Richter keeps the
painting simple one can enjoy the colorful, bright detail and take away any
personal thoughts construed.
4Babette Richter. Gerhard
Richter interview by Babette Richter, Writings, Interviews and Letters
1961-2007 (London: Thames &Hudson, 2009), 442-443.
Figure
3
Reader,
Lesende, 1994 72 cm x 102 cm
Oil
on canvas, Catalogue Raisonné: 804
Szabo 3
Reader (1994)is
an alluring display of how Richtercontinues to remove the emotion with
a background blurring technique. In this striking painting of his third wife
Sabine, Richter captures a very focused woman reading a paper with light
chiaroscuro detailed on her hair, ear, neck, hands, and paper. Chiaroscuro
shadows are dramatically cast on her neck and face. The background, paper, and
Sabine’s hands
are
slightly diffused removing any focus off of those objects and placing them
firmly onto Sabine’s intense reading of an article, oblivious to the world
around her. The simple message depicts beauty as the concentration is clearly
on the woman. The picture is warm and the slight out of focus gives it a
romantic feel at the same time erasing emotion.
Moving on to more abstract paintings, Richter’s January,
December, November, (1989) were all painted around the time the Berlin wall
came down. The squeegee smeared series of three multi-layered paintings seen
below are displayed in the order painted. January, December,
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
November, 1989
January,
Januar, 1989
December, Dezember,
1989
320 cm x 400 cm
320
cm x 400 cm
320 cm x 400 cm
Oil on canvas,
Catalogue
Oil
on canvas, Catalogue
Oil on canvas, Catalogue
Raisonné: 701
Raisonné: 699
Raisonné: 700
and
November,each
consists of two canvases placed so close together that they give theappearance
of one large painting. All three paintings are primarily black and white
painted on top of layers and layers of contrasting colors of the color wheel.
Strong violets, blues, reds,
Szabo 4
oranges, yellows and greens
sporadically pop out at abstract points in these paintings when the squeegee
was dragged across them. The white and black colors were used last so the vivid
colors underneath only come out occasionally throughout the series. This color
combination clearly depicts the somber moods of those cold dreary months in
Germany.
Januaryis painted or pulled
down in a vertical direction and contains more white than theother two
months giving it the feeling of a brighter happier month. This painting also
reveals more of the vibrant colors placed underneath the series of paintings
maybe giving a hint that spring is not far away.
December
combines both
horizontal and vertical drags with a few areas containing acrisscross
pattern. The left side of the first canvas starts with horizon drags but
changes to vertical pulls before the middle of the first canvas. The second canvas
in December continues the vertical movement and then returns to the
horizontal drags just before the center of the second canvas. This first third
of the entire canvas is fairly clear while the last quarter of the canvas is
clearly painted with a blurring technique combining vertical and horizontal
streaks. The entire painting of December is conflicted and complicated.
The November canvases
have layered paint that is spread in a horizontal motion with very few colors
peaking through. The colors that can be seen are primarily reds, oranges, and
yellows. These colors generally give the feeling of warmth and these particular
colors are associated with fall so one could imagine that fall is giving way to
the darkness and cold that is closing in. This painting contains more blurring
than the other two and it integrates several violent gouges digging deep into
previous layers of paint.
Since the
paintings were hung in reverse it gives the appearance of going back in time.
The current month is the most transparent and bright, while the distant months
turn dark and dreary. The paintings also work like you mind, with the most
recent being fresh and clear while
256
Colours, 256 Farben 1974
222
cm x 414 cm
Oil
on canvas, Catalogue
Figure
8
Figure
7
1024
Colours, 1024 Farben 1974
200
cm x 200 cm
Oil
on canvas, Catalogue Raisonné: 358-1
Szabo 5
the most distant is
foggy or hazy. The trio can take over a room, but the emotion taken out of the
paintings allow you
to see them as the conceptual paintings they are.
Around the year 1966 and inspired by nothing more than
racks of colors seen in a paint store, Richter began painting color charts. The
charts had no message and no agenda. They were intended to be colorful and
inspirational.5 While amazingly beautiful,
these paintings do not contain even the tiniest amount of expressiveness. They
are nothing less than an explosion of arbitrary color schemes.
In 1024 Colours (1974), Richter used 1024
different colors. In order to produce so many different colors, he had to use
different shades of the same color. Though no meaning is intended, this color
chart is certainly attention-grabbing and mesmerizing.
In 256 Colours, Richter continues with his
arbitrary color scheme. This one is different from 1024 Coloursas
the colors are actually separated with a whiteboarder around each
color. This boarder is “optically destabilized where the lines intersect,
resulting in a black retinal pop (much like staring at a red spot and then
seeing
green
when your eyes move to an empty space).”6
These paintings distribute uneven color across a broad scheme. They provide no
message or meaning, only beautiful visions of color.
The South Transept window of
Cologne’s Gothic Cathedral has got to be one of Richter’s most seen pieces of
art. He was originally asked by the cathedral architect Barbara Schock-
5Dietmar
Elger, Gerhard Richter: A Life In Painting, (Chicago and London: The
University of Chicago Press, 2009), 86.
6Robert
Storr, Gerhard Richter; Doubt and Belief in Painting,(New York: Museum
of Modern Art, 2003), 89.
Cologne
Cathedral Window, Kölner Domfenster, 1974 2300 x 900 cm Mouth-blown, genuine
antique glass
Catalogue
Raisonné: 900
Figure
9
Szabo 6
Werner to create something with a
figurative motif. This seemed to be one of Richter’s most difficult requests
and it is noted that he almost gave up the tasking until he accidently placed a
frame on one of his color charts and came up with the idea to create the window
with a similar approach. According to Richter, “I got a real shock, because it
looked so good, it was the only honest possibility.”7
For the cathedral’s enormous window, Richter used a
computer to randomly arrange 72 distinct colors in roughly 11,500 squares. The
exquisite kaleidoscope window pattern effectively removes any message or
meaning, no doubt hard to swallow for some of the religiously divine. The
outcome was a burst of color that changes with the light that shines upon it.
According to Monsignor Josef
Sauerborn,
“in its overwhelming abundance of color…it is a symphony of light.”8
Richter’s
has an amazing ability to show many different styles of art to include blurred
picture art, abstract multi-layered squeegee paintings, and detailed color
charts. Regardless of what he accomplishes he has the intellect understanding
to remove insignificant details, so only necessary information is left behind.
This remarkable technique has been captured in so much of his artwork that when
you see one of his works you almost instantly know it is his. The removal of
his own interpreted emotion allows those who view his work to see it for what
it is with very little preconceived notions provided by the artist.
7Peter
Kipphoff., “Coincidence and Illumination,” Signandsight.com, September
19, 2007, http://www.signandsight.com/features/1547.html
8Spiegel
Online International, “Gerhard Richter’s Symphony of Light”, August 27, 2007,
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,502271,00.html
Szabo 7
Bibliography
Elger, Dietmar, Gerhard Richter: A Life In Painting,
Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Kipphoff, Peter.
“Coincidence and Illumination,” Signandsight.com, September 9, 2007.
http://wwww.signandsight.com/features/1547.htm.
Kipphoff, Petra. “Der Maler am Ende seines Mythos”
[The painter at the end of his myth], Die Zeit, December 17, 1993, 51,
quoted in Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter: A Life In Painting,
(Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2009), 167.
Richter, Babette. “Gerhard Richter, interview by Babette
Richter, Writings, Interviews and Letters 1961-2007London:
Thames &Hudson, 2009.
Richter,
Gerhard, “notes, 1964-1965,” in DPP, 37, quoted in Dietmar Elger, Gerhard
Richter: A Life In Painting, Chicago and London: The University of
Chicago Press, 2009.
Saltz, Jerry. “Scaling Richter,” The Village Art Voice,
February 26, 002. http://www. villagevoice.com/2002-02-26/art/scaling-richter/
Spiegel Online
International,
“Gerhard Richter’s Symphony of Light”, August 27, 2007,
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,502271,00.html
Storr, Robert. Gerhard Richter; Doubt and Belief in
Painting. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2003.
Compare
and Contrast 150 words
1. A
chart that list possible topics to discuss similarities/differences LINE,
SHAPE, SPACE, TEXTURE, TECHNIQUE, Abstract/figurative, realism/illusionism,
COLOR: Warm/cool, complimentary/analagous/arbitrary color schemes.
Make a simple diagram
of points of interest you find in each image. Vanishing points, horizon lines
etc…
2.Prepare
150 word answers for each question by looking at similarities and differences
that either work demonstrate. (Answers should be written in full
sentences/prose.) Do not waste time with biographical info, go straight into
image analysis and try to craft a thesis if you can.
Suggestions: Choose select topics from those you chart
out and introduce them within the first 50 words each essay. Then go on to
explain their use in each work in the next 50 words. Use the final 50 worlds to
suggest reasons why the artist is using these techniques. What might the artist
be attempting to communicate? You will not be able to address every topic in
150 words so you can write more (please do so if you wish!) however if you
limit yourself to 150 words you must choose the most important topics and
develop them carefully.
Gustave Caillebotte
Georges Seurat, A
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande
Paris Street; Rainy
Day, 1877
Jatte 1884-1886
Gustave
Caillebotte’s Rainy Day and Georges Seurat’s La Grande Jatte have
many artistic similarities mixed in with their dramatic contrasts. The
similarities include their compositional devices like diagonal balance, the use
of scale and texture gradient to suggest 3D space, repetition of visual motif’s
like the prominent umbrellas to unify the composition. Their contrasting
features include colors schemes: one is bright and saturated with intense hues
the other subdued utilizing more subtly crafted tints and shades. Lines are
actual in Rainy Day, and only implied in Grande Jatte. This is largely dictated
by the diverging techniques of smoothly transitioning chiaroscuro and
Pointillism. In Rainy Day outlines are stark and clear, outlines in Grande
Jatte are the more hazy lines are suggested by high densities and accumulations
of dots and stippled marks. Caillebotte’s system of multipoint linear
perspective creates a very illusionistic scene versus a much flatter and
abstract work by Seurat.
Compositional
diagonal balance can be seen in Rainy Day with the couple walking down
the sidewalk in the lower right of the painting in their dark colors, Seurat
employs the same composition with the prominent couple in a similar position.
Indeed Seurat was aware of Caillebotte’s painting and possibly borrowed the
idea. In the upper left taking up a similar amount of space is a large building
with a light complimentary color. In La Grande Jatte, the dark blue
dress of the woman in the lower right has an analogous relationship with the
diagonal balance of the lighter blue lake in the upper left. Both pictures show
scale with the size of the people getting smaller giving the illusion of depth.
Repetition and unity can be seen in both paintings with the umbrellas in Rainy
Day and the parasols in La Grande Jatte. To some degree this motif
unifies the activity and atmosphere each artist is trying to create. The
texture gradient can be clearly seen in the faces, cobble stones, and buildings
in Rainy Day which turns into a smoother surface on the cobblestones
that is almost like a reflective pool. While not as obviously visible in La
Grande Jatte, the texture gradient can be seen on the faces of the people
in the painting. The faces up close include many colors and shades while the
faces of those farther away have less saturated or light and dark contrasts.
The
contrasting colors include the dark colder grays and blacks used in Rainy
Day, while La Grande Jatte is loaded with bright warm, oranges,
reds, yellows and greens. The lines used in Rainy Day are actual analytical
lines, but those used in La Grande Jatte are implied by using stippling.
Seurat’s painting technique is cartoonish where Caillebotte’s technique is
based on realism almost photographic looking. Caillebotte creates three
vanishing points in his painting and in contrast Seurat’s is not visible.
Jan Vermeer
Woman Holding a
Balance, 1664
Henri Matisse’s The Red Room and Jan
Vermeer’s Woman Holding a Balance are comparable in that they both have
complimentary color schemes, a diagonal balance, psychological lines, and both
project harmony. In contrast their pallets are either hot or cold, one
maintains depth while the other does not, and one has a linear perspective.
The complimentary color scheme in The Red Room is
displayed in a clear use of the red and blue on the walls and table. In
Vermeer’s painting it can be seen in the woman’s blue jacket and the yellow and
orange color projected in her skirt and the window curtain. The diagonal
balance is between both women in the bottom right and the pictures on the upper
left. The psychological lines in both paintings direct the viewer to the fruit
bowl in Matisse’s painting and the balance in Vermeer’s. The calmness in the
features both women project harmony throughout the scenes.
In
contrast The Red Room has a very hot color pallet with bright reds while
Woman Holding a Balance uses a cold pallet of darker blues and earth
tones. The Red Room has no depth. It is a flat two dimensional scene
playing with the perception of space. In complete contrast Vermeer’s painting
is three dimensional and lifelike. Matisse paints without linear perspective
while Vermeer has one point linear perspective identified on the picture.
rough draft)
3. Then you finish the paragraph with a clever thesis sentence:
The intro should conclude with a carefully crafted thesis of
approx 25 words. It is a useful experiment to try to sum up the point of your
essay, or the general argument you are trying to make by asking your self:
“How
can I sum up the artist in 25 or less?”
Often the answer is your authentic gut
reaction to the work and it can be used as a guiding principle for the rest of
the paper. This sentence of about 25 words can also serve as a hypothetical way
to convince a friend to go see the exhibition of the artist in question. So you
can ask your self when crafting the thesis sentence, “How can I quickly
convince the reader to keep reading?” or “How can I get my friend to
go see this show with me?” Often, what you come up with in answering the
question is compelling enough to serve as a thesis sentence. This can work well
in any persuasive writing you do for other subjects.
Details
for paragraph:
1. Start with a a topic sentence that refers back to one of the
topics you introduce in the introduction. Craft this carefully. Make it catchy.
2. Then begin to describe one or more of the artist’s works, or
related work by other artists or sources material exploited
by artist.
Give the title and date of the pictures immediately if you can. Italicize the
title and give date in parenthesis. e.g.
Painting(2001).
Then discuss pertinent details about
the images. color and/or line, texture, design. Refer to philosophical,
religious, economic or political content if needed. Try to relate these things
to the topic if possible.
Sometimes only a few formal elements need to be written about.
Some may be irrelevant. Generally at least one description of possible content
is enough. Color or line might be equal or they may be dominant. Sometimes
texture may dominate. That depends on the individual work.
3. Include a quote about the artist if possible. You should have a
collection of quotes ready for this through ordinary research. The quote can
either describe the work or be related to the topic.
4. The paragraph should be about 200 words long. Feel free to use a
single paragraph to compare 2 works. This could be 2 works by same artist or 2
artists or work and original source material used by artist. This often leads
to a more insightful and lively paragraph. It allows you to argue your own
point and identify special things about each work. Did the artist change a
detail here or there? Is the theme a repeated obsession for the artist? etc.
More images constitute more evidence for your arguments. Include an image of
every image you write about.
For
the FINAL essay just repeat this paragraph structure
until you hit about 1,400- 1,500 words.
Normally you will need to leave about 200 words for a conclusion.
Sources: quote or cite at least one Art
Magazine: Artforum, Art In America, Freize, Flash Art. Quote or cite at least
one Newspaper from the following list: The Guardian, New York Times, The London
Times, The London Telegraph. Look at Youtube and other unusual sources for
accounts of the artists.
www.guardian.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk
online sources for newspaper articles are good just remember to
use full URL.
Use Wikipedia for initial research but
do not under any circumstances quote directly from wiki. Follow their citations
to original articles in the reference section.
I am flexible with formats but imitating the Essay I provided is
the safest bet…
DO NOT forget to add a works cited page or a bibliography.
Additionally if you do mention a WORK provide an image.
Contact the studio of Artist for
details or questions. All these artists are alive.
I hope this helps as a guide. Email me back if you have
questions.
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