Auguste Rodin

Auguste Rodin, The Thinker, 1880, Bronze

What you need to know about the artist and the artwork:

• born in 1844
• Wants to study art as he is gifted in drawing and has been doing so ever since he can remember, and fails his entrance exam 3 times to get into the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Has an aversion towards the conventional art system ever thereafter.
• Considers joining a religious order in 1862 after the tragic death of his sister, but is convinced by the founder that his true calling is to sculpt.
• In 1872-5 he makes a number of sculptures in a style similar to Michelangelo while studying under a master sculptor.
• Goes to Italy and studies Michelangelo's works in an in depth manner.
• His style is that of REALISM.

What is Realism?

1. An art movement, strongest in Paris in the mid-19th century, where artists portrayed what was really going on around them, and life as it was.
2. With a great divide in class structure, the results of portraying the down and dirty and truisms of society, controversy typically followed art of the realists.
3. Rodin did not want to send a political message, but by portraying everyday subject matter and by creating his subjects very realistically, he managed to cause a stir anyways.
   

The Thinker

• In 1880 receives a commission to design a decorative entrance to the Museum of Decorative Arts. (the museum is never built). This project, worked on alongside with other works, will take Rodin the rest of his life, and he will not finish it.
• He draws inspiration from Ghiberti's The Gates of Paradise, which he has seen on his trip to Florence, Italy.

Ghiberti's The Gates of Paradise

• Dante draws inspiration from Dante's Divine Comedy:
  
• The Divine Comedy is a 14 century work by the poet Dante. It is a series of 3 epic poems that document the writers journey through the 3 spiritual realms according to the Catholic traditon: Heaven (Paradiso), Pergatory (Pergatorio), and Hell (Inferno). Rodin decides to structure his gates after Dante's Inferno.

The Gates of Hell
The Inferno documents Dante's journey through Hell, in which he is led down the 9 circles (each getting worse than the next) with the ancient poet Virgil as his guide.

The Thinker is actually Dante himself overlooking the gruesome chaos that is hell below.

Several of Rodin's most famous sculptures have come from studies for figures for the Gates of Hell including The Thinker and The Kiss.

The Kiss

• It was very typical of Rodin to leave his works unfinished, as can be seen by the works below.

Walking Man

Chen Wen Hsi

Chen Wen Hsi, Herons, 1990, Chinese Ink and colors.

Born in 1908 and died in 1991.

What you need to know about the artist and this work:

• Chinese immigrant to Singapore: decided to move here after visiting Malaysia for a show and being inspired by the tropical scenery.
  
• Was initially influenced by the Post-Impressionist style while studying in University, but later explored the use of Chinese Ink painting.
• Managed to merge concepts from traditional Chinese Ink painting and western painting to form his own unique art style.
• Was one of the big 4 from Singapore who went on the historical Bali trip in 1952.
• Taught at NAFA from 1951-9, and thus was instrumental to developing the Nanyang style. See earlier posts for clarification on WHAT the Nanyang style is.
  
• The use of Cubism is evident when he uses both oil and ink. This influence started AFTER the Bali trip, and too place in the 60s -- the 80s.

What is Cubism?

1. An art movement that debuted in Paris in 1911 (but started in 1901) by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.
2. Cubism makes use of shifting viewpoints, and inspiration can be seen from Cezanné's use of multiple viewpoints in a single artwork.
3. The results of cubism were often flat and highly patterned surfaces, where it can be difficult to tell what each object is.
4. The type of Cubism that Chen Wen Hsi uses is referred to as Analytical cubism, as he has drawn from life, as opposed to Synthetic cubism, where collage techniques are used.
   

• Loved nature: grew up in a small rural town in China among animals, and thus could study them from a close proximity.
  
• When he moved to Singapore, he bought a large variety of animals from chickens to gibbons, many of which appear in his artworks. He literally LIVED among the animals in his paintings.
• Does not see his artwork as a linear progression. This is shown by the fact that he doesn't date his artworks.

Other artworks by Chen Wen Hsi Below: Chickens, Gibbons.































Picasso: Weeping Woman, Girl Before a Mirror

The Treatment of space and structure in 2-D artworks: Claude Monet

Claude Monet, Impression Sunrise, 1872, Oil on Canvas

What you need to know about the artist and the artwork:

Monet was an Impressionist.

• Impressionism was an art movement that originated in France between 1860 and 1900.
• The Impressionists rejected the conventional, academic style of painting popular at the time.
• They were dubbed the Impressionists by an art critic attempting to discredit the artists and their independent show (as in 1874 they set up their own exhibition instead of showcasing their work in a traditional manner at the Salon). This critic used the word "impression" to describe the sketchy, unfinished quality of the works, but it was quickly adapted by the artists themselves.
• The Impressionists explored through their application of paint how it was possible to capture a sensory impression.
• Their loose use of color, distinct brushstrokes, bright palette and disregard for shading sets them apart from their predecessors, as does their choice of nature as subject matter.
• The Impressionists were particularly interested of the effect of lighting on a scene. Monet was known to paint the same subject matter again and again in different lighting.
  
• As the Impressionists were "capturing the moment", they painted outdoors, which was against the convention of the day.

To know about Monet:

• studied drawing in his teens, and at 17 discovered painting in the open-air and found it to be his calling.
• regarded as a master of observation.
• seen as a "leader" among the members of the movement not for his scholarly knowledge but for his ability to be alert to possibilities in seemingly common ideas. He also took his work farther from the norms than the others, from which they then followed.
• In 1890 Monet purchased property in Giverny, France. He created a garden with a lily pond and a Japanese bridge here, and starting in 1906 this became the inspiration for almost all of his paintings.
• Monet had cataracts in both of his eyes, resulting in limited sight. Despite this, he continued to paint with marvelous colors, and his subject matter became less and less distinct.
  

Other artists in the Impressionist's movement:

• Edgar Degas
• Paul Cézanne
• Camille Pissarro
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Alfred Sisley

For more of Monet's works go to: http://giverny.org/monet/welcome.htm
I'd highly recommend taking a browse around the site -- look too at how the Impressionist painters use color :D