Shawn's Art Blog

  After last week's debacle with modern art, we have transitioned to a period that has some super cool stuff. One of my favorite movements in fiction is the creation of the fantasy genre and in particular the sword and sorcery genre. If there is one artist who is still making an impact on the fantasy and science fiction genre today it is Frank Frazetta. Frank Frazetta did this album cover for the band Molly Hatchet in 1973, and it is called Death Dealer . I don't listen to them, I heard its music, but I appreciate the album art. Frazetta's work pulls forward the style of Baroque artists, using mythological themes, over-the-top representations, and formidable visuals. His art style is largely responsible for the style of art that is in the fantasy genre today. Frazetta started to pick up traction in the 1960’s and 1970’s and his style is the classic retro fantasy style. Death Dealer is one of my favorite pieces. I like how the ground is impressionistic, with very wavy brush

This is going to be a tough blog post for me because there is almost nothing in this era where I enjoy the aesthetic. It is all awful. The point of contention is really just about degree. Early Modern is where art dies for me. So I will present three works that someone enjoys. They might appreciate something about the piece. It definitely won't be me.  What I dislike about this era for me is the deconstructionist tone that art takes. Where suddenly early moderns both philosophically or artistically want to break down tradition and institutions for the sake of establishing something new. It's fueled by Marxism in some cases, the core of critical theory, which does actually prescribe breaking down of institutions for the betterment of the world. Art has become this political tool, not a new thing, but that tooling has a more recognizable construction with more relevant political implications today.  Additionally, after WWI the world seems to be in something of shock, and there is

The Raft of the Medusa Théodore Géricault   The Romantic era is a throwback to the Baroque era stylistically. It tends to look at mystical, legendary, or fantastic situations and bring them to life. One such case is the shipwreck of the Medusa, which was a French vessel that ran aground. The crew was isolated for a long time and apparently turned to cannibalism and attempted to escape the island using a raft created from the detritus of the ship. It’s a far-out fantastical story that might be out of a book or a play. It’s the perfect subject for a politically motivated reimagining by  Théodore Géricault .  There is some thought that the reason the ship ran aground was due to some incompetence of the captain of the ship. However from the painting what isn’t communicated is that the captain was incompetent or that the crew had to turn to cannibalism. Instead, there is something like a Homeric epic struggle that is portrayed by the figures struggling and grasping for life. Trying to conqu

Overview Unfortunately for me, the neoclassical art period features oil paintings with a color scheme that I find incredibly bothersome. As such I don’t appreciate the art, for the technique used. Rather than focus on the pivot from tenebrism and chiaroscuro to pastel colors it might be more productive to look at what this era did that invokes awe.  There are three principal art pieces from France, Poland, and America/Italy. The general overview is that these pieces are resurrecting the art style that was prevalent in Greek or Roman statues, very similar to the ad fontes perspective of the Reformation and Renaissance. All of these are excellent attempts at trying to create the same aesthetic as sculptures like “The Dying Gaul” or the frescos from the Parthenon. Some of the art is colliding with some of the newer Western philosophies. This creates pieces of art that mimic the epic marble sculptures of the golden age of Greece combined with things like feminism.  The others are trying to

  My favorite baroque pieces that I have had the opportunity to study have always been ones that feature tenebrism at their center. The darkness and stark contrast of light and shadow have ways of pulling the eyes from one piece of the canvas to the other. A good example of this is  Rembrandt 's “Simeon’s Song of Praise.” What I have always enjoyed about Rembrandt as an artist is how much he can use darkness and contrast to communicate ideas, without the highly prevalent darkness in the paintings being oppressive.  My eyes are initially pulled at the lower left following the columns and arches to a large black shape. I can’t really decide if that’s a tapestry or something else. It’s hard to make out but my first impression is that it is some sort of tapestry. I am then pulled down following the crowd of people into the bright light where I believe Simeon is presiding over the Messiah as a child.  There are a couple of things I think are interesting. The first is Rembrandt was a Pr

  It was difficult for me to find just a single piece of Zdzisław Beksiński's art to talk about. I have a handful of favorite artists: Rembrandt, H.R. Giger, M.C. Escher, and Zdzisław Beksiński certainly makes the list. This is work is untitled, oil on canvas, with the exact timing on when he made it being also unknown. Zdzisław Beksiński is a dystopian surrealist who was born in Poland in the 1929. He died in 2005. He was a young boy during World War II, and when the Soviets took over Poland he was present for the duration of the U.S.S.R. and his country was part of the Warsaw Pact (Banach). This particular piece is probably from his "fantastic period" Which happened between 1960-1980 roughly speaking (Banach). That twenty years of time is when he produced pieces like this and it has some of the strongest works in his portfolio. He insists his works were abstract and have no meaning whatsoever.    The reason I don’t believe that is in Poland in the time when he was at hi