George Bellows, New York, 1911
The use of colors in this painting is one of the most noticeable elements that can be seen. For instance, the artist used a combination of warn and cool colors, primary and secondary to present the message of his painting (Pollock, 1952). The colors are an ideal in the expression of mass and volume of characters painted from a New York Street in 1911. For instance, the art depicts and distinguishes three-dimensional figures such as the building stones at the center of the painting, the vehicles and others from others. In his thematic approach, the painter must have wanted to depict an image of the transformations that New York had been underdoing at that time. For instance, the skyscrapers that exist in the background, painted using a combination of both vertical and horizontal lines, indicate that New York was an urbanized place. In addition, the business of both traffic and people give an impression of the competitive lifestyle of the people.
American Landscape, Charles Sheeler, 1930
Lines are the most noticeable element of this painting. The artist combines vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines to paint an image of the industrialization activities of the US. The vertical lines give an element of depth in which, it is possible to realize that the chimney of the factory in the background is the highest object while the river beneath it is the lowest (Sheeler, 1930). The colors are mainly cool, and are a combination of secondary and tertiary colors. Perhaps the artists wanted to depict the struggles that the US was facing by then in the wake of the Great Depression, which included among others, the possibility of a collapse of industries. His painting could also be analyzed differently, this time with a consideration of the effects of industrialization that included pollution of the environment. The fact that the river in the foreground passes through a heavily industrialized region could mean that effluents could contaminate the water.
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Alexandre Hogue, Erosion No. 2 – Mother Earth Laid Bare, 1936
Color value is the greatest and most noticeable element of this piece of art. For instance, there are two types of color value, light and middle gray (Hogue, 1936). The bare earth, which portrays a stripped woman lying within a heavily eroded surrounding, is the lightest part of the painting. In addition, the middle and backgrounds of the painting are the regions of near gray color value. Naturally, the earth is not white or as light as the painter depicted, which could be taken to mean the communication of the artists that the ground had become pale because of degradation. The abandoned farmhouse and ox plough indicate that people had once lived there but fled the realities of environmental pollution that they had caused through such activities as deforestation evidenced by the bare and mutilated tree in the right middle ground (Hogue, 1936).
Convergence, 1952 by Jackson Pollock
The painting also uses color as the greatest technique. Specifically, the artist ignores most elements of art such as space, form, and texture, and uses the aspects of line, shape, value, and color to communicate his message (Bellows, 1911). The painting uses spiral lines of colors of different hues and types from primary, to secondary, to mixed colors. The lines used communicate an aspect of shape, that all objects are at the same height, and exist within the same space. The absence of a real object being painted makes the painting difficult to interpret thematically, but the fact that the different colors and lines used blend effectively to give distinct patterns could imply that the painter wanted to advocate the need for togetherness in the nation. The message of the painting, therefore, could have been, ‘we are beautiful in our diversities’
References
Hogue, A. (1936). Erosion No. 2 – Mother Earth Laid Bare. Retrieved July 9, 2017 from https://philbrook.org/explore/art/erosion-no-2-%E2%80%93-mother-earth-laid-bare-0
Bellows, G. (1911). New York . New York . Retrieved 9 July 2017, from https://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/art-object-page.69392.html
Sheeler, C. (1930). American Landscape. Retrieved 9 July 2017, from https://www.wikiart.org/en/charles-sheeler/american-landscape-1930
Pollock, J. (1952). Convergence. Retrieved July 9, 2017 from https://www.jackson-pollock.org/convergence.jsp
