Critic is essential to the interpretation and the development of art. The process of critic entails a careful consideration of elements and principles of art. There is also the consideration of the period and the movement affiliated with the artwork. Moreover, critics may be concerned with the meaning behind the artwork, as it may relate to the mentioned features, along with the history of the artist and the period in which they exist. Thus, a critique of the presented artworks reveals essential points about their creation and meaning as discussed below.
The first artwork is a painting of a woman standing in front of a table with wine bottles and fruits before her-she rests her hands on the table. There appears to be a multitude of people behind her with light bulbs flickering all over. Color is the main element employed in the artwork, with the artist choosing a calm blue palette for most of the painting. For instance, the lady wears a dark blue and light blue attire with minimal whites here and there. Majority of the background is also painted in blue, setting the light pink tone of the people’s skins apart. Further slight contrast is also used in the colors of the wine bottles, tables, and fruits. Another element considerably used in the artwork is that of texture. The artist uses carefully chosen strokes to bring out the varied visual textures such as the haphazard small brush strokes at the front of the lady’s dress. The principle of dominance allows the focus to be on the lady through the minimization of dominant characters. Notably, she is the only one viewers can see clearly, with the rest of the characters carefully hidden in the background- a factor of perspective. There appears to be a mirror behind her, reflecting the images of the people who one can initially think are behind her. Carefully scrutiny, thus, reveals the possibility of the lady standing in front of a counter serving a man with a mustache; a large crowd in front of her, all reflected in the mirror behind her.
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The artwork more likely appears during the realism movement. Notably, the artist tries as much as possible to capture the features of the objects presented, such as the table, wine bottles, fruits and the persona without distortion of form or color. The artwork, moreover, focuses on portraying the everyday lives and experiences of people in the period. In this case, the lady appears immaculately dressed- a feature of the romanticism style that majorly focused on the royals. There is, however, the forlorn look on her face (with the artist having given her an intense stare towards the man in front of her yet away from the viewer) creating a rather serious mood from the joyous expectation of a social gathering. Thus, the artwork could be a shift from romanticism towards realism, attempting to capture features as accurately as possible, while illustrating the social life of the community.
The next painting is definitely from the romanticism period. It focuses on the emotions and moods of the artwork other than the basic presentation of form as it is. The focus on emotions is evident through the artist’s attempt to portray feeling in each of the subject’s faces. For instance, the young lady is annoyed and depressed, while the old woman watches with keen interest and additional anger. The use of light or chiaroscuro effect to illuminate their faces adds to this dramatic appeal, as does the imaginary and intense theme of the painting. Moreover, unlike in the painting above, minimal colors are used, and brush strokes are carefully blended to avoid the distractions that would arise from focusing on the colors and textures other than the mood of the painting. Although romanticism art has often wrongly been associated with romantic themes, it is not often the case. However, in this particular painting, one may assume that the lady and the man are in a romantic disagreement of sorts- it is, however, unclear as to why the lady kills the man. What is clear, nonetheless, is that she and the old woman are in it together judging by their stares and pose. They are also annoyed with the man based on the looks on their faces. The artwork is additionally interesting due to the concept of rhythm and movement as well as balance. Asymmetrically balanced, there is also the careful repetition of drapery in the work, along with hands and arms, all creating a unique motion in the painting.
The next artwork is from the Baroque period. The sculpture is Christian inspired evidenced by the common theme of a woman holding the body of Jesus. Moreover, the artwork is positioned on the raised ground just above a cross, further symbolizing affiliation with Christianity. This artwork would represent the time in the Bible after the crucifixion of Jesus- an essential time in the life of Christians. Notably, catholic inspired Baroque art features prominently in this time, portraying Catholicism through either direct bible stories or related myths (Charles & Carl, 2014). They were also large-scale works (Charles & Carl, 2014). Other features of Baroque sculpture evident in this piece of art is that it can be viewed from all sides. This type of sculpture is referred to as a sculpture in the round. Placed strategically in a raised place, one can note that there is space around it, where a viewer may still be able to get the behind view of the woman holding Jesus by moving around and towards her back. Thus, there is also the central positioning of the artwork, instead of against the wall as is the case in relief sculptures. There is also a dynamic motion of the image contributed to by the intricate details of the drapery that appear to be circling upwards. In this case, there is an essential use of texture as well as rhythm and movement.
Photography is continuously being embraced in contemporary art, as evidenced in the next artwork. As art, photography aims at communicating daily occurrences as well as emotions of people. Notably, there is the timelessness aspect associated with photography in that in certain cases; it is possible to capture the real emotions of individuals in the field-without faking. This appears to be the case in the featured photograph. The artist zooms in on the subject to capture a woman with her hands to her chin, depressed and in deep thought. The use of black and white in the photograph enables the focus to be on the emotions the lady has other than her surroundings. With the children holding on to her and their faces turned back, dominance is on the lady. One can further denote the theme of despair or poverty.
Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque greatly influence cubism as a style in the 20 th century as evidenced in the next artwork. Shape is a dominant element in this work with the human form broken down into basic structures. There is also the use of line as an element, with visible line strokes used to highlight the figures. Due to the simplistic nature of the approach, lines are also used to draw the eyes, nose and mouth features-further giving emotion to the painting. Color is used minimally in the artwork, with only light shades of pink and white. Symmetrically balanced, the work creates interest due to the repetition of forms.
Further characteristics of cubism evident in the artwork are ‘multiple angles, geometric blocks of color and focus on the two-dimensional reconstruction of three-dimensional forms’ (Cottington, 2007). In this particular case, the distorted forms are of five naked women and fruits. The women pose suggestively most having their hands over their heads as one appears to be squatting beneath. The artist could be trying to communicate the theme of women and relationships, or simply be celebrating the beauty of women. Notably, nude women are a common subject in Picasso’s cubism collection (Cottington, 2007).
Finally, there is the still life composition. Objects are painted from a live setting inspiration evidenced by the careful arrangement of select still life objects. The artist tries to capture as much of the realness of the objects as possible while injecting their own emotional and artistic appeal into the work. For instance, the apples are identifiable by the careful selection of red and yellow colors which are neatly blended to define the forms, and loose red strokes left to show textural qualities along with white highlights for light effect. However, a dramatic aspect is brought in by the intentional use of loose brush strokes in the piece of cloth in front that makes the work appear spontaneous other than detailed and worked on for a long time. The use of white to dull the intensity of the used colors is also evident. Notably, with the light blue used in the background with significant amounts of white, the approach makes the piece timeless for its unity and harmony. Further spontaneous results are also evident with the slight distortion of forms such as the wine bottle lacking an accurate symmetry. The painter, nonetheless, still manages to symmetrically balance the whole artwork, creating a feeling of unity and harmony.
References
Charles, V., & Carl, K. (2014). Baroque Art: Art of Century . Confidential Concepts.
Cottington, D. (2007). Cubism . Tate Pub.
