Ming Dynasty

During the Ming Dynasty artwork took on the familar subjects of landscapes, flowers, human figures etc. Their style is still all their own. I particularly like the paintings of this time because they are simple and with detail in all the right places. They usually have a story behind them or relate to a belief of the Chinese people. Twin Cranes b Plum Tree In Snow by Bian Jingzhao is an example of the art of the Ming Dynasty. This painting is Ink and color on Silk. One of the cranes is resting while the other is pointed up to the plum blossoms. The artists also left the mountains blank without snowy white caps to make the cranes and the blossoms really stand out.

Non-Western Arts

Wifredo Lam is a Cuban artist well know from is Afro-Cuban Style. Lam had a unique style but had great influence by Picasso. His paintings are excentric and pleasing to the eye. Wifredo Lam’s painting “The Jungle” was started in 1942 and finished in 1944. This painting is known to be his masterpiece. Lam’s style, polymorphism, contrasts different parts of the subject such as humans in this painting. Notice the feet and bums are large where the legs are skinny poles. I like this piece because of the wild colors and the people intermixed in the plants. This is a great, unique style!

Virtual Exhibit-Street Art

Street art became very popular in the 60′s and has grown from there. When most of us think street art we think graffiti and illegal activity but it is much broader than that. Street art allows artist to create work that wouldn’t likely get into a gallery and it reaches a much larger audience. Two artists that made street art famous for something other than graffiti, Julian Beever and Kurt Wenner. Both of these artists, legally, created master pieces art sidewalks all over. Using chalk they created 3 dimensional murals full of great fantasy, imagination and even renaissance work.

Julian Beever is Belgium based but has worked all over the world as a freelance artist. Beever made his start in the mid 1990′s using a technique called Anamorphosis, which makes the drawing look 3D from a certain angle. Beever also paints wall murals with acrylic paint, oil paintings, collages and wood panelled drawings. A few of Julian Beevers drawings:

Some of Beevers drawings were portraits. This one is of Queen Elizabeth 1. This was done on Oxford Street, London in 1999.

This one is more of a scene, the little girl is real but the rest is drawn around her. This appeared in the Daily Mail on December 22, 2008.

This last photo Beever drew a butterfly with a shadow so it lookes like in air. This was done in Mexico City, aired on Episode 9 on the television series Concrete Canvas.

Kurt Wenner is another street artists who uses the medium chalk and sidewalks. American born Wenner first started drawing at 16 and by 17 had a career creating artwork. Wenner worked for NASA painting future space drawings and when he left he moved to Italy to study art further. Unlike Beever, Wenner’s drawings are a bit more classic, old world drawings, angels and demons. Along with the street art, Wenner also does murals, oil paintings and sculptures. A few pieces of his work:

This is The Last King of Singapore in the 14th Century. Located at the National museum of Singapore.

This Drawing was inspired by the game, Gears of War. Done in 2006 this shows monsters from the game coming from a hole in the ground.

This painting, Reflections, the human figures are essential to the piece for they are looking down at themselves.

All of these chalk drawings are done on pavement and are a form of Street Art. So many different subjects and all 3D. I like this form of art because you can watch the artists in action while they are creating. It is amazing how they can take a simple sidewalk and make it come to life!

Ref:

http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_art

http://hubpages.com/hub/AwesomeKurtWenner

Early Modern

I was intrigued by Louis Armstrong and the way he played his trumpet and sang with such passion. Louis Armstrong was an amazing man and helped bring jazz and the vocal technique “Scat” to the music industry. Armstrong came from very little, born in New Orleans where is father left and his mother was in an out of his life. Armstrong was very optimistic, even coming from a hard life, and used music to show his emotion. My favorite song by Louis Armstrong is What a Wonderful World released in 1968. The piano, horns and vocals are soothing and the words of the song are great. This has of course an African-American influence, first being sung by Louis Armstrong and second because of the jazzy rhythm. This was a great time in music history with new genres emerging.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnRqYMTpXHc

References on Louis Armstrong:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_a_Wonderful_World