Christina's World,1948

This painting was done by American Andrew Wyeth. Wyeth was a regonal painter who focused on everyday scenes of life in Maine and Pennsylvania. Christina's World is one of his more famous paintings. Every time I look at this painting I find myself wondering why this woman is alone. She is turning back to the house so wistfully and desperately, i can't help but think something horrible has happened. She looks desperate to get back to the house, but there is this huge expanse of grass in front of her, seemingly swallowing her up. The subdued and uniform green of the grass creates a flat plane which appears to block the woman from her goal. The house is also turned away from her as if refusing any guidance. The horizon line is pushed up near the top of the painting. All these elements further enhance her isolation. I think what is special about Wyeth is his unique realistic style. His style is labor intensive, every stroke of grass, every strand of hair is painted. I think it creates a air of mystery within his works. It also makes a work like a the one above which feels empty, to be much more interesting.

Luc Tuymans, Maypole 2000

I just saw Luc Tuymans' show at the Wexner Center on the Ohio State university campus. I'm still trying to figure what he is about. There is something about the way he paints that seems so candid. Each painting seems like a faded photograph from a newspaper. In person his paintings seem dry and faded, as if he scraped away the top layer. This combined with the bold brush strokes and blurred edges creates the feel of a faded memory. The memory can be lucid, but the details are not quite clear. The Maypole seems a very vague painting. The colors are dulled and muted. What exactly is going on? There seems to be nothing to define this moment concretely. It is actually an image of Nazi Youth. The evil associated with the movement is stripped away and buried. A scene which would normally repulse me confronts me in a purely instinctual way, without the context of history.

NightHawks, Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper is without a doubt one of the most significant American artists of the 20th century. Hopper's works are best known for their apparent silence and simplification, but Hopper used these tools to enhance the symbolic meanings in his paintings. NightHawks is one of Hopper's iconic works. The cafe in Nighthawks is a refuge for the people within, against the all-consuming darkness of the night. The night was for a Hopper, a prelude to death. The night would inexorable swallow the patrons of the cafe, were it not for the light they find safety in. The three customers are backed by the black facade of buildings across the street, further emphasizing their lighted reprieve from the night, and unconsciously, death. NightHawks speaks to the need in all of us for a well-lighted, clean refuge from the fears and uncertainties of the night.

Jackson, Pollock. Convergence, 1952

Jackson Pollock's pieces have to be considered some of the most iconic works of American art in the 20th century. In a relatively short career Pollock created a style devoid of linear form but full of emotion. Growing up in the American West, Pollock was influenced by Mexican muralists and their intense use of paint. Pollock was also influenced by the human mind and the idea of "automatic painting" as a way to express the subconscious. He perfected the "drip" technique , by which he would place the canvas on the floor and in an artistic frenzy would pour, drip and splash paint onto the canvas. I view his works as pure expression, with out any distinct meaning. They are an expression of the subconscious, and affect the viewer on a deeper more emotional level. When I look at his works I feel a myriad of emotions from tension to anger to elation. Pollock's paintings affect the viewer through emotion rather than meaning.

Claude Monet, Nympheas 1907

Monet was one of the founding members of impressionism, and probably its most well known member. With the other members of the movement he helped formulate the basis of the movement. The key principle of impressionism is to paint by looking at color instead of line or form. The color defines the form. Monet would look at spots of color and paint each spot. The overall form of the object is of secondary importance. In the case of Nympheas above, this creates creates soft outlines which give the painting a dreamlike quality. Light is also very important in Monet's work. Monet's unique contribution to impressionism is his "series" work, in which he would paint the same subject at different times of day to capture the changing light. In all of Monet's work his real goal was to capture light and color in a way which broke a scene down into its visual essence.

One More thing....

I'm going to try to post an even distribution of artists from all time periods and eras, including contemporary artists.

Hey everyone,
My name is Ryan and I'm an Art Student at the Ohio State University. I created this blog to give anyone interested in the visual arts a short guide to visual Artists that I feel everyone should know a little about regardless if your an artist or not. I ,myself, find many informational resources on artists to be rather confusing for the person who just wants to know the key information about a certain artist and his/her works. I will do my best to tell you ,the reader, the need to know information on a particular artist and I'll spotlight their important works. I hope this helps somebody. Stay tuned.