Human form and portraiture- Artist research

I have chosen to look al the work of Niki de Saint Phalle (born Catherine-Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle 29 October 1930 – 21 May 2002) who was a French sculptor, painter, and film maker. I came across her work and i really love her expressive colours and the way she has portrayed the human form in these plump figures. Beautiful, flamboyant, daring, provocative and fiercely independent, she emerged in the 1960s as a powerful and original figure in the highly masculine international arts world. Niki presented her "rifle-shot" paintings for the first time: Niki de Saint Phalle used a gun to shoot paint balls at a canvas primed to a pastose texture using a surfacing mixture. Upon impact the paint balls burst and colored the relief. The aggressive act of shooting helped her to come to terms with the troubled relationship she had with her father. It was however her Nanas, the first of which emerged in 1964, that made Niki de Saint Phalle famous.  The buxom, colorful female figures, first made of wool, yarn, paper-maché and wire scaffoldings and later made of polyester, are to be understood as happy, freed women and harbingers of a new matriarchic age. Nanas can for example be found at the banks of the river Leine in Hanover, where the artist had one of her first spectacular solo exhibitions.

                                                    

             

skeleton review

The first drawing i did was of the skeleton in front of me, i used charcoal to create this, i really like my shading in this and i feel like so far it is the best sketch of a skeleton i have done.

 we then used white acrylic paint to highlight the lighter areas of skeleton, i think worked well for me and i like the final result that i produced, out of all the one i have done already, this is the best.

we then got some black paper out and painted using our fingers in white acrylic paint, only painting the highlighted areas of the skeleton, i like this technique and if id of had more than five minutes to work on this, i think that the end result would have been very good.

for this one we worked on black paper, painting with white acrylic as well as using black charcoal to refine our results and correct any areas that i may not have wanted white paint. i also really like this one, and although this is the first time i have used this technique i think it looks good.

 overall i found this exercise very beneficial and i am very excited to start life drawing next term.

Artist research- Barbara Hepworth

Dame Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Barbra's work, simple shape sculptures helped her rise to fame, creating pieces to reside in New York. I like the simplicity of her sculptures and there is a clear modernism theme throughout. if i were to recreate some of her work in 3D i would use clay.

Artist research- Egon Schiele

Egon Schiele (June 12, 1890 – October 31, 1918) was an Austrian painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and the many self portraits the artist produced, including naked self-portraits. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterise Schiele's paintings and drawings mark the artist as an early exponent of expressionism.

Egon has a very unique style of painting/drawing, i like the alternate colours he used,such as the green pregnant stomach and orange nipples, his work is very interesting and i would like to recreate something in his style and use his techniques.

Artist research- Alberto Glacometti

Alberto Giacometti (10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draughtsman and printmaker. Coming from an artistic background, he was interested in art from an early age. Regarding Giacometti's sculptural technique and according to the Metropolitan Museum Of Art: "The rough, eroded, heavily worked surfaces of Three Men Walking (II), 1949, typify his technique. Reduced, as they are, to their very core, these figures evoke lone trees in winter that have lost their foliage. Within this style, Giacometti would rarely deviate from the three themes that preoccupied him—the walking man; the standing, nude woman; and the bust—or all three, combined in various groupings.

the style of Albertos drawing are very sketchy and erratic, but i find this very interesting and is different from the rest, his sculptures are very thin and lack the intricate detail of the human body and are portrayed as almost 'stick men' but again, i think this is interesting and could work well using clay and wire if i were to try to recreate his work.

Artist research-Jacob Epstien

Sir Jacob Epstein (10 November 1880 – 19 August 1959) was an American-born British, who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British citizen in 1911. He often produced controversial works which challenged taboos on what was appropriate subject matter for public artworks. He also made paintings and drawings, and often exhibited his work.

I am not overly keen on the work of Epstien, i feel like it lacks a certain something that sets itself apart from other artists/sculptors, although he is clearly very skilled, his work is simply something that i don't find very inspirational to my own work.

Artist research- Henry Moore

Moore was born in Castleford, the son of a coal miner. He became well-known through his carved marble and larger-scale abstract cast bronze sculptures, and was instrumental in introducing a particular form of modernismto the UK. His ability in later life to fulfil large-scale commissions made him exceptionally wealthy. Yet he lived frugally and most of the money he earned went towards endowing the Henry Moore foundation which continues to support education and promotion of the arts.


His forms are usually abstractions of the human figure, typically depicting mother-and-child or reclining figures. Moore's works are usually suggestive of the female body, apart from a phase in the 1950s when he sculpted family groups. His forms are generally pierced or contain hollow spaces. Many interpreters liken the undulating form of his reclining figures to the landscape and hills of his birthplace,Yorkshire.























I find Henrys work very interesting, i like the way the contours of the abstract human body are smooth and simple, if i were to recreate some of his work i would probably use wire and clay as i feel this would depict Henry Moores work best, something like modroc wouldn't work well.

The Harley Gallery visit

The whole art department took a trip to the harley gallery this term, here we got to look at artist in their workshops, creating the things they would later sell on or put on display. It was really interesting to see them at work and see the vast variety of the artist, some were ceramists others sculptors, some produced textile products, others jewellers. It gave me an insight of some things that i am really interested in in the art department, and it was good that i could get advise from the professionals on how to get where they were.

I found this experience very valuable and i hope to return there again soon.