Acrylic Painting
Exhibition TextTitle: Self Portrait #2
Size: 3' x 2' Medium: Acrylic Date: August 2017 Self Portrait #2 is a self-portrait inspired by Otto Dix's Portrait of Journalist Sylvia Von Harden which is a reflection upon modern city life and the gender roles that have become apart of everyday evaluations to judge women based off superficial values. |
Planning
Artistic inspiration
Otto Dix was a well-known founder of the New Objectivity movement who specialized in painting and printmaking, beginning in the early 1920’s. Dix was a veteran of World War One, and was traumatized by his experiences. He often used his nightmares to help influence his works surrounding the Weimar Republic. As his career progressed, he would move on to create satirical portraits of the celebrities amongst Germany’s elite intellectual circles. Dix is also remembered for his return to portraiture, while many fellow artists shifted to abstraction. Dix’s portraits had heavy satirical elements intertwined, often concerning the shining examples of German culture and society. These representations shed light on the corruption of the subjects and dark sides to a modern society.
Originally, Dix was inspired by Dada and Expressionism, but soon moved on to his own distinct style involving a more drastic sense of realism accompanied by exaggerated figures meant as symbolism, or simply to disfigure his own subjects. Dix did not have a high regard for high-standing figures within the Weimar Republic, and felt satirical elements along with a disregard for beauty would help shine a light on an alternate perspective of city life. With added experience, Dix began to incorporate elements of fantasy and symbolism to his pieces. Dix enjoyed painting subjects such as injured soldiers and prostitutes. He believed that these images served as a depiction of the mental and physical harm done to society through war, and political corruption. He often took jabs at the current political party (which would lead to Nazi Germany) for their destruction of the fine arts and the various establishments that were detrimental to German artists. Dix’s style was constantly upfront, and outright often accentuating social injustices or even wrongdoings to various minority groups. Dix was a crucial player for the continuation of portraitist style painters, and the ability to continue their own practice without giving in to modern art movements. |
Planning Sketches
My first idea was to put myself into Self-portrait with a Carnation. This is one of Dix’s more well known works. I enjoy the general idea, and depiction of himself in the piece. I would keep a similar color scheme, but maybe change my shirt in addition to painting a different type of flower ie.) rose or an orchid. I really enjoy the contrast in this piece between the stern expression and the delicate flower. I chose to shift my facial expression to anxious due to my own personality.
|
personally love this piece, and the message behind it. Dix’s idea was that women do not have to be beautiful to be successful and exaggerated those qualities in this reporter. I wanted to put myself in this painting in order to demonstrate the similar ideas, because they still apply in today’s society. I may still change the objects on the table to ones that are more relevant to the time, but I enjoy the layout and color scheme for the work.
|
Process
|
|
Critique
Compare
|
Contrast
|
Experimentation
Since I was using acrylic paint, it was difficult to create the texture that I was looking for in the background. To improve upon that appearance, I decided on using a sponge to create that "painted wall" look that was in the original piece. In addition to the tools I needed to paint, I needed to use a higher quality red acrylic paint in order to get those deeper fuchsia hues in the background. I made a pink base and decided to create an ombre affect with the different red paint mixture. In addition to the strict backgrounds, I wanted to experiment with the style of blending which I used. Typically, my medium of choice is watercolor, which is a lot different medium than acrylic, especially in terms of blending. I attempted to create a base layer and create individual layers for small details, as opposed to the same layer blending with watercolors. I also tried to water down acrylic paint using retarder and water so that the layers could be seen instead of masked as I continued to paint.
Another main area of experimentation was in the blending. Blending was one of the main reasons I chose to do this piece, because it forced me to use acrylic instead of watercolors to develop blending with multiple layers. Included above are specific examples with the eyes that I experimented with blending. I found that black was always too harsh for any sort of shadow, and human faces do not have any black lines on their faces. The best way to create more natural looking shadows was from using deep browns or even brown mixed with black. The difficult part in this was that Dix's pieces are not completely realistic, which gives some room to experiment to exaggerate features, or aspects of the face such as bags or wrinkles.
Another main area of experimentation was in the blending. Blending was one of the main reasons I chose to do this piece, because it forced me to use acrylic instead of watercolors to develop blending with multiple layers. Included above are specific examples with the eyes that I experimented with blending. I found that black was always too harsh for any sort of shadow, and human faces do not have any black lines on their faces. The best way to create more natural looking shadows was from using deep browns or even brown mixed with black. The difficult part in this was that Dix's pieces are not completely realistic, which gives some room to experiment to exaggerate features, or aspects of the face such as bags or wrinkles.
Reflection
Relating strictly back to process, this was a very challenging process. The blending and strict technique was a style that I was not used to or accustomed to based off the previous projects which I have completed from various other artists. Realistic blending is something that I would like to continue to work on throughout the year in order to continue strengthening my overall artistic abilities. My piece is not as realistic and smooth as Dix's is, but I believe I succeeded in being able to correlate the themes from Dix's pieces into mine. Another large risk for me in this piece is that it is a whole body shot. Typically, I find myself sticking to bust pieces or even just facial elements, i.e.) eyes, mouth, etc. This piece allowed me to experiment with components such as proportion, which can really alter the perception as well as the meaning of the piece. This is evident in the sheer size of the hands in the portrait. Granted, this is a direct connection to my artist inspiration, but it displays the idea none-the-less. An idea that is slowly evolving is the importance of beauty, specifically being a woman in modern society. When Dix created this piece, beauty was one of the sole purposes of a woman. The idea that I also wanted to work on was distancing ourselves from that stereotype.
Connecting to the act
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
- Otto Dix often focuses on the ugly side of city life. This included anything from customs to popular figures to the government and their policies. His criticism is quite satirical, but blunt. Using Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia Von Harden to depict myself as someone that goes against the grain of what is expected of me, but still ends up successful.
- I want to depict myself in a light that exemplifies my flaws, or the things that most people try and hide, especially when that image is put on display. I feel it is important to also show these aspects of an individual, as well as the good.
- Art is not contained to what appears to be beautiful. Beauty is not what gauges the success of a piece, rather the reaction from the public eye is what the judge of success.
- My inspiration was looking for an artist that exposed an alternate perspective to the reality in which they viewed. I was not looking for surrealism, rather the darker parts of media such as corruption and flaws.
- The honest truth does not always have to be dark, and if it is unpleasant humor can be used to make it more palatable. Also, men enjoy doling out criticism, but have a difficult time receiving it.
Bibliography
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-dix-otto.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/14/first-world-war-german-art-otto-dix
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/14/first-world-war-german-art-otto-dix