Mixed Media (choice)
Exhibition Text
Artist Inspiration
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian painter who is most known for his paintings from the Symbolism and Art Nouveau periods. Klimt was originally a conventional academic painter. He was known for his detailed and realistic architectural paintings. However, he moved away entirely from realism and historical subject material all together as he moved to attempting to discover the more decorative possibilities of art. One perspective of Gustav’s art was that it was a transition mechanism between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This was around the time of the inventions of life altering technologies, and Klimt’s work often reflected that delicate balance of what is known and remains unknown. It was the beginning of a new era.
Gustav’s ultimate purpose was to create gesamtkunstwerk, or a “total work of art.” This could also be seen as the use of decoration for fulfilling art. Klimt also worked with Wiener Werkstätte. The goal of this studio was to improve the level of quality and performance of everyday objects. Gustav was one of the primary influences of Art Nouveau period. His work often reflected the line between natural and artificial, fine and decorative art. His own personal inspirations came from ethereal atmospheres and artists such as Aubrey Beardsley. Gustav also used some components and techniques from the Impressionist movement as well as motifs from Greek, Egyptian, and Byzantine art. As popular of an artist as Gustav is today, he received a significant amount of criticism and condemnation for his work in the early twentieth century. Gustav frequently used themes that were looked down upon by the highly influential Catholic church. The church did not approve of Gustav’s works that dealt with topics such as death and sex, which was a large portion of the topics that Gustav enjoyed displaying in his pieces. At times, Gustav received charges of obscenity and criticism for his approaches to symbolism and use of erotic elements. “The relaxation which would do me the world of good, does not exist for me.”~ Gustav Klimt |
|
Planning Sketches
|
I was very uncertain in terms of where to start with this piece. After some deliberation, I decided on focusing on the aspect of form and line. In addition, I wanted to stray from the general idea of organic equating something to nature. Instead, I decided upon the use of human form for my organic component. Next, I needed to use a material that would fit the industrial side of the project resulting in me using copper wire.
My main use of my sketches was to create a general idea for the desired formation of my figure. Besides the organic and industrial elements, I was unsure of how to present this piece or even format it. I looked through several artists sketches such as Shiele, Gustav, and Picasso and took various components of the artists work and incorporated them into my own sketches.
|
Experimentation
My main source of experimentation was within the materials that I used. My first idea was to use wood as my background for the piece, and proceed to attempt to paint the wood white followed by a coat of silver. I quickly scratched this idea as I disliked the look of the slightly textured wood with the paint covering. I then resorted to a canvas that I gessoed and painted silver instead. My next area of concern was within how I was going to fasten the wire component onto my background. I first assumed that the wet paint would be enough to fasten the two together, but soon realized that the there was not enough paint to hold the wire piece. I then decided on using hot glue to fasten the components together, and experimented with various ways to conceal the areas where the glue was too obvious.
Process
To begin my project, I began with bending and twisting various pieces of wire in different fashions. At first, I thought about using only one piece of wire for the entire piece, but decided against it when it contradicted my artist inspiration in the style of the original artwork. After bending my wire, I painted my gessoed canvas silver.
|
The next portion of this project included trying to attach the wire frame to the canvass. I ended up completing this by using hot glue and painting over the glue areas that were exposed with silver paint.
|
Reflection
Overall, I am not happy with the results of this project for its physical value. I feel that the application of the glue makes the entire piece seem sloppy and then the attempt to hide the glue with silver paint screwed up the entire thing. In addition, some of the areas of glue thinned out, and as a result did not hold all of the wire pieces together. In terms of meaning, I am quite pleased with the symbolism of this piece. I feel that I was able to display the defensive stance as well as obvious connections through form and line to my artist inspiration.
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
- Gustav often used the female form to express his own ideas on sexuality and the presence of women in society, specifically objectification and the sexualization of nudity.
- Gustav believes in the equality of the sexes, despite his often promiscuous and vulgar depictions of women in his work.
- The idea of women being seen as sexual objects, yet not sexual beings is one that has appeared and re-appeared through the centuries. Various societies have grappled with attempted restraints as to what women can look like as well as the equality of the sexes.
- I wanted to investigate how various artists dealt and felt about the equality of the sexes, and the roles of women.
- Beauty standards and stereotypes will always change, and its not possible for someone to please everyone else.
Bibliography
http://www.klimt.com/en/gallery/drawings-1906-1918/klimt-brustbild-eines-maedchens-mit-grossem-hut-1911.ihtml
http://blog.art.com/most-expensive-paintings-of-all-time/
http://blog.art.com/most-expensive-paintings-of-all-time/