Archive for March, 2008
The Statue of David is perhaps one of the most famous sculptures in the world. It is a Renaissance masterpiece sculpted by Micheangelo from 1501 to 1504. It is considered as one of the greatest works of the famous Renaissance artist along with his other sculpture, the Pieta.
The Statue of David can be found in the city of Florence in Italy. The original statue is now located at the Accademia Gallery where it is being protected from damage. A replica of the statue now stands in its former place at the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio in 1910. The replica statue still attracts many visitors at Florence. There is also another replica of the famous statue that is located at the Piazza della Signora which also attracts throngs of spectators passing by.
The original statue of David was commissioned by the guild of wool merchants in the city, or Arte della Lana. This guild was responsible for the maintenance and the decoration of the Cathedral of Florence. The guild was tasked to oversee the creation of 12 large sculptures for cathedral. Michelangelo was given the task of finishing the statue of David after previous artists commissioned to form one from a single block of marble. The statue was first started on at around 1464 and Michelangelo was awarded the commission sometime in the 1500’s. By this time, the previous artists were able to form the legs, feet and the figure from the huge block of statue. Michelangelo started working on it in 1501 and was able to finish it in a span of three years.
Michelangelo’s David was created following the style of the artistic discipline called disegno which tries to mimic divine creation. Its positioning is based on the contrapposto style of human pose depicted as a human form standing with most of its weight on one foot giving the figure a more dynamic appearance. With this style, Michelangelo was able to create a statue that became widely known fas a symbol of strength and youthful human beauty.
March 26th, 2008
Paul Gauguin was a famous Post-Impressionist painter whose bold experimentation with color helped develop the Synthetist style in modern art. His painting style also led to the development of Primitivism and a return to the pastoral. He is also known for his woodcuts and wood engravings from which he became one of its influential proponents.Paul Gauguin was born on June 7, 1848 in Paris, France. His father, Clovis Gauguin, was a journalist while his mother, Aline Maria Chazal, was the a half-Peruvian daughter of a socialist leader and feminist. It was unfortunate that Paul’s father died while on a voyage to Peru when he was three years old, leaving his mother to raise him along with Paul’s sister. The fractured family lived in Lima, Peru for four years before returning to France.
When Paul and his family returned to France when he was seven, they stayed with his grandfather where he soon learned French and did very well on his studies. His interest in art started when he was young. Free time he spends painting and visiting galleries to purchase work by emerging artists. This led him to get in touch with a network of other artists which led him to rent his own studio and exhibit his paintings in Impressionist exhibitions in 1881 and 1882. After trying out work as a stockbroker in Copenhagen in 1884, he decided to devote his time in painting and returned to Paris in 1885.
Although trying to develop his craft in painting, Paul started to suffer from the poor subsistence that his profession brought with him. Painting wasn’t providing much of what he needed just to survive. This is what probably driven him to bouts of depression. But yet, his love for art prevailed and he continued on painting in Paris until 1891.
Throughout his stay in France, Paul Gauguin became frustrated for not being recognized for his work and still in the state of financial disrepair. He resolved to sail into the tropics in order to escape the conventionalities and supposed unnatural state of European civilization. This led him to briefly stay in Martinique and become a day laborer during the construction of the Panama Canal.
He later on moved to Tahiti where he did a number of masterpieces influenced by the culture and style he experienced while staying in the tropics. The style that he employed also influenced the Primitivism art movement in the late 19th century. The style is characterized by exaggerated body proportions, geometric designs and stark contrasts from which Gauguin was the first artist to make use of such styles and achieve broad public success. His works fascinated and intrigued a number of the European elite who were just discovering the art coming from foreign cultures in Micronesia, Africa and the tropics. Paul returned to France only once after that and lived out the rest of his life in the Marquesas Islands. Paul Gauguin died in 1903 and was buried in the Marquesas Islands.
March 18th, 2008
Alexander Calder is a well known American sculptor and artist who was credited to inventing the mobile or the kinetic sculpture. It is a sculpture that takes advantage of the principle of equilibrium to achieve balance. A mobile usually consists of a number of rods from which weighted objects or other rods hang. The different objects hanging from the rods balance each other making them remain more or less horizontal. The display of rods and objects usually hang from only one string giving them freedom to rotate about.Alexander Calder was born on July 22, 1898 in Lawnton, Pennsylvania. He came from a family of artists with his father, Alexander Stirling Calder, already a well-known sculptor of many public installations in Philadelphia. Calder’s mother, Nanette Lederer Calder, was a professional portrait painter who has studied in Paris. Calder also had an older sister, Margaret “Peggy” Calder, who was born in 1896.
Calder made his first sculpture at the age of four. This and other early works showed the talent of this budding sculptor at a very young age. Calder’s parents encouraged their children’s creativity in art but somehow discouraged them to lead a career as artists due to the difficulties and uncertainties that usually come with having such a profession. And because of this, Calder decided to study mechanical engineering after graduating from high school in1915 at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. He received his degree in the school in 1919. Thereafter, Calder went on to work on a variety of engineering jobs and even worked on a passenger ship as a fireman in the boiler room. Eventually, Calder decided to pursue a career as an artist.
Calder then moved to New York to study art at the Art Students’ League. In 1926, he relocated to Paris where he took the job creating toys. During his stay in Paris, Calder started making out his Cirque Calder which is a miniature circus fashioned out of wire, string, wood, cloth and other discarded objects, small enough to fit into suitcases. His miniature circus became popular with the avant-garde crowd in Paris.
Calder returned to the US in 1927 where he designed several kinetic wooden toys for children. In 1928, he had his first solo exhibit at the Weyhe Gallery in New York. During this time, Calder was already fascinated by wire sculptures and kinetic art. It was in 1931 that Calder made his popular mobiles. He also went to create self-supporting, static abstract sculptures that he called as “stabiles” to distinguish them from his mobiles. He went on to do several other artworks using other media. Calder died on November 11, 1976.
March 12th, 2008
Good drawings do not merely depend on skill and talent alone. The use of the right drawing materials also play a big part on how your drawings eventually come out. Here is a list of some of the basic as well as optional drawing materials that you should have with you before you begin sketching.Pencil
The pencil is the most important tool that you will be using in drawing. But as with all tools, there are many pencils that you will have to choose from. Artist pencils are usually graded or classed into the type of lead that they are made of. A “B” pencil refers to a soft lead one while “H” pencils refer to those that use hard lead. B pencils tend to easily smudge while H pencils are less likely to but are instead more prone to making indents on paper. These pencils are also numbered usually from one to five, from the softest to the hardest type of lead used. For general drawing, most people prefer using the HB or #2 pencil which is the standard as well as the most common type.
Paper
Along with the pencils that you will use, a good type of paper would also be needed. What most people try to make use and probably the best option would be regular printer paper. It is one of the most affordable and common drawing material that you can use. But if you plan to take your drawings a bit more seriously, then you might want to invest on sketch books or pads. The paper used in these sketch books and pads are thicker and may be able to handle frequent erasures without getting ruined. Sketch pads come in various sizes, with 9″x12″ and 10″x15″ being the most common ones. Choose one that would work best for you.
Eraser
As you start drawing, you might experience some drawing mistakes that you would want to correct. This is where the eraser would come in handy. Instead of getting impatient and tearing up a drawing with every mistake, you can use an eraser to remove a mistaken line or two and correct them accordingly.
Ruler
A ruler will also come in handy especially if you are doing some technical drawings on the side. A ruler would especially be useful if you are drawing objects with straight edges such as buildings.
March 5th, 2008