Jackson Pollock

Growing up in the west, Jackson Pollock became familiar with the Native American art style at a young age. In addition, Pollock was influenced by Benton and the Regionalists, but was deeply touched by the Siqueiros and the Mexican muralists, such as Diego Rivera. Pollock felt an instant fondness of their almost violent and expressive way of painting in these strong murals. Another learning point that Pollock explored was psychology, which allowed him to understand the human mind better, but more importantly his personal life. The major condition Pollock struggled to beat was alcoholism, trying psychotherapy was one of main treatments he tried to end his addiction, but was unsuccessful. However, the disease of alcoholism may have consumed Pollock’s mind, but fueled his inspiration and his artistic capability. Soon he adopted the way of Surrealists by painting automatically without hesitation. In the 1940’s as Pollock continued a life of isolation, he began to experiment and discover his true sense of paintings. In 1947, he created the perfect “drip” technique which made his name as an artist famous. In order to create one of his masterpieces, Pollock would place his canvas on the floor and began to cover the canvas in trails of paint. Pouring the paint out of the can without hesitation, Pollock started a trend known as “Action Painting”, which was a frenzy for the Native American culture. The reason Native Americans became instant fans of Pollock’s was because of his infused memories of the traditional ritual dances he witnessed as a child. Ultimately, Pollock is brilliant due to the fact his art has no definite meaning, thus allowing individuals to have their own personal take on the piece. Although he did not place a direct meaning within his art, Pollock’s masterpieces were fueled with the characteristics of energy, tension, passion, and drama. Unfortunately in the 1950’s Pollock slowed down and lost his life due to a car accident in 1956.

Quotes from Pollock:

"Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was."

"Every good painter paints what he is."

"He drove his kind of realism at me so hard I bounced right into nonobjective painting."

"I don't work from drawings. I don't make sketches and drawings and color sketches into a final painting."

"I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own."

"My painting does not come from the easel."

"On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting."

"Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is."

"The modern artist is working with space and time, and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating."

"The strangeness will wear off and I think we will discover the deeper meanings in modern art."

Jackson Pollock: "When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing."

Frida Kahlo

Born to the poverty stricken area of Coyoicoan near Mexico City, Frida Kahlo was not yet interested in art until her personal experiences allowed her to grow a passion for painting. Unfortunately, at the young age of only fifteen, Kahlo was in a streetcar accident, but during the painful recovery, she embarked on painting pieces and later sending them onto Diego Rivera. Upon meeting Rivera, Kahlo quickly fell in love and married him in 192. Their strong artistic tempers formed a unfortunate relationship ending up in divorce in 1939. In addition, Rivera committed several acts of infidelity, resulting in Kahlo living in her worst nightmare. However, she used her abundance of pain and anger from her marriage to paint multiple self portraits. Throughout her collection of paintings, Kahlo noticeably infuses the properties of pain and suffering to visually state her past. Another inspiration for Kahlo was Mexican folk art and her lover, Rivera’s sense of Realism. Even as her paintings can seem depressing, they state her inner dialogues and strong will in which she explains herself. Further exploring the possibilities of the artistic world, Kahlo painted several still lifes and visuals that depicted the typical Mexican life. Surprisingly, the reoccurring theme of monkeys within her work symbolism a sense of protection in the saddened artist’s life. Kahlo adored monkeys and displayed her fondness of them through her paintings. Andre Breton, known for Surrealism, describes Kahlo’s work as being “like a ribbon tied around a bomb!” Although the quote can be taken either way, personally through carefully reading this quote, a sense of unexpected pleasure is realized as bombs are never expected and the ribbon symbolizes delight. Truthfully, her work is almost considered under the genre of Surrealism as she blatantly reveals her emotions. After dying at only 47 years old due to long term health complications, she previously stated that “I have never pained dreams. I paint my reality.” Ultimately, Kahlo can be viewed as one of the most significant and well known icons of the twenty century of artistic capability.

Quotes from Kahlo:

"I leave you my portrait so that you will have my presence all the days and nights that I am away from you."

"I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best."

"Painting completed my life."

There have been two great accidents in my life. One was the trolley, and the other was Diego. Diego was by far the worst."

"I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration."

Frida Kahlo: In Her Shoes

Frida Kahlo-Paintings

Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera is best known for his distinctive murals of typical Latin American lifestyles and his sharp contrast in colors. Although he studied art in Mexico City, Rivera traveled abroad to Madrid and Paris where he met Picasso. Following his connection with Picasso, Rivera began to paint Cubist works, which are persuaded by both the influence of Gris and Braque. Upon deciding to travel abroad once again, Rivera found himself in Italy where he began studying the Renaissance Masters, who in reality impacted his imagination. Returning to his native city in Mexico in the early 1920’s, he focused his vision into massive murals which were done on the walls of industrial and public buildings. Similar to his wife, Frida Kahlo, Rivera depicted the history of Mexico and also the natives. Mexico at this time was dominated by left-wing, anti-clerical government, which impacted both Rivera and the citizens of Mexico. During this time period, Rivera became the leading artist of the revolution in society. In addition, Rivera worked in the United States of America paintings murals just as he had previously did in Mexico. However, the murals Rivera constructed in the states were different as they admired the industrial age and also social messages appeared frequently on his murals in America. Truthfully, Diego Rivera just like Frida Kahlo endowed their personal sense of folk art with the surprise of Aztec symbols and Byzantine symbols.

Quotes from Rivera:

"I did not know it then, but Frida had already become the most important fact in my life. And would continue to be, up to the moment she died, 27 years later."

"Through her paintings, she breaks all the taboos of the woman's body and of female sexuality."

"July 13, 1954 was the most tragic day of my life. I had lost my beloved Frida forever. To late now I realized that the most wonderful part of my life had been my love for Frida."

"Never before had a woman put such agonizing poetry on canvas as Frida did at this time in Detroit."

"If I ever loved a woman, the more I loved her, the more I wanted to hurt her. Frida was only the most obvious victim of this disgusting trait."

Diego Rivera Paintings

Gwen John

One of the greatest female artists of her time, Gwen John is known for her fondness of the European lifestyle, mainly Paris. Trained at the Slade School in London, John learned the many techniques of painting with her brother Augustus, another famous painter of this era. After graduating, John decided to explore Paris and began to work under Whistler, who gave her the inspiration to explore tonality and the encouragement to define her sense of art as a delicate image to the eye. In the early 1900’s, John had decided to walk to Rome, but only found herself back in her beloved city of Paris, France. Upon returning, John decided to settle in the city and started modeling couture on the runaway. Through her modeling career, John was introduced to Rodin a sculptor, who she feel deeply in love with. As an artist himself, Rodin urged his wife to paint more, but she only produced a few pieces due to a lack of imagination and motivation. However, through the generous input of John Quinn, an American lawyer, John was finally able to forget her career as a model and define her name as an artist in Paris. As John grew into her older age, she lived a quiet life alone in the country side of France where she grew as an artist. Although she never exhibited much of her work, she began to paint intimate scenes of small subject matter, which were most often female portraits. Another matter she painted often was the corner of her studio in distinctive muted colors representing a tranquility and simplistic ideal. Commonly viewed as a dull artist, there are strong emotions and strength within her soul that is present in each of her paintings. Ultimately, as a women, Gwen John worked harder to prove herself as an artist and therefore is known one of the most admired females in the history of art.

Quotes from John:

"When I was a child, I used to cry all the time."

"Aloneness is nearer God, nearer reality."

"In talking, shyness and timidity distort the very meaning of my words. I don't pretend to know anybody well. People are like shadows to me and I am like a shadow."

"To be reserved, secretive, with a passionate violence that causes suffering."

Gwen John Paintings

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas, an unrelenting artist, worked extensively in the fields of oil, pastel, charcoal, sculpture and printmaking in his work. Degas can be fully taken in and understood by walking through the wide-range collection of his featured art located at the Yale Museum of Art. Although considered a true impressionists, he infused his own unique trademarks, subject matter, and his artistic sensibility created in his legendary style. While aspiring artists are able to attend schools including Pratt Institute, Rhode Island School of Design, or Corcoran College of Art and Design, in the early nineteenth century, artists were allowed to copy pieces composed by other artists. Through working off another talented artist, Degas was able to develop his own skills. At the young age of eighteen, he was allowed the honor of copying famous pieces at the Louvre in Paris. In 1854, Degas copied Raphael’s paintings featured at the Louvre, which allowed for him to not only study Raphael’s techniques used in painting, but also furthered his abilities in the art field. With the intention of experiencing a different style of art, mainly studying religious art, Degas traveled to Italy in the mid 1800’s to acquire a vast amount of knowledge not present to him in Paris, which would allow for him to build upon his career at a young age. Returning to Paris, he composed his first major piece known as A Woman Seated Beside a Vase of Flowers.

Quotes from Edgar Degas:

"A painting requires a little mystery, some vagueness, some fantasy. When you always make your meaning perfectly plain you end up boring people."

"Painting isn't so difficult when you don't know ... But when you do ... it's quite a different matter!"

"A painting is above all a product of the artist's imagination, it must never be a copy. If, at a later stage, he wants to add two or three touches from nature, of course it doesn't spoil anything. But the air one sees in the paintings of the masters is not the air one breathes."

"Drawing is not what one sees but what one can make others see."

"How awful it is not being able to see clearly any more! I have had to give up drawing and painting and for years now content myself with sculpture ... But if my eyesight continues to dim I won't even be able to model any more. What will I do with my days then?"

Edgar Degas Sketches

Edgar Degas Paintings

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch began his art studies in Oslo, Norway and traveled throughout Europe to Germany, Italy, and France. Upon visiting France, Munch was influenced under Gauguin and Van Gogh and felt the pain that both artists endured within their lives. Indeed after understanding both artists, Munch grew as an artist from the effects of studying both Gauguin and Van Gogh. Through the use of Expressionist style, Munch expressed life, love, and death in his collection of art. Although Munch, as an artist admired the extraordinary passion that pervades his inspiration, with the use of swirling lines and bold color shows his suffering under the surface. Munch was enthused by the colors used in the French Post-Impressionist era which he felt allowed his paintings to represent victimized individuals. In addition to composing dramatic pieces, Munch was the man behind the establishment of the German Expressionist movement in the twentieth century. Truthfully, from Munch’s use of symbolism the world was able to understand the controversy of European Culture in this time period and due to his strong statement, Munch is a well know artist in the nineteenth century.

Quotes from Munch

"By painting colors and lines and forms seen in quickened mood I was seeking to make this mood vibrate as a phonograph does. This was the origin of the paintings in The Frieze of Life."

"Disease, insanity, and death were the angels that attended my cradle, and since then have followed me throughout my life."

"I have no fear of photography as long as it cannot be used in heaven and in hell."

"I painted the picture, and in the colors the rhythm of the music quivers. I painted the colors I saw."

"Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye...it also includes the inner pictures of the soul."

Edvard Munch Paintings

Roy Lichtenstein

Enrolling into the Art Students’ League in the late 1930’s, and also studying at Ohio State College, Roy Lichtenstein discovered both his talents in art, but the techniques necessary in achieving his style. Although an artist, Lichtenstein also was in the military for roughly three years, but upon returning he settled down in Ohio teaching. Also, he taught at New York State and Rutgers Universities. Still paying attention to his art, Lichtenstein began to put his pieces in exhibits and the majority pieces he showed were inspired by our country’s history. One main art style Lichtenstein focused on was Cubism, but then went into the field of Abstract Expressionism. During his time teaching at Rutger’s, Lichtenstein met Allan Kaprow, who introduced him to art within the consumer market. Starting in the early 1960’s Lichtenstein entered the era as a Pop Artist, also referred to as someone who paints images with strikingly bright color. Unlike Andy Warhol, Lichtenstein produced comic books and infused his unique style and statement within each and every piece. Truthfully both icons of Pop Art, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein both have their signature style, but Lichtenstein more commonly is known for his screening of dots and sharp lines.

Quotes from Lichtenstein:

"Art doesn't transform. It just plain forms."

"I kind of do the drawing with the painting in mind, but it's very hard to guess at a size or a color and all the colors around it and what it will really look like."

"I like to pretend that my art has nothing to do with me."

"I think we're much smarter than we were. Everybody knows that abstract art can be art, and most people know that they may not like it, even if they understand there's another purpose to it."

"Pop Art looks out into the world. It doesn't look like a painting of something, it looks like the thing itself."

"Personally, I feel that in my own work I wanted to look programmed or impersonal but I don't really believe I am being impersonal when I do it. And I don't think you could do this."

"I think that most people think painters are kind of ridiculous, you know?"

"You know, as you compose music, you're just off in your own world. You have no idea where reality is, so to have an idea of what people think is pretty hard."

Roy Lichtenstein Paintings

Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer, a native of New England, joined the Union forces in American Civil War and discovered different aspects of the world which furthered his inspiration within his work. While serving, Homer continued exploring art by drawing sketches, which were published in newspaper publication. Leading him to England next, he spent two years painting the nautical scenery and experiencing the European lifestyle. Upon returning to America, Homer continued to do paintings of nautical subject and the frequent nature scene. Moving into watercolors, Homer spent the end of his life in Maine at Prout’s Neck where he painted fishermen, but he had sadly struggled with the elements of Maine. Gateways to Florida, Bermuda, and the Bahamas allowed Homer a more exciting inspiration of the coastlines, but Homer is more often associated with his paintings of the New England Coastline. Truthfully, Homer depicts the force of nature and its tragic effects on humanity, but provides a sense of tranquility.

Quotes from Homer:

"The sun will not rise or set without my notice, and thanks."

"It would probably kill me to have such a thing appear. The most interesting part of my life is of no concern to the public."

"You will see, in the future I will live by my watercolors."

Winslow Homer Paintings

Claude Monet

Background and Early Stages of Monet

Claude Monet was a part of the select few who were the founding members of the French Impressionism time. In addition, he continued to represent this distinctive genre throughout his artistic career. The point which was the cause of Impressionism becoming popular was when Monet painted the impression titled: Sunrise. Although he was mainly focused on landscapes, truthfully he was committed to the technique referred to as plein-air method of painting. Throughout the duration of his artistic career, he explored the properties of light and use of color. The majority of Monet’s paintings are the focus of sunshine’s reflection or shadow in a variety of hues from a particular color.

Late Work

In his late age, Monet avoided featuring a man-made object or a hint of human figures. Therefore, he truly represented the impressionism theme. Prior to the switch of focus, Monet featured street scenes of the city, images of the industrial revolution era, gardens, and snapshots of people leisurely enjoying coastlines. To further a particular image, Monet explored the technique of series in art, which is when a particular image is painted in a variety of hues or light. Not only did this allow an artist to captivate the different shadows in a day, but also experiment the use of colors in combination with shadowing. To the eye Monet’s brush strokes may appear sloppy, but in reality that is a distinct technique used in impressionism. Creating this look requires the consistent effect of impasto strokes of color that build up a textural surface. Ideally, when done correctly this will create a dream like appearance to any piece of art.

Impact upon other Artists

Many artists have studied his innovated style within the realm of impressionism because they feel he is a significant source of inspiration. Although just another forgotten artist in the age of technology, Monet can still be found on a variety of objects including pizza boxes, greeting cards, or reproductions of his work.

Quotes from Claude Monet

"Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love."

"Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment."

"No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it, and is sure of his method and composition."

Claude Monet: Paintings