Franz Marc

Today in class we learned about the painter and print maker Franz Marc. He was born in Germany in 1880. As a young artist, he was influenced by Vincent Van Gogh, and that influence is clearly visible in his early work.

He was a part of the German Expressionist movement, along with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Edward Munch. (Munch made the iconic painting "The Scream.") Expressionists distorted reality in their paintings in order to show emotion. They used exaggerated forms and arbitrary color. Arbitrary color refers to the seemingly random, unnatural color choices.

German Expressionist Portraits- Various Artists -unifying theme of distortion and expression

 Franz Marc, along with Wassily Kandinsky and August Macke formed the Blue Rider group. The group got its name from an early painting of Kandinsky's where a man is seen riding a blue horse. This group believed in expressing their artistic ideas even if their style was different from everyone else. The symbol of the horseman stood for art "moving forward" to the modern era, and the color blue represented the human spirit.

 Marc

Franz Marc lost his life in World War One. An order was sent to remove him from the front lines and re-assign him to a safer position, since he German government didn't want to lose such a valuable painter - he had celebrity status, just about. Before the order could reach him, however, he was tragically killed in action.

Marc

Can you see the Van Gogh inspiration in this early painting by Marc?

Check out these others. What can you see is the same in all of these?

Marc

Check out this transcription, looking at one of Marc's paintings. I made this my sophomore year of high school.

I was in such a fluster today, since this was the first day of class, so I forgot to take pictures. I normally snap a few shots as the kids work. The class did really wonderful things today! I'm really proud of them. Here's a couple pictures of the work that was left behind to dry. Can you see the inspiration? The arbitrary use of color?

And tomorrow, we learn about Claude Monet!

September Class starts tonight!

Hello Everyone!

 Via Pinterest

I apologize for not posting about the last couple classes. Hopefully this month I can buckle down and post after each class session! The September class starts tonight and it will run through October 11th. I'm really looking forward to teaching about the set of artists I've picked out, and I'm looking forward to meeting some new students this evening! I saw several names on the list of Young Artists that I haven't met yet. :) I'll give you a brief overview of what to expect from this class.

  Via Pinterest

Each class session we go over a different artist. We talk about their life, their style, and why they're important to learn about. Once we've gotten familiar with the artist and their work, it's the student's turn! They make some form of art, any kind, that draws inspiration from that artist. For instance, we could be studying Picasso one day and one student may be drawing something cubist, while another student may be painting something in shades of blue, inspired by Picasso's "blue period." Another may even be making contour line drawings. I let the kids have free reign to go where their creative minds take them-- as long as they're using the inspiration we learned in class that day.

  Via Pinterest

I travel around the room and help the kids with individual problems they may be having, making suggestions and showing them techniques. I like to show art parodies to the kids. It keeps the class fun, and shows that there are lots of ways to take inspiration from art.

In this month's class, we'll be looking at:

Franz Marc

Claude Monet

The Ancient Etruscans

Kieth Haring

Gustav Klimpt

Frank Stella

and Frida Khalo

All images via Pinterest. copy-write to the artists

Vincent Van Gogh

Self Portait, Van Gogh, 1889

There's a lot to be said about Vincent Van Gogh. In my class every day I have the students take notes about the artists. It's usually five or six bullet points and a short lecture and slide show before we dive into the creative part. For Van Gogh, I had a full page of notes. His life as well as his paintings is fascinating, and aspects of his life are reflected in his work.

Church at Auvers, Van Gogh, 1890

He was an emotional and sensitive man. His sensitivity can be seen in his vivid use of color- almost like he saw things that weren't there- like the saw things that no one else saw. He was born in Denmark in 1853. He was a Post-Impressionist painter. The French Impressionists were a group pf painters interested in capturing an "impression" of something. Basically they wanted to make a painting that was like a quick snapshot- no details, no deeper meaning, just their first impression of a scene on caught paper (well canvas). The post Imressionists though, were interested in solving some of the problems that the impressionists ran into. Their work was often blurry, milky, or just plain "froo-froo" and fluffy. Post Impressionist painters like Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Gauguin were interested in taking the ideas of quick glimpses and wild colors and making them more "meaty," as in less fluffy, more geometric and thought-out.

 Portrait of Pere Tanguy, Van Gogh, 1887

(Tanguy was an art dealer and friend of Van Gogh. In the background of this portrait you can see Japanese images. At this time there was a serious Japanese "craze" in art and decorating, which really inspired Van Gogh. He make oil paint copies of several Japanese woodblock prints.)

Van Gogh had a hard time keeping friends and was often lonely. He was good friends with fellow painter Paul Gauguin for a time but Van Gogh became obsessive and even violent and pushed Gauguin away. Most people today believe Vincent Van Gogh had a severe mental illness. At the time of his life though, mental problems weren't understood as they are today. People probably thought of Van Gogh as "weird" or even "crazy," but there were no options for treatment or therapy back then. Van Gogh was extremely frustrated by how his mental condition held him back and through his life he became more and more lonely and obsessive. His brother Theo was his best friend. Vincent sent 400 letters to Theo, who loves his brother very much, but only replied with 30.  Theo was also his main financial supporter. He gave Van Gogh what he could, but it wasn't enough for Van Gogh to live a healthy lifestyle. Cigarettes, alcohol, and bread were just about the only things Van Gogh consumed, and his physical health wasn't much stronger than his mental health.

Starry Night Over the Rhone, Van Gogh, 1889

Van Gogh was desperate to find love. When he was younger, he and a young lady made plans to be married but parents on both sides refused and they were both devastated. As he got older he was faced with rejection and separation from ladies he loved, which brought him to the infamous incident where he cut off his own ear, giving it to a lady and telling her to, "guard it carefully." After this incident, his brother Theo booked him two rooms at the local insane asylum- one room to sleep in and one room to paint in. It was out the window of this asylum that he painted the famous "Starry Night."

The Starry Night, Van Gogh, 1889

The story ends tragically. Vincent Van Gogh was shot in the chest in 1890. It's believed that it was self-inflicted, brought on by his worsening mental condition, although no gun was ever found. The shot actually cleared his major organs, and after the initial shock, his condition was approving. His brother Theo rushed to be with him at the hospital. unfortunately the wound wasn't properly cared for and Vincent Van Gogh died of infection in 1890. He was 37 years old.

At Eternity's Gate, Van Gogh, 1890

The people in his time weren't used to seeing a wild and emotional style of painting like Van Gogh's. His work made it into several shows that he applied for but was generally not well-recieved. While he was alive, he only sold one painting, and it was to a family friend. Today, Vincent Van Gogh is regarded as one of the greatest painters who ever lived. His work is popular with artists ethusiasts and the genreal public. His "Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear" just a few years ago sold at auction for $90 million. If only Van Gogh could have gotten just a slice of the recognition he deserved.

Vase With Twelve Sunflowers, Van Gogh, 1888

Although Van Gogh seemingly had a troubled and lonely life, his work is generally very joyous and optimistic. Personally, I'm a very sensitive person and I relate to Van Gogh a lot in this way. When you're easily depressed you tend to be just as easily excited. Van Gogh was probably just as often exhilarated and "high on life" as he was desparetly lonely. A delicate emotional scale is seemingly a common trait in artists. His favorite colors to use were ultramarine (a dark blue, a little on the purple side- blue is often associated sadness but can also be linked to spirituality), yellow (a happy color- think sunshine and warmth) and mauve (a dark, purpley-pink).

Van Gogh's Palette

More works by Van Gogh:

The Potato Eaters, Van Gogh, 1885

The Night Cafe, Van Gogh, 1888

Bedroom at Arles, Van Gogh, 1888

Cafe Terrace at Night, Van Gogh, 1889

Irises, Van Gogh, 1889

Wheatfield with Crows, Van Gogh, 1890 ("double square" canvas, meaning the size of two regular canvases - large-scale)

The kids totally blew me away with their clever interpretations of Van Gogh's pieces. I think there was more thought and talent tonight than any other night this month. I looked at the clock to give the kids a time frame and it was already clean-up time! The kids couldn't believe it. We all had a blast and time had seriously flown by. I let them skip the clean-up rituals and work until they got picked up by their parents.

It's hard to tell from this angle, but this student made a pop-up card, but out pictures he drew of Van Gogh, then drew the paper to look like "Bedroom at Arles" although I think they colors may be inspired by "Nightcafe."

Wonderful!!

 

This student was inspired by the paintings Van Gogh made of his chair and the one of Gauguin's chair. I told them that in a way, these paintings are self portraits- the colors, perspective, and still life object tell a lot about a person without their face needing to be in the painting. This student is taking the swirling effects from Starry Night and including them in a "self portrait" of a chair with her favorite book on it.  

A lovely portrait of the artist, using his swirling technique.

This student was inspired by Van Gogh's realist work of a man planting crops, which was inspired by an earlier work of the French artist Millet.

Another lovely drawing of Van Gogh with that unmistakable red beard.

Last but certainly not least, some lovely sunflowers on a swirling, rich background. Wonderful!

Henri Matisse

 

In class the students learned about the French painter Henri Matisse. He was making work from the 1890s up through the 1950s when he died. He was working around the same time frame as Wassily Kandinsky  and Pablo Picasso. 

 Madame Matisse: The Green Stripe, Henri Matisse 1905

Henri Matisse's early works often use vivid, wild colors. He was one of the founding artists in the Fauvist movement. "Fauve" is a French word meaning "wild beast." They got this name for the wild, outlandish colors they would use. At the time, this was a fresh idea in painting that hadn't really been seen before; most people were using traditional and natural colors.

Harmony in Red, Henri Matisse, 1908

From this painting you can clearly see the inspiration Matisse drew from the artist Vincent Van Gogh. Matisse was introduced to the work of Van Gogh from a mutual friend. At that time, Van Gogh was a completely unknown painter. Just look at the similar style of the chair:

Vincent's Chair, Vincent Van Gogh, 1888

Matisse started out as a painter but in the later years of his life, he underwent surgery that left him in a wheelchair. This meant he could no longer stand at his easel to work. Restricted to his chair, he developed a technique called, "painting with scissors," where he would cut shapes out of brightly colored paper and glue them to a solid colored background. These collages are often quite large and involve organic shapes that look like leaves, flowers or coral.

Le Gerbe (installed in home), Henri Matisse 1953

Matisse's work is characterized by bright color, bold pattern, a flattened background, and often using thin paint. His favorite subjects were domestic scenes, meaning scenes inside the home. He often painted interior rooms with still-lives, like flowers in vases, fishbowls, and female models. Here are some examples of his work: drawings, paintings, and collage:

Woman with a Hat, Matisse 1905

Self Portrait in a Striped Shirt, Matisse 1906

Red Fish, Matisse 1911

Face of a Woman, Matisse, 1935

Woman with a Purple Coat, Matisse 1937

 Music, Matisse, 1938

Face/Flower, Matisse, 1948

Blue Nude II, Matisse 1952

To learn more, the website "Matisse: Life and Painting" has a very in-depth and organized database. 

As usual, I was really impressed with the art my students made. They found a lot of characteristics in his work that they wanted to imitate, which I thought was wonderful. :)

 Here are some pretty flowers like the ones Matisse painted. They remind me of the long-stemed anemones.

 Here's a portrait of Matisse that I find really interesting. This student has stylized and exaggerated Matisse's features, giving him long legs and short arms. I showed the students a photo of Matisse as an old man and made a joke about what a cute old man he was and commented on how high he wore his pants. This student found that hilarious and used it as his inspiration.

 This student did too. ;)

 This student used her Goldfish Crackers to make her own version of "Red Fish."

 I think this one is really wonderful. I was explaining how Matisse would often elongate the features on his models to emphasise grace and femininity. He would often give the women long, straight noses and wiggly arms and legs. Here, my student did just that, and also used Matisse's bright colors and love of floral bouquets as inspiration. Awesome!

 She's creating her own version of "Red Fish!"

 This is really wonderful too. She's using Matisse's love of color and pattern and also his floral, fish, and interior subject matter.