George Caleb Bingham

George Caleb Bingham is known as the first exceptional talent coming out of the "West" in the 1800s. I'm not usually too intrigued by this kind of work, but I really like his use of light and dark, and I think the drama in the shape and intensity of his shadows are quiet beautiful. I think the moment captured in the fur-trader painting is really serene and beautiful.

The style he paints in is the American art style called "Luminism". His paintings are iconic images of 19th century American Frontier life. He become know as the Missouri artist and most of his works are at art museum in Missouri.

So, this is just some basic information. It's good to know a little more (since I started at zero) about this artist.

*Luminism is characterized by showing light of landscapes by hiding brushstrokes. That's sort of what I noticed in the drama Bingham produces in the shapes of his shadows. They are evidence of his eliminating certain brushstrokes. Work described in this style comes out of the Hudson River School. The effect of light shown with luminism is similar to Impressionism (though the style look very different).

The state of the thinking

So, I've been on sabbatical for almost a year (haha...just kidding, but a sabbitical is sort of what I would liken my experience here to...minus the master's degree). There was a lot of adjusting, some bumps, and even some wasted time, but I feel like I've figured things out.

I know I want to go to graduate school and I think I know what I want to do there.

Now, I am looking at about a year to make it happen.

I've got one painting finished.

It was scary deciding not to go home and "be a graphic designer" or go to grad school for graphic design. But, it's really what I was thinking was the right thing to do, and I was just afraid to say it.

So, here are my plans:

1) one painting a month
2) take an art course at Yuan Ze
3) work on school research and applications
4) art history
5) isms
6) define my work/style/purpose

If I were to define my work, I would say that it is about thinking. It intends to explore curious happenings of life and existence. I do this through narrative paintings with stories living in the paint.

Process has become an important aspect of my work. Call it a lesson plan even. A set of rules to get you going on your way that could just as easily be arbitrary as they are implicit in guiding the outcome of a piece.

I find it worthwhile and a little entertain, playful, but playful with substance, to write brain on every painting I do in a different language (the language being chosen based on what is appropriate for the painting). For me, it's a fun process of concrete to abstract (which is also a good representation of how we think).

Brain the organ (concrete), brain the word (abstract), brain the actions and story of a person or idea (concrete), brain a structural form within a painting (abstract).

I am constantly intrigued by the idea of balance. Polar opposites and contradictions coexisting.

These are the ideas that I hope to inspire my body of work into something of substance and meaning.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini

It's so cool to start studying these histories a little more. I just finished reading about Pope Alexander having Bernini redesign St. Peter's (who Michaelangelo finished). But apparently, he did a lot of sculptures in the Basilica. Pretty amazing stuff.

It's crazy to think that I actually saw this stuff in real life too. It was so impressive. I've seen a bunch of stuff in the past few years, and but not much compares to turning corners in St. Peter's. Amazing stuff.

So, here's some more information about it.

Bernini was an extremely talented person. He painted, sculpted, wrote plays, and received attention from Popes granting commissions at a pretty early age.

His most impactful work (I think) would have to be the redesign of Saint Peter's and the sculptures within. I think the sculpture that really caught my eye and made my jaw drop was the tomb for Pope Alexander VII. Over the door to the tomb are huge, flowing drapes made out of marble. It's insane to image to materials that are so different enabling such a realistic likeness.

Bernini was deeply religious, and in a lot of his work, you can see light to add to the drama and meaning of a sculpture.

Max Beckmann

Beckmann lived from 1884 to 1950. He was a German sculptor, painter, draftsman, and writer. After reading a little about him, his story seems somewhat unfortunate. He was a successful artist in the years before WWII in Germany but ran into trouble with Hitler's disapproval of modern art.

He is considered to be a part of the Expressionist movement (although he rejected being a part of it). In the 1920s he was a part of New Objectivity which grew out of Expressionists but rejected their introverted emotionalism.

He did a lot of self-portraits and is rivaled by Picasso and Rembrandt (who apparently did a lot of self-portraits - I think I knew about Picasso but not Rembrandt).

In the Weimar Republic he received lots of honors and was a teacher at the School of Art in Frankfurt. In 1933, the Nazi's dismissed him from his position there and confiscated 500 of his works from German Museums.

For 10 years, he lived in poverty in Amsterdam and then moved to the US where he taught at Washington University in St. Louis and the Brooklyn Museum. He had a fatal heart-attack in 1950.

His work comes from a period of huge societal and art world changes. Many of his paintings express the agony of world-torn Europe. He was less interested in non-representational paintings and turned to figurative painting.

Frances Bacon

I first learned about this artist when I took an art history class in France. I couldn't believe I had never heard of him and Iam really intrigued by the way he distorts the human form. I find it really fascinating.

Just a little bit of basic research about him:

He was born in Dublin and is Irish/British. He seemed to have a bit of a tumultuous upbringing. His family had pretty noble roots, however he was a bit of a black sheep it seems. He had a shaky relationship with his father. His father caught him wearing his mother's underwear and was no doubt very disappointed to see Bacon show up to a family dinner party dressed in drag (a flapper girl at that).

He sort of wandered around being a gentleman's companion and getting to know people of the art world in Berlin, Paris, and London.

His artistic yearnings were aroused by a Paris show of about 100 of Picassos drawings.

He is described as a magnetic personality whose "wit and generosity" could "light up the day" and he could "just as equally plunge into gloom".

His work seems to represent Bacon's ideas on life's being ridiculous or a charade. He was interested in crucifixion where the are a group of people helplessly watching human agony and pain. He was also inspired by the idea of the open mouth, agonizing scream.