Images that twist and turn. (Teaching art with Art).

Images that twist and turn. (Teaching art with Art). Of all the problems faced by painters, illustrators and stillphotographers, one of the most difficult is conveying the sense ofmovement and motion. Finished artworks are single, flat surfaces made ofpaper, canvas or wood on which an artist freezes an image. And yet onthis surface the artist has to convey the idea of motion with lines andshapes that people link with action, that is, with the idea of twistingand turning without anything actually moving. Since one objective of school art programs is to introduce studentsto as many ways as possible that artists express themselves, they aresure to benefit from studying and using a wide range of examples ofartistic solutions to this problem. It may be helpful to know that most rhythmic kinds of artistry aremost likely to be found in the European artistic tradition called"Romantic." Romantic art appeals strongly to people'semotions and usually consists of flowing lines and shapes. Rhythmicartistry of this kind, however, is not limited to European art: It isvery prominent in the arts of Middle Eastern and Oriental countries aswell as in wood carvings from the Pacific Islands. In contrast, thehistoric style called "Classic" usually means art that wasfirst created in ancient Greece The term ancient Greece refers to the periods of Greek history in Classical Antiquity, lasting ca. 750 BC[1] (the archaic period) to 146 BC (the Roman conquest). It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of Western Civilization. and Rome and usually looks more rigidand unmoving. Some of the more extreme kinds of art that show motion, emphasizeintricate lines and shapes where artists have deliberately avoided usingsymmetry. One Of them is the richly decorated style Decorated style,name applied to the second period of English Gothic architecture from the late 13th to the mid-14th cent. The basic structural elements developed during the Early English style (late 12th and 13th cent. called"Rococo" (like rocks and shells) that appeared in furnitureand interior design during the 18th century in Europe. Romantic paintingof the early 19th century is another, but it is very different fromRococo and usually expresses stronger emotions. Yet a different kind of action in art appeared about 100 years agoin a style called "Art Nouveau art nouveau(är' nvō`), decorative-art movement centered in Western Europe. ." These artists tried to avoidimitating historic styles of art so that their shapes and lines oftenresembled elegant, irregularly drawn waves, grapevines and flames. Someyears later, a style of art called "Futurism futurism,Italian school of painting, sculpture, and literature that flourished from 1909, when Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's first manifesto of futurism appeared, until the end of World War I. " developed amongItalian artists, where abstract lines and shapes captured the actions ofindustry, such as the rhythmic spinning, pumping shapes of wheels andpistons. Finally, an equally active kind of art appeared about 50 yearsago in New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , called "Abstract Expressionism abstract expressionism,movement of abstract painting that emerged in New York City during the mid-1940s and attained singular prominence in American art in the following decade; also called action painting and the New York school. ," whereartists worked rapidly during moments of inspiration without anyadvanced preparation. Students often have difficulty including exciting movement andaction in their art, even though it helps bring artworks to life. Onesolution is to have a class divide into pairs and take turns posing foreach other. A pose may have to do with boxing or perhaps withacrobatics acrobaticsArt of jumping, tumbling, and balancing. The art is of ancient origin; acrobats performed leaps, somersaults, and vaults at Egyptian and Greek events. Acrobatic feats were featured in the commedia dell'arte theatre in Europe and in jingxi (“Peking . If the posing time is no more than two minutes then thestudent making the drawing will be compelled to use lines that aresimple and full of movement. This kind of drawing is often calledgesture drawing Gesture drawing, as performed in art schools, academies, and colleges, is the practice of drawing a series of poses taken by a model in a short amount of time, often as an exercise with which to begin a life drawing session. , because there is no time to include any detail. Another way is to have students pose for a longer time and, whenthe drawing is finished, have it immediately re-drawn, but with all thebody angles tightened up--so that a boxer would be made to crouch closerto the ground and an acrobat's body would look much more lively. Quite a different way of working is for students to make figuresout of soft wire and then bend the wire to make the most active posethey can imagine. When finished, the class should display all thefigures and decide which ones show the most movement. Students shouldthen place the figures in a line from least to most active. Photographsfrom sports magazines and the sports sections of newspapers can be veryhelpful for finding interesting poses. An additional method for students to appreciate rhythmic action isto focus attention on the drawing part of a computer-graphics program.They will soon discover that all kinds of rhythms can be created withthe program tools. The power of the computer enables them to makeintricate geometric shapes This is a list of geometric shapes. Generally composed of straight line segmentspolygon concave polygon constructible polygon quickly and easily that would be extremelydifficult--if not impossible--to do freehand See Macromedia FreeHand. . Shapes can also be easilyrepeated, reduced, enlarged, stretched, distorted and reversed. Fromthis kind of experience, students quickly arrive at an understanding ofthe opportunities available to them for creating feelings of motionwithout necessarily having to show recognizable objects. The four images reproduced in this article are included so thatstudents can see how master artists have used shapes and forms to showmotion and to provide models for students from which they may borrow.For example, Delacroix's fierce painting might help studentsplanning to draw or paint an ice hockey ice hockey:see hockey, ice. ice hockeyGame played on an ice rink by two teams of six players on skates. The object is to drive a puck (a small, hard rubber disk) into the opponents' goal with a hockey stick, thus scoring one point. match. The Stella painting mayhelp students with ideas for their own abstract picture about a themepark or a visit to a traveling fair that features exciting rides. Forthose who enjoy modeling animals, the Barye sculpture may be ofinterest, especially for those who enjoy fantasizing about mythicalbeasts. Not least, since photography offers many opportunities forfreezing actions in a fraction of a second, the Gjon Mili Born in Kor?a, Albania in 1904, (his father was Vasil Mili and his mother Viktori Cekani), Gjon Mili (1904 – 1984) came to the United States in 1923. Fifteen years later he was photographing for LIFE magazine (a relationship that continued until his death in 1984), and his photograph mayencourage students to try similar work with their own photography. Photography freezes scenes and people but really active movementwas difficult to capture until film and shutter speeds became extremelyfast during the last century. An invention that really made a bigdifference was the synchronized flash, that is, when both the flash andthe camera shutter were exactly timed together. This invention tookplace in the laboratory of a famous researcher at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology, Harold Edgerton, in the 1930s and `40s. As a student who had emigrated from Albania and Romania in 1923 andbecame a student at M.I.T., Gjon Mili became interested in the work ofHarold Edgerton. Mili trained as an engineer and, after graduating,worked for the Westinghouse Corp. for 10 years. Eventually, he decidedto become a photographer and again consulted with Edgerton aboutelectronic flash photography before joining the newly establishedpicture magazine, Life, in 1937. In the-years that followed, Mili became well known as a Lifephotographer. He took pictures of celebrities and important events. Hismost creative photographs, however, were taken in theaters. He usedmultiple-image photography to capture many images of dancers in a singlephotograph as they crossed the stage. He also took photographs, like theone seen here, where two dancers have been caught flying through theair. The poses of these two dancers are full of energetic action. We have to guess what happened the instant before the picture wastaken and also immediately afterward. But the photograph, itself, isperfectly still. Gjon Mili made time stand still and yet, in doing so,retained the feeling of tremendous motion. Joseph Stella immigrated to New York from Italy when he was 19.After a visit home in his mid-30s, he went to Paris. Stella was dazzledto discover modern art and began to develop a modern style of his own.In particular, he became interested in the art of some Italian artistswho called themselves "Futurists" and were then living inParis. On his return to New York, he focused on working as a Futurist toshow the speed and mechanical activity to be found everywhere in NewYork. A visit to the fairgrounds n. pl. 1. same as fairground. at Coney Island gave him theinspiration for which he had been searching. This painting established Stella as an important American painter.It consists of a frenzy of glimpses of what he observed at Coney Island.It includes girders and towers, motorized rides, surging crowds, theclatter clat��ter?v. clat��tered, clat��ter��ing, clat��tersv.intr.1. To make a rattling sound.2. To move with a rattling sound: clattering along on roller skates. of music and machinery, excited dancers, brightly lit signs,showers of confetti and much more--all in a single painting. Hetransformed a carnival of chaos into an orderly, yet spinning designthat captures the constant movement on a single piece of canvas. Joseph Stella's art changed several times during his life ashis ideas changed. To get a better understanding of how some artistsfind inspiration from different sources as their careers unfold,students may enjoy looking at others of his pictures. Some artists keepto a single artistic style throughout their lives while otherscontinually search for new ways of expressing themselves. No one way isbest, but it is always more interesting to study most of the work by anartist rather than just one or two pieces. Throughout his life, the French artist, Eugene Delacroix, paintedhighly emotional, often violent scenes that made him the greatest of theRomantic painters of his time. He was first attracted by the work ofsuch artists as Peter Paul Rubens (Flanders), Paolo Veronese (Italy),and Michaelangelo (Italy). Later he found inspiration in the paintingsof John Constable (England). His early work was so violent that itshocked people, but he was eventually recognized as a great artist andspent his career painting pictures that were full of movement. This picture was painted near the end of Delacroix's life andis one of many hunting scenes. It shows the final moments of a hunt whena group of men are attacking two lions and both men and animals arefighting to the death. Delacroix constantly made sketches during histravels--especially in North Africa--to help him later when he paintednew pictures. this one, information he collected about the way peopledressed in North Africa has been used in this picture. Every figure and animal in the painting is twisting and turning asthough caught in the split second of the climax to this lion hunt.Riders are lunging with their lances while others are thrusting withtheir sabres. The ferocious lions are slashing with teeth and claws attheir attackers with equal fury. And all the while, loose clothing isswirling dramatically. Even men who are pinned on the ground are doingtheir best to join the attack. Above all, every face--whether man oranimal--is twisted in fury and effort. Delacroix further adds to the action by using color, light andshadow that creates a pattern of light and dark, which enhances thebarbaric scene. As the son of a goldsmith, AntoineLouis Barye learned early what itwas to be a disciplined craftsman. At 13 he was apprenticed to a metalengraver and later worked with a prominent goldsmith. After seeingsculpture, he became interested in it and as an art student in Paris hewon prizes for his sculpture. Barye eventually became fascinated by wild animals WILD ANIMALS. Animals in a state of nature; animals ferae naturae. Vide Animals; Ferae naturae. and began tostudy actual animals and their habits in the wild. At age 35, heexhibited his first animal sculpture, which made him instantly famous.It was modeled in clay and then cast in bronze Cast in Bronze is a traveling carillon, consisting of 35 cast bronze bells, played by Frank DellaPenna with fists and feet. The total weight of the instrument is 4 tons. . This and many thatfollowed were often examples of predators attacking and killing prey.Some were small and meant to be placed either on mantels over fireplacesor to decorate the centers of banquet tables. However, some of hissculptures were large and were either carved in stone Adj. 1. carved in stone - no longer changeable; "the agreement is not yet set in stone"set in stoneunchangeable - not changeable or subject to change; "a fixed and unchangeable part of the germ plasm"-Ashley Montagu; "the unchangeable seasons"; "one of the or cast in bronze. The subject of this bronze was well known by people in France atthe time. It is a scene from a famous Renaissance poem by the Italianpoet, Ariosto (1532). The story is about Angelica, princess of Cathay,who was chained to a rocky island by a sea monster. The hero, Roger, isa knight who rides a mythical animal, a hippogriff hippogriffoffspring of griffin and mare. [Ital. Lit.: Orlando Furioso]See : Monsters (a winged horse thathas talons and the beak of a hawk). He rescues the princess from the seamonster. This sculpture is of the knight and the princess as they fly tosafety. Like most of Barye's works, this one is full of movement inspite of being a heavy piece of bronze sculpture. The long, soaring lineof the hippogriff's wings, tail and extended legs give thesculpture a powerful feeling of surging through the sky. While thespiral image of the dolphin has a twisting movement, it is really thereto lift the hippogriff and its riders up so they appear to be flying. Guy Hubbard is Professor Emeritus of Indiana University,Bloomington, and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of Arts &Activities.