Fish Vase
1997
Oil on canvas























"Over the last fifty years, Janet Fish has drawn on her embrace of change and her belief in the underlying interconnectedness of things to fuel her remarkable painting practice.  She philosophizes that to stop changing is to die, a conviction that drives her unending formal experimentation and her mastery of multiple genres.  Change inhabits each painting as well.  The objects that serve as armatures for color and light in her work are exuberant in their state of flux.  The long conceptual, formal, and iconographic history of the still life genre confirms our own experience.  Though the artist works against the idea of capturing a photographic instant, she preserves a mood, a quality of light, and a sense of place to which we can continually return."

LOOK at more of Fish's work from the DC Moore Gallery, which represents her (this is also where the blurb above comes from)

READ this: Artist Profile: Janet Fish (as you read, make special note of the many connections between Fish and other artists we have discussed).
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WATCH this:

AFTER CAREFULLY REVIEWING THE RESOURCES ASSIGNED ABOVE: Answer the following questions completely and with specificity to the provided resources, notes taken, personal reflection, and additional research as needed. Make sure to consider how this information is relevant to your current work and practice.
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1. The paintings of Fish and Cézanne are different  -  and they lived and worked at very different times in history. Still, they share similarities. Explain using points from the reading to support your answer.
2. Her work has been described as "photorealist" but she disagrees with this assertion. Explain using points from the reading to support your answer.​
3. The assigned reading, video, and gallery link provided many more topics than those addressed in questions #1 and #2​. Take this opportunity to explain what you found to be of particular interest.

Still Life
1955
12” x 16”
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

READ THIS article (and study the pictures) to get to know Giorgio Morandi and his fascination with still life. Think about HIS explorations with THIS subject as you think about what YOU want to make art about....

New article:  https://mobile.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/arts/design/19mora.html?

Watch this short video - it's an old exhibit but the info. and images are still relevant.

AFTER CAREFULLY REVIEWING THE RESOURCES ASSIGNED ABOVE: Answer the following questions completely and with specificity to the provided resources, notes taken, personal reflection, and additional research as needed. Make sure to consider how this information is relevant to your current work and practice.
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1. Look carefully and thoughtfully at Morandi's work. What words or phrases come to mind? What feeling do you get from the composition, colors, and the work in general?
2. List the artists who inspired Morandi.  What did he take from these artists, in order to finally develop his own style?
3. He called himself a "monk" and others agreed with this nickname, also calling him a "zen master"....why?

CURIOUS? Here's more:
Morandi @ MoMA
Morandi @ TATE

Still Life with Chair Caning
1912
Oil and oilcloth on canvas, with rope frame
10 5/8 x 13 3/4 in. (27 x 35 cm.)
Musée Picasso, Paris

WATCH THESE VIDEOS and take good notes: 

The Basket of Apples
1893
Oil on canvas, 2’ 2” x 2’ 7”
The Art Institute of Chicago

READ THIS and take notes.

Watch this video:

AFTER CAREFULLY REVIEWING THE RESOURCES ASSIGNED ABOVE: Answer the following questions completely and with specificity to the provided resources, notes taken, personal reflection, and additional research as needed. Make sure to consider how this information is relevant to your current work and practice.
1. a) List and explain the hierarchy of subject matter found in paintings at the time in which Cézanne was working. b) Considering where still life lands on this list, why would Cézanne even bother with it?
2. The introduction of photography dramatically changed the way that artists were able to work. With this in with this in mind,  what - specifically - did Cézanne attempt to do in his paintings that was such a drastic change from the norm?
3. Cézanne has been called the "Father of Modern Art." This is a pretty lofty title...what did he do to earn it? 

Still-Life with Fruit and Insects
1711
Oil on wood, 44 x 60 cm (approx. 18” x 24”)
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

READ: Adapted from the National Museum of Women in the Arts):

• Rachel Ruysch was successful for nearly 70 years as a specialist in flower paintings. 
• Ruysch's maternal grandfather, Pieter Post, was an important architect,and her father, Frederik Ruysch, an eminent scientist. From him, she learned how to observe and record nature with great accuracy.
• At 15, she was apprenticed to the well-known Dutch flower painter Willem van Aelst. From that point on, she produced various kinds of still lifes, mainly flower pieces and woodland scenes.
• In 1701, Ruysch became a member of the painters' guild in The Hague. At that time, she began producing large flower works for an international circle of patrons. Several years later, Ruysch was invited to Düsseldorf to serve as court painter to Johann Wilhelm, the Elector Palatine of Bavaria. She remained there from 1708 until the prince's death in 1716.
• After returning to Holland, Ruysch kept painting fruit and flower pictures for a prominent clientele. She remained artistically active, proudly inscribing her age on a canvas she completed in 1747, at age 83.
• Despite the changes in popularity of flower paintings during the years since her death, Ruysch's reputation has never waned.

LOOK AT THIS PAINTING CLOSELY AND READ ABOUT IT'S COMPOSITION (make sure to click on the photo to see it in full)

WATCH BOTH VIDEOS:

Below: Contrast Angelica Kaufmann's Neoclassical work, Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi, Pointing to her Children as Her Treasures, ca.  1785,  with that of Chardin:

Art and art history are inextricably linked... This series will take you through selected periods of art history and will allow you to consider how and why art has changed over the years. This investigation may help you to answer the questions above, although you'll likely change and refine your answers throughout the year. As you consider the life, times, and innovations of each artist, think also about how this knowledge can affect the art that YOU will make.

PLEASE NOTE:

• The thumbnail sketches associated with these sketchbook entries will serve as opportunities to draw every day but they are separate from your "Daily Drawings."
•  A thumbnail sketch is small and quickly done BUT it should still be completed with effort and observation. Pay attention to contours, shapes, proportion, composition, etc. This type of observation helps you to better understand the work of art and how the artist may have approached their work.
• Pay special attention to the ways that art has changed over the years - but perhaps you'll also notice similarities... what drives ALL artists?
• We will only scratch the surface - art history is HUGE and it keeps growing. Take any opportunity to be curious about things that we are not able to cover in this course.

To get us started:

1. Watch the videos below
2. Take notes to document important/interesting facts, bits of information, thoughts, etc.
3. Write a reflective response, which may include some or all of the following:

• ​What did you already know - what information was review from Art 1 or other courses?
• What information was totally new to you - what would you like to investigate further?
• Any other connections or reactions.

The video below is best watched in VR...otherwise, use a smart phone and physically move it around or use the track pad/mouse on a computer.

Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes (see detail)
c. 1625.
Oil on canvas.
1.84m by 1.416m
The Detroit Institute of Arts

Caravaggios's earlier version of the same subject












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Judith Slaying Holofernes
c. 1598-1599
Oil on canvas
1.44m by 1.92m
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica,
Barberini, Rome.

READ AT LEAST THE FIRST PAGE - The Life and Art of Artemisia Gentileschi 
NOTE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PAINTINGS - Info. on Caravaggio's version

AFTER CAREFULLY REVIEWING THE RESOURCES ASSIGNED ABOVE: Answer the following questions completely and with specificity to the provided resources, personal reflection, and additional research as needed:
1. Recount the story that has been illustrated in this painting. 
2. Compare and contrast Caravaggio's original version with that of Gentileschi. To what do you attribute the similarities/differences? 
3. Women weren't given much consideration as artists in this time period...consider how our knowledge (or lack thereof) of Gentileschi relates to our overall knowledge of art history in general.

Crucifixion of St. Peter
Oil on canvas
1601
Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome

FYI - Caravaggio's full name is Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio

In the Christian tradition, Peter is regarded as the first bishop of Rome. He was a chosen follower of Jesus Christ and a casualty of the Roman persecution of Christians. Crucifixion was a common form of punishment for slaves and non-Roman citizens in the time of Jesus Christ. When sentenced to death in the year 64, Peter refused to be crucified upwards as Jesus was, requesting an upside-down death instead. 

READ THIS and take good notes.

WATCH THIS and take good notes:

La Grande Odalisque from the series Les Femmes du Maroc
2008
Color photograph
71 x 86 in. 
VMFA, Richmond

"Lalla Essaydi’s photography explores the charged issue of veiling and revealing that surrounds Islamic women. The women in the series Les Femmes du Maroc are enveloped in Islamic calligraphy, inscribed in henna on their skin, robes, and surrounding interiors. The text entraps them yet recalls a form of decoration often applied in celebration or for good luck. As an evocative response to Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s Grande Odalisque (1814), Essaydi’s image replaces a Western male perspective on “the Orient” with that of a Muslim female."
— John B. Ravenal, Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

READ AND TAKE NOTES:

• ESSAYDI'S ARTIST STATEMENT
• Orientalism in 19th Century Art

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, La Grande Odalisque, 1814, Oil on canvas,
36" x 63" (91 x 162 cm), (Musée du Louvre, Paris)

AFTER CAREFULLY REVIEWING THE RESOURCES ASSIGNED ABOVE: Answer the following questions completely and with specificity to the provided resources, personal reflection, and additional research as needed:
1. Explain the 3 properties of art as you see them in Essadyi's work.
2. What is Orientalism? What inaccuracies have been presented in what Essaydi calls the "Orientalist lens of the West"?
3. How do Essaydi's images "conceal" AND "reveal"?