I personally thought that Dreams and Reality was very inspirational in a melancholic sense. In a nutshell - some of the artworks were very melancholic and some were more inspirational than others. When we first stepped into the exhibition I found myself in this dimly lit space with a huge quote by Charles Baudelaire at the side which I found to be a very "dramatic" statement.
Here is the inspirational quote: "The transitory, the fleeting and the contingent make up half of art, the other half is made up of the eternal and the immutable... In order that any form of modernity may be worthy of becoming antiquity, the mysterious beauty that human life instills in it must be deliberately extracted from it." - Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867)
Just a thought. In the 1800s what was considered modern may well be considered as ancient now. So I was thinking that the concept of modern art changes with time. What we now consider to be modern art today will in the future be considered as ancient (if time goes that far ahead). We learnt that in the past there were definitive major art movements of the periods standing out among other artistic currents classified by chronological order. (eg. Neo-Classicism, Renaissance art) However, today, art has developed so much that there are so many art movements all at once!
There was a hushed silence as we first entered, a sort of reverence as people gazed fixatedly upon the artworks. This was the tense, cold environment that I somehow found myself in. Moving back to the quote, maybe that's what Charles Baudelaire meant - when the "mysterious beauty.. human life instills in (eternal and immutable art is) deliberately extracted from it". The environment that was created as we gazed upon the paintings reminded me of cold marble - beautiful but nonetheless so cold. Like the impressions you get when you look at an ancient Grecian sculpture - so real yet so lifeless. "Cold austere beauty" would be the words to describe this.
This was the impression that I got. It's a general first impression, and doesn't really apply to all the artworks in the exhibition. But throughout the exhibition, people were moving carefully around the place and talking in hushed tones, like they were in a dream...
Okay, now moving on to the artworks that caught my eye!
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| Siesta, 1889 by Hans Thoma |
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| Detail of Siesta |
The first artwork that kind of broke the careful, tense, heavy atmosphere was a refreshing plein-air painting. The artist, Hans Thoma, was influenced by Gustave Courbet! (Here all the excitement comes in because Courbet was in the AEP syllabus before. The feeling of We know Courbet!) I was inspired by Hans Thoma because he was skilful in Renaissance painting and used it as a medium to for contemporary expression. It is a good idea to pick out the good stuff (eg. realistic painting) and employ it to suit your desired use (contemporary expression). Inspiration :D I like the sfumato employed in the painting, which gives the painting its realistic quality. I tried bending really close to see how Mr. Thoma did it (if it's even possible), but to no avail. The brushstrokes were so fine that the whole painting looks like different colours fused together in one seamless layer. Except for the yellow blobs which signify flowers. The shiny texture looks like acryllic paint!
Two young people relaxing in a serene spot by a countryside. I love the way Thoma depicted the light forming a pathway (because of the shadows) which directs the viewer's attention diagonally across the painting, promoting eye movement around the entire scene. His placing of the young people in the shade also add on to the realistic feel (they are relaxing under the shade, which is what some people do if given a choice when faced with the sun outdoors).
Short write-up on Siesta, 1889, Hans Thoma: This artwork depicts a shirtless young man and a woman in a peach dress, probably in fashion during that era, resting together in a grassy field filled with yellow flowers. Behind them is a landscape typical of 17th century French painter Nicholas Poussin. The man is in a relaxed posture which brings to mind... Portrait of Eugene Chen by Georgette Chen.
In Portrait of Eugene Chen, Mr Chen is sitting back in his chair in an unguarded posture, his body slanting towards the viewers' right, an arm holding a book in his lap. Similarly, the young man in Thoma's painting assumes a relaxed body position slanted to the right, with one arm on his lap. An unguarded, unassuming posture.
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| Portrait of Eugene Chen, by Georgette Chen. |
See the resemblance?
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