Oh wow, it's been a while. To be honest, doing night shifts have really destroyed me and my energy levels to do anything else. Well that and my general laziness. I'll try to do a lot more of these the next couple days, an attempt to make up for all the posts I kept reminding myself to make but never actually did. I've actually had this post in my drafts for about a month, I just didn't get around to actually properly writing it.
Another Degas to Dali discovery, and I had no knowledge of this work before I laid eyes on it. To be honest, the subject was not immediately clear to me and it still isn't the first thing I see when I look at it, this is a prime example to me of seeing something completely different to what I think the artist intended.
What I see is a dystopia, a run down and drizzly place, crowded by looming buildings. The cubism style that Feininger has adopted is harsh, with sharp contrasts between light and dark to define the lines. This harshness adds to this bleak atmosphere I get. It's oppressive, like a giant hand pressing on my chest when I look at it.
What's interesting to me is that it was painted as a quiet church scene in a cubism style. It's like this quiet image and the desolate society that I created around it in my head. It's really cool though, because my vision and that of Feininger seem to shift when I stare at the work. One moment it's this rainy, gloomy statement about oppressive governments, the next it's a quiant church.
It's not that I have to choose between my view of the subject or the painters intentions while painting it, both are different but right. There's this oscillation when I look at it, it's always morphing and shifting. To me, this is the perfect example of the differences in the artist and audience view of the work. It differs from person to person... Or is it I just take an abstract view to paintings? I don't care, I like the work either way.
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| Lyonel Feininger, Gelmeroda III (1913) Oil on canvas 100.50 x 80.00 cm |
What I see is a dystopia, a run down and drizzly place, crowded by looming buildings. The cubism style that Feininger has adopted is harsh, with sharp contrasts between light and dark to define the lines. This harshness adds to this bleak atmosphere I get. It's oppressive, like a giant hand pressing on my chest when I look at it.
What's interesting to me is that it was painted as a quiet church scene in a cubism style. It's like this quiet image and the desolate society that I created around it in my head. It's really cool though, because my vision and that of Feininger seem to shift when I stare at the work. One moment it's this rainy, gloomy statement about oppressive governments, the next it's a quiant church.
It's not that I have to choose between my view of the subject or the painters intentions while painting it, both are different but right. There's this oscillation when I look at it, it's always morphing and shifting. To me, this is the perfect example of the differences in the artist and audience view of the work. It differs from person to person... Or is it I just take an abstract view to paintings? I don't care, I like the work either way.
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