Bird - digital illustration - Tara Bartal
Probably the best way to really break it down is to examine a piece of work. I want to make a note here from a very famous artist, you may have heard of him….
“When I paint a bowl, I want to show you that it is round, of course. But the general rhythm of the picture, its composition framework, may compel me to show the round shape as a square. When you come to think of it, I am probably a painter without style. ‘Style’ is often something that ties the artist down and makes him look at things in one particular way, the same technique, the same formulas, year after year, sometimes for a whole lifetime. You recognize him immediately, for he is always in the same suit, or a suit of the same cut. There are, of course, great painters who have a certain style. However, I always thrash about rather wildly. I am a bit of a tramp. You can see me at this moment, but I have already changed, I am already somewhere else. I can never be tied down, and that is why I have no style,” ~Picasso
As we try to examine the “why” of everything, we need to understand that sometimes there is no direct answer. There are cases where the art is there because someone had an idea and whether it was right, wrong, good, bad or indifferent they chose to create something from a vision.
I am going to take a look at Vase of Sunflowers by Henri Matisse.
Vase of Sunflowers - 1898 - Henri Matisse
The painting is an oil on canvas and it was done in 1898.
Form: style – Impressionism, technique – Divisionism, media – Oil on canvas. These forms are based on the historical knowledge of Matisse. In order to understand the form in which an artist or a designer uses you do have to look into the history of that artist and what may have influenced them.
Today, many artist’s have what is called an artist’s statement. This statement gives the information about what influences an artist and what their style and technique may be as well as their media.
Content: subject matter – a vase sitting on a table with sunflowers in it. Here the content is obvious, even though the painting is impressionistic, one can see the realistic image of the vase, table and sunflowers.
Studying form and content in any art piece can usually enhance one’s experience of the piece. There are things going on in a painting or image that one may not recognize but, once it is pointed out to them, the appreciation of the piece may grow from an emotional standpoint as well as the visual.
