List - 81

Week One: 2/2/24

David Hockney -
David Hockney is one of the most influential painters of the 20th
century. His “slice of life” paintings, as well as his vibrant and satisfying color palette,
satisfies the eyes of his viewers. Hockey quotes, “In art, new ways of seeing mean new
ways of feeling; you can't divorce the two, as we are now aware, you cannot have time
without space and space without time.” Hockney attended the Royal College of Art in
London, and studied under Francis Bacon and Peter Blake, who are also painters.
However, Hockney sparks true inspiration from painters such as Pablo Picasso and
Henri Matisse. Hockney’s work is currently being shown at the The Museum of Modern
Art in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the J. Paul Getty Museum in
Los Angeles, and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.

I find inspiration from David Hockney because of his use of pleasing colors, as well as
his intentional paint strokes. Below is Hockney’s 1980 piece Pool. Notice the thick
strokes to indicate the waves of the water. These stroke marks are not that significant,
because the orange diving board would indicate this is a pool. Hockney intentionally
added these strokes to further signify the waves of the pool, and how calm the water is
causing the viewer to feel calm, and maybe even hear the sound of the splashing water.

David Hockney, Pool David Hockney, Sunflower and David Hockney, Woldgate Woods
1980, lithograph on paper Three Oranges 2006, oil on canvas
1996, oil on canvas
Barbara Kruger -
Barbara Kruger is a contemporary artist known for her use of bold
colors, such as red, white, and black. Her work themes around cultural and social
standpoints in modern society. Kruger’s striking colors, as well as the Futura Bold
Oblique font, was inspired by Constructivist Alexander Rodchenko. Kruger claims, “I
work with pictures and words because they have the ability to determine who we are,
what we want to be and what we become.” Kruger uses language to express her ideas
in a multitude of ways, including prints, t-shirts, posters, photographs and other formats.
She studied at both Syracuse University and Parsons School of Design under Diane
Arbus and Marvin Israel. Kruger’s works are hosted at The Museum of Modern Art in
New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago,
the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and more. She is widely recognized as one of the
most influential graphic designers of the late twentieth century.

I find inspiration from Barbara Kruger because her work conveys a powerful message
about political and social debates. Her art makes her audience deeply think about the
message and less about the art itself. I’d like for my art to be thought provoking like
Kruger’s, and for my audience to have a take away from my work.

Barbara Kruger, Untitled Barbara Kruger, Untitled Barbara Kruger, Untitled

2011, archival pigment print 1989, photographic silkscreen on 2011, archival pigment print
vinyl
Frida Kahlo -
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter known for her complex self-portraits.
Inspired by art from her hispanic heritage, Kahlo created intense but beautiful works,
with one critic describing her art as a “ribbon around a bomb.” Kahlo stated, “My
paintings are well-painted, not nimbly but patiently,” she once said of her work. “My
painting contains in it the message of pain.” Kahlo studied philosophy and medicine
when she was young, but after a traumatic bus accident, she began to pick up painting
while she was bedbound. After she recovered, she decided to abandon her academic
pursuits and take in painting full time. Kahlo’s art has spread into exhibitions nationwide,
reaching the United States and even Europe, despite the health problems she was
facing then. She died in her home, La Casa Azul, at the age of 47, but the house was
since transformed into the Museo Frida Kahlo to honor her memory and display her
talent. Kahlo’s art is displayed in multiple museums in America, including The Museum
of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the de Young
Museum in San Francisco, the National Museum of Women in the Art in Washington,
D.C, and more.

I find inspiration from Frida Kahlo’s art because while she doesn’t meet the American
beauty standards, she fully embraces her nativism and culture without shame. She
doesn’t depict herself that’d be comfortable with her unfamiliar audience; she’s proud of
her nonconforming beauty standard and she shows that in her art. Growing up, I always
got bullied for my appearance, so I can resonate personally with Kahlo’s work.
Additionally, her colors are very mellow and, when she draws herself in nature (see
1951 Self-portrait), she uses natural yet vibrant colors.

Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait (Very Ugly) Frida Kahlo, Self-portrait Frida Kahlo, Autorretrato (Self
Portrait)
1933, fresco on Celotex board 1951, mixed media work on paper 1945, pencil and pastel
Week Two: 2/9/24

Andy Warhol -
When the Pop Art movement erupted during the mid to late 50s, Andy
Warhol became a prominent figure during the period. His vibrant work included
recognizable icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Campbell’s Soup Cans,
and Brillo Boxes. “The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the
people in it do,” he once explained. After graduating from the Carnegie Institute of
Technology in 1949, Warhol moved to New York to pursue his career in commercial
illustration, working for magazines like Vogue and Glamour. Warhol was very private
about his personal life, including his sexuality, but he would make subtle references of
his orientation through his art. This is most known in his drawings of male nudes from
the 1950s. During the 1980s, Warhol collaborated with several younger artists, including
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francesco Clemente, and Keith Haring. After his death, the
artist’s estate became The Andy Warhol Foundation and in 1994, a museum dedicated
to the artist and his oeuvre opened in his native Pittsburgh. Today, his works are held in
the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Modern Art in New York, and
the Tate Gallery in London, among others. A major retrospective of Warhol's work took
place at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York in 2019.

I’m inspired by Warhol’s art due to his depiction of “hard to talk about” subjects,
like sex and gender. I would like my art to be striking and thought provoking, and to
discuss the rare subjects that are barely talked about in art.

Francis Bacon -
Francis Bacon was an Irish painter, becoming one of the most unique
and engaging artists to emerge during the post-war period. His disturbing and
uncomfortable imagery included contorted limbs, mouths agape, and blood, which
explored nihilism and death when Europe was being heavily affected by war at the time.
Bacon would notably take others’ work, and recreate them into his own grotesque form
of style. “I feel ever so strongly that an artist must be nourished by his passions and his
despairs,” he once said. “The feelings of desperation and unhappiness are more useful
to an artist than the feeling of contentment, because desperation and unhappiness
stretch your whole sensibility.” Bacon grew up as a self-taught artist, and he became
part of the local art scene in the British capital with some of his other art friends. After
Bacon’s lover died in 1972, his art heavily revamped with a new focus on mortality.
Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York,
the Tate Gallery in London, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hugh Lane in Dublin, and
the Albertina in Vienna, among others.

I’m inspired by Bacon’s art due to his graphic nature. He creates horrific art, and
as someone who’s into the dark and macabre, I find interest in his work. His colors are
dark and mellow, but I personally believe it adds to the feeling of the work.

Pablo Picasso -
When you think of 20th century art, one of the first artists you think
about is Pablo Picasso. His use of form, color, and perspective heavily influenced the
later community of painters, including David Hockney. “There are artists who transform
the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence,
transform a yellow spot into the sun,” he once said. His father, also a painter, admired
his son’s talents at a very young age, and inspired him to be a painter as well. Picasso
transitioned through different art periods, from Neo-Impressionism to his Blue Period
and Rose Period. Satisfied, he finally reached a permanent style in his piece Les
Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907). Inspired by African sculptures, he began a new style
called Cubism. Picasso additionally worked with collages, sculptures, and ceramics.
Picasso was deeply influenced by the tragedies of the Spanish Civil War, which led him
to create one of his most popular pieces Guernica (1937). Today, his works are held in
the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London,
the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, as well as institutions devoted solely to his
work, including the Museo Picasso Málaga, the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, and the
Musée National Picasso in Paris.

I find interest in Picasso’s work due to its abstractness. Often, as a society, we

look for sense and aesthetics but Picasso’s work intentionally doesn’t make sense.
Proportions are off, non-realistic shapes are used, but it still conveys emotions within
the viewer. These nonsensical aspects start to make sense when decades later, it’s
believed Picasso suffered from undiagnosed dementia or Alzheimer’s.

Week Three: 2/16/24

Alice Neel -
Alice Neel was an American painter known for her Expressionistic portraits
of her close ones. Her use of line and color impacted her viewers, and even lends a
psychological weight to her subject matter. “Whether I'm painting or not, I have this
overwhelming interest in humanity,” she explained. “Even if I'm not working, I'm still
analyzing people.” She grew up in a strict middle class family, which did not support her
artistic career. Despite her family’s lack of support, she went to study at the Philadelphia
School of Design for Women in 1921. After moving from Cuba to New York and losing
her infant daughter, her subject matter rapidly altered to focus more on motherhood,
loss, and anxiety. Neel’s works are included in the collections of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery in
Washington, D.C., the Tate Gallery in London, and the Whitney Museum of American
Art in New York, among many others.
 I’m inspired by Neel’s art because of her variety of subject matter.
Personally, I will create fanwork for franchises I like, but I’m trying to branch out into a
more realistic style of painting, as well as dabble in more graphic design ideas.

Paula Modersohn-Becker -
Paula Modersohn-Becker was a German painter who’s best
known for a range of different works, including expressionistic self-portraits, scenes of
mother-children bonding, and moody landscapes. Painted in rich hues and rough
brushstrokes in both oil and tempera, her works have a mysterious vibe. Becker first
experimented with paint after visiting the Kunsthalle Bremen, an art museum, in 1893.
This experience inspired her to get private teaching at the Union of Berlin Female Artists
only three years later. She rejected the artistic norm and instead painted herself and
other women nude. She married Otto Modersohn, another painter, and the two along
with some other artistic peers traveled to see different exhibitions. At only 31 years old,
she passed away due to an embolism. The Paula Becker-Modersohn Museum, a
private museum and gallery, opened in Bremen in the autumn of 2007, built in the
house where she spent much of her early life. In 2016, Christian Schwochow’s film
Paula was released, portraying the artist’s brilliant and brief career. Today, her works
are found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Städel Museum in
Frankfurt, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Kunstmuseum Basel, and the
National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Aaron Douglas -
Aaron Douglas became widely known as one of the most accomplished
and influential artists of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural revival of African American
music, dance, art, fashion, and other forms of art based in Harlem, New York from the
1920s to 1930s. In 1918, Douglas would attend the University of Nebraska and in 1922,
he earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. He accepted a teaching position at a high
school in Missouri, but he later found inspiration from the cultural movement in Harlem
via two periodicals. He soon began to create art themed around the Harlem
Renaissance, and became one of the most influential figures in Harlem who were
actively recruiting young African American artists to join the movement.

Week Four: 2/23/24

Louis Bourgeois -
Jackson Pollock -

Fred Tomaselli -