Modern Figurative Art Essay

The artists used darker colours from the 1830s to the 1860s, and the main subject of the paintings were simple portraits of significant people or self portraits of the artists themselves. As you move further through the sections, there are more scenic and historical paintings, as well as paintings showing everyday situations of the time. I found interesting the amount of landscape/nature paintings, as well as paintings depicting life in Canada in their respective time periods. By the end, we get the more expressionits and abstract paintings that get larger in size as time progressed. Finding Meaning in Art  Ã‚  Art asks us to find our own meaning at times. Find the large work Pavane by Canadian artist Jean-Paul Riopelle in gallery A111.  (a) How is the artist trying to convey meaning?  I think Riopelle is trying to convey meaning in the work by using three very large canvases and a wide variety of colours to attract the viewer’s attention. When you walk into the room the enormous size of the painting get your attention immediately. The three sections are divided for a reason finding in the middle the widest spectrum of colours and other less stand out colour in the surroundings. A very abstract painting, you can tell alot of effort and time has been put into Pavane. (B)What is your interpretation of Pavane?  It took me a long while to try to understand Pavane, I couldn’t really see past the simple strips of coloured paper, and the huge size of the painting, then after a couple of minutes of studying and walking around it I began to notice how the main colours are in the center and aren’t just thrown into the painting randomly, it is very different to the other paintings in the room so I thought perhaps Riopelle was trying to make this piece more modern than the other pieces of work of the time. Trying to be different and to stand out as an artist, just like the colours in Pavane, to be the center of the art world. When I researched Pavane online, I found that it was partially true, because after making this painting he became very successful in the cultural scene.  Nature, Mathematics and Art  After you are through gallery A114, go into the garden. There is a metal piece of art which looks like DNA. You are allowed to play with this if you choose. Look at the plants more closely.  Ã‚  (a) Is nature itself art? If so, does that mean everything is art? Nature is not art, but is the basis of it, its there so we can turn it into our own personal interpretation of it. Its when a human takes nature and creatively does something with it so that it influences and affects the senses, emotions, and/or intellect that it actually becomes art. Human intervention is what makes Art, Art.  (b) Do you think computers can create REAL art on their own, or are people required to create art? Computers cannot create art because they are incapable of having emotions and to convey meaning to a work of art. Besides, computers are made my man, so if a computer creates art, it is because a human has programmed the computer to able to create it.  Architecture  Next to the fern garden is the now reconstructed Rideau Street Convent Chapel. Sit in it for a moment to rest.  (a) Do you think this chapel has a rightful place in an art gallery? Why or why not?  I think the chapel doesn’t have a rightful place in the art gallery because even though its very pretty and decorative I found it to be too modern for my liking, and also didn’t have much to do with what the subjects in the previous rooms were. There was religion influence in the some paintings but in the majority. It would be conveniently placed in a section that includes more religious sculptures and works of art. (b) What qualities do you think buildings need to be called good architecture?  Good architecture is a building intentionally done to communicate a certain message and that took a lot of hard work and thought into making. If it is creating solely to serve a purpose it is not art, but if it also has an idea or a message built into it, it’s when it becomes art.  (c) Excluding Parliament Hill, Chateau Laurier, Supreme Court of Canada, the National Gallery of Canada, museums, or any other government building – Name one building in Ottawa you consider art and one building you think is not art. Explain. I found the Notre Dame Cathedral very impactful when I first got here, I think its art because it was built not just as a church but to evoke a religious response from people, the originality of the silver material its made from make it an attractive and artistic structure.  A building that is not art would be just a regular ScotiaBank office building, this is because of many reasons, there was no emotion or idea put into it, its is not attractive of artistic in any way and there are many of these in almost every Canadian city, which takes out its originality.