Period and Culture

The first painting is titled "Kindred Spirits" painted by Asher Brown Durand. The second is a sketch by Rembrandt van Rijn titled "Seated Old Man." Both works of art show major examples of period and culture. Period is a phase in the development of the work of an artist, groups of artists or art movement. Culture generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. Asher Brown Durand's "Kindred Spirits" was created in the 1800s while "Seated Old Man" by Rembrandt was created in the 1600s.

"Kindred Spirits" was created in the 19th century during the Modern World period. During this period modernty reflected the emergence of a new kind of society in the wake of the French Revolution, the American Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution. Driven by technological progress and characterized by rapid change, the 19th century gave birth to our industrialized middle-classed culture. Asher Brown Durand's culture (Hudson River School) was built on painting the "American Landscape." The importance of the Hudson River School waned after the Civil War and its leading practitioners looked to the exotic beauty of foreign lands for inspiration.

"Seated Old Man" by Rembrandt was created in the 17th cenury in which the period of Renaissance an Romanticism emerged. Within this period it was a Renaissance in the sense of a flowering, excitement over human possibilities, and a high regard for individual ego. Their inability to resolve this struggle--and it was even more a personal one than a nationalistic one, for it questioned their identity and place in society--did much to fire them creatively. However, we will call this American romanticism, an artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 17th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions. These are some significant background information for the two art works on periods and culture.

EKPHRASIS

The Old Bearded Man, sturdy and peasantlike, looks with reflective intensity at a black bird perched above his head, grasping a large hunk of bread in its beak. The man is wearing a blue robe with a pink cape tied around his neck. He is sitting under a tree, whos trunk is very wide and shaped like a mountain. To the upper right corner of the painting a branch hangs over the man with a black raven on it. The man gazes at the bird holding his head (from the back) with his right hand for support. His left hand rests on his left leg. In the bacground to the left of the painting (to his right) their is a field with three small figures looking acroos a river which shows a scenery of trees and then mountains. In the sky is a small chariot of fire with blue skies.

ANDY WARHOL: MARKETING

"In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes." I'm bored with that line. I never use it anymore. My new line is, "In fifteen minutes everybody will be famous."

American artist, social commentator, and icon Andy Warhol, perhaps best known for his stylistic paintings of Marilyn Monroe and Campbell Soup cans, changed art forever. Before there were companies such as Nike and even Levis, Andy understood the power of the media to build an image. When he coined the famous fifteen minutes label, Warhol could well have been discussing the power of marketing. After all, marketing can turn a reviously unknown label or company into a global force.


Warhol summarizes the progression of his career in the world of art and in many ways this progression must be attributed to an intuitive response to the fundamental workings of the American art market during this period.Warhol's major success as a fine artist was due to an ingenius ploy of self-marketing that owed to his redefinition of a contemporary American art and art production and to his own flamboyant existence, thus attracting the vital publicity to reach his goals of celebrity and material success.

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)

"An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have but that he - for some reason - thinks it would be a good idea to give them."

No other artist is as much identified with Pop Art as Andy Warhol. The media called him the Prince of Pop. Warhol made his way from a Pittsburgh working class family to an American legend. He began as a commercial illustrator doing prints, editions, silkscreens, trial proofs and paintings. Warhol's activities became more and more entrepreneurial. He started the magazine Interview and even a night-club. In 1974 the Factory was moved to 860 Broadway. In 1975 Warhol published THE philosophy of Andy Warhol. In this book he describes what art is: "Making money is art, and working is art and good business is the best art." Andy Warhol died February 22, 1987 from complications after a gall bladder operation. More than 2000 people attended the memorial mass at St.Patrick's Cathedral

Movement & Style

The first painting is titled "Kindred Spirits" painted by Asher Brown Durand. The second is a sketch by Rembrandt van Rijn titled "Seated Old Man." Both works of art show major examples of movement and style. Movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal. Asher Brown Durand's "Kindred Spirits" was created in the 1800s while "Seated Old Man" by Rembrandt was created in the 1600s. Brown was an American painter of the Hudson River school. Rembrandt on the other hand is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history.

During 1849 their was a Hudson School River Art Movement. The name given to a number of American landscape painters working between 1825-1875, inspired by their pride in the beauty of their homeland. The three founders, and probably the most important figures were Thomas Cole, Thomas Doughty and Asher B Durand. The patriotic spirit of the painters of The Hudson River School won them great popularity in the middle of 19th Century. Rembrandt was in the Baroque period. Baroque Art emerged in Europe around 1600, as an reaction against the intricate and formulaic Mannerist style which dominated the Late Renaissance. Baroque Art is less complex, more realistic and more emotionally affecting than Mannerism.
This movement was encouraged by the Catholic Church, the most important patron of the arts at that time, as a return to tradition and spirituality.

These art works also express style. Style refers to a characteristic or group of characteristics that we recognize as constant, reccuring, or coherent. The style that both "Kindred Spirits" and "Seated Old Man" presents is representational. Representational covers a broad range of approaches. It is very faithful to visual experience, recording how forms are revealed by light and shadow, how bodies reflect an inner structure of bone and muscle, how fabric drapes over bodies and objects, and how gravity makes weight felt. This approach is also considered NATURALISTIC! In "Kindred Spirits" Asher Brown Durand set out to represent the visible world in such a way that we recognize a likeness. He also shows visual experience and recorded how forms are revealed by light and shadow. In "Seated Old Man" Rembrandt shows how fabric drapes over bodies and object and how gravity makes weight felt. These are a few examples of movement and style in my two art works.