Image diary

By Naia Smith

2-D Design

Fall 2013

Brightly colored, irregularly shaped planes are layered against a neutral background. The curved bottom edge of a gray shape emerging from beneath a red triangle and a white trapezoid suggests three-dimensionality. Vibrant colors and extending edges out of the canvas conveys energetic movement.

Lyubov Popova (Minimalism)

Rectangular blocks of color hover in a column against a colored ground. Their edges are soft and irregular. I sense a gentle movement, as blocks emerge and recede.

Mark Rothko- No. 3/No. 13(1949)

Abstract composition with opaque geometric shapes. The red and black crossbeams overlap each other with varying levels of translucency.

László Moholy-Nagy- Composition A 19 (1927)

Balances four converging forms to suggest a complex prism of color. Upon closer inspection the painting appears completely asymmetrical.

Frank Stella- Hyena Stomp (1962)

The intersecting circles and spacing of the stripes add tension and movement within the pattern, while also visually creating the effect of different textures.

Lyubov Popova-Textile Design(1924)

The dog’s eyes are eerily human and convey a hopeless struggle.  The looseness of the brushwork, the simplified composition and the lack of formal organization seemingly indicate an abstract composition.

Francisco de Goya- Half Submerged Dog (1819-23)

All shades seem close to each in color, and they are all muted or dull. No bright color stands out. These factors make the entire surface of the painting appear unified in color.

Pablo Picasso-Girl With a Mandolin(1910)

The colors are harmonized between cold colors. Certain areas of the mans body seem enlightened of a certainly lunar white light. It comes from up top and gives an almost unreal and ghostly aspect to the man. I feel a sense emptiness and coldness; however the playing of guitar seems to bring the man at ease.

Pablo Picasso- The Old Guitarist (1903)

Low to mid-key composition where light exists very luminously in the foreground, specifically the lights of the street. The use of lines creates a sense of space and movement.

Umberto Boccioni-Forces of a Street(1911)

The composition is asymmetrical. It is darker on the right than on the left, and its human subject is off-center and out of focus. Her down facing head creates a sense of casual intimacy.

Pierre Bonnard- The Bathroom Date (1932)

When looking at the image my eye follows and sets on the dark areas in which shadows are casted on the house, as it pulls me in and up into the house. The loneliness of the house is what really comes through in the painting.

Edward Hopper- House by the railroad(1925)

The coloring, horizontal orientation, and sense of ground and space strongly convey nature. The lines seem organic and exhausted while they appear to be as thick and thin, light and dark, straight and curved.

Jackson Pollock- Autumn Rhythm: Number 30 (1950)

The painting distinguishes the sky, water and nature. The “fairies” seem to emerge from the water and into an ethereal fog that dissipates into the horizon. There is a contrast between hot colors and cold colors.

Johan Malmstrom- Dancing Fairies(1866).

The vast sky and tranquil sea meet at the horizon line, bringing a sense of spacious light to the picture. Yet from up close they also have a peculiar visual density. The painting cuts off and suggest the extension of the image past its boundaries. Muted color composition conveys a quiet and soothing view.

Georges Seurat-Evening, Honfleur (1886)

My eye is immediately focused on the woman in white. Overall composition uses color as a way for conveying mood, creating an expressive atmosphere. The covering of ears and bending trees suggest movement and noise.

Edvard Munch- The Storm (1893)

The horse and figures are blurred, communicating rapid movement while other elements, such as the buildings in the background, are rendered more realistically. Brushstrokes appear very small and meticulous, conveying movement and rhythm throughout the cityscape.

Umberto Boccioni-The City Rises (1910)

Fluid movement of line combines with limited fields of color to create movement. The spaces between colors give the overall composition extra volume.

James Dubuffett- L'Hourloupe (1966)

James Dubuffet- L'Hourloupe (1966)

Prismatic colors in a blissful and natural scene. Use of color creates a warm and relaxing aroma. The forms are connected by use of line, adding a dimension of linear exactness to the composition.

Henri Matisse-The Joy of Life (1906)

A muted London sky with a dramatic use of cool and warm colors. Painting is purged of shadows and filled with the imaginative, unbridled colors.

André Derain-Charing Cross Bridge(1905-06)

Colors are finely tuned giving the composition a sense of unification. Brush strokes helps animate the painting, and also give it a kind of rhythm and movement.

James Ensor- Masks Confronting Death(1888)

Composition uses color to creates dimension and texture. Brushstrokes appear to be completely spontaneous and reflective of the artist mood.

Willem de Kooning- Door to the River (1960)

Abstract portrait of a bull, structured by gestural waves rendered in the warm tones of a desert landscape. Brushstrokes appear

Elaine de Kooning- Sunday Afternoon(1957)

Composition of muted colors, strange translucent figures, horizontal lines, angles, and swirls that create a vibrant yet veiled picture of an obscure primeval landscape.

Mark Rothko-Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea(1944)

Composition is mostly devoid of color. Rather it is dominated by a variety of grays that create a shallow spatial dimension. The muddy tones convey a deep and haunting image while the lonesome yellow-lily sharply contrasts with the rest of the painting.

Max Beckmann-Adam and Eve (1917)

Paul Gauguin-Still Life with Three Puppies(1888)

A still life of fruit in the foreground, a row of three blue goblets and apples diagonally bisecting the canvas, and three puppies drinking from a pan. The incongruous scale and placement of these objects on a dramatically upturned tabletop results in a disorienting composition.

An asymmetrical composition balanced by the horizontal bridge, the boats floating upon the waves with the vertical wharf and ladder in the foreground. The entire background rests in a layer of mist containing a range of colors that creates a dense atmosphere that renders the city in the distance.

Claude Monet-The Thames below Westminster(1871)

Cityscape appears to be warped or distorted. The quick, gestural use of line creates a sense of immediacy and speed within the piece, capturing the essence of a busy city. Clashing blues and yellows depict the painting throughout.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner-Nollendorfplatz(1912)

This painting expresses movement and activity with an employed red and blue, using white to mark the spaces between colors, giving the composition extra volume.

Fernand Leger- Contrast of Forms(1913)

Uses abstract shapes to symbolize an urban landscape. Many colors collide as volumes and flat shapes both recede and move forward in space, creating a collage effect that reflects a strange beauty.

Fernand Leger- The city (1919)

Composition is depicted through daubs of paint as opposed to being visually depicted. The looming mountains resembles a puzzle set of various hues, assembled into a recognizable object making the overall composition representational.

Paul Cézanne- Mont Sainte, (1905)

The colors are vibrant and express emotions typically associated with the life of sunflowers. Uses yellow hues to describe and express the lifespan of the flowers. Bright yellows representing life and arid browns death. Utilizes line and texture by applying each sunflower with the nature of life.

Vincent van Gogh-Fourteen Sunflowers in a Vase(1888)

The roiling storm clouds on the left, painted in short, pull my eyes to the right where they fade into the dark blue-black horizon. Use of cool colors creates an expressive atmosphere. Feelings of nostalgia and loneliness take over as I imagine myself under the cool blue sky while the green compensates and gives a sense of peace and ease.

Vincent van Gogh- Wheatfield under thunderclouds(1890)

A luminous surface is shown using contrasting colors and tones that pulses with an interior light. The lines of composition all point to the center of the work drawing the eye along the pavement as if the viewer is strolling the cobblestone streets.

Vincent van Gogh- Café terrace At Night(1888)

The dark colors of the painting allude to a horrific visual. The striated lines that fall above the two figures obstruct my view while creating visual movement. Faces seem to be smeared or faded, conveying a sense of exhaustion.

Francis Bacon- Two Figures (1953)

The contrasting warm and cool shades here create the ambiguous illusion of three-dimensional structures. Difficult to tell weather concave or convex. Wide use of color spectrum.

Victor Vasarely- Duo 2 (1967)

Abstract expressionism. The light is produced by the warm colors: orange, red. It employs stylized lines and curves, as well as a bright contrast to the low values which magnifies its proposed vision of nature.

Franz Marc- Fighting Forms(1914)

My eyes get lost following the sway of the crowd. People are running in all the directions which induces an impression of disorder and chaos. It is a scene of havoc where red dominates all.

Georg Grosz. Metropolis. (1916-17).

Palette is comprised of cool colors dominated by blues and grays, though the accents of red, yellow, and orange add to the visual dynamic of the composition. The figures hand goes unrecognized and lost inside the whirlpool of completely abstracted forms that structures the composition.

Kazimir Malevich- Woman with pails(1912-13)

Using repetitive images the composition produces the illusion of movement while also making a dramatic use of shadow and light. A combination of photography and painting.

Andy Warhol- Self-Portrait(1986)

My eyes meet hers as they continue down her body and through the exquisite use of chromatic chords. Atmospheric perspective is relevant. Palm trees are a sunflower yellow to make the trees more pronounced while adding very little contrast. Her calmness and nakedness show the comfortable aspects of being in nature.

Paul Gauguin-The Seed of the Areoi(1892)

Very intense and almost frightening self portrait. The use of line and contour give the subject a grotesque body, fully exposed with his face partially hidden suggesting a sense of shame and anxiety.

Egon Schiele- Self-Portrait(1910)

Nature is evoked in the lightness and transparency of the medium, in the placement of the subject, and in the inferred movement. Brushstrokes create the illusion of light and shadow. Colored lines and planes and overlapping shades create a spatial depth of the subject.

Paul Cezanne- Foilage (1895)

A sense of airiness and movement flows through the dense weave of brushstrokes while also creating a shimmering effect. The painting appears nearly abstract from the use of strokes. Trees cut off obscuring the sky beyond.

Paul Cézanne- Pines and Rocks(1897)

Brightly colored abstract composition. Uneven rectangles and trapezoids create paths leading one's eye from the bottom of the page to the horizon. Broad trapezoids painted pale hues are arranged down the center to suggest a main path. Overall artist manipulates color, shape, and line to create a sense of high depth and movement.

Paul Klee-Highway and Byways(1928)