Mark Rothko

 Mark Rothko was a painter who was identified in a group "New York School" - a group of painters that emerged during the 1940's as a new collective voice. During his time, which spanned 5 decades, he created a new and impressions form of abstract painting. Rothko's work focus' on colour, shape and depth - which became the definition of "it isn't what one paints, it's how it's painted."

           By 1949 Rothko had introduced a compositional format that he would continue to develop throughout his career. Comprised of several vertical rectangular forms set within a coloured field, Rothko's image left itself to a remarkable individual appearance.

About Rothko

Mark Rothko was born "Marcus Rothkowitz" in Dvinsk, Russia on September 25 1903. He was the fourth child of Jacob Rothkowitz who was a pharmasist. His mother, Anna Goldin Rothkowitz married Jacob in 1886. Rothko and his family immigrated to the United States when he was ten years old, and settled in Portland Oregon. 

In 1970 Rothko committed suicide by slashing his wrists. His mural is hung, which was his biggest commission, that he wasn't originally going to take due to his mental state and reluctancy. 

Natzism vs expressionism - degenerate art

Degenerate art

1933 the Natzi party came into power.

1937 held a show to dictate what art they hated and what they liked to demolish. Originally artists and writers were happy, but then everything went down hill due to the Natzi party. The Natzi party became a party that would result in deaths, suicides and unhappiness. In the 1930's the natzis sometimes stated that art was a threat to the society, that some of the art pieces were dangerous. Modern artists were considered dgenerate; they were classed as dgenerate art. The art show had graffiti behind it; ridiculing the art. Some were hung upside down, some out of their frames, others damaged. The natzis were afraid of the art; they had to take control in their eyes, for their own benefit.

Hitler was rejected from art school; he hated and could grasp art gabfest wasn't if the natural world. He hated anything that wasn't of the world as you saw it - observational. Hence why he felt threatened by such art. 

A lot of painters had now became expressionists; painting distorted images and painting the inner world. Psychological landscapes. Modern society did not understand at all and all art was highly ridiculed by the press and critics and deemed inappropriate. Hitler was painting very "beautiful", clean paintings of nature and of portraits, which he was not living off of because it wasn't what was in the art world at that moment. He was "behind times". 

Hitler came out of art and developed the nationalist socialist party. This would then take off in 1920 a little more with more people believing and become a part of. He, hitler himself, created the symbology. In 1924 Hitler came out of prison after trying to "take over" - where he was full of angst and spoke about virtually everybody as being a degenerate. If you don't look the same as everybody, you are "mad" - if anything you did was out of what was considered the norm, you was essentially a head case and was considered being mentally ill. Expressionism was considered the mentally ill. In the 1920's, the expressionists didn't actually have to worry about the Natzi party because they were such a small group. Few people actually cared about it. Max Becman, an artist by 29 was considered a valued artist, his art was far from expressionism. But, after the was and being discharged from the ambulance services due to mental exgustion, the war changed his work.

1932, the Natzi party was the biggest party in Germany. 

In 1933, the German democracy was near death due to the Natzi party. There were book burnings had commenced and vital books were destroyed. Artists began burning their paintings in fear of being at threat from the Natzi party. They had burned their paintings and the same goes for writers. Natzism had taken over everything; art, writing, music, the press. It was something that would control everything to a T - all to make sure it was to Hitlers preference. Abstraction was strictly forbidden.

2000 years of German culture - an art show in which the art wasn't especially old and virtually everything was to do with Hitlers ideals. Anybody can understand the art shown; it lacked depth. In paintings for natzism, sadly females were either nude or mothers. There was not an expressionist who agreed with the Natzi party. (Jewish was considered another word for sick.) 

 Emmile Nolde had became a natzi but did still paint. He could paint in oils anymore so he painted what he called "unpainted pictures" that were highly mysterious. They were paintings painted with watercolours; which he said they reflected his pain. 

An auction with lots of art; German and well known artists (such as van gough) were all up for auction n Switzerland. 

1939 was the beginning of the war. In replacement of books being burned, people were being burned. The concentration camps were in full activation and the death count was rising and rising; vastly and significantly. 

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Ai Weiwei is a controversial artist. He isn't afraid to drop what people consider valuable art which he is currently showing his work in the Royal Academy of London. Ai Weiwei and Ishcabor both are a similar artists; primarily because they both don't take a lot of their work seriously (to a degree since a lot of them have depth).

Harley visit

As a college trip, we went to The Harley Gallery where we completed a few questions to various of the individuals working there! The first place was named Hope and Elvis;

Nots from interviews;

Hope and Elvis

- she didn't originally want to set up a studio

- did textile at Nort Notts

- been in the Harley 10 years

- both teachers to earn as the actual company doesn't especially bring money in

- still don't really earn a living and not sustainable 

- worth it in the long run, despite not really earning a living

- it's a 24/7 job. 

Richard Hartley

- long process

- takes 6 months to produce his own guitars

- all are done by hand

- takes influence from the 50's styles

- would be a sustainable living if he had been doing it a long time, but hadn't realised until 4 years back that he wanted to do such work.

- was a wood carver but there isn't much business within that basis anymore

- went from a foundation in Art and Design to Furniture design

- Labour intensive

Ashley Horman

- not always wanted to go into illustration

- began freelance and is still, but employed for Debenhams

- wanted a secure job, hence taking the Debenhams leap

- used to work from home

- whole development was a learning curve

- became more commercial 

- does actually run out of ideas sometimes

- isn't allowed to previously show work to anybody due to contract with Debenhams 

Beardsley & Wilde

Beardsley was an art nouveau artist/illustrator. A lot of people 'get along' with his work as it is very simple to 'read' and very aesthetically pleasing. The Yellow Novel is a cheap novel published in Britain in the 19th century; The yellow book magazine was illustrated through Beardsley. Oscar Wilde was carrying a Yellow Book, which he was banished from being anything to do with the Magazine because of such novel; which would indicate that there was suspicion that he was gay. That was considered a very negative thing for such book, therefore he was banished from being absolutely anything to do with it to maintain a healthy stigma behind the book.

Oscar Wilde was in prison for being Homosexual. It was illegal, hence imprisonment for Wilde having a year of hard labour. Wilde, a delightful poet, was accused of being Homosexual, but was actually married to a lady. He also had a child, but that didn't stop the accusations from being apparent.

( Polari was spoken, which would indicate you being a homosexual and sometimes you conformed to a dress code too.)

Oscar Wildes Headstone Controversy
The headstone was done in secret by Jacob Epstein. It caused offence because the sculpture of the angel had genitals showing, which very soon after being created, the genitals were hacked off for decency.

Jacob Epstein

Jacob and The Angel

This sculpture tells the story of the biblical book, genesis, (Chapter 32, verses 24-32). 

 Genesis

BBC Pre Raphelite Evaluations

http://youtu.be/4QMQmccid3Y

 After deep analysis of Milais work; coming up to around 14 minutes we are told Lizzie Sidal was actually born in Sheffield. Brilliant! 

Milais work throughout this analysis part 1; was that the 'house of Christ' painting has a lot of absurd painting styles. The fur shown on the boy on the far right, is not painted as if the typical style would be shown in others work of this period. It is not done with a large brush, actually all individual strokes were in fact painted to distinguish each fibre apart. Charles Dickens didn't like the painting (or any of their paintings to be honest)- which he scandalously publicised his view point. The painting by Milais that first shows Lizzie Sidal, where they're in a barn, is very against typical painting styles without the triangular format and the right hand shading you would usually see. He brings all forwards and every the background is relatively bright. All Milais paintings shown in Part 1 are VERY 'different' and were highly critizised and EVEN considered blasphemy.

Exquisit Corpse

Exquisit Corpse is a surrealist technique piece of art which a collection or words or images correctly assembled. It can be created through multiple people, doing different sections of the image; therefore creating a picture that you could not have created alone because it is multiple different peoples artwork.

An image example; Chapman Brothers

I absolutely adore Exquisite Corpse drawings. The way they clash but you can create an image that blends, really appeals to me. My favourite people to do this is the Chapman brothers. They are the people that created the top images. They have some in water colour and some are actually up in Tate Modern at the moment. I think that the images really are interesting, they very unique and you can tell that they, despite it being by two people, really worked separately but knew what they were doing.

Sculpture Inspiration

This could be inspirational to my sculpture work because it doesn't really match the ideals or function of the sofa. It would break instantly, cracking the eggs; which fits to shindogu. However,  being a vegan I definitely would not use eggs. I could create furniture that isn't usable somehow and reflect animal cruelty. 

This shows the realistic outcome of creating a 'Leather' item. It was the skin holding in the insides of a living being and by taking that away, the animal (obviously) has to be dead. The realistic outcome? You're sat on somebody's miserable skin.