“The Lovers” painted by René Magritte in 1928 is in my opinion one of the more interesting and clear examples of modernism in the museum. Modernism as an art form was one that saw all old ways of thinking, including everything from architecture to science, as ill fitting for the new industrialized world and was a rejection of realism. This art movement focused on more on emotion and stylized rather then the down to earth realism or the polarizing extremes of Romanticism. The Lovers best express this by having the focus be of two people kissing, a scene that is very realistic with the background framing the scene with a simplistic yet architecturally sound room. Indeed the painting might have been a great example of realism without the major points of the painting being added. the lovers are wearing masks of cloth around their faces being both striking yet alluring to the watcher for making the scene surreal and have a feeling of deeper meaning. The bacground of walls and a ceiling are also drasticly different colors on right side wall red, on the background wall a cloudy dark grey, and the ceiling white. This too places the viewer in a sense of mystery while the mostly dark colors used in the painting adds a feeling of foreboding.
In my interpretation the cloth around their faces work as kind of masks and, in such an intimate scene of two people kissing, might mean that these people are masking their true selves and that the love that they are showing is not what they truly feel. The fact that the cloth is covering their face also can be seen as taking away their humanity so they playing the role of the lovers and that anyone can fill the space of either person. the walls and ceiling can be scene as a kind of framing of the painting making the feeling that the scene is staged even more apparent and the colors of the walls can be seen as a very vague metaphor for a stage. The back wall colored like its the outside world, the wall on the right like the red curtain in most theaters, and the more plain ceiling bringing home that this is just a room and not a strange world.

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“The Song of Love” is an oil painting by Giorgio de Chirico in 1914. An interesting and metaphysical painting. It is one of the most famous works by Giorgio and an early example of the surrealists with the idea of simultaneity. The painting described both the past and the present through incongruous and unrelated objects from the ancient and present times. And these objects appears in the urban. The green ball, the head of classical Greek statue and the red rubber glove. The Greek plaster head is representative of the ancient time. Conversely, the rubber glove next to it seems belongs to the modern society. The plaster head is higher than the rubber glove seems like Giorgio wanted to show his respect to the ancient artworks. With these objects and some researchers, I know that Giorgio was an Italian Greek-born artist. That’s the reason why he put the ancient Greek statue in his works, and the color of three main objects are green, white and red. It is the color of Italian flag. I think Giorgio wanted to publicize his nationalism. Also, on the right side of the painting by a building with arcades, the sharp arches of which seems is the classical architecture. On the left side of the painting, the steam locomotive behind a red brick wall emanating exhaust gas from its chimney and it is the symbolism of the modernity. However, Giorgio created the conflict of past object and present object appears in the same place to emphasize his style of surrealists

Painting: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BykCOSUow5ZyRW9MUVIzNXJ5UEU/view?usp=sharing

Rene Magritte’s painting titled “The False Mirror” depicts a surrealistic way of thinking. Surrealism, which was a cultural movement that originated in the early 1920s, challenged rational thinking. This movement encouraged individuals to discover their creative potential by exploring the unconscious part of their mind. Magritte’s painting challenges the way we perceive the world. The focal point of this painting is the iris of the eye, which has been replaced with an image of a cloudy blue sky. Apart from the missing eyelashes, every other aspect of this painting seems to align with our existing knowledge of the naked eye. The part of the eye that has been altered seems to suggest that our vision is limited. As written in the note located next the painting, “the eye is selective and subjective.” We have complete control over what we choose to see and how we process those images. The pupil found at the center of the cloud-filled sky further reiterates this idea because Magritte’s use of a solid black color for this part of the eye indicates that it is quite difficult to remain objective when making an observation. The eye can also be said to have a dual purpose; “the viewer both looks through it, as through a window, and is looked at by it, thus seeing and being seen simultaneously.” Given this dual purpose, we can infer that when we make an observation that is most likely subjective, another individual is making a similar observation about us.

Painting: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1A5C_GLMHEgaFlWM0ZqQWFZSXM/view?usp=sharing

“Lady in a Park” by August Macke is an example of modernism and expressionism. This oil painting was created in 1914 by Macke who is a German expressionist. He was a member of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a German expressionist group that also includes Wassily Kandinsky, Albert Bloch, and Marianne von Werefkin. Modernism is a movement in history from later 1800s to early 1900s that rejected the ideologies of Enlightenment and the idea of realism, especially when it came to art and expressionism is an example of this. Usually expressionist artwork are exaggerated to show emotions, ideas, or moods. It focuses more on subjective than objective. “Lady in a Park” is example of expressionism with its colorful background and an indefinite background. It displays a woman on a path with some trees and grass surrounding her. Macke uses some color that you would not normally see in park background like orange and a plum purple. The background is also not that detailed, rather it is constructed by bigger shapes. The woman is on the more unrealistic side. Her features are not as defined, for example her face. Her mouth is a little hard to see, you cannot know for sure if her mouth is smiling, neutral, or frowning. In addition, her arms and hands also seem animalistic to me. The sleeves with the yellow and black dots remind me of an animal pattern and her hands seem more claw-like. All of these elements aid in provoking emotions and feelings in a person. When I look at this painting, I feel a little sad since the background is a little dark in some areas and with her non-specific expression face, I perceive her as a little sullen. Her head is slightly tilted and she seems to be thinking about something as she stroll through the park. However, the random burst of brighter colors like the yellow and green makes me feel like she will be okay and there will be a good outcome for her.

Marc Chagall’s piece “I and the Village” was painted in 1911 after the artist moved to Paris from his hometown in Belarus. He migrated to Paris from a small village outside of the city of Vitebsk. Migration from rural to urban communities was a large aspect of the Industrial Revolution and is representative of one area of modernism, which focused on this movement of people. Chagall’s piece involves memories of the peasants from his village tending to animals and crops. Unlike the city, people in villages were self-sufficient in that these animals and crops were used for nutrition for the peasants. In the city, people worked in factories and earned a wage that they then used to buy produce, which aided in the rise of consumerism. The painting depicts the enlarged faces of a cow and person, presumably Chagall himself, staring at each other while other images float either inside or around them. Chagall breaks up the images in a geometric manner, which was most likely influenced by the Cubist movement going on at the same time. The broken up images create simultaneity in that multiple things happen all around the painting but they exist cohesively. The theme of the painting is sustained throughout the depictions of lined up cottages, a woman milking a cow, and a man shearing wheat. This geometry calls upon the paintings of artists such as Picasso and Leger who acted as important figures in Cubism. Chagall’s piece takes the techniques they utilized when depicting urbanism, from factories to buildings, and applies them to rural life, which shows how heavily modernism influenced the piece.

Painting: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6EOsZl8TDDoZnhiY24tVmtocE1PdEVDY2NXQmZuc2FPeGYw

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h2phlk7emh166in/IMG_2744.JPG?dl=0

Picasso’s Les Demoiselles D’avignon is a perfect example of modernism and cubism. The oversized oil on canvas sprawled from floor to ceiling, is the largest Picasso work at MOMA. So much can be said about this painting, the figures, all-naked are all contorted in different ways. It isn’t clear if the figure on the left is male or female, although the note next to the work did say that it was intended to be a male but changed in the final version. Some of the women are wearing African masks, a reference to another one of Picasso’s interests and era’s. The piece’s name references a famed street in Barcelona known for its brothels, so it could be argued that the piece is depicting prostitutes. That would also explain why the man/women on the left is lurking around. However from a simultaneity perspective the piece is also very interesting, time and space seemed to be very blurred in this work. It is almost impossible to define whether the figures are standing up or lying down, they seemingly exist in both states simultaneously. In addition, depending on from which angle you are looking at the piece, it can either appear that the women are moving, or that they are completely still. Beyond the physical women, the idea of combining different objects, people, concepts, and images all fall within the idea of simultaneity and cubism. All in, Les Demoiselles D’avignon is a marvelous work that can truly be understood through the idea of simultaneity, which can be seen throughout the piece in many different ways.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5coatrnzde8a50c/ENG2850%20WEB%20OF%20CHARACTERS.docx?dl=0

Attached is the link to my character connections web.

It would not let me upload the image, so I have included the link to it from my Dropbox.

My Mind Map For Mrs. Dalloway

In Virignia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, there is an interconnectivity that exists amongst all the characters that shape the picture of the story. There is an idea that each character is like a puzzle piece that plays both small and large roles in developing the whole picture.

At the center lies Mrs. Dalloway. She is the mediator between all the characters. It is through her perspective that we get a feel for the personalities of each character. Her closer relationships or the characters that she thinks about most are Richard her husband, Peter her ex-lover, Sally her childhood friend and Septimus a veteran of World War II. Through these main characters all the minor characters come in to play.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxjL6VcucWAJN2dFdEo2V0Z6Z0U

We are all pieces of a puzzle

Click Link To View Puzzle

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h9d0l3gvdxrlixp/index.jpg?dl=0