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Hurrah. When I finish this I have 3 more ‘art’ posts to go. Eek.
Firstly: the writing.
3b) Name another of Boonma’s work, and describe with the aid of a diagram the work’s subject matter, and the significance of his use of materials.
Montien Boonma is also a devout Buddhist, and his religion, along with his belief that all should be clear of their position in their religion, has allowed Thai Buddhism to become a major influence in his works. One such work is Lotus Sound, 1992.
<drew a rough sketch here>
This installation is made up of terracotta bells and other found media, often featuring a golden lotus bursting through the porous walls of terracotta bells. The bells are a motif frequently used by the artist, with holes between bells to give a glimpse of the protected space inside that cannot be physically reached.
The curved wall of terracotta bells is so repetitive; it looks almost like a mantra repeating again and again, like a Prayer to the Buddha, allowing one to sink into a state of meditation where one can attain peace and enlightenment and thus be freed of the cycle of rebirth, a belief in Thai Buddhism. It plays with the idea of negative and positive, the transparent yet opaque by using bells and space to form the porous wall.
The use of bells is typical of the artist, who prefers to use ready made, or easily found, objects in the environment. In this case, bells are easily found in Thai temples, making the public installation almost a private place for prayer and meditation instead. The porous wall feels almost alive, like a human ribcage that encases air within and this gives life. The lotus is yet a symbol of hope, springing through the wall, a promise of a journey of the mind and release if one devoutly meditates and prays. The silence during meditation and prayer becomes a tangible sound in this installation instead, perhaps more effective then any other sounds, such as sounds of bells.
7.5/10 (before editing)
I never liked typing out what I have already written. It’s so brainless and draggy. Unfortunately no machine created nor will be created in the decade can read my handwriting and decipher it. I’ll have to stick to typing it out myself.
Anyway:
3a) Describe the subject matter of the installation, with reference to the symbolism of the materials used.
Buffaloes from the Field to the Tow, 1988, is by artist Montien Boonma, a sculptor and installation artist who has been interested in showing how traditional Thai lifestyle has been gradually replaced by consumerism centered lifestyle. This particular installation used unhucked rice, sacks, straw, horn as well as stools. With two sacks filled with straw and placed on stools, they represent buffaloes with horns attached, as if forming the head, body and tail, resembling the subject matter, water buffaloes that is Iconic to Thailand. (Iconoclasm) The use of rice and sacks allude to farming practices of traditional Thai culture, reflecting the work ‘field’ in the title, as if signifying rice paddy field.
It is interesting to note that the artist once again used relatively perishable and ready made materials, such as rice. The mortality (strange word that Mr Lim has difficulty accepting) of the art work possibly states the gradual disappearance of traditional Thai culture and lifestyle, what with rice paddy field replaced by tall buildings of consumerism instead. From the title of the work itself, one can infer that the Buffaloes are moving from their home in the fields to the Town, emphasizing how the farmlands in Thailand are slowly replaced by buildings and factories instead.
8/10. Eeps.
I’m using short forms to save time :3
Images:
Family Potrait by Georgette Chen, c. 1960 – 5, oil on canvas, Singapore Art Museum (short form FP)
Pounding Rice by Lai Foong Mooi, 1959, oil on canvas, 201 x 250 cm (short form PR)
2a) Discuss the compositions of the two images
FP features a family of five on a sofa. The mother sits in the center of the painting, and thus the centre of the sofa, holding a newspaper with the words “Nanyang” printed on it with her legs crossed in a feminine manner. On both sides are her daughters in similar hairstyle. The daughter on her right lies on the sofa with her legs bent and her feet in the air, apparently holding something in her hand while the daughter on the left sits on the sofa, her legs bent and she appears to be knitting. Her husband peers over her shoulder at the newspaper, his arm resting on the cushion that the lady leans on. From the title, I presume this is a painting of Georgette Chen’s family.
PR showcases many ladies in traditional costumes. From the title, one can tell that the ladies are pounding rice with the long, thick sticks they are holding. The rice is placed on platforms and probably husked. To the left of the foreground is a pot with bananas beside it, and to the right in the background, cattle are grazing peacefully. Whilst other women pound at orange rice, one woman appears to sift the rice in the middle of the painting.
In FP, the family is relaxed, and attention is immediately caught by the portrait of Chen herself who sits at the center of the painting. However, in RP, the women are spread around the picture and thus attention is dispersed rather than focusing immediately on one character. In fact, bright warm colours are the most attention catching element in RP.
in FP, there are horizontal lines made by the sofa the family gathers on or around. In RP however, many thick, more or less vertical sticks break the painting into many fragments. Both paintings are rather balanced – in FP, the husband and wife form a weak diagonal cut by the weak diagonal formed by her children’s’ heads, intersecting at the middle of the painting, while PR has subject matters scattered all over the painting and the top left hand corner has a sea line, the top right has a blue fence, the bottom left weighted with a vase and fruits while the bottom right compensated with darker shades of the sand.
7/10 (went slightly out of point in the original version of my answer.)
b) What does each work suggest about the relationships between the people who are depicted?
FP suggests a happy, close family about the sofa. It appears that the mother, Georgette Chen, plays an important role since her family is gathered around her, who sits in the center of the sofa and takes up the greatest area in the painting in comparison with the other family members. In fact, the head of the household, the father, actually takes up very little space. It appears that her daughters are very close to her; the one on her right practically is stuck to her side and lies on the couch in a relaxed posture while the other is also close to Chen, happily knitting away. The son appears to be less close to the mother, as he sits slightly further away on the floor, absorbed by his hair accessory similar to a native American’s headdress. Eugene Chen, husband of the artist, peers from his position behind the mother at the newspaper, his position hinting that he is the support of the family. In fact, his hand is on the cushion that his wife leans on, as if supporting the wife’s head.
PR shows a close knitted community of dark-skinned women, shown by how they share their hard work of pounding rice with each other. The women seem to be smiling as they work, indicating their happiness as they work hard to contribute their part as wives to their families. They are probably from the same village, for they wear similarly styled clothing that are probably worn for daily use. Apparently the villagers experience peace as their cattle graze quite a distance away without anyone keeping watch. Each cluster of women may also mean that they are related in the same family as in-laws, mothers or daughters.
My rambling awarded me with 8.5/10.
c) How does each work make use of colour, perspective and texture?
(Erm, ran out of time. I only managed to finish one paragraph and a bit more…then Time’s up! I’m sort of putting in more points to complete it, but marks shown reflect paragraph 1 and first two sentences of para 2)
Georgette Chen has used realistic colours, dominated by yellow or brown. Fore-shortening was used and creates a sense of depth in the painting. Overlapping figures also shows perspective. The painting is almost like a family portrait taken by a photographer. However, the painting appears a little flat as there is a big piece of wall that is yellowing and had no shades nor visible shadow cast on it by the family, immediately flattening the picture. Thus, even though the rest of the elements in the painting had shadows and highlights, the picture appears flat at first sight.
PR goes a step further in making the painting appear even flatter with total absence of shadows and shading. Pure flat colours were applied and mostly side profiles were used. Even the 3/4 profile used by the artist displayed feature fully and without shading to indicate the curve of the face. The only method used to show a sense of perspective is how distant figures appear smaller than those in the foreground, the receding sea line in the distant background as well as the dark shadows cast at the foreground. Colours are generally warm, with significantly more red hues and yellow hues than FP. The background of PR recedes due to the complementary blue colour of the fence and the sea.
4/10. 
Total: An “amazing” 19.5 / 30 :S
signs off, nooboet.
2) Discuss the similarities and differences between Xu Beihong and the French Realists. (You may cite social, political and cultural influences of their time.
Xu Beihong, also widely recognized as the “Father of modern Chinese painting”, is an artist who is known for his works that shows his strong foundation in Chinese ink painting and influences from Western art, especially in terms of perspective and anatomical proportions. He was very much grounded in realism for he believed that his works should be real and be understood by people. However, what are the similarities and differences between this modern day realist with Chinese foundation and the realists of the nineteenth century? I shall hence use Jean Francois-Millet as a representative of the realists of the 19th century and compare the works of these great artists.
Perhaps one of the most obvious similarities will be the common use of realistic colours in their painting. Millet’s choice of colours is often slightly subdued and always realistic, or even naturalistic. Xu Beihong’s colour palette may consist of more vibrant colours, but still the colours are realistic.
As seen in Millet’s The Gleaners and The Angelus, the sense of depth is clear, with even a horizon in the background. While Xu Beihong’s paintings do not contain this obvious horizon, Xu Beihong also gives his paintings depth by placing receding subject matter such as vegetation in the case of Slave and Lion and people in Put down your whip. There was a fixed-point perspective, common in Western art. Not to mention both painters includes shading and shadows in their works, with fairly clear source of lighting. The contrast in lighting is obvious in Slave and Lion, as the painting depicts a scene occurring at a cave opening, where Xu Beihong as masterfully brought out the colourful greenery in the sunlight and the dark, subdued tones in the foreground. Not to be defeated, Millet’s control of colours is also apparent as he brings out a brighter foreground against a muted blue-grey background.
It can be noted that Xu Beihong dares to use bright colours, for example, in Put down your whip, in contrast with Millet’s colours which look more muted. Millet also appears to use more limited range of colours, giving an overall feel of an earthy colour, avoiding large patches of bright colours whereas Xu Beihong boldly uses bright red, green and yellow.
Going on to subject matter, Millet uses ordinary, everyday peasants that are common in his time. In fact, his works were one of those that marked the turn from Romanticism to Realism. His subject matter mostly consists of the working class, such as the Gleaners, the farmers, the shepherdesses and the Sowers, amazingly ordinary people the contrasts sharply with the Romanticism’s elevated Romantic ideals. On the other hand, while Xu Beihong does paint figures that are seemingly ordinary, they are only present in specific circumstances. In fact, more often than not, Xu Beihong also paints animals (Horses), well-known historical figures (Gandhi), figures from stories ( Slave and Lion) and a performing girl during war times (Put down your whip). Furthermore, many of Xu Beihong’s paintings actually have a purpose behind them, such as to encourage the Chinese people to persist in the face of adversity, encouraging them in their anti-Japanese efforts.
And speaking about influences, Millet paints in the time where artists are beginning to drop the romantic idealisms for realistic, ordinary subject matter and colours. In the middle of the 1840s, he befriended other realists of his time, thus a possible strong influence causing Millet to draw what he did. Millet’s rendering of peasant subjects was also influenced by Honore Daumier’s figure craftsmanship. In the Salon of 1849, he exhibited Shepherdess Sitting at the Edge of the Forest which showed his turning away from previous idealized pastoral subjects. It is also to be noted that Millet has even slightly made the common peasant “heroes” in his painting, as he allowed light to fall on the Gleaners shoulders, and placed them in the foreground.
Xu Beihong is on the other hand a painter of 20th century, has strong roots in Chinese culture but has willingly embraced Western techniques, particularly in French realism. In other words, Xu Beihong may even be influenced by Millet himself, but his Chinese expertise shows in the Chinese line of drawing amongst Western sense of Form. His Chinese influence dates back all the way when he was six, when his father studied with him classic Chinese works and calligraphy. The influence in Chinese painting is probably the greatest difference there is between these two artists who have left their mark in different kinds of realisms in the history of art.
I don’t even really recall typing this. I think this is the assignment Jenny scored full marks in. In fact, I KNOW it is.
Why only Millet? Cos he’s the only one I really know…
After editing somewhat.
a) Describe subject matter of each of these 2 paintings, include environment.
our fav crazy artist and his bandaged ear
nanyang style artist
Georgette Chen’s Self Protrait and Vincent Van Gogh’s Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear are essentially and obviously Self Portraits of the respective artists as stated by the title. Georgette Chen painted herself with a cured hairstyle, a suggestion that she may be wealthy enough to style her hair. Her unusually thin and arched eyebrows look like that of a Chinese Wooden Doll or perhaps Chen painted it this way on purpose. (And thus I imply VANITY). Combined with lidded eyes and pursed lips, the portrait carries itself with an air of a stern and well educated lady. The dark coloured collar peeping at the viewers from the bottom of the canvas suggests a traditional Chinese costume. The background, a brown similar to Chen’s choice of skin colour in the self portrait, varies from darker shades on the right to a lighter shade on the left, of which the brown is formed with more than a single colour. Her shadow is cast on the darer right side of the background, hinting that she may be leaning against a wall. Georgette Chen’s Self Portrait portrays herself in a neat, though rather complicated, hairstyle and smart collar, giving an overall, neat appearance. She almost looks as a teacher would. (My opinion is that the prev 2 sentences are quite lousy. Someone edit the two for me).
Van Gogh’s self portrait is very much different from Chen’s. Roughly attacked at with his signature style of short, choppy brushstrokes of pure colours suggesting form and shapes, he features himself in a green room – green walls, green coat, even green eyes; green dominates the painting. Painted from waist up, unlike Chen’s close up of her face, it shows Van Gogh as a gaunt man with yellow skin tone and the unmistakable bandage over his non-existent ear, looking extremely sickly. Similar to Chen’s self portrait, both has closed lips; However, Van Gogh’s furrowed brow and brushstrokes suggest a frowning demeanour. His clothing consists of a green cap and a buttoned-up coat, with dark outlines and shadows implying that the clothes are thick. In the background stands an easel with an incomplete painting, and to the right of the background hangs what is likely to be a colourful Japanese print that Van Gogh is known to collect.
8.5/10 (Original marks. I’ve removed parts that didn’t award marks, amended those that Mr Lim corrected, and reworded some of the sentences. In retrospect, I notice that I’d fail if it’s an LA essay.)
b) Describe use of colour, brushwork and space in each of e works. State influence if any.
(Eh, it’s quite hard to describe so much D: And I hate influence questions)
Georgette Chen’s Self Potrait is dominated (oh yeah, dominated AGAIN. I’ve limited vocab) by shades of brown, where the brown in made up of multiple colours such as blue-grey, brown, orange and red-brown. The shadow Chen casts on the wall behind her is blue, suggesting influences from the Impressionists who do not use black for shadows. A brushwork more blended the Van Gogh’s, nevertheless one can still notice short and choppy brushstrokes applied as highlights on the curve of her hair, standing out against the darker shades of her hair also treated with similar brushwork.
On Chen’s face, occasional patches of red colour the darker areas of Chen’s face. The colours used on her face us naturalistic (realistic), with normal skin tone, red lips, brown hair of an Asian female (perhaps with makeup?) and a dark coloured collar with unblended grey lighting, once more indicating impressionistic influences or post-impressionistic influences from Paul Cezanne.
Back to the Great artist Van Gogh, his entire self portrait is made up of short brushstrokes of pure colours. Walls that are normally flat and rather smooth have been mutated to have carpet-like texture. Lack of shadows and highlight on the easel on the background makes the easel melt into the background as if the easel is part of the wall of the green room. As stated before, the painting consists mostly of various shades of green. The green of the wall leans to yellow and is the brightest green in the self portrait. Following that is the muted block of green at the right of the background, shaped to look like a door.
The green coat appears rather vibrant, with at least four different shades of vivid green. While the green on the coat is not necessarily bright, it is a vivid and pure green (wait, this sentence looks like a repeat D: ) Finally the green of the cap consists of shades f blue, and thus when mixed together appears grey.
Van Gogh paints himself with little shadow; however the coat is heavily outlined with shadows. The thickness of the coat is emphasized with brown, dark green or black. Flat array of colours give the coat its texture, instead of folds giving details to clothing. The Easel in the background is painted with flat brushwork brushstrokes. Finally, the Japanese print at the background indicates Van Gogh’s influence by the prints, such as the black outlines, and his collection of Japanese Prints. Colours and brushwork techniques from the Impressionists were also used by Van Gogh.
8/10 (once again the last few sentences are horrible. Organization = poor-rible. Haix)
c) Name another SEAsian artist and describe another self-portrait. Interpret e artist intention from e named work.
picadilly circus
Conversation at Piccadilly Circus by Bayu Utomo Radjikin consists of a blue statue, a yellow maple leaf and the smiling self-portrait of the artist himself. The artist paints himself on the left with crinkled eyes, face made up of colours from orange to blue, purple lips with pink and white highlights. At the chin, viewers can observe the recurring “dripping” effect of wet paint.
In the center is the calm face of a blue statue with feminine features reminiscent of a fish. This is perhaps due to the colour or that the dripping effect is a reminder of water. Furthermore, curved shapes of the statue look like waves, fins or fish tail. A yellow leaf complements the statue on the right, drawn with sharp edges, standing out against the dripping effects of the statue and the artist’s self-portrait.
White text in cursive line the foreground of the painting. They are Shakespearean text from “Romeo and Juliet”, a snippet of a conversation between Romeo and his best friend Mercutio, when Romeo was wallowing in his depression over being rejected by Rosaline, and Mercutio offers advice on how love is tender and can be controlled.
A Maple leaf (symbol of Canada. Har har) in the dream represent each of the five senses and what it has to offer, also denoting a helping or protective hand. In fact, a year before the artist passed away in 2005, there was an exhibition where one of his works, In Between, participated in. The exhibition takes its concept from the gardens f Taman Sari, which was built to express ideas its owners hold dear through plants and their symbolic, medical, fragrant or edible qualities. Thus the maple leaf may have references to help, or even death as the maple leaf is a yellowing dead leaf. Perhaps it has links to help, since the statue seems calm and the self portrait seems happy.
There are many strong vertical lines caused by the painting dripping down the canvas. The texts form horizontal lines to cut the vertical lines. With shadow and lighting, depth is created in the painting, especially how the statue seems hunched.
Conversation at Piccadilly Circus suggests that the statue may be from Piccadilly Circus, and the painting about how the artist is having a light-hearted conversation with the circus.
9/10 – > I don’t quite see why.
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