Chris Aughton
"On the shoulders of giants"
In this lecture we learnt about how culture was a simple reflection of the society in which it was made. We also learnt how modern art is only a representation on the modern culture. So for example if you don't like the modern culture then it can be reflected in your work.
Cave Art
Cave art dates back to almost 30,000 years ago or that is the earliest that is recorded. The art work was produced using red, yellow, ochre, hematite, magnese oxide and charcoal. There is one question that gets asked which is why did people make this art and what was the purpose of the art work?. One of the main answers we came up with was that they wanted to record things that were going on and that they wanted to express themselves and a way that they thought they could do this was through the cave art. The major location for this was the Lascaux in France.
In modern days we turn things from normal and we exaggerate them. This was thought to be what the people did whilst they were making the cave art work.
Personification - Fine arts and visual arts/art terms - Representation of an abstract quality or idea in the form of a person, creature, etc, as in art and literature.
Anthropomorphic -Ascribing to a human form or attributes to being a thing not a human especially to a deity.
- Resembling or made to resemble a human form; An anthropomorphic carving.
- "Man with a lions head"
In this Lecture we realised that there are lots of consistent themes throughout the early art. One of the questions that were raised:-
- It is different from what you do today ?
We learnt that there are now more advanced ways in technology than there was back then and that culture has definitely changed.
Monday 3rd October 2011
Chris Aughton
“ Egyptians, Greeks and Romans “
Egyptians
- Throughout this art there was a continuing theme.
- The Pharoah was reflected into the artwork.
- The Heritage was from the Royal family and from myths from things. Other parts of the culture where there one day but gone the next. This culture was always temporary nothing stayed the same.
- Relief – Carved into the walls.
- A lot of the workforces in these days were craftsmen because they had a skill that some others might not have.
The Bust face of Nafafatiti
- Genuinely things were made side on nothing was ever straight facing you.
- Low relief – Give the impression of depth
- For each person/ statue they had measurements to work from however they tended to stylize using their own imagination.
- Text and images started to be mixed together which was known as graphic design in its simplest description. When they created this art with the combination it was there version of an advertisement.
Greeks
- The Greeks were all about power and showing this through the architecture and sculpture.
- Even though they still used people as slaves they valued their rights.
- The art / sculpture work they created was symbolic.
- The golden rectangle was used a lot in their work. Which was when you looked at the building it looked straight even though it was bent.
- The Greeks valued fighting especially the Spartans.
- They tried to match up the Greek gods to the Egyptian Gods.
Romans
- In the Roman times the people who were rich would have colorful houses each having mosaics on every floor and paintings on each of the walls.
- Decimation – This was punishment from the Roman army in which they would take the 10th man and cut off his head if he did something wrong.
- Pantheon - A circular building with a square front it was like their version of our Westminster Cathedral.
- There was one statue that was tall and circular and had all the conquests of a man and the achievements he had made throughout his life it was called Trajans Column.
- Even at the beginning of the Roman Empire they had Norms of what things should/ were like.
Monday 10th October 2011
Chris Aughton
In this lecture we got told that a useful website to look at would be:
Or type into Google: Witcombe art history
We got told about this website as a good resource place about the early stages of art.
Dark Ages
- When the empire sank so did the infrastructure.
- People forgot how to farm, create metal etc… because of the dark ages.
- Modernism – When one thing becomes better than the last.
- People lived in small communes an alternative lifestyle with a lack of art.
- Although the Roman Empire sunk the one thing that they saved was Christianity. This is what a lot of art was about and the beliefs that Christians had.
- This type of art was again like advertising because they wanted a reaction off the viewer.
- The Catholic Church made a lot of money off the people that believed in what they believed in because their beliefs are different to the beliefs of Christians.
- There were 2 empires the Eastern and the Northern empires.
- Images that were created in the Dark ages were not as good as no one was there to teach them the skills that they needed.
- The Catholic Church didn’t have as much power of influences like the Romans did.
- Gothic art was a lot darker than any other art.
- They tried to turn 3D into 2D.
- “We all know art isn’t a truth, art is a lie that lets /makes us see the truth” it was a quote by Picasso.
- A lot of people in the artwork created statues that were still side facing.
- Icon (Blackburn museum has examples of this type of work.) They were called Icons to defenciate them as idols. These Icons were often decorated in gold and painted onto wood because it was a wooden cross.
- Everything was thought about and even the materials were thought about and each had their own meaning.
- Idol – When some religions worship an actual object.
- If you were a Christian and someone believed and worshiped the object you would get burnt by it but if you worshiped the idol that was on the object then that was okay.
- The art started to become removed from the objects so that people couldn’t just worship the object.
- From this period there was very little art that wasn’t religious or based on Christianity.
Raphael
- When things started to change.
- Everything looked alright in the artwork. (Proportioned)
- Hockney started to use the theory that artists had started to use a camera obscurer.
- Instead of using a dot in a pinhole camera use a line.
- Instead of using a dot in a pinhole camera use a line.
Renaissance
- Through the church the art started to come back.
- Cities were joined together again.
- Garden of earthly delights – Hieronymus Bocshe - Was trip tick that was often 3 panels that was commissioned by wealthy people. It was finely painted and had lots of detail. The top right hand panel on this looked like the London Blitz Photographs. Everything on this was symbolic.
- In the renaissance all animals that came out at night were sown as evil.
- A lot of Bocshe’s work is in Madrid.
- Bruegel – Tower of Bable - There is a myth that this was built so that people could fill it with knowledge and when they reached the top they would reach God. Their plan because of it being thought of as arrogance so blew it up annoyed only God.
- One of his pieces of artwork had a lot of proverbs in it for example a man banging his head against a brick wall.
- ‘The Arnold Fenie Portrait’ – Van Eyck. All the things in this were symbolizing items within the Painting. It was famous for a lot of things however one of the main things it is famous for was being reflected in a mirror. It was seen as a wedding photograph and has been recently challenged. One view of this painting was that she had already died during childbirth. It was a painting created in a bedroom.
- Mortality in the Renaissance days was 50 percent for both women and babies/children.
- Painting were often done when the women were pregnant as if they didn’t survive during childbirth then the fathers would have something to show the children a memory of their mother.
- Artists were conscious that things in paintings to tell a story.
- ‘Ambassadors’ by Alf Holbien.
- Church was seen bigger than the Royal Family.
- Every object in paintings was a symbol of things.
Monday 17th October 2011
Chris Aughton
Early Renaissance
Leonardo Da Vinci
- Responsible for most early pieces from the renaissance period.
- ‘The Last Supper’ was one of his most famous pieces of work.
- He was a master of many different things including art and science.
- He invented his own techniques in his work.
- (Cartoons were used)
- ‘Mona Lisa’ – There was a thought that it was like a self-portrait as he put part of himself into the painting
- (Gaze – in art terms – The eyes on the Mona Lisa follow you in a sense)
- It creates a dialog with the viewer.
- A lot of paintings were done when the person were sitting upright.
- On the edges of ‘The Mona Lisa’ there is a window frame. Some people thought that part of the painting had been cropped.
- Ever since it was declared finished after 20 years in the making it has been seen as a celebrity painting.
- Da Vinci introduced the technique that things become fainter and fainter the further away they are.
- 50 percent of his sketchbooks and notebooks are missing as he gave them to his roommate when he died but because people got hold of them some went missing.
- He studied anatomy.
- Created different inventions many of which didn’t work.
- He led a very colorful life.
- It is thought that he only slept for 20 minutes at a time.
Sandro Botticelli
- ‘Birth of Venus’
- Was in the same period that Da Vinci was in.
- ‘La Prima Vera’- Seasons and thought that Saturn was included. It also tells different stories within it.
- He wasn’t a Christian so none of his work had any religion in it. A question that was raised was why he got away with this?
- Nudity was involved but it was used in context.
Titian
- His work represented what people with money thought of them.
- Painters and craftsmen were seen lower on the list of people.
- Titian was after Da Vinci and Botticelli.
- An example that painters were celebrities.
- If you have a skill then you would change on the order of people.
- People lived in damns so most artwork would be in the churches or in the rich people’s houses.
- If you created a piece of artwork then you would be valued in the church.
- Became collectables for the rich and powerful within the church.
- ‘Magdalen’
- One of his known paintings was the nude reclined back.
Velazquez
- From the early renaissance period.
- Was a court painter for the Spanish King?
- One of his works shows someone painting a set-up.
- When someone looks straight at you it breathes illusion.
- Shows appulance of what he had.
- Velazquez had a thing for dwarfs.
- Tenderness in the Dwarf image.
- Early renaissance was about trying to capture natural things.
- Late renaissance was about exaggeration.
Michael Angelo.
- A lot of things were out of proportion
- One of his images was about God giving Adam knowledge.
- Ex-communicated for dissecting bodies and threatened with being charged because it was seen as bringing people back to life.
- Risked his life to put his painting on the roof of the Sistine Chapel.
- Degree of shade.
- Was Gay but again risked himself by saying this.
- As well as being a painter he was also a sculptor.
- (David – Full) Out of proportion and designed to give this effect.
Caravaggio
- Moving out of the renaissance period.
- Moved away from the exaggeration onto more realistic settings.
- Dark in content, subject and betrayal.
- Used lighting to create an effect.
- Painted a picture of Jesus and Saint Thomas when the sphere of destiny and St Thomas wanted to see if the wound was real had stabbed Jesus.
- ‘Judith’ – taking revenge on a man that hurt her. Took just one moment from that scene to paint.
- He had to go on the run because he had a jewel after fighting with another man about a married woman who had affairs with many men.
- Think self-portraits showing what he had done in younger life.
- ‘Sleeping cupid’ More than half the painting is black.
- (Employed people from the streets to be models)
- Painting about celibacy.
- Dark side to love that wasn’t always shown or painted in images.
- Caravaggio ended up in Malta but after he was eventually forgiven and started to travel back to Rome he contracted a disease and died.
Baroque Architecture
- Full of decoration and had bits of ornament.
- Style called Rococo.
- Rococo can be overwhelming.
- Decoration more exaggerated and nearly everything has a pattern and is colorful.
- In the paintings there were lots going on and it was hard to concentrate.
- Baroque – more restrained.
- Rococo – didn’t hold back
- Reflection in art and in buildings.
- Recoco often referred as a chocolate box painting.
- Lots of people made money and paintings sold to the rich often weren’t religious.
- Rubins (earth water)
- Boucher
Monday 31st October 2011
Chris Aughton
Secular art
Vermeer
- Famous for his interiors.
- Lives of middle class people.
- A lot going on in the paintings.
- God is everywhere/day thing not just one big thing.
George Stubbs – Famous for painting horses of the rich and the famous.
- Neo classism.
- A lot of institutions were set up in this time.
- Art became more valued.
- Poussin – People still had the robes.
- A movement from the period when the academies were set up was romancism.
- They wanted to know more about the beauty and nature. (Sublime - a thing that is bigger than us)
Theodore Gericout – Raft of the Medusa
- Contemporary life.
- They had a raft and when the ship ran aground and they cut the raft free from the ship and left it to drift out into the sea.
Death of Marat – there was a good story behind this painting.
Eugene Delacroix – La Libret
Rem Brandt
- Was influenced by Caravaggio.
- Created radiated images.
- He was different because he does paint religion.
- ‘Night Watch’ - Night watch were the early police. They got paid to patrol the city at night.
- Rem Brandt also did commissioned work as well as independent work.
- ‘Bathing River’
Thomas Cole – A series of 4 paintings about the life of man.
- Casper David Freidrick
Goya
- 3rd May 1808 was called the first piece of Modern art.
- About contemporary war there was no imagination and everything was painted how they saw it.
- The idea of recording things exactly with a machine wasn’t really looked up on.
- ‘Disasters of war’ were a set of 50/60 images by Goya that showed every day life. He was like a photographer who did the work fast and first hand exactly how he saw it.
Joseph William Mullard Taylor
- Impression is a direct impression only it wasn’t giving a feel.
- Temeraire paintings that were like photography.
- Photography was seen as starting impressionism. However it was already happening.
Constable Haywain
- The painting that showed the ship being towed off to be broken up.
- The Constable Haywain painting was restrained and didn’t give the correct impression of what England was. It wasn’t and isn’t all hills and cottages by rivers.
- Some of the later paintings simply showed brush strokes.
- All the paintings he did where thought to be near his house before his wife died young. His parents disagreed with him marrying his childhood sweetheart and disowned him. This was before his wife died so young.
- Turner Prize award
- Niecpe was the person who along with Lewis De Guerre created the first photographic image. This was later taken over by William Fox Talbot.
Modern Art
- One of the most important paintings was by Manet Dejeur. This was one of the most important for the last 200 years. It created a lot of controversy because the woman was naked but not in the classical sense.
- Olympia was directly inspired by the work of ‘The reclining Nude’.
- (Prostitutes were often used as models)
- Manet gave an exaggeration of what he was seeing by using different and bolder colors. They didn’t have a lot of detail in them.
- Boudin captured the light in what was really important to expressionism.
- Impressionists weren’t just one thing.
Vincent Van Gogh
- He was referred to as a past impressionism artist along with his friends.
- Was around at the very end of the 19th and the early 20th Century. (Gouging)
- Was thought to have painted mad men. This was more to do with his intense personality.
- Degas was in the middle of renaissance period – absinthe painting.
- Within Van Gogh’s work you started to see expressionism for example in his paintings and it would be about how he saw himself.
- Egon Schiele was very expressive and very quick at his drawings. Expressed what was going on in his mind not just what he was seeing.
- Gustagh Klimt – Fugitive with mad patterns.
- Edvard Munch ‘scream’. This painting shows someone hearing a scream and reacting to it. A scream that was so piercing it made the background come alive. (Maybe his sister who was in the mental institute)
- Mary Magdalen – looking lovely upwards.
- ‘Madonna’ this was a sensual image that told some of the story expressing how the woman feels.
Monday 7th November 2011
Chris Aughton
Modernism
- De Guere was the one who brought technology said ‘painting was dead’ even though he was a painter.
- Are we actually better off today rather than two years ago? (Cant go off a money basis)
- Capitalism
- Socialism – people more important than money.
- Communism
- Modernism – The idea of progression and progressing to utopia.
- The world we live in now is the closest to Utopia we will ever get.
William Blake
- He was interested in old myths and symbolism.
- Were a poet and an artist among other things.
- William Blake was seen as slightly mental because he talked to God a lot.
‘It’s not progress, I see it as dynamic difference’ – Chris Aughton
Pre Raphaelite
- There was a television series about the Pre Raphaelite brotherhood.
- They arced back and wanted to paint using early values.
- Pre Raphaelite women were known for being powerful and had big hair.
- ‘Millais’ was a painting of a woman that was about to die after a myth/ rumor that she was committing suicide because her boyfriend had just killed her father.
- Charles Renie McIntosh
William Morris
- William Morris tried to do implied art trying to do what we want and tried to use creative talent.
- Known for the patterns in his work.
- He was also famous in the housing market.
- William Morris had small factories around the country and about 100 workers in each one. This was because he wanted people to work together and thought that people should have mulit-skills
- Because he wanted all his work to be handmade it was more expensive and only afforded by the rich people. Meaning he also couldn’t compete with the manufactured items that were also being created.
- Arts and crafts were inspired by nature.
- Main stream society became aware of William Morris and the design.
- Art Nuevo was more exaggerated than the work that Morris created.
- There was a big difference between manmade items and the slightly exaggerated images.
- Something 1 style that affected everything , jewelry etc…
- More fruity and wider.
- Art developed but still inspired by nature but machine made.
- Art Deco – Transitional piece of design.
- Goody
- They still used natural forms but it became more stylized.
- Focused more on the geometric shapes.
- From art Nuevo at the end of the 19th century came art deco.
- Art Deco was classic, really very simple, clean lines.
- There was an art deco broach that was made and the detail was all about squares, circles and rectangles.
- The Chrysler building is an example of this style of art as well.
- Was almost a complete reversal of what had already happened in the art world.
- Designs were almost minimal.
- 1919 Bauhaus was often used as a shortcut about design.
- ‘You shouldn’t set yourself in just one thing maximize your talents and skills’
- Two ways of talent and how you have it :
1. That you are born with this talent.
2. That you learn the craft or skill/ trade.
- The Bauhaus looked at applied art and introduced the idea of really thinking about design. The curriculum that they taught was structured worked from the basics.
- Was about art with a purpose.
- Tried to think rationally about it.
- The way it looked was secondary to the way it worked because that was the main thing.
- There was no need for decoration (from follow function – quote from Bauhaus)
- Less is more a modern mantra.
- Ludwig Mies Van Der Roche.
- God is in the detail- by this he means not the real god he means the best bit.
- Graphic design – Humber punctuation.
- Think about design and what we were doing.
- They didn’t always get it right.
- New ways were looked at of trying to communicate.
- Now modified what the Bauhaus was.
- De Stijl – About the simplification.
- Piet Mandarin took simplicity to the extreme the color pallet just being red,blue,yellow and black.
- Rodchenko Plakat. Russia tried to see how it was constructively wanted. Very bold images to give off simplicity (Propagandas)
- Photomontage is when they started to layer different images onto each other.
- El Ristiy – self portrait
- They tried new ways of decorating things.
- A design should help us not just what we look like but how we function.
- Even William Morris tried to fight the system he became the system.
Joe Cornish and Fay Godwin
British
Landscape photographers
This is my essay on two British photographers from different
ears within photographic history. The
two photographers that I have chosen to compare are Joe Cornish and Fay Godwin.
There is one big difference between the works of theses photographers and that
is they Fay Godwin emphasises her images by using black and white where as Joe
Cornish uses colour to emphasises his images. Both of the photographers however
have some similarities the main one being that they both capture a medative
landscape and there is a sense of peacefulness within the images.
Landscape photography is images that generally capture
nature and doesn’t include any man-made objects and also it generally won’t
include any aspect of documentary photography but often scenery is used when
landscape photographs are being taken. Landscape photography very rarely shows
any sign of human activity they instead show weather, ambient light and
landforms within the images. Some examples of a classic landscape are
waterfalls, seascapes, coastlines and mountains. This genre of photographs is
inspired by the earlier genre which was landscape paintings. Three of the most
noticeable photographers of this genre are Ansel Adams, Galen Rowell and Edward
Weston.
Joe Cornish has worked on more than thirty travel books
within three years producing there images. He is known for being a freelance
photographer and one of his favourite places to work for more than twenty years
s in the Northumberland countryside. Whilst working with light while developing
vision and style he worked on joint projects with David Ward, Charlie Waite and
Eddie Ephramus they created some fantastic photographic workshops. As well as
this he also worked with the National Trust publicating the coastlines and
countryside around Britain. Joe
Cornish’s own experience was adding a creative element to the outdoors and
walking which began a whole new way of life to him. The sense of connection to
the landscape feeds back through his photographs. He called the work he did
whilst spending some time in the city as a transitional phase. Most recently
Joe Cornish now seems invigorated by the relevance that may not have been there
before. One of the things about him is that he only sees himself as a student
and not an expert at photography however he is well aware of the history of the
genre and of photography. One thing that Joe Cornish wants to do is work to
value, honour and connect to within the landscape he is working in. The work
that he creates has a very tranquille aspect to them and they are all in a way
very similar looking to paintings instead of photographs. From the images you
get the sense that Joe Cornish has used the best time of the day for the
lighting and each image is different the way the lighting is captured. Some of
the images that belong to Joe Cornish are done in London, or in busy places but
still there are only a few that have people within the image. To produce his
images he uses a 5”x4” inch Ebony 45SU field camera using Fuji quick load sheet
film and using a variety of filters. However after working with this camera for
over ten years he has started to use four other types of digital cameras these
include the Panasonic Lumix LX-3 , Olympus E3, Nikon D700 and a medium format
Phase One P-45+. To edit and alter his
images Joe Cornish has used Photoshop for over ten years and has now started to
adapt to new software such as Lightroom and Capture One. One method of printing
that Joe Cornish has used is a Lightjet 5000 which he is said to be very
impressed with the colour saturation and the accuracy of the reproduction as
the original transparency. The Lightjet 5000 photographic C-Type print are that
they have extremely fine detail; they have vast colour gamut and colour
fidelity s as well as the image stability and the edge to edge sharpness that
theses prints have.
This image is one of Joe Cornish’s images called Stokesley
Fair and is one of a few images that includes people. This image along with
many other of his images is long exposed which gives it a very colourful look
but also it brings a fun atmosphere to the viewer. When I first saw this image
it gave me the feeling that I wanted to be there because of the impact the
image had.
Another image by Joe
Cornish is this one which is of the transporter bridge in Middlesbrough. This
image was one that I was drawn to because of the lines that are used and the
reflections that are created and how clear they are. This is image is a bit
surreal and it looks like the boat and the building under the bridge shouldn’t
be there. Even though this image isn’t
based in the country side it still gives the impression and feeling of
peacefulness, calm and relaxation.
Fay Godwin the other photographer that I have chosen was
originally born in Germany and travelled around the world and going to various
different schools on her journey. She eventually settled in England in 1958 and
lived he for the rest of her life. Her photography career began when she
started to photograph her children when they were young and she self –taught
herself about photography. Fay Godwin started to photograph close ups of
natural forms and created an exhibition that got was toured worldwide with the
Warwick Arts Centre between 1995-1999. Renowned for her black and white
landscape photographs she is also well known for her wide selection of portrait
photography of writers and numerous foreign authors. Her love and passion for walking is what made
her pursue the landscape photography, photographing isolated areas and remote
areas which is where she produced some pastoral scenes as well as some
contrasting urban landscapes. Fay Godwin is also known for being an
environmentalist and her interest reflected in many of her well known images
that examined the complex relationship and tension between nature and men. After
working on a large and medium format film camera she decided to swap and use a
digital camera. She went on to work with a digital camera for ten years because
she like the possibilities that it gave her and the fact that she didn’t have
to carry around a heavy camera bag because she was getting older and wasn’t
very well. Along with this Fay Godwin also sold all of the darkroom stuff that
she owned because she had now started to use Photoshop and she was impressed
with the results that it gave her. When she started her photographic career she
had no intention of becoming a landscape photographer it was her pure love for
walking. Most of her images were printed with lots of contrast and her negatives
were never cropped. Her main way to construct an image was on the ground glass
of her Hasselblad Camera. The two of her famous influences were Bill Brandt and
Paul Strand. Whilst photographing the landscape there was a large amount of the
historical and beauty of interest. However she was deeply saddened and angry by
the relentless butchering that was being done to the heritage.
This image is one of my
favourite images that Fay Godwin has created because very similar to the work
of Joe Cornish with a longer exposure to create the effect in both the sky and
the water. Also this image gives a peaceful vibe from it. This is where the
work of the two photographers I have chosen combines and has some very similar
aspects of work. With the photograph being in black and white I personally think
it gives it that little bit more where as if it was in colour I don’t think it
would have the same effect on the viewer. 
I chose this image
because again I like how the sky has been emphasised and the way it looks like
in there is movement. Also this is a simple image of the countryside but in a
way it reminds me of a painting. This image also captures the different
coloured patches and even though it is a black and white photograph you can
still see the different tonal areas.
Both of the works by Joe Cornish and Fay Godwin have the very
similar visual style because they create images that have long exposures, and
some of their images could be mistaken as paintings because that’s how fine the
detail in them is. Whilst carrying out my research on both photographers there
was one big difference and that is Fay Godwin didn’t intend to do landscape
photography where as Joe Cornish did. One of the big similarities between them
both is that they both used film and digital cameras that both gave great
results.
My conclusion to this essay is that both of these
photographers affect my thinking on work with their technical skills will have
an impact. Joe Cornish’s work because of the printing and the way he uses
colour and the impact that give and Fay Godwin’s work because of the way she
uses black and white and the fact I have a similar view like she did on how
people with money are being able to take over some beautiful scenes and
destroying countryside with buildings.
The current state of the Landscape Genre is that there is not a lot of
money to be made however the genre does still appeal to me and is my favourite
genre within photography.
Bibliography
Websites that I have used for this essay for research are :
www.joecornishgallery.co.uk/about
www.onlandscape.co.uk/about/introduction-by-joe-cornish
www.joecornishgallery.co.uk/about/vision
www.joecornishgallery.co.uk/about/equipment
www.digitallab.co.uk/digtallab.html
www.imagesonline.bl.uk/?service=page&action=show_page&name=fay-godwin&language=en
www.ephotozine.com/article/no-man-s-land---godwin-s-last-interview-67
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