Hailed as a feminist icon, enigmatic Mexican painter Kahlo is best known for her vibrant, starting, sometimes nightmarish self-portraits, often seen as chronicles of physical and emotional anguish.Breton, for example, was the first to describe her work as Surrealist. Kahlo herself consistently defied such labels: “I never painted dreams,” she said, “I painted my own reality.” (1)

Andre Breton visited and stayed with Frida Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivero during his visit to Mexico in 1938, acknowledge that she was a self-invented Surrealist. The fact that Breton wrote the preface to Kahlo’s exhibition did not qualify her as a Surrealist: in fact, she eschewed the term. Although her pictorial fantasies are often associated with a Surrealist aesthetic, she painted not her dream or imagination but what she saw as her own nightmarish-reality. In 1925 a serious road-traffic accident left her very badly disability. Often confined to a hospital bed for weeks undergoing reconstructive surgery, she constructed an image of two Fridas in order to exorcise the pain and yet maintain a sense of reality. She subsequently discovered that she was unable to conceive children and in a particularly poignant self-portrait, Henry Ford Hospital (1932), Kahlo is seen haemorrhaging after suffering a miscarriage. Although her husband Diego Rivera supported her artistically, the relationship was always very tense, overshadowed by the fact that Rivera was Mexico’s most famous living artist. Kahlo depicted this dominance in the painting Frida and Diego Rivera(1931), while their separation and her subsequent loneliness was depicted in The Two Fridas (1939). (2)

Andre Breton, the arch-apostle of Surrealism, neatly described her art as like a ribbon tied around a bomb. (3)

I believe, Frida express in this painting that her heart had always belonged to Diego, her soul mate. She is a great artist, a paradox, she was recognised for who she was. Frida has channelled feelings of heartbreak into her work.

Reference list

(1) Andrew Graham-Dixon. Artist Their Lives And Works. p. 326.

(2) Camillia de la Bedoyere, Ihor Holubbizky, Dr Julia Kelly (2006), A Brief History of Art, The Foundry Creative Media Company Limited. p.324.

(3) Dr. Mike O’Mahony. World Art The Essential Illustrated History, p. 304.

One the great individualists of modern art, Chagall celebrated his Russian and Jewish heritage in his paintings, in a style that blended reality with a magical air of fantasy.”My art is an extravagant art, a flaming vermilion, a blue soul flooding over my paintings.” (1)

In Context La Ruche- Chagall’s style changed rapidly during his first spell in Paris, when he was bombarded with a huge variety of new influences. Many of these came from his fellow inhabitants in the artist colony of La Ruche (the Beehive), where he stayed from 1912-1914 Situated in a run-down part of city and reeking from the stench of nearby slaughterhouses, this ramshackle building provided cheap studios for (mostly) foreign artist. The roll-call of future celebrities who crowded in the “coffins”- the tiny wedge- shaped spaces – included Fernand Leger, Chaim Soutine, and Amedeo Modigliani, along with famous poets such as Guillaume Apollinaire and Blaise Cendrars. (1)

From 1904 to 1940 the history of art is dominated by a sequence of overlapping and interrelated art movements. Chagall rents a studio at La Ruches by them it is home to 140 immigrants. He meets Apollinaire, Picasso and French painter Robert Delaunay (1885-1941). This reveals Chagall’s nostalgia his cultural and religion roots. The combination of floating houses, biblical or Jewish folkloric references and a bright palette became the cornerstone of Chagall’s art. (2)

Chagall ( 1887-1985) who lived in Paris between 1910 and 1914 combined these effects and modern maths like Eiffel Tower with subject matter drawn from his own upbringing to produce dream-like poetic paintings. His paintings combine fantasy, folklore and biblical themes with an intensely surreal quality. Indeed, it is claimed that Guillaume Apollinaire originally coined the term Surrealist to describe Chagall’s paintings. (3)

Marc Chagall, the painter of love, expresses simple feelings through his paintings. From my perspective, his art is a feast for love. I liked the colours that he used in his paintings, the way his painting techniques looked on the canvas. His short brush strokes made it appear as if one colour was blending into another.

Reference list

(1) Andrew Graham-Dixon,  Artist Their Lives And Works, pp. 298-299

(2) Stephen Farthing( general editor) ed.Thames & Hudson, Art the whole story. pp. 374-375.

(3) Dr. Mike O’Mahony, World Art The Essential Illustrated History, pp. 36-374.

One of the greatest of all the modernists, Brancusi revolutionised sculpture with the extreme simplicity of his forms and pioneered the technique of carving directly into the material. The traditional method of making sculpture was to create a clay or plaster model and then either cast it in bronze or send it off to be carved in marble by specialists. Rodin ran a workshop of numerous assistant, whom he directed in carving the works that he made first as models. For Brancus had been brought up carving wood in rural Romanian -the material itself was key. In carving directly he was able to engage with the stone or wood with an unprecedented immediacy and authenticity, in contrast to the refined methods of casting and modelling. (1)

What my work is aiming at is, above all, realism: I pursue the inner, hidden reality, the very essence of objects in their own intrinsic fundamental nature: this is my only deep preoccupation. His early influences included African as well as Oriental art. Although Robin was another early influence, Brancusi decided he wished to make much simpler pieces, and began an evolutionary search for pure form. He reduced his work to a few basic elements. Paradoxically, this process also tended to highlight the complexity of thought that had gone into its making. Monumental, subtle and intimate, Brancusi’s sculpture are rightly now considered to be the work of a modern master. (2)

I love the sculpture because I see the beautiful embody utter enrapture of two people. Simple love! This was a rock in which Brancusi saw something else, and to me that is genius. For me, sculptor’s work is magic, a mystery of artistic creation.

(1) Andrew Graham-Dixon, Artist Their Lives And Works, pp. 218

(2) Joseph Manca, Patrick Bade, Sarah Costello (-). 1000 Sculptures Of Genius, 1496.

”Every word Rodin said seemed pregnant with meaning, as I watched him working…” The Kiss is smoothly carved in gleaming white marble, its massive lovers presented as idealised and divinely beautiful protagonists. The Bizac on the other hand, crudely cast in plaster(other versions in bronze and marble were made later), is strikingly unpleasant, with Jagged profiles, rough textures and a more or less complete disregard for anatomical detail, accuracy and finals. In The Kiss, the entwined couple enact a titillating, almost comic encounter. The figures were originally inspected by Danto’s lovers Paolo and Francesca, dammed eternally for incest, but here revealing nothing of their awful, poetic fate(Rodin made another, darker version for the doors). (1)

It is the women who has initiated proceedings – while she forthrightly embraces her lover and has moved her right leg over onto his lap, he only tentatively touches her left hip.In his own love affairs it was usually Robin who made the running. (2)

Rodin created most desperately passionate sculpture “The Kiss” through his romance. For me, Rodin is an elevation of mind. I believe he admired women that he put them on the pedestal. In “the kiss” Robin suggests the effort of marriage physical and intellectual.

Reference List

(1) Andrew Graham-Dixon, Artist Their Lives And Works, pp. 236

(2) Rainer Maria Rilk,  Rodind, pp. 27-30.

Schiele’s use of colour in this piece is right distinguished by zigzag lines, sine curves lines , and triangles. It is only only in the lower left side of the piece where we see more cyclical shapes forming, but still with the heavy outlining, the picture is distinctly low-dimensional. The human bodies themselves are a distressed view of reality. In general, the outline of the man’s body, especially, though seen in woman’s body as well is rather shaky and abnormally uneven. This gives an unnatural quality to the bodies, making the man seems bony at the knees and elbows despite his supposed muscular build. The body shapes as a whole are also rather elongated. All of these characteristics are elements of Expressionism, which Schiele came to implements and master up until his early death at the age of 28. (1)

Transferred to Vienna and assigned to the Army Museum. He had more time for painting, living at home, with a regular schedule and began at least sixteen major oils that year. Portofolio with twelve reproductions of his drawings published. Invited to exhibit in Vienna, Munieh, Dresden, Amsterdam and Stockholm. Despite growing reputation his poverty and debts continued and at Edith’s urging. He produced many drawings for quick sale. Painted The Embrace and began work on The Family. February 6th death of Gustav Klimt. Schiele sketched him on his deathbed. Schiele’s one-man show at the March exhibition of the Vienna Secession an overwhelming success; he was acclaimed by the press and his works bought for private collections. (2)

Schiele complained in 1910, ‘I wish I could leave Vienna, very soon. How vile it is – everyone envies me and wants to do me down,’ he was not totally unappreciated there. He had had opportunities of exhibiting since 1909, when he was still a student, and could rely on a loyal circle of friends and buyers. He took part in official Austrian exhibitions in Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Stockholm, and in 1917, together with Gustav Klimt, become one of the founders of the Kunsthalle (‘Hall of Art’),the aim of which was ‘that the flight of talent abroad should cease, and that all those whom Aystria has produced should be able to work to Austria’s honour’ (3)

I found fascinating how Egon Schiele combined high art and his adoration for women into his paintings. I believe he is a true feminist who puts women in the centre of his art.

Reference list

(1) Moldred Freguson, Egon Schiele Paintings, pp. 70-71.

(2) Solomon R. Guggenheim (1965),  Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, New York, pp. 61.

(3) Stephen Farthing( general editor) ed.Thames & Hudson,  Art the whole story,pp. 374-375.

“I am not interested in myself as an object of painting”. Gustav Klimt was born on 14 July 1862 Baumgarten, a suburb of Vienna, the son of a goldsmith. It was evident from childhood that he had a talent for drawing, and in 1867 he enrolled at Vienna’s school for Arts and Crafts, where he quickly became a star student. While still in his teens he formed a partnership with his brother and another student, Franz van Matsch, and they undertook a numbers of public commissions that culminated in projects to decorate the new Burgtheater (Austrain National Theatre) and the Kunsthistorsches (Art History) Museum. (1)

Klimt’s style was a compelling blend of Art Nouveau and Symbolist elements. From the former, he derived his taste from sinuous, decorated lines, while from the latter he borrowed his erotic subject matter and, in particular, his interest in the theme of the feminine fatale. It was his blatant eroticism which troubled the authorities, though it did not seriously damage Klimt’s career. He was always in great demand as a portraitist, and he continued to receive private commissions for decorative schemes. (2)

Head Of The Lovers – In all of Klimt’s versions of the humans embrace, the men’s face is obscured and the main emphasis in on the women. Her eyes are closed, presumably in rapture, but the picture also has a more morbid undertone. The woman’s skin has a deathly pallor, and the painful, horizontal filt, of the head is clearly design to evoke comparison with contemporary paintings of severed heads. The theme of decapitation was extremely common in Symbolism art. (3)

I love this painting because it evokes love which is the most personal and powerful feeling. I have noticed how the women’s eyes are closed within the arms of her lover—willingly submitting herself to him, to his kiss. They are firming essence of love, how two people assume the identities of each other.

Reference List

(1) Andrew Graham-Dixon, Artist Their Lives And Works, pp. 261

(2) Dr.Mike O’Mahony, World Art The Essential Illustrated History, pp. 242.

(3) Thamase & Hudson, Art THE WHOLE STORY, pp. 352.

I choose the theme of love, because it involves most passionate feelings. Love blesses us, and it hurts us, and no one is more inspired than a wounded lover. I think, and I believe that passion and all the feelings generated by love must turn into art. Love is a powerful force that makes me desire to accomplice everything in life. Love gives me absolute power of direction, even in the most challenging circumstances of my life.  Love is one of the most beautiful feelings that human beings can experience and share one another. Love is the essence of life.