Art and Nature: Matisse and Gouache Cut Outs

Polynesia by Matisse

Gouache is also called “opaque watercolors”.  It achieves these opaque qualities by having a higher ratio of pigment to water.  Also an inert white pigment such as chalk is added to the mix.  Gouache can be created by adding one part whiting to six parts pigment. Gouache gives a pearly glow and deep finish to paintings.  Also, when the paint dries, the light colors become darker, and the darker ones become lighter.

A famous example of the painting with gouache is the series of “Blue Nudes” (1952-1956) by Henri Matisse (France, 1865-1956).  The “Blue Nudes” are constructed from cutouts of gouache painted paper.  The cutouts were glued onto poster board, and then attached to canvas.  (The “Blue Nudes” are called gouaches decoupages.)  The “Blue Nudes” evoke movement and line as a united whole.  The vivid colors of gouache combine with simple shapes to produce art of arresting designs.

After Matisse had cancer surgery, he had to use a wheelchair.  Because of this, the artist changed his methods of creating art to accommodate sitting down.  By using paper cutouts, Matisse said that he found freedom in pure color and form to create his art.  For Matisse, the cutouts became his method of drawing on paper.  

First, Matisse’s assistants painted gouache colors on sheets of white paper.  After the paint dried, Matisse cut out fanciful shapes from the sheets.  Later he would place the cutouts into compositions.  He pinned them up on his studio’s walls.  After much experimenting, Matisse would settle on a design which then became a final piece of art.

Works Used

Boddy-Evans Marion, “All About Painting”, About.com, http://painting.about.com/,

Dabrowski, Magdalena, “Henri Matisse (1869–1954)”, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2004, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mati/hd_mati.htm

Essak, Shelley, “All About Art History”, About.com, http://arthistory.about.com/,

Janson, H.W. and Dora Jane Janson, “The Story of Painting”, Harry N Abrams: New York, 1966.

---, “Matisse: Life and Painting”, Henri Matisse.net, 2011, http://www.henri-matisse.net/index.html,

Art and Nature: Aethestics

The concept of “aesthetics” can range from the nature of beauty to the philosophy of art.  The core focus of aesthetics involves human notions of beauty.  “What is art” is the question that the philosophy of aesthetics strives to address.

Since the notions of art and beauty have been examined over the centuries, the topic of aesthetics have become a broad and complex one.  In the 1700s, the noted philosopher Immanuel Kant tried to codify Western European society’s’ definitions of aesthetics.  He laid out four aspects of aesthetics to consider for the attainment of beauty.  First is that the object exists for itself, and has no other purpose.  Second is the objectivity of the piece.  Third is the disinterest of the viewer who has no emotional investment in the art.  And finally, the piece is enjoyed as it is and no other meaning than to exist (Art for art’s sake).

Aesthetics then becomes a system of how to perceive art.  Aesthetics can be the matrix of how we see art such as how we respond to color, line, shape, texture, and value.  We can see the formal qualities of the art or understand the metaphysics of the piece.  How do we engage with the art determine our sense of aesthetics.  

José Clemente Orozco (Mexico, 1888-1949) said, “Painting assails the mind.  It persuades the heart.”  Many lay people would agree with that.  We see a work of art and have an emotional reaction to it.  Then aesthetics could guide us in how we respond and why.

In the 19^th Century, a movement called the Aesthetic Movement came into being.  This movement was a reaction to the ongoing Industrial Revolution.  Various artists wanted to restore the sense of beauty that was lost.  They wanted to turn ordinary household objects such as furniture, ceramics, and even books into works of art.  The artists strove to have ordinary people be surrounded by beauty.

Art and Nature: Art Nouveau and Tiffany

From Louis Comfort Tiffany's Glassworks

From the 1880s to the First World War, an international art movement swept through the United States and Europe.  Called Art Nouveau (New Art), this movement encompassed all the arts from painting to decorative to architecture.  Artists of this movement sought to merge the ideals of nature and the styles of Asian cultures together with western sensibilities.  They strove to achieve the synthesis of art and crafts, hence the name “Art Nouveau”.

A reaction to the Neo-classicism of the 19^th Century, Art Nouveau also was a product of the Industrial Revolution.  As the first decorative style of the 20^th Century, this artistic movement sought to soften and humanize urban areas.  Cities as diverse as Riga (Latvia) and Chicago (U.S.) became the focus of “total works of art”.  (In various cities worldwide, architecture of the Art Nouveau movement can still be found.)

The movement ended with the coming of the First World War.  The positive and celebratory sense of Art Nouveau became overwhelmed by the despair and destruction of that war.  Moreover many pieces of Art Nouveau were expensive to manufacture, and the public preferred more streamlined and modern items.

The person that epitomizes Art Nouveau the most is Louis Comfort Tiffany (U.S., 1843-1933).  Starting out as a fine art painter, Tiffany branched into other areas of Art Nouveau ranging from ceramics to furniture to interior design to public spaces.  Moreover, he explored all these mediums with creative mastery and ease.

What people remember Tiffany for is his glasswork.  With John LaFarge (his rival) Tiffany revolutionized the artistry of stained glass.  (This art form had been unchanged since the Middle Ages.)  Tiffany experimented in this medium with different types of glass, colors, depth, and subject matter.  In addition, he replaced Biblical themes with scenes from nature for memorial windows.

Various examples of Tiffany’s glasswork can be seen at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website.  A typical example is “Autumn Landscape” (1924), a monumental window that features the River of Life as a theme.  By using various types of glass (confetti, marbleized, mottled, and ripple), he created a painting made of glass. To create depth for the distant mountains and river, Tiffany layered the glass.

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Essak, Shelley, “All About Art History”, About.com, http://arthistory.about.com/,

Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney, and Monica Obniski, “Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933)”,Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 2007, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tiff/hd_tiff.htm

Gontar, Cybele, “Art Nouveau”. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2006, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/artn/hd_artn.htm

Greenhadlgh, Paul, and Mari Griffith, “Introduction to Art Nouveau”, Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2000, http://www.nga.gov/feature/nouveau/exhibit_intro.htm,

---, “Guide to Art History”, ArtHistory.net, 2009, http://www.arthistory.net/,

Janson, H.W. and Dora Jane Janson, “The Story of Painting”, Harry N Abrams: New York, 1966.

Art and Nature: Murals and Jose Clemente Orozco

One of Orozco's panels at Dartmouth College

An artwork painted on a wall is considered to be a mural.  Examples of murals range from prehistoric cave paintings to religious paintings of the Buddha on cave walls in India to paintings on outside buildings celebrating the neighborhood.  A mural usually incorporates the architectural elements of the wall it is painted on.  For example, the murals by Jose Clemente Orozco (Mexico, 1888-1949) at Dartmouth College integrate the air vents in the walls.  Like many muralists, Orozco painted frescos since this medium hold the colors on the walls better.

In modern times, murals became one of the methods to bring art into the public sphere.  Today, murals can be found in hospitals, libraries, and other places.  The halls of the U.S. Department of Interior (Main Building) in Washington D.C. feature the murals of the American artist Thomas Hart Benton (1889- 1975).

Murals on the outside walls of buildings serve as advertisements, civic reminders, propaganda or social commentary.  Washington D.C. has many beautiful murals throughout the city.  City Arts of D.C. has the local teenagers paint murals to celebrate their communities.  (The motto of City Arts is “enriching neighborhoods through community art.”)

A famous muralist, Jose Clemente Orozco (Mexico, 1888-1949) painted “The Epic of American Civilization” (1932-1934) at the Baker Memorial Library at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire (U.S.).  He painted this mural on two walls – the west one represented Pre-Columbian life in America, the east one Post-Columbian life.  As an artist, Orozco sought to challenge people to examine the social and political ideas in their lives.  This particular mural prompts people to consider the profound changes in American civilization, and its future.

The mural panel on the west wall is entitled “The Coming of Quetzalcoatl”.  In the various panels, Orozco presents vignettes of life before, during, and after Quetzalcoatl, a God of the Aztecs and Mayas.  The majority of the panels are in brown color schemes with red and blues interjected as emphasis.  The panels are called “Migration”, “Ancient Human Sacrifice”, “Aztec Warriors”, “Coming of Quetzalcoatl”, “Pre-Columbian Golden Age”, “The Departure of Quetzalcoatl”, and “The Prophecy”.

The mural panel on the east wall is entitled “The Return of Quetzalcoatl”.  Since the Europeans introduced a new complexity to the American continent, Orozco changed his colors to the more pulsating reds, yellows, and blacks. The panels comment on the changes that the Europeans brought, and whether Quetzalcoatl is returning.  The panels are titled “Cortez and the Cross”, “The Machine”, “Anglo-America”, “Hispano-America”, “Gods of the Modern World”, “Modern Human Sacrifice”, and “Modern Migration of the Spirit”.

From the Baker Memorial Library’s Commentary of Orozco’s mural, “The work is an epic interpretation of the constructive and destructive forces which have moulded the patterns of life on this continent. Choosing not to confine himself to the literal representation of historical incident, Orozco has concentrated vastly larger meaning into pictorial symbols. The two main sections, physically separated by the division of the room, are bound together like the different movements of a symphony by the closely related development of major and minor themes--themes of idea, of color, of form.”

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Coyle, Laurie and Rick Tejada-Flores, “OROZCO: Man of Fire”, Paradigm Productions, 2007, http://www.paradigmproductions.org/films/orozco/?c=synopsis 

---, “Orozco – An Epic of American Civilization”, Dartmouth College, http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/Orozco/epic.html,

---, “Orozco Frescoes at Dartmouth”, Dartmouth College, http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/Orozco/62interp.html,