Self portrait assignment

-Self portrait in a dark felt hat,
Vincent van Gogh, Netherlands, 1886

-reflection (self-portrait), Lucian Freud, united kingdom, 1985

-self portrait at lezanen, Paul Gauguin, France, 1888
Rembrandt van rijn, self-portrait, 1659, Leiden Amsterdam

-Susanna Coffey, self portrait, new york, 2002

-Pablo Picasso, self portrait 1907, 1907, Paris

-Gregory Gillespie, self portrait, 1973, Massachusetts

-Paul Cezanne self portrait, 1880, France

-Brett gamache, self portrait ( frontal view), 2008, new Hampshire

2) Three similar self portraits are Cézanne’s, Rembrandt van Rijn’s and Vincent van Gogh’s. they are all a fairly close up view of the artists face; also they are painted with dark deep colors. There is contrast between the figure and the background using lightness and darkness which draws attention directly to the figure. The self portraits are all very detailed and realistic. The three self portraits by Cézanne, Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh use dark colors and contrast to draw attention to the figure and specific parts of the figures face.
3) The self portrait by Susanna Coffey is the strongest. Although there isn’t color there is still a lot of contrast. Also, the lack of color makes the portrait look more serious. The figure is looking strait on with the focal point fairly centered. It looks like the figure is looking strait at you which makes it the most intense. Also it is very realistic to what people look like when they age, making it look almost ominous because of its unattractiveness.
4) living artists don’t need to make self portraits for people to know what they looked like in the future because we have cameras; but you cant show opinions and views in photographs. If an artist has a certain view or opinion of themselves they can paint that into their portrait. In photographs you cant add details that show your views of yourself. Self portrait let you express ideas and views that specifically relate to you.

Painting and sculpture

   

'homunculus"Fred einadi

 

"Life and death"
Peter johnson

critique 1

 Often things that are used up and have nothing left are called dead. Usually when you throw something in the trash it is dead, has no more use, isn’t functional an, is gone forever. The word death makes people think of the end, everything gone, whether you are taking about lettuce being dead or a human that is actually dead. When people think of someone being dead often they think of them as being gone forever and that dying is completely leaving this word. Is the painting “Lane of Poplars at Sunset”, Vincent Van Gogh uses the barren trees, lack of detail, and the view of the figures to depict the idea that with death everything either leaves or ends.

            Healthy and live trees are usually depicted as being full and colorful. Healthy trees can often represent life and growing. The trees in “Lane of Poplars at Sunset” are very thin and barren, they look lifelike but not necessarily alive. Once trees are dead, once they stop growing they start to rot and eventually decompose. Once people die, in theory their memory starts to fade, starts to leave and once a memory is gone you cant just get it back, and you cant just relive it. In “Lane of Poplars at sunset” the tree’s lack of life is an example of memories of someone leaving, decomposing, till eventually that person is forever gone.

            Paintings that are full of detail often look more alive and vibrant. The viewer is distracted by the intricate detail which almost makes the painting look like a photograph. This distraction makes the viewer focus less on the subject of the painting. Vincent Van Gogh used less detail to keep the viewer more focused on the subject of the painting because the nature of the subject makes people want to ignore it. Death and lose are things that are greatly ignored because people don’t want to face them, the lack of detail is used to make obvious that once someone dies they really are gone.

             In literature and art there is often the character of “death”. “Death” is usually presented as a figure in a black cloak that seems faceless. Also, sometimes “death” is carrying a body in his arms, or the soul he has just taken away. The cloaked figure in “Lane of Poplars at Sunset” appears as a black outline giving him an eerie feeling. It appears that he is carrying a body away, walking into the sunset and the end of the day. The black outline of the figure is used to make him seem more ominous, and the way he is carrying a body walking away towards the end of the day gives a sense of departure. All the aspects of the figure combine to make him appear as death walking away with someone’s life, representing how once someone is death everything about them starts to walk away till they are gone.

            In general death is something people try to ignore, espashally when it is that after death everything is gone. Vincent Van Gogh used a lot of diffent aspects in “Lane of Poplars at Sunset” to emphisize its subject since it is something that people often want to ignore. He used the baren dead trees to represent memories of someone decaying and the lack of detail to make the veiwer think more about the subject of the painting. Also, he used the figure to depict the character of “death” walking away with someones life. Death and lose are things that are inevitable, and Vincent Van Gogh used “Lane of Poplars at Sunset” to show that once something dies everything about it either leaves or ends.