Ink Deep

In 1914 the world would change forever.  The Great War, or as we now know it, World War I, ravage the world, ending and lives and drastically changing the lives of those who would survive.  The War would have a tremendous impact on life as it was known, and art was no exception.  Having witnessed the War first hand, many of them on their doorsteps, many artists would become disillusioned with society and it's ideals, rejecting logic and reason.  From this the Dada movement was born, an affront to logic and reason, an insult to the rational right wing ideology that had resulted in such overwhelming and needless violence.  Dada would take pride in the nonsensical and refuted any preconceived notions of art and what art should be.  As a result, the Dada movement spans a great deal of mediums, extending into poetry, plays and writing. Although Dada was incredibly influenced by World War I, and didn't really see it's fruition until post 1915, there are example...

Cubism is without a doubt one of the most talked about and studied areas of art history.  Although the first Cubist exhibition wasn't held until 1911, there were a few artworks from around 1907 that hint towards Cubism.  Picasso and Braque are widely regarded as the creators of Cubism, though Paul Cezanne paved the way for them with his Post Impressionist work, particularly in his use of space.  The definition of  Cubism has become rather complex, especially in retrospect.  I like to define it as a distortion of time and space to create an idealist image of a particular subject.  Of course, that's my own view and incredibly simplified. Cubism would go through many iterations and crossed over from not only paintings but to other mediums such as collage and sculpture as well. Although Picasso (and to a lesser extent - Braque) is regarded as the father of Cubism, a lot of the original ideals and practices can be seen in earlier works.  Most notably i...

One of the shorter art movements we've looked at, Fauvism was only around for a few years, between 1904 and 1910.  Spearheaded by two French artists; Fauvism would push the ideals of Impressionism and Post Impressionism to their limits.  With a strong focus on colour, Fauvism would result in many vibrant and striking works.  These artists, known as the Fauves (French for "Wild Beasts") sought to express themselves through painterly technique, above naturalistic and realistic themes.  Though a number of artists would attempt Fauvism, few would stick with it, many moving on to different themes and styles.  Most notably Georges Braque, would soon join Picasso to work on Cubism. Along with the vibrant and unnaturalistic colours, Fauvism focused heavily on painterly methods and techniques.  Vivid and expressive brushstrokes started the movement, though many working under it's banner would take on George Seurat's Pointillism, pushing the boundaries further and ...

Post Impressionism (first coined in 1906) is one of the more complicated art movements, simply in the sense that it does not convey a singular idea but rather a collection of advancements from the Impressionist ideology.  Defining Post Impressionism is difficult as each artist went in a different direction.  Whilst most of these artists originated in France, their responses to Impressionism and it's limitations would vary greatly.  Some would focus on shape, trying to bring more form back to Impressionist subjects, whilst others would focus on colour, granting it a more abstract use.  Colour and colour theory would play a big part in Post impressionism. Historically there are four artists who stand out as being the most notable Post Impressionists.  Paul Gauguin, Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gough and George Seurat.  I'll look at each of them briefly, to summarise how each contributed to the ideals of Post Impressionism. The Vision after the Sermon (Jac...

Continuing from my editing, I selected my final images, and I placed them into an order I found the most fitting.  I'll display these images by themselves first, and then I will move on to my evaluation. Evaluation It took me a long time to decide on a theme.  For the longest time I was considering doing landscapes, specifically looking and roads and vehicle travel.  But this presented a series of problems I had little experience dealing with.  Standing in traffic was a very real consideration, as was things like weather and very dangerous locations.  Not that I needed to do this, but I felt I wanted the images to be of the specific ideas I had in mind.  I talked with some of my fellow students, who helped shift my focus.  I always loved the idea of photography on the smaller scale and had never attempted macro images.  With this idea in mind, I thought about what I wanted to do, what I wanted my message to be....

Earlier in the year, we were lucky enough to be put through a Solarcan workshop.  During this we learned about solargraphy and got to make our own Solarcan cameras.  The process was reasonably simple, and we were each tasked with setting up our Solarcan to take the best images possible.  We had to ensure the lens was facing South and I tried to get mine as high up as possible with as little obstructing the view as I could manage. I decided to climb a reasonably high hill outside my home town, and secured the Solarcan to a telephone mast.  I was planning on using a compass to find due South, but my compass did not work, and I had to rely on guess work to position the Solarcan. The can was fastened as above, and I'd planned on keeping it up there for approximately two weeks.  As you may see, I planned to bring it down on the 17th of January.  At the time, the weather was wet and windy, so I was battered round a bit.  I apologise for the quality ...