Museum Visited: Tate Britain
Activity 1.
Describing Before Reading Description
The artwork seems to be a mix of abstraction and realism since most of its subject are drawn truthfully, yet the colors and placement seems unrealistic due to its exaggerations. Based on its style, I believe the work to be an old one, but also new enough to be somewhere around the start of surrealism. The story that is illustrated here is of a horse and its rider who both have died from an unknown cause. The artwork is a 2D oil painting and is taking place outside on a plain during the evening or nighttime.
Describing After Reading Description
This piece is titled Martyred Spain and painted by André Fougeron in 1937 as a way to express "his despair on the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War". Based on the title and the context, it can be inferred that the painting depicts a woman and her horse who had died amiss the civil war, but since they have no armor or weapons, it can inferred that they got caught between combat. Some elements of art present in this artwork are color, value and texture. The majority of the colors are dull except for the woman and the hair of her horse, which are all brightly contrasted. Space in the painting is mainly occupied by our main subjects and the background is just enough to inform the viewers the time and a general place of death.
Analyzing
An emphasis is made on the woman due to her yellow skin juxtaposing the dark and it is likely that the artwork is meant to be looked at in order of the layers. In other words, the eyes will be initially attracted to the woman, then the horse and finally the background, looking at what's on top first and moving its way back. One similarity I noticed is how the shading of the shadow doesn't really happen gradually, but instead cuts off instantly with the dark tone of black on both the subjects. It is quite clear that the relationship between the two is rather intimate since it is her horse after all and they died side by side.
Interpret
At first I was quite confused on why the woman had no clothes on her upper half, but based on the context of war, it is possible that she was raped before dying. Since this learning, the painting has become even more tragic because I think André Fougeron created this in dedication towards innocent women who were and are being brutally abused and murdered during wars. The fact that this artwork still applies today is truly heartbreaking as can be seen in Myanmar, for example, where soldiers take advantage of women they capture, torture them with no empathy whatsoever and sometimes even kill. This artwork antagonizes war by showing the brutal effects of it.
Judge/Evaluate
Overall, I really like this artwork not only for its purpose, but also the way it was composed. Instead of adding a face to the woman, a faceless body applies to a more general sense, which is better in the case of raising awareness of war. I also appreciate how the setting in this case isn't really important, to show that things like this can literally happen anywhere and the artwork is mainly taken up space by the two subjects to emphasize the consequences of conflict. One suggestion I might add is to show injuries since I feel that some people might find it hard to realize that the two are dead without context and it will add more pain/agony to an already greatly dreadful artwork.
Activity 2.
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Self-Portrait c.1799 . Tate
Lucian Freud, Leigh Bowery 1991
Comparative Analysis
The obvious similarity in both pieces are that they are portraits of a person. Other than the fact that one is a self portrait by the artist himself while the other is of someone else, there still exist several major differences. Firstly, the way each artist approached their portrait is drastic. Turner's work is professional in that he is using the traditional methods to capture himself: the portrait is nearly symmetrical and everything is visible for the most part of the upper body. In addition, the subject has eye contact with the viewer, which makes for an engaging, yet intimidating connection. On the other hand, Freud's work is more raw, meaning he has no problem showing the flaws of the human body and even further elevate this idea by having a close up, uncomfortable shot of the subject. Even though the subject's eyes are closed, the relationship developed in this painting with the viewer is more personal since it is real. However, there is an explanation to this big differentiation and it starts with the time period in which the artworks were created. During the 18th century, paint wasn't as accessible as it was in the late 20th century so people mainly use it for important occasions. As there were no cameras back then, the only way to memorialize the appearance of yourself was through paintings (art) and if you have the chance to do so, you would want yourself to be looking at your best, thus the professionalism. Freud was fortunate enough to be alive in the age of technology, where the purpose of paint seems to have evolved from back then, giving him more chance to experiment.
Activity 3.
Visual Annotation: Aide Memoir
