I would have to say that Gauguin's
painting, “The Yellow Christ” can be considered as “avant-garde”
for a few reasons, that include “reference, deference, and
difference.” To start though, it reminds me of a slide from this
weeks lecture that had “Avant-Garde” described as : 1.
Challenging authority, and 2. Displayed art with unconventional
techniques and modern subjects.
When I look at “The Yellow Christ”
I can see that Gauguin is doing both of these. He challenges
authority by possibly having Christ be a portrait of himself, while
also depicting Christ in a sickly yellow color, within a modern
setting. That's not what I would call conventional for a painting of
the crucifixion.The painting is also unconventional because it's full
of bright, but dirty colors, and it isn't a 'study of light' like in
impressionism. Instead the colors give a sad and almost sickening
feeling to the painting. And again it's also unconventional because
it's depicting Christ in a modern setting, for the modern theme of
the struggling artist verses the public.
Here are my broken up ideas for
Gauguins, “reference, defere,ce and difference.”
Reference: I see this in how Gauguin
chose to depict Christ in this painting. The way Christ is posed is a
very iconic and recognizable image that's related to probably a
thousand other paintings around the world. It shows that Gauguin is
aware, of both current and past depictions of Christ and of the
crucifixion. I also see reference in the colors that he chose to use,
in order to depict emotion.
Deference and Difference: I would say
that both of these connect to a term to describe art from this time
period, “Synthetism.” Which is, “based on the idea that art
should be a synthesis of three features, the outward appearance of
natural forms, the artist's feelings about his subject, and purely
aesthetic considerations of line, color, and form. Within, “The
Yellow Christ” I can see that Gauguin has made it so that the
viewer can recognize all of the natural (and unnatural) forms in the
painting. His lines for them are also exaggerated and thick in some
areas, while in other areas of the painting they are under
exaggerated, and barely there, if not there at all. It makes the
painting distorted and focuses attention on the aesthetic, as well as
focuses on Gauguin's meaning behind the painting and the feelings
that it should evoke.
2 comments:
You've got some good ideas. I think that you could even separate "deference" and "difference" a bit more. Gauguin seems to be deferring to some of the most recent and radical trends in art, including Impressionism. Gauguin has looser brushstrokes and an interest in color, similar to what the Impressionists have done. However, as a Synthetist, he sets himself apart from the Impressionists by using unnatural colors and exaggerating his use of line.
-Prof. Bowen
I really like how you said that the colors he used were dirty and sickening. It made me see yellow in an entirely different light, since i usually really like yellow. I also like how you separated the three terms (mostly) and explained about them within the painting. It made it alot more clear what it all means relative to specific paintings, other than being explained en masse.
Post a Comment