Web-Today for 11-05: A Handful of Modern Artists
Web-Today Destinations
before, I studied art in college. The degree hanging on my wall
indicates that I'm an art historian. I find it a little disappointing
that I don't work in my chosen field but I take some solace in the fact
that my current job as a graphic artist and Web site designer is at
least tangentially related to my college education. Even now, years
after graduation, one of the questions people ask me most frequently is
'who is your favorite artist?' Unfortunately I don't have a simple
answer to that question. I tend to think that all art, no matter how
inaccessible, ugly or inscrutable has at least some intrinsic value and
cannot be discounted. It wouldn't be accurate to say that I like all
art but I do enjoy a very broad range of artists and movements. I've
presented numerous art-related sites in the pages of Web-Today over the
years and now I'd like to offer up a few more. Here then is a
collection of destinations that address the work of some of the modern
artists I most admire.
Pablo Picasso
http://www.clubinternet.com/picasso/
Pablo Picasso's influence on modern art is hard to underestimate. In
short, he single handedly invented all of the trends and techniques
that we associate with contemporary art and every artist since has
lived in his long shadow. Before Picasso hit the scene artists were
concerned with representational imagery, ever attempting to create more
and more realistic paintings and sculptures. Picasso opened visual
expression to a new realm: that of the subjective and psychological.
Picasso's modes of expression have become so firmly planted in our
popular lexicon that they seem almost pedestrian when viewed today but
in his time they were so fantastic as to be almost incomprehensible.
This is the official Picasso Web site where you can learn about the
artist's life, view many of his most notable works and find out when
and where Picasso exhibitions are scheduled.
Wassily Kandinsky
http://www.glyphs.com/art/kandinsky/
Building on Picasso's cubist paintings, Wassily Kandinsky created a
movement of his own. Kandinsky took cubism and slowly stripped it of
every remaining vestige of representationalism until he was left with
pure color and composition. Kandinsky's late period paintings were
simple blocks of black, white and primary colors that came to be known
as abstractionism. This page focuses on that most fascinating period of
Kandinsky's artistic career when his works balanced precariously
between pure cubist technique and the truly abstract. Here you'll find
seven illustrations in both thumbnail and high-resolution versions
accompanied by short critical descriptions.
Salvador Dali
http://www.daliweb.com/galframes.htm
At the exact opposite end of the spectrum Salvador Dali took hold of
Picasso's psychological explorations, reintegrated them with
representational art and created a fantastic and inscrutable world of
dreamlike images. Dali was neither the most significant nor the most
accomplished of the surrealists but he was the most popular. This is
probably because Dali's paintings, though puzzling and somewhat
disturbing, are easily accessible to anyone who has ever had a vivid
dream. This site is a small but interesting collection of Dali
reproductions that present a nice overview of his early development as
an artist. Each work includes a brief critical analysis written by the
curators of the Salvador Dali Museum.
Roy Lichtenstein
http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/
Along with Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein was one of the first
artists to go beyond the thematic territory first opened up by Picasso.
This isn't to say that he was free of Picasso's influence, no artist
ever will be again. What Lichtenstein brought to the visual arts was a
synthesis of commercial imagery and serious the artistic voice.
Lichtenstein recognized the great expressive value in the (previously
shunned) fields of comic book illustration, magazine advertisement and
billboard art. This is the home site of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation
where you'll find extensive information on the artist's life and work.
Notable sections cover his paintings, murals, sculptures and
installations. The site is filled with interesting (if somewhat biased)
text, images and a cool virtual tour of a recent exhibition of his work
at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
--
Chris Hughes
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