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Why does Abstract Art need Real-Life Models

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John Ng

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Nov 19, 2002, 7:51:38 PM11/19/02
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Can someone explain to me why a Modern Art painter needs a real life
model when they paint nothing like what they see? Or maybe Picasso
actually does see like what he paint... maybe he needs medical help
for his condition. Wonder what it would be like if he tries to copy a
Walt Disney character?

keith o'connor (tinmangallery.com

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Nov 19, 2002, 9:50:17 PM11/19/02
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The door is closed - you will never enter.

k

John Ng <pigsm...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:d1bb492a.0211...@posting.google.com...

Goethe Helen Waite

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Nov 20, 2002, 2:27:41 PM11/20/02
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In article <d1bb492a.0211...@posting.google.com>,


Save up your money. Go to Paris. Have some good food, take in the sights,
catch up on the jet lag.

And then, spend a day at the Picasso Museum.

I did not get Picasso until I did that. I went because my aunt loves
Picasso and I wanted to go there, check it out, and get her some little
souvenirs (and a report of my trip). They have an interesting layout
where you can see the progression of study after study of some theme
or image that refines itself to what you generally see in the exhibits
that make it across the Pond.

The paintings he does do indeed look like their subject matter. It is
truly uncanny.

--
"Arguing on the internet is like competing in the Special Olympics - even
if you win you're still retarded."
Kramer Wetzel, home of the Texas Shakespeare Massacre

Richard

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Nov 20, 2002, 6:48:45 PM11/20/02
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Tell me about it! I think it's just more modern art bullshit. They
sure do have a lot of bullshit beliefs! My current painting teacher is
always telling people to go have a look at the real thing when you
make a painting. She forbids us to paint from photos. However, she is
a follower of expressionism, which basically involves making very
ugly, unrealistic paintings with no use of drawing or painting skills.
I'd love to give her a lecture on how crazy her beliefs are, but I
don't have the heart to burst her bubble. I think I'll probably just
let her keep all her crazy delusions.

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John Ng

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Nov 21, 2002, 12:40:49 AM11/21/02
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e...@idiom.com (Goethe Helen Waite) wrote in message

> The paintings he does do indeed look like their subject matter. It is
> truly uncanny.

My God, Picasso really has a medical problem as he sees like what he
painted. Why he can't achieve the same result from a photo (or the
mind's eye) instead of real life model is anyone's guess. You would
tell me next that Walt Disney drew Snow White's Dwarfs from real
dressed up figures... And Pollock's Blue Poles were real telegraph
poles painted blue...


John Ng
ART RENEWAL ADVOCATE
http://community.webshots.com/user/pigsmayfly

Richard

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Nov 21, 2002, 2:55:46 AM11/21/02
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On 20 Nov 2002 21:40:49 -0800, pigsm...@hotmail.com (John Ng) wrote:

>e...@idiom.com (Goethe Helen Waite) wrote in message
>
>> The paintings he does do indeed look like their subject matter. It is
>> truly uncanny.
>
>My God, Picasso really has a medical problem as he sees like what he
>painted. Why he can't achieve the same result from a photo (or the
>mind's eye) instead of real life model is anyone's guess. You would
>tell me next that Walt Disney drew Snow White's Dwarfs from real
>dressed up figures... And Pollock's Blue Poles were real telegraph
>poles painted blue...

The bull shit just never ends, does it john?
Whenever I tell someone I hate modern art, they want to convert me to
a believer in it. I just refuse to believe in any kind of bullshit:
modern art, religion, communism, astrology, etc.

Andrew D

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Nov 21, 2002, 11:53:43 PM11/21/02
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In article <543ptuko4b3irkgg0...@4ax.com>, Richard
<cool_a...@z.com> wrote:

[snip]


>The bull shit just never ends, does it john?
>Whenever I tell someone I hate modern art, they want to convert me to
>a believer in it. I just refuse to believe in any kind of bullshit:
>modern art, religion, communism, astrology, etc.

And yet you insist CMY colour theory is gospel despite all evidence to the
contrary.

Andy D.

"I'm a great speller - but a hopless tpyist!"

Goethe Helen Waite

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Nov 22, 2002, 4:10:58 PM11/22/02
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In article <d1bb492a.02112...@posting.google.com>,

John Ng <pigsm...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>e...@idiom.com (Goethe Helen Waite) wrote in message
>
>> The paintings he does do indeed look like their subject matter. It is
>> truly uncanny.
>
>My God, Picasso really has a medical problem as he sees like what he
>painted. Why he can't achieve the same result from a photo (or the
>mind's eye) instead of real life model is anyone's guess. You would
>tell me next that Walt Disney drew Snow White's Dwarfs from real
>dressed up figures... And Pollock's Blue Poles were real telegraph
>poles painted blue...


LOL. No, what Picasso did was move around his subject while painting.
Many of the works he does show multiple sides of the subject in the same
2-D space. You cannot do THAT from a photo! Often, his paintings took
a progression from most "realistic" to more abstracted. The paintings
will evoke a feeling rather than slap you on the head with a rubber mallet.

As for Disnsy, any good animator has to learn not only how to draw
a form, but how the form MOVES. If you look at early computer
animation, you will see that the animations don't seem to have any
weight to them. But if you look at old cartoons, you will see that
the creatures and people lumber along as if they have a real weight.
Muybridge photo collections are a big seller on Amazon among
animators. Getting movement is a lot harder than you think. Plus,
if you look at old cartoons from the 1930s, you will see that they
had multilayered cels for backgrounds, where the staff farthest
away moved more slowly as the character moved across the space.

I don't know enough about Pollock, so I will leave the Blue Poles comment
to marinate...

ER

Andrew D

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Nov 25, 2002, 9:08:17 PM11/25/02
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In article <1037999458.759392@smirk>, e...@spamthis.idiom.com wrote:

>In article <d1bb492a.02112...@posting.google.com>,
>John Ng <pigsm...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>e...@idiom.com (Goethe Helen Waite) wrote in message
>>
>>> The paintings he does do indeed look like their subject matter. It is
>>> truly uncanny.
>>
>>My God, Picasso really has a medical problem as he sees like what he
>>painted. Why he can't achieve the same result from a photo (or the
>>mind's eye) instead of real life model is anyone's guess. You would
>>tell me next that Walt Disney drew Snow White's Dwarfs from real
>>dressed up figures... And Pollock's Blue Poles were real telegraph
>>poles painted blue...
>
>
>LOL. No, what Picasso did was move around his subject while painting.
>Many of the works he does show multiple sides of the subject in the same
>2-D space.

And he draws each side just as badly as the next.

>You cannot do THAT from a photo! Often, his paintings took
>a progression from most "realistic" to more abstracted. The paintings
>will evoke a feeling rather than slap you on the head with a rubber mallet.

Yep, They evoke a feeling like I might have eaten too many chocolate
biscuits just before I ate that greasy bacon breakfast. Perhaps my
breakfasts should in future be saved as great art? Or perhaps they need to
be eaten then "recovered" before they attain artistic status?

Frankly, the rubber mallet alternative sounds pretty good.

Richard

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Nov 26, 2002, 12:25:45 PM11/26/02
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I have a new theory. I suspect that the crappy, sub-par "artists" of
today like to paint from real life so that they can claim their CRUDE,
not-very-realistic paintings are realistic! They use it as a
substitute for actually being able to paint something realistically.

John Ng

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Nov 26, 2002, 11:52:25 PM11/26/02
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e...@idiom.com (Goethe Helen Waite) wrote in message

> As for Disnsy, any good animator has to learn not only how to draw...

You are taking about behaviour. That is quite different from
Picasso's work. In fact Disney's behaviour realism realism is more
akin to what some good actors do to study real behaviour.


> LOL. No, what Picasso did was move around his subject while painting.
> Many of the works he does show multiple sides of the subject in the same
> 2-D space. You cannot do THAT from a photo!

Multiple sides... no, that was Cezanne (another sufferer of the
medical condition). Picasso's paintings is what he sees at the very
first split second when the image has not formed in his brains, a
medical condition call Sub-Human Picassymdrome. I certainly won't be
able to paint well (like him) because I don't suffer from this
condition... too bad... wonder if his eyes has facets like a fly.

When he paints, does he carry his canvas around the subject. How many
degrees does he introduce into his painting?

If Picasso can't paint from photo, he certainly can't do it from real
life either. Now Van Dyck's "Triple Portrait of Charles" is a
painting of multiple sides.

Updated 25Nov2002

Often, his paintings took
> a progression from most "realistic" to more abstracted. The paintings
> will evoke a feeling rather than slap you on the head with a rubber mallet.
>

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