Category / Painting

by Alexander Maybin

Zapata-style Landscape

At the start of the 20th century; European superiority was still asserted throughout the art world, and especially for artists in Mexico. Throughout Latin America, artists were trained to abide by the rules of realism while in Europe artists were developing more modern styles. The Eurocentric outlook of Mexican art institutions would have restricted the local artists from developing their own style.

The limitations that Diego Rivera would have felt through his training is no doubt what fuelled his ambitions of success in Europe. After being granted a scholarship to continue his art studies in Europe, Rivera would take his skills to Spain and then France where he would meet Pablo Picasso.

While in Paris, Rivera worked closely with Picasso which led to him spending a period of his career creating works in a Cubist style.

Zapata-style Landscape, by Diego Rivera. 1915. (125 x 145cm)

The Zapata-style Landscape (1915) shows the rebellious nature of Rivera which he clearly transfers into his art, experimenting with new styles rather than sticking to realism. This can also be seen in Rivera’s choice of name for this artwork; the artist named this piece after the main leader of the peasant revolution in the Mexican state of Morelos, Emiliano Zapata Salazar. His focus on the Mexican Revolution can also be seen through the artists inclusion of a rifle.

Looking closely at the Zapata-style Landscape you can see that the concentration on Mexican themes does not stop with the choice in name or style. The focus on Mexican culture can be seen in his incorporation of a sombrero, but most importantly the serape. The serapes inclusion of Mayan motifs showcases Mexico’s rich history before colonisation.

Something that should not be overlooked is the fact that this piece is a Latin American landscape. While the landscape genre of painting had been disregarded in Europe for centuries, its popularity was revived by the untamed scenes of the Americas. These artworks would eventually be mass produced for Europeans that were interested in the colonies. Rivera plays on this by adding stylised volcanoes in the background, suggestive of the Valley of Mexico.

In conclusion, even though Rivera’s Cubist period was short lived, it had a visible impact on the work he would produce from that point onwards. He would eventually leave Europe and return home to become one of the founding members of Mexican Muralism.

by Alexander Maybin

Picasso’s Blue Period

Throughout Picasso’s lifetime, the artist’s style was constantly evolving, although one of the most important phases of his career came after the death of his friend Carles Casagemas. This early stage of Picasso’s artistic development was so significant that he named it, the ‘blue period’ that would dominate his work for three years starting in 1901.

Self-Portrait, by Pablo Picasso. 1901.

At the tender age of 19 years old Picasso moved to Paris, which would have been the centre of the art world at the time. He was accompanied by his friend Casagemas, who was an artist himself.

While in Paris, Casagemas would fall in love with a young woman called Germaine, although she did not feel the same. On February 17th 1901, while Picasso was in Barcelona; Casagemas hosted a party, inviting many of his friends as well as Germaine. That night he would deliver a speech before asking for Germaine’s hand in marriage. Germaine rejected his proposal which drove him to pull out a pistol, shooting her and then himself. Although Germaine survived the attack, it would result in the death of Casagemas and the start of Picasso’s blue period.

Picasso’s use of blue as a way of providing relief from the emotions he felt after the death of his friend in an extremely depressing way. Throughout this period he focused on several different subjects although they always focused on themes like disparity, loneliness, poverty, old age and death.

La Vie, by Pablo Picasso. 1903.

One of the artworks that are most significant in representing this period of Picasso’s career is La Vie (1903). This piece shows Casagemas and Germaine, naked and cuddling. If you look at Casagemas’ left hand you can see that he is doing a gesture; this gesture is a religious symbol that refers to a quote from Jesus Christ after his resurrection, ‘Noli me tangere’. This can be translated to ‘touch me not’ or ‘stop clinging to me’, which could be interpreted as the young man telling Picasso that it was time to move on with his life.

by Alexander Maybin

Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro is an Italian phrase that translates to English as ‘light and dark’, and describes the use of shading to create a sense of volume for three-dimensional objects and figures. The use of this term in art history originates in the renaissance period, and would be further developed by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio and Rembrandt.

Leonardo da Vinci, 1452 – 1519 The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist (‘The Burlington House Cartoon’) about 1499-1500 Charcoal (and wash?) heightened with white chalk on paper, mounted on canvas, 141.5 x 104.6 cm

Throughout the sixteenth century this method became increasingly popular and was adopted by most artists; as time went on and the technique evolved, new styles like tenebrism were born. Tenebrism uses dramatic chiaroscuro as a dominant stylistic device; after the Caravaggio’s development of the technique, it would become increasingly popular in Spain and the Spanish-ruled kingdom of Naples.

Chiaroscuro is mainly known for becoming an essential aspect of drawing, painting and printmaking over the past 500 years; although the technique is still used to this day in more modern mediums like cinema and photography. One classic example of chiaroscuro in cinematography is Nosferatu (1922); a silent German Expressionist horror film that is commonly referred to as an influential masterpiece of cinema.

Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens Year: 1922 – Germany Director :F.W. Murnau Max Schreck.

Using this technique in cinema allows the viewer to focus on the main figure in the scene, which in this case is ‘Count Orlok’. Films from the silent period would be dependent on only the visual aspect, which would have to find ways to convey information that today we would expect to be given to us through dialogue, making the use of lighting to set the eerie tone even more important.