the brain reacts to symmetry in the occipital lobe, the primary part of the brain that reacts to visual stimuli

by Elizabeth Roth

“Not only does the mind create art, it also perceives it,” began Randy Blakely, Ph.D., Allan D. Bass Chair in Pharmacology, and director, Center for Molecular Neuroscience, in his introduction of Dr. Christopher Tyler. Tyler, of the Smith Kettlewell Eye Institute, delivered the second lecture in the 2002 Brain Awareness program recently at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.

Tyler discussed how the brain perceives symmetry and how artists, consciously or unconsciously, create their art based on an understanding of symmetrical principles.

Symmetry is a key visual property for humans. Its importance is expressed in its ubiquitous use as a design principle in everything humans construct, from architecture to the pattern in Oriental rugs.

Defined as balanced form, a beauty of form arising from balanced proportions, it is no surprise, then, that elements of symmetry are apparent in works of art. But, it is only partial symmetry that we see. In many of the Renaissance works Tyler presented, architectural elements of a painting were symmetrical while figures in the foreground were arrayed. Similar examples from other eras and artistic styles were presented as well.

Perhaps, it was theorized, that artists were unconsciously using symmetry to represent order, harmony, or serenity while the asymmetrical elements depicted that life and art are not perfect and therefore, cannot be perfectly symmetrical.

8
Perception, symmetry of art discussed at brain lecture
Through functional magnetic resonance imaging, it is clear that the brain reacts to symmetry in the occipital lobe, the primary part of the brain that reacts to visual stimuli. Tyler’s research indicates that human symmetry processing is hard-wired. In a matter of less than .05 of a second, humans instinctively scan a visual object for symmetrical qualities.

Questions were raised during the lecture about an evolutionary bias toward symmetry, possibly due to the fact that symmetrical bodies, biologically speaking, seem to be the best designed for procreation. Studies have shown that those human faces that are widely considered to be the most attractive are also quite symmetrical. Is this equivocation of symmetry to beauty, as was asked during the lecture, why humans very often tilt their head to one side as they speak directly to someone, or they stand with one foot forward, at an angle, perhaps in an attempt to mask any asymmetry? Could this explain the subconscious attention to symmetry in so many works of art?? Could this explain the subconscious attention to symmetry in so many works of art?

Symmetrical elements are often found in artistic works, and specifically paintings throughout many eras. Tyler noted that one of the clues to the importance of symmetry is evident in the placement of eyes in painted portraits.

According to Tyler, a survey of portraits over the last two millennia revealed that throughout history, one eye tended to be placed symmetrically at or near the vertical axis of the canvas. This placement violates the inherent symmetry of the face and body, but expresses a deeper symmetry and concentration on the “window on the soul.” Perhaps the artists felt it was more accurate to represent their subjects in their realistic imperfection.


Interestingly, Tyler found this theme to be present in diverse works from various cultures. Despite Tyler’s extensive research, he indicated that he was unable to find any reference to this principle, leaving him to conclude that the artists were not purposefully centering eyes in their portraits, but rather, did so unconsciously.



From Publishers Weekly
Anyone who thinks math is dull will be delightfully surprised by this history of the concept of symmetry. Stewart, a professor of mathematics at the University of Warwick (Does God Play Dice?), presents a time line of discovery that begins in ancient Babylon and travels forward to today's cutting-edge theoretical physics. He defines basic symmetry as a transformation, "a way to move an object" that leaves the object essentially unchanged in appearance. And while the math behind symmetry is important, the heart of this history lies in its characters, from a hypothetical Babylonian scribe with a serious case of math anxiety, through Évariste Galois (inventor of "group theory"), killed at 21 in a duel, and William Hamilton, whose eureka moment came in "a flash of intuition that caused him to vandalize a bridge," to Albert Einstein and the quantum physicists who used group theory and symmetry to describe the universe. Stewart does use equations, but nothing too scary; a suggested reading list is offered for more rigorous details. Stewart does a fine job of balancing history and mathematical theory in a book as easy to enjoy as it is to understand.Line drawings. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Art Qoute

"I feel that talent means little unless coupled with an insatiable desire to give an excellent personal demonstration. "

"It is ten per cent how you draw and ninty percent what you draw."

Realistic Face coloring

The head of Saint John the Evangelist by Fredrico Barocci 1580

Here’s a few general rules:

* The cheeks and lips are pinker, or more rosy.
* The nose is generally redder, or warmer.
* The jaw, chin, and mustache areas are often cooler, especially in men.
* The forehead is paler, and more yellow.
* The eye socket areas are darker and more purple.



MAD Magazine artist and illustrator Tom Richmond shares some of his digital line and color painting techniques in this video. Actual painting time without time lapse: 16 minutes

Pete Christman Photograph

Christman Combines Classic Vision With New Technology

Pete Christman, the longest-serving professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design, said three things are essential to his artistic process: painting, photography and computers.

It's easy to see that his work, on display in "Modern Pictorialism" at the Jack Leigh Gallery, 132 E. Oglethorpe Ave., through March 16, utilizes photographic materials. His landscapes do not have the effervescence of en plein air but a curious, observed quality. Rough brushstrokes define shapes and light billowing through canopies of trees; off-perspective skies draw attention away from the foreground rather than playing the part of ambient backdrop.

Pete Christman Red Woods
Pete Christman incorporates photography, painting with peanut butter and computer technology into his work.
Christman's methods are unconventional; he proudly lists among his media paint, photography, digital prints and peanut butter.

Last summer, Christman, a photography professor, traveled to California and South Carolina and throughout Savannah, taking photographs of landscapes and nature that reflected visions from master painters such as Monet, Caravaggio and Rembrandt. But Christman, existing in another time than these artists, said he felt that emulating centuries-old work would be problematic and knew he had to give his impression of the world he lives in to his audience.

"I feel that my work has little to do with the second half of the 20th century," he said. "However, this is the time I live in. My work is a product of today, and I wouldn’t be able to do any of this if it wasn’t for computers — or photography. They allow me to put my images together."

Inspired by light and atmosphere, Christman’s work harkens to Monet, but he admitted that these images are strictly postmodern because they are equally about media. He cited famed photographer Alrfred Stieglitz's modern-day vision as an additional influence.

Christman's process — which combines his two preferred media (photography and painting) — entails plating the digital image with a sheet of glass, and then "painting" on the glass with a readily available material — peanut butter — to create an impasto surface. He then transfers another digital image of the peanut butter painting to his computer, where he combines the two digital images in a process called displacement mapping. A layer of encaustic wax assists in creating the desired depth on the surface of the image.

The result is an odd blend of abstraction and impressionism in which Christman achieves his goal — to focus attention on the illumination of the painting.

"Language is the DNA of civilization. It can be words, but it can also be music or something visual," Christman said.

Article by Ally Hughes



There are three categories of artistic content. The landscape studying space, perspective and atmosphere. The still life concentrating on formal design, color and symbolism. And the portrait focusing on documentation, fiction and the human condition. I have worked in all three of these genres over the years, testing them out in both the mediums of painting and photography, and always keeping them separate from each other for purpose of simplification and clarity. But now, I examine the three together, a natural progression like the linear development of an idea in literature, journalism, theater, film or music. This installation merges ideas and experiences and gives an opportunity to see all of these three categories in a new way. My goal is for the viewer to put the pieces together, ask their own questions and find their own answers - inside each diorama.

Carlos Alfonzo: Where Tears Can't Stop

Where Tears Can't Stop
1986
Carlos Alfonzo

acrylic on canvas
95 3/4 x 128 1/4 in. (243.2 x 325.8 cm.)
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Museum purchase made possible by the American Art Forum
1998.18

On view at:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
3rd floor, East Wing

Alfonzo borrowed from Cuban Santería*, medieval Catholic mysticism, and tarot cards to build a dense network of symbols floating in huge limpid tears. Where Tears Can't Stop reflects the violence that Alfonzo experienced before he fled with the Marielitos exiled by Castro in 1980. But the work also holds subtle clues that evoke Alfonzo's homosexuality and the fear and anger generated by the AIDS epidemic. In the mid-1980s, Americans coming to terms with thousands of deaths began to piece together enormous quilts—as the artist stitched together several canvases for this image—filling them with symbols of suffering, loss, and defiance. In Alfonzo's painting, the image of a tongue spiked by a dagger is a Santería charm against gossip and the "evil eye," two responses to HIV-positive men that were common in the epidemic's early years. Rumors and innuendo shaped the perception that AIDS was only a gay man's disease, and the evil eye recalls a widespread belief that the tears of the infected carried the virus. Alfonzo died of AIDS five years after he completed this work.

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006

*Santeria, commonly referred to as Latin American magic, is a fused religion that intertwines aspects of Roman Catholicism as it is practiced in Cuba with "magic." Although the vast majority of santeros, followers of the religion, are found in Cuba, Santeria is by no means indigenous to the island. Santeria, deriving from the Spanish word santo, or saint, is the Cuban name for this religion because of the significance of saint worship. Despite the trappings of the Catholic sainthood, Santeria remains intrinsically an African religion that

originated on the shores of the Nile River in present-day Nigeria among the Yoruba tribe. It was inevitable that the religion would reach Cuba along with the slaves being imported from Africa in the slave trade.

Like most other African tribes in the process of creating a systematized, tangible religion, the Yoruba conceptualized "God" as an unknown mysterious, creating force. Beneath the omnipotent god is a pantheon of orishas, gods and goddesses that are extraordinarily human.

There are many orishas in the pantheon. Some African authorities say the number exceeds 600. However, only a few of these are known and paid homage to throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.


----
Carlos Alfonzo
Period: Contemporary
1950 - 1991

Murano water, 1987, Acreylic on canvas
60 x 43 1/2 inches

Carlos Alfonzo was born in Havana, Cuba in 1950. He went to the San Alejandro School of Plastic Arts and then to the Cuban Academy from 1969 to 1972. A year later, he attended the University of Havana, graduating in 1977.
Carlos Alfonzo died in Miami, FL in 1991.

"In Cuba I was a well known artist. I had found a formula --swarms of little figurines and the integration of literary texts--through which I could deal with many themes without raising suspicion or criticism. Painters younger than I were told that I was something like the limit of what was allowed, to go beyond could cause problems with the cultural authorities. When I arrived in the United States it took me more than a year to start painting again. The arrival, the trip from the Port of Mariel, was a shock. My fundamental search has been in the structural form, in how to paint an image, in how to let the hand go. This has been my only preoccupation, since I have never had conceptual conflicts with my work. My interest as a painter is to create new symbols, rather than employ conventional imagery. My identification with religion is that of creator more than interpreter. The symbology is important, the tongue for me represents oppression; the cross--and I use many crosses in my work-- has mystical connotations, it represents a spiritual balance, sacrifice; the tears are a symbol of exile. My paintings have to do with my exile, with my personal drama as I see it."

Robert Tatin's Frénouse

In what is perhaps the earliest surviving example of symbolism, the cave painters of the Upper Palaeolithic period drew geometrical patterns, thought to represent man and woman, at the Lascaux and the Chauvet caves in present-day France. Some 25,000 years later, at a ruined country house at the edge of the Mayenne woods near Laval, a French artist named Robert Tatin constructed a courtyard of totems and temples, decorated with the ancient Chinese symbols of Yin and Yang, and covered with interlacing geometric representations of woman and man, the moon and the sun. Robert Tatin bought the house, the Frénouse, near the small town of Cossé-le-Vivien in 1962. Rich in history, part of its stonework dates from the sixth century, while stone axes from the Neolithic period had been discovered in the fields nearby. Over a period of twenty-one years, with the assistance of his fifth wife, Lise, Robert Tatin created a magical cement fortress, where goddesses, dragons, snakes and fairies dance among bas-reliefs of ancient Chinese and Breton symbols, celebrating man’s union with nature and the cyclical passage of time.



The approach to the house and museum is flanked by wide-eyed, totemic figures. Guarding the 80-metre-long Avenue of Giants are nineteen statues representing Tatin’s historic and artistic family, from Joan of Arc to Alfred Jarry. Next to the Avenue of Giants is The Gateway of the Giants, a homage to some of the father-figures of western art: Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Delacroix, Goya, and Van Gogh. The story told by this company of giants also traces the development of the artist’s own life, from his first history lessons, to his professional career, personified by a top-hatted carpenter, to the artists who influenced him, pointing finally to his own grave. Once inside the museum, however, the linear structure is abandoned. Over a surface of 1,200 square metres, the artist has created a miniature universe, incorporating the sun, moon, and sea. Consisting of three main temple-like structures, reflected in a cross-shaped pond, the courtyard and adjoining house are articulated on an east-west axis. Facing the entrance is the towering Notre-Dame-Tout-le-Monde, to the east is The Gateway of the Sun, and to the west The Gateway of the Moon. The journey through the museum follows the direction of the earth’s rotation, guided by statues around the central pool indicating the successive months of the year. Tatin’s paintings, sculptures, ceramics and tapestries are displayed in adjoining rooms.


‘I’ve got to face many tide-gates before becoming Tatin’, Robert Tatin once declared, and his varied professional life and extensive travels lived up to this prophecy. A sculptor, painter, architect, ceramicist, and poet, he also did stints as a tailor, baker, carpenter, decorator, coalman, and bartender, and travelled Europe, North and South America, and Africa. The Frénouse allowed Tatin to combine his artistic skills and cultural influences in one long enterprise, in which work was no longer separated from life. Born in 1902, Robert Tatin grew up near a circus. Trapeze artists, clowns, and ragamuffins were his companions in this enclosed universe of painted horses and pedlars with their orientalist wares. In 1910, the return of Halley’s comet sparked Tatin’s interest in a wider, scientific universe and he fashioned himself a telescope with which to gaze at stars from his attic window. At the age of eleven he began an apprenticeship as a house painter, moving to Paris five years later to work as a decorator, before setting off to Switzerland, Italy, North Africa, England, Ireland, Amsterdam, and New York. After the Second World War he settled again in Paris, where he set up a ceramics studio and exhibited regularly.


An article in France-Soir of 1948 brought Tatin’s work to the attention of Jean Dubuffet and he began to mix with such art world figures as Jean Cocteau, André Breton, Jacques Prévert, and Alberto Giacometti, becoming instrumental in the development of Dubuffet’s concept of Art Brut. Ever restless, Tatin left France again in 1950 to spend five years travelling in South America, winning a gold medal at the first Biennale of Saõ Paõlo, Brazil. Upon his return he devoted himself almost exclusively to painting, before meeting Lise and returning to his native Mayenne in 1962. Tatin conceived of the Frénouse as a ‘bridge between Orient and Occident’ and his sculptural architecture combines the influence of many, far-flung cultures, from ancient Chinese philosophy, to Celtic, Hindu, and Aztec symbols, to the emerging Surrealist movement. Although Tatin refused to sign André Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, the influence of Surrealism and its use of word association is evident in his poetry.


Facing the entrance to the museum, the totem tower of Notre-Dame-Tout-le-Monde rises 6.5 metres high. A star is carved at its base, ‘the star of the three wise men – a gleam even in the deepest Hell’, and enclosed within a circle, the universe, which is contained within a square, representing man. Facing each other on either side of Notre-Dame are the Gateways of the Sun andthe Moon. With these two structures, Tatin aimed to show how night and day, female and male, imagination and reason are opposite forces that must come together to create a complete picture of the universe. A classical structure, The Gateway of the Sun is supported by two columns, which Tatin described as embodiments of the Taoist symbols of Yin and Yang, the complementary masculine and feminine energies that shape the universe. Yin is the female, the earth, while Yang is the male, the light and the sun, and heaven. On the plateau the wheel of destiny turns between the horns of reason and imagination and on the tympanum is the great face of the sun. As the sun shines, its rays fracture into hundreds of smaller spheres with human features. ‘This is the sun’, according to Robert Tatin, ‘coming out of itself, splitting up its rays, sharing its light, energy and life with all the world’. The division of the sun’s light is like the fracturing of God’s Word into different human languages, a comparison that Tatin makes in a poem, where the sound splits to create related words: ‘voir: le Verbe sortir à la Voix – Se Sortir de soi – quitter – Go – PIR KHROOU’ (see: the Word issuing from the Voice – Coming Out of itself – quitter – Go – PIR KHROOU). With its undulating roof, The Gateway of the Moon is a more feminine structure. A goddess (the muse of unity), crouches above the arches, her blond locks flowing, a boy and a girl at her breasts, and her right foot resting on a square (the cube of reason), her left on a circle (the imagination).


The circle is the defining motif of the Frénouse, a shape that haunted Tatin, from his early obsession with the enclosed ring of the circus, to his adolescent observation of planets. It embodies the universal, unifying purpose of the Frénouse, denoting the celestial sphere, the wheel of destiny, the female breast, the eyes that are a window to the soul, and the divided circle of Yin-Yang. The two gateways, according to Robert Tatin, with their Yin-Yang symbols, their interlacing circles and squares, and androgynous figures, eradicate all separation of the sexes: ‘Here there is no longer any duality between woman and man; it is as if we are with the gods of the legends and difference doesn’t exist any more.’ In the artist’s symbolism, however, woman retains her traditional association with the irrational, man with the forces of light and reason.

Bartolomeo Manfredi : Apollo and Marsyas

Bartolomeo Manfredi
, Italian
, 1582-1622
Apollo and Marsyas
1615-20
37 5/8 x 53 9/16 inches (95.5 x 136 cm)
oil on canvas

Marsyas is the flute player who engaged in a musical contest with Apollo, and having lost, was flayed alive by the god.


Phrygian tales

Some Phrygian stories tell that the daughter of the river god Sangarius took the fruit of an almond tree that had grown up from the sexual organ of Agdistis, which the gods had cut off, and found herself pregnant with Attis.

When later Attis, who was dear to Cybele, died after going mad and castrating himself, the goddess went out to the countryside, and crying and beating upon a kettledrum, she visited every country.



Marsyas joins Cybele

In her wanderings, she met Marsyas, who feeling pity for her grief, followed her voluntarily in her journey until they came to the abode of Dionysus 2 in the town of Nysa, which, like the country and the mountain of the same name, is of uncertain location.

Marsyas meets fate in legendary Nysa

In Nysa they met Apollo, and they also learned how famous the god was because of his musical performances with the lyre that Hermes had invented and that Apollo himself had made even more perfect. For Hermes invented the three-stringed lyre, but Apollo added four strings to it, creating unprecedented harmonious sounds.

Athena and the flute

Now Marsyas was an accomplished flute-player, for some time before he had found the flute which Athena had thrown away because it made her ugly. Some have said that Hyagnis invented the flute, but others affirm that the first long flute was made by Athena out of deer bones, or by piercing boxwood with holes wide apart, and that, proud of her invention, she came to the banquet of the gods to play. However, Aphrodite and Hera, seeing Athena's cheeks puffed out, mocked the latter in her playing and called her ugly. This is why Athena came to a spring in Mount Ida in order to view herself in the water; and having looked at herself in the water of the spring, she understood why she was mocked, and threw away the flute, vowing that whoever picked it up would be severely punished:

"The sound was pleasing; but in the water that reflected my face I saw my virgin cheeks puffed up. I value not the art so high; farewell my flute!" [Athena. Ovid, Fasti 6.697]

Marsyas challenges Apollo

He who found the flute was the shepherd Marsyas, who having learned by art and practice to produce ever sweeter sounds, happened to meet Apollo and his lyre. He then challenged the god to a musical contest, which took place, some say, in the mentioned city of Nysa, being either the Nysaeans or the MUSES the judges. They also agreed that the victor should do what he wished with the defeated.


The contest

Some have told that Marsyas was departing as victor when Apollo, turning his lyre upside down, played the same tune, a prowess that Marsyas could not do with the flute. But others affirm that Marsyas was defeated when Apollo added his voice to the sound of the lyre. Marsyas protested, arguing that the skill with the instrument was to be compared, and not the voice. However, Apollo replied that when Marsyas blew into the pipes, he was doing almost the same thing as himself. And the argument presented by Apollo was judged by the Nysaeans, or by the MUSES, to be the most just, and that is why, after comparing their skills again, Marsyas was defeated. Some have said that it was on this occasion that King Midas got the ears of an ass.




Marsyas' death

Having won the contest, Apollo flayed Marsyas alive while the unfortunate musician hanged on a tall pine-tree, or else he let a slave from Scythia do this. And while his skin was stripped off the surface of his body that was but one wound, Marsyas complained:

"Why do you tear me from myself? Oh, I repent! Oh, a flute is not worth such a price!" [Marsyas. Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.385]

Apollo repents

It is told that the god quickly repented, and being distressed at his horrible deed, he broke the four strings of the lyre that he had discovered. For Hermes had invented the three-stringed lyre and Apollo had added four more strings to it. These were later rediscovered, partly by the MUSES, when they added a middle string, partly by one Linus, who added the string struck with the forefinger, and partly by Orpheus and Thamyris 1, who discovered the remaining two strings that Apollo had broken.



Marsyas hanging

The river Marsyas, which empties into the Meander in Phrygia, was called after the defeated musician, and was created by the tears of those who grieved him, SATYRS, NYMPHS, country people, and many others.

Marsyas' flute

The flute of Marsyas, they say, was dedicated in a temple in Sicyon, a city on the Peloponnesian coast of the Gulf of Corinth. For when the musician died, the river Marsyas carried the flute to the river Meander, and after reappearing in the Asopus in Boeotia, it was cast ashore in the country around Sicyon, where a shepherd found it and gave it to Apollo.


Deed of Marsyas after death

According to the Phrygians from Celaenae (a city in Caria, southwestern Asia Minor), Marsyas was the composer of the Song of the Mother, an air for the flute. When many years later they repelled the Gauls that had attacked them, they said that Marsyas had defended them against the barbarians from the river that bears his name, and by the music of his flute.

Bartolomeo Manfredi

Bartolomeo Manfredi (baptised 25 August 1582–12 December 1622) was an Italian painter, a leading member of the Caravaggisti (followers of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio) of the early 16th century.

Manfredi was born in Ostiano, near Cremona. He may have been a pupil of Caravaggio in Rome—at his famous libel trial in 1603 Caravaggio mentioned that a certain Bartolomeo, accused of distributing scurrilous poems attacking Caravaggio's detested rival Baglione, had been a servant of his. Certainly the Bartolomeo Manfredi known to art history was a close follower of Caravaggio's innovatory style, with its enhanced chiaroscuro and insistence on naturalism, with a gift for story-telling through expression and body-language.

Caravaggio in his brief career—he rocketed to fame in 1600, was exiled from Rome in 1606, and was dead by 1610—had a profound effect on the younger generation of artists, particularly in Rome and Naples. And of these Caravaggisti (followers of Caravaggio), Manfredi seems in turn to have been the most influential in transmitting the master's legacy to the next generation, particularly with painters from France and the Netherlands who came to Italy. Unfortunately no documented, signed works by Manfredi survive, and several of the forty or so works now attributed to him were formerly believed to be by Caravaggio. The steady disentangling of Caravaggio from Manfredi has made clear that it was Manfredi, rather than his master, who was primarily responsible for popularising low-life genre painting among the second generation of Caravaggisti.

Manfredi was a successful artist, able to keep his own servant before he was thirty years old, "a man of distinguished appearance and fine behaviour" according to the biographer Giulio Mancini, although seldom sociable. He built his career around easel paintings for private clients, and never pursued the public commissions upon which wider reputations were built, but his works were widely collected in the 17th century and he was considered Caravaggio's equal or even superior. His Mars Chastising Cupid offers a tantalising hint at a lost Caravaggio: the master promised a painting on this theme to Mancini, but another of Caravaggio's patrons, Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, had taken it, and Mancini therefore commissioned Manfredi to paint another for him, which Mancini considered Manfredi's best work.

Manfredi died in Rome in 1622.



Mars Chastising Cupid, Art Institute of Chicago. Once attributed to Caravaggio, a typical Caravaggesque genre scene of the type popularised by Manfredi.

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, (14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898), was a French painter, who became the president and co-founder of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and whose work influenced many other artists.


He was born Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes in Lyon, Rhône, France, the son of a mining engineer, descendant of an old family of Burgundy. Pierre Puvis was educated at the Lyons College and at the Lycee Henri IV in Paris, and was intended to follow his father's profession when a serious illness interrupted his studies. A journey to Italy opened his mind to fresh ideas, and on his return to Paris in 1844 he announced his intention of becoming a painter, and went to study first under Eugène Delacroix, Henri Scheffer, and then under Thomas Couture. It was not until a number of years later, when the government of France acquired one of his works, that he gained wide recognition.

Wife: Suzanne Valadon

In Montmartre, he had an affair with one of his models, Suzanne Valadon, who would become one of the leading artists of the day as well as the the mother, teacher, and mentor of Maurice Utrillo.

His work is seen as symbolist in nature, even though he studied with some of the romanticists, and he is credited with influencing an entire generation of painters and sculptors. One of his protégés was Georges de Feure.

Puvis de Chavannes is noted for painting murals, several of which may be seen at the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) in Paris, the Sorbonne, and the Paris Panthéon, and at Poitiers, as well as at the Boston, Massachusetts Public Library in the United States.


His easel paintings also may be found in many American and European galleries. Some of these paintings are,

* Death and the Maiden
* The Dream
* The Poor Fisherman
* Vigilance
* The Meditation
* Mary Magdalene at Saint Baume
* Saint Genoveva
* Young Girls at the Seaside
* Mad Woman at the Edge of the Sea
* Hope
* Kneeling nude woman, viewed from back

Puvis de Chavannes was president and co-founder in 1890 of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (National Society of Fine Arts) founded in Paris. It became the dominant salon of art at the time and held exhibitions of contemporary art that was selected only by a jury composed of the officers of the Société.

Those who translated best the spirit of the work of Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes'in their own creations were, in Germany, the painter Ludwig von Hofmann [1] and in France, Auguste Rodin. [2]

Beginning in 1926, The Prix Puvis de Chavannes (Puvis de Chavannes prize) was awarded by the National Society of Fine Arts (Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts). The Prix Puvis de Chavannes is the retrospective exhibition in Paris of the main works of the artist awarded the prize that year. During the twentieth century, this exhibition was located at the Grand Palais or the Musée d'Art Moderne.

tags; rate 10, fig, area of black, 2c off white, background lght, pc brown, full frontal, curved body, hard outline of people, illustrative, Interest to me, large top space, mix of emotions, no illumination taken into account, non-heroic, pastoral, religious, shadows, water,

SHAMAN by FRITZ SCHOLDER

FRITZ SCHOLDER
American, Luiseño, 1937-2005
SHAMAN. circa 1977
oil on canvas
82-1/4 x 70-1/4 inches

Gift of R. Barry McComic.
© Fritz Scholder Estate
http://www.psmuseum.org/collectionpages/art_fritz_scholder.shtml

Tags: 1 fig, cc black, pc brown, 2c red, face with odd features, back, 1977, full frontal, horizontal design, Idea possibility,

American Indian painting,

Intrest me: figure with wings

Naman Hadi
Paris,France
Le Déraciné [Uprooted]
Oil on canvas
132 x 197cm
1984

Tags: 1984, Hadi, 1 fig, area of white, pc: white 2c grey, CC1984, Hadi, 1 fig, area of whit Black, body with odd features, horizontal design, illuminated front on, Interest to me, muscular, large top space, non-heroic, realistic, shadows, surrealistic, area of black, drapery

Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967)
Western Motel, 1957
Oil on canvas, 30 1/4 x 50 1/8 in. (77.8 x 128.3 cm)
Bequest of Stephen Carlton Clark, B.A. 1903
1961.18.32

Hopper found inspiration in the commonplace of American life. In Western Motel, an anonymous motel bedroom becomes a symbol of the mobility and rootlessness of modern life. The spare furnishings, stark interior, and sharp bands of light produce a composition of masterful simplicity, yet one that is layered with psychological ambiguity. The woman's stare across the room does not seem to take us in. The pensiveness of her stare and tense posture accentuate the sense of some impending event. She appears to be waiting: the luggage is packed; the room is devoid of personal objects; the bed is made; a car is parked outside the window.

Tags: Hopper, 1957, 1 PC gray, fig, area of black, curved body, face starring back, sky, non-heroic, illuminated from side, illustrative, realistic,

labels 8

no illumination taken into account, shadows, self revealed, Interest to me, Idea possibility,

labels 7

triangle, inverse triangle, sig numbers, art inside, oriental influence, geometric pattern, illuminated from side, illuminated front on,no illumination taken into account, shadows, self revealed, Interest to me, Idea possibility,

labels 6

Christian, religious,mythological, historical, war theme, pastoral, circle of three w/ bystander, hard outline of people, triangle, inverse triangle, sig numbers, art inside, oriental influence, geometric pattern, illuminated from side, illuminated front on, no illumination taken into account, shadows, self revealed, Interest to me, Idea possibility,

labels 5

people working, people eating, love position, violence, surrealistic, background dark, background structural, heroic, non-heroic, Christian, religious,
mythological, historical, war theme, pastoral, circle of three w/ bystander, hard outline of people, triangle, inverse triangle, sig numbers, art inside, oriental influence, geometric pattern, illuminated from side, illuminated front on, no illumination taken into account, shadows, self revealed, Interest to me, Idea possibility,

labels 4

animals, imaginary animals, horse, rabbit, fish, emotional, mix of emotions, large top space, internally framed, alcohol depicted, people working, people eating, love position, violence, surrealistic, background dark, background structural, heroic, non-heroic, Christian, religious,
mythological, historical, war theme, pastoral, circle of three w/ bystander, hard outline of people, triangle, inverse triangle, sig numbers, art inside, oriental influence, geometric pattern, illuminated from side, illuminated front on, no illumination taken into account, shadows, self revealed, Interest to me, Idea possibility,

labels 3

sky, face starring back,face with odd features, body with odd features, muscular, curved body, full frontal, full back, animals, imaginary animals, horse, rabbit, fish, emotional, mix of emotions, large top space, internally framed, alcohol depicted, people working, people eating, love position, violence, surrealistic, background dark, background structural, heroic, non-heroic, Christian, religious,
mythological, historical, war theme, pastoral, circle of three w/ bystander, hard outline of people, triangle, inverse triangle, sig numbers, art inside, oriental influence, geometric pattern, illuminated from side, illuminated front on, no illumination taken into account, shadows, self revealed, Interest to me, Idea possibility,

labels 2

, realistic, hyper realistic, illustrative, 1 fig, 2 fig,3 fig,4 fig,5 fig, group, color of clothing, water, sky, face starring back,face with odd features, body with odd features, muscular, curved body, full frontal, full back, animals, imaginary animals, horse, rabbit, fish, emotional, mix of emotions, large top space, internally framed, alcohol depicted, people working, people eating, love position, violence, surrealistic, background dark, background structural, heroic, non-heroic, Christian, religious,
mythological, historical, war theme, pastoral, circle of three w/ bystander, hard outline of people, triangle, inverse triangle, sig numbers, art inside, oriental influence, geometric pattern, illuminated from side, illuminated front on, no illumination taken into account, shadows, self revealed, Interest to me, Idea possibility,

Labels 1

Title, Artist, year, primary color, secondary color,area of black, area of white, center color, vertical design,horizontal design, circular design, realistic, hyper realistic, illustrative, 1 fig, 2 fig,3 fig,4 fig,5 fig, group, color of clothing, water, sky, face starring back,face with odd features, body with odd features, muscular, curved body, full frontal, full back, animals, imaginary animals, horse, rabbit, fish, emotional, mix of emotions, large top space, internally framed, alcohol depicted, people working, people eating, love position, violence, surrealistic, background dark, background structural, heroic, non-heroic, Christian, religious,
mythological, historical, war theme, pastoral, circle of three w/ bystander, hard outline of people, triangle, inverse triangle, sig numbers, art inside, oriental influence, geometric pattern, illuminated from side, illuminated front on, no illumination taken into account, shadows, self revealed, Interest to me, Idea possibility,