Today, we visited Cardiff museum and as part of our exploration of the museum we explored "the rules of art?" exhibition. This exhibition brought together five hundred years of art all into one exhibition from drawing to painting, photography to film, sculptures and ceramics. All brought together to show questions of representation, identity and culture. Listed below is the link to the video of the entire exhibition and the museums podcast for anyone who wishes to dive in to this exhibition in more depth.
The Rules of Art Video Rules of Art Podcast
One section of "the rules of art" exhibition was this still life like section where there was a table central to the room with white kitchen utensils (e.g- pots, pans, cups, mugs). I took some time within this room and sat drawing some of the objects that I selected off of the table I decided to do a 30 minute fine liner drawing of a pot and a 10 minute continuous line of a spoon. To see photos of my drawings leave a comment in the comment section and I will post a link.
One of the artworks featured in this joint room was by Giorgio Morandi, his piece of art that was featured was "Still Life with Bottles", 1942. I was drawn to this piece within the room because in our stage 1 assessment of the FAD (Foundation Art and Design) course Giorgio Morandi was one of the artists we explored when experimenting with the grey colour theory. I think that this has quite a big effect on the rules of art because the grey colour theory of paint is such a technical way of creating tone it really is something that is quite hard to master and become good at. But once you have got the hang of achieving the perfect grey colour theory it can work really effectively. Also, this piece of artwork represents the grey colour theory really well and shows how effective it can be when applied well to a piece of art therefore, in my opinion it's had a considerable effect on the rules of art. I chose Giorgio Morandi as like stated above I researched and approached this piece of work and artist in my stage 1 assessment, which made me really intrigued to see this piece in all it's glory in the flesh. Which I will say was so worth it a picture doesn't show the true talent of creating these colours and how crisp and perfectly matched each colour is when put next to each other to show the tone and depth that comes as apart of the rules of art. This is definitely a piece that's worth seeing in person.
["Still Life with Bottles", Giorgio Morandi, 1942]
The second piece of art I decided to choose from "the rules of art" exhibition is "Spring" by Maximilian Lenz, about 1904. I had to choose this piece because the second you entered the room this large scaled oil painting had such a presence within the room it just stood out and immediately drawn my eyes straight to it. This entire piece was so well created and detailed with the use of gold to really make this piece prominently stand out within the room. I think this had such a huge effect on the rules of art because obviously the large scale of this painting really shows taking scale to a new level and expressing something on such a large scale while making sure it's still so impactful with a immense presence. I chose this piece because it's scale is of such mass that I was interested in how technical and how time consuming creating a piece of this size would be. As although it's so sizeable, each detail is so minuscule and this piece has been worked into in so many layers to really create a layered in-depth piece of work, that really excited me. Personally, I found this so captivating because I really enjoy working on a large scale with all of my art especially using paints (e.g. acrylic) and making extremely small marks to create texture and detail to each of my own pieces so by choosing this piece I feel as though it's definitely going to influence my future pieces of art.
["Spring" by Maximilian Lenz, about 1904]
Near the "Spring" oil painting by Maximilian Lenz was "Study for a Self Portrait" by Francis Bacon, 1963. In stage 1 like Giorgio Morandi's "Still Life with Bottles" I researched Francis Bacon as a part of my Summer Art Research Project (if interested leave a comment in the comment section for the link to my research on Francis Bacon) and found him very unusual and his style of work fascinated me. Hence why this piece of art work was one of the ones I chose to indulge in more also, his style of work is so unique and clearly personal I feel as though his work and style has impacted the rules of art a lot. I feel as though his work has effected the rules of art because his scale of art always varies and can vary between just a singular canvas like below to possible multiple creating a series side by side, showing variety within his work. Also, his artwork as shown below seems to have a large area of white space above the blue chair-like area of his painting showing a different approach to the typical ways of thinking about space and ways to proportion his art to fill the canvas. Although, he's left so much of it blank I think it works really well within this piece of work because it allows the central piece of the painting really speak for itself and doesn't draw your attention away from the fluent, freeform way he worked to create the face which is captivating in itself. Additionally this piece really shows how he has not focused on volume of this piece but more focused on the conciseness and way in which he's added finer details using tone as opposed to harsh black lines to define the outer areas of the objects within this painting again allowing nothing to overpower his exquisite painting fluidity of the body of the person sat upon the chair.
["Study for a Self Portrait" by Francis Bacon, 1963]
In the next conjoining room of this exhibition was "Conditioning" by Caroline Walker, 2019. This painting was created using oil on linen which is a completely different method to all of the other artworks I have already explored in this exhibition. I think this piece might've had quite a big effect on the rules of art because there is contrast between a lot of the colours in this piece from the green potted plant foregrounded in the artwork to the hairdresser in the background being a lot darker and black in colour making it prominent but not too harsh. Also, I think the main rule of art that's effected in this piece is perspective because, this entire artwork has effectively used perspective to create this piece from the three-dimensional plants in the foreground to the hairdresser doing the client's hair. That I think has been done really well because Caroline Walker has used the perspective in the right way to create the right impression of height between the two figures. Additionally, I think that the balance between the proportions of the objects within the piece works really well when considering the space and making use of the space without leaving too much white space in the piece. If I was to apply the rule of thirds to this artwork it would show that Caroline Walker has taken into account every sector of this artwork to ensure that she has payed attention to every area to ensure that the piece as a whole is effective as opposed to focusing purely on one area for example the foregrounded tree or the hairdresser and client in the chair, where the rest of the artwork is neglected in a way. Which is why I think that Caroline Walker's "conditioning"piece is well thought about and planned that I believe has been proven in her outcome.
["Conditioning" by Caroline Walker, 2019]
After exploring this "rules of art" exhibition my understanding of the rules of art if anything has bettered because I feel as though i've never directly explored the rules of art and the ways to apply them. After looking in depth at my selected artworks and artists, I feel as though I have learnt so much more about scale, proportion, how to distribute my work across my chosen surface to work upon and how I really do need to consider the scale of the what i'm creating and how each aspect of the artwork will be in proportion to each other, which isn't necessarily something I tended to focus on before. I do believe that one of the rules of art that has been prominently continuous throughout all of these artist's artwork is scale and in a way variety has been shown as well because each of these artworks are of different, size and scale, proportionally distributing the areas of their chosen surface they have created their artwork on whether it's on a canvas or even on linen. I definitely feel that after attending this exhibition I have fully involved myself by questioning the effect these pieces of art and artist's have had on the rules of art, has bettered me as an artist and opened my eyes to new ways in which I can make my art a lot more empowering and impactful.
The next section of the exhibition is the "Vertigo Sea" three screen exhibition, this entire room as apart of the exhibition was completely blacked out with the three screens projecting different video clips all to come together and create a impact on the viewer. Personally, after sitting and experiencing this room I found it so impactful I felt fully absorbed in every part of this experience, it was truly captivating. The way they used motion picture to portray such a powerful impact onto the viewer and engage them so effortlessly with each of the videos was so incredible. I really enjoyed how the producers of the film incorporated both older found footage combined with more recent footage by flashing in-between and powerfully combining them while maintaining the perfect timing between each clip, it worked so seamlessly it couldn't have been put together any better. Also, what I didn't expect but still intrigued me was how they limited their choices of sound to more ASMR like sound effects/ background noise of the natural sounds of what video is presenting. This three screen exhibition was so well put together creatively every aspect of the videography achieved every objective for targeting the audience, from the visuals to the audio and the black out room to the surround sound. It all forms the perfect setting to direct 100% of the audiences attention to the videos, making sure all distractions are removed from the viewing and that everyone feels the emotion. The impact. The story.
For a link to the video clips I of this piece leave a comment in the comment section as they won't load when added to the blog itself.
This exhibition is definitely worth a visit and I highly recommend going to see it before it leaves the museum. If you are interested in viewing this art exhibition and other areas of the museum without physically going to the museum the link to the virtual walkthrough is linked below...
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