Two Artworks - Essay Sample

Introduction

Architecture and art are two disciplines that are very significant in the contemporary world. The latter is so because they both reflect our present sitch, and they are symbolized by the changes in styles, cultural adaptations, technologies, among others. Chuck Close Self-portrait and the Wassily Kandinsky Color-stud are two works that have gained widespread attention in the last couple of years. In the last fifty years, Chuck Close has completed over eighty paintings of his likeness. From the original photograph of Chuck, a grid is formed from which cells are transferred and transferred onto a larger matrix.

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On the other hand, Wassily Kandinsky utilized expressionism to present his work in Germany despite its Russian origin. The artist was highly inspired by colours that he thought conveyed emotions, this telling the stories behind his art. This paper, therefore, aims at comparing the two masterpieces of art from the previously mentioned artists.

Kandinsky "Squares with Concentric Circles"

Abstract painting was championed by Kandinsky, who wholly abandoned figurative painting as proved by his masterpiece, Color stud: Squares with concentric circles. The latter was developed in 1913, where the artist intended to comprehend interacting varied shapes and colours. The piece of art was so crucial as it advocated the development of his later post-war works. As a result, it can be said that this particular artwork of colour stud was an emblem of transition to the geometrical "Bauhaus Stil" strict period from the chaotic and emotional early abstractions. The artwork by Kandinsky intended to inspect the ramification that varied colours had on a viewer of the paintings and the respective emotions that were invoked by the colours.

Post a critical study of all of his works, Kandinsky concluded that all colours known to a man possessed a dual effect on the viewer. Firstly, the artist found out that there was a physical impact regarding the eyes of the viewer, which he found typical to pleasant sensations such as delicious food. Secondly, Kandinsky found out that colours had a spiritual effect, which was more profound. He termed the spiritual feeling as "soul vibration"' as the colour engineered internal resonance within the inner essence of a viewer brought about by touch of the paint.

Chuck Close Self Portrait

In drawing his art pieces, Chuck uses a well-selected photo, which he divides into small proportions that he utilizes to remove on the larger canvas. A grid is used, which ensures that a uniform drawing proportion scale is obtained. Post preparation of the canvas and the drawing photo, Chuck transferred his portrait square by square into the drawing canvas. Despite the length of the process, Close used it in painting all his masterpieces. In drawing of his portrait, Chuck utilizes a technique called riotous pointillism, which brings about differences in the masterpiece regarding distance. When a viewer is close to the Chuck self-portrait, the painting clicks into place compared to when a viewer moves further from the picture where it harmonizes.

Comparison

Several similarities and differences can be seen from the two paintings discussed in this report. For instance, in both the images, the artists utilize squares where the painting is done. Squares in Close's portrait are established through the grids that the artists draw to get correct measurements from the photograph he is painting. In Chuck's self-portrait, each cell of the lattice is composed of more than one coloured centric rings that are entirely different. In viewing the artist's self-portrait closely, the squares appear like tiny bits of abstract painting, as mentioned earlier. Moving further, however, a clear image is formed. This is entirely similar to Kandinsky "Squares with Concentric Circles," composed of squares the artist filled up with multi-coloured concentric rings. Besides, the two artists are abstract painters, having painted their works authentically with no referenced results.

Despite the similarities in the appearance of a cell of the grid and the square with concentric rings, the artists had different motives behind painting their masterpieces. For example, Chuck Close was suffering from a condition called prosopagnosia, impaired ability to recognize faces. As such, he became more obsessed with the finer details of the faces of people in addition to his own. He once said that focusing on the faces of people helped him remember precisely what people were talking about even though he could not remember their faces or names. On the other hand, Kandinsky was obsessed with colour since he was young and felt messages and emotions evoked in him through the series and sequences of colours that he observed. In light of this, Kandinsky was a synaesthete since he could 'see' sounds and 'hear' colours. The motives the two authors had explained why both used squares but painted different types of concentric rings in them despite both of them using varieties of colours.

The two writers used the same art technique of abstract expressionism, but Chuck Close later changed his approach and used photorealism to draw his portrait. Abstract expressionism is a style of art widely used in the twentieth century and which Kandinsky found very influential. In this type of technique, the drawn paintings usually differ from their natural appearance as they have been altered in the bid to acquire simplicity and portray primary forms and contours. In Concentric circles, Kandinsky realized there was no need to attach subjects to his paintings as they could still communicate and instil emotions in the viewer as colours, according to him, could share different ideas and feelings. As such, he based his work towards a recognizable object which he had simplified to obtain pure underlying forms. Besides, his style of printing the concentric circles utilized brilliant colours and drawing designs that were simplified to express his feelings or moods via his paintings. The colours had a different meaning and invoked different feelings and emotions depending on the colours mixed in a specific concentric circle within a given square grid.

Chuck Close, on the other hand, adopted the photo-realist techniques in painting his self-portraits inclusive of his friends and family. This painting technique applies photography as its inspiration. Close was an artist that was very attentive to detail despite having a disease where he forgot the faces of his clients. Therefore, to ensure that his work was perfect and he could deduce the perfect edges in the front of a person, he used photography to obtain his artwork. Photography is quite useful, according to Close, as it has already captured a person into a "flat surface," unlike expressionism, which allows a painter to observe their subject in a three-dimensional approach and draw what they observe.

Photorealism involves the projection of an image onto a carefully selected canvas by using an airbrush to ensure that the photo was perfectly captured. Grids are applicable in this technique since they provide that the right ratios of pictures are transferred from the photographic image onto the canvas. However, to ensure that the edges of objects such as glasses were captured right, Chuck Close uses irregular ratios in painting these objects to provide a real image is obtained. He did the latter for the Chuck Close self-portrait. In light of this, the two authors used two different drawing techniques, which can be explained by the difference in years that the two images were painted. The artworld is a dynamic one, and changes are inevitable. As such, an artist ought to be flexible in dealing with such changes to obtain the best pieces of artwork possible.

Conclusion

The two art masterpieces discussed in this paper differ significantly, as can be seen from the article. However, numerous similarities have been highlighted in the report. For instance, the two paintings apply squares for measurement purposes. However, the techniques used in drawing the two artworks are different from Kandinsky using abstract expressionism, while Close used photo realism. The difference in approaches is attributed to the difference in the time frame that the two-art works were painted. In addition, the two authors had different motives when drawing their art pieces as Close was motivated by a persisting disorder, which made him unable to recognize or remember faces, unlike Kandinsky, who was obsessed with colours.

Bibliography

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Issaquah Schools Foundation. "Expressionism with Kandinsky's Circles." Issaquah Schools Foundations, 2020. http://isfdn.org/art-docent-lessons/all-grades/expressionism-with-kandinskys-circles/.

Kandinsky Paintings. "Squares with Concentric Circles by Wassily Kandinsky." Squares with Concentric Circles by Wassily Kandinsky (Farbstudie Quadrate), 2020.
http://www.kandinskypaintings.org/squares-with-concentric-circles/.

Poyner, Fred. "Chuck Close." Chuck Close's groundbreaking Big Self-Portrait is shown publicly for the first time on April 17, 1970., October 2015.
https://www.historylink.org/File/11085.

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https://arthive.com/wassilykandinsky/works/384783~Color_study_squares_with_concentric_circles.

Wainwright, Lisa S. "Photo-Realism." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., December 9, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/art/Photo-realism.

Wolff, Theodore. "Chuck Close Gives Photo-Realism a New Twist. He Uses Color to Craft a Kind of Riotous Pointillism," October 31, 1988.
https://www.csmonitor.com/1988/1031/lar31.html.