#592 The Greeks, fragments, Rodin, and influence . . .

Please start this series of blogs with # 584 . . . posted Nov. 19, 2014

The focus of this blog is art history . . . specifically fragments, the Greeks, Rodin, and modern art.


The time I spent as a student at the Kansas City Art Institute in the early 1960s, was the most
far-reaching event of my life. Immersed in an academic setting, it was the awakening of my senses as I absorbed the rudiments of what would become a lifelong journey in the arts.  I enthusiastically focused upon the study of art and art history and to this day, I thrive upon the knowledge and love for the arts instilled in me by competent instructors.

Shown above, is a photo taken earlier this year at the historic art school.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Fine Art is located on the campus of KCAI and, like the other students, I spent many hours in the inspiring galleries of the museum.  Shown below is the imposing facade of the Nelson-Atkins.  Also shown, is a photo of Rodin's "The Thinker" and "Adam" taken last spring during a nostalgic trip to Kansas City.  Rodin's work and ancient Greek and Roman sculpture are my earliest influences in sculpture and they continue to inspire me.

Then,  and now as a perpetual student . . . I was and am to be found in the antique sculpture galleries.
One of my earliest recollections as a student at KCAI is the museum's marble of the Greek "Lion" - 325B.C. shown below.
All photos in this post were taken this year at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.

Go to the BLOG INDEX on the right for more information. 

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#591 The Greeks, fragments, Rodin, and modern art . . . con't

Please start this series of blogs with # 584 . . . posted Nov. 19, 2014

The focus of this blog is art history . . . specifically fragments, the Greeks, Rodin, and modern art.

The Greeks and Michelangelo greatly inspired Rodin but there were many other influences as well.
 He studied Rubens' paintings and declared that he learned chiaroscuro in his sculpture from Rembrandt.
Like so many other artists of his day, he was interested in Japanese art.  He was always learning from
Egyptian, Aztec, Far Eastern, primitive,  as well as18th century French art and spent hours in the Louvre.

His work harked back to the origin of things and later in life,  in an effort to eliminate the unessential, he simplified by breaking fragments away from his sculpture.  Like Picasso, there's no way to typify Rodin's greatness and originality and there's no way to classify him except as a sculptor who created art during the time of Impressionism, Post-impressionism,  Realist, Symbolist, Expressionist, Romantic, Cubism, and Art Nouveau.  He was an artistic genius with a vision and focus on the future of modern art. . . nothing and no movement defines him.

Interestingly, the fragments, partial figures, and ancient relics that influenced Michelangelo,
Rodin, and many other artists, gave rise to "modern" art.

There are many great art books about the Greeks, Rodin, and Michelangelo and shown below are a few of them from
 my library.  A particularly interesting book is "Rodin Rediscovered",  published in 1981 and in conjunction with a show at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.  Included in the publication are interesting and in-depth essays by different authors and scholars about the master and his working methods.

For more information about Greek art and art history, four great websites are:


http://ancientgreece.com/s/Main_Page/

http://visual-arts-cork.com

http://www.essential-humanities.net

http://pantherfile.uwm.edu/

Go to the BLOG INDEX on the right for more information. 

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#590 The Greeks, fragments, Rodin, and modern art . . . con't

Please start this series of blogs with # 584 . . . posted Nov. 19, 2014

The focus of this blog is art history . . . specifically fragments, the Greeks, Rodin, and modern art.

Rodin greatly influenced the direction of modern sculpture in the 20th century and is considered a father of modernism.  He pioneered the technique of repeating the same figure multiple times in one sculpture to produce a new composition.  Among his innovations was fragmenting, resizing, and assembling figures without concern for the subject.
 He was the first to consider fragments, assemblages, and partial figure such as hands
to be complete works of art capable of conveying meaning and emotion.

Below, is an image of "The Cathedral".

Rodin adhered to the studio practices that date back to the Renaissance but rarely participated in the production of his finished pieces.  He created in clay or wax and assistants replicated them in plaster, enlarging or reducing them according to his desires.  As his fame and demand for his work spread, he had over 50 assistants in his studio.
 His plasters were both exhibited and sent to the foundries for casting in bronze.

Below, are two images of one of my favorite sculptures by the master:
"She Who Was the Helmet Makers Beautiful Wife"

One of Rodin's ongoing sources of inspiration was the antique and excavations and discoveries
 of fragments from the glory of the Greco-Roman Period and by frequent visits to the antique sculpture galleries
at the Louvre . . .  the Egyptian, Greek, and Etruscan.
He had a  large collection of artifacts in his studio and delighted in showing them to visitors.
His use of the partial figure, the fragment and the creation of new forms by assemblage
as a complete work of art in effect, posed a question crucial to modern sculpture:
What can sculpture do without?

Below, is an image of "Bust of the Painter Puvis De Chavennes"

Go to the BLOG INDEX on the right for more information. 

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#589 The Greeks, Fragments, Rodin, and modern art

Please start this series of blogs with # 584 . . . posted Nov. 19, 2014

The focus of this blog is art history . . . specifically fragments, the Greeks,  Rodin, and modern art.

By accident of the year of his birth, Rodin should be considered an Impressionist,
but that label detracts from the scope of his contributions to sculpture.
The key to his facility as a sculptor rests with his ability to translate emotional gestures and movement.

Rodin achieved movement and life in his sculptures by creating a broad range of surface treatments.
These undulating, uneven surfaces come alive when struck by light as shown in the close-up images below of
"Monumental Head of Balzac", modeled in 1887.

Rodin preserved the sketch-like surface qualities and textures of his clay and wax models when they were cast in bronze.   Rodin's rugged, irregular sculpture surfaces went against the accepted convention of highly finished surfaces.

Shown below in the of image of "Jean d'Aire", 2nd maquette from the "Burgher of Calais", 1885.
Photos were taken last spring at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.

  Rodin's style and talent reasserted sculpture's position as a vital art form in modern times.
He cleared away the academic limits on the sculptor's imagination and prepared the way
 for the twentieth-century modern artist's unlimited experimentation with form and mass.

Go to the BLOG INDEX on the right for more information. 

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish