A little less than two weeks ago, my toughest, busiest semester so far ended. Shortly after, I realized that I had neglected this blog since the semester hit the ground running in August. I have quite a few drawings that I am happy with as a product of this fall, but they have been packed and stored without being photographed amidst the hectic nature of my final week. And while those drawings won't make their online debut until the summer months, I do have a number of pages in my current sketchbook that will grace this site as soon as I get the chance to scan them.
In other (and much more exciting) news, my winter break this semester is a short one. On January 6th I'll be boarding a plane for Florence, Italy, where I'll be spending the entire spring semester studying in the Studio Art Centers International program. I'll be studying painting, High Renaissance art history, and museum studies, as well as doing any traveling possible, and a ton of museum/church hopping. My professor is requiring us to keep a sketchbook/journal of our visit, so expect excerpts from that to be posted occasionally, as well as photos of travels, and new work, and other random entries as usual.
I'm sure to find communication with the states much more difficult while abroad. Friends and relatives please find this blog to be a resource in following my travels and experiences, as I intend to be much more diligent in its upkeep than I have been in the past 4 months. I'm really looking forward to this experience, and posting about it, so keep an eye out for new things.
And on that note I'll close by utilizing the entirety of my Italian language knowledge... Grazie! Ciao! Spaghetti!
Jeff
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Venus Verticordia (detail).
30 December 2009
29 December 2009
Victorian Aestheticism
Researching for a paper on artist Frederic Leighton introduced me to a great book:
"Art for Art's Sake: Aestheticism in Victorian Painting" by Elizabeth Prettejohn.
The book includes essays on a number of Victorian painters, some of the first to express aesthetic values, and the formative characters of the Aesthetic movement, including Frederic Lord Leighton, Albert Moore, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. The essays talk about each painter in the way that his work specifically addresses aesthetic concerns, or diverts from the academic traditions of the day, and the realism of Pre-Raphaelite painting. For anyone like myself, with an interest in 19th century Aestheticism, or even 19th century art in general, this book will be an interesting and educational read.
The essay on Frederic Leighton is really interesting for explaining his background, association with the Royal Academy in London, and the way he creates a relationship between his academic working process and aesthetic ideals. The book also gave me my first real introduction to the work of Albert Moore, whose paintings utilize repetition, rhythm, and other musical ideas in visual form, which parallel the symphonic references of Whistler. The information on his use of repetition as a compositional device was unexpectedly relevant to my own taste and ways of thinking about organizing an image and controlling the gaze of the viewer.
Frederic Leighton:
Pavonia, 1858
Icarus and Daedalus, 1869
Albert Moore:
Dreamers, 1879-82
The Quartet,1868
Apples, 1875
"Art for Art's Sake: Aestheticism in Victorian Painting" by Elizabeth Prettejohn.
The book includes essays on a number of Victorian painters, some of the first to express aesthetic values, and the formative characters of the Aesthetic movement, including Frederic Lord Leighton, Albert Moore, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. The essays talk about each painter in the way that his work specifically addresses aesthetic concerns, or diverts from the academic traditions of the day, and the realism of Pre-Raphaelite painting. For anyone like myself, with an interest in 19th century Aestheticism, or even 19th century art in general, this book will be an interesting and educational read.
The essay on Frederic Leighton is really interesting for explaining his background, association with the Royal Academy in London, and the way he creates a relationship between his academic working process and aesthetic ideals. The book also gave me my first real introduction to the work of Albert Moore, whose paintings utilize repetition, rhythm, and other musical ideas in visual form, which parallel the symphonic references of Whistler. The information on his use of repetition as a compositional device was unexpectedly relevant to my own taste and ways of thinking about organizing an image and controlling the gaze of the viewer.
Frederic Leighton:
Pavonia, 1858
Icarus and Daedalus, 1869
Albert Moore:
Dreamers, 1879-82
The Quartet,1868
Apples, 1875
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