Vija Celmins

Ms. Luna, is an artist from the “Cuban Golden Generation” and lives in Miami since 1980. She graduated from San Alejandro School of the Arts. The artist, after graduated, was trained in sculptural ceramics by some of the most importants Cuban painter and sculpture like, Amelia Pelaez, Rene Portocarrero and Wilfredo Lam. Laura’s works goes through the paint and sculpture with a solid theorical and technical background.

First thing that I noticed about this gorgeous oil and tempera on panel painting was the precise emotional aspect: romantic and simple, yet so exceptionally lifelike. This work surely shows a development from the powerfully

It showcases the dense, extensive and delicate connections in the artist’s experimental practices, which includes performance, installations, prints, photographs, films and paintings. The show reveals the transgression with the thematically structured six main galleries with an impressive display of Parr’s diaries in the foyer, films in the theatre and the artist’s archive, ‘Information Centre’. According to Parr, he said, “But in the foyer, I must say, there’s this rather beautiful pop-up space, which is nearly confined entirely to language pieces, and outside this space on the curved wall we’ve got 40 beautiful vitrines..and I’ve displayed 45 years of diaries. So the foyer’s got all of this text, and it’s very intimate.” The diaries were a very clever idea that gave a lot of help to the audience in terms of better understanding of the

I first became attracted to Yayoi Kusama’s work when I came upon a 1966 photograph of Kusama modeling on her own installation with painted dots covering her body. The photograph communicated what seemed to be a special message that fascinated me; I was curious about what symbolism the polka dots express and what connotations Kusama was intending to reveal by painting repetitive tessellations. I was instantly drawn to the manner in which Kusama dresses in the fashion of her own endless imagination; it seemed that Kusama’s body and art have merged into one creative entity, softening the variance between the artist and the art piece. In short, the photograph inspired me in discovering Kusuma’s history, analyzing her art pieces, and contemplating my

While walking through the Aboriginal Arts Exhibition, my eye being drawn to the diversity of works that filled the rooms, one piece stood out to me above the rest. Troy Firebrace’s “A Galaxy Swirl” is an explosion of bright colours and patterns against a black canvas representing the dark, vast emptiness of space.

The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh is consistent of his typical artwork. He uses the lines free and loose making it an expression of his contour lines. The spacing between the stars and the curving contours making it a dot to dot effect. Van Gogh’s, The Starry Night” portrays his personal emotion. He writes to his brother about his painting almost as if he would be confused himself about the painting. The village is dark but at the same time it is peaceful compared to the dramatic sky life. In Sol Le Witts, Wall Drawing it uses an ordered form and symmetrical form called classical lines. The line Sol Le Witts uses is considered a connection between two separate points. Although

I see a cityscape in the middle ground with rolling hills, trees and multiple buildings. In the foreground is a large dark foreboding cypress tree. The night sky takes up the majority of the painting as the background, with the starry sky lit with a crescent moon. This use of three continuous layers within his paintings almost allows the paintings themselves to become something that is moving all at once. As the sky seems to be swirling and twirling within both paintings, I can almost get a feeling of a cool breeze as the rolling hills merge directly with the starts of the skies.

Upon initial glance of this beautiful painting, one may feel overcome with the abundance of variety in life that so majestically expands toward all directions of light. Immediately revealing to the observer a very prominent sense of fullness within the boundaries of the wooden panel. This artwork’s size

He sees the bustle of the city through atmospheric perspective from overhead. This, along with the diagonal directions of the commuters bring spurts of color throughout the piece also adding into the movement which gives the image the energy that could have otherwise been taken away from the muted seasonal winter tones. Also in opposition of the ideal and traditional he displays the light of a winter day that seems almost sketchy with blurred strokes. Critiques revoked this type of technique calling it incomplete and a poor excuse for academic artwork as it did not depict a historical or mythological scene nor was it romanticized by allegorical meaning but instead factual characteristics such as time and space. Aside from the obvious technique of Poussin this work carries metaphor and allegorical meaning within. A story of death is juxtaposed by the same grieving men carrying weapons that also cause death. Meanwhile, the sheer size and open composition above the action packed seen allows the audience to feel a level of grandeur and omniscient perspective almost honoring the dead by showing the importance through scale. This is emphasized by the traditional detail and minutia the artist puts into the architecture, clothing, and other key aspects of the painting that denote the context. Poussin sets the event in concrete

One of Vincent Van Gogh’s most world renowned paintings is his landscape oil painting Starry Night. The painting displays a small town underneath an unusual yet still extremely beautiful night sky. In this night sky, Van Gogh utilizes an array of colors that blend well together in order to enhance the sky as a whole. The town is clearly a small one due to the amount of buildings that are present in the painting itself. In this small town most of the buildings have lights on which symbolize life in a community. Another visual in Starry Night is the mountain like figures that appear in the background of the illustrious painting. Several things contribute to the beauty of Van Gogh’s painting which are the painting’s function, context, style, and design. Van Gogh’s utilization of these elements help bring further emphasis to his work in Starry Night.

This masterpiece was painted by Van Gogh in 1889 while he was receiving treatment in Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, a mental asylum. The beautiful painting that many people have come to love today was never appreciated during its own time. Various art critics thought that the large brush strokes Van Gogh had made in Starry Night seemed “messy” and “childlike”. The strokes also convinced people that Van Gogh was truly crazy and that he was not as talented as other artists. Yet the pencil thick lines are what made the painting look hyper-realistic and eye-catching. They have a calming, consistent effect on people whose eyes want to follow the swirls and lines. The brush strokes that Van Gogh added more texture, detail, and blended the colors easily to one another in Starry Night. The realistic details make it feel as if the painting is trying to get a message across to the public. With every line that Vincent van Gogh had made he put as much feelings into them as he did with effort.

Upon entering the galleries reception you are immediately greeted with three of Ruscha’s Acrylic on Museum board paper pieces. Picturesque Art works with great relationship between landscape and text that really invite you to further explore the gallery and what it has to offer. The Gallery itself feels vast due to its high ceilings and white walls that really open the space

This dissertation attempts to explore the last vision, both in real life and artistic expression. According to John Berger when he sat beside his father's coffin,” People talk of freshness of vision, of the intensity of seeing for the first time, but the intensity of seeing the for the last time is, I believe that greater”. Seeing for the last time here is between viewer and corpse, however, this article wants to explore, the so-called richer last vision it contains various situations. In my opinion, the last vision is not only for the dead people, but it should also exist in between the object and the viewer. Through the first chapter I will discuss the possibility of the existence of viewing between people and objects, based on Lacan’s theory.

Vija Celmins, for all of her statements about the meaning of her prints lying in their processes, has missed what can be called her unconscious influences. The true intent of her print piece Untitled (Web 3), cannot be garnered by her words alone but must be analyzed in order to uncover the childhood impact of war and immigration and how they have played a vital role in how she thinks about her printed works. By digging further into her work an underlying sense of a loss of control can be seen as a concurrent theme in the shift of processes and mediums that she undergoes both willingly and as a forcible change throughout. Contrary to Vija Cemins own beliefs about her work it can be surmised that her work is not as isolated as many of her peers seem to believe because a loss of control in early childhood and on effects both the way that she creates her art as well as her obsession with processes.

The first thing I notice in The Starry Night is the sky in the background because it stands out the most. There are many shining stars, the big bright crescent moon and wind swirls painted throughout the blue sky using contrasting colours like orange, yellow and white. Through the swirling wind, thick curve lines are flowing across the sky to form this spiral-like formation. Eleven yellow stars which look like huge fireballs lighten the whole art piece by contrasting with the cool blue, dark night sky that contains a variety of shades of blue and grey. There is also the crescent moon at the top right-hand corner that is bigger and emits an even brighter light compared to the rest of the stars. Next, I notice the giant cypress tree on the left side because of how its proportion is a lot bigger than everything else in the rest of the painting. It blocks out part of the sky and the village located at the bottom. The village houses are tiny and painted in the shade. It is compact and is close to the hills and its surrounding objects which makes the houses blend in and become unnoticeable.