Contextual Research

This page of the website is to record contextual research

I looked at Lautrec, and then at Degas. Degas I will research further as his painting change as he ages from being very precise with a muted colour pallette, to being much more colourful with less detailed background. Degas said this was due to failing eyesight, but it seems more likely it was due to a change of heart or viewpoint on how to portray life on the canvas.
I am also going to look at Van Gogh as he became mentally ill and had to be institutionalised, he painted while he was in the institution, and I want to compare this work to his earlier work

Van Gogh and how his perspective changed

The work that Van Gogh did in his early years seem to be taken straight rom life and the colours are very muted, even when he paints the buld fields which are alive with colour in real life, he seems to have used colour very cautiously

In later paintings he becomes very adventurous with colour and the paintings do not look like an exact copy of the scene, but an interpretation of how the scene made VanGogh feel when he viewed it. Even his last picture crows on the wheatfield though having a very sad feel to it, is still filled with beautiful colour and has brushstrokes that hint at the way the birds are flying and the wheat is moving rather than making an exact copy of the scene.

When comparing his early work to his later work it is almost like looking at the work of two different people. In researching Van Gogh's life we find that he suffered much hardship in the intervening years between this works, including malnutrition. Could this suffering have affected how he saw the world? And in that case it is incredible that the severe hardship Van Gogh suffered only made his work more joyfu;, as if it made him able to see the beauty in even 'ordinary' things.

Degas and how his perspective changed

In his early work the edges are crisp and clear, almost photographic.

His later works (the ones below are from around 1899) pay less attention to background details, and are softer. Some people speculate he was losing his sight, but he also had a reputation for leaving stuff unfinished - so maybe he just got bored of painting in backgrounds? Even o the actual subjects of his paintings seem less defined in his later paintings.

Other artists I will research
Jeff Wall A sudden Gust of Wind (he plays with photoshop to make images out of loads of other images and therefore make it represent a painting)
Yoko Ono Painting of the wind (http://artasiapacific.com/Magazine/58/TheArtistInHerUnfinishedAvantGardenYokoOno in this project she uses word to describe the art work so you have to imagine it, rather than see it – this could link well as obviously people will have different interpretations of the descriptions)