Art Alphabet: D - Esther

New year, old ways, so back we go to the Art Alphabet. It’s been a tricky week & it’s good to go for a dependable blog entry. I’ve discovered a couple of artists & works new to me for the letter D (such as Dahl & Dedication), which I like. Plus, I knew little or nothing about the Düsseldorf School of Photography. It’s nice to learn new things & in my opinion, it’s vital to keep doing so, whatever your area/s of interest. As ever, the World of Art is the gift that keeps on giving & never lets us down. Some of this week’s images & artists have been difficult to find out much information on, but that’s the risk you take when undergoing something as random as the Art Alphabet. It’s not going to hand it to you on a plate.  

D

1. An Artist (Dahl): Self-portrait, Michael Dahl (Sweden, 1656 or 1659-1743)

We can see from his self-portrait that Dahl was an accomplished portrait painter & his career reflected this since he painted many well-heeled figures of the day - including royalty - across Europe. In fact, his reputation was such that he was able to turn down some lucrative work that would have advanced his career further. The art world can be so spiteful & it seems that some of the honours that would usually be bestowed on an esteemed figure as he surely was in his day, were denied him because of his stubborn refusal to take on any old commission asked of him. Good for him.

2. A Type of Art (drawing): Drawing XIII by Georgia O’Keeffe (USA, 1887-1986)

Known better for her colourful paintings, O’Keeffe nevertheless produced many charcoal drawings of note. Here she utilises the medium to full effect, creating different textures & tones. At 61.9 x 47 cm in size, we can see that to produce the looser lines, creating the piece would have been quite physical in terms of the sweep up & down. As she often does, O’Keeffe suggests the forms & structures of the natural world, whilst also abstracting them. I do like a drawing that shows what charcoal can achieve.

3. An Animal (dog, donkey): Harmony by Kathryn Wronski (USA, ?) 

Kathryn Wronski creates oil lively, highly colourful paintings of animals (often pets) using photographs as source material. Her style is distinctive & her subjects frequently playful, such as in this example. It may not be my taste particularly, but it’s a style she’s very effective in.

4. An Art Movement (Dada): Dame! by Francis Picabia (France, 1879-1953)

The purpose of Dada was originally to reject the idiocy & horrific nature of WWI. Formed in Zurich, Dada encompassed performance art as well as visual & written work. Dada artists rejected tradition & the bourgeois & frequently embraced the ludicrous or ridiculous. It was purposeful, however & aimed to form the collapse of anything that would have worked towards the existence of a horror such as the war. Later Dada would inform the Surrealists, also purposeful & also misunderstood. 

5. A Landscape (dream): The Dream, Henri Rousseau (France, 1844-1910)

At first, this appears to be a figure painting but as Rousseau himself explained, the title tells us what it’s really about. The woman is dreaming of being in the forest & in turn, the forest becomes the true subject. Rousseau was enthused by the Jardin de Plantes in Paris & this enthusiasm enabled him to create this landscape. Later, his highly stylised paintings, the feeling of entering the subconscious & the juxtaposition of objects & figures in his work helped inspire the Surrealists.

6. An Emotion (depression): Teenage Depression by Carts (Robert Carter)

This evocative painting of a young man very clearly communicates the feeling of one’s mind being eroded by deep depression – his head is literally falling away in the image. The monochromatic palette contributes to the sense of isolation & illustration of depression. It’s at once Surrealist & Expressionist with a little abstraction thrown in.

7. A Place (dunes): Dunes by Vincent van Gogh (Netherlands, 1891-1959)

Vincent wrote often to his long-suffering brother Theo, who supported the artist for most of his adult life. Vincent even wrote to him about this particular work (as well as another painting featuring dunes), describing it as being “densely painted” & referring to his impasto technique. Dunes was painted by the sea in the Hague in August, 1882.

8. A Medium (décollage): Décollage by Francois Dufrene (France, 1930-1982)

The opposite of collage, décollage takes away pieces rather than adding images. It can be made by cutting or ripping away parts of a picture. Dufrene was a Nouveau realist artist but he was also known for his works in décollage & sound poetry. 

9. A School (Düsseldorf): The Düsseldorf School of Photography, example: Shinju-ku (Skyscrapers), Tokyo 1986 by Thomas Struth (Germany, 1954-)

Originally the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf was a drawing school, begun in 1762. Later it expanded to include painting, architecture & sculpture in the disciplines learned. The photography school was founded in the 1970s. Attracted to the German realist movement of the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) in the 1920s, the first photographers at the Düsseldorf school were keen on producing clean lines & stark lines, working in black & white on industrial subject matter. Artists like Struth took these principles further & the school continues to evolve, now working with technology such as 3D printing.

10. An Abstract Work (Dedication): Dedication to Cezanne by David Burliuk (present-day Ukraine, 1882-1967)

Only the bright colour scheme seems typical of Burliuk; since he worked with the Futurists in Russia, his style was usually very different. They went on to influence the Italian Futurists. In any case, he & his friends in the Cubo-Futurism group of poets & other writers would be deliberately outrageous in public, wearing odd clothing, painting their faces & infuriating audiences by enacting plays that appeared to make no sense. That said, Burliuk is considered to be a pioneer in Russian poetry. I dread to think.