Watkins 1 Allison Watkins David Stanger Advanced 2-D Media 7 May 2012 Artistic Influences Outline I. Proposal a.

Sense of my initial intentions for this course b. Within this course, I intend to create works which address a sense of history and narrative. I want for the subject matter of my works to create a feeling of intimacy. I have found that often commonplace objects and settings attract me more than extraordinary ones. Admittedly, such imagery can tell a seemingly mundane narrative. However, the fact things so ordinary can capture my attention and remain within my thoughts is what makes them so special to me. I tie memories and stories to objects and places, objects and places to individuals, and individuals to back to memories and stories. Even more intriguing to me are the objects, places, and people of whose stories I am unaware. Inevitably then, aged objects and places fascinate me. After all, they have more to tell. i. Objects, places, and individuals that are known are often more inviting Overview of Influences a. Primary Influences: Vincent Desiderio and John Singer Sargent i. Completely opposite painters 1. Works seem unrelated ii. Commonality though Diego Velzquez 1. Desiderio studying Velzquez conceptually a. How I study Desiderio 2. Singer Sargent studying Velzquez technically a. How I study Singer Sargent b. Secondary Influences: Michal Borremans, Sangram Majumdar i. Paired with Desiderio 1. All contemporary: informed by same contemporary events and art history 2. All exploring intellectual concepts via paint Diego Velzquez (1599-1660) a. Born in Seville, Andalusia, Spain b. Baroque Period c. Portrait artist

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Watkins 2 d. Studied under Francisco de Herrera i. 1 year until age 12 ii. Disregarded the Italian influence of the early Seville school e. Apprentice under Francisco Pacheco i. Expressed a simple, direct realism ii. 5 years 1. Studied proportion and perspective f. Leading artist in the court of King Philip IV g. Trips to Italy i. Helped him grow as an artist and influenced his work Las Meninas, 1656 a. Well of the artists most well-known portraits of the royal family b. Excellent execution of perspective c. Active portrait intellectually i. Engages the viewer with not only the subjects of the work, but the spectators of the scene, as well as the artist himself ii. Plays with ambiguity of perception iii. Questioned whether he is painting Las Meninas itself within the work John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) a. Born in Florence, Italy b. Portrait and landscape artist c. Studied in both Italy and France d. Carolus-Duran i. Teacher in France ii. Encouraged him to break free of the rigidity of the old masters style 1. Skip detailed sketch making 2. Take brush directly to the canvas a. Alla prima technique i. Immediacy and emotional depth e. England i. Madame Gautreau 1. 1884 Paris Salon a. Said to be provocatively erotic b. Caused Singer Sargent to move to England ii. Established himself as the countrys leading portrait painter iii. Worked on landscapes and some sculpting later in life f. Trips to USA g. Velzquez i. Mark making ii. Both reveal individuality and personality of sitters through portraits

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Watkins 3 h. Influences: Duran, Bonnat, Velzquez Daughters of Edward Darley Boit,1882 a. echoes Las Meninas Parisian Beggar Girl, 1880 a. Worked during time of the Impressionists, Fauves, and Cubists i. Developed his own form of realism with Impressionistic influences ii. Painting becomes abstract as we lose a sense of space 1. Girl merges with wall iii. Plays with texture and the warms and cools that can be found within white iv. Vibrating loose marks around figure Bug a. Incorporating abstract and technical elements of Sargents work Vincent Desiderio (b. 1955) a. Born in Philadelphia b. Haverford College i. Fine Art and Art History 1. Art History plays important role in informing his art a. I make art to think through complicated issues, issues that generally revolve around culture and how we respond to the times we live in, how artists in the past have responded to the times they lived in. b. Aims to paint a kind of truth, have a reality attached to our times c. Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence i. 1 year ii. Pursue his passion in Art History 1. Study the Renaissance not stylistically (working in abstraction at the time), but intellectually and historically d. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts i. 4 years e. Westchester County, New York i. Currently works and lives f. Allegory i. Narrative, emotion, symbolism 1. Multiply handicapped son, Sam, 25 ii. Much more about technical procedures of painting 1. Anyone could project an image or enlarge a photograph and call it allegory 2. Craig Owens, allegory is the celebration of things that are on the cusp of slipping away into oblivion, a way of holding on to them.

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Watkins 4 a. Interest in the evolution of painting, as a whole, and particular i. Relates to my own interest in the history of a painting g. Influences: de Kooning, Picasso, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Velzquez, Fischl, Lpez Garca, Saville, Brown, Richter, Freud X. Cockaigne, 2003 a. Cockaigne: fabled land of luxury and idleness b. Inspired by de Koonings Excavation and Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Land of Cockaigne XI. Cockaigne (2003), Excavation (1950), and Land of Cockaigne (1567) a. References works throughout art history i. What memories do works hold? ii. What do they say about their time? iii. The people of their time? b. Merges Abstract and Conceptual art c. Creates patterning and rhythm via object XII. Bottles a. Reveal the history of the bottles b. Patterning and rhythm via object c. Layering and glazing techniques borrowed from Desiderio XIII. Bea (Study) XIV. Bea a. Repeating shape through composition b. Finding colors as well as warms and cools within white c. What does this moment specific to me say universally? i. Desiderios works speak to much larger themes and concepts, but this is something Im striving toward achieving with my works XV. Michal Borremans (b. 1963) a. Born in Geraardsbergen, East Flanders b. Painter and filmmaker c. Hogeschool voor Kunst en Wetenschappen Sint-Lucas (College of Arts and Sciences Saint Luke), Ghent i. Originally trained as a photographer 1. Shifted toward drawing and painting during the mid-90s 2. Works primarily from photographs for his paintings a. A lot of painters stay too close to the photograph, and its clear when you see the work. You have to leave the photograph, to manipulate it a bit. And the photograph doesnt have to be interesting; its the painting that has to

Watkins 5 be interesting. I never use a good photograph because thats finished. When you have good photograph you cannot improve it anymore. So I always work from an image that has a lot of shortcomings. Then I have a feeling that I am creative, that I am changing the original image. i. Something I try to do as well 1. Work from quickly shot compositions or cell phone photos 2. Photograph is only the starting point for the work d. Teacher at the Stedelijk Secundair Kunstinstituut Gent (Secondary Municipal Art Institute of Ghent) e. Ghent i. Currently works and lives f. Ideological failure i. Works often fail to lead to a solution ii. Question not only an art work, but also an image, reality and truth. 1. Does truth exist? What is it? iii. Realistic with a surreal and unsettling feel g. Influences: Manet, Degas, Goya, Chardin, Velzquez XVI. Blue, 2005 a. Atmospheric and mysterious b. Paints no individuals, just types and stereotypes, two-dimensional images i. Thinks of human beings in symbolic quality 1. Like chess pieces c. Time i. Tries to erase it, make it general ii. Works some with 1940s imagery XVII. Green a. Based directly off of the composition for Blue i. Subject of the painting did master copy of this work b. Intrigued by obstructed or cropped views of individuals i. Adds to mysterious nature ii. Interested in hands 1. How something so personal can relate to universal themes XVIII. Sangram Majumdar (b. 1976) a. Born in Calcutta, India b. Emigrated to the US in 1990 c. Rhode Island School of Design i. BFA

Watkins 6 ii. Gerald Immonen d. Indiana University i. MFA e. Brooklyn, New York i. Currently works and lives f. Physicality versus psychology of works i. My paintings are conversations between the notion of the familiar and the questions they raise through the medium itself. While physically the works are about physicality and a reality that is experiential and tangible, psychologically they are in many ways the complete opposite. In my work, I revisit this gap between what we think we know and what is right in front of us. g. Influences: de Kooning, Matisse, Influence within Indian Painting (Persian, Deccan or European), Indian architectural motifs, and temple structures From Here to There a. Part of a series of windows b. Play of painting projecting into the viewers space and the viewer entering that space c. Concept of human element i. Whether or not there is a figure present ii. Drawn to figural works, but primarily painting settings and objects 1. Concept that strongly resonates with me Window (Study) Window a. Blocks of shapes and abstract elements Tiny Green Paper Town a. Blocks of shapes and layering of colors b. Use lighting to convey human element that Sangram speaks of within his works Conclusion a. Studying these artistic influences throughout the semester has truly helped me to think about my works technically as well as conceptually and intellectually. As I move on in my creation of works, I hope to push the ideals of Velzquez, Singer Sargent, Desiderio, Borremans, and Majumdar even further. It is my hope to produce stylistically interesting and intimate works which are capable of conveying a sense of human element while engaging the viewer though application of paint as well as revelation of history, emotion, and narrative.

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