Through the corridors of art
Books

16 June 2021

Through the corridors of art

Through the corridors of art



Over the next few months we will take you through the corridors of a genuine museum, with the help of book publisher Taschen and handbag brand LOQI. Let's navigate through art and time together.


Welcome back. After having explored the 14th, 16th and 18th centuries in the foyer, it is now time to walk down some more of the corridors of our museum.


As we prepare for today's journey, did you know that historians believe it was through art that we first began to communicate? The earliest recorded art forms are hand carvings on cave walls from the prehistoric period.


But let's get down to business. We start down the first corridor and from the time of the caveman we jump to the 19th century and impressionism. Coming from the term "impression", this artistic movement sought to represent reality according to the light falling on it. In other words, the impressionist artist showed his vision of a given moment, often painting the same place during different times of the day. He did so in order to fix and transmit the superficial and momentary appearance of reality. The works of the impressionists convey sensory manifestations of colour, light, sound and movement through lighter colours and freer brush strokes. With a taste for direct observation and the practice of painting in the open air, most works of this period focus on the representation of landscapes and moments of everyday life. However, some painters such as Renoir and Degas were also inspired by urban life and show business.




Our examples today come to us from France. Degas, Monet and Renoir.


Here on the left you can see Edgar Degas, born 19 July 1834. Considered a 'false' impressionist, Degas loved anything out of the ordinary. Unafraid to mix colours, the painter was greatly influenced by the naturalist aesthetic when portraying Parisian life, in its vices and customs. Degas was a pioneer in showing the same scene from several different angles, as is done today with photography and film. The French painter had a fascination with dance and often depicted ballerinas dancing, capturing the beauty of ballet.


Across the corridor, on the right, we have Claude Monet and his landscapes. Considered the leader of the Impressionist movement, Monet believed that you could only truly know something if you could experience it in all its forms. Because of this, he painted the cathedral of Rouen, in the Normandy region, thirty times, in order to capture it in every possible light. Over the years, Monet's brushstrokes became so fluid that many critics consider his later works to be mere sketches.


As we head towards the end of this corridor, we come across Auguste Renoir. Born in 1841, Renoir had a more 'easy to like' style. The painter focused on country and city landscapes and was known for celebrating female beauty and sensuality, as seen in the 1885 work 'The Umbrellas'.





From 1880 onwards, Impressionism was diluted, making room for personal interpretations. This is how post-impressionism emerged, appearing as an intellectualisation of impressionism. Van Gogh was one of the driving forces behind the movement and contributed to a technique based on the codified symbolism of colour.


Vincent Van Gogh was born in 1853 in the Netherlands. With a short career of about a decade, Van Gogh developed works with a great emotional charge. Rather than painting what he saw, the painter expressed what he felt through distorted objects, false proportions, texture and relief.


The last artistic movement we are going to talk to you about today is realism and it is right here in this room on the left. Realism sought to represent the real, as naturally as possible. With various approaches, this artistic movement was heavily influenced by the emergence of photography. The style was born in France, but Edward Hopper was born in the United States of America in 1882. The painter became known for his mysterious depictions of loneliness in both urban and rural settings.





We'll take a break from our visit for now and come back in a bit to explore the rest of the 20th century corridors. Until then take a look at the Taschen books and LOQI bags we have available.



See you in a bit!

 

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