Two artists, Two centuries, Two pioneers, Two Art Movements
Mesmerizing trajectory of art…zooming between the colours……loving art…..
France, the year was 1872, Oscar-Claude-Monet began a new wave in art. He began painting things he saw with a touch, a touch of his own. He painted things the way he felt them. He went out..again and again. He brought with him something which remained with him not the way it LOOKED, but the way he saw. He picked up bright Sunlight, packed it in his bags, spilled the same in his studio and went on slicing the light he had CAUGHT!! Now he knew where to PASTE these small pieces of Sunlight. He opened his colours and began..the endless patches of what he saw in the nature. Well, it was three dimensional. He knew, the work is exhaustive. He had to bring in his passion for what he saw out of his studio. The nature was 360..all over. He refused the flat two dimensionality. The process was on and on until finally he did the IMPRESSION of what he knew was right according to his mind. A stronger version of his own visuals….an IMPRESSION!!
Now interestingly in the same year in Netherlands was born Piet Mondrian. Here the drama which was to follow crossing the two centuries was in the making already. Just imagine, did they ever realized what was coming between them to establish something so unique and so magnificent? Did they even visualize something unusual would come out from the extraordinary Pandora box, which actually never ever existed?
The play begins. Colours, many colours like never before, Monet opened up a new scale to measure the colours. He made them three dimensional. He worked out on the actual texture that he perceived from the nature. He made the colours look like blocks…irregular blocks. Like they are in their real form in the nature. Not in order. Absolutely free to spread in any direction. And then was created optical extravaganza. The canvas became loaded with nature seen by Monet. Mission Impressionism began with many more stewards joining in and one was Deags painting lovely Ballerinas with lovely fringes of their dresses which Degas hardly painted…he just sprinkled, textured, scattered the edges of the transparent dresses of the dancers. The drama of colours or the trick of application?
It then ran between the years 1874-85, through more than ten exhibitions and then came Post Impressionism…..in 1900 where Cezzanne, Seurat and Vincent Van Gogh began playing with diversity.
Around this time, it is very difficult to hold back on Van Gogh..who is loved by many. The Dutch painter is been talked by many in the past and shall continue to be part of the talks in future as well. Mondrian was only twelve when Seurat did his pointillism…dots and dots and eight years later Van Gogh left the world, leaving many questions unanswered.
His enigma went with him, what was left behind was the mystery of Starry Night and number of Sun Flowers. Henry Matisse became fierce and Edward Munch SCREAMed to EXPRESS and Picasso travelled from his blue period to geometry, The canvases began looking vibrant and different. Illusion, sentiments, expressions, speed, dance, poetry, violence, rhythm, music…all was in and around, everywhere. Wassily Kandinsky “Painted” colours. From Russia to Scandinavia, from Europe to America, the actions and reactions were spontaneous and vibrant. Those patches of colours really were making history. These colours were talking the language of all. The colours took dimensions, the colours picked vocabulary. They were simple, they were complicated. They ran from all the possible realms of human mind.
Growing up with these colours, from Netherlands HE came to France for the love of art like his fellow countryman. Mondrian began what no one could think. His passion for trees and their reflections on the ripples of the water body was irresistible. And then what happened? He began moving on with where Monet had. He found those colours with dimensions. He now made them walk and talk in discipline. He travelled to USA, and established his own signature with colours……just like Monet did when Mondrian was born, but in a little different manner.
ink talking 