Salvador Dali
The Elephants
1948
I chose this painting because i think its one of his more simplistic paintings. Most of his work is very wild, and it confuses the eye. I do like this one because i like the gradient in the background, and the elephants are obviously not the typical type of elephants, which gives this painting its surreal genre.

Night Cafe-Van Gogh

The Night cafe is an oil painting created by Van Gogh in 1888. He had written many letters to his brother about such cafe and explains his usage of color in his painting. He claims to have used red and green to express terrible passions of humanity. Throughout the painting he uses clashes of colors. At one point, he wrote "this is one of the ugliest pictures I have done" due to its exaggeration of colors and thick texture. I really like the perspective of the painting and his use of converging lines. It creates a sense of wonder and distortion.

The Burning Giraffe

Salvador Dalí. The Burning Giraffe. 1937. Oil on canvas. 

I chose this painting because freshman year my roommate, a big Salvador Dalí fan, hung a poster of it in our room and I spent a lot of time looking at it, wondering what it was about. I found it interesting that although the name of the painting is The Burning Giraffe, the giraffe isn’t the focus of the picture. The drawers as part of the body also interested me and after doing more research I found that in Dalí’s earlier work he drew many figures with drawers.  I also like the colors and how the bottom of the painting as well as the top is much darker than the rest of it. After researching more about the painting I found that around the same time Dalí painted this the Spanish Civil War began. Many people believe that this painting was Dalí’s expression of concern for his country.

Te aa no areois (The Seed of the Areoi)

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Gaugain painted this piece during his three year stay in Tahiti. Gaugain travelled there in 1891 and then returned to France in 1893. Before his arrival to Tahiti, Gaugain had expected paradise.  Instead he found that poverty and sickness ran rampant following Tahiti's French colonization. Gaugains first paintings in Tahiti were inspired by real people and scenarios. This painting is one of the first in which Gaugain used his imaginary techniques to portray the scene. This painting is Gaugain's interpretation of what Tahiti may have been like before colonization took place.  The Seed of the Areoi was painted in 1892 and its medium is oil on burlap. 

Blog Post # 4

"The Woman With the Hat" 

Henri Matisse

1905

Oil on Canvas

This painting is thought to be a picture of Henri Matisse's wife, Amelia.  I choose this piece because I enjoy the use of  non-naturlistic colors that when used, still convey the woman's character or emotion.  The piece almost looks unfinished which is another quality that I find surprisingly pleasing to the eye.  When I take a quick look at this painting, it almost looks like I'm looking through a mosaic glass window to see the person on the other side.  I hope that Mrs. Matisse enjoyed this painting as well.

-Kimberly Sanguinedo

Pablo Picasso 1919 Sleeping Peasants

Pablo Picasso

1919 Sleeping Peasants

Water color and Pencil on Paper 

Museum of Modern Art, New York

I choose this painting because of the different colors that stood out to me. The use of colors namely yellow and vivid indigo blue, draws the viewer’s eye to the center of the frame. The painting looks very planned and controlled. The theme here in my opinion is that there are two peasants who after a long day working in the fields rest and take a break. There are no shadows shown which indicated that it is in the middle of the day. Also I noticed that his hat sits right on top of his head indicating that the light source is coming from directly above. 

Gauguin

This painting by Gauguin is called Bord de Mer II. Gauguin painted it in 1887 while visiting Panama. I like this painting because of the colors of the ocean  and the different colors in the sky. I also like how Gauguin painted people in real life. He captures these Panamanian women very well.