The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent

How has your understanding of art changed?

<< < (2/5) > >>

coffeecat33:
I'm not sure if my understanding of art has changed, as my educational background is art and art history. However, I think BBM jump started creativity for me. For example, I hadn't written fiction for a long time and now have written BBM fan fic. I'm more aware of "trimming the fat" from my writing, to make it a little more sparse and stark. I have got crazy with the search for photos (mostly of Jake) and am learning to manipulate photos (see the Performance thread or Shades of Grey).

I'm glad you posted this. It reminds me of a painting that is replicated in the movie. As soon as I find the photos I will post them on this thread.

Leslie / cc33

coffeecat33:
Okay I found it. This sky shot is shown right after Jack & Ennis set up camp for the first time.




Below is a painting by Frederick Church, Twilight in the Wilderness, 1860. It hangs in the Cleveland Museum of Art.



Text from "Sister Wendy's American Masterpieces":

"Some paintings seem to bear their nationality on their faces. Church's Twilight in the Wilderness could only, I feel, be American. Church specialized in works inspired by the sheer vastness of the American continent.  Here, he painted the east coast: his own Maine.

"What I find fascinating is that everybody who looked on this magnificent scene . . .  seems to have a different interpretation. Some homed in on the eagle, up there on the left, and saw a symbol of American power. Some noticed where the branches cross, and saw a suggestion of Christianity. Others, noting the absence of human beings, claimed the pines as our surrogates - standing tall and strong, as the frontier expects. I must say that the pines most evident are somewhat twisted and scruffy, which gives the landscape a remarkable air of conviction; this is no ideal place, but truly what Church looked down upon. The one interpretation that I find sustainable hinges on the painting's date. In 1860, the menace in the sky would have been all too real. The Civil War would soon break out, and the blood-red tide would spread throughout the land." (from Cleveland Museum of Art website)

Brown Eyes:
Heya Katherine!
Yay for a nice thread!  ;)  Well, I don't make art of my own anymore (sad to say).  But, as some of you know, I work in the arts and I also went to grad school for art history. So, I think about art a lot.  And, I can still honestly say that probably no work of art or film, or very, very few other examples, have ever impacted me so strongly as this film (I quite like the story, but truly it's the film that knocked me out originally... I saw the movie before I read the story in any case). I'm also so engrossed in the world of visual arts that the fact that film is a visual medium tends to speak pretty strongly to me.  I'm often able to look at art in a very, very detached and analytical way (and that's a major side effect of art history at the grad. level.  I can write a really good paper about a painting that I hate.), but this film was and is the opposite. I both like/ love it and I want to pick it apart to see how it works intellectually.  It was able somehow to strike me on a profound emotional level and still engage with it on an intellectual level (as happens all the time here in Open Forum).  In terms of how we've analyzed the film, one major term that comes up all the time - ambiguity- is really important to me.  To me the best art is always ambigous, leaves questions unanswered (or un-answerable) and makes the audience work.

coffeecat33:
Ambiguity is a word I like to describe art as well. What kind of work do you do?
Leslie

Front-Ranger:
Thank you penthesilea, for that edit. Those paintings by Hammershoi definitely are reminiscent of the Twist setting. BTW, is penthesilea an art term like pentimento is? (Remember the movie, Pentimento?)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page