Joseph Mallord William Turner And Antoni Tapies Analysis

Joseph Mallord William Turner - 'Rain Steam Speed' (1844) Oil on canvas

I have chosen this painting Rain Steam Speed painted by Joseph Mallord William Turner.

As Turner’s said "The sun is God" just before he passed away, I can see that he has used mostly the sun colour in this piece of work. This illustrates that Turner had traces and visions of sun god in his mind before he passed away. A steam train is coming towards the viewer at a speed while the rain is hitting the train.

The scene is fairly identifiable as Maidenhead Railway Bridge across the Thames between Taplow and Maidenhead near the area where Turner lived in his childhood with his maternal uncle.

Joseph Mallord William Turner’s Life and Career

Joseph Mallord William Turner’s date of birth is unknown but he claimed that he was born on April 23, 1775 in Covent Garden, London and died on December 19, 1851 in Cheyne Walk. He was a British Romantic landscape painter, water-colourist, and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivaling history painting. Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. He is commonly known as "the painter of light" and his work is regarded as a Romantic preface to Impressionism. Some of his works also are cited as examples of Abstract Art.

Turner’s father, William Turner was a barber and wig maker and Turner’s mother; Mary Marshall came from a family of butchers. His younger sister, Mary Ann, was born in September 1778 but died aged four in August 1783.

Turner traveled widely in Europe, starting with France and Switzerland in 1802 and studying in the Louvre in Paris in the same year. He made many visits to Venice. On a visit to Lyme Regis in Dorset he painted a stormy scene now it is in the Cincinnati Art Museum.

As Turner grew older, he became more eccentric. He had few close friends except for his father, who lived with him for 30 years and worked as his studio assistant. His father's death in 1829 had a profound effect, and thereafter he was subject to bouts of depression. He never married but had a relationship with an older widow, Sarah Danby.

Artist: Antoni Tapies

Title: Journal (Galfetti 166)' (1968)

This piece looks quite negative especially with the big cross in the middle and the colours used black and red. The red paint splattered looks like blood and the black cross next to it emphases death or kill.

The paper looks quite old and has a lot of texts which links with the title of the piece journal.

Antoni Tapies’s Life and Career

Antoni Tapies was born on 13 December 1923 in Barcelona and died on 6 February 2012. Tapies was a Catalan painter, sculptor and art theorist, who became one of the most famous European artists of his generation. Tapies’s father was a lawyer and Catalan nationalist who served briefly with the Republican government.

At the age of 17, Tapies suffered a near-fatal heart attack caused by tuberculosis. He spent two years as a convalescent in the mountains, reading widely and pursuing an interest in art that had already expressed itself when he was in his early teens.

Tapies had painted portraits in the style of van Gogh and Picasso. But then he turned to the abstract painting and developed his own style. He wore paint and other materials thick and partially scratched off. By alternating application of paint and scraping out the surfaces gives a look like old walls. All this may relate strongly to the character of the Spanish countryside.

Tapies is widely considered to be the most important post-war Spanish artist and his work has achieved international praise. Later he produced heavy clay sculptures of everyday objects such as baths and chairs.

The Autumn memories fading away leaving traces...

Traces
Faded

Robert Rauschenberg

Overdrive (1963)

Materials: silk-screen and oil on a canvas

Robert Rauschenberg was dyslexic, reading was very difficult for him in school sometimes he saw words backward, upside-down, or even double; which he has used as ideas in this art work.

Rauschenberg has used 4 stop signs all facing different directions to make his work look unique. He may also have put the stops signs as he used to see with his eyes when he was in school.

Near the middle of the collage Robert has drawn four birds, each of them are in different position to take off. The one bird flying has a white background to it, to make it stand out as the rest 3 birds are in different positions to take off and has a yellowish gold background. Robert has a faded clock which looks like a hypnotism clock, right at the top middle and the time is 7:17.  As Robert said that his job was to be a witness to his time in history. Clocks were especially interesting to him as he liked thinking about all the different ways we measure time.

Rauschenberg has mostly used black, white and primary colours and a couple faded drawings to give his artwork look old and original. The way he has set out this collage, makes the viewer’s eye focus on the right side from the viewer’s side.
The birds are facing to the right, the backgrounds on the left side is plain white and whereas the background on the right is black and grey which make the collage more stand out on the viewer’s eye. There is an old photograph of the statue of the liberty upside down at the top of the collage. As we know Robert was American and lived in America he may have been to the statue and have some meaning to put the photograph on his work.

Robert Rauschenberg’s Life and Career

Robert Rauschenberg was born on October 22 1925 in Port Arthur, Texas and died on May 12 2008 at the age of 82 in Captiva Florida United States.

Rauschenberg lived and worked in New York City as well as on Captiva Island, Florida until his death from heart failure on May 12, 2008.

  

Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects are employed in combinations. Rauschenberg was both a painter and a sculptor and the Combines are a combination of both. He imagined himself first as a minister and later as a pharmacist. It wasn't until 1947, while in the U.S. Marines that he discovered his aptitude for drawing and his interest in the artistic representation of everyday objects and people.

Rauschenberg also worked with photography, printmaking, papermaking, and performance. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1993. He became the recipient of the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts in 1995 in recognition of his more than 40 years of fruitful art making.

Rauschenberg was born as Milton Ernest Rauschenberg in Port Arthur, Texas, the son of Dora Carolina and Ernest R. Rauschenberg. His parents were Fundamentalist Christians. Rauschenberg married Susan Weil in 1950. Their only child, Christopher, was born on July 16, 1951. In 1953 after the end of his marriage; Rauschenberg had romantic relationships with fellow artists Cy Twombly and Jasper Johns.

Rauschenberg was quoted as saying that he wanted to work "in the gap between art and life" suggesting he questioned the distinction between art objects and everyday objects. From the fall of 1952 to the spring of 1953 Rauschenberg travelled through Europe and North Africa with his fellow artist and partner Cy Twombly. In Morocco, he created collages and boxes out of trash. He took them back to Italy and exhibited them at galleries in Rome and Florence.

Rauschenberg thinks that anything such as cardboard, tires, light bulbs, photographs, old clothes, found objects, found images even dirt can be used to make art.

Rauschenberg thought of himself as an artist-reporter. He said his job was to be a witness to his time in history. Clocks were especially interesting to him as he liked thinking about all the different ways we measure time.