Ingenue_and_the_Gold_Dress

Ingenue and the Gold Dress The focus of this paper will be “Ingenue” by Richard Judson Zolan and “The Gold Dress” by Bill Brauer. The focal point of both paintings is a beautiful woman and this is where the similarities stop. Zolan’s focus is completely within the boundaries of the painting while Brauer’s leads your eye off the plane insinuating there is more going on than is captured within the boundaries of the painting. The word ingenue refers to a naive, innocent young woman while the woman in “The Gold Dress” is definitely more provocatively situated. Both artists are Americans, Zolan from Chicago and Brauer from New York. Zolan studied under Louis Rittman, a personal friend and student of Claude Monet, the French impressionist, and Brauer under Frederico Castellon, a Spanish-American painter and illustrator of children’s books. Zolan’s style reflects the influence of Monet with the effects of light while Brauer is more sensual and moody, using deep intense colors and beautifully rendered curves. Both works of art are beautifully painted and express the great talent of both men. Zolan’s “Ingenue” is representational and painted in the impressionist style using different tones and values to express the effects of light and using broad brush strokes. The form is oil on canvas and the content is a ballerina squatting down with her right leg out in front as if she is leaning over stretching. The painting is balanced as her body is mainly on the right side of the painting and her leg and the dark shading balances out the left side. This is a very good representation of American Impressionism with dappled light and vivid colors. Zolan successfully fused modern and traditional elements to forge his own unique vision. Brauer’s “The Gold Dress” is a contemporary painting and is modern and provocative, emanating sensual tension and the sizzling mystery of an underlying story. The work can be considered Abstract as the subjects are stylized and simplified, especially the man. Brauer’s suggestive and moody work uses a single light source to illuminate intense colors and poses, emphasizing the female form. Brauer, who doesn’t use models so that his figures remain edgy, bases his work upon themes of beauty, mythology and dancing. The form is oil on canvas and the content is a woman in a gold dress with her back to the viewer dancing with a man whose face is obscured by the back of the woman’s head. The tops of their heads extend beyond the edge of the left side of the painting and their right arms extend above the top edge. The painting is balanced as the two bodies are equally spaced in the bottom right and top left of the painting. Brauer uses shadowing to blend the two corners not filled by the subjects. Zolan’s use of line is expressive and romantic. It is like you are catching just a glimpse of this beautiful young ballerina when she is alone and preparing for her dance. I get the feeling that she does not know anybody is watching. It is as if she is alone with her thoughts in the dance studio either preparing for or reflecting after her dance. There is a feeling of voyeurism, although not in a perverted way. My eye starts at the young woman’s head and shoulders then works its way down her extended leg and back to her left leg around the curve of her buttocks and back up to her head. The flow of this painting has my eye repeating this movement repeatedly. The young woman appears innocent and naive, truly ingenue. Brauer’s line on the other hand is implied, as if he wants you to follow the curve of the woman’s body up the gold dress and up her right arm and off of the painting. There is a mystery about the couple. You can’t see either dancer’s face as they are locked in the embrace of their dance face to face. This couple may be dancing at a grand ball or all alone on a romantic interlude. It is up to the viewer to determine where this might be taking place. The curve of his line is classical and deliberately curved emphasizing the woman’s form, beauty and grace. The painting first draws my gaze to the center of the woman’s back, up the curve of her body, and off the painting in the top left corner as if my eye is drawn to what is taking place out of view. My eye then returns to the middle of the painting and I first notice the gold dress and follow the implied line down and to the bottom left of the painting. Brauer’s use of the woman’s body, color and curve draws my eye in a way he must truly have intended. Zolan’s use of color is painted in the impressionist style of Monet. The background appears dark and murky using atmospheric distortion to shade and darken the surrounding area so that your eye is focused on the beautiful modeling of the ballerina. The hue in her dress, slippers and hair band uses tone and value perfectly to lighten the areas where the light falls and darken the areas that should be shadowed. The young woman’s face is in the shadow of her leaned over body. Even so, you still see her as a beautiful and determined woman intensely focused on her body as the instrument of her art. The colors are soft and pastel like, even when darkened for the shadowed areas. Brauer’s color is bold and vivid. Using a single, bright light source the woman’s back is brightly lit as is all the skin you can see. This light source highlights the curve down the right side of the woman’s body and it is in this area where the gold of the dress is brightest. The man is shadowed in a way that the color he is wearing is not important to the painting. It is the curve of the woman’s body and the bright highlight of this curve that draws your eye to the vivid and moody color. There is a sensual and erotic element to the shading of the woman’s back. The color of the man’s hand in the nap of her back is not important and the detail is left out because it is the woman that is the focus of the color in this painting. Like Zolan’s painting, the background is shaded in a way that forces your eye to the focal point of the painting. Richard Judson Zolan (1931-2001) adheres to the principles of European and American impressionism, and established himself as one of America’s most exceptional painters. Born in Chicago, Zolan graduated from the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago and later studied at the famed Art Students League in New York City. He quickly became the prized pupil of Louis Rittman, an instructor at the academy. Rittman, a personal friend and student of Monet for over twenty years, taught Zolan the fundamental techniques and style of Impressionism. Zolan is recognized as one of the foremost adherents of American Impressionism and one of the most gifted painters of our day. Zolan became an artist for the love of creating. The most pervasive quality of his work is the extraordinary synergy he achieves, bringing to his canvas a triumphant marriage of modern art with its Renaissance ancestry. He is energetic and enthusiastic about his creativity and he pursued his art with precision, efficiency, love, and optimism. Significant exhibitions include the Metropolitan Galleries in Osaka, Japan, the World Trade Center, Cape Cod Art Association, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. Known nationally for his sensual figurative paintings, Bill Brauer grew up in Queens, New York knowing from early inspiration that he would be an artist. Brauer attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City and was a protege of Federico Castellon. His first years as an artist were spent working as an illustrator. He uses the design concepts he learned as an illustrator in his art. In 1978, Brauer began for the first time to concentrate exclusively on painting. In the late eighties, his work won mounting success and has since been exhibited extensively across the United States in both solo and group exhibitions. Brauer's paintings are highly sensual and moody, using deep intense colors and beautifully rendered curves of fabrics or human forms. All his works depict women and are often suggestive. In an interview with 'The Sunday Times Argus,' Brauer says "I love the concept of mystery. I like the idea that something is taking place off the picture plane." For twenty-five years, Brauer has taught an art class which now meets at Vermont College, Montpelier. Brauer's most recent solo exhibitions have been at the Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Washington and The Chase Gallery, Boston. He continues to be one of Vermont's most successful artists, highly popular with private collectors. Both artists use aesthetics in their works. Both paintings are of beautiful woman, a topic that has, and always will be, a focus of great artists. Both women are beautiful and graceful. Brauer’s woman is sexual and sensual and the depiction of their dance is very sexual and erotic. Brauer’s painting implies movement and great desire between the two dancers. Zolan’s ballerina on the other hand, is just as beautiful in her own, innocent way. Her beauty is simply in her innocence and form. There are no feelings of sexuality or desire. Both artists use of line, space and color is beautifully and dramatically done, yet in completely different ways. I can see Zolan’s “Ingenue” hanging in a beautiful, French country chateau or dance studio for young and beautiful girls. While Brauer’s “The Gold Dress”, would be in a sultry Latin dance studio or in the home of the couple depicted in the painting. Both of these men are talented artists. The value of their work is proven by the numbers of people who collect them. Zolan, though deceased, has left a lasting impact on the art community and the world with his continuing use of the impressionist style. This proves the staying power of this art form first developed by the French Impressionist, Monet. Brauer, a modern artist, has a contemporary style that is no less beautiful than Zolan’s. It is a style of movement and sensuality with bold and moody colors that he mastered from studying from Frederico Castellon. Art itself is a testimony to the expressionist desire of human beings. From the earliest cave men marking on the stone walls with charcoal from their fires we have recorded our daily lives and surroundings in art. Art is a visual record of history and our time and place in this world. We use it to see the world in new and innovative ways. We make functional objects more beautiful with art purely for the aesthetics. A vase, for example, would be no less functional without art, but with art, it gives beauty and pleasure to our daily lives. Art can give form to the immaterial, like religious figures or Picaso’s treatment of woman in his Abstract style. Art truly shows the creativity and legacy of human beings and Brauer and Zolan deserve their place amongst the best.