My_Thoughts_of_the_Video_Shown_on_11_09_07

My Thoughts of the Video shown on 11/09/07 On Tuesday 11th of September we were shown a video which contained many famous artists and the artists work. The artists would talk about their own work while also explaining other famous artists at the same time, and how their techniques related to theirs. I took quite a lot of information down from this video and was able to take in many interesting points. One of them being that many of these artists described these’s as obsessive over their artwork, which I suppose is a great key factor in their art, being able to find great motivation, and not giving up. The video also showed me that experimentation was a key factor in becoming a great artist and that enjoying your own work as well as others can inspire you onto ideas which could lead to your greatest piece. All of the artists including David Hockney whose work I enjoyed, seemed to have great passion for their work, and that unlike a photograph the artists work contains emotions and also the relationship with the subjects. Some of the other artists I liked from this video included Clay whose work was produced using contours and lines which created a unique effect, and also Giacometti, whose work is very sketchy and untamed which I can relate to a lot, as I use many lines for one shape when using charcoal. The video showed how children at a young age produce art which you can clearly see contain emotions and feelings towards their subjects. In the video children were asked to draw their parents, and their house from memory. You could see how they related to certain parts of the body from their parents, hands for instance which would be the source of touch as a young child, and in their houses you could see the carpet was very important to some of the children as they are small and the carpet is close to them, and they would be on all fours at a young age. The video showed how art was being used as an early science with children, making them look closer at plants and food. It was said that “Drawings are signs and symbols made to look like something” and that if you read into the signs you will read into the meaning of the drawing or any art work. Which I thought was really interesting, and could see how that some artists which use their work to express their feelings maybe understood better after looking at their work. This leads me onto my next point which is that it was shown that Van Gough’s painting of the ‘seeder’ contained emotion, and attitude, that he wanted to express to people and reach them about what is going on behind the scene of rural life. Millet looks for experiences to be recorded in natural environments and life. The word picturesque is used to explain how a setting is like a photography but like in millets drawings, unlike a photograph you get a sense of time and how the artist has developed ideas about the paintings, which photographs can’t do as they only capture one moment in time. From watching the video we also learned that Chinese drawings can be different to Western ones in the way that they seem to draw as quickly as possible with ink, and so have a roughness and getting things drawn as they see them and not how they think they look. This can make the drawings look more technical and precise to the objects they were originally drawing. The video also showed how when Rembrandt’s students tried to copy his work, it was said that the pupils work was like his but instead of their being many lines where he had worked at his drawing, and understood what he was looking at, there was just what was there on the paper and not what had developed over time. Like consulting a dictionary, only taking information from the source that was needed. The video went on to talk about charactures, and how when looking at one you can tell what the artist has looked at the most and what he or she finds most appealing, showing yet again that you can tell a lot about the artist from what he or she has made. Giacometti thought he could do everything until he was 18, and as he developed he found he couldn’t and so as he grew up he embraced his work until he could have that feeling again. From all of this inspiration I have learnt that personal experience, and personal motivation drives great artists to become even better, as their work to them is just an obsession and that working to your own standard and then expanding that standard can drive you to create some great art.