 Living Aloft: Master Liu's Retreat, Wen Zhengming, 1543, Metropolitan Museum of Art
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39536 Immortals have always delighted in pavilion-living, Windows open on eight sides-eyebrows smiling. Up above towers and halls well up, Down below, clouds and thunder are vaguely sensed. Reclining on a dais, a glimpse of Japan, Leaning on a balustrade, the sight of Manchuria. While worldly affairs shift and change, In their midst a lofty man is at ease. This is a beautiful representation of the history of a man's life. The three teachings of Chinese philosophy are depicted here: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, as are the three perfections: painting, calligraphy and poetry. Confucianism may be interpreted as the first stage of a person's life: acquiring things, forming relationships, raising a family, and building a career. This is seen in the distance of the painting and in images of the city. The Taoist stage is illustrated by a "a lofty man at ease", who in the company of a friend, enjoys freedom in favoring the eternal over the temporal. The Buddhist stage is illustrated through the forward looking windows. Not withstanding adherence to any particular set of beliefs, one may gain spiritual understanding through observations of this painting.  I love this painting
because it invites me into the painting and into summer, and it is a catalyst for my own memories of summer. The movement of the waves thickly laid blue paint punctuated with white the sand with various spots in blue and green Water has come onto the shore perhaps these are rocks or sea shells the reflection of the sun the drop shaped marks of lemon and yellow paint on the shore like steps to walk onto the bare canvas. Kandinsky and abstract expressionists (and impressionists) were developing new ways to represent light. The technique was to free the painter from then traditional concepts of light and dark by combining black or white for instance, and instead they used values of color. To denote foreground from background, you could use lemon yellow juxtaposed with deep purple, etc. Careful study and composition based on hue, value and chroma is the basis of abstract expressionism. Also, the color represents the object and this was a revolutionary departure from representational art. This is very liberating for the painter but also needs a lot of thought, discipline and planning regarding composition, for an end result that looks spontaneous and effortless. Note how in 'Holland Beach Chairs’ Kandinsky achieves a plein air quality to a painting that was meticulously planned according to his principles of color theory.  Kandinsky, 'Holland Beach Chairs'
I gave a talk on plein air painting as background to my exhibit during Art Basel at Red Dot Miami 2018 Mana Wynwood. Plein Air Painting Plein air painting is a technique of landscape painting where the majority of the work starts outdoors and is finished indoors in the studio. Prior to plein air painting, works were composed entirely indoors from sketches and other studies that were drawn from several sources including older paintings from antiquity. Here in Monet’s painting, color was captured from perhaps many visits at the same time of day. This meant bringing the painting or a sketch back outdoors and then back to the studio for refinement.  Claude Monet, Fishing Boats Leaving the Harbor Impressionism Plein air painting became very popular in France and led to the rise of Impressionism. Transportation options included stagecoaches and railroads (and later horseless carriages) for reliable transportation to and from the landscape subject area. Present technologies including cameras and cell phone cameras allow many pictures at a point in time. The landscape needs to be accessible to multiple visits to capture the quality of light and related landscape details and scale, especially the ability to visit at a particular time of day, hence the importance transportation and accessibility. In French Impressionism, the popular venues were in Paris and its suburbs with its many parks and gardens. Americans traveled to local gardens and national parks (the Hudson River School). The English and Scottish artists had equally good access to many natural vistas including lakes, ports and gardens. Outdoor scenes with water produce luminosity so these became preferred. For example, lakes, rivers, coastlines, mist, fog, dew, and snow. Niagara Falls below is an example of technical excellence in this genre.  Frederic Edwin Church, Niagara Falls The artist needs to maintain the same level of concentration outdoors that is available in the studio. So parks and nature sites that allow solitude are preferred. Surprisingly, plein air painting did not originate in France but in Italy. The Macchioli in Tuscany advanced a painting style using macchia or patches of color, producing a style characterized by spontaneity The French impressionists further refined plein air through particular luminescence effects brought about by advancements in techniques and materials including technical advancements in paint quality and variety. The first impressionist exhibition took place in France in 1874. This was a turning point in the history of painting as prior to impressionism, classically trained artists in France and Italy became draftsmen before they graduated to painting in a style of painting known as academic painting. This was a tradition kept in check through government control. The impressionists broke with tradition and painted directly on the canvas, doing away with sketches or preparatory studies. They were aided by technological advances in the production of pigments from the early to mid nineteenth century. A greater palette allowed greater expression when faced with recording immediate perceptions in plein air. Color There is no use of black paint since black is a combination of all other colors and can be mixed on demand. There is limited or no use of brown paint for the same reason, it can be mixed on demand by combining other colors. Titanium white and its equivalent is used to help create other shades. The portrait painter John Goffe Rand invented the paint tube in 1841 and this afforded portability along with traveling paint boxes (pochade) and easels. This allowed use of pre-mixed paints which could be further mixed on a palette. Thus, plein air painting is about capturing a moment in time and place. |
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