Wednesday, December 17, 2008

History of Art Paper

I could have easily chosen one of the many works by Jackson Pollock my favorite painter but I decided that I would choose a painting that we covered in class this semester. The painting I chose was Piet Mondrian’s “Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow“. For me personally it’s a very interesting choice because as I stated I’m a big fan of Pollock’s work and if you were to compare any of his many drip paintings to “Composition II” the difference in them is vast. There’s just something about “Composition II” that speaks to me and that I find interesting. I’ve been pondering just what about the painting that draws me in when it’s to me at least such a simple looking painting. Although in it’s simplicity there’s a certain kind of complexity and I think the reason I see that may have to do with the fact that nothing like this had been done when Mondrain painted it in 1930. The fact that he painted what looks like such a simple idea for a painting is amazing to me. Having painted a little myself I can say that this is the kind of painting when I look at it I stop and say to myself “Now there’s a painting I wish I had thought of.”
While I was thinking of paintings to do my paper on I had thought about doing a paper on Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” and how I myself don’t find that painting all that interesting. Well I’d like to say that I find Mondrian’s “Composition II” more visually stimulating to look at then Picasso’s “Guernica.” In “Guernica” I don’t see the so called anti-war painting that many art historians claim it to be I just see a poor man’s Ralph Steadman or a blob like cartoon like mass of figures. To me a great anti-war painting is Goya’s the “Third of May.” But With “Composition II” yes the painting is very simple and flat but there’s just something about the way it’s composed and the use of red blue and yellow that to me speaks volumes more then “Guernica” and makes it a painting that I consider to be a timeless painting.
As I stated I consider “Composition II” to be a painting that’s timeless and the evidence I give to support this claim is of course the Nike shoes done up in the style of Mondrain’s Composition paintings. When I saw those shoes that made up a big part of why I chose this painting, the fact that Nike one if not the biggest shoe companies in the world thought enough to make a shoe out of a Mondrain painting really speaks volumes about it. Yes I am going to someday get a pair of those shoes because they look so visually appealing just like the painting itself.
In closing all I have left to say is that I really like this painting. I mean it was the only painting that really had an affect on me that wasn’t a Jackson Pollock or another favorite artist of mine Andy Warhol. I guess in “Composition II” I see a part of myself that even though my mind is the abstract drips of a Jackson Pollock on the outside I’m just a simple looking kind of person like Piet Mondrian’s “Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow.”

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