For today’s class lecture, the focus was Early 20th-century art. This type of art did not fit a specific style, rather there was a very large variety in the appearance of the paintings we looked at. This made for a very engaging lecture and discussion. I found that the paintings that stuck out to me the most were the very colorful paintings by the artist Henri Matisse. I found this very colorful style with some abstract elements to be very interesting. It reminded me of some modern art that we see made today.
There was an initiative earlier in the semester where the modern artist Steve Keene offered to make paintings for Colby students who wrote a paragraph about their favorite piece of art. I participated in this and have found that my painting has many similar elements to Henri Matisse’s. Though I do not think there is any connection or even inspiration, I do find the connection between Early 20th-century art and modern art to be very interesting.
The very small and distinct brush strokes of Andre Derian’s Mountains at Collioure also stuck out to me as a very impressive painting. The concept of using these small brush strokes to make the larger picture seems relatively simple, but in practice, I imagine it is very challenging. I was particularly impressed how Derain used color to aid the painting since he was not getting as much detail from each brush stroke.