SEURAT LANDSCAPE WITH HOUSES 1881
Tacita Dean Fatigues, 2012
There are as many different approaches to (landscape) art as there are artists who paint/draw. Every individual has there own take on subject and method of representation
Above are images from two artists whose work has similarities. The similarities are the monochrome pallet and the delicate use of tone.
The differences are more easy to define. Tacita’s image is vast, like its subject – it fills the wall of a gallery. She has used media that are not created for art work, i.e. chalk and chalk board. Her drawing emerges from the black background as she uses chalk to create tones and shapes over the black. Tacita creates art in a time where such experiments of size and unconventional media are encouraged and enjoyed. The speed at which new styles of all art forms are enjoyed and digested is now rapid – probably due, in part, to the internet, social networking and globalisation. People can quickly share new ideas and their thoughts on them. New ideas may be less alarming than in Seurat’s time.
Seurats image is tiny in comparison approximately 25 x 32 cm. He uses conte crayon on a traditional white background, building black tone over the white.
In Seurats time, experimentation with new methods and styles took time to become enjoyed, established and accepted. Indeed, Seurats methods were also considered unconventional – but ‘unconventional’ takes time to grow and metamorphize. Without the experiments and ground-breaking working ways of many artists of the past, which now seem conventional, artists of the present (and future) could possibly not experiment and innovate either. This is because innovation builds on the back of other previous innovation – ‘by standing on the shoulders of giants’.
I think the objective of this research point and the other research points in this project, could be in fact for me, the student, to see clearly that the biggest differences between the images are the point in history and cultural background in which they were created. Both images are groundbreaking in that context and that is the biggest similarity they share.
These images go to show that new innovation exists in art (and other human endeavors) at almost all points in history and will continue to do so.
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