Matts Art Blog

 Gyotaku - Japan Gyotaku is a type of Japanese art that dates back to the mid 1800s and is still practiced today. It is a type of art used by fisherman to make a print of the fish they catch with ink and special paper. " Anglers would keep a supply of rice paper, sumi ink, and brushes on their boats so that they could make ink etchings of their freshly caught fish; the prints were so accurate that they were often used to determine the winners of fishing contests in Japan."  (“Gyotaku: The Traditional Japanese Art of Painting Marine Life with Actual Fish”).  It used to just be to record the sizes but as you'll see it has evolved into much more. Japan is known for its many forms of art and definitely has some very popular ones. This one caught my eye however as it uses real fish to make the art and that is very interesting to me. Using nature as a tool is something that I find myself always enjoying when I see it. Although gyotaku started simply as a one colored imprint it

 Influence of Celebrities Deborah Kass These are two works from a newer artist who made a collection of art inspired by the next artist I am spotlighting. Born in 1952 Artnet had this to say about her " Deborah Kass  is a contemporary American artist. With a practice spanning across media and disciplines, Kass’s work is notable for her pointed feminist critique. Through her use of appropriation, she often mimics the work and styles of male artists to comment on and rewrite the patriarchal narrative of art history."   ([CSL STYLE ERROR: reference with no printed form.]). These works are Robert Rosenblum, 1997 (Left) & Cindy Sherman, 1995 (Right). Both are takes on pop art works that were popularized by Warhol who used celebrities in much of his works as well. I enjoy these portraits as they usually use bright colors that make the faces and celebrities pop. Repetition is also used frequently in these works and shows 2 sides to the same works which is something I quite enjoy

 WWI Early Modern Art Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson,  La Mitrailleuse, 1915: Nevinson was an artist from  Britain. He was well known for his paintings about WWI.  This painting shows three soldiers manning a machine gun it what seems to be a trench of a battlefield. I really like the dark colors mixed with almost abstract shapes. The use of lines is very appealing in this work. It is almost as the soldiers are machines themselves as the shapes they are resemble the same sharp lines as the turret.  Charles Pears, Transport by the Sea: Supplying the Navy, 1917: Pears was a British  artist who interestingly enough competed in the Olympics  for art in 1928 and 1932. This illustration  is very appealing to me. The detail of the drawing in the sea shows the movement of the ships. There is no color really in the drawing and that doesn't  bother me. It is raw and gives the drawing a hectic tone through the use of the lines and shading. I am really impressed by the way the clouds are