Ulrike Arnold

Michael Mont

Ulrike Arnold.

2/23/12

           I recently read the article “Earth Tones Ulrike Arnold's Art Literally Rises From The Soil” by Margret Regan. Ulrike Arnold is an artist who focus on ecological paintings. Ulrike Arnold focuses on bringing out colors in natural terrains. She also draws on rocks and caves.

           Ulrike Arnold will draw an abstract oil painting on a canyon. What’s interesting about this is that she won’t just copy the colors, but instead, she will add bright colors that will contrast with the earthy background. The colors generally the same, but she just makes them brighter. This effect is absolutely gorgeous and it adds beauty to an already beautiful place.

           Margret Regan is an exceptional art critic herself. She does an excellent job describing this artist by first describing the background (which would be like a canyon) as something that is beautiful. Then describes what the artist created on top of the background. She also uses tons of fun exciting words like plunge to describe what the painting looks like.

           Ulrike Arnold’s works are very beautiful and undoubtedly worth seeing. It is amazing how someone can paint on nature and make nature more beautiful. The colors she uses are so vibrant, in keeps the viewers in awe for along time. Arnold’s work is truly amazing and worth checking out. 

Steve Gianakos

Michael Mont

2/15/12

Art critic Steve Gianakos

           I read the article about Steve Gianakos in the New York Times called, “Steve Gianakos’s ‘New Paintings’ at Fredericks & Freiser.” It was written by art critic Ken Johnson. The article is shorter than most other art articles in the times, but it is for a reason.  Steve Gianakos is an artist whose main themes are quite disturbing.
           Steve Gianakos is known for his themes of sex, drugs, and violence. He mostly draws things in a cartoon style. The cartoons figures have a very 50s 60s style drawing to them. They kind of look like comics in the newspaper. The images are very graphic and even, disturbing in certain drawings. There is nothing censored in his paintings. Doing an image search, out of curiosity, lead me to find a bunch of obscure disturbing paintings; so disturbing that I would feel uncomfortable attaching a picture of his works in this essay.
           Ken Johnson does a really go job describing Steve Gianakos’ work. Johnson first gives background information on the artist. He says that his themes are very adult and contain sex, drugs, and violence. Then Johnson does give him some credit, “It is just as well that we don’t know what most people think about in the privacy of their own dirty little minds. But in Steve Gianakos, …, we have an exception.” Then Johnson gives the title of a painting then describes what is in them, in just one descriptive sentence; In “She Decided to Throw the Party Anyway,” a curious kitten paws the water of an aquarium in which a girl’s severed head is submerged.
           Ken Johnson does a good job of being an art critic. He described this artist with just enough details to get the point across and not freak out the readers. I think the artist is brave for drawing all those weird obscure paintings; he doesn’t write off any ideas that come to mind.  Overall it was an interesting article and a more interesting artist. 

 

Antoni Tapies

Michael Mont
2/9/2012
Antoni Tàpies
   I recently read the article in the New York Times called “Antoni Tàpies, Spanish Abstract Painter, Dies at 88.” This article is about the life of the Spanish painter who has recently passed, and this article also describes some of the wonderful pieces that he left behind. The article was written by William Grimes and is in the New York Times. William Grimes is a very talented art critic because he very crafty with his adjectives and makes a lot of art references. William Grimes is uses a lot of adjectives to describe Antoni Tàpies work. A major downside to this art critic for me is that he contrasts Antoni Tàpies artwork with others. For example, “Mr. Tàpies (pronounced TAH-pea-ess) came to prominence in the late 1940s with richly symbolic paintings strongly influenced by Surrealist painters like Miró and Klee, a style he abandoned by the mid-1950s as he turned to what became his signature work.” As someone who is not familiar with many different types of artwork, I have no idea who Miro and Klee are; therefore, the comparison is useless to me. But I’m sure someone who is familiar with those referenced artists would appreciate it more.
   Antoni Tàpies has a very primitive style when it comes to his paintings. He usually likes to paint things that look very basic, but then they’ll have an abstract element to it. For example one painting has a shape that is very similar to a church in shape, but the way it is drawn is rather odd; the lines are very wavy like teeth and there is an eerie looking cross atop the shape. A unique element to his style is that most of the paintings look like cave paintings. The image I just described to you has a beige cave like color which cause the art to look so primitive.
   Overall this article was a good read. Grimes’s writing is very descriptive, and he has a strong art background. The author does a good job in describing the art work and the history of Antoni Tàpies. The Artist Antoni Tàpies will surely be missed, and many of his interesting abstract paintings are defiantly worth the view.

Work Cited

Grimes, W. (2012, Febuary 6). Antoni Tàpies, Spanish Abstract Painter, Dies at 88. New York Times. New                          York  Times. Retrieved Febuary 8, 2012, from                http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/arts/design/antoni-tapies-spanish-abstract-painter-dies-at-              88.html?pagewanted=1&ref=design