Category Archives: Uncategorized

Berthe Morisot 1841 – 1895. The Cradle 1872. French Impressionism.

Practice, The Arts, Uncategorized, , ,

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The Impressionist movement in art had its origins in Paris, it developed as a reaction against the growing popularity of photography, also artists were no longer content with the restricitions imposed on them by the Ecole des Beaux Arts, who rejected their work and refused to exhibit it, at first the title Impressionism was used to decry these impressionistic paintings, later becoming accepted as these paintings did in fact express impressions of the subject matter rather than exact representations. Painters wished to portray light and its changing qualities and movement with its unusual visual angles, their work was filled with light, shadows were created by the use of complementary colours, yellow laid against violet, red against green, blue against orange and so on. Working outdoors was recommended to capture the play of light, it was an art of immediacy and reflections, small brush strokes achieved this using unmixed colours easy by then to buy in tubes.

Berthe Morisot was the first lady of Impressionism, she first exhibited in the Salon de Refuse in 1864 set up by Napoleon 3 to show work rejected by the Academy. Painters in the movement like Cezanne, Degas and Monet used the studio of the photographer Nadar to show their work in the early days. Berthe and her sister Edma trained together, they visited the Louvre to study, for three years they studied with their tutor Guichard. The young women wore pracical clothes when working, skirts with no hoops and a blouse and jacket. Berthe was to marry Eduard Monet’s brother Eugene, they had a daughter Julia, it was a  happy marriage, her husband supported her wish to paint until his early death in 1892, I think that she was able to combine her work and being a wife and mother in a balanced middle way, managing her time well. Morisot became a popular artist selling three hundred and fifty paintings, she had a famous grandfather, the painter Jean Honore Fragonard who must have been an inspiration.

The Cradle is a portrait of Berthe’s sister Edma with her baby daughter, Blanch,  oils on canvas are used – Edma had given up painting when she married. We see a tender portrayal of motherhood which evokes for me that wonderful time when my children were babies, here the mother gazes at the child with tenderness, her bent arm is echoed by one of the baby’s arms, whose eyes are closed in sleep, the atmosphere is one of calm and quiet, for me this painting is full of meaning, it portrays the close link between mother and baby, we see fewer paintings with father and child, which has failed to note the changed role of male partners in their children’s lives. The basket is draped by a white curtain with golden yellow light flitting across it, being attached from a bracket above, producing a beautiful sweeping wave, no bright colour disturbs the peace, the light diffusing the white cradle is balanced by the mother’s dark dress and the black band around her neck and the background wall, covering a window a curtain is depicted as though it moves gently in a breeze with hints of blue sky. I remember the basket my daughters slept in, lined with pretty material, twin sons needed more space!

Berthe Morisot led a priviledged life, she knew many other artists, Corot was a good friend, she had no desire to be unconventional, her main  restrictions were her class and gender, a problem I did not have to consider when I studied, she painted the world around her avoiding urban scenes, her subjects were mostly the bourgoise, the clothes they wore and their surroundings, her friends and relatives. I particularly like a painting Morisot did of the area on her propertry where washing was hung out to dry, a down to earth image of everyday life. In addition to working with oils she used water colours and made many drawings, her first solo show was in 1892. This painting did not sell and remained in the family until the Louvre purchased it in 1930. Morisot died in 1895 soon after nursing her sick daughter Julia, who had pneumonia which she also contracted. Morisot is a popular painter still and her work is highly prized, luckily for most who wish to own one there are gclee prints to buy.

Pop Art Movement. David Hockney. A Bigger Splash 1967.

Practice, The Arts, Uncategorized, ,

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The Pop art movement began in England in the 1950s, it spread to the USA in the 1960s, the era fizzled out in the early 1970s. The work produced was popular with the general public due to its strong visual impact and vibrant colour, the images gave instant meaning as the compositions were simple, the subject matter was more down to earth than the abstract expressionism of the 1950s which the public in general did not appreciate or understand, Abstract expressionism in post WW11 America – which also had been in Germany as early as 1946 – did not have wide public appreciation with its anti-figurative aesthetic found in schools like the Bauhaus and in Futurism, a sense of self denial pervaded the work so unlike Pop art. Pop art was seen as ‘a post war expression of a world totally occupied with the pursuit of materialism.’ The austerity of the war years was coming to an end, artists were making a commentary on contemporary society and culture, it attracted dozens of artists who joined the movement.
Pop artists believed that everything is inter-dependent and therefore sought to make those connections in their art work, did they succeeded in integrating society and its culture in the ‘swinging’ sixties? In addition it was a reaction against the status quo, in many ways its aims were similar to the earlier Dada movement which arose from Surrealism with artists like Magritte and Duchamp. Among British pop artists were Eduado Paolozzi, Patrick Caulfield, Peter Blake and David Hockney, their work was less kitschy, more romantic and nostalgic than that of the American artists, they formed the Independent Group. Some artists were making anti-art statements but most had a positive attitude and wished to create new forms of expression, which they did very successfully by taking images from Westerns, science fiction and comic books which the public enjoyed. Art critics were apt to scorn Pop art as having a ‘low brow focus’, it did shatter the divide between commercial arts and the fine arts, it had returned to representational visual communicaton, mass media printing techniques were employed to great effect in particular by Andy Warhol.

As an example of the work produced at this time I have chosen David Hockney’s ‘A Bigger Splash’ so named because it is a larger canvas than an earlier Splash painting, he used the newly invented acrylic paint having painted previously with oils such as in the painting with oils on board of ‘We 2 Boys Clinging Together’ inspired by a Walt Whitman poem. Hockney was living in California at the time where he was teaching and where he was to spend nearly thirty years on and off, it is one of a series of swimming pool paintings and is probably one of his best known works of the 1960s, painted in 1967. We see a flat realistic style, I think the inspiration for the pool was taken from a photograph, the geometric shapes are vertical and horizontal with the exception of the diagonals of the diving board, does it jar the balance, it would have been on purpose? I am reminded a little of Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks’ with the building largely consisting of large plate glass windows. Hockney said in an interview I listened to, recorded at the Royal Academy, that the splash alone had taken him a week to paint with a fine brush, the sky is blue, the pool cool and shimmering, we cannot see the body of the swimmer who has dived deep into the water. The work gives the impression that there is not a thing worrying the painter, not a cloud is on the metaphorical horizon! In fact all was not well for part of the time, one of Hockney’s assistants died of a drug overdose in his studio and Hockney was upset when the relationship with the American artist Peter Schlesinger came to an end although they remained friends, Schlesinger was also one of Hockney’s favourite models. His painting keeps a calm outlook in spite of these setbacks, no extreme of emotion is presented, a middle way found?

David Hockney was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1937, he is still painting in 2014 with the same energy. He is a skilled draughtsman, print maker and stage designer, like his father Kenneth he is a conscientious objector, during his time spent doing National Service he was a medical orderly. He trained at the Bradford School of Art and the Royal Academy, he was somewhat of a rebel, he would not write an essay for his graduation on the grounds that his paintings alone should qualify him sufficiently to obtain a degree, the degree was refused at first but later the RCA relented and awarded him a diploma. He exhibited work alongside Peter Blake at the Young Contemporaries. As well as living in California he lived in Paris between 1973 and 1975, he returned to England then moved back to California where he rented a house in Nichol’s Canyon which he later purchased, he still owns property in the USA, also in London and in Yorkshire where he has lived recently, his work is inspired by the Yorkshire landscape. While in America he met other Pop artists such a Andy Warhol, from 1968 onwards he painted friends, relatives, his parents and lovers, he is openly gay, he continues to be constantly interested in the way human vision works. Hockney said ‘the power is with the images’ he is said to regret that conceptual art is now preferred over images and that photography is used more often, saying ‘a camera cannot see what a human can see.’ His views may have been adapted because recent work has been aided by Ipad technology.

Image from wikipedia.

William Hogarth. 1697 – 1764. Marriage a la Mode.

Practice, The Arts, Uncategorized, , ,

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William Hogarth was born in Smithfield London in 1697, his father was originally a Latin teacher but he ventured into a coffee house business which made him bankrupt. Young Hogarth went to drawing classes where he copied from casts and drew from live models. He soon became an apprentice in a silver workshop where he was to reach the level of Master engraver, he opened a print shop which is where he met Sir James Thornhill and became one of his students in his drawing academy, he married Thornhil’s daughter Jane in 1729, it was a happy marriage, with no children. He was fond of going to the theatre and enjoyed satirical plays and also cartoons which made fun of the royal family and politicians.

Hogarth was a painter, print maker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist, he has been credited with pioneering ‘sequential art’, which is similar to a sophisticated comic strip. He created a series of morality paintings called a ‘Rake’s Progress’ in 1734 using his art to make a social comment on the times and on politics, Hogarth regretted the urbanisation of London and its accompanying crime. Between the years 1743 and 1745 he painted six works which were then engraved called ‘Marriage a la Mode’ now held in the National Gallery London. These works demonstrated how the lives of the wealthy were not without vice, they were a criticism of 18th.century life. It is the first engraving of this series that will be discussed. In 1747 he worked on a series called ‘Industry and Idleness’  in the following year he went to France and returned with an unfavourable impression of the people. Four years later in 1751 he produced ‘Gin Lane’ in which he railed against the Protestant work ethic, the view was that if the people did not find work they deserved to be poor, no matter for what reason, he was critical of the alcoholism, gin was cheap to buy and was called mother’s ruin.  In 1762 he painted ‘The Times’ which greatly upset certain politicians.

Paintings were copied to make prints, an engraver would use a tool called a graver to make incisions or scratches onto a metal plate, that in turn was covered in ink and pressed in a printing press onto paper. Hogarth would make limited editions but because prints were so popular many fraudulent copies were also made.

In the first of the series of six works for Marriage a la Mode we see the main characters, composed in two groups , this series is considered to be one of Hogarth’s best works. On the right we see Earl Squander who is planning to marry his son, the viscount to a wealthy merchant’s daughter, the earl is very miserly and wants more funds to carry on building his new home, which we can glimpse through a window, an architect is looking through this window with plans in his hand, the merchant on the other hand is wealthy and wants to climb the social ladder, hence his wish to marry his daughter to a member of the aristocracy.  The old earl is seen with one leg raised on a cushion, to ease his gout, he holds a scroll on which is drawn his family tree, the merchant holds the marriage contract while on the left of the scene we see the Earl’s son, the Viscount, admiring himself in a mirror, a solicitor called Silvertongue bends over the daughter, probably giving encouragement to her about the benefits of this marriage. Two dogs are seen chained together, a metaphor for this alliance? The room is grand,  we see a classical interior, on one wall there is a portrait in the  French manner, on another an image of Medusa, denoting horror.  In the second of the series we see that the couple have little interest in each other, the marriage is breaking down, a dog pulls out a cap from the young husband’s pocket, a hint that he has been unfaithful to his wife, there is a broken sword, he has been in a fight. The third picture depicts a quack’s consulting room, the husband has syphillis and the young prostitute with him rubs a scab on her lips. The viscount wants the money returned which he spent on the medicine which has not cured him. In the next engraving the old earl dies, the young couple take over the home,  when they entertain guests the wife turns her back on her visitors. In the next piece the husband discovers that his wife has been unfaithfull with the solicitor Silvertongue, who is escaping throught a window, the wife implores her husband to forgive her, the injured husband dies, the wife commits suicide and the solicitor is hung in Tyburn for the murder.

What an unhappy tale. It is hard to discover a middle way in this series of engravings, it shows extremely poor behaviour on each character’s part, it is a comedy of errors, a satire, which entertains the public and perhaps makes them feel somewhat happier about there own lives, perhaps the grass is not greener in the next pasture. It may provide a timely warning also that such behaviour produces unwanted results and it is far more important to tread a middle way.

Society was not stable at the time, the unpopular George 2 ruled, although he spent much of his life back in his much loved home in Hanover, Germany, his son George was at loggerheads with his parents and they had no time for him, the family was dysfunctional and did nothing to calm the unsettled conditions in the country.

Hogarth followed rules when he worked, he produced images that he knew the public would understand and like, he used variety to keep onlookers interested, he made sure that the images he produced were in sync with the main themes in each work, not using too many images which could confuse, he worked in the Rococo style, using loose free lines to create the beauty in the work, his brushstrokes were also free, we see this on the ruffle and frills on the clothing, his colours were warm and rich, restrained by light and dark browns. Hogarth died in 1764.

 

 

Critical Thinking 4: Joining Arguments

Critical Thinking, Uncategorized

A simple argument consists of a conclusion supported by reasons (see Critical Thinking 1). However, most arguments are actually constructions that join these simple blocks of argument together in more complex ways. Just as a novel consists of various parallel sub-plots coming together into the conclusion, so arguments may bring several strands together in a great variety of possible patterns to support an overall claim. If you read a comment column in a newspaper, or an argumentative blog, for example, there will probably be more than one simple argument.

Simple arguments can be joined together in chains in which the conclusion to one argument becomes a reason for the next. The first conclusion us then called an intermediate conclusion. For example, in the following chain argument, the initial reasons are in green, the intermediate conclusion is in blue, and the final conclusion is in red:

Most cats purr when they are stroked.

Purring is a sign of contentment.

So most cats like being stroked.

Felix doesn’t like being stroked.

So Felix is an unusual cat.

Chains can be as long as you want them to be. Having laid out an argument you might also find one of your assumptions being questioned (or anticipate it being so), so you then go back and offer further justifications for your assumption, thus extending the chain backwards.

Arguments can also work in parallel. For example, a list of reasons can be used to support one conclusion, or several chains of argument can all converge on the final conclusion. Complex arguments can also include counter-arguments, where objections are considered and then refuted. The refutation then serves as a reason to support the conclusion.

To make these kinds of arguments clear, diagrams can be very helpful. Austhink have some very useful argument-mapping tutorials if you want to go more deeply into mapping arguments diagrammatically. They sell software for mapping arguments, but it can also be done using Windows SmartArt (examples below) – or, of course, freehand on a piece of paper!

Here’s an example of a ‘list’ style argument with a diagram to illustrate it:

There are all sorts of reasons why hunting with dogs should be banned. Animals hunted with dogs, such as hares and foxes, undergo terrible stress when they are pursued by dogs. It’s impossible to make sure that the animal dies humanely when it’s torn apart by dogs. Fox-hunters argue that numbers of foxes should be controlled, but they can do this by shooting, which is far more humane. They also claim that it is a country tradition that townies could never understand, but merely appealing to tradition does not give justification for a practice.Hunting argument diagram2

Exercise

1. Analyse the structure of this argument by stating which sections are the conclusion, intermediate conclusion(s) and initial reason(s). If there are counter-arguments state the objection and the counter-argument.

It is often assumed that world religions all involve different ways of worshipping God or gods, but it can be seen that this is not the case when Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism are counted as religions. These Eastern religions are not focused on God or gods, and the gods that do appear are incidental to them. Scholars of religion have been overwhelmingly influenced by Christian ideas of what ‘religion’ means, but if you look at a wide range of religious practice around the world it becomes clear that the model of religion as belief in God is just one amongst many.

2. Make up an argument (about anything you like) that follows this structure:Blank argument diagram

 

 

 

The Current Confusion about Ethics

Ethics, Philosophy, Uncategorized,

This enhanced audio, the first of a series about ethics recorded on last summer’s retreat, argues that although we are probably more ethical than we used to be on the whole, we are also confused about how to justify ethical beliefs. In the absence of metaphysics to West_Midlands_Police_-_Annual_Awards_-_Liam_Marshall_justify ethics we haven’t found an experiential way of justifying it instead, but rather tend to substitute other ways of talking that cloak ethics using law, popular psychology, professionalism, political correctness etc. We might be much less confused if we started by facing up to ethics as such, and the need to justify it as ethics.

The later parts of the series will go on to explain how ethics can be justified in Middle Way terms without appealing to metaphysics.