Herta Puls 1915 -
Herta Puls was born in 1915 in
The
Kuna people are the largest indigenous group in Panama
numbering approximately 60,000; they have populated the 360 islands in the San
Blas archipelago and the narrow strip on the Caribbean coast of Panama and Colombia since the 18thcentury.
At
the beginning of the 20th century the Panamanian government
attempted to "westernise" the Kuna by forbidding their customs, their
language and their traditional dress; a huge wave of resistance arose culminating
in the Kuna revolution of 1925. Following this the Kuna people were given the
right to govern their own territory autonomously.
The
Kuna in the traditional communities are engaged in agriculture, fishing, and
trading with coco nuts but the women are responsible for the main part of the
family income by selling their traditional Mola panels.
Molas are used to form the front and back panels of the blouses worn by the Kuna women as part of the traditional dress; they are constructed from several layers of coloured fabric using a hand stitched reverse appliqué process where the designs are cut in the layers, allowing multiple underlying layers to show through.
The traditional dress also consists of a patterned blue cotton skirt, red and orange headscarf, glass bead strings on wrists and ankles and gold nose rings and earrings.
Early designs for the molas use geometric patterns that have their origins in body painting; traditional themes from Kuna legends are also represented by the use of abstract designs of flowers, animals and birds. Designs have, however, adapted and modern western influences such as political posters, labels, pictures from books and TV cartoons can now be seen worked in these traditional techniques.
It
takes many hours of careful sewing to create the finest mola and the ability to
make an outstanding mola is a source of status among Kuna women.
The quality of a mola is determined
by:
- the number of
layers
- fineness of
the stitching
- evenness and
width of cut outs
- addition of details such as zigzag borders, lattice-work or embroidery
- general artistic merit of the design and colour combination.
Authentic
molas have become admired and sought after by tourists and collectors and are
now found in private collections of textile art and museums around the world.
Textiles
of the Kuna Indians of Panama (Shire Ethnography
1988)
Wassily Kandinsky
1866 - 1944
Kandinsky was born in Moscow
in 1866; he studied economics, law and ethnography and only started painting
seriously when he moved to Munich in 1896 to study art. Kandinsky was initially
inspired by Monet’s dramatic use of colour in his painting ‘Haystacks’ but many influences can be seen in Kandinsky’s
paintings such as pointillism, fauvism and impressionism before his work took
on a more expressionist style leading to the development of his abstract
painting. Kandinsky is thought to be the earliest purely abstract painter.
The outbreak of World War
1 led Kandinsky to move back to Russia but in 1922 Kandinsky returned to
Germany and took up teaching at the Bauhaus having been invited by its founder
Walter Gropius.
It was also during this
time that geometrical forms took on more importance in Kandinsky’s painting.
Following the dissolution of the Bauhaus in 1933 Kandinsky moved to Paris where
he remained until his death in 1944.
As well as his painting
Kandinsky was also an art theorist he had two books published - ‘Concerning the
Spiritual in Art’ in 1911 and ‘Point and Line to Plane’ in 1926.
The most interesting
aspect of Kandinsky’s work, for me, is the very close association he makes
between art and music and the way that he so vividly portrays this in his
paintings. Early in his painting career he was influenced by the music of
Wagner, particularly a performance of ‘Lohengrin’ which conjured up for him a very
specific time in Moscow that Kandinsky associated with certain colours and
emotions. Describing the effect of this music Kandinsky states:
"The violins, the deep tones of the basses,
and especially the wind instruments at that time embodied for me all the power
of that pre-nocturnal hour. I saw all my colours in my mind; they stood before
my eyes. Wild, almost crazy lines were sketched in front of me. I did not dare
use the expression that Wagner had painted 'my hour' musically."
Again in 1911, after
hearing a performance by Arnold Schönberg, Kandinsky wrote to the composer:
In your works, you have
realised what I, albeit in uncertain form, have so greatly longed for in music.
The independent progress through their own destinies, the independent life of
the individual voices in your compositions is exactly what I am trying to find
in my paintings.
It seems natural for
Kandinsky to describe art in such musical terms, it is as though he has a form
of synaesthesia and is attempting to express what he sees and feels with his
paintings. It seems as though Kandinsky was also trying to express this
‘condition’ in his theoretical work talking about melodic compositions and the
rhythmic arrangements of elements within paintings.
The Scottish National
Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh houses a complete set of twelve prints by Kandinsky
in their original portfolio. The portfolio is entitled ‘Small Worlds’ and
comprises 4 colour lithographs, 4 woodcuts alternating colour and black and
white and 4 drypoints. It is fascinating to see these works up close; below is
an image of one of the prints in the collection that I particularly feel
expresses the relationship with music that Kandinsky explains so well.
The types of line used and
the placement of the various grids at different angles create the feeling of
movement through and around the piece. The additional layering of coloured
grids and geometric shapes give the impression of an underlying complexity,
particularly where shapes overlap creating blended colours.
Great Artists (Marshall Cavendish) No.
80 Kandinsky
A
Companion Guide to the Scottish National gallery of Modern Art. National
Galleries of Scotland.
Henri
Matisse - 1869– 1954
For the third artist I have chosen to look at Henri Matisse.
I have always found the use of colour in works by artists such
as Matisse, Franz Marc and Paul Klee very appealing, especially as I have
become more familiar with colour theory. The reason I have chosen to focus on
Henri Matisse is that in later life he used cut paper shapes to create many of
his works, this fits very nicely with work I have done in this module.
Matisse was born in northern France in December, 1869. He
studied law in Paris
and subsequently took up a position in a law office. It was during a period of
convalescence following an episode of appendicitis that Matisse began to paint
and in 1892, having given up his law career; he went to Paris to study art formally.
Henri Matisse
(1869-1954)
The Roofs of
Collioure (oil on canvas, 1905)
The Hermitage, St Petersburg
Although the Fauvist movement did not last more than a few years
Matisse continued to develop his art. He travelled widely and took great
interest in African, Islamic and Moorish art. As well as painting and drawing
Matisse also produced sculptures and, in 1920, he designed costumes for the
Ballet Russes production of ‘Le Chant du Rossignol’ (The song of the
Nightingale).
In 1941 Matisse was diagnosed with cancer and following surgery was
confined to a wheelchair. During these later years he concentrated on creating cut
paper collages termed ‘gouaches
découpés’. These were often on a large scale and during the process the
cut shapes would be pinned lightly on the walls of his studio until he was
happy with the composition then the cut shapes would be glued onto the chosen
support.
PANEL WITH MASK gouache and cut out paper 1947 |
I think these cut out designs are full of life, an impression
created by the bold shapes combined with strong colours. The cut shapes used in
many of these pictures have very curving lines that lead the eye around the
image. Looking more closely at these particular works by Henri Matisse has
certainly given me a greater understanding and appreciation of the cut paper
exercises in this module.
Technique of the Cut Outs
With the aid of his assistants, Matisse invented a systematic
approach to the technique of his cut outs. First, his studio assistants brushed
Linel gouaches on sheets of white paper.
Once dry, stockpiles of coloured paper were available to
Matisse at any given time. He often quite spontaneously cut out elements and
placed them into compositions. As the play between consciously sought-for and
the fortuitously-arrived at effects worked into their balances the projects
moved toward completion. In the meantime many of them were posted about the
studio walls.
Great Artists (Marshall Cavendish) No.
95 Matisse
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