Researching the Past

Short Story: I'm interested in Teotihuacan Art, American Transcendentalism, and "Modern Impressionism".

Long Story is right under this cut.

Teotihuacan Art:

I love the stone carvings in this time period. It's very geometric and bulky, but it works. It has delicate lines as well as heavy ones. It has depth to it, physically, while still maintaining to look, well, sort of flat. But the patterns and sharp angles form the left picture is just baffling. Its use of repetition with the same cubical spirals creates a pattern. In fact, the left picture looks like a mouth that will consume the people who walk in, how cool is that?

 This culture is very iconographic. It, again, has repetitious patterning. Unlike most human-like figures from other cultures, they make them short and squat.  The details on the garments overwhelm the figure itself. Red is the dominant color in these murals, with tid-bits of muted colors of green, pink, and yellow.

 

Circles and squares are dominant features in these pieces. But the iconography intertwined with this sculptures are what makes them interesting. The skull on the left picture (on the very top of the sculpture) isn't realistic, but it breaks them down into components. It has repetitious features with lines, shapes, and forms. It's also very symmetrical. Even in the right picture, it feels balanced (even though it's asymmetrical).

American Transcendentalism/Romanticism:

 "Transcendentalists celebrated the American landscape, but also its spiritual landscape, believing that a deep and lasting communion with nature was the only way to fulfill the Self and foster a new arcadia away from societal ills and corruptions."

Transcendentalists celebrated the American landscape, but also its spiritual landscape, believing that a deep and lasting communion with nature was the only way to fulfill the Self and foster a new arcadia away from societal ills and corruptions. - See more at: http://hrs-art.com/hudson-river-school-influences/transcendentalism/#sthash.zgaxo48V.dpuf

Transcendentalists celebrated the American landscape, but also its spiritual landscape, believing that a deep and lasting communion with nature was the only way to fulfill the Self and foster a new arcadia away from societal ills and corruptions. - See more at: http://hrs-art.com/hudson-river-school-influences/transcendentalism/#sthash.zgaxo48V.dpuf

Transcendentalists celebrated the American landscape, but also its spiritual landscape, believing that a deep and lasting communion with nature was the only way to fulfill the Self and foster a new arcadia away from societal ills and corruptions. - See more at: http://hrs-art.com/hudson-river-school-influences/transcendentalism/#sthash.zgaxo48V.dpuf

Transcendentalists celebrated the American landscape, but also its spiritual landscape, believing that a deep and lasting communion with nature was the only way to fulfill the Self and foster a new arcadia away from societal ills and corruptions. - See more at: http://hrs-art.com/hudson-river-school-influences/transcendentalism/#sthash.zgaxo48V.dpuf

I remember seeing this in high school and being in awe. It was a period that focused on individuality and used nature as its tool to convey feelings, imagination, and mystery. In this period, it was believed that political governments corrupted the purity of one's self. They turned to nature for answers.

Cole, Thomas - View on the Catskill Early Autumn (1837)

The foreground is darker than the background, which is interesting. Cole knew where the light source was coming from and all, but it has a timeless feel to it as well. It's as if one could live in this moment for eternity. The yellows gradually fall into a pale blue and the trees reflect that yellow light.

Albert Bierstadt - Among the Sierra Nevada, California (1868)

The light sources come from above, allowing the sun to light wherever it wants. It gives it an air of mystery and of a greater power at play.

"Modern Impressionism":

Leonid Afremov

I'm not entirely sure how the name came about for this type of art, but I enjoy the colors and mark making. The colors are vibrant and very lively. It reminds me a bit of Alice X. Zhang's work. It's a picture comprised of multiple shapes, of large marks.