This morning I started to think about Mondrian and his artwork. He took all emotion out of his work - he only used straight lines, creating geometric squares and rectangles, and only the three primary colors -red, yellow, and blue- and white and black. I began to think about how sometimes I wish we could do that in life. Just take all the emotion out of it and just have the facts - like Mondrian took all emotion out of his art, and just focused on design and compositon, the facts of art - no emotion to screw it up! Mondrian was always an abstract, minimalist painter but he became even more simple with his designs as he got older. And if I'm remembering my facts straight, he liked the simple designs the best. Sometimes this is how I feel too - the further you get along with something, the more you just want it to be simple! I love Mondrian!
After I thought about that for a while I also thought of the Romantic painters - specifically my favorites, Goya and Delacroix- whose goal was to bring out an emotion in the viewer of their work. Sometimes I feel that way too, if I care about something I want you to care about it too! Sometimes if I am really mad, I want you to understand why I'm mad, and feel a little anger yourself! Whenever I see Goya's "Third Of May" I always feel mad at Napoleon! I feel bad for the people of Spain. This is exactly what Goya wanted! Whenever I see Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People" I feel patriotic! And I'm not even French! haha. All of the works I have seen by Goya, Delacroix, and most other romantic artists - have made me feel an emotion. And sometimes I want that too, I want you to know and understand.
Then as I continued to think about emotion and art, I thought about Expressionism. Of the Fauves and the German Expressionists. Who wanted to express their emotions, their attitudes toward their self and the world, but they didn't use any set standard of symbols or way to do this. They just painted out their emotions, and it wasn't for the rest of the world to understand. Sometimes I feel like this too, I don't need anyone to understand - I just need to express my emotion. I love a lot of the expressionists - Kandinsky, Matisse for sure, Franz Marc, Roualt. Beckman is crazy, but I like it! Derain, Kirchner - pretty much all the expressionists are awesome! haha. But back on topic - they really do express their emotions without caring if anyone really understands what they are trying to say, and sometimes I feel like that, too.
Well, this is one of the reasons I love art, there is something you can relate to in any mood! lol. Emotion in art hasn't always been a question. Especially the emotion of the artist hasn't been very important till recently, and I think it is interesting - the role emotion has in art. Yay art!
