Part Four: Looking Out

Preliminary Exercise: Writing a Review

[Excluded from word count] For this exercise, due to the current pandemic and a limited chance to visit places, I decided to create a review of a book as opposed to visiting an exhibition. After a while, I settled on the following book due to its appeal to me, as I will set out below:

Landscape Painting, Norbert Wolf

Having trawled the internet to find a suitable read, I was instantly drawn to this book.  The bold contrast between the white background, black writing and a rather busy and interesting piece rather drew me in.  There were also rather interesting reviews which sold the book as rather fitting for my requirements of finding a book which travels through the history of art, such as “a meticulous overview of the genre and its most crucial developments”.

Having viewed the virtual gallery, I was pleased to see rather strong contrasting pieces from several different times, ranging from warm palettes to cold palettes and a varied technique of application.

There are several pieces in the book that I was already familiar with, such as the works of Durer (page 17), Rembrandt (page 48-49), Turner (page 62-63), van Gogh (page 74-75) and Hockney (page 94-95), as shown below: 

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However, the book contains many works I was not aware existed yet which really appealed to me, including pieces by de Loutherbourg (page 25), El Greco (pages 42-43), Friedrich (pages 60-61), Whistler (pages 70-71), Monet (pages 76-77)and Kirchner (pages 84-85), as shown below:

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Whilst there are many varied pieces created during different times and with different approaches within the book, some of which I find extraordinary to behold yet which do not inspire me with my own works and methods.  Those shown above fill me with ideas and excitement of what to experiment with in my own studies.  As an artist, I feel it rather important to be able to look upon pieces in both wonder and intrigue, being humbled by those pieces deemed too daunting to attempt to recreate, but also to be able to take tips and ideas from those within one’s own reaches and this book achieves this rather well. 

There are pieces included from times gone by which reflect a very different world from our own and it is easy to combine both the piece and the words regarding it to understand the reason for its creation.  For example, the stark contrast between Odysseus and the Sirens (page 12) and Warhol’s Do-It-Yourself (Landscape) (page 92-93) explains perfectly the distance travelled and development of our species.  If Warhol’s piece was to be viewed by the creators of the earlier piece, I feel it would be ridiculed or potentially seen as a betrayal of the natural world, yet to those viewing it today, it is very expressive of a world we choose to create for ourselves.

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Whilst I have no doubt that the author’s intention was to provide a book which offered readers an insight into the minds and lives behind the pieces shown, I feel he has definitely been successful in providing both reader and artist alike with a sense of the past, as seen in the older works in the book, the present, when considering the more recent works within the book, and a spring board to the future for the reader to go on with the knowledge garnered from within the pages and develop on the ideas of those before them. 

List of Illustrations

Fig. 1. Durer, A. (1494 or 1495/96) View of a Castle (Segonzano Castle in the Cembra Valley [Watercolour and gouache on paper] In: Wolf, N. (2017) Landscape Painting Slovakia: Taschen.

Fig. 2. Rembrandt. (c. 1638) Mountain Landscape with a Storm [Oil on panel] In: Wolf, N. (2017) Landscape Painting Slovakia: Taschen.

Fig. 3. Turner, W. (1984) Rain, Steam, and Speed – The Great Western Railway [Oil on canvas] In: Wolf, N. (2017) Landscape Painting Slovakia: Taschen.

Fig. 4. van Gogh, V. (1889) Starry Night [Oil on canvas] In: Wolf, N. (2017) Landscape Painting Slovakia: Taschen.

Fig. 5. Hockney, D. (1980) Nichols Canyon [Acrylic on canvas] In: Wolf, N. (2017) Landscape Painting Slovakia: Taschen.

Fig. 6. de Loutherbourg, P. (1801) Coalbrookdale by Night [Oil on canvas] In: Wolf, N. (2017) Landscape Painting Slovakia: Taschen.

Fig. 7. El Greco. (c.1597-1599) A View of Toledo [Oil on canvas] In: Wolf, N. (2017) Landscape Painting Slovakia: Taschen.

Fig. 8. Friedrich, C. (c. 1830-1835) Evening Landscape with Two Men [Oil on canvas] In: Wolf, N. (2017) Landscape Painting Slovakia: Taschen.

Fig. 9. Whistler, J. (1872-1875) Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge [Oil on canvas] In: Wolf, N. (2017) Landscape Painting Slovakia: Taschen.

Fig. 10. Monet, C. (1891) Three Poplar Trees in Autumn [Oil on canvas] In: Wolf, N. (2017) Landscape Painting Slovakia: Taschen.

Fig. 11. Kirchner, E. (1919-1920) Tinzenhorn, Zugen Gorge near Monstein [Oil on canvas] In: Wolf, N. (2017) Landscape Painting Slovakia: Taschen.

Fig. 12. (Middle of First Century) Odysseus and the Sirens [Fresco from Pompeii] In: Wolf, N. (2017) Landscape Painting Slovakia: Taschen.

Fig. 13. Warhol, A. (1962) Do-it-Yourself (Landscape) [Acrylic on canvas] In: Wolf, N. (2017) Landscape Painting Slovakia: Taschen.

Bibliography

Taschen. (Unknown) ‘Landscape Painting’ [Online] At: https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/art/all/43128/facts.landscape_painting.htm#images_gallery-1 (Accessed on 12 October 2020)

Wolf, N. (2017) Landscape Painting Slovakia: Taschen.