A while back I mentioned in another post that Bill Atkinson's nature photos often illustrate the close relationship between abstract art and nature. This week, I'm returning to that theme with what I suppose is a very good illustration of it -- a photo of blue rock crystals.
Click on the image to see it full size.
Ono Ranzan (1729 - 1810) was an eminent Japanese naturalist whose botanical reference works are still cited today.
Tani Buncho (1763 - 1840) was a painter and poet who founded an eclectic school of painting that combined Japanese, Chinese, and Western influences into a single style.
I think the overall effect of this work is to lend an extraordinary substantialness to an old man who is, after all, withered and stooped with age. Mr. Ono is rock solid and massive despite his hunched back and delicate, almost fragile hands.
This week, the thought occurred to me that some of you might like a glimpse of an aspen grove. The photo to the left is of a grove on Boulder Mountain, Utah, by Bill Atkinson.
One of the things that often distinguishes Atkinson's work is how close it comes to abstract art. This week's photo is not necessarily the best representation of that, but I think you can still see a bit of the abstract in it. If you go to his website, you will find many examples of photos that prove how surprisingly close nature can be to abstract art.
When the sun falls through aspen leaves, it can create a soft, peaceful light. I think Atkinson has captured that light in this week's sidebar art. The light also tends to make the leaves luminous, and I think you can see that in the young leaves close to the grove's floor. The only detail of this photo that I might dispute is the darkness of the far background. That might be literally true, but in my experience, an aspen grove is suffused with light and one does not notice much in the way of any darkness. However, I'm not criticizing the photo here -- merely pointing out a difference between how things might actually be, as they are in the photo, and how they often feel in life.
The only title I can find for the work on the left is "Art Nude". Yet, as you can see, this is not a classical art nude. It is more like a nude portrait. The focus is on the model -- her face and expression capture us. Her body is not so much defined as suggested.
I think Liviu Burlea's work here shows us what can be accomplished when one combines the technique and style of classical nude photography with portraiture. In this photo, the use of light and shadow -- borrowed from nude photography -- creates for me at least the feeling that I am looking at someone's spirit or soul. Moreover, everything else seems to reinforce that feeling.
For instance, the model's expression is at once open, sincere and vulnerable. She seems to be revealing her inner self to us. Almost surrendering it. Her nudity merely reinforces the effect. You cannot look at the photo, I think, without feeling that you have met a person in her own right. Perhaps you want to reach out to her, hold her, question her, even comfort her. She challenges you to interact with her. Few enough portraits actually do that. This one is masterful.
I would have put it in the sidebar for this week, but Blogger intervened (again!) to prevent that by squashing and distorting the photo. So, I am sharing it with you this way instead.
I'm in love with the work to the left even though I am not generally a fan of pseudo-classical poses. But the pose is so dynamic that you almost have to love it. Or even perhaps hate it -- I suspect this is one of those works that brings out strong emotions. Am I right about that?
I tried putting the photo in the sidebar for this week, but unfortunately, blogger squashed and distorted it. The photo lost its power and became something of a cartoon of itself. Still, I wanted to share it with you, so here you have it.
To me, the pose captures extraordinary strength combined with magnificent grace. So, I'm willing to forgive that the setting is a pedestal and building, rather than nature.
Why do you suppose the artist chose that setting? What do you suppose Mark Jenkins was trying to convey? Is it merely an attempt to connect with Western Classical sculpture? Or, is there more to it than that?
If you click on the above picture, it will expand to full size. That is worth a look. The negative shapes are especially stunning, I think. The lighting seems perfect to me. It at once creates the mass of the body, defines the musculature, and brings out the grace of the shoulders and limbs. The lighting also perfectly creates the illusion that we are looking at a statue rather than a living man. And although I'm not entirely happy with that last effect, I must admit Jenkins is amazing.
Symbolically, I want to believe that what we have here is The Cosmic Dancer.
This week's sidebar art is a figure study by Raymond Delhaye. If you click on the photo to the left, you can see the study full size. Unlike last week's sidebar art, this art nude is a much more typical of the genre. The model's face is not shown at all (while last week it was), the focus is on the model's body (while last week it was on the model's eyes), and the pose -- rather than the model's expression -- is what holds our interest.
It seems to me that what makes this work interesting is without doubt the pose. The lighting, the slight soft focus, the use of light and shadow to define the model, and the positive and negative spaces are all secondary at best to the drama of the pose. But what do you think?
First, I should say I'm in love with the photo in the sidebar this week. The model's expression is calm and enigmatic. She's not a conventional beauty, but the photo admirably brings out her style of beauty, which is almost classical. For some reason, the work reminds me of the time I've spent at clothing optional hot springs: calm, peaceful, meditative, and natural.
Yet for all I love about the photo, I think it would be improved if Al Calkin had lost the damn flower. That flower growing out of her head distracts from the model, rather than enhancing her. Besides, it's entirely cliche to associate womanhood with flowers. So, I wish that flower wasn't there. Does anyone else feel the same? What do you think of that flower?
Stumble It!
