ARTISTS AND THEIR WORK

CERI RICHARDS Ceri Richards was born in Dunvant on the outskirts of Swansea in1903. Many consider his works from the 1930s to be some of the most famous from this period by any British artist. He was a natural draughtsman, making drawings, and also a stained glass designer, but more than anything, he was an extremely good artist. Images with kind permission of Ceri Richards

He was also a great print maker and, time after time, he was seen to turn to this medium throughout his career. He saw it as an important way of expressing art. Indeed, one of his prints was described as the best produced in the 20 th century. Two series of prints are outstanding, namely the Beethoven Series and the Dylan Thomas Series. Images with kind permission of Ceri Richards

Images with kind permission of Ceri Richards

REBECCA HORN Rebecca Horn is one of Germany’s most famous contemporary artists. In her work, she combines a variety of media: video, performance, installations and sculpture. Since the early 1970s, she has also been associated with film- making. She designs and makes instruments used for presenting the human body: spatial installations where the human being is one of the main elements of presentation.

In her work, Horn holds a multi-layered conversation on issues of Nature, Culture and Technology. Frequently she uses mythological references. The basic subject of her work is human oversensitivity, emotional nature, obsessions and fears Frequently, she uses locations that have been identified historically or emotionally in some specific way as a setting for her projects; sometimes, she creates her environments outside the locality of any museum.

This example, River of the Moon: Room of Lovers, includes violins, motors and a bed. The picture was taken in the Peninsular Hotel, Barcelona, in The title, the fact that she uses a hotel room and the sound of violins convey romantic images; the arbitrary setting of the numerous violins suggests dancing. It is as though the lovers have left the room and left a visual reminder of their reminiscences for us. Click here to see examples of the artists work

CLAES OLDENBURG Claes Oldenburg is one of America’s most creative and popular artists. He was born in Stockholm in While he was young his family moved to New York, then settled in Chicago. He attended Yale University between 1946 and 1950 and then after a period as a news reporter started teaching courses in Chicago Art College. Claes Oldenburg has changed the way everyday items look. Claes Oldenburg does this by making hard materials soft and soft materials hard. He made small things large. He used bright colours and put sculptures in public places e.g. the local park or in the city centre so that everyone can admire them. Click here to see examples of the artists work

WASSILY KANDINSKY Wassily Kandinsky, a man from Russia. Full name VASILY VASILYEVICH KANDINSKY An artist born in Russia, and one of the first to create pure abstract in modern painting. Following successful avant-garde exhibitions, he established an influential group in Munich called Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider; ) and started to make pure abstract paintings. His forms evolved from fluid and organic to geometric and, finally, pictographic (e.g., Tempered Élan, 1944). Click here to see examples of the artists work

As an accomplished musician, Kandinsky said once that colour is the keyboard and the eyes are the harmony, the soul is the piano with its many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one keyboard or another, to cause vibrations in the soul. There is a long history to the concept that there is a link between colour and musical harmony, and it has ignited the curiosity of scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton. Kandinsky used colour in an extremely theoretical way, linking tone and quality (character of sound), shade with pitch, and saturation with the amount of sound. He even maintained that when he saw colour he could hear music.

The observer has quite a shock when moving from the apocalyptic emotion of Composition VII to the geometric rhythm of Composition VIII. Composition VIII was painted ten years later in 1923, and it reflects the influence of Suprematism and Constructivism that absorbed Kandinsky while he was in Russia, before he returned to Germany to teach in the Bauhaus. Composition VII Composition VIII

Here, Kandinsky has moved from colour to form as the element in the composition that dominates most. Now, the contrast between forms gives the work dynamic balance; the large circle in the upper left plays against the network of precise lines in the right hand part of the canvas. Also note how Kandinsky uses different colours within the forms to energise their geometry: a yellow circle with a blue halo against a blue circle with a yellow halo; a right angle filled with blue and an acute angle coloured pink. The background also works to enrich the dynamic nature of the composition. The design does not appear as a geometric exercise on a flat plane, but it appears as though it is taking place in an undefined space. The layers of background colours – light blue at the bottom, pale yellow at the top and white in the middle – define this depth. The forms tend to recede and move forward within this depth, creating a dynamic pulling and pushing effect.

Cubism Cubism emphasises the importance of form over everything including colour. Usually only black, brown and grey were used. It shows a subject in a geometric way, using shapes such as cylinders, cones and cubes. Frequently images are changed so much that the image cannot be identified. Cubism and modern art were visual and came from the eye and the mind. Cubism is the division of a 3D form into a flat surface of colour and pattern.

PABLO RUIZ PICASSO Pablo Picasso went through a number of phases during his life when he employed a number of various artistic styles to express the different emotions which he was experiencing at the time, namely realism, cartoons, the blue period the rose period and Cubism. Girl with a Mandolin

Analytical Cubism By 1910 Picasso developed Cubism into analytical cubism. The objects were divided into components, and the parts were put together so that the back and front were visible at the same time. An object would be painted from different angles using more the one light source. The aim of analytical cubism was to show an image in a conceptual way, showing facts also, rather than as a visual image. The Guitar Player

Other Cubist Artists Braque Metzinger Gris Leger African Culture, especially masks

HENRI MATISSE Matisse was the leader of the Fauvist movement early in his career. It is a method that emphasises the expression of bright, strong colours and powerful brush lines. He believed that the arrangement of colour was just as important as the subject within the picture in conveying the meaning, and expression of emotion. Many of his subjects were figurative. He suffered from nervous tension, and this was turned into quiet art. He saw his art as comfort and rest for himself. Matisse argued that an artist did not have control over colour and form, rather that colour, shape and line called out to sensitive artists. He said that he gave himself to colour and form, and worked out how colour and shape are arranged in order to create a suitable picture. Image La Musique

NEALE HOWELLS It is difficult to imagine any artist working in worse working conditions than Neale Howells. His studio and storeroom are at the bottom of his garden at his house in Neath. He is a wild and aggressive character, but he is totally passionate about his work. The titles of his work are alarming; “Perverts in Chapel” and “Buy this or I’ll Kill my Wife and Kids”. Neale Howells’ paintings hit one right in the face! He uses emulsion paint, gloss paint and charcoal, pencil, collage, anything that comes to hand. He even searches for things on the street and in skips. Howells’ work is not portrait or landscape but rather pictures of the attitude of our society. graffiti, slogans, the marks that we see on the walls of our valleys’ and cities’ streets. His work is much more inventive than it looks at first glance. Cliciwch yma i weld gwaith yr arlunydd.