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non-western art

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I have always been interested in world religions.  For this post I am going to show some of the common symbols used in Buddhism and Taoism as symbols of Zen.  The first one I have is the Yin and Yang.  I have a video hear about the meaning.  It comes from taoism and it represents good and evil.  Yin is black and can be cold and the white is the Yang.  The meaning of the dots in each is to mean that neither one is complete(Zhelyazkov, 2022).       The next one is called the Enso Circle.  This symbol comes from Buddhism and it can also be called the enlightenment or Infinity circle(Zhelyazkov, 2022).   This last one it the Om or Aum symbol and is a Hindu symbol that is also used in Zen Buddhism.  It is said that it represents the sacred sound that is said to be the sound of the universe(Zhelyazkov, 2022).   References cited: Zhelyazkov, Y. (2022) Zen symbols and their meanings , Symbol Sage . Available at: https://symbolsage.com/zen-symbols-and-meanings/ (Accessed: December 1, 2022).   
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post modern

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  These are works by the American artist Terry Redlin.  I am not sure how many of you have heard of Redlin, but he is from South Dakota and painted from 1977-2007.  These works are from his collection America the Beautiful.  The top work is titled Above the fruited plain and the other is titled America! America!.  They were both painted in 1990 for a much larger collection consisting of 8 works total.  Redlin is my favorite modern artist so I had to do some of his works.  I own several and have been to his museum in South Dakota several times.  The works he painted here are typical of what he usually paints.  He generally paints of landscapes of his home state of South Dakota.  His use of color on both highlight the time of day being suggested  on the bottom the sun shining on the flag draws your attention to it.     Charging Bull by Arturo Di Modica placed outside the New York Stock exchange as a protest for the collapse of the markets from 1987.  It is made of bronze and put in a ver
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Early Modern

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    This is a work by Grant Wood titled American Gothic 1930.  This is one of the most iconic painting of the early 1900's.  This was painted at the start of the Great Depression and reminds the viewer of the simpler life of the country living.  The colors use in the painting are kind of a dull color making the work seem not as flashy which might make the painting more upbeat.  The use of the dull colors is a reminder of how hard the times were.  The serious look of the to people and the person on the right side with a death grip on the pitchfork make it appear that they are not really enjoying having their picture painted.  The work is in balance with the home a the center maybe as a symbol of the power of the house at the center of a strong farm family.  This is a good example of regional art for all the reasons above and how the farm families in the area can relate to the painting.  This could be why it is so popular still today and made with different characters like my copy wi
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Romantic Era

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 Post-Impressionism     This work is titled Starry night over the Rhone By Vincent Van Gogh painted in 1888.  Van Gogh has to be my favorite artist of the time period.  A lot of his paintings tend to be of a more real and darker state of mind, perhaps because he was struggling with mental issues (The art story). Since Van Gogh was said to be a compulsive painted I can see this as being a scene he saw and wanted to paint it.  I like it because of how he used short brush strokes so make the painting.  Mixing in colors in a way to portray object and even reflection on the water.    This painting is titled Sunday Afternoon  and is done by Georges Seurat.  The artist was using this work to depict people of different social classes on the island of LaGrande Jatte.  This was painted in the style called pointillism, which was a systematic way of painting using closely placed dots of pure color to make a scene(artic.edu).  I do like the way the artist used color to set the mood of the painting
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Classical-Revolution

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    This work is a oil painting from the Museum of Fine Art in Boston.  The name of the piece is The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, 17 June, 1775.  The artist of the painting was John Trumbull.  Trumbull was both a artist and a patriot.  He was in the Army at the time and watched the battle from a distance (mfa.org).  Congress commissioned John Trumbull to make painting for the U.S Capitol unfortunately this work was not chosen (mfa.org).  The subject manner is a reflection of the time, being that it was painted after the revolutionary war but based on real events.  The sharp lines gives detail to the subjects and the use of brighter colors on the main people in the painting draw your attention to them.  From an Americans standpoint this would be a sad painting emotionally being that the General was killed.  But from a British view this might bring a more promising view and hope of victory.  For the historical value I would own a copy since I love history. 
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The Smoker

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  The Smoker by Joos van Craesbeeck So I did a search for tronie and this came up.  Tronies were meant to be paintings with unique facial expressions (Manioudaki 2020).   I thought it was quite a funny piece and knew I would use it for this blog.  This is said to be a self portrait of painter and is said to show off his wild side and life in the tavern which he was a regular (Wikipedia).  He was a Flemish painter which is a region of what is now Belgium.  This work would be a good example of the rise of the merchant class.  His work was designed more for the middle and lower classes of people as most of his other works as well as this one were of activities that those kind of people are more likely to have done (Wikipedia).  I think it is a fairly good representative of the Baroque period specifically the northern Baroque.  It uses a more life-like situation.  It also uses the darker color of the hair and body of the subject to really draw attention to the facial expression and the han
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Renaissance : The Last Supper

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  Above is the oil painting by Leonardo Davinci titled: The Last Supper.  This work was originally painted from 1495-98.  The painting is of how Davinci looked at the last meal that Jesus had with his 12 disciples.  It was pained towards the end of the Italian renaissance.  This is one of the more famous paintings of the renaissance and yes I would own a copy of it.  The emotion of the work is kind of mixed.  In the center you have Jesus who is calm and appears to be reaching for the cup of wine and bread which is traditionally used in communion(Zucker,2015).  Zucker goes on to point out some other symbols of the 4 groups of three that seem to be strategizing together(Zucker, 2015).   This work is said to be most related to humanism I think.  It does that through different gestures, emotion of the characters, and posture of the people (cenacolovinciano.org).  I have always found it very interesting after reading the Davinci code by Dan Brown and how his take on the symbols really make
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