Brief introduction to art

1. The Artistic WorldThe Artistic World

2. What is Art?What is Art?
“Art is the desire of a man to express
himself, to record the reactions of his
personality to the world he lives in.”
- Amy Lowell
What is art? Art is everywhere. It is viewed when
you look at a pretty flower swaying in the garden
or when you see your father smiling with a milk
moustache so big on his lips you can’t help from
laughing. It is felt when you see a baby breathe
its first breath as it enters a new world guided by
his mother’s arms. Art is expressed every time
you watch a little girl trying vehemently to
remember her ballet steps or when you hear a
tired mother crying her heart out to her spouse.
Art is everywhere. It is a part of us.

3. Why Involve YourselfWhy Involve Yourself
With Art?With Art?
“ART IS TO BE LOVED - NOT TO BE
JUDGED. PAINTING FOR ME , IS AN
EXPRESSION OF LOVE AND ENERGY”
-Alan Wolton
Why Involve Yourself With Art? Artists do not
paint because they want to be rich or famous
some day. They do not scatter rooms with
canvases and pallets because they are made of
money, nor do they give up painting when
people all around them tell them they can’t do it.
No, artists paint for one and only one reason;
simply because they love art, and art makes
them happy. Once you attempt holding a
paintbrush or building a sculpture, you will never
know your passions, your latent talents, and your
full potential. You will never feel how holding one
brush can give you so much peace and
confidence. You will never experience all the
majestic powers that art gives you.
““How strange that Nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!”How strange that Nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!”

4. Art is fascinating because there
is not a particular way to draw
nor are there special colors we
must use to paint. There are
many styles of art. In this
presentation, we will be focusing
on realism, self portraits,
cubism, expressionism, fauvism
and much more.

6. Meet da Vinci.Meet da Vinci.
“As a well-spent day brings happy
sleep, so a life well spent brings
happy death.”
-Leonardo da Vinci
A painter, a sculptor, a mathematician, an illegitimate
son, born from poverty, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-
1519) rose to become one of the most venerated and
esteemed artists of all time. He was born to Piero da
Vinci, and a peasant girl, Caterina, and in his youth,
studied in the studio of the renowned Florentine
painter, Verrocchio. Leonardo da Vinci is most
remembered for his mysterious Mona Lisa with her
elusive smile and The Lat Supper, a powerful painting
which portrays when Jesus announces that one of his
Twelve apostles would betray him. Leonardo da Vinci
stands as a living example of the extent of what a
man can achieve. He is in fact the greatest painter of
all time.

8. Rembrandt.Rembrandt.
“Practice what you know, and it
will help to make clear what now
you do not know”
-Rembrandt van Rijn
A painter, a sculptor, a mathematician, an
illegitimate son, born from poverty, Leonardo da
Vinci (1452-1519) rose to become one of the
most venerated and esteemed artists of all time.
He was born to Piero da Vinci, and a peasant
girl, Caterina, and in his youth, studied in the
studio of the renowned Florentine painter,
Verrocchio. Leonardo da Vinci is most
remembered for his mysterious Mona Lisa with
her elusive smile and The Lat Supper, a
powerful painting which portrays when Jesus
announces that one of his Twelve apostles
would betray him. Leonardo da Vinci stands as a
living example of the extent of what a man can
achieve. He is in fact the greatest painter of all
time.
Rembrandt van Rijn, born July 15, 1606, is
considered one of the greatest painters and
printmakers in Dutch history. His works were
popular all through his life, but most famous were
his self portraits and moving scenes from the bible.
Rembrandt’s brilliant, sharp technique brought him
wealth and fame from 1632-1634 (World Wide Art
Gallery) and during this period, he taught almost
every important Dutch painter. Those were the high
times in his life. However, unfortunately, his last
years of life was marked by hardships and daily
struggles after he wed Saskia van Uylenburg in
1634. The next year, their son Rumbartus died two
months after his birth; In ‘38, their daughter
Cornelia died at just 3 weeks; In ‘40 their daughter
also named Cornelia died living barely over a
month with only their fourth child, Titus, born in
1641, surviving into adulthood. His last loss was
that of his wife Saskia, in 1642 from tuberculosis.

10. Pablo PicassoPablo Picasso
““All children are artists. The
problem is how to remain an artist
once he grows up.”
Pablo Picasso
.
Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 (1881-
1973) in Malaga, Spain, the first son of Jose Ruiz y
Blasco and Maria Picasso y Lopez. Jose Ruiz is much
responsible for the masses of radiant artwork Picasso
created, for he was his mentor as a painter and a
professor of art from a very early age. Picasso’s career
as a painter began in 1894 with a painting called “The
First Communion.” Following that, he experimented
with all sorts of colors and shapes creating his Blue
Period, Rose Period, Cubism Period and African
Influenced Period.

11. Marc ChagallMarc Chagall
“In our life there is a single color, as
on an artist's palette, which
provides the meaning of life and art.
It is the color of love.”
-Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall, the first of eight children, was born into
a poor Russian Jewish family in 1887. Later on in his
years, Chagall’s artistic talent motivated him to study
in Paris despite discouragement from his father. It
was here he painted some of his most famous
paintings. Chagall’s paintings are inspired by themes
from the Bible, many of which incorporate elements
from folklore and from religious life in Russia.
(http://www.chagallpaintings.org/biography.html).
Marc Chagall spent the vast majority of his 98 years
preserving images for future generations to enjoy.

12. The artist tries to
express certain
feelings about
some thing. The
artists that painted
in this style were
more concerned
with
having their
paintings express
a feeling than in
making the
painting look
exactly like what
they were
painting.

13. Wassily KandinskyWassily Kandinsky
"Color is the key. The eye is the
hammer. The soul is the piano with its
many chords. The artist is the hand that,
by touching this or that key, sets the soul
vibrating automatically."
A painter, a printmaker and an art theorist, Wassily
Kandinsky was born on December 16, 1866. He was
a man who possessed many talents. He could play
the piano and the cello and was also a teacher,
teaching law and economics at the Moscow Faculty of
Law. In 1895, after being deeply disturbed by Claude
Monet’s painting, the Haystack, because ‘it just didn’t
look right’, he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts
until 1900. He established himself very fast with his
paintings and joined with expressionist painters, Der
Blaue Reiter.

14. The word
Fauvism is
French for
"wild beasts".
It got this name because
the paintings had bright
and unusual colors.
The subjects in the
paintings were
shown in a simple
way, and the colors
and patterns were
bright and wild.

15. Henri MatisseHenri Matisse
“Seek the strongest color effect
possible.. the content is of no
importance.”
-Henri Matisse
At the age of 21, Henri Matisse, while recovering
from appendicitis, discovered his love for art
which became his life-long passion. Matisse was
born December 31, 1861 into a middle class
family. He grew up practicing law, but after his
life-threatening illness, gave it all up for a pallet
and paint. Henri Matisse is best known for
developing new means of expression through
color, becoming a leader of the fauves in the first
decade of the century(5).

16. These pieces of
art were painted
as if someone
just took a quick
look at the
subject of the
painting.

17. Claude Monet.Claude Monet.
“Color is my day-long obsession,
joy and torment.”
-Claude Monet
Claude Monet was one of the founding fathers of
French Impressionism. Born in Paris in 1840, it was a
close neighbor, Mr. Eugene Boudin, who recognized
Monet’s talent and gave him his first painting lessons.
In 1860, he was drafted to go to Africa for two years,
but returned to Paris in ’62 to take painting lessons at
Gleyre's studio, where he met Renoir, Sisley, and
Bazille who helped his artistic talent begin to launch.
Soon enough, Monet and his friends turned away from
the conventional way of painting in a studio and painted
in open air, surrounding themselves with art critics. It
was not until 1880 after the Franco-Prussian war that
the public recognized the value of impressionism and
he could make some solid income.

18. “I think that if you shake the
tree, you ought to be around
when the fruit falls to pick it up.”
-Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt was born in 1844, the daughter of a
wealthy merchant. In 1851, after a trip to Paris,
Cassatt was fascinated by all the art she saw in
Europe and set her mind on becoming an artist- an
impossibility for a women to accomplish. At a time
when women’s roles were questioned, and few
had the courage to persevere in their interests,
Cassatt can rightly be called the best painter in
her time. Most of Cassatts paintings focus on
women and children in ordinary scenes. Even
though she never had children of her own, her
paintings reflect a deep tenderness she’d have
probably given to her own.
Mary Cassatt

19. Salvador Dali
SurrealismSurrealism
Their paintings were
filled with familiar
objects which were
painted to look
strange or
mysterious.
Surrealists
paintings were
generally based
on dreams.
Henri Rousseau
Francis Picabia
Yves Tanguy

20. Salvador DaliSalvador Dali
“Have no fear of perfection -
you'll never reach it. “
-Salvador Dali
The Persistence of Memory (1931)- Dali
“Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.”
Salvador Dali, a Spanish painter, sculptor,
graphic artist, and designer, is best known as
the most famous representative of Surrealistic
paintings. He was born in 1904 , the son of a
prestigious notary in the small town of Figuera in
Northern Spain. Growing up, Dali’s artistic talent
become highly noticeable and it prospered
producing his most famous piece, The
Persistence of Memory in 1931. It features
“melting watches resting in an eerily calm
landscape.” Dali was unlike most artists at his
time, for he was not poor. On the contrary, even
though not honored until posthumously, he led a
life full of extravagance and stood out with his
“clothing, coiffure and behavior.”

22. Credits
1. http://library.thinkquest.org/J001159/artstyle.htm
2. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pablo-picasso-
biography.html
3. http://www.chagallpaintings.org/biography.html
4. http://www.renoirinc.com/biography/artists/matisse.ht
m
5. http://encarta.msn.com/media_461577411_761575792_-
1_1/henri_matisse_quick_facts.html