This document summarizes key works from various art movements and periods that effectively use color, including Several Circles by Kandinsky, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Seurat, Icarus by Matisse, Black Venus by de Saint-Phalle, Starry Night by van Gogh, Impression: Sunrise by Monet, Plato and Aristotle by Raphael, Garden at Sainte-Adresse by Monet, and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao by Gehry. The document discusses how each work uses color and techniques like chiaroscuro, fauvism, or impressionism to bring the images to life and evoke feelings

1. Live: In Vivid
Color
by
Tanya James
Art History 2013

2. Several Circles, No.
323, 1926 (140.0 x 140.0 cm) o/c
A subtle transition graduating from the
darkness; color here bursts as if they
were the oxygen bubbles that explode
around the circumference of a pot of
boiling water.
Color adds variety to the mundane, and
life to the dull and dreary. Whether its
subtle, chiaroscuro, fauve or new realist,
color shouts, "I am alive!"
Vassily Kandinsky

3. Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La
Grande Jatte, 1884-1886 (2.08 x 3.08 m) o/c
Georges Seurat
Seurat uses chiaroscuro
style as images emerge
from the darkness into light,
and visa versa.

4. Icarus, plate 8
from Jazz 1947
(42.2 x 65.1 cm)
Pochoir , print in
color
Henri Matisse
Color draws you in and
sways you as if rehearsing
a dance you learn a long,
long time ago. You know it
by heart, there is no need
to rehearse. "Fauvism is
not everything, but it is the
beginning of everything," ~
Matisse

5. Black Venus 1965-
1967, (279.4 x 88.5 x
61.0 cm)
Painted Polyester
Niki de Saint-Phalle
Although the Black Venus is
reminiscent of Venus of
willendorf c. 25,000 - 21,000 B.
C., it also bears a resemblance
of Matisse's later years when
he retreated from painting due
to his health to "decoupage."
Color is movement! I love the
heart at the center of feminine
creation.

6. Starry Night, 1889 (73.0 x 92.7 cm) o/c
Vincent van Gogh
My favorite of van Gogh's
masterpieces, soaring stars
light up the night, telling a
story so ancient you could
miss it if not careful. Van
Gogh uses color and
pattern to move the wind,
and me.

7. Impression:
Sunrise, 1873 (49.5 x
64.8 cm) o/c
Like the sun awakening to a
new day, so many possibilities
throughout, I rise early to
catch them. Monet catches the
"raw essence" and the feeling
of sunrise by avoiding
naturalism. Just the
impression is enough.
Claude Monet

8. Plato and Aristotle
(detail of School of
Athens) 1509-1511
(7.92 x 5.49)Fresco
Rafael breaks tradition
using color, catapulting
images to life.
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio)

9. Garden at
Sainte-Adresse,
c. 1866-1867 (0.98
X1.30) o/c
Feel the warm breeze as it
sways and swirls the flag.
"Good bye for now," it
whispers. Monet plays with
color and light evoking a
tone of leisure and
relaxation.
Claude Monet

10. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao,
Spain 1993-1997 (24,290 m 2)
Color is used by Gehry here to bring life to his usual brilliant display of steel
melting like ribbon. This museum was an urban renewal project for Bilbao,
(Adams. Art Across Time, McGraw Hill, NY 2011). Rebuilding pride and
unity in Spain after the Franco Fascist regime, is an on going project. Many places have been protected from
destruction by UNESCO.
Frank O. Gehry

11. Vassily Kandinsky - Expressionism
George Seurat - Post Impressionism
Henri Matisse - Fauvism
Niki de Saint-Phalle - New-Realist
Vincent van Gogh - Post Impressionism
Claude Monet - Impressionism
Raphael - High Renaissance, Italy
Claude Monet - Impressionism
Frank O. Gehry - Modern Architect
The end of this curated exhibit, but the beginning of my developing passion
for all that is considered "Art" and all that beholds color. <tmj>.
Bibliography