Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "The Birth of the World" by Joan Miro (1925)

I've seen this one in person and I still don't get the love for it.

 

Next: Henri Matisse "The Red Studio"

c. 1911, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York

[image=http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1118/1251604891_c16f02719f.jpg]

Matisse painted several studies of his studio, each with different coloured walls (the actual colour was white).

I can't say this painting is my favorite.

 

Part of Matisse's Fauve period; "fauve" means "wild beast," apparently. A critic remarked, "They use colors like they were wild beasts." Which seems an odd thing to say, frankly, but whatever (beasts use colors?).

Still, great for seeing exactly why the fauves were as controversial as they were. This one is still pretty wild. But not my favorite mode of Matisse.

 

I rather like this one. It tickles my imagination.

 

Next: "Composition VII" by Wassily Kandinsky

1913, oil on canvas, 200 x 300 cm, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Nearly three metres long, this is a vast canvas.

[image=http://static.royalacademy.org.uk/images/width525/kandinsky-1485.jpg]

There is no descriptive title, so it's hard to determine the subject, if any, of this. In fact, jpgs of it on the internet are often upside down.

Kandinsky was born in Russia, but moved to Munich, and was generally held to be the first real practicing the abstract style. For this alone, I'm not ye fan, though this painting is better than most of that ilk. He called his paintings Impressions, Improvisations, and Compositions. The latter were his most important. There were only ten, of which seven survive.

 

There's a Kandinsky-themed McDonald's down the street from me. That painting's on one wall and the booths are upholstered similarly. His blue biomorph painting is on the opposite wall, and there are a bunch of other ones up, too.

 

I enjoy Kandinsky a lot. Always interesting and fun.

 

Next: "Potsdamer Platz, Berlin" by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

c. 1914, oil on canvas, Nationalgalerie, Berlin

[image=http://www.netlexfrance.info/wp-content/images/kirhnermax.jpg]

This is one of nine related street scenes Kirchner painted in 1913-14. In 1915, Kirchner went insane, and you can see some of his inherent dislocation in this painting.

 

Kirchner has a disturbing vision of the world, that's for sure. Everything is so sharp and, well, dislocated is a good word. The people in his paintings always look like corpses to me as well.

 

strange to see potsdamer platz before it was completely remodelled in the nineties.

[image=http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/pix/baubilanz/geschaeftsgebaeude/potsdamer_platz.jpg]

 

I like Kirchner's version better, knife-like shapes and all.

 

Love this Kirchner. It's like peeking into a very disjointed world where I feel like my feet might not quite find the ground.

 

his looks a bit hostile but the reality is urbanely hostile as well. can't quite decide myself.

 

Another one: [image=http://images.artnet.com/images_US/magazine/features/huttenlauch/huttenlauch11-7-1.jpg]

 

And another: [image=http://www.reinhard-ebel.de/pictures/artkunstart/Ernst%20Ludwig%20Kirchner.jpg]

 

these are quite disturbing.

 

No kidding.

 

Here's another. I find this painter absolutely fascinating.

[image=http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/1030/PreviewComp/SuperStock_1030-1782.jpg]

 

Paul Klee, "Architecture with the Red Flag"

c. 1915, oil and pencil on cardboard, Alexander Klee Collection, Berne

[image=http://imagecache.allposters.com/images/pic/EDF/5005PK~Landscape-with-Flags-c-1915-Posters.jpg]

This isn't the painting, but looks very similar to it.

Klee was especially interested in Orphism, that is, austere cubism with vibrant colour. He visited North Africa, and was enchanted by the forms and colours there.

 

Klee wrote some of the most bizarre art theory you'll ever find. He's representative of what most people think of when they hear the phrase 'modern art,' which is both a good thing and a bad thing, I think.

 

More like bad. I can't say I like this a whole lot.

 

Amadeo Modighani, "Seated Nude"

1916-17, oil on canvas, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London

This is an extremely sensual nude which you are going to have to search on the 'net, given the TOS.

 

Next: Egon Schiele "The Family"

1918, oil on canvas, Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna

[image=http://www.awesome-art.biz/awesome/images/medium-kl/The%20Family%20by%20Egon%20Schiele.jpg]


This painting is unfinished. Schiele's wife died in the world-wide Spanish flu epidemic in 1918; she was six months pregnant with their first child. Schiele died three days later of the same cause. He was twenty-eight.

 

Next: "Skat Players" by Otto Dix

c. 1920, oil on canvas with collage, Nationgalerie, Berlin

[image=http://www.allthingsbeautiful.com/all_things_beautiful/images/themythofpalestinepart_1.jpg]

A satirical painting, these are 3 veterans of WW1, are shown playing skat.

 

Next: "The Birth of the World" by Joan Miro

1925, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York

[image=http://www.moma.org/images/dynamic_content/exhibition_page/20118.jpg]

The birth of surrealism.