Saturday, September 4, 2010

TSE Wing Lim talks on Carbon Colour Of Julia Robinson 1976 Larry Rivers




1) INTRODUCE THE DRAWING IN GENERAL TERMS 


•What is the title of the drawing? .
•What is the name of the artist? 
•What is the year the drawing was done? 
The title of the drawing is Carbon Colour Of Julia Robinson.The drwaing finished by Larry Rivers at 1976. He was one of America's most important postwar artists. 


•What is the medium? 


The medium is  charcoal on paper.


•What is the subject matter or general theme of the work?
 It is a figure drawing and one carbon drawing.


•What is the purpose of the drawing? 
There are one original drawing and one carbon drawing which record Julia Robinson's appearance. Two drawings are not same with the other one, they make a contrast, the left one is like Larry Rivers stand behind the windows and then draw it, right one is more substantial, seems like a face-to-face drawing. 


2) DESCRIBE THE DRAWING IN DETAIL


•How is line used? What does it do/express? 


Different types of line had used in the drawing such as the straight line, rough line, curve line etc.  We can see the line contrast in the drawing. The left side's line is lighter than the right side's line. For example, the head of the woman, the line of right side is more detailed and heavy. Also, the strong and dark lines draw the outline of the figure and the background, some rough lines draw the dark shadow.


•How is tone used? What does it do/express? 


The drawing has three main tone, the darkest part(most black), the middle tone (the gray area) and the lightest part(white part). The darkest part in the drawing is the clothes shadow of the woman, including her boots. The gray area is her clothes. The part of lightest tone is at the left side of the drawing mostly. 


•What can you say about shape and/or form in this picture? What is the effect? 


I think everything in the drawing are doubled, the shape mainly focus on the female figure, right hand-side is real figure and left hand side like a shadow in a mirror, their shapes are similiar.


•Is texture a feature of the drawing? 


Texture is a one the feature of the drawing. The texture of  the clothes is smooth , light and soft. Also, the texture of woman's hair are soft and light too, it seems that her hair is waving. The curve lines make the texture become soft, the hair and clothes contains many curve lines. Oppositely, the background (the door and other objects) are very tough, because it contains many straight lines.


•What can you say about the composition of the drawing? What is the effect of this type of composition on the overall drawing?


The composition of the drawing is divided into two parts, left and right. Actually, the drawing like two same pictures combined into one drawing, so their compositions are same. The woman stand at the middle of two pictures, the background of two pictures are same too.


•Is rhythm important in this picture? If so, say more about it...


The rhythm is not very important in this picture, because the action of the figure is keep still.


•Is the picture balanced? Explain...


This picture is balanced. Because the picture is like a mirror and the real object. Right side like a real object, left side like a unsubstantial reflection. 


•Is perspective used in the picture? If so, describe the way that the illusion of three-dimensional space has been created.


This picture is used linear perspective, it created another space behind the door (the door is behind woman), we can see the outdoor view through the window on the door.


•Is the picture harmonious? If so, in what way? 

This picture is quite harmonious, there are two reasons: the first one is because the posture of the woman is quiet, she is holding her posture in the drawing. Another reason is the place, it is a indoor location. Indoor make people feel safety,stable.



•Are there any strong contrasts in the picture? 


Yes,  although the two figures are similar, but  the composition, tone and the line in the picture make the strong contrasts actually. The left side is lighter and simple, seems like an illusion. In contrast the right side is more detailed and darker, it is substantial.
Also, there are contrast about light, 3 slope white light are on the right side picture. 




3) INTERPRETATION AND EVALUATION


What is the mood of the drawing
The first impression that the drawing give me is a doubt.
I am doubted that why there are two similar pictures in one drawing? Why the artist do this? After I have an analysis on it, I discover that there are some different between two pictures, one is substantial, another one is like a duplicate copy or a mirror reflection. There are contrasts between those two pictures.


•What does the drawing express? 
 They record Julia Robinson's appearance. The drawing express contrast relationship between two pictures.




•In your opinion, why is this work interesting/moving/ clever/ imaginative/thought-provoking/......?   
I think contrastive is the best adjective to describe the work. Because the work contains two pictures, although they are similar, but it is easy to see the contrast. 





16 comments:

  1. Hi, I am Millie Mak.
    I think the left picture is like the woman is standing after a window. As I can see some light
    reflection in repeated pattern.
    And the lines in the right picture are quite strong and rough. Also with more shadow.
    I think this artwork is interesting!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm Alison. I think the different using of light and shading for the two drawings create different feeling. The use of lines to create different tone is also interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am Erica.

    Millie: Yes.You have another view, I think different people see this picture will have different point of view.

    Alison: Also,the atmosphere made by the light and shadow is different too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi,I am Charlie, I think it is good when the artist combine two similar drawing together, you can compare the contrast and differences as it makes two extreme style and feeling !

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi, this is clio. I can see the reflected light on the left one and it makes that drawing like a reflection from the mirror.Although the left one is blur, not clear and a little bit simple without detail, i can feel the 3D effect from placing the woman in the front, the roundness of the box on the floor and we can see through the window.

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  6. Noria: Very attractive lady standing in front of the mirror, and you can think about why she want to record the image of the reality and reflection?
    In my view, the lady seems to be confident from her facial expression and body gesture. and ready to go out, because the door is behind her. On the left hand side, the reflection image seems to be only focus on her clothes because the color of it is darker and more clear. So, Why the artist would like to express?? Is it because the artist think the others did not focus on her inner side, always focus on what she wear and how wealth she is??
    This is just my imagination.

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  7. I am Erica,

    Charlie: I think when artist combine two into one can create another style and feeling, but they are not extreme.

    Cilo: Yes, besides mirror, window is another possible subject of the light reflecting.

    Noria:Ya, I think your view of the reflection image is reasonable, it is a situation that the woman dress up and ready to go out, so she stand in front of the mirror, and only want people focus on her good-looking clothes.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi, This is Molly.

    I think you made some interesting points about this drawing but there are a few things that I see differently about it (maybe just my opinion). I think that the composition is not very balanced, even though the main components of the image are repeated on both sides, they are drawn very differently (maybe you could talk more about these differences in the section on tone?) creating a much darker and more clear image on the right than the left, not a very balanced composition in my opinion.

    Also I think that maybe you could mention the overall repeated image when talking about rhythm, although its only repeated once, it does create a unique sort of visual rhythm in my opinion.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi, this is Teresa Lam.
    The picture is very funny, just like the woman viewing herself at the left hand-side picture and the right-hand side one is the real picture of the woman.
    Form the left-hand side, the lines used is simple and rough,and unclear, I think that is how gives people a feeling of the mirror and also there is some white spaces in the right-hand side picture, looks like the sunshine light coming through the window.

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  10. Hi! I am Kelvin.
    I agree with you that the left hand side of the photo is just like the mirror ogf the right hand side. And I see that the line in the left hand side is seems more soft than right side.

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  11. I am Erica.
    Molly: Yes, the composition is different of each picture, right is more clear, but the overall picture(two pictures combined) is balance.

    Teresa: Yes,what you talk about is my view point of the drawing!;-)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Erica!!!I am Conroy.
    This work is interesting. We can compare these two drawings.Although both of them are in the same composition,they have different tone and perception to viewers. I had done such a similar drawing as this one. I think it is so funny to change or add some techno=ique into a picture.

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  13. I am Erica.
    Kelvin:Yes, what you talk about is point of view, and I think the reason of the lines in left ride are more soft than than right side is because the tone of the line is soft.

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  14. I am Erica.

    Conroy: Yes, their tone are different, one is soft, another one is less soft (it can't say that it is rough). Oh,really?!It's great!Can I have a look on your drawing? ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi,this Eunice Choi.
    I think this drawing is strong with line as we can see there are many thick lines.This can produce feeling of modern!

    ReplyDelete
  16. HI,I am Kate. I do agree that the tone of this picture is important. Different tone shows totally different feelings. Besides, there are more details on the right hand side one. It is a nice picture though.

    ReplyDelete