Dieric Bouts
Art changes radically from one century to another, art a
hundred years ago is radically different from now and I've no doubt art in 2115
will be just as different. Only a few hundred years ago almost all European art
had religious motifs or was out and out biblical. Religious paintings tend to
be something I loathe however the subject of the Virgin Mary holding the baby
Jesus has been interpreted in many ways by many people it’s hard to ignore as
an example of relationships in art. Dieric Bouts depiction of the scene,
unimaginatively named ‘Virgin and Child’, caught my eye as a good example because
of its bright yet subdued tones. Bouts did several renditions of the scene in
his lifetime it’s impossible to know but it would seem to fit that these works
came from him having a strong relationship to his mother, as a mamma’s boy
myself I can relate.
Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger is famous for many things, first his
impressively long name which is unlikely to fit on any placecard and also his
painting ‘The Ambassadors’. The work isn’t immediately obvious as a depiction
of a relationship however it is one of the best paintings I could think of
which depicted friends. the picture is a double portrait of Jean de Dinteville,
a landowner, and Georges de Selve, the Bishop of Lavaur these two people were friends
and jointly commissioned the work. They both acted as ambassadors in their
lifetime which is where the painting gained its name. The people in it are
surrounded by Vanitas objects which represent discord through a broken lute and
death through the massive distorted skull. This work is not often cited as a piece
about the relationship of two men because this aspect is over shadowed by the huge anamorphic skull photo-bombing it.
However the work is a good symbol of friendship, a painting by Holbein would
have cost a lot so these two men were obviously very close to warrant such
expense. Holbein himself didn’t focus so much on the friendship as the
symbolism of death which probably says more about the older Holbein’s relationship
with the younger men depicted more than anything else.
David Hockney
So I've talked about parental and platonic friend relationships
so for my third artist I’ll look at David Hockney. Hockney’s career has been so
prolific it’s easier to name things he hasn't painted rather than all the
things he has, the work I’m interested in as an example of a married relationship.
His work ‘Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy’ depicts Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell
both prominent in the fashion world and friends of Hockney’s. He met them
whilst studying at the Manchester Collage of Art and was best man at the wedding
in 1969. What is most interesting about the painting is that both the subjects
stare at the painter (or viewer) rather than having any interest in each other.
The distance between them seems to suggest they are both still individuals and
that a married couple can still live their own lives, or it may suggest they
are unhappy, but I’m an optimist.
The three artists above whose work I explored to research
this question demonstrates the variety of ways artists have scrutinised
relationships in their work. Every relationship is different and they are extremely
hard to group. It’s hard to group them by any external means due to their
innate differences, often relationships are labelled as romantic or none
romantic, positive or negative the lines can be so easily blurred or simply
moved. Relationships are however unifying, an artist can depict their relationship
with a person and any viewer can relate it to one of their own relationships. Because
the core emotions of relationships are universal the exact parameters don’t need
to be the same for a work to be appreciable. Myself I am perhaps qualified to
create art about relationships based on my own experiences, I love many people
and have impressingly fractious relationships with others. Out of all the questions
If I chose to do relationships it would be the most revealing avenue to explore
because I would look at and discuss my own relationships. How on earth this relates
to my stated aim of doing work about engineering, machinery and design is vague
but tangible, part of my interest in the aforementioned subjects comes from my
relationship with my grandfathers. My grandfather on my father’s side as I have
mentioned earlier taught me a lot of what I know about making things and
engineering. My grandfather on my mother side was a skilled metal worker and
engineer and although he passed before I was born I still use some of his tools
and have gained from his knowledge which has been passed down through my
family.
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