AR115 Park University Painterly Art Discussion By now you have seen a variety of paintings in your textbook. I want to discuss the word “painterly.”
When an artist’s work is described as “painterly,” his technique takes advantage of the properties of the paint itself, reveling in them and using them as part of the end product.
An example of this would be works by Vincent Van Gogh. In Van Gogh’s paintings we remain constantly aware of the paint itself. Get a close up look at this painting at https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-starry…
The opposite extreme would be the neoclassicism employed by Ingres (figure 2.79) or the photorealism employed by Richard Estes (figure 2.96). In these works you forget the existence of the paint itself because the illusion is so complete. For instance, Ingres’ princess is wearing a dress we feel we could touch and experience the texture of that dress and not the paint used to describe it. Richard Estes often causes people to step close to his painting because they cannot see any brushstrokes, and the realism leaves them with the impression they are looking at a photograph. A closer look at the Ingres is here at https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1975.1… A close look at a selection of Estes’ work is here at https://2.americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/es…
Which of these extremes of “painterliness” better allows for “truth” in art?
Which of these techniques would best depict the truth of your own culture or generation today?
Use other examples to defend your views. (Remember–each question in this course is a research question. Cite your sources from your research (textbook page numbers, internet URLs, etc.) Use the new vocabulary you are learning in your answers, defining the words or terms as you write. Here you need to say what “truth in art” is and what exactly is “your culture or generation”, etc.)