Capturing The Artist Within The Painting

The first painting I picked was one done by Alfred Sisley, the painting is titled "The Seine at Port-Marly, Piles of Sand" and it was done in 1875. I thought that this painting was interesting because I felt that it explored themes outside of the artist himself. First off the actual picture consist of two boats on the river both holding two men and the area around it looks as if it's some kind of village or town that is still being developed. I found this interesting because I felt that it reflected how things were back then in that century. The world was still being developed I would presume, and it was because of workers like the men on the boats that allowed for such progress to be made. I feel that the picture shows the characteristics of hard work and how it ultimately leads to great rewards.

The second painting I chose is titled "Untitled 3" and it was done in 1950 by Barnett Newman. While the piece is not neccesarily a painting itself-it consist of a wooden rectangle covered on the face with two columns of different colors-I felt that it showed the artist personality in it with the two colored stripes going down the projected rectangle. To me I see two different sides of the artist's personality, hence the two stripes. If I could take a guess I would say that the left side, which is colored like an orange-red type of shade, represents his passion for something but I really can't say, they say that red is a very emotionally intense color and that orange is associated with joy and happiness so maybe he's so happy that it's intense. And maybe, I'm just spit balling here for pardon me if I offend anyone, he's gay and maybe that's what the intense happiness is. The other column is just gray which I interpret as him being dull or unwavering in some instances. Which would really conflict with the other side don't you think? So maybe he's a gay whom happens to be conflicted on the inside? IDK.....

The third and last one that I picked was a painting by Cy Twombly which was done in 1961 and is titled "The First Part of the Return from Parnassus". Now this particular picture I didn't find to appealing but I figured that it would be fun to analyze. First off the piece is mixed media so it's not technically a painting and actually there's more pencil on the picture than there is actual paint. But to get to the point, the picture looks like something that a hyper active pre-schooler did. It's like they didn't exactly know what direction they wanted to take the picture in so they just added anything to it. Like they started on it one day then over the next few days they came back and added random stuff here with a paint spot there and a line over the hills and far away. I mean I didn't find any structure in it at all, this painting was way beyond the confines of abstract art. But it got me to thinking that maybe that's what that person is like in real life. Maybe they've come to terms with the fact that life is random and they completely embrace that fact, which would explain the lack of order to it because what's the sense of planning for a series of unknown events right? Or maybe the artist had a special condition, and I hope that's not pushing it to far. But overall I feel that the picture is "unique" and I use that word very loosely. And honestly, I've been to that muesem like maybe 3 or 4 times and everyone of those times there's always about 3 handfulls of paintings that I wonder why they were allowed to be put on display here. But I guess it works for them so, I guess that's the end of that.