#7 Pointillism; 31 days of RhinosIndia Ink on Paper
A thousand points of light! Ok, a lot more than a thousand. I sat through the entire Academy Awards tonite putting tiny dots all over the page, beginning with the lightest tone and graduating to a hint of black.
Welcome to Pointillism!
When I think of Pointillism, I think of George Seurat, the founder of Neo-Impressionism who really changed the future of modern art. He first used Pointillism at the disdain of critics, who mocked him when they coined the term. Thank goodness no one ever listens to critics! So give him a hand. Everyone knows Seurat from his most famous painting, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. George was cool and liked Science (like me)! He believed that if you forced the viewer to combine the dots of color instead of mixing the pigments with your brush, the painting would have a certain luminosity…and that light could control emotion in the viewer by the way you used light and color in a painting. He named it Chromoluminarism. Well, he sure knew what he was talking about! Hooray for Science!
About this art history, If you have already started to notice that some periods seem to overlap, I think that is a testament to the flow of creativity, and how influential these great artists were on each other. Their art was a reflection of what was happening around them. All these great artists in one place sitting in coffee houses and discuss the world, no wonder they influenced each other! Art imitates artists…he he. (ok, we copy each other)
What’s neat about pointillism is that it is easy to explain in our highly technological times by comparing it to a computer screen or tv, with pixels. Pointillism is created with dots of color instead of interconnecting strokes. The dots of color exist independently from one another, and depend on your eyes to put the colors together. The more dots there, the clearer the picture becomes. In a pointillist panting, it’s best appreciated to walk up closely to the painting to view the intricate system of pixels, then, step backward and view at greater distances until you see the full picture clearly; that is where your eyes connect the dots!! It’s very cool.
If you have the opportunity to go the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, I believe you will still see another great Modern artist and pointillist, Chuck Close, whose photo realism on enormous, no, gigantic canvases is best appreciated from the next room over!!!!
Paint and ink are best for pointillism, but I challenge you again, to imagine what other media works for you! I know of other artists who come near the genre by utilizing cut paper to achieve photo realistic collages, but that may have to be another rhino!
Artists who were best known for pointillism:
- Georges-Pierre Seurat
- Paul Signac
- Henri-Edmond Cross
- John Roy
- Maximilien Luce
- Vincent van Gogh
- Camille Pissarro
- Théo van Rysselberghe
- Chuck Close
- Georges Lemmen
Do yourself a favor and read a little more about Neo-impressionism in your spare time, as I think it is the most important push toward a provocative change in art in the last century! It’s kinda like the internet. It changed art! Stay home, free eaters!
[Wikipedia excerpt, Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term Pointillism was first coined by art critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works of these artists and is now used without its earlier mocking connotation.[1]
Still sick here, and I’ve been couch bound all day, drinking liquids with alternating Law and Order episodes and steamed honey lemon water.
I know my brother, Tim, will enjoy this Rhino, so it is for him.
(Picture credits: Baby Rhino pic comes from the Weblogs of the Baltimore Sun.)
