Art Humanities April 2013.

La Japonaise: Woman Beside The Water and The Funeral of The Anarchist Galli: Modern Paintings-Modern Techniques. The paintings La Japonaise: Woman Beside The Water by Henri Matisse and The funeral of The Anarchist Galli by Carlos Carra, were created at the beginning of the twentieth century, and while influenced by works of the past, they are also markedly different. Indeed, it is the differences from the traditional painting styles of the likes of Raphael and Bruegel, in the areas of the color palette, brushwork, technique, perspective and form that distinguishes these works as modern. In La Japonaise: Woman Beside The Water, Matisse depicts a woman in a kimono sitting beside the water, her head bowed as though she were sad or in deep contemplation. Matisses depiction of such an everyday scene is by no means very different from painting styles of the past. Indeed, quite a number of traditional paintings feature people doing simple tasks such as working or resting (take for example Bruegels Festive peasants). Carras painting in contrast, depicts the tumult that occurred at The Funeral of the Italian Anarchist Galli. While Carras painting is similar to traditional paintings in that it depicts an event with which its audience would have been familiar with, it is different in that it depicts a war-like scene. Most of the traditional painting had more happy subject matters, and conflicts such as the one depicted in Carras painting are not well represented (The Oath of The Horatii by David stands out as an exception). Here we see a moving away from the religious themes of the Renaissance and the everyday events of Impressionism. Upon first glance, the subject matter of La Japonaise and The Funeral Of the Anarchist Galli are not very evident. In fact, if one were to glance quickly at either painting, both could

appear to be paintings devoid of subject matter. In order to fully grasp what is being depicted, one must carefully examine the paintings, until slowly various aspects become revealed. In the case of La Japonaise, one must look closely to see the form of the woman and in The Funeral Of The Anarchist Galli, the people, flags and policemen. Even after this, there will still be some elements that remain unclear to the viewer. For most traditional paintings, this is not the case. Usually the subject matter is very evident to the viewer, and a lot less interpretation of the scene is required. Thus we see Carra and Matisse moving towards more modern perspectives where the viewer must play more of an active role in consuming art. That is the artist does not make everything very obvious to the viewer, he/she must spend some time trying to decide what exactly is being shown and the intention of the artist. The reduction of the color palette in Carras painting is further evidence of divergence from traditional paintings. Carra chooses to use four main colors: red, black, yellow and blue, with red and black being very dominant. This is certainly in contrast to paintings of the past in which artists employed an almost countless array of colors to produce their paintings. Matisse certainly decided to follow this tradition, and his painting features a variety of particularly bright colors. Despite La Japonaises similarity with works of the past in the use of the varied color palette, it differs in that it fails to use these colors to accurately represent the scene that it shows. It is in this way that Matisse and Carra use color to distinguish their works as modern. Whereas traditional painters almost exclusively tried to reproduce nature in the best way possible, Matisse and Carra eschew this method and use the colors in the way they see fit. For Carra, this means using color primarily to help the viewer feel the mood of situation. While color may have been used to elicit or demonstrate emotion in the past, using it in this way never took precedence over

trying to depict reality. Carras use of mainly red and black, at the expense of a realistically colored painting, give the work a very dark tone and help the viewer to feel the passion of the moment and think of the bloodshed that may be about to occur. Matisse, however, seems to move towards abstraction and does not use color to help with the interpretation of the painting. Rather, he seems to use colors for their own sake and chooses a multitude of colors, even when an object should be a single color. Interestingly enough, he uses very bright colors although the subject of his painting seems to be in a very somber mood. Similar to Renaissance and Impressionism painters, Carra uses light and shadows to enhance his painting. Light is cast upon the figures in the painting and helps to give the figures some feeling of depth, despite the fact that the figures themselves are a mass of indistinguishable bodies. The shadows also help to add to the dark mood of the painting. The darker colors of the people and lighter colors of the sky above also help to create a horizon line, which adds perspective to the painting and distinguishes the people from the sky. Matisses painting on the other hand is void of any sort of light/dark features. This is as a result of his choice to move further away from the close depictions of reality seen in traditional paintings and towards abstraction. As a result of this, Matisses painting appears to be more flat than Caras and traditional paintings that employ the use of light and dark and various geometrical rules to portray depth. His use of brush strokes in varying directions, however, does add a little bit of three-dimensionality to the painting and helps to differentiate the woman from her surroundings. Matisses brushwork and technique are very unique. He uses a variety of brush strokes: some are short and thick and others longer and less distinguishable, but all are visible. In most traditional paintings, brush strokes are visible upon close examination of the work, but they are by no means so much a part of the painting as Matisses are. This effect is further enhanced by

Matisses choice to leave parts of the canvas visible. He does not use a multitude of brush strokes to completely cover the canvas; rather he only uses those that are necessary to depict the scene, and uses the uncovered canvas as part of his background. This integration of the canvas into the work is definitely a feature of modern painting and is not seen in many traditional paintings. In fact, even Carra chooses to adhere to the traditional method of covering the entire canvas with paint. Carra, like Matisse, sometimes uses very thickly applied brush strokes, however, they are subtler and less visible. He also uses quick thin brush strokes to show movement. This use of brushstrokes to depict movement is a very modern feature of the painting, and the depiction of the movement itself is a feature of futurism, particularly of the lances that the subjects of the paintings hold. Another feature of futurism seen in the work is the cubist-like depiction of the scene. Although the effect is less evident, one is able to see that the forms of the people are very clearly outlined and somewhat geometrical. The sky too, seems to be fragmented into a variety of pieces. This use of more linear and geometrical forms is usually only seen in traditional paintings when the author is depicting a work which is naturally so. Matisse also outlines the subject of his painting, but does so in an entirely different way. That is, he chooses to leave the pencil marks that outline the subject of his painting as part of the final work. This is of note, as it represents the use of mixed media to create a work (synthetic cubism is similar in this way). Whereas pencil may have been used in the past to create sketches and drafts of the work, it usually was not incorporated into the final piece. La Japonaise: Woman Beside The Water and The Funeral of The Anarchist Galli are two paintings that can most definitely be considered modern. Although Matisse and Carra reference artists and techniques of the past, they also modified various traditional techniques to create

pieces that are truly unique and modern.