Bull in an oval world

Building on the machismo tradition - artists like Picasso and Goya, elaborating on the sport of bull fighting...this work by Francis Bacon takes this them in his personal direction, where elements are in action, blurred...next to a backdrop of stability...he keenly balances his picture plane through color and neutrals...marks and shadow...motion and stillness...the figure and bull paired with the small elements behind the white wall...

The oval repeated in the line at the bottom and curve of the wall; the back of the bull, the sweep of the bull fighters cape; the end of the white mark in the front of the picture plane...it is in these common visual cues we connect the dots...The way Bacon develops his space is so simple, but powerful in its execution...clearly defining his characters in the narrative, each having its own unique persona and each filling a function, conveying a meaning.

The expulsion or explosion?

Adam and Eve were expelled from the a chaotic, confusing city...the overall rhythm of this piece by Keith Tyson is layered and complex...if Jackson Pollack could drip type, he might have created something similar...the obvious, representational objects act as a visual oasis...allowing the viewer to grasp onto something familiar...they also carry us around the picture plane so we take advantage of all its congestion...

Many artists are working in this saturated, commercial way...using the metaphor of television, denture creme adds running side-by-side to the latest murder and war footage...this piece speaks beyond these coincidences...the forms move smartly and cohesively through the picture plane, repetition to the point of meanings annihilation...the format is convincing and the forms push the viewer's knowledge of art history and visual language.

Heavy and monumental

The impact of his massive scale and base materials...a world scorched by war, history and ideals gone wrong...the work of Anselm Kiefer is monumental and powerful...the ideas are simple, but the sentiment is dark and forlorn...How can you carry the weight of a turbulent history and shamed culture on your back? Kiefer constantly tries, using base and transient materials like straw and lead...these works speak to that hefty weight balanced on the shoulders of a simple man...fragile, this relationship between artist and the past...

The chairs are missing their occupants, reinforcing the loss...the landscape is barren, burnt and smoldering...the fires may never be squelched...burnt stubs get smaller as they recede into space...the volume of the space is meant to go on and on...destruction as far as the eye can see...the color choices are natural and neutrals...grays, browns, ochres and tans...from the earth the past rises from the ashes and hovers above the surface...suffocating those viewers able to stay.

Balancing on the sea

Tom Long has created a well balanced, decorative drawing...breaking the visual plane in the upper left hand corner pushes out and into the "real" world from the visual imaginary narrative of blues, oranges and texture...The main character, leaning to the right...unstable and contrasting the flowing organic, liquid colors

The activity left of the picture plane is balancing that intense pulling down...orange shapes and orange line work bookend the left and right sides of the visual planes...blue is also spread around and visually grouped to tighten down the entire picture plane...pattern and texture, create a decorative mood...the placement and movement counter this energy and move, visually, into the unstable...teetering and bobbing.

Better than a comic book

In a comic book, narrative style, this drawing by Chris Cornwell, is a really nice example of moving that context into something more...taking into account the entire picture plane and unifying the composition...a traditional mistake made by comic book artists is to focus on each individual square, concentrating on the narrative and the stylistic elements of the image...good artists know that individuals respond best to those pages that deal with the full picture plane as well as the individual window narratives...

Circular forms are used throughout to reinforce the overall page, in the center top, center middle and all three sections of the bottom...in addition, the flowing threads work to move the viewer around visually and become another unifying element...The brick forms are geometric elements that contrast the organic...the use of texture in the background areas, create another dimension of interest...a tight composition.

Commerically decorative

The day in the life of an individual touching any media source...inundated with logos, advertisements, visuals...this work by Colin Chillag has a graphical feel but pushes those conventions through repetition, color and placement...they are arranged in the picture plane off center...congealed and floating, but grounded by the logo on the left hand side, cut by the edge...

Color, value and shape are used to create the overall decorative shape...these small logos and lines are unified visually through overlapping and adjacent lines...the relationship between the background and foreground along the edges create interest and visual excitement...the way the white moves in and out...the light chroma car in the bottom, cloud in the top and shapes throughout the picture plane flow around the more intense hues...holding the diversity together into one.

A quiet but powerful voice

Okay, left over from our Washington trip this image from the Native American Museum...I really love the work of the late Fritz Scholder...being part Native myself, I enjoy the insight he provides into the culture...his view is not typical Indian craft and language and he was not always popular with his people...they often felt he disrupted the tradition and spoke too often in the language of white man...

He created a bridge into this world...an artist trying to bring worlds together and reconcile the past with the future...this piece, "Indian in a Car," combines the central figurative work of religious art with the influence of artists like Francis Bacon...the face is spread and unnatural...there is an uneasy feeling we get from the bent arm, missing hands and smudged face...the tall feather on the side of the head is the only clue to the notion of "Native"...but there may be other clues...the awkwardness of the figure in the space...as if technology is foreign to this traveler...Fritz tries to subtly narrate his life, the intent is to get us to think and explore...not only to better understand his environment, but to also see how the west has influenced Native people and how the Native culture has impacted us.