4 ms·

Id love to see a good painter recreate his work using good painting techniques. As an outsider to art, I have no intuition as to why his technique is bad becaus

by dereg 4y ago

Id love to see a good painter recreate his work using good painting techniques. As an outsider to art, I have no intuition as to why his technique is bad because to me, it looks exquisite!

Daub 4y ago
Much of the stuff I am talking about can best be appreciated by actually standing in front of the actual painting, not something we can do so easily here in south east Asia. Google arts and culture images give some idea as to the differences I am talking about. Below are two links, one to a Rubens painting one to Hoppers. Use the zoom function to show their incredible detail. A godsend for teaching. Rubens was perhaps the most skilled painter to have ever lived, but has frequently been critiqued for his lack of content. Hopper treated colors ‘locally’. This means that a red thing would be painted with red paint, and a blue thing with blue paint. Like a child with a coloring book. I show students how to moderate hue, saturation, lightness amusing a range of pigments. If you have time, check out the difference between the two. https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-wrath-of-achilles/awG8MWNttbNM3w https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-wrath-of-achille... https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/nighthawks-edward-hopper-american-1882-1967/6AEKkO_F-9wicw https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/nighthawks-edward-ho...
- monort 4y ago
  When you say Rubens is more skilled, do you mean he is just more complex? When one programmer solves the problem in 100 lines and another in 1000, we usually consider superior the former.
  - Daub 4y ago
    I would say that complexity is, to a degree, a metric of skill. To be more presice, a skilled coder, writer, painter can put together something that is incredibly complex, yet which also expresses great unity. I see what you are saying about the merit of distillation. However, Of Rubens, I would say that he has an increadable economy to his brushwork. He suggests with a few marks, what other painters would painfully describe in longhand.
- taylorius 4y ago
  Rubens and Hopper lived in different eras. Most notably, Hopper lived in a world in which cameras existed, and had led painters to eschew photorealism for more expressionistic images.
taylorius 4y ago
Perhaps he used his "bad" painting techniques on purpose. Consider the possibility that the techniques he uses are a part of his work's impact, just like the content.
- AlbertCory 4y ago
  There's a museum in New York, https://folkartmuseum.org/ https://folkartmuseum.org/ where I actually went (I think this is it). It's small enough to see in a couple of hours. There are artists who don't even know what's good technique or what's bad; they just create. I'm not saying this is better or worse, but it's always interesting.

by dereg 4y ago

Id love to see a good painter recreate his work using good painting techniques. As an outsider to art, I have no intuition as to why his technique is bad because to me, it looks exquisite!

Daub 4y ago

Much of the stuff I am talking about can best be appreciated by actually standing in front of the actual painting, not something we can do so easily here in south east Asia. Google arts and culture images give some idea as to the differences I am talking about. Below are two links, one to a Rubens painting one to Hoppers. Use the zoom function to show their incredible detail. A godsend for teaching. Rubens was perhaps the most skilled painter to have ever lived, but has frequently been critiqued for his lack of content. Hopper treated colors ‘locally’. This means that a red thing would be painted with red paint, and a blue thing with blue paint. Like a child with a coloring book. I show students how to moderate hue, saturation, lightness amusing a range of pigments. If you have time, check out the difference between the two. https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-wrath-of-achilles/awG8MWNttbNM3w https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-wrath-of-achille... https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/nighthawks-edward-hopper-american-1882-1967/6AEKkO_F-9wicw https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/nighthawks-edward-ho...

monort 4y ago
When you say Rubens is more skilled, do you mean he is just more complex? When one programmer solves the problem in 100 lines and another in 1000, we usually consider superior the former.
- Daub 4y ago
  I would say that complexity is, to a degree, a metric of skill. To be more presice, a skilled coder, writer, painter can put together something that is incredibly complex, yet which also expresses great unity. I see what you are saying about the merit of distillation. However, Of Rubens, I would say that he has an increadable economy to his brushwork. He suggests with a few marks, what other painters would painfully describe in longhand.
taylorius 4y ago
Rubens and Hopper lived in different eras. Most notably, Hopper lived in a world in which cameras existed, and had led painters to eschew photorealism for more expressionistic images.

taylorius 4y ago

Perhaps he used his "bad" painting techniques on purpose. Consider the possibility that the techniques he uses are a part of his work's impact, just like the content.

AlbertCory 4y ago
There's a museum in New York, https://folkartmuseum.org/ https://folkartmuseum.org/ where I actually went (I think this is it). It's small enough to see in a couple of hours. There are artists who don't even know what's good technique or what's bad; they just create. I'm not saying this is better or worse, but it's always interesting.