8 World Famous Paintings
Hey guys, Culture here.
Today we're going to be taking a look at 8 world famous paintings.
More specifically, we'll be examining the context in which they were made and deciphering
their meaning.
Looking at fine art is amazing Culture, so rich and vibrant.
Just like Starburst Chews.
They're the candies everyone's talking about.
Why not go out and grab some today?
Oh jeez, Crash I know you're taking this hard but it's been 3 weeks now!
The Starburst sponsorship isn't gonna happen buddy.
They're NOT interested!
How can you not be interested when there are so many flavours to choose from!
From blackberry to peaches and cream, there's a flavour for everyone!
Let's uh… let's get on with it.
Number 1: Creation of Adam by Michelangelo
The Creation of Adam is the fourth panel painted on the roof of the Sistine Chapel by Italian
Sculptor Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512.
The scene depicts God and Adam with arms outstretched towards one another, with God giving Adam
life.
God appears in a nebulous cloud of figures in a white tunic, surprisingly plain compared
to more powerful and imperial earlier depictions of God.
It is thought that the grounding of God with a more human physique evokes the major theme
of this work, stated in Genesis 1:27: "So God created mankind in his own image, in the
image of God he created them."
Yet, the small distance between Adam and God's fingers suggests Adam has yet to be given
life, perhaps explaining his somewhat laidback posture.
Is that also why God has all the ladies and Adam has none?
Adam gotta get himself some Eve action, and FAST.
Well two of the figures surrounding God are of particular interest: The woman and child
under his arm.
Some people theorise these are the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child, or perhaps that
the woman is Eve herself waiting to be created from Adam's rib.
So Adam is just getting God's sloppy seconds?
Not cool God, not cool.
What's especially amazing is that Michelangelo wasn't even a painter but rather excelled
in sculpting.
But when Pope Julius commissioned him to paint the roof of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo
went above and beyond the Pope's desires and came up with the entire idea to depict
the key events from the Book of Genesis.
His expertise with sculptural anatomy shows through in the twisted, muscular bodies of
both God and Adam.
Oh I get it, the red, swirling cloak thing is like a uterus that Adam is being born out
of!
Eww what?
No.
Well… actually… errr moving on!
Number 2: The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh
The Starry Night is an oil on canvas painting created by Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh in
1889.
The night sky itself, which predominates the image, was painted by looking out of his room
in the Saint Paul asylum in the Saint-Remy-de-Provence of France.
Why was he in an asylum?
Well he uh…
He had a breakdown, cut off his ear and sent it to his girlfriend.
It's called "romantic passion", some people just don't get it.
The work was created using both real and imagined elements.
One of the real components includes the bright star just left of centre that astrologists
determined was actually Venus based on the date on which Van Gogh says he saw this image,
July 19th 1889.
The moon and village were made up however, with the village presumed to be based on Van
Gogh's native Dutch architecture as typified by the steeple in the centre of the village.
The cypress tree in the foreground, a common symbol for death, connects earth and sky.
A quote from Van Gogh may shed some light on what exactly this means: "Just as we
take the train to go to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to go to a star."
Well we did already say he was in an asylum.
That might also explain why he inconceivably thought of this work as a failure.
Seriously though, he didn't enjoy dabbling in abstractionism and much preferred to draw
inspiration from nature.
The swirling of the sky whilst visually pleasing to most made Van Gogh anxious that he was
straying from true representation of nature.
Personally, I just think the colours look great.
Just like Starbursts!
The deep blue of blueberry and bright yellow of lemon, a great combination.
Starbursts: Come for the colour, stay for the flavour!
Number 3: The Scream by Edvard Munch
The Scream is a composition in both painting and pastel forms made by Norwegian artist
Edvard Munch in 1893.
The inspiration for the image came one day when Munch was walking with two friends and
suddenly heard , quote: "A huge endless scream course through nature."
He recalls his two friends leaving him, the two figures in the back of the painting, as
the "air turned to blood".
And what's the thing in the middle?
Is it Macaulay Culkin?
The actually screaming creature itself is a twisted personification of this scream,
a sexless mutant being with hands clasped to the side of its head.
I repeat: Is it Macaulay Culkin?
The being isn't based on any real thing but rather on the emotions Munch felt in that
moment.
This turning of the inner world onto the canvas is called expressionism, and the sheer madness
of this image scared Munch himself.
The distorted depiction of the creature made Munch fear he himself may be a madman, not
an irrational fear since his sister Laura suffered from a schizoaffective disorder.
As a sort of rebellion against this idea, Munch grounded the painting in reality by
countering the art nouveau curves of the sky with the rigidly defined perspective of the
roadway in the foreground.
Munch believed that his art relied upon his childhood suffering, even saying "Without
anxiety and illness, I am a ship without a rudder."
Isn't that a lyric from The Cure?
Number 4: Dogs Playing Poker by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge
Dogs Playing Poker is a collection of paintings created between 1894 and 1910 by American
artist Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, more commonly known as C.M.
Coolidge or "Cash" by his friends.
The 16-piece collection was commissioned by Brown & Bigelow Co. to sell their cigars,
but the somewhat endearing and mischievous images quickly became iconic.
A common misconception is that Dogs Playing Poker is a single painting, but most often
people are actually thinking of just one painting in the collection titled A Friend in Need.
This image shows five hounds facing down two bulldogs who are cheating below the table.
The idea for the collection itself came from the original 1894 piece simply titled "Poker
Game", yet there are also pictures of dogs playing rugby and even dancing.
Awww these are adorable!
A far cry from all that emo stuff that Norwegian guy was into.
Art critics would agree with you, but for a different reason.
These paintings are considered by art elite to be low brow, lacking any real meaning or
substance.
As an April Fool's joke the Chrysler museum even released a statement saying "…it
is now time for these iconic images to assume their rightful place on the walls of our institutions
where homocentric art has too long been unjustly privileged."
But jokes on them because our man Cash made a bunch of money off of his works anyway,
with individual pieces selling for upwards of $300,000 dollars each.
At the height of his success he even married a girl 35 years his junior who, ironically,
preferred cats.
When you find someone 35 years younger who wants to marry you, you just put a ring on
that ASAP.
Number 5: Composition 8 by Vasily Kandinsky
Composition 8 is an oil on canvas painting of odd geometric shapes made by Russian painter
Vasily Kandinsky in 1923.
Whereas dogs playing poker was a relatively easy concept to understand, this painting
may seem needlessly complex and uh… wanky.
What you need to understand is that at the time Kandinsky was a member of the Bauhaus
movement which sought to reinvigorate mass-produced crafts with creativity.
Kandinsky also sought to generate a kind of universal language built upon symbols rather
than words.
A combination of these ideas led to the integration of rigid shapes and bold colours in his works,
with Composition 8 being the epitome of Kandinsky's Bauhaus work.
OHHHH, I see!
That white triangle in the middle is a head, and the darker triangle jutting into the right
hand side of it makes a nose.
And that white circle in the darker triangle is an eye and…
OH that's another eye floating up there!
And those two black lines coming out the right hand side are arms holding that saxophone
made out of squares.
AND THAT'S A RECORD IN THE TOP LEFT CORNER!
I was gonna tell you you're wrong but honestly, I have no idea.
All I know is that Kandinsky was interested in how colours and forms could exert psychological
and spiritual effects on the viewer.
To me, it's interesting how the painting seems so dynamic yet so peaceful all at once.
Of this and later works involving circles, Kandinsky said "The circle is the synthesis
of the greatest oppositions.
It combines concentric and eccentric in a single form and in equilibrium."
The variety of emotions I feel right now is only challenged by the wide range of Starburst
lollies that exists!
Fruit Chews, Babies, Snakes and even the delicious Starbust Sucks lollipops!
Try a whole new way to experience the "unexplainably juicy" flavour of Starburst!
Number 6: The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali
The Persistence of Memory is an oil on canvas painting rendered by Spanish artist Salvador
Dali in 1931 as part of his surrealist movement.
Dali believed surrealist paintings were like "hand-painted dream photographs", designed
to capture the subconscious working of the human mind.
His interest in the teachings of Freud taught him that dreams could have meaning, and in
this way, he explored the notion of time through this desolate wasteland of melting clocks.
The destruction of the clocks as seen by both the melting and the ants signifies decay of
time, and an inconsistency with how we experience time.
For this reason, scholars thought the painting may be an allusion to the theory of relativity
by Einstein but Dali himself said the clocks' form was derived from the sight of camembert
cheese melting in the sun.
Stinky cheese is one flavour that doesn't exist in the fantastic Starbursts range!
How about lime, or maybe even pineapple?
Try a few with your friends and see which ones you like the best!
"Share something juicy today!"
Hey, uh, want to talk about drugs instead?
Dali says he got many of his ideas by taking drugs, or as he puts it: "I don't do drugs,
I am drugs."
As a result, Dali said his paintings surprised even himself, so there's no clear answer
to the meaning behind many of his paintings.
The central creature in the picture is through to be a twisted self-portrait however, with
a large nose and closed eye with long eyelashes.
Furthermore, it is known that the cliffs in the background are the same cliffs from Dali's
home in Catalonia, Spain.
Perhaps this childhood setting coupled with the motifs of melting clocks and the sarcastic
title indicate a fading of Dali's childhood memories, a realisation of his mortality.
Personally, I prefer Dali's infamous work "The Great Masturbator."
Crash shut up.
No seriously it's real!
Look it up.
Something about it just speaks to me.
I know it's real, still though: Shut up.
Number 7: Guernica by Pablo Picasso
Guernica is a composition made by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso in 1937, as if you couldn't
already guess by the weird cubic figures.
On the bright side this painting has a clear message: One of the chaos and horror of war.
The painting was made after the Nazi bombing of Guernica, a small town in the Basque region
on the border of France and Spain.
The scene depicts a bull and horse, presumably frightened by the bombs, trampling over a
mess of human figures, all in black and white to both heighten the drama of the piece but
also to give it a "newspaper-ish" feel as though it's reporting on the bombings.
Black and white are so dull when compared to-
No Crash!
Just, no.
Art critics argue over the meaning of the bull and horse in the image.
Some say the bull represents darkness and wrath, whilst the terrified horse represents
the people of Guernica.
Others point to the bull as an important animal in Spanish culture and that therefore it may
be a stand-in for the Nationalist party that Nazi Germany was supporting in the war.
Picasso has said of this work that "This bull is a bull and this horse is a horse",
going on to say that their meaning is not intentional but rather subject to the viewer's
mind set.
What a cop out.
And I bet that eye-lightbulb-thing is just a random coincidence as well then?
Basically.
It may represent the spotlights of the German bombers, or demonstrate the overwhelming power
of the artificial lightbulb when compared to the lamps held by the citizens of Guernica.
The violence of this event is made more horrendous by the fact the Nazis seemingly targeted Market
Day in Guernica, a day when innocent civilian casualties would be as high as possible.
This violence is exemplified by the replacing of tongues in the picture with what appear
to be daggers… though that could just be Picasso's weird art style.
Number 8: The Son of Man by René Magritte
The Son of Man is an oil on canvas painting by Belgian surrealist René Magritte made
in 1964.
Magritte's painting takes the "self" out of "self-portrait" by almost entirely
covering his face with a mysteriously floating green apple.
The painting invites curiosity as we, the viewer, desperately want to see behind the
apple.
For some reason, those things that are hidden intrigue us most.
As Magritte himself puts it, we feel "…a sort of conflict… between the visible that
is hidden and the visible that is seen."
Riiiight… whatever you say dude.
I think he just has a fetish for apples.
For some reason though we aren't interested in the overcast sea scene obscured by Magritte
himself, perhaps speaking to the way our eyes are drawn to the lively green of the apple.
One more odd detail is how the man's left arm appears to bend backwards at the elbow,
another sight which invites curiosity.
In the 1999 remake of the Thomas Crown Affair, the accomplices wear bowler hats and suits
like the Son of Man in order to confuse and escape police.
Something about the faceless businessman aesthetic of the picture heightens the oddity of it.
Many of Magritte's works exhibit similar themes, such as The Great War in which a woman's
face is hidden by a flower.
Screw apples and flowers, Starburst is what's on everyone's lips…
literally!
Thanks to new Starburst lip balms you can have that delicious fruity Starburst flavour
you know and love with you wherever you go!
Crash please-
That's right everyone, you can now have Starburst even in the classroom!
The juice is loose, and I ain't talkin' 'bout OJ-
CRASH!
Enough!
We didn't get the Starbursts brand deal and you'll just have to live with that.
But… but why Culture?
I did everything right!
You grabbed the Starbursts rep by the lapels and shook him.
Do you remember what you yelled?
I remember expressing my passion for Starburst.
And how did you express that?
By yelling "GIVE ME YOUR STARBURSTS OR I'LL SMASH YOU OPEN LIKE A PIÑATA!"
And then what did you do?
Well I…
I hit him with a baseball bat repeatedly… like… like a piñata.
Let's just be happy he didn't press charges because I told him you were my ward by reason
of insanity.
The only thing insane about me is my craving for that juicy Starburst goodness!
See you next week everyone!
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