“Art is a technique of communication” – Claes Oldendurg.
Discuss this statement
An artist employs their work as a style of communication. Artist, Wendy Sharpe has created various figurative paintings ‘Diana of Erskineville’ (1996), ‘self portrait in Florence’ (2009) and ‘Menaced by cupids (1994) which effectively communicate her ideologies with the audience.
Wendy Sharpe is viewed as a figurative painter. She uses human models to guide her rather than complete copying. She tends to avoid the compromising that can occur when trying to please the model. She chooses people that she knows in the paintings as she is able to convey how that particular person has affected her, creating her works to be more personal. Sharpe feels her art celebrates passionate emotions, imagination and freedom as she explores her own visions. She uses ‘romantic’ compositions, swirling movement, broad brushstrokes, texture and dramatic tonal contrast. Wendy feels that many of her paintings render the painter in the moment of creation, emotions visual and feelings materialized.
Wendy Sharpe’s paintings reflect a post-modernist perspective, one of Sharpe’s famous works “Dianna of Erskinevelle” (1996) is a parody of Dianna the Roman goddess of the moon and hunting. Sharpe successfully incorporates mythology as an allegorical device; she incorporates humour, parody and wit to appropriate this traditional painting of the tragic hero. The artist is highly interested with mythology and how paintings from the renaissance period commonly portrayed women naked as they were painted from a voyeuristic point of view. However Wendy has taken a feministic approach towards her version of the painting, she has created a self portrait of herself as if she were Dianna. Doing this she has changed certain conventions of the traditional work, instead of the goddess holding spears Sharpe shows herself holding paint brushes. The artist’s visual and conceptual puns, she depicts herself wearing thongs and wearing Dianna’s moon crown.
The Essay on Mark Messersmith Painting Work Artist
The paintings of Mark Messersmith are the most chaotic and confusing works of art I have ever laid eyes on. It is very hard to grasp the effects and themes the artist was trying to convey when painting these scenes. The scenes are very busy and tend to move your attention from one point to another which makes interpretation even harder. One particular painting, Wakulla, was especially odd. In this ...
Her work ‘Self portrait in Florence’ (2009) gives the impression to the audience that it is her response of her experience in Florence. However this was painted before she left for Florence, the painting is her memory of her past trip to Florence. Unlike a stereotypical landscape painting of Florence, Sharpe has collaborated various memories of her trip and painted herself in the midst of it all. The artist also depicts herself painting with two hands and gazing towards the audience to create the mood of imagination and to convey her emotions whilst painting this piece. This work self-consciously constructs a persona of the artist that in turn becomes her identity for the audience.
