Day Ninety Four: Hillside by John Francis Murphy
Hello welcome to Day 94 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'Hillside' by John Francis Murphy.
This is our last John Francis Murphy today, I saved one of the nicest studies for last. In today's video narration I read from the book A History of American Tonalism 1882-1920 by David A Cleveland, so please check that out.
Yesterday I was reading a very interesting post from a site called artrenewal.org. Artrenewal.org is a site that supports representational art and features the work of many artists throughout history as well as artists, it refers to as Living Masters. They run yearly competitions where they give prizes and they also have a large amount of imagery there. That is always been my predominant attraction to the site.
The article I was reading yesterday was very interesting. It was by a gentleman named Frederick Ross and the title of the article is 'Why Realism?'
I'm providing you with a link to the article here. It is very long and I cannot say that I agree with everything that Frederick says in it, however he makes some excellent points in regards to modern art. Those of you that have read this blog for any length of time will be aware that though there is some modern art that I enjoy, much of it I find odious, foul and an insult to the term art.
Here's a quotation from that article that I think is very pertinent to 'Modern art':
What Modernists have done has been to aid and abet the destruction of the only universal language by which artists can communicate our humanity to the rest of ...well humanity. It has been a goal of mine for many years to expose the truth of modernist art history, and it is very much on topic to bring into question any practice which purports to analyze art history in a way that deliberately suppresses a valid and correct understanding of what actually happened.
And it is of the utmost importance that the history of what actually took place not be lost for all time due to the transitory prejudice and tastes of a single era. This must be done if art history as a field of scholarship is not to be ultimately discovered to have devolved into nothing more than documents of propaganda; geared towards market enhancement for valuable collections passed down as wealth conserving stores of value.
Successful dealers, who derived great wealth by selling such works...works created in hours instead of weeks... had little trouble lining up articulate masters of our language to build complex jargon presented everywhere as brilliant analysis. These market influenced treatises ensured the financial protection of these collections.
Such "artspeak" as it has come to be known is a form of contrivance which uses self consciously complex and convoluted word combinations (babble) to impress, mesmerize and ultimately to silence the human instinct so that it cannot identify honestly what has been paraded before it.
This is accomplished by brainwashing through authority, confounding the evidence of our senses that otherwise any sane person would question. The "authority" of high positions, and the "authority" of books and print, and the "authority" of certificates of accreditation attached to the names of the chief proponents of modernism, have all conspired to impress and humble those whose common sense would rise up in opposition to what would have been evident nonsense if it had emanated from the mouths and pens of anyone without such a preponderance of "authority" backing them up.
Frederick Ross
Strong words from Frederick, but he's calling it the way he sees it and it's hard to disagree. Sad as it is, in today's art market words have replaced perception. Obfuscation has replaced lucidity and cleverness has replaced craft.
It doesn't have to be that way. I for one refuse to surrender my art to artifice. Every artist should be true to their own inner voice and guidance. The artwork that we leave behind speaks for us more than words ever could. And ultimately the work will speak louder than the 'artspeak' propaganda that supports so much mediocrity these days.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Hillside' by John Francis Murphy; this was such a fun study to do. I really got a lot out of working at the feet of the Master.
If you tune into today's video narration there is some excellent information provided by David A Cleveland about John Francis Murphy's later period and I highly recommend you check it out.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Hillside by John Francis Murphy, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
This is our last John Francis Murphy today, I saved one of the nicest studies for last. In today's video narration I read from the book A History of American Tonalism 1882-1920 by David A Cleveland, so please check that out.
Yesterday I was reading a very interesting post from a site called artrenewal.org. Artrenewal.org is a site that supports representational art and features the work of many artists throughout history as well as artists, it refers to as Living Masters. They run yearly competitions where they give prizes and they also have a large amount of imagery there. That is always been my predominant attraction to the site.
The article I was reading yesterday was very interesting. It was by a gentleman named Frederick Ross and the title of the article is 'Why Realism?'
I'm providing you with a link to the article here. It is very long and I cannot say that I agree with everything that Frederick says in it, however he makes some excellent points in regards to modern art. Those of you that have read this blog for any length of time will be aware that though there is some modern art that I enjoy, much of it I find odious, foul and an insult to the term art.
Here's a quotation from that article that I think is very pertinent to 'Modern art':
What Modernists have done has been to aid and abet the destruction of the only universal language by which artists can communicate our humanity to the rest of ...well humanity. It has been a goal of mine for many years to expose the truth of modernist art history, and it is very much on topic to bring into question any practice which purports to analyze art history in a way that deliberately suppresses a valid and correct understanding of what actually happened.
And it is of the utmost importance that the history of what actually took place not be lost for all time due to the transitory prejudice and tastes of a single era. This must be done if art history as a field of scholarship is not to be ultimately discovered to have devolved into nothing more than documents of propaganda; geared towards market enhancement for valuable collections passed down as wealth conserving stores of value.
Successful dealers, who derived great wealth by selling such works...works created in hours instead of weeks... had little trouble lining up articulate masters of our language to build complex jargon presented everywhere as brilliant analysis. These market influenced treatises ensured the financial protection of these collections.
Such "artspeak" as it has come to be known is a form of contrivance which uses self consciously complex and convoluted word combinations (babble) to impress, mesmerize and ultimately to silence the human instinct so that it cannot identify honestly what has been paraded before it.
This is accomplished by brainwashing through authority, confounding the evidence of our senses that otherwise any sane person would question. The "authority" of high positions, and the "authority" of books and print, and the "authority" of certificates of accreditation attached to the names of the chief proponents of modernism, have all conspired to impress and humble those whose common sense would rise up in opposition to what would have been evident nonsense if it had emanated from the mouths and pens of anyone without such a preponderance of "authority" backing them up.
Frederick Ross
Strong words from Frederick, but he's calling it the way he sees it and it's hard to disagree. Sad as it is, in today's art market words have replaced perception. Obfuscation has replaced lucidity and cleverness has replaced craft.
It doesn't have to be that way. I for one refuse to surrender my art to artifice. Every artist should be true to their own inner voice and guidance. The artwork that we leave behind speaks for us more than words ever could. And ultimately the work will speak louder than the 'artspeak' propaganda that supports so much mediocrity these days.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Hillside' by John Francis Murphy; this was such a fun study to do. I really got a lot out of working at the feet of the Master.
If you tune into today's video narration there is some excellent information provided by David A Cleveland about John Francis Murphy's later period and I highly recommend you check it out.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Hillside by John Francis Murphy |