My other thoughts upon visiting the Metropolitian Museum tonight were on Hans Hofmann and Eugine Delacroix (two of the most unlikely artists to consider at the same time - the relationship is me.... I made the connection because I viewed paintings of both artists and looked at them). This is part II of my visit; to read part 1, go here.
I could not get a picture of the exact painting of Hofmann that I looked at so I'll use this one.
The colors are carefully chosen and the textures created by the brushstrokes are intergal to making this paining work. Hofmann also paid attension to the edges and like Cezanne, all areas of the painting "hold hands", and you can see Cezanne's effect on almost every painter that came after.
In fact, and here's the tie in with Web Metrics - all the data and presentations should relate (it's a tall order) and "hold hands". That's what people really want from all the data I pull .......they want a story! What people want in this age of pure technology......is ART. They want me to tell the story of what all this data we collect..means. And now that I started working on IBM's homepage, a very complex set of metrics to pull (and in my case - I'll create more metrics than what exists now) it's to tell a story about what's happening and what to do. The real difference here is the medium and the timeframe - which shapes the message. The creative energy itself, I consider to be the same in both processes (art and metics).
I'll even go further and state "the best web analysts are artists and storytellers". It takes ART to make raw data into a story - and the story is what touches people, not the data.
Getting back to painting, I looked at Delacroix's work tonight. Delacroix's paintings in the United States are mostly of poor quality compared to what's in the Lourve and many of the colors have changed from when he painted them (his paintings suffered more than average, poor choice of certain pigments used during the early - mid 1900's).
Still, the portrait of Delacroix's Aunt Reisner, shown above, is in pretty good condition and I can feel the warm feelings he had for his aunt. The Abduction of Rebecca, inspired from Walter Scott, is an interest ing work, more like a poem to me. I know what the colors were like, they faded but I can still imagine what they were and when I do, the painting comes alive to me.
One of things I've noticed in looking at work is how different it is based on the light, time of day and my own mood. I've often felt that styles of painting, and even artists, ought to be distinct - removed from each other as much as possible - as different styles tend to detract from each other. In order to fully appreciate a work of art I like to imagine what it was like to create it. In order to do that, I need to tune out what's around me and narrow the focus. When there are different styles (ie: impressionism vs modern - one style suffers because it's compared to the other just by being next to each other).
I guess this is a just my opinion - sometimes it's ok to throw everything in the same room - depends on what your feel like at the time your looking at artwork.
I like collections where art styles and artists can each have their own rooms.
I ended the visit to the museum by viewing an early Picasso (don't have a picture) where the artist (it looks like) was seated at a bar with a glass of wine and a woman in the background. When I imagine what it was like to paint like Picasso, I often don't get the feeling that he liked what he was painting, esp in the blue and pink periods - i think he was painting those works to sell - because he could sell them and needed the money. Once he figured out he could painting anything he wanted he really own painted to suit himself. Personally, I've never really liked most of his paintings - except, curiously, the ones he painted to sell (blue and pink periods)- much of his mid and later work almost seems to mock the viewer.
Still, it was what I remembered as I left.
The Met on a Friday night turns out to be a pretty empty place - at least it was this Friday.
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