Arts Comparative Study

By: Isabella de Bastos

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Seine at Asnières (The Skiff)

1879

Annotation 1st ArtworkThis piece of art belongs to the Impressionist era

Heavy strokes with the paintbrush, a strong blend of colours that make an irregular pattern

Cold colours (violet, tones of blue, green) surrounding the people painted with warm colours (orange, peach, yellow)

Emphasis on the two women rowing a small wooden canoe, in a bright summer day Rough Texture, seemingly

flowing and smooth for the river

The features of the painting are combined harmoniously with the color blend

The painting is realistic in proportion and distribution of space in the environment it finds itself in

ContextFamous French impressionist painterBorn in France, as a child of a working class family, 25th of February, 1841 Summer of 1869, Renoir painted for two months alongside Monet at La Grenouillère, a boating and bathing establishment outside ParisAfter several of his paintings were rejected by the Salon in the early 1870s, Renoir decided to join Monet in establishing an independent artist's society of The ImpressionistsThese sought to capture modern life and Renoir's works from this period focused on everyday people, streets, and surroundings Renoir's lenience for portraiture attracted the attention of a range of patrons with many requestsRenoir financially sustained himself with Portraits (famous Charpentier Family painting was exhibited at the 1879 Salon) which brought him more clientele

His doubts about the spontaneity of Impressionism led him to refuse to participate in the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1878, and Renoir decided to look back to the old masters for an art of structure, craft, and permanence

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

ThemeRenoir was trying out new things at the time, so he added new techniques to his paintingMost of his paintings before had been devoted to depicting people in portraits in his own wayThe Impressionist world was a contrast of city and country, and these were the backgrounds they paintedEn Plein Air – Many Impressionists chose to work spontaneously and quickly, more concerned with capturing a passing moment than with near brushworkA drafty technique of painting to seem like a dream and fool one’s reality

Annotation 2nd ArtworkUse of line and 3D shading

Makes ‘Robbo’s’ graffiti seem like a wallpaper, use of rough texture made into what seem more smooth and sticky paper

Lack of colour, grey outlines about the man and the uncovered wall

Banksy, The Wallpaperer

2009

Working class middle-aged man who seems to be smoking (showing no interest for the work) In the middle of the

street, public, anyone can see

Context

• Banksy is a pseudonymous, not the artist’s real name• English graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter• Banksy has produces satirical and subjective art involving political

and social commentary • His work is found most commonly all over the streets, walls, and

bridges of cities throughout the world• He uses graffiti in a characteristic stencilling technique• In 1985 King Robbo painted a graffiti work under the London

Transport Police Headquarters on a wall beside Regent's Canal in Camden, London which was only accessible by water

• Large full colour graffiti piece, called "Robbo Incorporated”(oldest piece of graffiti in London since 1985)• Except for this piece, most of his works had been removed from London's trains and walls by authorities• In 2009, the English stencil artist Banksy covered most of it with a stencil of a workman pasting wallpaper• Bansky and King Robbo had met before in the 1990s, rivalry and competition of graffiti between them• On Christmas Day 2009 Robbo destroyed Banksy's piece by covering the work so the workman appeared

to be painting "King Robbo" in silver letters. Three days later the letters Fuc appeared before the King• The fight continued all over the streets with one vandalising the other’s work, until King Robbo passes

away in early 2014

“Banksy”

ThemeIn this work, Banksy means to “Painting out” his biggest oppositionThe two graffiti artists had previously met – Banksy felt the need to prove himself as a skillful artistThe painting has a mocking tone, painting over Robbo’s art showing his art is inferior to Banksy’sBanksy makes a strong statement with his choice of art and location, overlapping into Robbo’s oldest and most famous graffiti works, showing how his time has passedBanksy criticizes Robbo as doing meaningless works, where they aren’t real graffiti work but ‘wallpapers’ which are completely superficial

• Kang, Cindy. "Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/augu/hd_augu.htm (May 2011)

• "Pierre-Auguste Renoir." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 03 March 2015.

• "Auguste Renoir Paintings Gallery." Auguste Renoir Gallery. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2015. <http://www.renoirgallery.com/>.

• "Review." Information Reviews about Impressionism. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2015. <http://www.impressionism.org/review.htm>.

• Voorhies, James. "Post-Impressionism". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/poim/hd_poim.htm (October 2004)

Bibliography