Artists I Love: Ingres

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, I love you.  

The french painter, Ingres, is mostly known for this AMAZING image of Napoleon on his imperial throne, as well as the odalisques like the one below.  While perhaps not an unsung hero, but I wonder if he gets the due he deserves in the history of art.  Perhaps he does, but until recently, I don't think I paid enough attention to his exquisite paintings with their subtle plastification of the figure and their intense homage and servitude to beauty with a capital B.  *Don't forget you can click on the images to enlarge them.

Around the time of the French Revolution, he studied under another absolute favorite, Jacques-Louis David, who I found out through wikipedia said Ingres had a tendency to exaggerate in his work.  That in itself is probably what makes me love him so much.  As a sort of new Mannerist, exaggerating proportions slightly is what makes the real uncanny, and draws us in and slightly confuses us at the same time.  I will let you read the rest about him here.

His tendency to apply rich and ornate patterns, fabrics, and jewels only heightens the sense of sumptuousness to each portrait and take it a little over-the-top, and in Napoleon's portrait, a lot over-the-top.  Of course, in the tradition of portraiture, the wealthy were the ones commissioning portraits of themselves to create an opulent and fantastical, beautified avatar of themselves, if you will.  However, I read in a book about him that he reminded the women in his portraits to bring all of their jewels, as if he knew that would bring them beyond a basic portrait.

What I really found illuminating and inspiring in my recent study of Ingres simply for research for my own work was a book in the CCA library, Portraits of Ingres: image of an epoch, which included all these lovely paintings we have seen before, but also his understated portrait drawings.  It's the small things in these drawings that inspire me so much- his use of light rendering and strong lines, as well as small details that call attention to the frame of the image, and his placement of the horizon line that play with the idea of a standard portrait.  I took some photos from the book just for my own reference.

I love the way he has drawn an image of an image, with a decorative symbol on the outside of the frame.

The simplicity of line in her arms and dress combined with her  rendered hair and eyes is really refreshingly light.

I love her sassy attitude and all the crap she is holding.

Another simple line drawing of the outline of the body.  I also love the column-like placement of standing figures straight down the middle of the frame.

The way the horizon line is placed so low brings the figure into a setting but removes him from  its proximity.  It also makes the figure seem larger and grander than if he were placed in the middle of a scene.

I love portraits, I love Beauty with a capital B, and I love line.  There, you got me.  I'm an old-fashioned romantic in a high-tech, soul-stripping art world of fast and easy projects.  Here's to the real dudes:  Ingres, David, and Bronzino.

PS I found all the images of his paintings from google and have no rights to them.

Learning outside of class: Mugler, Power Dressing, Richard Phillips, and Napoleon

Yesterday was a full day.  I had to go to a Saturday class on Teaching, but it was really the stuff I learned in between my six hour seminar where I got the best information.

Over my morning coffee I perused the NY Times and came across several awesome posts.  Formerly Thierry Mugler, Mugler has reemerged on the Fall 2011 Men's fashion circuit, with Nicola Formichetti as creative director, a man behind many other creative enterprises such as stylist for Lady Gaga and Dazed and Confused magazine.  See his super awesome blog for more.  While the new campaign features a Mugler video with song by Gaga, (and therein lies the publicity stunt of the season), I still was excited by these gaunt, real-tattooed creep-fest male models.  The feel is so goth I can't possibly write it off as simply shock value.  It fascinates me that this is another new way to sell dress pants.

Mugler at NY Times T Magazine

I also learned about this book, Power Dressing, by Robb Young about the politics of fashion within the lives of political female figures.  It sounds totally perfect for my thesis, which is all about power and fashion.

Power Dressing by Robb Young at NY Times T magazine

Also in the NY Times T magazine was an article about my one of my favorite pop figurative artists, Richard Phillips and his upcoming show at White Cube Gallery, which is made up of several paparazzi-style portraits of young celebrities with corporate-sponsored backgrounds.  You might have seen his painting as a cameo in Gossip Girl, which the article makes reference to, and the simulacrum of fame, media, and advertising.  I love how plastic they are, referencing poses specifically made to pander to fans, but also how sort of unflattering they become.  His show at White Cube opens January 28 in London.

Richard Phillips at NY Times T Magazine

When I returned home I popped in a DVD I got from Netflix on Napoleon Bonaparte from PBS.  Maybe this is not your idea of a wild Saturday night, but I was entranced by this four-hour documentary about the rise and fall of the most powerful man in Europe.  What is most fascinating about him is that he was born to a nothing-special family in Corsica, and it was his unbridled ambition that blew him to the greatest heights the Western world had ever seen.  What I found really interesting was that he often commissioned portraits after successful battles to serve as propaganda to his own greatness, and conquered Egypt merely as a promotional tactic for the eyes of the Revolution.  While he was exploitative, egotistical, and slightly mad, he serves as some sort of hero to me.  "He took the empirical crown and placed it upon his own head".  That's balls.

Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques Louis David 

Napoleon on PBS