An Artistic Story of New York City in 1932

November 17, 2012 Essay II, Word Count 2268 An Artistic twaddle of upst artwork York in 1932 The purpose of this essay is to discuss the ways Stu stratagem Davis delectations the elements of device and principals of formulate in his headstoneing, rising York mural, 1932. In the beginning of this essay, there is a description of Davis biological information and what was happening in New York during the geezerhood preceding the painting. It will discuss triad elements of art to include delineate, consideration and color. The principals of design that will be discussed atomic number 18 unity, balance, and variety.It will close with my mortal(prenominal) reflection and experience that was gained from the analysis and research of the painting. Davis was born in Philadelphia, public address system in 1892 to parents that were artists. His father was a newspaper art director and his sire was a sculptor. His family moved to East Orange, New jersey when he was b e genuinely last(predicate) club years old. He attended school in New Jersey and left high school in 1909 before graduating to attend Henris School of Art in New York City. He became acquainted and organize friendships with mentors, John Sloan and George Luks. These men were all part of The Eight.These men were all part of the Realist Art Movement and foc utilise on poverty and the realities of urban life for real great deal. He began manifesting his art in 1910 and had his prototypical troop in New York City. In 1912, he was employed by a left leaning journal that under the direction of Sloan. While he was there, participating in the groundbreaking Armory Show. His work still was in the realist mode until 1916 when he went on his avow to become more of an plagiarize artist. He was drafted and squelched in United States as a cartographer creating maps for the US Army Intelligence Department.Fortunately, that was short-lived and he began using a cubistic style on his work. He do a seri es with this cubist style of works based on a tobacco series. He began an eggbeater series mend having Edith Halpert of New Yorks Downtown impetus of Art. This series began his journey away from European influenced Cubism to his own development of his own abstractive modernist style without human presence in his works. He went to capital of France in 1928 and upon returning in 1929, he became fascinated and intrigued with the industrialism and post warfare architecture in New York City.His words were quoted by Karen Wilkin, On my stretch I New York I was appalled and depressed by its gigantism. E precise social function in Paris was human size, here everything was inhuman. It was difficult to think either of art or oneself as having any significance whatever in the construction of this frenetic commercial engine. (Wilkin, 127). At this time, the Great Depression he throwd comparatively few works, but he constantly changed outdo, medium and method, making easel paintings, ink drawings, murals and lithographs (Wilkin, 127). His art reflected social issues and his works were proves that tell a larger story.New York Mural was his most ambitious treatment of the city in which he moved(p) upon the issues of prohibition, government corruption and the affairs of Al Smith (Weber, 10). His journals and historical info during these few years in the New York City political slam are confirmation of the journalistic story he told through with(predicate) New York Mural. It was an outrage that some(prenominal) foreign artists were commissioned to do work in the United States. The Museum of Modern Art in New York organized an exhibit of contemporary murals. This show is why Davis pretendd the New York Mural.It stirred much inclination because of the story it told near New Yorks economic, social and political climate. Davis wrote in his personal papers, now in collection at Harvard University Modern art is a reflection of the advanced modern technology. Modern Art in turn has changed to industrial design (Weber, 10). In 1932, Davis painted the piece that is the military issue of this essay, New York Mural. He utilise oil which did not dry right away and gave him the ability to change and modify colorize and lines days later. Oil paint is flexible and it was easy for him to achieve a rich luminosity epoch having smooth effects with a high level of detail. DeWitte, Larmann, and Shields, 186). His paintings were now made up of modern industry images with free association and with a decorative pattern that created an optical vibration (Weber, 13). The most dominant principle of design used in this piece is variety because of the artists use of various elements of art to include line, shape, color, form and space. Each element has some(prenominal) a(prenominal) purposes to hold the views attention. As you look at the picture, these elements are effective in withdrawing your attention to every detail as you look round the work of art. Variety makes this picture of the view diverse and equal no separate picture of New York City. The use of lines is complimented by the variety of color used in the painting. The oil provides a shiny surface that allows the lines to be enceinte and well defined. Within each line are many colours soaks of color. The consentient primary colors expose the lines true definition. Many of the colors are complementary which check overms to admirer contract the objects musical composition achieving information, especially surrounded by the buildings. Some areas of the picture have both crossed-hatching and hatching and neutral solid spaces and shapes.This helps create darkness and lightness in the details of many of the objects. on with solid disastrous and unobjectionable areas, the hatchings create shadows and make the picture search three-dimensional. The buildings appear in the background and random objects in the foreground because of the black surrounding the bottom im ages in the picture. When you are standing back from the picture you know its a building facade but cannot see the defined shapes of the building. The cross hatching and neutrals colors help this happen as if you were in the city looking at distant buildings.The colors are all basic colors of the spectrum with the exception of black and white in the foreground and background to create a dramatic sense of depth and value. These hues are in different shades and saturations. For example the yellow in the banana and tigers head is close to its highest level of saturation. The yellow building is a lower saturated yellow because it is mustard in color by having brown mixed into the paint. The black used in the background, lines and inside the buildings help show the defined shapes of the objects in the piece.The white achieves many of the same things while this absence of color is used to show brightness and the feeling of twenty-four hours where it is in the background. There is an obvi ous contrast by the black and white that creates the symbolism of night and day. With these neutral colors there is no make for implied lines as your eyes wonder around the picture. The directional lines are used to bring your eyes upward in the painting to the tallest building in the center which could be considered the main focal point. It is almost in the center line of the piece which helps to achieve symmetry and balance.This building is recognizable as the pudding stone State Building, the newest and tallest building in New York in 1932. Horizontal Lines bring your eyes up into the skyline while the vertical and diagonal lines create depth and dimensions. The curved lines with both thin and thickness to them help you to beak various symbols that explain the story Davis is trying to tell of that time. The foreground has many shapes utilizing volume and space that take time to identify. These contour regulate images create volume and space in the foreground.While the yellow banana is recognizable, it has a an ingrained shape that makes you look closely to make sure that is what he is exhibit the viewer. The green banana is not as recognizable because of its dark hue of green even though it is analogous to yellow. There are by and large geometric shapes in the citys skyline. The only curved line and shape is in the shape of a funny face with a hat at the top of the purple building to the right where the three orange circles look two eyes and a nose. Symmetry is achieved through a well balanced picture.Both sides are equally filled with demonstrable shapes and vary with and same amount of negative space. There are concentrical geometric shapes for the windows in the buildings, this creates contrast between the different buildings heights and widths. It excessively gives symmetry to each individual building. The six large rectangles behind the turgidness pump make it recognizable as a gas home with the garage door in front. The use of colors and lin es help the replete(p) picture to appear balanced. The principle of design, proportion, is used throughout this piece of art. The tigers head and tail are recognizable in a cartoon like image.If you did not have the research and narrative of what was personnel casualty on in this time period of the artists life, you would not understand why it is randomly spaced to the right bottom of the close building in the foreground of the buildings. The en tucker painting has the cartoon like feel to it. Especially with the hyperbolised proportions of the hats, bananas and what looks like a butterfly on the right side boarder. These things are not to scale with the rest of the parts. The scale is in different proportions and it is mostly dramatic between the foreground and the skyline which appears father away.The best example in the foreground is the proportion of the bananas, tire and hat. It would be a very small tire and hat or a very large banana in realistic. Davis uses scale to exa ggerate some of the messages that he is trying to tell round the many things that were fetching place during this time. Many of these images are defined further through many of Davis later paintings that are enlarged and elaborated versions of this original painting. In a genius way, Davis achieves unity through this picture when you view it as a whole.There is a direct message that the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts (DeWitte, Larmann, and Shields, 121). He splatters various colorful shapes and organic images to tell the story. Upon first glance, the draw to this picture was because the noticeably recognizable skyline of New York City. I love New York City more than any other place that I have ever lived, worked or played. After gazing around it for a few moments, I could see many random objects beautifully level(p) and linked together through symbols made of shapes, space, lines and many bright, shiny colors.It was enigmatical because I did not know specif ic facts of history. It was obvious to me that each thing placed in the painting was deliberate and told a story. I was very interested to hear why these random objects surrounding the geometric shaped skyline were of significance to the artist at that moment in time. It is very busy, but likewise balanced achieving unity and balance. After reading about the artist and his other works, I was fascinated by his ability to not only tell a story but to practically foil the negative and positive events and achievements of that time.His ego and boldness was obvious to me when I established the offending nature of some of the references he was making representing specific people he knew and was around in New York City. I feel as though I have read a book about New York Citys growth and struggles after the crash of the inception market in 1929 through the early 1930s. I am also grateful, to the authors of books and articles that explain what was happening and researches what the artist meant with different aspects of their pieces of art. I am a new fan of Davis because I love his bright shiny pictures portrait the city I love and am interested in.He loved New York and enjoyed it while noticing some of the growth and change making the city little intimate and large and filled with the potential and realities for corruption. I believe he admired and was impressed with the new buildings and infrastructure in the city while acknowledging that it had to come at a price of greed and a ground level of coldness rather than prosperity and warmth. This essay makes me more interested in the stories behind the pieces of art and the artists that created them. The thoughts, history and personal situations are fascinating and give me a different appreciation for New York Mural.I am going to stay mindful and open to enjoy a piece of artwork barely for its beauty and the talent that it took to create rather than the book of truth and hypothetical information behind it. Works C ited Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larrman, and M. Kathryn Shields, Gateways to Art, 2012, Tharmes & Hudson Weber, Bruce. Stuart Davis New York, 1985. Norton Gallery of Art, West palm tree Beach Wilkins, Karen. Stuart Davis, 1987. Cross River Press, ltd. Davis, Stuart. New York Mural. 1932. Oil on Canvas. Norton Museum of Art, West touch Beach. 84 inches x 84 inches, signed and dated Date viewed November 4, 2012