Still Life COMM 207 Week 4 Assignment 2
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207
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Communications
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Feb 20, 2024
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WEEK 4-ASSIGNMENT #2
Image Analysis
COMM 207
Dr. Worley
Still Life, 1889 (oil on canvas) by Paul Gaugin; Private Collection
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WEEK 4-ASSIGNMENT #2
Form
: Gauguin's composition uses balance and harmony through the centralized arrangement of fruit and a pitcher. The use of rhythm through shape repetition and the contrasting, vivid colors against a muted background is significant. His imagery is straightforward, a still life with fruit and a pitcher that executed his distinctive post-Impressionist style, which avoids linear perspective such as a flat surface and emphasizes two-dimensionality. He uses a creative color palette with complementary colors (reds and greens) to create animation. With its individual dots of pure color, suggests a luminous quality, and when viewed from a distance, these colors visually blend to form additional hues and depth. The everyday subject matter of the fruit and pitcher is common in still life paintings, but Gauguin's treatment
with his distinct post-Impressionist style elevates the mundane to something that carries more symbolic weight (National Gallery of Art, n.d.)
Theme:
The theme also includes the image that is an exploration of beauty in everyday simplicity and the artist's interest with color and form. Still life paintings often carry themes of abundance of nature of life, or the enjoyment of peacefulness. Gauguin's choice to focus on a simple scene could be interpreted 2
WEEK 4-ASSIGNMENT #2
as a celebration of the ordinary or a focus on the pure artistic pleasure derived from color and composition.
Context:
The creator, Paul Gauguin, was a post-Impressionist known for his bold use of color and synthetism style. The intended audience was the avant-garde art circles of Paris at the time, with an interest in the innovations of post-Impressionism. Demographically, they were middle to upper-class Europeans, particularly the French, who were culturally and psychologically open to new artistic ideas (The Art Story, n.d.)
As for the Producer, the image by Paul Gauguin, a leading post-Impressionist painter known for his bold use of color and synthetism style, which he characterized by using simplified forms and stark contrasts (The Art Story, n.d.)
Gauguin's painting seems successful in conveying his intended message to his target audience of art and who appreciated the departure from realism and the exploration of color and symbolism. His use of color and simplified forms would have viewers looking for alternatives to the prevailing naturalistic styles
of his painting. To convey his message more effectively to a broader audience, Gauguin could have incorporated elements that bridged the gap between traditional representation and his innovative style, by introducing subtle references to depth or more recognizable shapes within the composition National Gallery of Art, n.d.).
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WEEK 4-ASSIGNMENT #2
References:
Fine Art America. (n.d.). Still life. Retrieved on 1/31.2024 from: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/still-life-paul-gaugin.html
National Gallery of Art. (n.d.) Paul Gauguin. Retrieved on 1/31/2024 from: https://www.nga.gov/features/slideshows/paul-gauguin.html#:~:text=Gauguin's%20greatest
%20innovation%20was%20his,flatten%20space%20and%20abstract%20form
.
The Art Story. (n.d.). Summary of paul gauguin. Retrieved on 1/31/2024 from: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/gauguin-paul/
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