The Old Guitarist And Madame X - 1365 Words

What is art? Over the course of this class, the conclusion I have come to is that anything can be art if someone believes it to be so. Art can be man-made, created from nature, or even something imagined or felt through the senses, yet it is completely subjective to the viewer to decide if what they see is classified as art. I often think of the phrase, â€Å"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder† during class because art is not always beautiful, or even pleasant, but it is a personal perspective. The Old Guitarist and Madame X are two creations that I believe are art, an opinion most people would agree with solely based off the success and fame of the creators, Pablo Picasso and John Singer Sargent, respectively. Being an artist is not always†¦show more content†¦His works during this time were essentially monochromatic paintings in shades of blue and green, though there were occasionally other colors as accents. These blue shades, prevalent in The Old Guitarist, repr esented Picasso’s severe depression as he drew into himself and kept isolated from the rest of society. In contrast, Madame X was painted as a Realist portrait, as expected during the Realism movement. However, the portrait also depicts clear influence of Impressionism in the background as Sargent blurred colors to make the exact definitions of her form unknown, forcing the viewer to feel the background rather than view it, and leave the space mysterious. Sargent was attempting to capture, in his own words, her â€Å"unpaintable beauty and hopeless laziness† and created a timeless painting. The stark contrast between the coloring and styles of these paintings make them indelible to art history. With attention to not only the artists, but the works themselves, I do believe The Old Guitarist and Madame X are both pieces of art. I believe them to be art because both pieces had the intent to capture some type of emotion or moment in time. For Picasso, he was mourning the d eath of his friend and painted the guitar as a symbol for immersing oneself in music, filling the space around the solitary figure. Picasso perhaps believedShow MoreRelatedLena Horne9265 Words   |  38 Pagesactivist and early member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which had been founded in 1909 and was headed by DuBois. (Indeed, Horne herself could claim a similar association. A photograph of her as a two-year-old appears on the cover of the October 1919 issue of the NAACPs Branch Bulletin, describing her as the organizations youngest member!) Hornes father and mother separated in August 1920 when she was three, later divorcing. Her father moved to Seattle