The most important painting in the world, my world that is, is ""Etaples Fisherfolk" by Henry Ossawa Tanner. Henry Ossawa Tanner could be one of the greatest artists you've never heard of. He is the first black American artist to achieve international acclaim despite the racism he encountered in America. After being thwarted by racism in America he moved to France and from there moved on to study in the Middle East to hone his ability to realistically paint biblical scenes. He travelled back and forth between the U.S.A and France yet making France his new home. Probably his best known painting is The Banjo Lesson, which is the painting that I first came to know him through. The high school that I went to was focused on black culture and my art teacher introduced this painting to us and the signifigance behind the theme and the painter himself. I was, honestly, fairly uninterested at the time.
Later when I decided to become a more serious painter I began visiting the High Museum of Art on a regular basis to closely examine the paintings there to help me gauge what I felt was acceptable in painting and to figure out whatever mistakes I may be making. I poured over so many paintings but when I came to Henry's painting "Etaples Fisher Folk" I knew I had found my model. His chunky yet precise brushwork, the cracks filled with varnish, the muted and at the same time rich color, errant brush hairs embedded in the paint, the chairoscuro, the realism despite the sparse painterly strokes...everything about it appealled to me. I studied that painting extremely close to the point of having my eyes inches from the paint to study the brushstrokes and divine the pressure applied to achieve his effects. So much so that I have been told many times to back off by security.
When I moved back to Georgia, the High was one of the first places that I visited and specifically to view that particular painting that I love so much, and has influenced my way of thinking about and appreciate art and the process and responsibility of creating.
How could you go wrong check out his stache?
Later when I decided to become a more serious painter I began visiting the High Museum of Art on a regular basis to closely examine the paintings there to help me gauge what I felt was acceptable in painting and to figure out whatever mistakes I may be making. I poured over so many paintings but when I came to Henry's painting "Etaples Fisher Folk" I knew I had found my model. His chunky yet precise brushwork, the cracks filled with varnish, the muted and at the same time rich color, errant brush hairs embedded in the paint, the chairoscuro, the realism despite the sparse painterly strokes...everything about it appealled to me. I studied that painting extremely close to the point of having my eyes inches from the paint to study the brushstrokes and divine the pressure applied to achieve his effects. So much so that I have been told many times to back off by security.
When I moved back to Georgia, the High was one of the first places that I visited and specifically to view that particular painting that I love so much, and has influenced my way of thinking about and appreciate art and the process and responsibility of creating.
How could you go wrong check out his stache?
No comments:
Post a Comment