Christiana's Blog

Ragtime is a musical genre that was started by African Americans.  According to PBS the creators of Ragtime were African American kids who started traveling at the age of 14. Ragtime peaked from 1897 through 1917. Once jazz arrived ragtime slowly took a back seat. Ragtime didn’t complete die off because in the 40’s, 50’s and 70’s artist included ragtime in their music. According to Wikipedia in 1974 Scott Joplin’s Entertainer was a top 40 hit. It was originally written in 1902 and published in St. Louis, Missouri. Joplin was 34 or 35 when he wrote this.

Does this song sound familiar? I think of hot days and cool wet ice cream when I hear that song played.  This song is played on most ice cream trucks nationwide (Mmm..mm, yummy, yummy ice cream). Scott Joplin is known as the King of Ragtime. He was born in 1867 and died April 1, 1917, he was born near Texarkana, Texas.

Although Rag music has been sleeping these last few decades I’m sure it will find its way back in the music of the future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Joplin

http://pbskids.org/wayback/tech1900/buzz/buzz_11.html

The ideal of impressionism is wonderful. Since history, classical antiquities, and religion were played out, it was time for a change. There is a love/hate relationship that I have with Impressionism. The first impressionistic painting I saw was by Claude Monet, Rue Montorgueil, Paris, Festival of June 30, 1878.1878.

Excitement and amazement is not what I felt when I viewed this painting. It looked rather messy and unorganized. I wasnt impressed at all. According to http://giverny.org/monet/welcome.htm Claude Monet is the master of Impressionism.  After reading this I decided to look further into Monet’s painting to see if I just didnt care for this particular painting. I ran across a series of Haystacks that Monet painted. I enjoyed this one the most because how clean it looks compared to the others. I just like this painting and it is hard to explain. While looking at a catalog of his work my eyes always wondered to it. This painting is called Meules, fin de l’été, effet du matin It was made in Musée d’Orsay, Paris in the year 1890.
I looked into another Impressionistic painter, John Singer Sargeant, his painting Spanish Dancer blew me away. He painted this in Spain in the years of 1879-1882. The position of her body made me curious so I tried to position myself this way to see how it felt. It was very awkward, but I could imagine a spanish  dancing and her body flowing in that position. It’s interesting that Sargeant was able to capture her in this position in his mind.

Moving on to Post-Impressionism I hoped to find more impressionable paintings like the Spanish Dancer. When I saw A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat I sighed. This art was painted on the island of la Grande Jatte in the year of 1884. This was fresh and clean to me compared to Claude Monet work. Pointillism was fresh and apparent in his work.

I like the improvement on Impressionism when I view Seurat’s work. All in all, Impressionism is not my style. f I had to pick wich style I like best it would go in favor of Impressionism and not Post Impression. The Spanish Dancer is why I would choose that style, I just love that painting.

Napoleon in His Study by Jacques Louis David is an excellent example of how Rococo turned into Classical style. The frivolous works of the Rococo style was set aside for more meaningful pieces. This painting was completed in the year of 1812 in Paris, at the Tuileries. History, heroes of the past, and of the present was depicted in artist works in the classical era. This style of paintings were simply and to the point. You didnt need a great philosopher to tell you what it meant. Therefore the masses were able to understand and enjoy the art just as well as the aristocrats.

St Joseph by Georges de La Tour stood out to me because of the contrast between light and dark. The young child’s face shinned bright. In 1642 he completed this painting, but there is not a record of his location during that year.  The rise of the merchant class played a huge role in the Baroque era. To be known as “Painter of The King” is a very prestigious honor. According to Wikipedia, La Tour was commissioned by royalty, but his main business came from the merchant class. If you were to take out La Tour’s main market(merchants) who he be as successful?

Hands of the Apostle a.k.a. Praying Hands was sketched by Albrect Durer. Durer sketched this in the city of Frankfurt in 1508. A few characteristics of humanism are the emphasis on human reason, spirit, and physical beauty. Praying Hands embodies these characteristics of humanism. The apostle is praying to God that in its self is a spiritual thing. The hands are sketched in a life like manner to portray the beauty of our anatomy. What originally drew me to his work was the fact that I’ve seen it duplicated before primarily on bodies. I was excited to know where it was originated from. The most appealing thing was the imperfections of the hand. It looked like the skin of a real hand was carefully pasted to a page.

Hello everyone,

My name is Christiana (hint Christiana’s blog). As I  am figuring out how to use my blog my four year old daughter is telling me that she’s  hungry. You must keep in mind that only two hours ago she threw her entire meal away. Kids you have to love them and you must feed them. So I will keep this brief. I am excited about this class and I cant wait to meet you all through your blogs.

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