Everyone Hated These Six Representational Paintings, But Not For the Reason That You Think

Representational art is a funny thing. It's easier to catch a cloud than it is to define art. What can be said about it, however, is that art's ability to portray without being perfectly naturalistic is essential to its nature. Taking representation from art would be to destroy most of it. In this exhibit, we will explore how artists stray from pure naturalism to create art that represents reality in recognizable ways. It is in this space, the gap between the presented artworks and photorealism that the artist's voice can shine. Another way to think about this would be the spectrum between purely naturalist and purely stylized art. The works in this exhibit sit somewhere in the middle, and it is this position that imbues them with so much meaning. All six of them are representational artworks which make use of stylization. But they accomplish very different things through their creative power. Some artists used this power to portray beautiful ideals. It seems natural to use creative license to bridge the gap between reality and perfection. But for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The final three artists in this exhibit critique reality by making it appear visually worse than it really is. Both directions are shown in order to argue the point that stylization in representational art can be used to make works that appear better or worse than reality. 

Georgia O'Keeffe, Black Iris, 1926, oil on canvas, 36" x 29 7/8" Accession Number 69.278.1

Black Iris was the first piece chosen for this collection. I was drawn to it by its content: one single flower so close that it isn't entirely visible. As a product of western culture, O'Keeffe had many core beliefs which were heavily the result of Greek influence. For example, when painting this flower, she stated that she wanted the viewers to see the black iris for what it really was. Not just a flower, but an ideal that would never be observed in real life. O'Keeffe is known as the mother of American modernism, and her work often shows a distinctly American flavor of what the ideal modern world would look like. 

Sandro Bottielli, Birth of Venus, 1485, tempera on canvas, Le Gallerie Degli Uffizi

This highly stylized painting also represents an ideal. The subject of this painting is placed on a pedestal where she is prized for her beauty as well as her modesty, or purity. There is strong tension here, as the artists balances between displaying an objectified body, while not revealing too much of that body so as to corrupt her "purity." I selected Venus for this collection because she does an excellent job of showcasing stylized naturalism as idealism. When we look at her it is hared not to assume that this is what every woman should look like, when really this painting represents an ideal that would look highly out of place in the everyday world. This is partly because she is a two-dimensional, tempera image, but that's not the whole story. If we were to imagine her as a clothed figure walking down a runway, her hight, skin tone and facial features would still look out of place. 

Marsden Hartley, White Flower, 1917, oil on wood, accession number: 1983.538

A single flower is shown shining brightly from the confines of an absurdly tall, narrow base. Brilliant white petals gleam in a manner which would never be observed in the natural world. The difference in value between the flower and the green leaves in the background make it appear luminescent. The flower bears no real resemblance to any living species: it is to oversimplified to be recognizable. Similar to Black Iris this flower represents an ideal, an idea in an artist's head more than a real flower. 

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet, Flowers (Camellias, Tulips, Irises and Other Flowers in Two Pots, 1863, oil on canvas, Hermitage Museum

Courbet is well known for his most scandalous works, some of which have even been destroyed. But even this tame floral piece gives the viewer an indication of Courbet's tendency to be a maverick. The loose, blurred strokes create a work that is highly representational, much like Black Iris. But this stylization doesn't require it to be an ideal. It's a wilting still life. This piece is not highly naturalistic in form. The quick, almost careless brushstrokes ensure that it looks nothing like a photograph. But it is highly naturalistic in content: it appears to approximate a still life. As an impressionist painter, it's likely that this is what Gustave intended. Not a single flower could be mistaken for an ideal - they're to "real looking."

Vincent van Gogh, Le café de nuit (The Night Café), 1888, ol on canvas, Yale Art Gallery

Here we see a similar palette of reds and greens. But this time, instead of being applied to a bouquet of flowers, they are forced out of their natural context and projected into a room. The result is harsh, jarring, and confrontational. This famous post-impressionist piece offers a very ordinary scene. Some might even call this scene realist. Red walls the color of dried blood blood, a green ceiling the color of turned copper, and phlegmy yellows easily disgust the viewer. The tables are a mess, and eschewed furniture creates shadows bent out of proportion. It's a hostile environment, really. The arrangement of billiard balls and stick could pass for the work of a 6th-grader, but what's even worse is the stick's lack of parallelism with the floorboards. 

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Street, Dresden, 1908 oil on canvas, The Museum of Modern Art

Lastly, and most formidably, stands Kirchner's Street, Dresden. Grotesque women gaze past the viewer, and the misplaced counterbalance of crowd behind them puts even more emphasis on their discomforting forms. He shares several strategies with Van Gogh: unnatural colors make the viewer feel ill at ease, an vast swaths of negative space threaten to swallow the viewer whole. But look at what this space points toward. A young, misshapen child stands under hairy Venus fly-trap lobes that are actually a bonnet. I would argue that the claw like bonnet could represent Kirchner's view of bourgeoisie culture, which entraps and disfigures that which should be young and innocent. Slowly she will be transformed into the depraved wraiths surrounding her on all sides.