For my gallery, I chose the following five images. I settled on these specific images because they come from different museums and/or galleries, but share and present challenges in perspective. By looking through multiple museums, I was about to find this handful of extraordinary paintings.
In the first image you see a painting called "The Summer" by Gino Serverini. It currently hangs in the Museo Carlo Bilotti Musum. When looking at this 1952 Cubism/Futurism image, your eyes are immediately drawn to what appears to be a sad or thoughtful women, head bowed. The colours, although not vibrant, appear encased in geometric shapes that sometimes cross boundaries ending in quirky twirls or jagged points that trick the eye into losing sight of the geometric and almost abstract figure of the woman. All the different lines and blanks keep your eyes busy and wandering. This is a very elegant painting that has a rather decorative quality about it. You can vision it on a wall, hanging by itself, in a beautiful home in a large room. The second image titled the "Red Engine" painted by Sandor, a popular and well known graphic artists in the 1920’s, is a poster style painting that draws your eyes to its strong, rich, contrasting colours and basic geometric forms. Sandor’s work often reflects a variety of styles from cubism to futurism. In this painting you see the outline of a train on a track making its way toward you. However, the vertical and diagonal angles in this painting almost frame the train’s bright red engine. This bold and bright painting supports the theory that the human eye is never at rest when viewing certain styles of art (e.g., cubism or abstract), but always in motion trying to create meaning(166) We perceive the world from multiple vantage points all at once(166)
The third image "The Impact" is an abstract painting on canvas by Emilio Vedova (1949), hanging in the Museo Arte Gallarate. Its darker colours and tones represent the harshness (experiences) of the post-world war era. It is a metaphorical vision (tells a dark story) done in a geometric abstraction that does not hide or harm the painting’s metaphorical meaning. The somber colours and flat angular planes effectively represent the anxiety and anguish of that post war period. They also add an emotional element that impacts the observer. Because our eyes view this image from many different angles all at once, its surfaces colliding and intersecting, the perspective is shattered. Cubists use this as a technique to create the sense that the wholeness and completeness is shattered which may add to the picture’s metaphorical meaning.
My fourth choice is a picture titled "Window," painted by Giuseppe Santomaso (painter – lithographer), and is also found in the Museo Art Gallarate. It is an excellent example of abstract cubism. The cubist generally depicts how the human vision is never at peace and is evident in this piece. In the ‘Window,’ you see what appears to be a room painted in bold bright colours, framed in sharp black lines, and the abstract image of someone looking out the window. The actual window is presented in light colours (focal point), but is also framed by black lines. The light colours (blue, white and yellow), lead the eye directly to the window. They also suggest a sky (sunny day), to the viewer. It was during this period that Santomas experimented with light and colour to achieve his purpose. However, the use of thick dark lines throughout the picture is puzzling but may be designed to engage the viewer to look for deeper meaning. ‘Window’ was painted in 1952 and is oil on canvas. It is considered a good example of ‘instinctive’ abstract art that focuses on the relationship between art and the mind. Some of Santomaso’s works has been used in published works of poetry suggesting his paintings have a poetic or lyrical quality about them.
The final piece in my gallery is a recent mural by Kenor called "Red Actress," painted in 2013, that appears in the Street Art Amsterdam gallery. It is an abstract, painted on a famous brick wall in the city and is somewhat different from the other images in my collection. This red and white mural represents the merging of several styles of art including geometry, deconstruction, dimension and movement. Kenor speaks of this piece as ‘painting rhythms’ that have been deconstructed and then constructed again to create what he refers to as ‘pictorial language’. However, our eyes continually scan and follow this amazing image as it moves from the wall to the ceiling and continues onto the ground, in an effort to make sense or gain meaning from it. Our inability to do so (difficult), speaks to our need to find order in things. Red Dress is a fine example of how our eyes challenging perspective.
