Image Relations

After Japanese art being closed off from the world for a couple hundred years, it had developed into a style of its own.  Once Japanese trade routes were opened across the world, it was a flood-gate for art.  Many artists of this time period found great inspiration from Japanese prints and had a nice collection for themselves.  The fuse between European and Japanese art has become known today as Art Nouveau.

Art Nouveau was the pivotal art movement for art history.  It changed art for generations, across all styles, and across the world.  It is still effecting art today.It is the foundation for the art today.

Art Nouveau branched across a variety of mediums.  It was relevant in paintings, architecture, and even contemporary items like furniture. 

As you can see, in both Japanese prints and Art Nouveau, they both use or have resemblances of nature and geometry. There is a sense of color and movement.

Over time, this style has really become to evolve.  It keeps its core values, but it has indeed involved.  This is just one example in strobe photography.  There is a sense of movement, passion, and circles.  There is so much geometry and action!

This form of art eventually turned into a more psychedlic and "trippy-ish" vibe.  It keeps the same sort of movement, geometry and such, but it is more 3D and new.  Even though it is a new style, it still keeps the same values as its originator,  Art Nouveau.  Simple lines created this, nothing more.

Once again, this evolved into something more.  More color was wanted and added to these pieces.  To create an even bigger impact and intensity, vibrating colors were used.  In the image to the left, with the use of geometry and colors, the image appears to be moving even though it really is not.  These pieces are often referred to as non-relational pieces as well.  Why?  Non-relational pieces are just as they sound - they are not related to anything, have no real purpose or subject.  They are art for the sake of art.

This generation of art was much about color and developed into what we know as pop art.  Andy Warhol is a great example of taking the ordinary and making it not so ordinary. 

 

 With the play of color and the knowledge of the eye, Max Wertheimer and two other psychologist formed the Gestalt theory.  One image having two different appearances depending on looking at negative or positive space created quite an interest.

The products of the Gestalt theory are also known as optical illusions.  Another interesting concept is the mind completing lines, words, and missing pieces.  The mind automatically fills in the blank and is able to see what is not really seen.