100 days painting — design reflection
Admiring famous painting has always been an important part of my life. The story behind painting itself and the painter gives me a lot of thoughts, which later often turn into my design inspiration. So, I decide to do this little project, one painting at a day, about 2 minutes’ reading. By doing this, I hope I can share some basic background knowledge as well as some color/design techniques about the painting with you. I will also tell you my reflection from this painting in the end (if there is any lol), you are very welcome to share your thoughts if you like.
Day 4 — Homage to Apollinaire
This painting was created by Marc Chagall during 1911–1912, when he was in Paris. Before I start, I think I should brief you on some background knowledge about Guillaume Apollinaire.
French poet and art critic Apollinaire was a close friend of Marc Chagall. He was also a vital figure of the avant-garde. His poetry, which was often concerned with the clash between the modern and the traditional, juxtaposed drastically different stylistic elements and had a profound influence on artists such as Georges Braque, Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso, as well as Chagall.
In this painting, there are a man and a woman whose bodies are joined at the hip, caught in an vortex that spits out fragmented geometric shapes in rose gold, olive, crimson, blue, pink, amber and maroon; part of a clock face with the vague number 9,10,11; and the author’s name which is inscribed twice — once in English and once as a linguistic amalgamation of Latin and Hebrew. In the bottom left-hand corner, Apollinaire’s name appears alongside those of Blaise Cendrars, a Swiss novelist and poet; Ricciotto Canudo, an early Italian film theoretician; and the German Expressionist artist Georg Lewin (aka Herwarth Walden). Together, the names form a square around a heart pierced by a single arrow, symbolizing love and suffering. This part tells us something about the company Chagall kept, and the cultural and intellectual melting pot that was bohemian Paris at the time.
I personally have some trouble interpreting this painting, so I looked up some sources online and below are my personal reflection.
The central motif is depicting a Bible story of the creation of Eve from the flank of Adam. As for the vortex and the clock, in Judeo-Christian doctrine, time began with the fall of man and the separation of the sexes. Considering the style presented, the celebrities names mentioned and the meaning conveyed, I feel that this painting indicates Chagall’s sense of being situated at a major crossroads in art history where visual art, poetry and philosophy were energetically intersecting, breaking up established conventions of painting. This may be a special way of Chagall showing his homage to his friend Apollinaire.
Design Reflection:
Use combination of motif, geometric shapes and stories to express feelings.
Color Palette:
