ClappingTree’s Web 2.0

IT’S PROBABLY TIME TO HONOR a local talent. One of the very few living artists who has a museum dedicated in his name, at 460 Sims Avenue (near Geylang Lor 31), Singapore. Painter, calligrapher, poet, writer and philosopher Tan Swie Hian (TSH) received the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Crystal Award on 28th January 2003 in Davos, Switzerland - joining the ranks of Umberto Eco, Lord Menuhin, Paulo Coelho, Elie Wiesel…

A beautiful painting by TSH (on the right, above) is called the Night Kites. A critic (or admirer?) wrote that it is “an ecstatic phenomenon, a celebration of the power and the flux of creativity itself.” A friend commented that she could only see a stormy backdrop in this painting. For me, however, i see several orange butterfly-like kites flying above a gigantic lotus pond. Quite 诗情画意 (poetic). Yet, in a sense, this friend could be right. Maybe TSH is trying to show the triumph of one’s spirit in adversity through the soaring kites.

i guess this is the essence and beauty of abstract art — open interpretation. TSH’s art, btw, reminds me of Pollock’s. Just that TSH’s style at this point is perhaps more beautiful and controlled.

(Imported from a forum and edited.)

ANOTHER SPLASH INK MASTER I LIKE is Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) — he often dripped paint on canvas. “On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.”

Was he inspired by Zhang DaQian’s splash ink? (Or the other way round?) Read the rest of this entry »

POST-IMPRESSIONISM is an umbrella term used to describe artwork by various artists (such as Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, Paul Cezanne, George Seurat) who were influenced by Impressionism but took their art in different directions. S, what is IMPRESSIONISM?

According to Artcyclopedia: “Impressionism is a light, spontaneous manner of painting which began in France as a reaction against the formalism of the dominant Academic style. Its naturalistic and down-to-earth treatment of its subjects has its roots in the French Realism of Corot and others.”

The movement’s name came from Claude Monet’s early work, Impression: Sunrise in 1873. Monet painted this picture of the sun seen through mist at the harbour of Le Havre when he was staying there in the spring. A sketch quickly executed to catch the atmospheric moment. “The hallmark of the style is the attempt to capture the subjective impression of light in a scene.”

Other Impressionists include Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Gustave Caillebotte, Frederic Bazille, Edouard Manet, and Mary Cassatt.

(Imported from a forum and edited.)

(Extracted from a write-up in a prayer book by Fr Mark Link, sj.)

WHEN FRENCH IMPRESSIONIST PAINTER Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) was confined to his home during the last decade of his life, Henri Matisse was nearly 28 years younger than him. The two great artists were dear friends and frequent companions. Matisse visited him daily. Renoir, almost paralyzed by arthritis, continued to paint in spite of his infirmities. One day as Matisse watched the elder painter work in his studio, fighting torturous pain with each brush stroke, he blurted out: “Auguste, why do you continue to paint when you are in such agony?”

Renoir said: “The pain passes but the beauty remains.” So, Renoir continued to put paint to canvas. One of his most famous paintings, The Bathers, was completed 2 years before his death, 14 years after he got the disease.

(See also the Auguste Renoir page in the Web Museum.)