(February 20, 2018 at 5:26 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote: Look at those two paintings THIS way. They are not "trying to be weird." They express emotion mixed in with realism. For Nude in Bathtub, it may help to realize that the subject of the painting was the artist's wife who died of cancer years before he painted it. There is a lot of emotion conveyed in the distortion. The actual painting is really big too. Hard to coney it online. It's like 8 feet tall. When you stand in front of it, the colors really work on your eyes.
One does not need to know the cancer story in order to appreciate it, but it may help to view it with this in mind, as you can see it more as a peice that encapsulates the inward feeling involved in the expression... much like Van Gogh.
I think that's a bit what I meant by saying "trying to be weird." A lot of artists make an effort to do more than just paint what's in front of them. It doesn't always appeal to my eye. I'll give you that Nude in Bathtub is very creepy, which is probably because it was painted from pain. As for van Gogh, I don't know why his work appeals to me. I knew of it long before I knew of him. Maybe it's the use of color. Maybe I sensed the emotion. I don't know.
All of that said, I think people should like what they like when it comes to art. Life's too short.
