November 28, 2014

At the Klee-and-Me Café...



... where were you in 2002?

(Images explained here. With more at "Only reason to analyze art is to figure out how to copy it.")

ADDED: I'm fascinated by what I missed/changed in trying to memorialize a drawing I wanted to be able to use. I put the top left eye outside of the line of the face and missed the way the right eye's edge extends just a tad over the line of the face and obviously didn't want to bother with that business hanging down from it. I lost the scrunched-uppedness of the nose and mouth on the lower face, and — as I see it now — have ended up with a caricature of my own mother. Meanwhile, Klee's face looks a bit like Roger Ebert.

14 comments:

traditionalguy said...

Klee's. Elbert looks like a man in shorts, which you could not bring yourself to allow.

Anonymous said...

A few that I love AND could also find online:

Tightrope Walker

Red Balloon

Arches of the Bridge Stepping Out of Line

Fruits on Red

Anonymous said...

Re: "and obviously didn't want to bother with that business hanging down from it."

It is the most intricately drawn element in the Klee piece, and it is what attracts my eye the least: I keep getting drawn back to the simplicity of the eyes.

Drago said...

You didn't miss anything.

There is no such thing as objective truth.

Only our different interpretations.

Your rendition is "your truth" and cannot, under any circumstances, be deemed to be "missing" anything.

Double plus: criticism of your rendition is a micro-aggression and another example of #WarOnWomen.

Heartless Aztec said...

Knicking technique from great artists is about on par with knicking licks from great guitar players. We've all done it... I've knicked from Tony Gibbons (maritime art) and Chuck Berry (guitar riffs) for decades. Then I use their techniques to build and originate my own art and music.

Anonymous said...

Too bad you don't play Xbox 360 Althouse. My buddy and I could use a third for Destiny.

Pure art.

Ann Althouse said...

@ surfed

It's standard art-training practice to copy great works of art. You're supposed to do it.

And this Paul Klee thing was about extracting ideas to be applied to new and different works.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

The power has been out here in NH since Wednesday evening, and it probably won't be back on until Sunday. I am thankful that I was doing Thanksgiving in Maine. I'm back in NH now, and I'm thankful for a generator and my cell phone data plan.

pm317 said...

It's standard art-training practice to copy great works of art. You're supposed to do it.

Hey, I didn't know that.. I don't feel so bad then.

Anonymous said...

It has been driving me nuts all day. More nuts than normal, but for a longer period of time.

In the very late eighties (which means I include the early nineties) I was at a gallery in San Francisco that had several works from a local artist.

All ddid nothing for me -- seen it before, better.

But one.

There was one that I stared at forever. My girlfriend (of the time) kept tugging my arm to go look at the bigger name artists, but I couldn't walk away: enamored.

All of the other paintings were glides of color with passive-aggressive swashes of primary strokes. But the ONE: totally different. It had several points of focus -- narrative -- that I could not let go.

Tried to copy the style from memory for six months, maybe longer, until I couldn't quite remember what I was trying to capture.

If he was some minor rock musician of the Eighties I'd probably remember his name, but him: I cannot bring it to mind.

San Francisco Artist of That Time Period in That Gallery: that one Painting Changed My World.


Anonymous said...

Althouse continues to show us her feats of Klee.

Anonymous said...

Drago said...
You didn't miss anything.

There is no such thing as objective truth.

Only our different interpretations.
******

People who believe that crap should remember it that the next time they get on an airplane and expect to live to reach their destination.

Is e=mc**2 an interpretation of the truth?

David said...

Mom says thanks a bunch.

Anonymous said...

"There is no such thing as objective truth."

Self refuting.