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Japanese Woodblock prints of the late Edo Period.

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  Introduction: The Edo period of Japan was one of the most influential and well-known eras of art from East Asia, spanning from about 1603 to 1867 in the Meiji restoration when power was restored to the Emperor rather than the military-powers of the Shogun. During this era the art of woodblock printing rose to popularity producing some of the most famous pieces of artwork not just in Japan but world wide using techniques similar to both woodworking and traditional canvas painting. There are various different subsets with in woodblock artwork, such as Sumizuri-e which uses exclusively black ink and sticks to monochrome work to Benizuri-e which used crimson paints with highlights in green. Chose to use Japanese woodblock prints mostly from them being among my favorite types of artwork. Everything about them is colorful and sharp, used for both as traditional artwork and as a method to use in a similar way to campfire stories telling myths and legends. Its a very diverse style of woodwor
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Mid-Modern and Minimalism.

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  What is Minimalism?      Minimalism, as the name suggests, is an art form which stays bare bones and relies on a show but don't tell mentality to convey its meaning. Minimalism is something that tries to remain calm and not something that shows off using mostly simple colors and shapes to create something bigger than the individual elements that make up the whole.       It rose to prominence during the 1950s and became popular widely during the 1960s. It is a sort of off-shoot of absurdist and abstract art, using unusual shapes and features but minimalism differs in how it is presented. It mirrored the trend that followed through out the 60s, in the era of the Space Race everything took on a sleek yet simple aesthetic. It also emerged as a response to abstract art, seeing it as too emotionally invested. Artists tended to keep emotional influence out of their work, putting more thought into the work itself rather than what it was meant to invoke. Examples of Minimalism Untitled -
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Early Modern Art.

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  Introduction to Dada and Surrealism: In the wake of the First World War, many were left broken emotionally and mentally turning their attention to the arts as a way of escape for the horrors endured. Veterans of the Western Front especially saw the worst of the fighting from their dark, damp, and cramped trench networks which spanned miles of once beautiful countryside into an artillery hammered, muddy hell of which there seemed to be no escape. Largely caused by unchecked nationalism and saber-rattling that fueled the war, dada and surrealism acted as a reaction towards those them by often depicting the senselessness of endeavors. Dada being German for 'yes yes' but with a nihilist sub tone and surrealism drawing from a dream-like nature, even nightmares.  Indeed many of the most well-known artists and writers of the 1920s and 30s were veterans of the Great War using their sorrow to fuel their passion of the arts, not only to help them escape from the hell on earth they had
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Realism and Post-Impressionism.

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Post-Impressionism and Realism; Realism had developed as a strong reaction opposed to romanticism, showing the nitty-gritty truths of the real world without covering up the hardships that truths untold. The world is and can be a bleak place where people can fall through the social cracks and slip into obscurity or be ignored, it is these kinds of people, places, and things that realism seeks to depict and explore. The subject matters which are shown in these kinds of paintings are the unfiltered and non-idealized truth of what happens on a farmstead with farmers tending to their crops or workers in an iron smelting plant, or just regular people sitting down at night resting.  Contrasted by Post-Impressionism which also depicts aspects and features of the real world, however it instead embraces how these things could or would make a person feel as opposed to an outright rejection of emotion for an unfiltered and gritty depiction of actual working life. Going back to the iron plant analo
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Classical Exhibit.

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 During 18th and early 19th century, two styles of art became greatly popular in Europe and the United States. These styles became known as Rococo and Neo-Classical, rococo tended to focus on people at play or relaxing using soft, pastel colors and people depicted typically in elegant clothing. Rococo tended to reflect the tastes and interests of the nobility of the era, often with an emphasis on pleasure and the joys of life. Contrasted by Neo-Classical, which tended to reflect more mature and somber subject matters with topics such as morals, virtue, idealism, with great inspiration from classical things such as the Romans or Greeks of the ancient world.  Napoleon Crossing the Alps - Jacques Louis David      Napoleon on his horse standing on top of the Alps has been an image ingrained in my head for the longest time, definitely one of the most famous paintings of its time at the height of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era, something that is intrinsic to what people ass
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Palace of Versailles

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Background: The Palace of Versailles is a stable of Baroque architecture and a cultural icon of France. Construction started in 1624 at the height of the 30 Years' War initially as the personal hunting lodge for King Louis XIII, as the years went by the palace would be enlarged by the chief architect and engineer Philibert Le Roy. It would be during this era of European history were France would become the dominant power as the Germanic powers of Central Europe under the Hapsburg were routed, this shifted the balance of power greatly.     Eventually more and more attention would grow onto the Palace, becoming the royal residence and home of the French royal family. They would even go as far as relocating to the town of Versailles along with the government, replacing Paris as the capital city for a time.
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The Last Judgment

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                                                                                                The Last Judgement - Michelangelo
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