Balloon Dog (Magenta)

Anirudh Vadlamani
Jeff Koons, Balloon Dog (Magenta), 1996
By ANIRUDH VADLAMANI

On November 14, 2013, Jeff Koons broke the record for the most expensive artwork created by a living artist when he sold his Balloon Dog for display in the Chateau of Versailles for a record $58.4 million dollars. This seems like a lot, but Jeff Koons'  work has been selling for astronomical values since the inception of his work back in 1979, when he released his Equilibrium series. Since then, Koons has found success in his massive stainless steel, mirror finished, sculptures.

The majority of Koons' fame came from his 1995 works called "Celebration." Celebration saw Koons begin to play with the idea of massive steel works. He began playing with mirror finishes as well. From this was born his first set of balloon works, the orange balloon dog and his tulips, now in Bilbao. These works gave Koons immediate success. He claimed his work had no secret meanings or ulterior motive other than the pure purpose of pure enjoyment. Because of this, his work has suffered little actual criticism. However, when the Chateau of Versailles bought his balloon dog, there was a lot of controversy and confusion. How could they put a massive balloon dog in the once palace of Louis XIV.

Despite the criticism, Koons still garners a lot of respect as one of the best modern sculptors today. While his works may not represent much, they are pleasing to the eyes, and my favorite works of modern art. Sometimes, simple is the most elegant.
  • 7:00 PM

Several Circles

Anirudh Vadlamani
 Wassily Kandinsky, Several Circles, 1926
By ANIRUDH VADLAMANI

A space is any continuous area or expanse that is free, available, or unoccupied. So any viewer who sees this and thinks of the outer space would not be wrong to think so. This painting does represent space, just not the space the viewer was probably thinking of.

During his illustrious career where he garnered attention for being an impeccable painter as well as philosopher, Kandinsky heavily believed in an art style defined as "theosophy." Theosophy is the idea that creation is a geometrical progression from a single point, and every creative element of the work is generated from the original central point. Kandinsky wrote two books on theosophy during his career. With the second book, Point and Line to Plane, he released this painting to help amplify his point.

This painting helps define the theory of theosophy. Kandinsky starts the work from the direct center of the painting. From there, he sketches two circles. From the larger black circle, he follows it to the bottom and defines a new point of origin, and generates more circles from that point. While this sounds maddening, in the end, the work looks as it does now. A mess? Absolutely not. A calculated, geometrical masterpiece.

Kandinsky's works means nothing when its explained in such crude terms. To me, Kandinsky is a painter of feelings. Upon first inspection it looks like outer space and a bunch of colorful planets. However, if I look deeper, the other space I talked about earlier emerges. Eternal nothingness. The beauty of just general emotion, emerging from the center point, with hues of more nothing, but surrounded by a calming blue. Follow the blue and you see even warmer colors: light olive greens, violet, orange, and light pinks. I will not define each color because these should mean something else, to every different individual. 
  • 7:00 PM

Bedouins

Anirudh Vadlamani
Bedouins, John Singer Sargent, 1905

BY ANIRUDH VADLAMANI

There is a certain mystical presence in every one of Sargent's works, even when just viewing a duplication from a computer screen. Perhaps that is why this painting speaks to me. It is as if I was taken and dropped into a "Prince of Persia" game, or transported back in time to the rural settlement in the Arabian desert with masked people, who despite living in the harshest conditions, find comfort in their lives. These people are known as the Bedouin.

The Bedouin are an arabic group which span across much of Northern Africa and the Middle East. Within their vast span, they roam in packs, in arabic known as عَشَائِر, or ashāʾir (for you users of the roman alphabet). Each individual ashāʾir has their own set of values and clothes, wearing different designs to represent their own individual clan. The lighter the hues, the closer they are to Saharan Africa, the darker the colors, the closer they are to the Middle-East. 

John Singer Sargent made over 2,000 water color portraits during his illustrious career. However, no set of paintings spoke more than the set he made during his frequent visits to the Middle-East. During this time, he frequently visited a portion of Bedouin nomads who traversed the Arabian desert. On one of his journeys, he allowed the renowned French-American painter to paint them, as they found suitable conditions for living. The result was the masterpiece above.

This painting is a superb water color portrait. However, upon first viewing, I missed what made the painting so beautiful. The water color runs down the portrait, draping the clothes as well as perfectly fading some portions of the painting. Usually fading isn't a good thing in art, but in this case, the faded patterns on the chests of these men as well as the smudged faded edges along the top of their drapery is impeccable, and perfectly employed. It is portions of the painting like this that employ the deft touch only an artist like John Singer Sargent can employ.



  • 7:00 AM

Fêtes and Folly: What I Believe

Anirudh Vadlamani
Paul Cadmus, What I Believe, 1933
By ANIRUDH VADLAMANI

There is far too much folly in this painting. While I am no stranger to strange choices in paintings which (I hope) make one or two viewers uncomfortable, even I am thrown off by this painting. And for that reason, it would be criminal if I didn't share my views on this "modern masterpiece" (as Cadmus puts it).  However, despite harsh criticism, this painting has an underlying value that is far more important than the apparent strangeness thatsits before us.

Paul Cadmus is no stranger to works that incite ridicule from the intended audience. However, this painting incites the aforementioned ridicule in a different way to his other paintings. In most of Cadmus's paintings, he extenuates the nude male figure in very uncomfortable ways (like the ways above). Why is the man on the bottom covering his head, while some woman reads on his upper buttock? However, the most puzzling mystery in this painting is the fact that along the right border in the middle is a little baby, right next to the woman with the nipples the size of Mt. Everest? Who invited this baby to this... social gathering of nude adults. There is no way any of the happenings in this painting are PG.

While Cadmus's portrayal of the human figure is strange, it is accurate. He has spent long periods of time studying the male figure (with some of his methods being unorthodox for his time). However, in terms of proportions, all of his measurements are very accurate. It is the aforementioned accuracy that rose him to prominence during the World War II period?

I've been wanting to write about Paul Cadmus for a very long time now, however, have never had the opportunity, as none of his paintings seemed to fit any certain art style. This painting is part of a movement of America known as "Social Realism." This time period is almost exclusive to the United States with only a few other English Artists joining the movement. This period places a heavy focus on the struggles of the impoverished and needy, which was prevalent during his time (Great Depression).

This painting in particular shows a heaven-like place in the forefront of the painting with many of the characters in the painting frolicking in their nudeness. However, in the back, many others look upon these people, jealous or disappointed that their lives aren't the same way. Similarly, many impoverished, struggling to eat enough food or provide a roof for their families (or even themselves), looked upon the aristocrats and landlords (the top .1% of Americans) who took advantage of the system enough to have 20% of all money in the United States.

While initially this painting comes off as strange or joking, Cadmus created a painting which accurately depicts the wealth gap during the time it was created. The top .1% were able to enjoy their lives, and ignored the pain and depression that overcame the rest of 99.9% of Great Depression America.

*** Editor's Note: Students developed the topic of Fêtes and Folly to chronicle elegant celebrations, bad dates, late nights, or other things related to that time in Spring where barbaric yawps can be heard from backyards, beaches, or the more familiar rooftop. Enjoy their revelry, cheeky overstatement, and occasional tales of ribaldry over the next couple of weeks.

  • 7:00 AM

Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors

Anirudh Vadlamani
Marcel Duchamp, Bride Stripped Bare by her Suitors, 1915
By ANIRUDH VADLAMANI

In my very first Art History blog post, the young, naive Anirudh Vadlamani decided to write about Marcel Duchamp's Bride, an intricate piece (I referenced it as a curious debacle I would never truly understand), which captivated my curiosity. I appropriately called myself an Art History noob, only hoping that this class I took almost solely because my sister had such great success in it, would incite some small bit of culture in me. I was captivated, and I feel almost a year and a half later, I would write about the other Duchamp painting I referenced in my first blog post. This is the Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors. 

This painting is referenced as Duchamp's Large Glass Pane by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and depicts the "erotic" encounter between the bride and the men in the first pane, and in the second pane, in "excruciating detail," outline the men, fearlessly gathered around the woman, dominating her, dress flown across the edge of the bottom. The men, are depicted in a heavier brown town compared to the lady, who sits in a washed beige. However, the men sit rigid in their motion, prompting critics to refer to them as the "Bachelor Machine." 

Critics have further referred to the men as the "Love Machine" (Oh My!); however, this is far from the truth. In fact, this is more of a machine of suffering. The bride hangs from a rope, in her own isolated cage, hanging in her misery while all of the bachelors sit, sexually frustrated in agonizing abstinence. While they long to be with the bride, her cold separation from them sets them up into a confused sadness.

Duchamp's industrialist style of construction allows the seasoned Art Historian and the "noob" Art Historian alike to draw their own conclusions based on what they personally see. The best part of the Bride series  is how open they are to be mentally picked apart by the viewer. While naive Art History student me wasn't completely wrong about the "innocent beauty" of the bride, it seems almost certain, years later, that the bride is anything but. This makes me proud to be a student in this class for two years. While the obvious switch from Renaissance to Modern art was an obvious influence on my ideas now, over the last year or so, my knowledge has greatly expanded. While I'm reaching the end of my tenure in this class, I am proud to have come this far. In the future, who knows, maybe ill critique this piece with another piece, possessing even more knowledge of art. 
  • 7:00 AM

Paul Ranson as Prophet

Anirudh Vadlamani
Paul Serusier, Paul Ranson as Prophet, 1890
By ANIRUDH VADLAMANI

Les Nabis was a decorative period of art which focused on vibrant colors and extravagant landscapes. Well, that's the problem, was. Nabi in arabic stands for "prophet." A period that started out with good intentions quickly became a massive bloodbath between faction-like groups of artists. It was a full on bloodbath, painter vs painter, spearheaded by the prophet and founder of the movement, Paul Ranson. Ranson was so inspired by the works of Paul Gauguin that he claimed the painting spoke to him, and they asked him to create the movement we now know as Les Nabis.

The wondrous painting before us was painted after a long conversation between Ranson and Serusier. After which, Ranson explained the movement to Serusier. Serusier was so moved, he sketched Ranson, mid-rant, and transferred said sketch onto a canvas with a scepter and a bible. Many critics find the painting highly satirical. The obvious sign of this is the fact that Ranson appears to be giving the bird to the bible (middle finger to religion). This is representative of Serusier ditching his old religion of Christianity for the new concept of "Les Nabis" (which isn't even a religion). 

While the Era started out with good intentions with artworks such as Serusier's Talisman, Paul Ranson as Prophet, and Ranson's Nabi Landscape, it quickly turned for the worst. The dispute started when another famous Nabi artist, Maurice Denis, used Paul Ranson's wife as the model for the women in all of his paintings. The strangest part was that Maurice had never seen Paul Ranson's wife. There are numerous theories that Denis had met his wife during a day trip to Limognes (they are all from France), and coincidentally sketched her not knowing that she was the self-proclaimed prophet's wife. After much dispute between Denis and Ranson, Ranson decided finish the movment since participating artists, in his mind, had lost their vision of his original plan.
  • 7:00 AM

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza

Anirudh Vadlamani
Honore Daumier, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza,  1866
By ANIRUDH VADLAMANI

 "Y salen los dos, en una aventura legendaria. Sancho Panza, el mejor compañero, y Don Quijote. Los dos encuentro un gigante poderoso." - Miguel Cervantes, Don Quixote

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza has always had a special place in my heart... or at least since last year when I based an entire Spanish movie plot off of a portion of the book. However, this is not about me or my wacky adventure playing Don Quixote's confused companion, Sancho Panza. This is about how Honore Daumier perfectly captures the obsessive, stern composure of the "great knight" Don Quixote, and the quizzical confusion of his chubby buddy on the donkey, Sancho Panza.

Throughout the original novel, Don Quixote is some whack-job who fantasizes about being a hero. He creates numerous situations and, with the help of Sancho, fights away the monsters or terror he thinks up. However, Sancho is never able to see the monsters. He blindly follows Don Quixote no matter where he goes. Whether the monsters are prisoners in a jail they broke into, or a wind-mill believed to be a giant, Sancho believes Don and fights alongside him in order to defend the people of the town.
In this painting, Daumier draws the mountains in such a way, that it cuts Sancho on his donkey, Dapple, away from the proud Don who rides into the distance. The mountains act as a line of sanity. On one side is Don who has lost all sense and fights these mythical beasts which do not in reality exist, while the other side has Sancho Panza, who questions Don's sanity, but blindly follows him into whatever challenge he and his ego get into.


  • 7:00 AM

Art History Hotties: The Dying Slave

Anirudh Vadlamani
 Michelangelo, Dying Slave,1513-1515
By ANIRUDH VADLAMANI

Oh my! How dominating, how erotic. One would never guess this was a Dying Slave. The only thing dying about this slave is them abs if you know what I mean. Could you believe that this work was unfinished? I didn't either until I looked down, which didn’t happen until about an hour of exposure, no pun intended. 

However, I can tell you, I was not looking at the legs. Yeah, you know what I was looking at. It was his beautiful face, bleeding with passion for Christ. The original work was to be placed around Christ's tomb. It was only ever rejected because it was too big to fit.  It was originally with its pair, the rebellious slave, but they say the two contrasted each other, but in my opinion, the other one got jealous. 

In contrast to the active struggle featured in the Rebellious Slave, the Dying Slave shows a more passive struggle, as he looks like he’s fallen victim to some kind of intoxicant, the intoxicant being the mirror he looked into this morning. Some would ask where his clothes are. However, the truth is, you don’t need clothes when you are that comfortable and that beautiful in the nude. 

The Dying Slave is a true artistic masterpiece. It insights the most voluptuous of emotions, but at the same time, demands respect. I would love to see the dying slave, even if it was unsuccessful in guarding the tomb of Christ. The seven-foot wonder, I think anybody would fall victim to its charm, male or female.

  • 7:00 AM

Summer Scene

Anirudh Vadlamani
Jean-Frederic Bazille, Summer Scene, 1869
by ANIRUDH VADLAMANI

 Gay Chaps At the Bar
by Gwendolyn Brooks

We knew how to order. Just the dash
Necessary. The length of gayety in good taste.
Whether the raillery should be slightly iced
and given green, or served up hot and lush.
And we knew beautifully how to give to women
The summer spread, the tropics, of our love.
When to persist, or hold a hunger off.
Knew white speech. How to make a look an omen.
But nothing ever taught us to be islands.
And smart athletic language for this hour
Was not in the curriculum. No stout
Lesson showed hot to chat with death. We brought
No brass fortissimo, among our talents,
To holler down the lions in this air,

Editor's Note: Students were asked to match a poem of their choice with a painting of their choice. The relationship between the two shall be determined by the viewer/reader.


  • 7:00 AM

Sunrise by the Ocean

Anirudh Vadlamani
Vladimir Kush, Sunrise by the Ocean, 2011
BY ANIRUDH VADLAMANI

I dedicate this work to the one person who loves eggs more than I do, my sister, Shweta, I hope that you are having an egg-celent day. To a former Art History student to a current art History student, I give you a truly eggs-plosive painting. We have our personal troubles, but I think we can egg-nore that even if it is just for a little while. You must be confused by this blog post and its ok, I would too. Just whisk and move on. The yolk will dry up with enough heat.

I think you should find it just as enjoyable as me that the first thing I saw in this painting was you. We truly are two chickens from the same roost, one is just higher up in the sky than the other. You can decide who is who to avoid conflict. I would say that we are just two yolks of the same albumen, but if we were locked within the walls of a membrane, one of us would break out sooner than the other one just to avoid the scrambling that would occur.

You are three years and eleven months older than me, and thus, you are three years and eleven months wiser.than me. I think there are so many times where I actually have the better perspective of a situation than you, but omelettin' this slide. There are some days where you egg-nore me, and some days where you won't leave me alone, but at the end of the day, you are the closest thing to me in this world at the cellular level. I think we hatch ourselves a lot of good ideas and, to end this on the sunny side up.


To you, I give this Vladimir Kush painting. Merry Christmas Shweta, much love and happiness to you and congratulations on your acceptance into medical school. I don't say it very often, but I am glad I have you around. You are a wise chicken over my small, chick, shoulders.


  • 7:00 AM

Rain, Steam, and Speed

Anirudh Vadlamani

J.M.W. Turner, Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway, 1844
BY ANIRUDH VADLAMANI

Imagine you were dropped onto a flat plain. There is a large gorge, and in it is a river that sits around twenty to thirty feet below you. Falling in would need immediate death. However, among many things concerning the beauty of the scenery, among them is clarity. You see the land on the other side of the gorge very clearly. Fast forward forty years. The two separate land masses are joined by a massive bridge with tracks extending both ways beyond the eye can see. The once clear air is filled with smog. All that is visible now is the dark outline of the bridge and the hard, defined lines of the new train, emerging from the darkness.

Standing at three feet by four feet, the water color portrait was one in a series of landscapes. Each of the series was set in a different location in nature and contains some allusion to the Industrial Revolution, a technological boom which saw an increase in ease of living. For Turner in particular, he used the new means of travel as still-lifes in these portraits. In this painting in particular, all the viewer can see upon first glance is the train and the smog excreted from the train. Upon further viewership, one can see the land mass beyond the bridge as well as the beautiful blue water and sky which lies below it and above it.

Turner's friends, or who he thought were his friends, called this series of paintings "yellow fever" because of his almost obsession with the color yellow. The color, as expressed by the smog in this particular one, dominates this series of paintings. The more and more you look at it, the more obscure everything becomes. Another major theme of this series was the industrial revolution. Turner was excited by the influx of new technology. In this painting in particular, Turner places a heavy emphasis on his fascination with the new technology, as it blurs and smears the surroundings. It also focuses only on the bright hue of the river readily visible alongside the train.

While I could simply say "What the Hammer" and say that this particular painting was an open letter of appreciation for locomotion (depicting one of the first forms of facilitated transportation), I will go a step further. I say, "What the anvil? what dread grasp,/Dare its deadly terrors clasp!" In my opinion, this painting is not an ode to the train, it is a warning. While today, nobody is surprised to hear that emissions from coal erodes the ozone, there was no scientific evidence of the consequence back in 1840. Turner foresaw the consequence of such an ease in movement. While he didn't know quite know what that consequence was, he knew it existed.






  • 7:00 AM

Cupid and Psyche

Anirudh Vadlamani
Jacques Louis-David,Cupid and Psyche, 1817
By ANIRUDH VADLAMANI

Perhaps this is the first time the phrase "Mr. Steal-your-girl" was coined. Cupid has his body positioned around an unsuspecting Psyche, who wraps her hand around his upper thigh, unbeknownst to the sexual context already presented by his smirk and posture. He allows his bow to slip from his back onto the cold floor, sliding into the covers of the maiden. How appropriate of David, in the time of his exile, to paint something so visually pleasing, uncharacteristic of his persona and usual self.

The oil on canvas, standing at 184 cm by 241 cm, was painted by David shortly after the end of the French Revolution and during his early exile in Brussels. David was a successful political painter at this point, and despite his knack for inspiring propaganda, he decided to create this painting to show the government that he was making a transition away from his more somber, moralizing themes of his past. He completed the work in the early months of 1817. Originally, the painting incited a slight rebellion among art critics in Brussels, but as time went on, they found that the younger generation found it pleasing. I can't imagine why.

The story between Cupid and Psyche is strange in itself. Venus, overcome by her jealousy of Psyche's beauty, sends Cupid to make her fall in love with the most grotesque, despicable man she sees. However, upon seeing her, he himself falls in love with her. He snatches her away, locking her away in his palace, making love to her every night. The painting shows him on one of these nights, sneaking away just at the break of dawn, smirking, as she still doesn't know the identity of the man who sleeps with her every night. The painting is strange because in usual lore, Cupid is an adolescent. However, in the picture, he seems to be a grown up man, smirking, as he canoodles with a woman he quite fancies.

I was immediately drawn to the smirk, unbeknownst to me that that young man was Cupid. However, as I looked deeper into the painting, I found Psyche more and more attractive (in the least perverted way possible). Her flesh is pale, however, it exudes beauty and health. Unlike usual paleness which signifies death, her flesh seems lush and beautiful. David does an incredible job showing his fresh start to painting. Who can blame Cupid for being a little self-satisfied?

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