Creative Assignment 1

Pablo Picasso  The Old Guitarist

Leonardo da Vinci Last Supper

Vincent van Gogh Sunflower

Gustave Caillebotte Paris Street: Rainy Day

Pablo Picasso  The Old Guitarist

Pablo Picasso dominated the development of the visual arts during the first half of the 20th century.  In the The Old Guitarist, Picasso worked with a monochromatic palette, flattened forms, and tragic, sorrowful themes.
The tragic themes and expressive style of Picasso's Blue Period began after a close friend committed suicide in Paris. During this time, the artist was sympathetic to the plight of the downtrodden and painted many canvases depicting the miseries of the poor, the ill, and those cast out of society.

However, in my version of The Old Guitarist, he is physically poor but mentally strong.  Playing an instrument and painting are high level of human needs, which are spiritual expression no matter he is happy or sad. Me in the picture still have sorrowful feels and the old guitarist inside, but going through these spiritual expressions I find the relief. In the original paint, it is monochromatic and flat. I intentionally introduce movements in my work, either flying music notes or bold strips, which depict a different mindset of the old guitarist. Though he is going through hard times, he still finds encourage and hope.

Gustave Caillebotte Paris Street: Rainy Day

In Gustave Caillebotte's masterpiece, Paris Street; Rainy Day, he brought an unusual monumentality and compositional control to a typical Impressionist subject, the new boulevards that were changing the Paris cityscape. The result is at once real and contrived, casual and choreographed. With its curiously detached figures, the canvas depicts the anonymity that the boulevards seemed to create. The painting delineates the Paris city life in the late 19th century with symbolic dark color clothing and umbrella.

In my appropriation, I choose New York City as the background for showing the modern city life. The flatiron building district has similar city scene as the original painting, busy streets, people in black suits, and even the placement of light poles. In order to state the advancement of technology and change in lifestyle, in new version, we have cars, skyscrapers, different styles of clothings. However, the mindset is the same.