William Blake
To some a visionary, to others a over zealous spiritualist, Blake was an early Romanticist who spread his talent over three mediums: painting, poetry and printing. Blake carried a strong, almost anarchic voice throughout his work, a voice disgusted with sexual inequality, slavery and rigid social structures of the time, such as marriage, class and education. Despite Blake's modern outspokeness, he was a devout Christian and his archaic depiction of angels, demons and figures from the Bible reappear again and again in his work. Aesthetically, Blake had an extraordinary talent in watercolours and was able to depict dramatic scenes with body, texture and rhythm in this difficult medium usually associated with the realism movements. Blake's early life as an engraver lent to a blending of mediums, using his engravings to illustrate beautiful hand written copies of his poetry. Perhaps a favourite painting of his has to be 'Pity', and ink and watercolour epic which portrays an angelic rider galloping across a midnight sky, scooping up a baby from his dead mother lying on the ground. The stark contrast of inky blue sky and the luminous bodies show a overwhelming sense of sorrow and mysticism.
Vincent Van Gogh
As mentioned before, Van Gogh is another inspiration of mine, and yet another mad man added to the list. Sadly Van Gogh exists more of a name than a credible artist these days. Recently the press have been filled with new stories of Van Gogh's ear incident, proclaiming that it was Paul Gaugin, fellow artist who cut off said ear in a fight. This of course has little to do with Van Gogh's talents, which should exist on their own. Van Gogh experimented with compositon and technique, but I feel his earlier work inlcuding his Japanese wood prints were too forced and fashionable to create any resonance. 1888 was Van Gogh's penultimate year. An array of quickly created pieces, with looser compositions, heavy textured brushwork and vivid hues lent himself to become the most easily recognised painter of our times. Van Gogh was able to portray the bleakest, most depressing and mundane of scenes such as 'Still Life in Absinthe' and 'At Eternity's Gate'but also create spectacular, beautifully joyous impressions like 'The Starry Night' and 'Road with Cypress and Star' - landscapes turned fantasmagophical through the eyes of manic.
Wassily Kandinsky
I have had the pleasure to see Kandinsky's paintings in the flesh at Tate Modern and they certainly don't disappoint. Russian born Kandinsky formed an alliance other expressionists from Germany to create 'Der Blaue Reiter' (The Blue Rider)group which focused on presenting spiritual truths in their work. The group disbanded following the outbreak of World War I but Kandinksy continued to paint, concentrating now on abstract pieces. Kandinsky named the grandfather of abstract was inspired by music to create large canvases of clashing colour, shapes and squiggles which from afar look improvised, but at closer viewing you can see every shape was perfectly outlined to make this visible ochestra of colour. The childish, simple military theme of'Cossacks' and the complex blendings in 'Composition VII' Show Kandinsky as an experimental artist never afraid of modernity.
Franz Marc
Possibly my favourite artist of all time, Franz Marc's work has inspired my style unlike no other. Marc was another member of Kandinsky's 'Der Blaue Reiter' group and went on to paint some of the most iconic canvasses of the early Expressionism movement. Marc was obsessed with animals and their pure energies and was notable for painting in thick primary colours, limiting his palette to only the necessary colours of life. Blue was the most spiritual colours of all for Marc, and he usually limited this precious colour to the masculine strength of horses, which are predominant in his work. Likewise, it's contrasting colour yellow, was a symbol of spiritual femininity. 'Yellow Cow' painted in 1911 supposedly depicts Marc's joyous matrimony to Maria Franck. Marc's life came to a sudden end with the approach of the First World War. He was labelled a degenerate artist by the Nazis and many of his works were taken from museums in Germany. In 1916 Marc was one of the first Germans to be killed at the Battle of Verdun in France. Perhaps Marc's most poignant pieces is 'Fate of the Animals'painted in 1913 which depicts a number of animals caught in a cataclymsic rush of energies. Marc saw himself saw this piece as a fore-telling of the great war, 'It)is like a premonition of this war - horrible and shattering. I can hardly conceive that I painted it.'
There are so many more artists who I sadly do not have time to mention, but I consider these four the most prominent within my own work. For me the turn of the century, late 1800s, early 20th century was a pivotal moment for art. It was the beginning of modernity as society began to accept art as an expression rather than a two dimensional mirror of our lives. All these painters were revolutionaries in their own rights, and I hope in the future we can more artists who step up to the challenge.
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