Art Wraps of Wabash County Preview

1

Southeast Corner of Wabash and Canal St.

Color Study: Squares with Concentric Circles, Wassily Kandinsky, 1913.Medium: Watercolor & Goache PaintsStyle: Abstract Born in Moscow, Kandinsky is considered the pioneer of abstract art. Originally intended to be a practice piece to experiment with how different color combinations are perceived, this study is the artist's most famous work of art! Painting within the time of Expressionism, Kandinsky reflects the movement's desire to express emotion in art by using bold colors, lines, and distorted figure. This work is painted with goache, which is similar to watercolor paint, but is thick and opaque.

2

Northeast Corner of Wabash and Market St.

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Georges-Pierre Seurat, 1884.Medium: Oil PaintStyle: Neo-ImpressionistLa Grande Jatte is a park in Paris, France and is an island in the Seine River. This Pointillism piece, which is made of "dots" of color to create a larger image, is actually quite large at 7 feet by 10 feet. With what resembles scientific precision, Seurat tackled the issues of color, light, and form. Inspired by research in optical and color theory, he used tiny dabs of colors that, through optical blending, form a single and luminous hue.

3

Southeast Corner of Market and Miami St.

La Terrasse du Café du Glacier, Léon Joseph Voirin, 1882.Medium: Oil PaintStyle: ImpressionistEnjoy this painting of an outdoor café in 1880s Paris while visiting Wabash's own downtown coffee shop! Léon Joseph Voirin and his twin brother Jules-Antoine built successful careers as French genre painters-- meaning they drew inspiration from everyday experiences in France. Voirin paints within the Impressionist movement, which is seen in his use of brushstroke and color to capture the warm light of a Parisian morning and his attention to urban, everyday people.

4

Southeast Corner of Cass and Market St.

The Dance Class II, Edgar Degas, 1874.Medium: Oil PaintStyle: ImpressionistDegas is considered one of the founders of the Impressionist movement because of his use of light, pose, brushstroke, and color, all seen in the painting here. He is most famous for his paintings of ballerinas that he made while visiting dance classes at the old Paris Opera House.In this painting, more than twenty figures can be seen, including the conductor, Jules Perrot, a famous ballet master from around the time Degas paints.

5

Northeast Corner of Cass and Canal St.

The Railway (The Gare Saint-Lazare), Édouard Manet, 1873.Medium: Oil PaintStyle: ImpressionistManet's parents finally let him become a painter after he refused to go to law school and failed the naval exam twice. Throughout his career, Manet displayed a bold style, contemporary subject matter, and a determination to challenge traditional models, which all contributed to his reputation now as a father of modern art.Though Manet did not like to be called an Impressionist, this painting shows Impressionistic themes in its depiction of the more urban side of Paris and Manet's use of loose, more abstract brushstrokes.

6

Northwest Corner of Canal and Miami St.

Downtown Wabash Street Scene, Terry Pulley, 2016.Medium: Acrylic PaintStyle: Impressionist & ExpressionistAs a hometown artist, Pulley captures the authentic charm and beauty of downtown Wabash with each brushstroke. He claims that his dynamically layered still lifes and landscapes are inspired by the beauty of Northern Indiana. Though he is often called an Impressionist, Pulley sets his focus more on his inward expression of a subject than trying to capture its exact representation.

7

Northeast Corner of Wabash and LaFontaine Ave.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾 北斎, 1832.Medium: Color Woodblock PrintStyle: Edo PeriodThis piece is Hokusai's most famous from his Japanese woodblock series called "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji". Hokusai cleverly played with perspective to make Japan's grandest mountain appear as just a small triangular mound within the hollow of the cresting wave.It may look like a painting, but this is actually a woodblock print, meaning the artist chiseled away at a piece of wood until they had the desired image. They then applied paint or ink to the block and pressed it onto paper like a stamp. This is done with several different blocks to achieve a full, layered painting.

8

Southeast Corner of Southwood Dr and Wabash St.

The Poppy Field near Argenteuil, Claude Monet, 1875.Medium: Oil PaintStyle: ImpressionistThis is one of Monet's first landscapes to be painted "en plein air," or outdoors. His wife, Camille, and son, Jean, are painted here taking a walk through the poppy fields near their home in Argenteuil, France. Monet uses color and his signature stippled brushstroke to create the vibrant atmosphere of a stroll on a summer's day.Monet is most famous for two series of paintings he completed: water lilies and haystacks. The latter consisted of 25 paintings of nearly the same image during different light, times of day, seasons, and weather conditions.

9

Northwest Corner of Stitt and Wabash St.

Paris Street: Rainy Day, Gustave Caillebotte, 1877.Medium: Oil PaintStyle: ImpressionistThis painting, which shows a busy 1860s Paris intersection, is considered Caillebotte's masterpiece. The full painting measures to be a huge 7 by 10 feet and can be seen at the Art Institute of Chicago. Caillebotte captured modern city life complete with life-size figures strolling in the foreground and wearing the latest fashions. This combined with the highly detailed surface and stark perspective earned it acclaim that has lasted to this day.

10

Northeast Corner of Miami and Stitt St.

Irises, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889.Medium: Oil PaintStyle: Post-ImpressionistThis was the first painting that Van Gogh completed while staying at an institution in France for isolation and recovery from amputating his ear. In this year before his death, Van Gogh created almost 130 paintings. He painted Irises from the institutions' garden, creating each flower uniquely, giving them a variety of curved silhouettes and twisting lines after intricately studying their movements. Irises held the record for the most expensive artwork sold in 1987, when it sold for $53.9 million dollars (well over $100 million dollars today!).

11

Northeast Corner of Cass and Stitt St.

Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889.Medium: Oil PaintStyle: Post-ImpressionistThis is a nighttime view from Van Gogh's room at the same institution where he painted Irises. The swirls, colors, and trees are all symbolic of his emotions at the time, and the brightest star you see in the painting is actually the planet Venus.In his works, Van Gogh anticipates the Expressionist movement and its desire to showcase the artist's internal emotion by distorting color, line, and figure.

12

Northeast Corner of Main and Market St.

Composition VIII, Wassily Kandinsky, 1923.Medium: Oil PaintStyle: AbstractThis is the eighth in a series of paintings where Kandinsky painted what music sounded like to him. Today, the artist is believed to have had synesthesia, meaning he could "hear colors" and "see sounds." In these compositions, Kandinsky would carefully pick out the colors and shapes he wanted to use, believing that each had a different spiritual property and emotional impact upon the viewer.The painting was also one of the first purchases made by Solomon Guggenheim, which later became an item in the famous museum in New York.

13

Northeast Corner of Main and Market St.

Celebrating North Manchester, Susan Ring, 2018.Medium: WatercolorStyle: Realism & RomanticismRing drew all nine buildings by hand with a pencil. Then the hometown artist added watercolor to keep a soft, but recognizable subject matter. This North Manchester resident works mainly in watercolors and oils, and much of her work takes inspiration from the beauty of Northern Indiana.

14

Southwest Corner of Main and Mill St.

The Boulevard of Montmartre on a Winter Morning, Camille Pissarro, 1897.Medium: Oil PaintStyle: ImpressionistThis painting shows Pissarro's view from his room at the Grand Hôtel de Russie in Paris. Many other Impressionist artists, like Monet, were abandoning cityscapes, but Pissarro embraced them. He did 14 paintings of this exact view during different seasons and times of the day.Though this was painted at the end of the Impressionist Era, it perfectly reflects the ideas of the movement. Pissarro uses cool light, muted colors, and a stippled brush to create the effect of a cold, foggy winter morning in Paris.

15

Northwest Corner of 114 and 13

Contra-Composition of Dissonances, Theo van Doesburg, 1925.Medium: Oil PaintStyle: AbstractThe artist was born Christian Emil Marie Küpper, but changed his name when he became a self-taught painter. Theo van Doesburg developed a new art movement called De Stijl ("the style" in Dutch), which focused on using shapes and primary colors, like in this painting.Van Doesburg was inspired by Wassily Kandinsky who made him realize that there was a more spiritual level in painting that comes from the mind rather than from everyday life, which led him logically to a career in abstraction.