Mid-Morning Art Thread [Kris]

Mont Saint-Michel, Setting Sun
Paul Signac

Paul Signac grew up in a Parisian neighborhood popular with early modernist artists. He attended some of the exhibitions of the Impressionists and was attracted to the art of Claude Monet. Later, he would collaborate with Georges Seurat and help develop the style now known as Pointillism.

Pointillism applies pure colors to the canvas as dots or points of paint without blending. Colors are placed side-by-side, but sometimes the bare canvas can show in between the daubs. This technique breaks down the fundamental trait of painting – the colors – reducing them to their most elemental form. It was thought that the dots will then visually react according to their relationship with each other and the viewer. If the viewer stands close to the work, the pigments are separate and individual. The overall image is lost to a crowd of dots and brushstrokes. As he gradually steps backward, they visually merge, blending in the eye and revealing the image. Called optical mixture, it is an attempt to mix art and science.

Mont Saint-Michel, Setting Sun shows both Monet’s influences on Signac, and Signac’s experimentation with visual blending. Mont Saint-Michel is a medieval abbey off the coast of Normandy, France. The site is a semi-island that only becomes connected to the mainland at low tide. The scene painted by the artist is foggy which dulls the light some. Only the radiant oranges of the sunset breaks through.

This work is not about Mont Saint-Michel. It is about color. The artist uses the time of day and the atmospheric conditions to reduce the jumble of architectural forms and textures to basic geometric shapes. At dusk the sky starts to darken and the clouds turn pink. These are reflected in the shallow water in the foreground, and together, frames the center image. The light pinks and blues also contrast with the vivid oranges and deep blues and purples that construct the buildings, making Mont Saint-Michel stand out more.

Unlike the curvy shapes that make up the sky and land, the island’s buildings are formed by geometric shapes and lines. The many additions to the monument over the centuries have created a network of squares and rectangles and vertical and horizontal lines that create surfaces for highlights and shadows.

Zoom into this piece. See how Signac applied the paints. At first, they seem to be applied in a haphazard manner. As I keep looking however, I can see the plan of the composition. Above I wrote how orange and blue “construct the buildings”. This work is about how the light of the setting sun looks through a coastal haze when reflected off a particular surface. This is the influence of the Impressionists and Monet. Signac goes further, though. He divides the colors into their basic hues. In some cases, he places them right next to each other – orange next to blue next to pink – almost on top of each other, allowing them to react and clash with one another. Orange and blue are complementary, or opposite, colors that, to me, vibrate and glow. They define the edges of the buildings. The radiance of the orange counters the coolness of the blue. Since blue is a major color in the whole painting, orange provides a glaring accent that can’t be ignored. Blue tends to blend into the rest of the landscape, but the orange almost explodes off the canvas. It seems to advance towards me while the blue recedes. Together, they create an illusion of perspective.

To me, this work feels otherworldly. Because the colors of the ground match the sky, the monument seems to hover in space. The hazy atmosphere pushes the island into the background creating distance between me and it. The points of color shimmer that causes a mirage-like effect. The lack of textures and details on the buildings make the monument more abstract than real. It feels ethereal and mysterious, like something from a legend.

posted by Open Blogger at 09:43 AM

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