Oil vs Acrylic

With impasto painting the medium is highly important. The medium chosen will dictate the texture or form of the painting. There are two types of paint that can successfully work to create this textured, raised surface which is evident in impasto paintings; first being oil paint. This is the most popular choice as it is easy to manipulate because it takes a long time to dry. Using oil based paint means that the artist can gradually build up the painting and because it is a slow drying process means that the artist can change and make corrections whereas before with the use of egg tempera this would have been difficult because it dried very quickly. With the artist building up the painting gradually it creates layers automatically creating this raised surface. The second paint is Acrylic. This is a water based paint which is fast drying, it can be water down to give the affect of watercolour, or can be applied thickly to give the characteristic of oil paint. The main difference between acrylic and oil paint is the drying time, oil paint allows for more time to the blend colors together and apply even glazes over under paintings this can an advantage for tonal impasto works, by can be a disadvantage for artists working quickly with vibrant colours. 

Jenny Saville
Bleach
oil on canvas
2008

David Agenjo

TianYin Wang

Acrylic on canvas

2011

Jenny Saville: Contemporary

'I want to be a painter of modern life, and modern bodies' - Jenny Saville

Massively disturbing: the painter Jenny Saville

Bleech 2011

Passage 2006

Jenny Saville, 1970-, is a contemporary artist that focuses of painting the modern interpretation of the human form. Jenny Saville works against the male dominant portrays of men that have been around since the 16th century starting with artists such as Manet and Titan. These artists had the interpretation of the female body being represented as angels with the glowing flawless skin; these women have been painted with a high status however has a passive gaze upon the audience, creating this suggestion that women are weak without men. This representation of women is something that Saville is trying defend she is creating women with mismatch genital and grotesque portraits with empowered and smug expression, this portrayal is something that is shocking even for the contextual viewers to fathom. This sense of mismatched genital is something that creates a great sense of discomfort for the audience as it is unexpected from a female portrait. Saville uses Paint to manipulate the skin and body, she create this modern depiction with broad brush strokes and visible marks. She focuses on painting the true form, and to do this she creates a narrative using the harsh brush lines. This sense of weight is something that is accentuated by the use of impasto; Saville uses impasto to create this sense of importance . Saville intends for the viewer to be disgusted with the super imposed skin texture created by the thick visible brush strokes. These heavy impastoed nude portraits have great qualities and similarities to the work of Lucien Freud due to the colour scheme and the use of technique. Both artist depict skin using the paint, they both manipulate the paint to create a narrative behind the subject and, metaphorical meaning. Jenny Saville uses this impasto to create textured and unwelcoming skin. Saville has use blue colours to create the background, blue has the symbolism of a hospital which is again suggested by the mismatching genitals creating this obvious and clear narrative and meaning for the sitter. This is demonstrated clearly in the portrait Passage 2004. This is the most disturbing portrait created by Saville as it is not the expected nude that would be presented in a gallery. Saville has drawn the viewer’s attention toward the genitals with the harsh thick black brush marks against the brilliant white highlight of the thigh, by doing this Saville is capturing the viewers attention. Saville has used a heavy application of impasto around the genitals to accentuate the importance of this element to the portrait. Saville work is a great example for the growth of impasto as she is all about create body which are real she focuses of painting models that are bigger or different, this is similar to Lucien Freud. The affect of painting subject like this and use a dense and heavy application creates a realistic yet slightly obscured interpretation of weight and density.

  

 



Auerbach: Obsesive

Frank Auerbach

Small Head of E.O.W., 1957-8 , Oil paint on board

 

Frank Auerbach

Head of E.O.W. I, 1960, Oil paint on wood

 

 

Frank Helmut Auerbach born in 1931 in Germany he then became a British citizen in 1947. In 1939 Auerbach arrived in Southampton leaving behind his parents who later died in a concentration camp in 1942. Having to fend for himself and the death of his parents from such a young age can affect a child and this could be the reasoning to why he paints in such thick and dominant brush strokes because he has become a strong and independent man. His paintings have a very recognisable style due to the heavy application of paint.

"If you pass something every day and it has a little character, it begins to intrigue you." – Frank Auerbach 2001

The statement above suggests that Auerbach creates this intense relationship with his subjects and what he paints; the more he views and understands what he paints the more intriguing the object gets. This intense relationship in demonstrated though the way that all the Auerbach has used layers and layers of paint it is still obvious what he is painting, and the subjects features are prominent though the painting. While Auerbach is creating this relationship with the subject, he becomes obsessed with the creating the ‘right’ imitation of the subject, this desire to create the perfect image is due to the obsessive nature of a lifeless subject. This is similar to the work of Leon Kossoff and his process to create the perfect image. This leads Auerbach to paint an image and then scrape it off the canvas at the end of each day, repeating this process time and again, not primarily to create a layering of images but because of a sense of dissatisfaction with the image leading him to try to paint it again. A select number of regularly appearing subjects in his paintings include his wife Julia, a professional model, and his friend and former lover Stella.

 

Auerbach is a figurative painter meaning that what he paints is clearly derived from real life objects, however he manipulates what he sees with the over use of thickly applied paint, creating this impasto and sculptural affect on the paints, and this is why most of his portraits caused such a controversy due to the raised surface creating a sculptural affect and, yet still psychologically from the artists point of view has the impact of a painting. Auerbach has visual similarities as Leon Kossoff, Lucien Freud and Jenny Saville, however the layers and layers of impasto paint is to an extreme that even Kossoff struggles to achieve, the way the colours of each paint blend into each other with this visual gradient from colour to colour is something that Kossoff attempts to achieve but fails due to not constantly trying to achieve the perfect image of the sitter, a gruelling process Auerbach does, creating a thick layer of paint making the canvas hard to hang up due to there excessive weight.

Frank Auerbach in his north London studio

Is this obsessive relationship Auerbach creates with the subject the evolution in the repeated layers of paint impasto?

Visually Simular, Lucian freud

Leon Kossoff,
Portrait of Anne
1993, Oil paint on hardboard

Lucian Freud has extremely similar brushstrokes and emphasises on the use of colour as does Leon Kossoff. Freud also paints similar subjects and expresses his emotions though what and how he paints, similar to that of Kossoff. Both artists have matching approaches to art and an importance in colour, that emphasis on the use of colour. Both artist have a similar approach to the thickly applied paint and the idea of have the subjects coated in layers and layers of thick oil paint masking the true identity and emotion of the subject and viewer can be frustrating and disturbing for the subject to see, this is not only emphasised in Night Portrait by Lucien Freud but demonstrated throughout Kossoff's collection.Frued has been known to work on his portraits for thousands of hours, the surface of impasto, tonal brushwork is built up in thick layers until the paintings take on an almost sculptural quality bringing dimension and life to his work. The realist and candid compositions of his subjects creates a voyeuristic mood relating the model to the painter and then to the viewer. Freud focuses on the idea of realism and keeping the figurative subject true to form while keeping the use of colour emphasised and added texture to the thickly applied. this impasto style paining technique has been adapted and evolved though the years starting with artist such as Vincent Van Gogh, and Jackson Pollock.  

 

“As far as I am concerned the paint is the person, I want it to work for me just as flesh does” – Lucien Freud
 

 

Lucien Freud, Night Portrait, 1978
oil on canvas

this statement suggests that artists create this relationship between the subject and the medium, which creating this bond to the artist as he is choosing to depict them using the paint and this use of paint is something that represent their skin affecting the viewer as it will mentally challenge how they view a simple element such as skin.  
Lucian Freud, 1922- 2011,  is a Figurative painter meaning  that what he paints is clearly derived from real life objects, however he manipulates what he sees with the over use of thickly applied paint. The way Freud uses paint to manipulate the human body he creates portrayals of the human form that create great discomfort for the viewer to see. There is an intense relationship created with the artist and the model which is why the works are so realistic. Freud uses a range of tone and shows to create this realistic view of the human form, however he relies on impasto to create the texture of the skin sue to the layed thick dense application it creates this heavy appearance something that is crucial in representing weight though the depiction of skin







Vincent Vs Jackson

Van Gogh:  If you can draw like this why do you paint like that?

See that, that preconception as to “art” and what the right and wrongs of art. Just because I have push boundaries I have discovered a new technique I don’t fit in a category, as someone like Picasso which will instinctively be known as the creator of cubism I don’t want be a category, I don’t want to fit I want to make viewers think, I want to change perceptions and for doing that I have been scrutinised. I wasn’t trying to prove or disprove my ability I am an artist I express what I feel I make what I feel is necessary and I document what is important and although my art is conceived as “controversial” due to my abuse and incompetent way of handling a paintbrush, I don’t care what the critics think or say about my work, its meaningful to me, it holds a raw sense of emotion that quite frankly your works lacks.



Pollock: You’ve been into art all your life have you never wanted to let out steam show the world the real anxiety you felt?

Not all emotion have to be straight forward, you work is seen as disgusting horrible abusing to people eyes, so why would I want people to think that about my work, art is important to me I have done for as long as I can remember and no art or mine is empty and emotionless, they all have a hidden message, I like to coat my emotions in layers and layers of paint, I don’t want my real emotion to be read like a book. Don’t you dare to sit there and say that my work doesn’t contain any emotions, I have been though dark period in my life I have severed from sever mood swings and depression so don’t sit there and tell me there your “dribble” work is an extreme expression of emotion.

Van Gogh: So I still don’t feel like you have answered my question, why do you paint like a baby?

It’s called paint dribbling.  I know I can draw well, but I didn’t feel like that was portraying the emotion that I was conveying, I wasted something that would properly show the world my feeling I wanted people to read me, and I also believe that when I am paint dribbling I have to get into the work I interact with the work on another level compared to just drawing on paper, when it comes to dribbling I have to properly kneel and lean into my work.  So every work I create has me in it and although to some people it might just be dribble stops to a huge scale to me I know that it me in those spots. On the floor I am more at ease, I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around in it, work from the four sides and be literally `in' the painting.

Pollock: I don’t understand why you despise my work, when we both have a similar energy in our work and you manipulate the paint in the same visual way as me just not the same technique?



 The thing that I hate about your work is you have no control, yeah you manipulate the work with sticks and knives, but you have no say it what happens in your work its chance and I hate that, I despise not having control over something that I love. Yeah I may have the same schizophrenic energy that both our works contain but that will naturally happen I am an isolated artist that has had to work hard for what I do from a young age. I suffer from sever mood swings and anxiety and depression issues and you suffer from alcoholism.  We were both destining to reflect the same energy in our works. But don’t compare my work to yours is worthless, it’s not art it’s not new it doesn’t reflect a different sense of emotion it shows nothing it means nothing.

 

The idea behind linking two artist up and having them "chat" in that way in how I believe that would chat toward each other was enlightening and helped me understand in how much Pollocks work would shock and evoke rude and outraged behaviour.

 

 

• enlarge

self Portrait
Vincent van Gogh

 1889

 



Jackson Pollock
 Number 1
 1950
 

 












Leon Kossoff

Leon Kossoff 

 1981 Oil on board,

Kossoff expresses a culture of thickly painted portraits introduced into the 1900’s and is when the appearance of the painting turn from realistic facial feathers and colours to work that expressed exaggerated colour or features shown though the early 18^th century Edvard Munch The Sick Child Det syke barn, 1907. Kossoff’s interpretation of portraits is strong and powerful as the paint is a definite thing and the way that he applies the paint and the way that he is so continuous within his technique and the way that he wants layers and layers of paint to portray the subject of his portraits different to what would be expected and is adapting the impasto technique. Kossoff is an extremely important artist in the growth and evolution of impasto as he was and still is the only artist that applies paint so thickly that it creates this high textured surface of human form and although the subjects are seen as isolated and alone it has an elegance which is represented within the choice of subject that Kossoff’s repeatedly chosen. Kossoff is important for the development of impasto due to his technique in the raised surface and extreme texture. This surface is first demonstrated in Van Gogh’s Wheat Field with Cypresses 1889. Although the visual appearance of the landscape is nowhere near the extremely encrusted surface visible in Kossoff’s work, but it is possible that Kossoff was inspired by van Gogh’s paintings due to its thickly impasto texture. Kossoff also suggests that within his paintings that there is a sadness and isolated elements which can be represented with his painting, which is not evident within van Gogh’s paint, although he was considered to be the most depressed and mentally unstable artist?  The way Kossoff manipulates layers and layers of thick paint is extraordinary and not only does it create this abstracted over use of the medium but he then transforms it into portraits of relatives and close friends. The affect that Kossoff has had on the impasto he has changed the way he paints, which has evolved the technique to the point where the impasto is so thickly applied that it has created a 3d affect and rough.