Saturday, October 18, 2014

Saturday Salon: The Gothic Imagination in Artwork: Being That It's October and All

Austrian artist/illustrator/print-maker Alfred Kubin (1877 - 1959) - source


French painter Robert Delaunay (1885 - 1941) - source


Canadian/French artist/illustrator Nicholas De Lort - source


British illustrator Louise Brierly - source


American painter/illustrator Mark English / Dracula - source


Ukrainian painter Sigismund Ivanowski (1879 - 1944) - source


American painter/illustrator Aaron Westfield - source


Danish illustrator John Kenn Mortensen - source


German Painter Casper David Friedrich (1774 - 1840) - source


English painter and illustrator Frederick Walker (1840 - 1875) - Theater poster art for Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White - source


This is my Part One of a two part post - the Second Part will feature the Gothic Imagination in books perfect for Chilly October Reading. You know the sorts of things I mean but stay tuned anyway.

And if you, like me, can't get enough of all this gothic gloominess, here's a link to my Pinterest board: A Gothic Imagination.

8 comments:

  1. Dear Yvette,

    I am enjoying your picks for October! As a young illustrator, Mark English was a great inspiration, though my own work never bore a resemblance to his. Caspar David Friedrich is another favorite, and I'm thinking in particular of a painting he did depicting a ship stuck in ice floes. The others are new to me — I really admire how Nicholas De Lort evokes atmosphere. Can't wait for the next gloomy posting!

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    1. English doesn't do much illustration any more, Mark, far as I can tell. It's mostly abstracts now. He's moved on.

      I liked Friedrich too - there are so many of his paintings I could have chosen, but this one struck me for the moment. Many of paintings do embody the 'gothic' feel or at least, what I consider to be the 'gothic' feel.

      Oh it's all gloom and doom all the time this month. HA!

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  2. I love this post! I fell in love with all things Gothic when I was a teenager in the 1960s. There was a resurgence of Gothic novels then.

    But wait! Where is that creepily funny, Gothic madman illustrator and writer Edward Gorey?!

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    1. Thanks, Joan. :) I got the Gothic bug when I was a teen, too. Must have been something in the air.

      Well, John Kenn Mortensen's work is in the style of Gorey. I love Gorey's work and there are plenty of examples on my Pinterest board. But Mortensen's work struck me as less familiar. You did see the sea serpent's tail - I hope. :)

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    2. I almost missed the serpent's tail. I was trying to decide if I'd like to live in that little house with the warm yellow light (I see it as yellow), surrounded by water, and tall pines and then I saw the tail! Would the serpent protect me or stalk me?!

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    3. A good question, Joan. :) I had the feeling the person standing in the doorway of the little house knew of the creature's existence and perhaps that's why he moved there?

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  3. Yvette, the illustrations of the bat and the bird, to use a cliché, are out of this world. You can't hide the flaws in a grey, black and white painting unlike, say, a colour painting. Well, that's just my layman theory..

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    1. I tend to agree with you, Prashant. Although drawings in black and white and tone are much easier to re-do (relatively speaking) if a major mistake is made. Still, inherent flaws are easier to spot as is lack of real talent. Black and white and tone are merciless.

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