I am enjoying the new series on Rococo Art by Waldemar Januszczak. As a lover of the Baroque and the Renaissance, the Rococo is a movement I have often overlooked.
At first sight it’s over-ornate extremes alienate it from the modern aesthetic but the post-modern aesthetic has much in common with its stylistic excess and it is a style which is inherently human in its rhythm and opulence.
Italy the birthplace of all three movements was the country that gave me a drawing style. A visit to the Baroque splendour of Rome in 1984 was an overpowering revelation of scale and grandeur and later a trip to Rococo Venice cemented a deep love of the way the figure can be given monumentality, rhythm and also lightness, particularly in the work of Tintoretto.
This week in the studio I did four Dance Drawings that echo the rhythmical nature of the Italianate style. Perhaps unconsciously they were influenced by this new show.
The nude in art is often maligned now, but the power of the form still resonates for me and I enjoy paying homage to the past masters, whilst trying to be truthful to a more contemporary drawing style.
This weeks Drawing du Jour : “Four Dancers”
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