Shapes without Form... Borduas Pt2

We have made it through 2 activities, and a few posts. YAY US! So let’s keep this going. I am hoping all you out there actually share this site once and a while. It would TOTALLY Rock if people may actually come here other than my few friends that I know are awesome. All of you who are here that aren’t my close friends... You ROCK! 

Okay, so onto the art. 

"Leeward of the Island" 1947, Borduas

Today I wanted to talk to you more about the artist Paul Emile Borduas. Last post seemed a little art history essay-ish to me and I’m not sure I want all the posts to have that feel. I apologize in advance because I am sure that it WILL happen again, even if I don’t mean it too. I feel that we have covered the history of this artist enough for our purposes at the moment, but I really wanted to talk about the work “Leeward of the Island”. I know this work is actually older than the two from the previous post but in an artistic eye and abstract progression, I find this one is next on the list. 

We have now talked about Colour (with Guido) and Texture and Depth, but what I wanted to move us into is the concept of Shapes without Form. I know this doesn’t really make much sense, so we will start by looking at the work. 

From examining the painting in relation to our previous post you can see that this work is much more expressive and while still being abstract, is also figurative. You can tell that the markings are meant to be figures of some sort, that the mass is meant to represent land, and that the painting in general is meant to have shape and expression and be a statement on something specific. You can tell this... but what I want to focus on today is what is not there. There is no specific shape involved here... there is no true realism. This work manages to express SHAPE without having specific FORM. This is done with the use of Colour and Depth... by creating sweeping movements on the canvas and marks with the brush. Borduas uses bold colours and different strokes to create the "idea" of an island and feel of figures. The shapes on the image can be representational of people but they do not specifically have any of the characteristics of realism! However, when we look at the image we know that they are meant to represent forms.

Our next activity will build on this concept... of expressing something specific or real without using realism or specific form. Instead we will be using colour, mark and movement to create the idea of figure, thing, person... etc.

So let’s Create!

Angie

Here's the activity as promised! Activity: Shape without Form