Ex De Medici and Giorgio Morandi are both artists’ who use materials, techniques and symbols to communicate their ideas and intentions to the audience albeit in different way. Ex De Medici’s Cure for pain is a dichotomous watercolour painting on paper, which contrasts ideas of life and death. It is a large-scale painting, which seems to engulf the audience in its immensity, both in complexity and conceptuality. The painting is crammed with vibrant coloured flowers and plants contrasted against empty soldiers war helmets, guns and bullets. This intricate painting represents the military as an extreme threat of death juxtaposed againts the natural beauty of life. There is a beguiling sense in this artwork, which is contradicted through the sense of unease when we see life and death together. Giorgio Morandi’s ‘Natura Morta (Still life)’, 1955, is a banal coloured ensemble of a variety of jugs, vases and boxes. These objects are basic in shape and have been ‘depersonalized’ by having any evidence of commercialism removed. The artwork is a flat composition, which, through its simplicity, conveys meaning about Morandi’s Italian heritage, isolation, and a sense of slowed down time.
Ex De Medici uses a common system of symbolism of skulls and guns throughout her artworks which lie between objects of colour and aesthetic design. These artworks are filled with messages of power and violence. Her artwork embodies the essence of natural beauty through her depiction of vibrant flowers and birds. Amongst these she uses guns to represent the weapons of ultimate power and skulls to represent the result of that power. Her artworks are dominated by symbols of beauty and destruction as well as death, violence and the natural world. Her artwork, cure for pain, is representative of her time spent in Iran as Australia’s official war artist. The artwork features a variety of soldiers helmets representing the deceased. The flowers surrounding the helmets are symbolic of the reversal of violence and the beauty that existed previously. Giorgio Morandi has carefully arranged objects in his composition in a way, which refers to his Italian heritage. When analyzing the geometrical composition of Still Life, 1955, we can draw a comparison between this and the architecture of medieval Italy. Morandi removes any sense of time through the removal of labels and any commercialism attached to the objects. This slows down time as there is no indication of context. In contrast to the disjointed broken brush marks often seen in futurist art that create a sense of movement and speed, the sense of solidarity created through Morandi’s smoothly connected brush marks also slows down time. A sense of stillness and tranquility is created through the still life composition through Morandi’s use of flat, block colours and the basicness of the shapes. For example, Natura Morta depicts a varity of cylindrical bottles placed together the only differences between them being the colour and size. Finally, the isolation of the jugs and bowls from anything else creates focus on just these objects, eliminating any form of business from the artwork. These artists’ both use symbols, materials and techniques to convey meaning.
Morandi’s Still Life was created in 1955 and is representative of the artists’ interest and connection to the pittura metaphysica movement. His still life artworks embody key features of the metaphysical movement which includes creating an arcitechtural sense through structure. The movement also disengages from time which Morandi has done through the depersonalization of obejcts. In contrast, ex de medici is a contemporary artist that breaks away from traditional conventions. She has challenged conventions through her beguiling yet unsettling artworks which are like anything else of the modern day. Her canvases are dominated by juxtaposed objects which embody her ideas regarding pain, life and death. Her artworks don’t fit into any particular art movement and this perhaps accounts for the differences between her work and Morandi’s.
Through materials, techniques, symbolism and artistic influences, the artists Ex De Medici and Giorgio Morandi convey their intentions and meaning to the audience in significantly different ways. While Medici’s art comments on life and death, Morandi’s is concerned with the removal of time, isolation and reference to Italian heritage.
Ex De Medici uses a common system of symbolism of skulls and guns throughout her artworks which lie between objects of colour and aesthetic design. These artworks are filled with messages of power and violence. Her artwork embodies the essence of natural beauty through her depiction of vibrant flowers and birds. Amongst these she uses guns to represent the weapons of ultimate power and skulls to represent the result of that power. Her artworks are dominated by symbols of beauty and destruction as well as death, violence and the natural world. Her artwork, cure for pain, is representative of her time spent in Iran as Australia’s official war artist. The artwork features a variety of soldiers helmets representing the deceased. The flowers surrounding the helmets are symbolic of the reversal of violence and the beauty that existed previously. Giorgio Morandi has carefully arranged objects in his composition in a way, which refers to his Italian heritage. When analyzing the geometrical composition of Still Life, 1955, we can draw a comparison between this and the architecture of medieval Italy. Morandi removes any sense of time through the removal of labels and any commercialism attached to the objects. This slows down time as there is no indication of context. In contrast to the disjointed broken brush marks often seen in futurist art that create a sense of movement and speed, the sense of solidarity created through Morandi’s smoothly connected brush marks also slows down time. A sense of stillness and tranquility is created through the still life composition through Morandi’s use of flat, block colours and the basicness of the shapes. For example, Natura Morta depicts a varity of cylindrical bottles placed together the only differences between them being the colour and size. Finally, the isolation of the jugs and bowls from anything else creates focus on just these objects, eliminating any form of business from the artwork. These artists’ both use symbols, materials and techniques to convey meaning.
Morandi’s Still Life was created in 1955 and is representative of the artists’ interest and connection to the pittura metaphysica movement. His still life artworks embody key features of the metaphysical movement which includes creating an arcitechtural sense through structure. The movement also disengages from time which Morandi has done through the depersonalization of obejcts. In contrast, ex de medici is a contemporary artist that breaks away from traditional conventions. She has challenged conventions through her beguiling yet unsettling artworks which are like anything else of the modern day. Her canvases are dominated by juxtaposed objects which embody her ideas regarding pain, life and death. Her artworks don’t fit into any particular art movement and this perhaps accounts for the differences between her work and Morandi’s.
Through materials, techniques, symbolism and artistic influences, the artists Ex De Medici and Giorgio Morandi convey their intentions and meaning to the audience in significantly different ways. While Medici’s art comments on life and death, Morandi’s is concerned with the removal of time, isolation and reference to Italian heritage.