Concrete Understanding . . . I mean its like street art

This weekend during the seminar we learned about the more artistic side of French culture. We focused on architecture and painting. This was by far my favorite seminar because I’m an artistic person. As we constructed our presentations on the art based topic that Mr.Sarabia gave us I was very intrigued by fauvism and cubism. I didn’t receive cubism myself but Elias did. As he did his presentation and was researching examples of cubism I couldn’t help but notice the similarities of French art forms to street art and modern art. The modern art we see today consist of bright colors which often hold metaphorical value like in fauvist art, or has many different geometrical figures constructed abstractly to hold significance like that of cubism. After acknowledging these similarities I felt inclined to research French street art, trying to find influence in an area I’m a little more familiar with (street art being the most popular in today’s generation).

France’s history of street art begins in the post-world war period. This is not a surprise knowing that different forms of art have and still do play a large role in social political aspects of French culture. In France art has always been more than entertainment, it hold more value. France has always nurtured its revolutionary past, which matched great with art that that came out of the resistance. Artist love that they can send a message that some may and some may not be able to receive. This sort of satisfaction was also in street art, consistent with the anonymity of the artist creation. Street art also takes this aspect of hidden messages in images that appear clear and frankly simple from fauvism that uses less complex figuring but use bright sophisticated color schemes. Plainly looking at fauvist art and modern street art the similarities might not catch your eye. But if you think of the reasoning why the piece of art was created and the process behind it you may find images significance.

I know when I think of modern art or architecture I think of straight lines, complex shapes and bold colors. Everything about modern art is very sleek and simple in its presentation but like majority of art holds an underlying message or contour. Modern art is very similar to cubism in that way. Cubism consist of geometric figures to form nonrealistic displays or setting unlike that of traditional French art that was very detailed to represent day to day life or significant life events.

I feel like my topic understanding from the class would really fit the Centre Pompidou walk. It offers the world largest collection of 20th century art. The building itself even looks like it has been influenced by modern architecture. This walk would satisfy my understanding of the influence of older art styles on more modern art. In the end it is about more than art and I’m looking forward to telling about my experience with different cultures if being able to go to Paris.