Art Essay Example: Free and Leisure vs. After the Bath

After the Bath

After the Bath is a painting of a woam lying on a a divan, naked and showing her back. She retss on such a reluctant repose, with another figure of a huma beinf near her head. is looks like the maid combng her hair. The painting is not very clear since the lines used were not very sharp. The hair is paited in ornage color other than black while the entire body is white. The woman is holding her thigh with one left hand while the other right hand is hidden below her abdomen. Just before the diva is what looks like a water body in which the woman was bathing. It is the bath tub, characterizing the moder lifestyle. The other images are not easily discernible due to the vague choice of colors.

Free and leisure

Free and leisure is a painting that adopts the contemporary methods of panting and shows eight men in bare chest and jovial moods (Google Cultural Institute.com, web). All the eight men are poainted white with grey paties. A keener look at their faces reveals that they all look alike o the forehead while at the same time they exhibit exhillerated mood. Their gestures and poses, together with big grins on faces, the eight me appear as though they were real twin brothers. The painting exhibits a certain level of uniformity and form. From a simple glace at the paining, it is easy to deduce tat the eight men are really having good time with their enviroment. The grass behind them is healthy while the clouds above are very tranquil.

Thesis

A peek of voyeurism and self-exposure elucidates two paintings whose styles defy their ages, as can be seen in voyeurism that is done in traditional methods yet shows contemporary life; while self-exposure is done in modern methods but underscores the traditional life.

Differences Free and Leisure vs After the Bath

After leiusre, Edgard exagerates almost everything abiu the self images. Right from the overly big grins to the to their absurd and ridiculous gestures, the men show exterem excitement and exeggerated moods and in alll aspects. This is dierent from the composition of the alternative After the Bath in which the woman poses with a reluctant mood. A little disturbed, the woman holds her leg so as to show a little discomfort but does not take any of her actions to the extreme. This exeggeratioon in the painting, Free and Leisure shows a typical chinese mood and their relationship with nature. A typicxal chinese with have a grin on his face to show how appreciative he is to the mother nature.

The big smile among the people in Free and leisure can mean aomething more cynical because it looks more ideal. Lofe is never as staright and as interesting so as to impress evryone as it is portrayed in the painting where at least each person is having the widest smile. Hypothetically, life cannot give happiness to everyone at the same time. The painiting is challeging this cocept by showing the eight men having the best of their time by showing contet with life and nature all the same. As compaed to the other painting of After the Bath the later is more realistic and presnets things in a more natura way. as can be seen by the dsturbance shown by her lifting her left thigh and holding it with te left arm. It is more ideal in life that in as much as you ca enjoy the bathing in a bath tab rest on a divan, this does not guarantee total happiness. The disturbance must be there to provoke you in life.

The diferece in the paintings ca also be looked at in terms of the painters. Historucally, Edgar had always thrilled in making paintngs pittng women in raher uglier positions. He uses thick brush strokes to paint women in such comprmising situatios prostitution, women bathing and laundresses ironing (Edgar-degas.org, web). All these have brought sharp criticism among his critics placing him as one of the most controversial painters. Mingjun, on the other hand has shown prowess in depicting people in smiling faces and jovial moods. In fact, exageration of happy moods is a characteristic of most of his works.

It can also be seen at a glance that After the Bath is ore blurred and vague in the background as comared to the heavily lit background as painted by Mngjun. Edgar painted the faces of the women at the bath tab red and least discernible while Mingjun showed bright faces which could easily be seen and judegd as smiling faces. You paints using cotemporary methods of painting yet, the themes of his paitiongs are traditional in nature. This is the exact opposite eof what Mingjun does. The bath tab, the divan and even the interior in After the Bath is a chrateristic of modern life yet it is doe in traditional brshstrokes. This is diferent from the hramony that the eight men are having with the natural enviroenment as it happed in the traditional society.

Similarities

In both cases, the painters strive to show how people develop stimulus to their evironments. As Edgar relates his naked woamn with her bath tab and divan together with the interior, Minjung also tries to create a connetction between the Chines and the atural world. Most interestingly is that th etraditional painter chose the contmprary theme while the copetmorary painter chose the traditional theme.

In as much as both the arts beong to different art movemets, it is agreable that they both belong to realism. A more realistic understanding of the paintings reveals that there has been a significant change in lifestyle over time. Edgar, in his panting, connects the chaing time and the real life situation so meticyulously that one can easily relate the changing times with the current events. For example, he draws our attention to the traditional chinese society using the modern ways of painting, making it very easy for use to relate the changing times. However, the voyuerism in After the Bath is doe usin traditional means of bold brush strokes, dark backgrund and orange hair color to elucide a post modern lifestyle of bath tab abd divan. This allows the viewer to easily connect between the passing time and the modern life that we live today.

Moreover, both voyuerim and self exposure show bodies that are nude and exposed to the viewer. The positioning of the boides also matter in which the siling paope are ceter off while the woman occupies almost the entire painting. lastly, both the panters challenge the general majority reasoning and thinking by making images that defy their times.

Work cited

"Free And Leisure-10 - Yue Minjun - Google Arts & Culture." Google Cultural Institute. N. p., 2017. Web. 22 Nov. 2017.

"After The Bath (Getty Museum)." The J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles. N. p., 2017. Web. 22 Nov. 2017.

"Edgar Degas - The Complete Works - After The Bath IV - Edgar-Degas.Org." Edgar-degas.org. N. p., 2017. Web. 22 Nov. 2017.