JOHN PUGH

 

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SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture -by Gautam Shah

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John Pugh (born 1957) is an American artist, who creates murals that give illusionistic architectural scenes. He creates illusion (Trompe-l'œil =French for 'deceive the eye) of 3D image on wall.

Pugh depicts the wall, as being opened and the surface like skin folded outward. His works are often called ‘Narrative Illusionism.’

Pugh offers the simultaneity of interior-exterior and reality-illusion, while scaling as well as descaling the wall and the building. He recalls the dream ‘where the wall broke open and it showed the columns’.

Pugh has been creating such murals since the late 1970s is United States, Canada, Mexico, Barbados, Japan, Taiwan, and New Zealand. He has produced more 250 murals in 30 years.

Pugh states that creating a ‘sense of place’ is paramount and for this, he conceptually includes ‘historical, environmental, and cultural viewpoints of the location’. His themes and the treatment are mundane and create ‘a pride for the place’.

The wall art in Trompe-l'œil (French for 'deceive the eye) style. These began in Baroque period (16-17th C) to mainly paint ceilings. It created illusion of the sky and integrated the upper section of interior architecture with the theme or story line of artwork. Since then many artworks from little cards to wall murals have been created. In the past few decades floor based Trompe-l'œil have been created offering depressions, protrusions and textures through manipulation of pattern and colour have been created. 

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EDWARD WADSWORTH

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SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture by Gautam Shah

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Edward Alexander Wadsworth (1889-1949) was a British painter, print-maker, draughtsman, and designer. He studied engineering in Munich, and art in his spare time at the Knirr School. He later attended Bradford School of Art and at the Slade School of Art.

Wadsworth loved the sea coast life and painted maritime subjects. He has worked in oil, tempera medium, prints with wood engraving and copper and wood cuts. Wadsworth started out with Impressionism, but, soon turned to futurist style. He was a member of a short-lived art movement, the Vorticist group.

Wadsworth, during 1914–15, produced geometrical abstract art with a Surrealistic flavour. During the first world war, he was assigned to design the dazzle graphics for the ships. These graphics were to confuse the enemy rather than camouflage the ship. He adopted the same style for production of abstract art. He began to use tempera in about 1922. In later part of life, (1934), he adopted a more naturalistic language, instead of Cubist temperament.

Wadsworth was described by Sir John Rothenstein as ‘a true poet of the age of machines’.

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ILMARI AALTO

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Sunday Feature on ART of Architecture -by Gautam Shah

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Ilmari Aalto (1891-1934) was a painter of Finland. He studied art at the Central School of Arts and Crafts (1907-1908) and at the Finnish Art Society drawing school (1908-1910). He was a member of the Expressionist November Group.

Aalto was aware of art trends across Europe and was affected by it. Aalto began his carrier with expressionism, after an exhibition in 1914 showed interest in Cubism and from 1928 turned to realism. After 1920, Aalto began to use oil colours like oil colours with large patches and brush strokes. The range of colours now was large. He used unmixed colours that offered sharper contours and contrast.

Aalto painted still lives, landscapes and portraits. Most of the landscapes are from Töölö and Suursaari area. He was a self-critical person who destroyed many of his works.

Expressionism was a movement that began as a reaction to Impressionism, from early part of 1900s. It involved art, music, theatre, literature and architecture. This was an expression of personal emotions, rather than the physical reality. Everyone used own sets of ‘tools’ to express the subjective feelings. For art, these were peculiar set of colours, brush strokes, illumination and even subject content.

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