Gonzalez 1

Celina Gonzalez

Art 1C T/Th

Professor Lange

March 1, 2015

Analysis of Exhibition (contextualization of the work)

Throughout time, regardless of what kind of art, art has influenced other types of art.

Many examples are found all over the world. This especially started to happen when exporting

and importing began. It allowed the artist to see other types of art and they liked it so much they

began to make it their own. All these things are especially seen in the oil painting Who am I? by

Juan Gonzalez. It is obvious that he had influences from the past, especially from Impressionism,

Post Impressionisms, and Symbolism.

The first thing that is seen in the painting Who am I? by Juan Gonzalez is the influence

from the Impressionism movement. By the time Impressionism came around artist before had

already started to reject mimesis. Meaning that artist from that time did not want to paint
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something from nature. In Gonzalez painting he did the same thing and did not paint something

from nature. What Gonzalez did do which was used by artist from the Impressionism movement

was use space and depth unnaturally. An artist that did that was Manet, his paintings were avant-

garde and made the space unrealistic and that made the viewer wonder about what is happening

in the painting. This is exactly what Gonzalezs painting is doing. This makes the viewer

somewhat uncomfortable about the space and arrangement of the painting.

Furthermore, the painting Who am I? relates to Post-Impressionism movement through

the way Gonzalez used colors and line. One can see similarities in the way Gauguin used color

the same way Gonzalez used it here. Gauguin became an avant-garde artist that used color in a

new way of painting. He rejected mixing colors, chiaroscuro and created composition with

primary colors. This is seen in the way Gonzalez applied the bold colors on the watermelon, the

head and the background. Another artist influence from the Post-Impressionism movement that

is shown in this painting is Munch. The reason why is because Munch used line to create sense

of movement and unease. Gonzalez strategically used this influence to create unreal and make

the creature look like its moving by using curving lines on the legs.

Lastly, the influence seen in the painting Who am I? is from the Symbolism movement.

The main thing being used is abstraction, displacement and patterns. The movement that is

known for using abstraction is symbolism. They used things and changed it up making them look

strange. This is seen in the way the Gonzalez put a head and legs on a watermelon. There is also

displacement which symbolism used in art. In Gonzalezs painting there is displacement

happening to the watermelon as well as in the background. There are patterns and shapes of

triangles, rectangles and so on, that mimic the main figure. The main goal of the symbolists was
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to get the viewer to see an image and wonder what the meaning could be because usually that

would bring out their own troubles and worries.

To conclude, Who am I? oil painting by Juan Gonzalez demonstrates influences from the

past, especially from Impressionism, Post Impressionisms, and Symbolism. The influence from

Impressionism is shown through the way Gonzalez did not paint something found in nature and

he also did not use chiaroscuro and didnt completely mix colors. Secondly, there is influence

from the Post Impressionism and it can be seen because artist from that movement use colors,

and line to experiment with primary colors and to create a sense of movement. All in all the last

movement that influenced Gonzalez painting was the Symbolism movement and it is seen in the

way he uses abstraction, displacement, and patterns. A piece of art, even if its copied becomes

unique when someone puts their spin on it.