Art

Georges Rouaults Head of Christ and Andy Warhols Big Electric Chair are two very different works of art. The two incorporate different mediums, styles, and colors, and as a result produced very different reactions in me as a viewer. The reaction that each produced was very realistic and strong, making them each a distinctly visual and evocative piece of art unto themselves.

Rouaults Head of Christ is an oil on panel painting from 1939. The painting depicts Christ with his head bowed and eyes closed against a starkly defined white background and black painted border. The surface is square and this shape is emphasized by the thick black border. My initial reaction when I saw this painting was to be reminded of the statues of Christ on the cross often seen in churches. Those statues often show Christ with head down and eyes closed in prayer or death, and this painting showed the same thing. But Rouaults use of heavy brushstrokes made the painting seem more realistic than those statues. Christs face is painted with heavy lines. His eyes are heavily shaded, making them seem sad even though theyre closed. There are peach tones around his eyes and red around his mouth, which could have been meant to represent life but actually reminded me, in juxtaposition with the heavy brushstrokes used to paint his beard and eyebrows, of bruising. In contrast to these dark tones is the crown or halo that appears above his head in light shades and soft strokes. The technique of color and brushstroke made the overall painting feel more realistic and alive to me Christ seems to be dying or just having died and I feel the sadness in his face. The expression on his face is mournful and sad this is due in large part to the heavy shading.

I like this painting because I felt that I understood it more than other religious paintings of Christ. I related to the sadness that the subject was feeling. I liked the way that Rouault took a realistic subject and used abstract techniques to portray it. I felt that this style made the painting more realistic and emotive.

In contrast to Rouaults heavy handed style is Andy Warhols Big Electric Chair from 1967. The piece is silkscreen ink and synthetic polymer paint on canvas and its easy to see that Warhol handled his materials much more meticulously than Rouault. The lines are sharply defined and geometric, making the painting feel colder and less emotional. Warhol achieves starkness with the dark lines that cut through the light green and lavender paint, especially with the horizontal line that cuts the painting in half and divides the color sections, but his use of the silkscreen ink produces a much smoother and less human-feeling effect. The paintings sharp lines and empty space on either side of the chair made me feel loneliness and isolation, much like a person sitting in an electric chair to be executed. There is one strap stretching out from the chair onto the plain, endlessly expansive floor that adds to the feeling of isolation and abandonment. The straps dangling to the floor make me wonder about the people who have had those straps around their wrists.

The two colors dividing Warhols painting symbolize life and death to me. The left side is a darker green, with heavier shadows that seem to obscure something out of the line of sight. This side reminded me of death, while the lighter right side with its lavender paint and source of light out of the line of sight symbolized life in my mind. Warhol achieves a sharp separation between the two with a single diagonal line running the length of the painting. This line is not as heavy as the border around Rouaults painting, but its contrast to the organic outline of the chair made it seem final. This painting evoked a feeling of death in me, but the emotion is different than what I felt when looking at Rouaults painting. Warhols lines are sharper, more defined, and seem starker even though they arent as heavy as Rouaults. Rouaults painting felt more alive and organic to me because the lines are less defined and seem more humanly created. Warhols lines could have been drawn by a machine, which is interesting since his painting is of an object which could be regarded as a device or machine of death. Warhols textures are also much smoother, while Rouault treated his paint with a much heavier and emotional hand. This makes Warhols painting feel more emotionally removed and cold.

There is a detachment to Warhols painting that makes it more isolated while being less emotional. Rouaults use of the paint to create human characteristics in Christ made the painting feel that Christ was still alive or just recently dead. Warhols painting instead evokes feelings of finality without emotion. I felt as though there was no one in the room that cared about the person occupying that chair and the fact that they were dying. In contrast, when looking at Rouaults painting I felt as though there were onlookers looking at Christ with me, praying and mourning him. I think Rouaults ability to make his painting feel more human makes the viewer feel more attached to the subject. Warhol has evoked these feelings in other paintings featuring abstract objects, but I didnt feel that attachment here. Instead, I felt cold detachment and an air of no hope or life. I think that Warhol perhaps created this feeling to convey the emotions of a person waiting to sit in that big chair, but this is also why I didnt like it. I liked Rouaults painting more because it made me feel more sympathy and sadness, and because I related more to the potential mourners just outside the frame.