Monet and Light: Already in love before falling in love

Impressionism is indeed a painting school that is hard to refuse. Among them, Monet, the one who named it, is my favorite. While studying abroad, I looked for his imprints in art museums in Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, Seattle, and Washington. Books, postcards, calendars, picture albums - obsessively collecting everything about him, this process is like a huge and unknown secret love, I am deeply addicted and intoxicated.

Perhaps for Monet, light is the soul of his colors. What is expressed in his paintings is a kind of ambiguity towards light, that feeling of falling in love before you have even fallen in love. He gave birth to a painting school with just one painting, an extremely important painting school in the history of painting.

He has been looking for light all his life, and light has become a charm for him to understand life. When he walks into the light, he sees haystacks, sunrises, water lilies, London fog, and life. and death. Shadows and shadows, bright and clear, full of mystery and flavor.

Jiang Xun once said, "In his world, there are no pure colors, his color is a kind of light." Indeed, because of light, all colors are floating with a kind of ever-changing brightness, which we call is "color temperature" - the temperature of the color.

I think he is the person who understands light best. He understands that light is color, life, and soul. Once the light disappears, there is no color and no life.

In 1875, he painted "Camille Holding an Umbrella" for his wife, retaining her light moment in the changes of light and shadow. Camille in the painting is graceful and graceful, just like Rene Liu's song "Light" sang, "You shine, and all of a sudden, I am dizzy. All my life, what I see is your brilliant appearance."

At this time, I want to temporarily put aside the appreciation of paintings and present a different Monet from fashion, movies and oriental elements.

1. Monet and popular colors

Some time ago, it was announced that the popular colors for 2016 are crystal pink and tranquil blue. For a while, many fashion platforms published articles saying that "these two colors Monet We played it a hundred years ago.” This makes sense, but it’s not entirely true. In fact, in addition to the eternal black, white and gray, I can guarantee that the popular colors of any year before or after can be traced back to Monet's paintings.

I try to select some evidence from his 307 paintings:

His series of "Haystacks" have the light of the sunrise in the summer morning, joyful and peaceful ; There is the light in the morning after a snowy night, which contains vitality in the haze; there is also the light like a flame at noon, and even the afterglow of the sunset. Who can say that this bright yellow and cold snowy blue and white will not become popular colors in the future?

The beauty I can imagine is blue sky and water, clear wind, warm sunshine, and a family happily chatting and having a picnic in the garden. This version of the picture is just like what is depicted in "The Monet Family in the Garden". Every level of light and dark is bright and clear, with a strong sense of light and a blend of warmth and warmth.

In addition to the water lilies and London fog, I also love its snow scene, with the dawn after the snow and the white mist. The morning light is vivid, the vast world is vast. Purity may be the simplest transparency, and color may not necessarily be polychromatic. Monet was as happy as a child, simply enjoying the pleasure from the visual scenes around him. The simpler your vision, the more happiness you will get.

What is gratifying is that the rounds of color storms and fashion crazes triggered by Monet have become the source of inspiration for today's designers and photographers. Not long ago, my friend's team conducted a creative photo shoot on the theme of popular colors. The girl in the photo was very girly in her movements, and her whole body was soaked in a touch of Monet style, which was enchanting.

2. Monet and movies

Unlike the representative movies of Impressionism, here we only want to list the movies that are inextricably linked to Monet's painting style.

My favorite is still the 2006 Korean literary film "Daisy", in which Jun Ji-hyun is so beautiful and innocent. It can be said that Monet's paintings are the hidden thread throughout the film. Without it, the story of the heroine and the two male protagonists cannot unfold smoothly. The daisies blooming in the field are the backdrop for their gorgeous but dilemma love.

In the movie, the love triangle between a female painter, a male killer, and a male policeman is filled with cat-and-mouse chases and shootouts, as well as the strong humanistic atmosphere of Amsterdam. Monet's paintings win. Over Tchaikovsky's background music, the flower language of daisies is "the love hidden in the heart", which is nostalgic, shining and indescribable during that time. The love we dreamed of turns out to be so close at hand. I don’t know how many people understand it, but how many are still deceiving themselves.

Mud can really cover up the smell of gunpowder, and the greatest happiness of having a crush on someone is that you can work hard to become a better version of yourself.

There was also "Titanic" which was popular around the world at that time. Do you still remember that detail? When the hero Jack went to Ruth's bedroom to paint her portrait, he was surprised to see Monet's painting hanging on the wall. His eyes suddenly lit up, and his fingers seemed to be ignited by the thick paint on the painting.

That painting is "The Rhythm of Summer" from Monet's "Water Lilies" series. In the changing light and shadow, the water lilies turned into flames in the pool, and they were lit one by one. That color is not an individual, not a representation, but an endless group of jumping light in the group. It is an indispensable touch of color, a part, and a fleeting soul throughout the summer. Art has no hierarchy or status for those who truly appreciate it.

There are also the jellyfish-like jumping elves, wilderness scenery, and fantasy scenes in the 3D version of "Avatar". The color tone and light sense all have a touch of Monet's painting style, which is both real and illusionary, and unpredictable. , and unexpectedly.

Monet is a magician of light and color. Although he suffered from cataracts in his later years, he was still able to "play" with colors in a unique way. Even though he could not see the colors at all, there was still light in the painting. , that little bit of fuzzy light. The blurring of vision may really be the beginning of opening another pair of eyes. Even Cezanne, a representative figure of Impressionism, said with envy: "Monet only has one pair of eyes, but, my God, what amazing eyes they are!"

3. Monet and Eastern Artistic Conception

It has to be said that Monet’s paintings also contain elements of Eastern sentiment, including the Japanese bridges and courtyard-style leisure in the paintings. Some people even say that the paintings can be traced from his early to his later years. The connection with China is seen in the changes in the wind.

"The Biography of Zong Bing in Southern History" says that there was a man named Zong Bing in the Southern Dynasties who "loved landscapes, loved to travel far away, was attached to Lu and Heng, and did not know that he was approaching old age." Therefore, "everything I travel with is at home." He painted all the scenery he had visited in his impressions and hung them at home as a reminder for his relatives and friends or for himself. Coincidentally, Monet, who had painted open scenes such as "Sunrise Impression" and "Rouen Cathedral", eventually bought a garden and painted his own water lilies every day, which eventually became a pleasure in his later years.

I remember that in the book "Van Gogh's Life", Feng Zikai divided artists into two categories. The first category is pure artists and technicians, while the second category is not purely artists, but a comprehensive expression of "people". Monet is classified as the first type of artist by him. He believes that "it is only the reproduction of nature, not the reproduction of art", but "the mathematics of feeling" and "the game of color". Heidegger also divided people into authentic and inauthentic people, and Monet was undoubtedly the former. From this point of view, "impression" does not only refer to visual phenomena, but also refers to the emotions that such phenomena evoke in the artist's mind. Getting rid of the pragmatic way of observing things, we will first see what we want to see. Monet loved the sun, people, and life outdoors. He expresses his love with a lively and joyful nature, and in the process he feels love too, for he is radiant with the beauty he sees in his eyes and his soul is deeper than anything else. I experienced this beauty and was extremely excited about it.

He once said: "I paint like a bird chirping." In his view, being natural is an essential quality for a true Impressionist painter. In order to achieve the goal of nature itself, he was sensitive and invented the art of painting. New expression methods establish new painting styles, because traditional methods and styles have proven to be completely unsuitable. Composition, arrangement of light and dark, linear perspective, brushstrokes, changes in tone and chroma, etc., all of these are difficult to use. Here, color is light, air also has a unique sense of movement, and space is formed by the interaction of light and air, stretching and never-ending.

Some people say that Impressionism and Chinese landscape and flower paintings both focus on "picture", and I agree. However, Chinese landscape and flower paintings focus on the lines, brushwork, and charm of the picture; while Western impressionist paintings focus on the "light" of the picture. Monet made fifteen consecutive paintings of the same straw pile, depicting the various states of light received by the straw pile in the morning, evening, dark and bright, and creating a harmonious harmony of color and light in each painting. At first, the effect of light (i.e. impression) was the first meaning, and the content and form were the second meaning. Finally, the form was removed and only the impression was depicted. Then the picture was just the music of light and color, as if the "sun" was the conductor of the ensemble. Daqu.

Looking back at the "Haystacks" that he painted fifteen times in a row, in fact, they have little to do with "strawstacks". They are just the effects of various combinations of light and color. They are not called straws. Piles are also available. What he saw in the straw pile was the color effect produced by the sunlight. In addition to the straw piles, Monet also painted "water" (including "Thames", "Venice", "Water Lilies", etc.), and there is even a painting named "The Effect of Water". The picture is full of water, endless and boundless, and the water is dotted with a few water lilies. It is a great enjoyment for both the eyes and the heart. He was keen on the study of water. Because water can subtly convey the effect of light, he used a boat as his studio and lived in it. He was friends with water all day long. Many water works were produced during that period.

Do you have something you are passionate about? It's not like it, it's not love, it's love that makes you willing to sacrifice everything for it. Monet and light, just like this, life can be short, reality can be gloomy, but what you love has never changed, that kind of madness and ambiguity, bitterness and happiness, although you can't come, your heart yearns for it.

Beauty is like a belief to him. If the secret of beauty is rapid decay, then it was Monet who made us understand that color will fade but light will always remain. This beam of light continues to shine, and his world will always be clear and warm.

May we be equally clear and fall in love with each other in this world of light.

Recommended extensions:

Books: "Deciphering the Beauty of Monet" by Jiang Xun; "The Life of Van Gogh"

Documentary: BBC Impressionism

Movie: "Renoir"