Emotions in art

Lynn Poole contrasts the expressions in war paintings by Richard Eurich and Jose Orozco and notes that a picture is an artist's way of representing his experiences and reactions to an event. Dr. William A. McDonald, assistant director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, explains the artist's creative process. He compares naturalism vs. emotional reaction to a subject by comparing two paintings of cats. Artists may distort form, color, or size to emphasize qualities that are important. Both artists and sculptors use horizontal lines to express serenity and diagonal or curved lines for movement, as exemplified in the dance movements of a Kirchner painting and a Matisse sculpture. Dr. McDonald discusses the heavy black lines, borrowed from stained glass making, in Georges Rouault's "The Crucifixion," and the swirling lines in Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night," an example of expressionism. The German expressionists were influenced by the abstract art of Africa and used lines to evoke inner feelings. Displayed examples of this school include a Pechstein woodcut, a Kathe Kollwitz drawing, a Heckel self-portrait, and Miro's happier painting "Summer." Dr. McDonald explains the use of distortion in El Greco's "Laokoon" and Pablo Picasso's "Guernica," which he compares with Orozco's "Dive Bomber and Tank" shown in the opening of the program.