Black Paintings Research Articles

Black paintings in the late Yocavil ceramics (11th–17th centuries): Applying micro X‐ray diffraction to the study of archaeological potteries in Northwest Argentina

AbstractThe black pigments used in Late Period (11th–17th centuries) painted pottery in the Yocavil Valley were characterized. Changes and continuities in the composition of this material over an extended span were evaluated. A regional sample of 47 potsherds from the Loma Rica, San José, and Santa María styles was collected, and for the first time micro wide‐angle X‐ray scattering was used in these ceramic styles. The results indicate the simultaneous presence of iron oxides (hematite) and solid solutions of manganese and iron oxides (jacobsite–magnetite). Besides, the paints were prepared by mixing the pigments with clay‐based binding materials.

어떻게 보아야 하는가: 애드 라인하르트의 블랙페인팅

어떻게 보아야 하는가: 애드 라인하르트의 블랙페인팅

Magic and Metamodernism

Magic and Metamodernism

Wikipedia and Shostakovich Meets Goya: Elaborative Narration and Music Enhance Affect Derived From Art

We sought to understand the common interaction between music, information and visual art. The evoked affect of college students (N = 47, F = 35, M = 11, NB = 1) were measured via The Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT) after a presentation of Francisco Goya's Black Paintings. There were three randomly assigned groups with a narration about the artist's life and the significance of his paintings (group N), classical music (group M) and both (group NM). Participant's art knowledge was also assessed, as determined by the Vienna Art Interest and Art Knowledge Questionnaire (VAIAK). Group NM reported significantly lower affect scores, indicating more intense emotional experiences as opposed to other two groups (N = 47, F(2)= 4.099, p = .023). The knowledge and interest scores had no effect on the affect score. The implications of the findings and potential explanations are discussed through the lens of different models of art perception.

“The image of black in a thousand different ways”: Materiality and visual perception in the work of Franz Kline, David Smith, Ad Reinhardt and F. N. Souza

This paper reviews the literature on the physical, cognitive and perceptual aspects of black materiality in the art of the modern period, and considers how we perceive the physical methods, materials and processes used in the work of Franz Kline, David Smith, Ad Reinhardt and Francis Newton Souza. The paper highlights the value of embodied simulation theory in understanding work in black paintings and drawings in the modern period, and considers the various ontologies for these objects. It concludes that how we perceive abstract black monochromatic and gestural works of art may be seen as being dependent on a carefully structured relationship between choice and manipulation of material by the artist and a number of complex cognitive functions that occur as part of our visual perception.

AUTOMATIC COLORIZATION OF CHINESE INK PAINTING COMBINING MULTI-LEVEL FEATURES AND GENERATIVE ADVERSARIAL NETWORKS

Advanced Chinese ink painting also includes work-brush flower and bird paintings with brilliant colors, in contrast to traditional ink paintings that often only use water, ink, and black and white. This serves as the foundation for our investigation into a generalized transfer problem involving ink and wash, or an ink painting coloring problem. Our goal is to automatically colorize black and white ink paintings using deep neural networks. This study can serve as a guide for coloring ink paintings and broaden the range of applications for ink painting style transfer. The high-level semantic information and low-level local features of ink paintings cannot be successfully extracted using the current generalized style transfer approach (colorization algorithm). The resulting images have muddy borders and low color saturation. In order to improve the accuracy and coherence of the coloring of ink paintings, we build training by combining the global and local features of ink paintings with the achievements of generative adversarial networks already made in the field of colorization. Comparative and objective evaluations of the experimental portion are made using metrics like peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity (SSIM), colorfulness, and user studies. Additionally, our approach beats the previous comparison approaches in terms of creative expression, color richness, and color overflow management.

La presencia de Jacek Dehnel en España

This paper addresses the issue of Jacek Dehnel’s presence in Spain. On the one hand, it contains references to Spain within his works: the Francisco Goya family in the novel Saturn. Czarne obrazy z życia mężczyzn z rodziny Goya (W.A.B. Publishers, Warsaw 2011; translated into English as Saturn: Black Paintings from the Lives of the Men in the Goya Family by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Dedalus, Cambridgeshire 2012) and two maps: Ancient Spain and Modern Spain in the book Kosmografia, czyli trzydzieści apokryfów tułaczych (Biblioteka Narodowa, Warsaw 2012). On the other hand, the paper refers to the translation of Dehnel’s works into Spanish: the novel Lala (W.A.B. Publishers, Warsaw 2006) translated by Jerzy Sławomirski and Anna Rubió as El jardín de Lala (Duomo ediciones, Barcelona 2012; translated into English as Lala by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Oneworld Publications, London 2019) and eight poems by the poet inside the volume Poesía a contragolpe. Antología de poesía polaca contemporánea (autores nacidos entre 1960 y 1980), selected and translated by Abel Murcia, Gerardo Beltrán and Xavier Farré (Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza, Zaragoza 2012). Analysis covers one of the poems from the anthology, entitled El abogado Federico G. L. dicta una citación.

First dating of a rock painting in Ẓufār (Sultanate of Oman): Low energy plasma oxidation radiocarbon sampling

We successfully measured four radiocarbon dates on two specimens of a black geometric rock painting with a fragment in jeopardy of naturally spalling off in the wall of a rock shelter in the Ẓufār region, in the south of the Sultanate of Oman. Extraction of carbon dioxide (CO2) for radiocarbon dating of the binder in the black pigment of the rock painting specimen was conducted in the plasma oxidation laboratory at the Office of Archeological Studies in Santa Fe, NM. The radiocarbon content was measured on the Swiss ETH-Zürich accelerator mass spectrometer MICADAS. The dates obtained agreed with one another within the statistical uncertainty and the average date of the four samples was 1500 ± 35 radiocarbon years BP. The calendric equivalents of the average date results in calendric calibration date ranges that span the mid-fifth through mid-seventh centuries (440–453 CE, 478–496 CE, and 534–646 CE). This research demonstrates that it is possible to date the black paintings of the Jebel al-Qara’ area of Oman; this is the first pictogram that was dated using radiocarbon dating in the region.

Special-Effect and Conventional Pigments in Black Light Art: A Multi-Technique Approach to an In-Situ Investigation.

Since their introduction in the early decades of the 20th century, fluorescent pigments have found progressively wider applications in several fields. Their chemical composition has been optimized to obtain the best physical properties, but is not usually disclosed by the manufacturers. Even the other class of luminescent pigments, namely the phosphorescent ones, is now produced industrially. The peculiar optical properties of these pigments have attracted more and more the attention of famous artists since the middle of the last century. The Italian Black Light Art movement exploits the possibility of conveying different aesthetical messages depending on the kind of radiation (UV or visible) with which the artwork is illuminated. In the present work, a non-invasive in-situ investigation based on Raman, fluorescence, and visible-reflectance spectroscopies was performed on a series of Black Light Art paintings exhibited in Milan (Italy) in 2017, succeeding in the identification of the materials used by the artists. In particular, the use of both fluorescent and phosphorescent pigments, alone or combined with conventional synthetic organic pigments, has been recognized.

A study of the artistic corpus of red cave paintings in El Buxu cave (Cangas de Onís, Asturias, Spain)

El Buxu cave, which is located in the village of Cardes (Cangas de Onís, Asturias), has been studied since the 1980s, with multiple excavations taking place inside the cave. This work has uncovered a complete artistic corpus, marking out several phases of occupation, with paintings dating to the first phases of the Upper Palaeolithic, Solutrean and Lower and Middle Magdalenian periods.This paper presents a new review of its rock art, documenting all of the red paintings inside the cave, most of which have never been published up until this point. The most notable inclusion is the new description of a zoomorphic figure painted in red, which has previously been interpreted as an aurochs, but whose features are in fact closer to those of a deer or reindeer.In addition, stratigraphic analysis of some of the paintings has revealed that they are overlapped by Solutrean and Magdalenian engravings and black paintings inside the cave. Elemental analysis was performed on series of red pigments and ochre samples, recovered from various strata using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. The resulting dataset was treated using Principal Component Analysis, providing a deeper understanding of the composition of the rock art in El Buxu cave, while uncovering potential correlations between the samples according to their elemental composition.After comparing additional evidences from other red cave paintings in the region with the red pictographs in the cave, along with the stratification of paint pigments and their relationship with the ochre samples in each stratum, it appears that the red paintings comprise the oldest group of pictures inside the cave and can be broadly dated to the pre-Magdalenian cultural period.

Pigment identification of prehispanic ceramics during Inka occupation (Catamarca, Argentina) using non-invasive spectroscopy (Infrared-Raman)

The Hualfin Valley presents a long occupation period from the first agropastoralist societies (BC 200) to the Inka occupation (AD 1400). Ceramic production has played a fundamental role, being an important indicator of social and political conditions. Published studies related to ceramic production on pre-Hispanic populations of the valley focused on the designs, clay procurement sources and production techniques. However, the identification of pigments used for the ceramic decoration remains to be investigated. In this study, we conduct an analysis related to the ceramic production in the Villavil 2 site (Catamarca, Argentina) through the application of vibrational spectroscopy (Infrared-Raman), with the objective of identifying the chemical compounds implemented on the decorative techniques as well as the specific uses to which they were intended.The results showed that red paintings implemented on the Inka style and Belén style (prehispanic pottery) were obtained from hematite (α-Fe2O3) present in the area; the intensity of the coloration could have been generated from the exposition of the material to oxidative conditions resulting from firing at high temperatures of 600 °C. The black paintings were of principal inorganic nature as suggested by the presence of minerals derived from manganese oxides such as magnetite (Fe3O4), jacobsite (MnFe2O4) and maghemite (γ-Fe2O3).

Francis Newton Souza’s Black Paintings: Postwar Transactions in Color

For the South Asian artist Francis Newton Souza (1924–2000), the color black—redolent with achromatic intensity, controverted in color theory, resonant with political potentiality—mattered. Preoccupied with the color from 1954, Souza completed a series of over fifty monochromatic black paintings in 1965. What meaning did the color have for the then London-based artist? In postwar art, the color black remained associated with infinity, spirituality, and transcendence. In contrast, situating blackness at the intersections of decolonization, Négritude, and civil rights movements tracks a contrapuntal politics and poetics of the color through Souza’s black paintings.

Emergent categorization in the recognition of black and white paintings through conditional discrimination

BackgroundThe emergent categorization involving paintings by renowned painters and their corresponding names was demonstrated by previous studies. However, the results of these studies suggest that the colors of the pictures may have played a preponderant role, obscuring other aspects of the stimuli that could be more directly related to the style of each painter. To verify this possibility, the present study used the same methodology of Ferreira et al. to investigate the establishment of emergent conditional relations between categories composed of black and white paintings and the names of their authors.MethodThe procedure consisted of the training of relations between each of the ten paintings and an abstract picture, for each of the three painters Botticelli, Monet, and Picasso. Relations between each of the three abstract figures and the printed name of one of the painters were verified in sequence. Finally, tests of relations between five trained and five untrained paintings of each artist and the printed names were conducted.ResultsThe participants’ performance suggests that the outcome was properly controlled by aspects pertinent to the paintings that belonged to each painter’s category.ConclusionsThe results reinforced the data obtained previously with colored pictures, suggesting that the process of emergent categorization involving artificial categories of paintings is robust. It also indicates possibilities for future investigations, for example, using stimuli of other artistic productions, such as sculpture and music.

Creative Practice through Teleconferencing in the Era of COVID-19

Creative Practice through Teleconferencing in the Era of COVID-19

A Study of the Realization of the Configurational Language of Modern Abstract Black Ink Paintings: With a Focus on Abstract Expressions of Ink Wash Paintings

A Study of the Realization of the Configurational Language of Modern Abstract Black Ink Paintings: With a Focus on Abstract Expressions of Ink Wash Paintings

Paintings

Watercolor and ink help me dwell with the porousness of all morphologies emerging through birth/death, living/nonliving, dis/ability, interbeing, visible and nonvisible embodiments, and the passages of time. In real life, numerous non-trans people have told me that gender transition gives me control over what happens to my body and what people make of it; gives me more freedom than they have to choose what my body/mind does in the world; makes me get younger instead of older. Like me, watercolor has its own opinion and illumination. Like me, it is mortal. When I use ink, as in these black ink paintings, I often close my eyes as I make the lines. The canvas witnesses my nonlinear, non-Cartesian, queer experience of time and space, grief, and love.

GOYA’S BLACK PAINTINGS AND ANALYSIS OF HIS PAINTING NAMED “THE DOG”

Francisco Goya (1746-1828), 18. yüzyılın ikinci ve 19. yüzyılın ilk yarısında yaşamış bir sanatçı olarak, İspanya’nın sancılı bir dönemine tanıklık etmiştir. Sanatçı, iç savaşın ve Fransız işgalinin yaşandığı bu dönemden çok etkilenmiş ve yaşadıkları sanatına doğrudan yansımıştır. Çarpıcı ve sanatsal değeri yüksek olan resimleri bu nedenle belge niteliği taşımaktadır. Goya’nın resimleri, savaş ve şiddet konusunda toplumsal hafızayı uyarıcı ve tetikte olmayı gerektiren bir işlev üstlenmişlerdir.
 Neoklasizm’den Romantizm’e geçiş sürecinde yaşamış olan Goya, geleneksel yaklaşımdan uzaklaşarak; içselliğini, heyecan ve duygularını resimlerine yansıtmış olan ilk sanatçılardan birisidir. Sanatçı Aydınlanma Felsefe’sinin etkisiyle Avrupa’da sosyal ve politik değişimlerin hız kazandığı bir dönemde yaşamış; özgürlükçü ve eleştirel tutumunu resimlerine taşımıştır.
 Bu makalede, Goya’nın 1819-1823 yılları arasında yaşadığı evin duvarlarına yaptığı Kara Resimler ve bu resimler içerisinde belirgin bir şekilde öne çıkan Köpek adlı resmi incelenmiştir. Sanatçının yaşamı ve yaşadığı dönemin öne çıkan olayları, resimlerine etkisi bağlamında genel hatlarıyla ele alınmış ve Köpek adlı resmin ayrıntılı analizi yapılmıştır. Resimde yer alan imgelerin metaforik açılımları ve köpek imgesi ekseninde gelişenler incelenmiştir.

Age of the Upper Paleolithic sites in Kapova and Ignatievskaya caves (Southern Ural): revision and interpretations of the radiocarbon dates

There are two caves containing groups of wall paintings of the Upper Paleolithic age known in the Southern Ural: Kapova (Shulgan-Tash) and Ignatievskaya (Yamazy-Tash). In total, about 200 pictorial motifs have been recorded in the Kapova cave, among which there are life-like depictions of Pleistocene animals (mammoth and rhinoceros). Some 180 pictorial motifs have been found in the Ignatievskaya cave, which also show images of the Pleistocene fauna (mammoth and rhinoceros), although less realistic than those in the Kapova cave. The cultural layers have been discovered in the cave sediments at both sites. Archaeological excavations in the Kapova cave revealed multiple cultural layers which contained remains of the hearths, stone artefacts, fragments of ochre, decorations made of stone and tusk, a piece of burnеd clay cup, bone tools and animal bones (some with traces of ochre paint). In the Ignatievskaya cave, the Paleolithic cultural layer contains numerous fragments of charcoal, stone artefacts, rare fragments of ochre, decorations made from teeth of arctic fox and bison and from mammoth tusk, as well as the bones of Pleistocene animals. In the past two decades, a series of radiocarbon dates has been reported by different researchers based on the charcoal and bones from the cultural layers in both caves. Seventeen dates have been reported for the Kapova cave, including 14 Upper Paleolithic, 2 Bronze Age and 1 modern dates. The materials from the cultural layer of the Ignatievskaya cave have yielded 6 radiocarbon dates; another 3 dates were obtained directly from the charcoal used for the black paintings in the cave. Our analysis of publications, in which the radiocarbon dates from the Upper Paleolithic cultural layers of the Kapova and Ignati-evskaya caves are used, has revealed that the dating results are often reported inaccurately or incompletely, which leads to serious errors in interpretations. In particular, the incorrect use of non-calibrated radiocarbon dates as calendar ages, completely changes the paleoclimatic context of the cave occupation; for the Kapova cave, for instance, such misinterpretation shifts the dates of the cave visiting and painting from the late part of the Last Glacial Maximum and early deglaciation to the Bølling-Allerød interstadial. In this paper, we revisit the published radiocarbon ages for these two Southern Ural sites, provide practical recommendations and re-emphasize the importance for accurate and complete reporting of radiocarbon ages in publications.

Benquerencia (La Serena - Spain) rock art: An integrated spectroscopy analysis with FTIR and Raman

La Serena region is a large plateau with open landscapes bounded in the south by a mountain chain formed by the Benquerencia, Tiros and La Rinconada Sierras. There are more than 300 painted and engraved sites in the region.Cueva Grande, Cueva de En medio and Cueva Pequeña are three Schematic rock art shelters located in the municipality of Benquerencia de la Serena, Badajoz, Spain. Over their panels have been documented more than a hundred of painted schematic figures (anthropomorphic figures, eye-shape figures and symbols) (Neolithic – Copper Age).Paintings are monochromatic with red or black coloration. A total of 13 samples (10 red and 3 black samples) from different panels were collected and analyzed using micro-Raman spectroscopy and ATR-FTIR.Micro-Raman spectroscopy was able to characterize the main mineral component, respectively hematite for the red figures and charcoal for the black paintings. ATR-FTIR was useful to possible ochre and possible organic identification. These latest results are particularly important for understanding manufacturing processes and addressing conservation problems.

Éticas y políticas de la edición en Ad Reinhardt. Más allá de la pintura y los cómics

Ad Reinhardt, además de pintor, se dedicó a labores editoriales, al diseño gráfico y a la realización de cómics desde su juventud y a lo largo de toda su vida. Estas obras no eran meros trabajos alimenticios, sino algo en lo que se implicaba con un personal compromiso ético, estético e ideológico perfectamente deslindado de su producción pictórica. Su muy conocida serie How to Look…, que se publicó en el diario PM, constituye uno de los comics más originales del siglo XX además de una reflexión sobre qué es el arte moderno, sus conceptos, vicios y virtudes. Junto con esto se implicó en multitud de cabeceras siendo editor jefe o director de arte en algunas de ellas. Esta implicación con políticas editoriales supusieron una labor tan comprometida como la realización de sus conocidas Pinturas negras.