Reproduction & Reinterpretation

Another of my assigned projects during A-Level Art led me to the New Walk Art Gallery in Leicester. The subject was German Expressionism and was actually a Summer Holiday project! Most of the artists involved in this early twentieth century movement believed that art had an almost messiah-like power to change society. Expressionism was characterised by heightened symbolic colours and exaggerated imagery. The German interpretation tended to dwell on the darker, more sinister aspects of the human psyche. The term "Expressionism" is used to describe any form of art that raises subjective feelings above objective observations. The paintings aim to reflect the artist's state of mind rather than the reality of the external world.

I was tasked with spending the day in the gallery to make notes and sketches, to understand how the art made me feel, and to find my favourite picture, what it represents, and ultimately to reproduce and then reinterpret this particular piece. 16 years later when I went on my first holiday for seven years, I was standing on the train platform and as I waited I realised I was standing opposite an advert for the New Walk Gallery, facing this exact image; I felt as though the Universe was somehow trying to tell me I was in exactly the right place at exactly the right time! The piece is called Red Woman, painted in 1912 by an artist called Franz Marc. The original image is taken from germanexpressionismeicester.org.

For me this image represents celebration and freedom; a woman dancing in the jungle. My reinterpretation places the jungle inside the woman, turning the original inside out to illustrate that freedom and happiness are within her all along, not just when she is in the jungle. Red Woman along with my interpretation were great fun to play with on Prisma as they are already colourful pieces.