Artists Peter Paul Rubens and Katharina Grosse Essay

Introduction

Art in the sixteenth and the twenty-first centuries have undergone significant changes. Exemplified by the works of Peter Paul Rubens and Katharina Grosse, artworks have transitioned from the Flemish Baroque to the Gagosian style, where an artist enjoys the interplay of architecture, sculpture, and painting. During the 16^th century, Rubens used ordered oil painting to bring his ideas to life. However, Grosse uses sprayed acrylic colors for her paintings compared with him. The essay helps the reader understand the two artists and illustrates their artworks based on their presentation.

Peter Paul Rubens

Sir Peter Paul Rubens was considered an individual with a remarkable personality. He had a beautiful and charming companion nature and was described as having a tall stature with a regularly shaped face (The National Gallery). Rubens had rosy cheeks, sparkling eyes, and chestnut brown hair in his stately bearing. Despite having a restrained passion, he had a warm, gentle, and laughing air. Rubens played a significant role in 17^th-century European politics and had a staggering number of artworks in his workshop (The National Gallery). Rubens was considered to have been an enormously successful painter. While painting, Rubens would have someone read to him from a classical literature work (The National Gallery). He had a passion for ancient coins and sculpture, among other curiosities, which included an Egyptian Mummy, and his collection formed part of the attraction for his visiting dignitaries.

Most of Rubens’s artworks were altarpieces, particularly suitable for an artist who enjoyed working on a grand scale. Rubens was a Flemish artist; therefore, his artworks had the Flemish Baroque style that existed between the 16^th and 17^th centuries. (Scribner) his ability to infuse his extraordinary vitality into an exuberant and powerful style epitomized the baroque style of the century. His color accentuation, movement, and sensuality made him an influential leader in the catholic counter-reformation painting style (Scribner). His paintings’ opulent, robust, and ample figures generated a pervasive sense of movement in dynamic and vivid compositions.

Katharina Grosse

Katharina Grosse is considered the most honest artist in today’s world, whose directness and simplicity form a rare personality type in contemporary art. Through her works, Grosse brings out both straightforwardness and uncomplicatedness, which are elegant reminders of the imagination she presents to the world through her art (Barcio). She is beautiful, entertaining, and amusing and stands out as an artist capable of presenting a collision of things through painted images.

Grosse treats the natural world and architecture as an armature of futuristic flair, humorous juxtaposition, and dreamy abandoned expressive compositions. Her artworks, which use sculpture, painting, and architecture, suggest complicated narratives through everyday objects, evocative titles, and psychedelic vistas by building up color layers with an expressive immediacy (Art21). Through her thought inscription, Grosse enables her artworks to have a material record of their own. She often employs electrifying sprayed acrylic colors, which enables her to generate large-scale sculptural environments alongside more minor wall works (Art21). Through her works, Grosse creates interesting scale shifts between being small and imagining the significance of the environment by exploring the dynamic interplay between being in the world and observing it.

Conclusion

The two artists represent two different art styles, with Rubens linked to Flemish Baroque and Grosse linked to the Gagosian art style. Rubens’ paintings are associated with opulent, robust, and significant figures responsible for generating a pervasive sense of movement in dynamic and vivid compositions. Grosse is responsible for creating an exciting scale shift between being small and imagining big. The shift enables the artist to create a relationship with the environment by exploring the dynamic interplay between being in the world and observing it.

Works Cited

Art21. “Katharina Grosse”. Art21, 2022.

Barcio, Phillip. “No boundary between reality and imagination – Katharina Grosse at the Gagosian”. Ideelart.Com, 2018.

Scribner, Charles. “Peter Paul Rubens – Later Career”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2022.

The National Gallery. “Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640) | National Gallery, London”. Nationalgallery.Org.Uk, 2022.