Influences from four great artists

Introduction

"Art is dead", Professor James Gordon Bennett stated saliently one day during class at the International Academy of Design and Technology in Tampa, Florida. He clarified later that the actual quote was “Art is dead, Andy Warhol killed it.” One could assume Warhol put an end to the traditional old masters’ techniques with his high contrast images merely colored in, or that Professor Bennett was referring to Warhol’s later works with piss art and tampon boxes. On one hand, all the great masters are dead, and in a manner of speaking one could assume "Art is dead", but on the other hand, there are plenty of artists still around producing art, just not classified as "master artists" yet. Regardless of the debate my thinking at the time was, is "Art" dead? The next question then; what is the meaning of my existence as a present day artist? These questions were enough to begin this study of four great masters and their influence on me as the artist.
Dali states, "If you act the genius you will be one" (Dali 1993, p. 11). The purpose of this study is to explore the influences of four artists, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Andy Warhol, on me as a developing, modern-day artist. The question examined: Can a present day artist be artistically influenced by the study of these four masters?
The study examines the basic principles of these artists by looking at their comparisons in Salvador Dali’s Table of Artists, from his book 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship (Dali, 1992), in which he conducted his own study of period artists and scored them on their craftsmanship, inspiration, color, design, genius, composition, originality, mystery and authenticity. I chose the four artists, which I most admired for my study, though others are included in Dali’s book. Unfortunately, Van Gogh was not well liked by Dali and is only mentioned rather briefly in Dali’s opening comments. As a result, I had to find additional resources to research Van Gogh’s work.
Dali’s publication sets two precedents, showing not only that other artists can influence artists, but that they can be part of a historical significance by leaving their thoughts and opinions on record for those later artists.
After studying the techniques and styles of each of the four masters, I aspired to implement their methods in my own paintings. As the artist, I was an active participant in the solo exhibition and provided a survey of patrons’ questionnaire regarding the work. Patrons were given the opportunity to participate in comparing each of the four paintings to the style of the corresponding master. Their responses provided the necessary data for analysis to determine the level of artistic influence. This data culminated the conclusion of the research question. The conclusion is that the modern-day artist can gain great insight into what the great masters each tried to accomplish with their work, and can visibly influence a present day artist’s work.
The Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is the exploration of influences of artists Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol on me as an artist. The research question examined is: Can a present day artist be artistically influenced by the study of these four masters; Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Andy Warhol? This research will look at the background of the four artists and their various works as an influence on my own technique and creativity. It will provide exploratory research as the methodology in which a solo exhibition was provided so that a survey of patrons could provide the necessary data for this research project. This will provide the necessary results followed by a discussion of the implications of the study.
Significance of the Study
This study is significant because it interprets how several old masters can influence one present day artist. It indicates that although these masters existed many years before, their techniques, creativity, and paint colors can influence future generations of artists. These masters made their "mark" on other artists of their time but preserved their methods for future students to adapt to modern technology. The objective of this research experiment was to take an intimate look at artists Van Gogh, Picasso, Dali, and Warhol’s works and various techniques. The rational of the importance of this study is that it makes a significant contribution to the knowledge base in the area of fine art. It is an original study that examines the influence of artists Van Gogh, Picasso, Dali, and Warhol in a chronological time frame, as it pertains to art history, starting with each artist’s birth date.
This exploration of the artists provides the necessary research scenario as the artist is an active participate in such an adventure. The objective and outcome is to provide data and examples so that future artists can experience the results, analyze the outcomes, and by doing so, the study would provide the logic and rational for a future research project for any artist studied.

Review of Literature
The artists Van Gogh, Picasso, Dali, and Warhol all made a significant impact and contribution to the world of art. Given the level of talent these four masters set a level of excellence that continues as an example of classic theory and technique for artists today.
The Influence of Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890) was considered the greatest Dutch painter since Rembrandt. He produced over eleven hundred drawings and nine hundred paintings during the ten-year period before he succumbed to mental illness and committed suicide.
Van Gogh’s work did not become popular until eleven years after his death, following an exhibition in Paris on March 17, 1901. "His influence on early abstraction and expressionism was immense and can be seen in 20th century art" (Ayoub, 2005, p. 1).
Van Gogh’s life reminds me of my own solitary moments. His loose and colorful painting style may be a result of his “letting go” lifestyle, surrendering to his depression and failure as he tried to effectively enter society. The Starry Night (Metzger, 2006) is a classic example of his use of rich colors. In this painting, Van Gogh provides a depiction of the stars in the heavens meeting the earth, against a blue impasto background. This contrasts a yellow-orange moon, various starbursts and a whimsical play of light across the middle of the sky, all applied to the canvas in various directions to create yet another dimension over color and form.
I found that this artist began to shed his influence on me as I reviewed his images and life story in the book Van Gogh The Complete Paintings (Metzger, 2006). Van Gogh is an inspiration to me despite his human frailties. He is considered one of the best artists of all time. Starting with craftsmanship and inspiration with his original Portrait of Patience Escalier (Metzger, 2006), Van Gogh set the stage in dignity and style. This life portrait painting of a Sheppard featured in a yellow straw hat, one rendition on a blue background the other on orange. He finished the canvas by adding originality, mystery and authenticity to his fine art production including the use of color, design and composition; he set a precedent for other artists to follow. In review, I now see that with his productions, Van Gogh provided a wonderful show for future artists with his many paintings. From him, I understand his use of colors, the creative style and design in the way in which they were applied. I am also challenged to emulate the way in which simple subjects were treated with his spice of color and execution. This brings new meaning and depth to my work and technique. This from a man somewhat unsuccessful at life but famous in death and yet, from the Dali study, his only mention of Van Gogh was to call him "mad" (Dali, 1992, p. 13).
The Influence of Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), with ninety years worth of greatness was termed "the most famous artist of the 20th century" (Moffat, 2005, p. 1). He was born October 25th, 1881 to Dona Maria Picasso Lopez and Don Jose Ruiz Blasco of Malaga, Spain. During the first part of his life, he signed his name as Pablo Ruiz, but at the turn of the 20th century changed his signature to Pablo Picasso. He is famous for his many periods of painting; the Blue and Rose period 1901-1906, Cubism 1907-1917 (African, Analytical Cubism, Synthetic or Collage Cubism), Classicism and Surrealism 1918-1936, Wartime 1937-1945, and his late works of 1946-1973. By following these many and diverse periods chronologically, I saw how his various moods were influenced by the times and how his symbolic references to history occurred. He truly interpreted history in his work, and left its record for all interested to see. "I wanted to be a painter, and I became Picasso," declared Pablo Picasso "in an apt survey of a triumphant career. In his paintings, drawings, lithographs, ceramics, and sculptures, he was tirelessly inventive and innovative" (The Times, 2008 p.1). Dali gave Picasso high marks in inspiration, design, genius and composition (Dali 1993).
My earliest influence from Picasso would be considered a traditional symbolic influence from his decisive use of The Dove of Peace (Design Boom, 2002) he designed for the International Peace Congress in Paris, 1949. A lithograph featuring the white ancestor of a new family of doves, as designers carry on this historic symbol to date. From war to peace, Picasso was the heir-apparent inventor of a series of periods in the making of his art. I’ve come to admire Picasso’s tireless pursuit to record the world around him throughout his life and aspire to exhibit that dedication in my own career.
The Influence of Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali (1904-1989) was born in 1904 in Figuera a small town in Northern Spain. Dali, a child prodigy, began his career with drawing lessons at the age of ten. "His art teacher was a then well known Spanish impressionist painter, Ramon Pichot. Dali began to study art at the Royal Academy in Madrid where he was expelled twice and never took the exams. His opinion was he was more qualified than those who should have examined him" (Weyers, 1999, p. 1).
In 1928, Dali traveled to Paris and met the artists Joan Miro and Pablo Picasso. This is where Dali established himself as a principal surrealist and was the understudy to Andre Breton, the theoretical "schoolmaster of surrealism" (Weyers, 1999, p. 1). This meeting and alliance between Dali and Picasso supports the theory that other artists can be influenced. Later Dali painted renditions of Picasso’s work as a mockery of Picasso’s style (Descharnes, 1997). I can assume that Picasso may have picked up on Van Gogh’s influence in that region of France, some 27 years later when Van Gogh’s work was considered popular. Dali ranked himself with high marks in all areas in his own study.
The Salvador Dali Museum, located in St. Petersburg, Florida, certainly acts as a stage for this great master of illusion art. Dali impresses with many paintings in the collection, 95 oil paintings are housed in St. Petersburg with six of the eighteen as large historical paintings. Dali attempts to take viewers on a trip through their imagination, playing with thought processes. I have attended the museum often which has enabled me to research the artist. Seeing so many examples of his various periods in one place helped me to gain perspective into his development and style of painting in the surrealist manner.
In the book 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship, (Dali, 1992) that I purchased at the museum, Dali encourages the painter to paint as if all the world’s paintings have yet to be painted. This is important to me, and should be translated by each aspiring painter to apply it to him or herself in a personal way. The appeal of actually viewing Dali’s works firsthand and reading his book is to share his inspiration and love of painting. He challenges the artist in me to continue with a zestfulness and passion he exhibited while creating my own work. By studying his book and techniques I was able to understand which colors will produce the best results for his style. After reading a description of his under-painting as "infinitely smooth and as a hard substance" (Dali, p. 21), at first I did not understand this contradictory concept, but with my own rendition of Gala Contemplating the Eternal Flame, I now have a better understanding of his hidden brush stroke style. Dali does not show or feature a particular brushstroke and the appearance of his painting is very smooth with a little bit of texture, such as fine sandpaper. His influence can be seen in my painting, and although this rendition did not fully capture his surrealistic painting style, it did turn out quite nicely.

As an elderly man, Salvador Dali was unable to paint due to illness and knowing this has certainly inspired me to continue painting while I can. Art is a gift and as long as I have this gift I intend to share it with the world.
The Influence of Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola (1928 – 1987) was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania August 6th 1928 to Andrej and Julia Warhola. At the age of eight, Warhol projected images of cartoon characters on the walls of his home and at age nine his interests grew in photography with the use of a brownie camera. It was during Warhol’s life that society was yet to be introduced to “Pop Art” but Warhol became the “Prince of Pop” (Colacello, 1990 p. 25). He was famous for such art pieces as Superman (Humanities Web, 1998), Purple Cows (Indie Wire, 2008), and Elvis (Poster, 1993). He is also attributed with the quote "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes" (Quote DB, 2005, p. 1). He ultimately added photographer, publisher, filmmaker and actor to his credits (Warhol, 1975). Warhol was not mentioned in the Dali study.
I grew up in the era of pop art and became aware of his work during the late 1970’s and 1980’s. Andy’s earliest influence on me was the Lips logo (Sleevage, 1971) commissioned by the Rolling Stones, for the Sticky Fingers album in 1971 and the Moonwalk (Ad Arts, 1970) featuring a neon pink space suite as seen on the early 1970’s MTV music television series. Warhol's choice of color and knowledge of color theory dominate as his signature on his work. A classic example is Ingrid with Hat (All Posters, 1998) featuring hot pink outlines on a magenta brim on a blue back ground with orange hair evokes the poster like colors of the 1970s.
I studied most of Warhol’s work on the Internet, where I found over 4000 pieces. The World Wide Web provides a great tutorial from the Andy Warhol Museum on the silkscreen process Warhol used in his graphics. I was able to emulate the colors purple, yellow, orange, light blue, light green and magenta and place them on a high contrast sample. This concept is easy to use but the actual execution of paint on canvas is very time consuming. I take away a humble appreciation for his boldness in art and identify with his use of everyday objects rendered in creative primary and secondary colors. An excellent example is his Marilyn Monroe (Doss, 2002) image featuring yellow hair, hot pink skin-tones, ruby red lips and light blue accents on an orange background. I felt that studying his lifeline and art works shed real light on who Andy Warhol was and where he was trying to achieve artistically. His life story provided me the insight to understand him and the understanding of the drive he used in his work. At the end of his life headed toward a more surrealist pop type style of art. This was a concept he was working on at the beginning of his career, but chose to go the pop art route instead. It is hard to describe Andy Warhol as his interests were so varied but like many great artists, he stuck to his guns, and was certainly an inspiration to me.
Summary
This review examines and explores some of the contributing factors of artists Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol and how each influenced me as the developing artist. This original study specifically looks at each artist from a chronological aspect from the time they were born and attempts to develop relationships to similarities in life styles and genres. From the review and participation in the study, I as the artist was able to analyze and conceptualize different findings in the effort to obtain artistic influences.

Methodology
Objective
The objective was to explore the question, can a present day artist be influenced artistically by the study of these four masters; Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Andy Warhol? using exploratory qualitative research as the methodology. The research conducted was the making of one new art piece each, in the style of Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol and to ascertain a relationship between each artists' influence on my own style and technique of painting. I researched each artists' work, their craftsmanship, inspiration, color, design, composition, originality, and mystery. I also provided a solo exhibition with a survey of patrons to obtain necessary data and analysis.
Theory
The research question is: can a present day artist be artistically influenced by the study of these four masters? The study of the lifestyles and works of artists Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol might provide an influence on a modern artist’s work.
Research Participants
The research participants were a diverse group of people including various races and age groups and a good representation of the greater Tampa Bay area.
Survey of Patrons
To obtain the necessary data, a survey of patrons (Figure 1) was provided during the exhibition held at the Ybor Art Studio located at 2702 E. 7th Ave Tampa, Florida. The event was held on May 16-18, 2008 with accessible hours during the day and evening. A survey of patrons' questionnaire (Figure 1) was provided for the necessary feedback for this study.
Data Collection
The data was provided during the actual exhibition by its patrons, who were offered the survey shown in Figure 1. The data examined came from 10 completed surveys out of the 25 people attending. Data Collection
The data was provided during the actual exhibition by its patrons, who were offered the survey shown in Figure 1. The data examined came from 10 completed surveys out of the 25 people attending.
Data Analysis
The data analyzed from the survey included the style, colors and texture in comparison to the master artists. The participants scored the four individual pieces presented during the solo exhibition. This produced the necessary data so that the results could be analyzed in an effort to arrive at a conclusion based on the pieces presented. An additional comments section was provided so that favorites could be chosen.










Process
The planning of a solo art exhibition requires work and previous experience was drawn on. Prior to this exhibition I was able to obtain several month-long exhibits at various locations during November and December 2007. These served as a practice run and demonstrated what it is like to actually plan an exhibit and find affordable locations for display. Free is always good, but not always practical as booking dates are taken up quickly and sometimes booked a year in advance. Most artists are resourceful in finding display space for their work and as luck would have it, I did run across a location on the Internet while searching Craigslist (Craigslist, 2000) Tampa. The Ybor Art Studio located at 2702 E. 7th Ave. Tampa, Fl 33605 placed an advertisement on this listing. I checked the location at an earlier date to see if it might suit my needs and it did. The show must go on, and the date was set for May 16th, 17th, 18th, 2008 with hours, Friday from 5 pm - 9 pm, Saturday from 10 am - 9 pm and Sunday from 12 noon - 8 pm An invitation was designed for the VIP Art show (Figure 3) and the production of getting out 1000 post cards were sent to respective artists and college personnel.
The three-day, two-night event turned out to be lightly attended, with about 25 people visiting. All the patrons visiting the show had comments and 10 participated in the survey.
The new renditions of art represent Vincent Van Gogh’s, Starry Night, Pablo Picasso’s, Study of Nude Back, Salvador Dali’s, Gala Contemplating Architecture and from Andy Warhol, Dollar Sign, Campbell's Soup, Marilyn Monroe, and Andy Warhol as art, were the feature pieces for the solo exhibition.
Vincent van Gogh
My own work Eternal Flame on a Starry Night (Figure 5) oil on canvas is representative of Vincent Van Gogh and his painting techniques and the thought process prevalent in his work. On a scale of one to ten, with ten being most difficult, Van Gogh’s work ranks at ten for me. Though the unpracticed eye may think his work is fairly simple, using his technique is to create two pictures at once; one in color and drawing, one in directing the paint in directions to enhance the idea and feeling of the picture. When I began the Starry Night piece, from an enlarged version of a similar drawing of the original piece. The drawing was coated with charcoal on the back and then traced to the canvas from the front of the original. This technique is similar to the paint by numbers method where you have a drawn image with the numbers that correspond to the paint colors to the area they should be applied. I started in the upper right quadrant of the canvas, with the orange and yellow moon and worked my way down the surface. The original tool of choice was a small pallet knife, but it did not produce the desired results. Then with a medium sized brush in hand I placed the mixed Cobalt blue and white on the canvas, then taking the pointy blunt end of the brush to push the paint onto the other areas of the canvas. This process took over one day of uninterrupted painting, finishing on the second painting session, to the music of Mozart.
The rationale behind doing this particular painting is like picking a favorite; find the one you like and see if you can reproduce it. I enjoy his depiction of the sky and beyond; it is wonderful and not found in any other artists’ work of the time. The sky not only explodes with his view of the stars, but with his brush strokes, he shows the observer an energy contained in the universe. Call it the influence of the Gods, or of one God, it is up to the observer’s own decision and conviction to decide.
When I look at Van Gogh’s work I see precise drawings and the execution of at least nine hundred paintings. By studying his techniques, I don’t think of his designs as being painted in a left to right process. In this particular work a right to left process was used. The most important lesson here is to do what you know instinctively and to learn and develop these instincts from trial and error. I hope his images might be impressed on my memory permanently and the use of his color choices, techniques, and style will become more prevalent in my own design implementation.
Pablo Picasso
From Picasso I chose to emulate his early study on the Study of Nude Back (Warncke, 2007, p. 36) originally by artist Arcadi Mas Fontdevilla. In this study, the objective is to utilize loose patchy brush strokes and create mosaic effects. Learning techniques from Picasso’s work is challenging to say the least. One can only hope to take away something from each period; his Blue and Rose period 1901-1906, Cubism 1907-1917, African, Analytical Cubism, Synthetic or Collage Cubism, Classicism and Surrealism 1918-1936, Wartime 1937-1945, and his late works of 1946-1973. From these periods one might follow the chronology and ascertain the various moods and symbolic references in the production of a future art piece, if nothing else as a tribute to Picasso.
From the Back of Nude study (Figure 6) started much like the Van Gogh piece. It too was oil on canvas with and enlarged similar rendition and applied to the canvas in the paint by numbers aforementioned. The difference being a change in the use of colors in his pallet choices and his loose brushwork by creating patchy brush strokes. This study continues in the time-honored tradition of learning light, shadow, tonality and the use of juxtaposed brush strokes creating a mosaic impression. "This method is systematic, in that any painter that would follow it would produce persuasive effects" (Warncke, 2007, p. 43). From Picasso, I came away with the changing of a pallet utilizing more bronze, orange and peach tones with their warmth and added visibility, giving life to the canvas that wasn’t there before.
The study of Picasso and his techniques is more than a year long destination. It is a lifelong pursuit of a study of his drawings and life chronology. Picasso’s work is so vast, I can only hope to master any period or carry on in a different variation of his many themes.
Salvador Dali
Following in the footsteps of Salvador Dali, author of 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship I learned about the various perceptions and techniques of painting philosophy. From this book he encourages the painter to paint as if all the world’s paintings have yet to be painted. The appeal of viewing his works is the sharing of his inspiration and love for painting. He invites the beholder to continue to paint. By studying his various methods I was able to understand which colors produce the best results for oil painting. The challenge now is recreating Gala Contemplating Architecture. Now that I better understand his hidden brush stroke style I was able to produce a similar rendition Gala Contemplating the Eternal Flame (Figure 7). This oil on canvas started from an enlarged similar original and applied to the canvass in the paint by numbers method. The objective was to render smoother or hidden brush strokes. In my rendition my style still shows strokes predominantly on the back of my subject. This is a carryover from a earlier learned method. While my rendition was a close resemblance, his influence can be seen in this painting, as I was influenced by various techniques from Dali in this rendition.
Andy Warhol
The fourth and final painting is A Tribute to Andy Warhol (Figure 8) in the classic Andy Warhol tradition. This acrylic on canvas was done on the floor in a hand painted version of the silk screen process studied on line at the Andy Warhol Museum (Warhol Museum, 2005). Having the canvas in a flat surface and working from above I carefully placed the eight-point star in the middle of the canvas, masking it off and painted in the black lines and filled in the colors later. I then put down the images from left to right, top to bottom, starting with the white dollar sign painted on purple and added a few green painted quarters. This is a direct printing technique learned at the Graphic Studio, located at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. This direct printing technique involves applying transparent green paint to the heads or tails side of the quarter then pressing them in the white portion of the painted dollar sign creating a high contract effect similar to the silk screen process used by Warhol. The next quadrant in the upper right hand portion of the canvas, I painted version of a open Campbell's soup can on a yellow back ground, pouring tomato soup into the lower frame of red-orange featuring Marilyn Monroe (Doss E., 2002) created in the traditional Andy Warhol silk screen style. The last frame on the lower left features Andy Warhol photographed by Greg Gorman in 1983, a classic hard light pose creating another high contrast photo, featuring light green for the highlights of the portrait painting with purple shadows on a light blue background. Then I placed the vibrant colors into an eight-point star then divided them into 16 facets. Starting at the top right of the star and working clockwise with red-orange, magenta, red-orange, cyan, light green, pink, cyan, purple, magenta, purple, light green, turquoise, pink, yellow, turquoise and yellow I finished the feature piece.
Survey Results
The results from the survey conclude that as the artist I did include the style of Vincent Van Gogh ninety percent, colors one hundred percent, and texture eighty percent. From Pablo Picasso, style is thirty percent, colors sixty percent, and texture sixty percent. The results continue with Salvador Dali, style being sixty percent, colors ninety percent, and texture seventy percent and from Andy Warhol, style being ninety percent, color ninety percent, and texture eighty percent. While the results of this study are not conclusive, it shows that an artist can be influenced by the study of other artists’ work.

Summary

The process of recreating works of four great masters of fine art, Van Gogh, Picasso, Dali and Warhol is a journey via experiment and not an easily arrived at destination. This journey travels down the paths of the four unique artists' lifestyles and painting processes and techniques. The feature of the experiment is being an active participant in the making of the individual art pieces rendered, and providing the solo exhibition. This method provided an arena where patrons could provide feedback for the necessary results of the survey.



























Discussion
The magic of a fine art oil painting is created with an understanding of life, the love of art and the pursuit of a dream. As I journey into the great unknown as an artist, much learning comes with a lot of frustration. These frustrations certainly act as a catalyst to learning. When I started painting I had numerous ups and downs, a rollercoaster ride into the painting process, but with time, practice and active participation the privilege of being a self made artist was attainable.
This year long study presented challenges, offered opportunities and hardships as well. Vincent Van Gogh was a perfect example of this trial and error school of training. As a rogue painter or a rebel with a cause Van Gogh learned by trial and error. His early religious influence can be seen clearly in his work along with his sympathetic approach to his subject matter. No matter what his subject matter, he painted it with a dignity and style only known as "Vincent"; he signed his name Vincent, and was only known as Van Gogh after his demise. Leaving us all with the question as to why! To emulate the Van Gogh style changed my way of thinking in the creative process. One would normally think it happens in a logical formula. Van Gogh proved time and time again that his creative process was unique both in thinking and execution.
Picasso was deemed "The most famous artist of the 20th Century" (Moffat, 2005, p. 1) and rightly so as he presents the world with ninety years of greatness, as a humble man professes

The different styles I have been using in my art must not be seen as an evolution, or as steps towards an unknown ideal of painting. Everything I have ever made was made for the present and with the hope that it would always remain in the present. I have never had time for the idea of searching. Whenever I wanted to express something, I did so without thinking of the past or the future. I have never made radically different experiments. Whenever I wanted to say something, I said it the way I believed I should. Different themes inevitably require different methods of expression. This does not imply either evolution or progress; it is a matter of following the idea one wants to express and the way in which one wants to express it (Moffat, 2005, p. 1).

This statement proves the simplicity of the man and the character of the artist he represents. To honor Picasso and to do his work justice, is truly taking a different approach to thinking in the production of art and in the creative principles utilized.
Salvador Dali, the master of the illusionary state of mind involved the thought process of an artist. This mindset can be described as the subconscious, referred to as the daydream state or the state as to when we think or talk to our self or talk to our own brain. This state is the little voice in our head, the one that says, I told you so, or I was right. In this state of mind, the artist is lost in thought, both conscious and unconscious, merely painting in a trance. The perception is present but the reality is not. It is in this state when the movements of the brush, and paint, are open, free flowing, bold, and beautiful.
The five thoughts from Salvador Dali proclaim: (a) The art must impress you without touching you; (b) If the classics are cold, it is because their flame is eternal; (c) The éclat of the romantics is that of a fire in a straw pile; (d) If you understand your painting beforehand, you might as well not paint it; (e) Painting, as Leonardo da Vinci proved, is superior to all other arts, because it is directed to the most noble and divine of all organs, the eye. To compare the ear to the eye would be absurd as to compare the nose to the ear (Dali, 1992, p.15).
From the study of Dali, his relentless pursuit of perfection was as a land mark artist. Dali is known as being the "master of mental masturbation" professor Bennett stated, which is considered to be a complement. To attain his level of artistic ability is certainly a great study of art. I can only hope to find the inspiration and talent to recreate a personal version of his dream state technique.
Andy Warhol is like a long lost friend and the brother I never had, as his works is prolific and influential enough to produce an era known as Pop Art. From Warhol's work I see influences of Van Gogh with use of his many bold colors. He was a friend with Paloma Picasso, and the Picasso influence is present as well. Warhol was also a friend with Salvador Dali (Colacello, 1990) so the collaboration of artists happens again as Dali was always aware of the current art trends. In Warhol’s work, it is mentioned that Warhol had a child like way (Colacello, 1990) and surprisingly, Picasso was mentioned as having "a child like way" (Warncke, C. P. 2007 p. 400). As an artistic influence from both, I had the opportunity to retain something I already have, a child like way. In the art world this is known as being in touch with your inner child. The Guernica piece by Picasso represents this child like way and this has been touted as "the greatest masterpiece of all time" (Gliatto, 2003, p. 1). Guernica contains part of the Guerin last name which is merely coincidental. Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Can (Sayre, 2004) is indicative of art in a commercial sense, typical of Warhol and his money-making attributes best described in his book The Philosophy on Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again)(Warhol, 1975). The inside look at Warhol provided the valuable insight into the direction he was headed as an artist. I admire the many accomplishments he provided as an artist. I hope that all these great masters might influence me in a melting pot of art, yet to be poured onto the world.
A relation to a different study in Being Creative - Lessons from the Art Industry by Ian Fillis (Fillis, 2000) was recently discovered by me. In his study he mentions the same artists and compares the marketing aspects of each. The main point of the study was that Dali and Warhol developed a creative mystique around themselves moreover than Van Gogh and Picasso. This study was different than my previous research, it covers the marketing principals attributed to the artists and not the artistic influences in the making of an artist. This study does support the creative process of these artists and their marketing strategies which is therefore worth mentioning.
In closing, this study allowed me to build on all of the aspects of my life’s education. By doing this thesis and conducting my research study, I have been able to pursue my life as an artist in today’s modern society. The nature of this research was to learn about the various aspects of techniques and thought processes in the work of these four great masters in an effort to improve both in creating new design concepts and principals. It is said that in a lifetime of experience, your house is built on a solid foundation and your future is built on the foundation of your own creation. I continue to build on both.