For my second artist talk/lecture/visit I went back to the National Gallery with my French Conversation class to see a guided tour of the impressionism exhibit. Impressionism is my favorite style of art. I took Intro to Art History last semester, but since it was getting near the final, we kind of breezed through this topic, so I only knew that I liked impressionism. The tour itself was really interesting, because rather than just go on and on about the picture, the docent asked us what we saw and what we thought the artist was trying to convey. Also, the information about the artists seemed really personal, and not just a general overview of his or her life. For example, after seeing two self portraits, one by Van Gogh and the other by Gaugin, the docent preceded to tell us about their tumultuous relationship and that they only agreed on one thing. They both thought Gaugin was a genious. I was also fascinated that pretty much all of the artists we looked at were going blind because of their work, and that was a big reason why their "impressions" were so important, because they lacked the ability to see all the details. Monet was my favorite, because I loved his series. Its so true that you get a different feeling seeing something at different times of the day, and his paintings definitely reflect that notion.
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