WP3: Context

As the title of my assigned art object--"Monet's Table (from the Lilypad Series)"--suggests, Monet is an extremely important aspect to the arguments that are being made. Monet, also known as Claude Oscar Monet, was a famous French painter who founded the impressionist style of painting. Impressionist painters and their paintings often, if not always, focused on lighting and how it changes with the passing of time. This makes a lot of sense with respect to Michael Todd's "Monet's Table (from the Lilypad Series). As I've mentioned in previous posts, my assigned art object is positioned under a bridge so that, as the day progresses, the shadow from the bridge moves across the top surface of the table. This unique position under the bridge effectively portray's Monet's impressionist art style through the passing of time and motion of shadows.

Another characteristic of the impressionist style of painting is the tendency to include visible brush strokes. In some extreme cases, impressionist paintings appear as a mass of small, brightly colored strokes, only comprehendible when the painting is viewed as a whole rather than a small section. This style is also reflective of Michael Todd's piece of art; the entirety of "Monet's Table (from the Lilypad Series)" is composed of a rough, bumpy steel surface. Additionally, Michael Todd let remain clearly visible the points at which different sections of the table were welded together. This sort of rough, unfinished appearance parallels the impressionist style, making the table seem as if it had been created by Monet himself

Claude Monet is well known for his series of paintings based around the water lilies in his flower garden. Overall, he created around 250 oil paintings in this area over a span of about 30 years. It is easy to see why Michael Todd argues that Monet would have had a table of water lilies. Todd effectively converts Monet's impressionist style in paintings to his own impressionist style in sculpture. The upper surface of the table is composed of simple, circular panels, none of which have any sort of detail whatsoever. This once again follows the impressionist style, putting more importance on aspects such as lighting and time progression rather than the level of detail. This allows Todd to simply leave the impression of water lilies.

"Monet's Table (from the Lilypad Series)" is actually quite an odd sculpture because of its historical context. Impressionist sculptures weren't nonexistant in the impressionist era; however, impressionism is more commonly known for its founder, Monet, and for the many paintings created during its time. Michael Todd tries to take what Monet has created in paintings, and form it into his own piece of art to sum up all that is Monet. This conversion turns out to be rather interesting. We don't need 250 paintings and 30 years just to experience this table; we can see it from any viewpoint and at any time of the day, and it will probably always have the level of detail that it might have if it were instead one Monet's paintings.