Morgan Grimes

Artist Statement

 

 

            Since the early 11thcentury artists have been creating and discovering new pigments for oil paintings. Many early colors came from natural substances that created brilliant pigments, such as, cobalt, cadmium, and even lead. Many of these natural pigments created exquisite colors, but were unknown at the time to be toxic to the human body. Using natural substances they have made pigments with unmatched brilliance, but also unknown dangers. Many of the substances used to create pigments throughout history have been toxic, unknown to artists until nearly the 20thcentury. These toxic pigments have been used by nearly all the most well known artist throughout history, and many are still in use today. Through this series of paintings I have delved into the history of oil painting, as well as the history of pigment itself.

            In these paintings I have chosen seven of some of the most recognizable paintings in history. These paintings include; The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, Portrait of André Derain by Henri Matisse, The Underwave off Kanagawa by Katasushika Hokusai, Picking Flowers by Piere-August Renoir, The Scream by Edward Munch, Children Playing on the Beach by Mary Cassatt, and Composition with Red Yellow and Blue by Piet Mondrain. These seven paintings highlight some of the deadliest colors in the history of oil painting; cadmium red, Naples yellow, chrome yellow, sheele’s green, Viridian green, Prussian blue, and cobalt blue. These paintings are some of the most famous in art history that have been stripped of all their color, save for the toxic one. The paintings in this series were chosen based on their recognizability. This issue is often overlooked and the images recreated are meant to spark interest in a wide audience, regardless of their previous knowledge of art history. This series strives to highlight the dangerous use and minimal regulation on oil paints and pigments. Throughout history artists have suffered for their art, both physically and mentally, and painting is no exception. Many painters suffered ill effects at the hands of their craft, even leading to the coining of the term “painter’s colic”. It was so common for artists to get abdominal pain, neural confusion, and even blindness, that painters colic was a common ailment. The term used today for what those artists suffered is lead poisoning, and it came from the use of lead white, a pigment still on the market today.  This series strives to highlight this interesting, and often unknown history in painting. The pigments and colors that were originally used in these works were researched and then purchased. These paintings use the true toxic paints that they represent, the same ones that the greats used many years ago.