Morgan Grimes - A Brush With Death
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, 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.