Review of "Great Mud’"

Title: He Drew Great Mud’
Author: DAVID MICHAELIS
Source: The New York Times
Date of Publication: March 2, 2008

A mischievous rifleman from the 180th Infantry Regiment during the later part of World War II named Bill Mauldin volunteered as a cartoonist for the 45th Division News stumbled across a creation of a cartoon. Bill Mauldin decided to turn the raw material of the front and capture it into sets of panel cartoons, sometimes even under the gravest of circumstances during war. He invented a cartoon pair by the name of Willie and Joe. Willie and Joe were not the typical “squared- jawed” soldiers that were being publicized on the “Uncle Sam” posters. These cartoons were drawn as pale, densely bearded, forested by their own rifles and packs, their huge dirt-caked boots and filthy uniforms delineated in heavily shaded brush strokes. The cartoon soldiers not only looked devilish, but as the author deciphers them, “mummified by mud”. The soldiers in combat truly appreciated and admired the fact that Bill Mauldin decided to capture the true essence of a “real” soldiers and not the highly published “ideal” soldier. The cartoon represented everything a soldier was undergoing, they displayed soldiers that were determined to survive, sometimes scared, not loving war, having to kill because they had to not because they wanted to. Because of said explanation, I admire such cartoon artist, he represents what an artist is supposed to represent, reality and not what the masses want artist to produce.

Reviewing Gustave Courbet

Title of Article: Seductive Rebel Who Kept It Real
Author: Roberta Smith
Date of Publication: February 29, 2008
Source: The New York Times

Gustave Courbet has been classified by many as a controversial artist, rebellious, arrogant, and stubborn. In my opinion I feel as though he may be classified as an artist that is eccentric. I even dare to say that he has the fortitude to go against the traditional artistic work and explore art in a new light. Gustave Courbet’s work includes portraits, self-portraits, landscapes, nudes, group scenes, animals and hunting scenes. One of his controversial paintings includes one entitled, “Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine” in 1856-1867. In that painting he overtly explored the possibilities of lesbianism and eroticism. Said painting shocked viewers and kept Courbet’s phrase of “epater le bourgeois,” translated meaning “shock the bourgeoisie,” alive. Another piece that captured my eye was the self-portrait entitled “The Desperate Man” in 1844-1845. He captures the angst and the tortured soul of an artist or of any person, with his bright eyes gleaming at the viewer. These are just a few examples of Gustave Courbet’s vast collection, in which as Roberta Smith best put it“ built elements of rebellion and dissent into the very forms and surfaces of his work.” Sometimes going against the masses, in this case for Gustave Courbet, was just a way of tapping into imagination that was yet to be discovered as ingenious.