REVIEWS! REVIEWS! REVIEWS!
This piece of art is entitled “The Blue Phantom” and was painted by Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze, otherwise known as Wols, in 1951.The German painter was an alcoholic of European Abstract Expressionism. Active mostly in France, he moved to Paris in 1932, where he associated with the Surrealists. During the war he lived in poverty, drawing and painting in watercolour. When the War ended, he turned his attention to abstract art in the form of oil painting, becoming associated with Art Informel. Although he borrowed elements from a number of abstract art movements, he developed his own pictorial language.
A prime example of Wols developing artwork is “The Blue Phantom.” The wild and aggressive painting of the German artist is a characteristic of the European abstract movement, Art Informel. Surely enough, the canvas embodies a heavy hue of blue. The tints and shades project melancholy emotions. Certainly, The Blue Phantom is a key example of the artist's emotional relationship and response to the canvas, and it exemplifies existentialism's stress on subjective experience. Wols' life might also be taken as an emblem of individual freedom that was also championed by Existentialists, since he led a wild life, fast and loose, with little regard for playing by the rules. Wols embodied existentialism when succumbing into a reckless life of alcohol and carelessness. It is almost as if Wols embodied his emotions into the artwork. The canvas is abstract that reflects life's true meaning. Existentialists would identify with Wol's artwork because it reflects--- nothing.
ART
THE BLUE PHANTOM