Art History Terms mod 8
Graffiti Art
commonly refers to decorative imagery applied by paint or other means to buildings, public transport or other property (also called "Street Art" or "Subway Art")
shibboleth
(n.) a word, expression, or custom that distinguishes a particular group of persons from all others; a commonplace saying or truism.
Pittura Metafisica ("Metaphysical Painting")
An early-20th-century Italian art movement led by Giorgio de Chirico - objects transcended any physical meaning. Irrational use of perspective, no unified light source, and elongated shadows. Compositions were unnerving and foreboding.
Pictorialism
An effort to elevate photography to an art form equal in value to drawing, painting, and sculpture.
Fluxus
An international avant-garde movement that aimed to spurn existing art theories and aesthetic objects. Promoted artist experimentation mixed with political activism.
direct carving method
An unusual method of sculpting in which an artist works directly with a piece of stone or wood, usually selected for its unique physical properties.
Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider)
Another group of avant-garde German Expressionists whose works were more lyrical, romantic and abstract than those of the Die Brucke movement. Additionally, they sought to give visual form to feelings - color, shape, line and space are all used to accomplish this end.
Postmodernist Architecture
Architectural style that emerged in the 1970s - electric, personal, complex, and decorative. South to re-institute symbolism/metaphor and decorative elements in architecture. Built as a sculptural mass - incorporated varied textures and shapes. "Less is a bore"
Art Brut
Art brut is a French term that translates as 'raw art', invented by the French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art such as graffiti or naïve art which is made outside the academic tradition of fine art.
Performance art
Art executed before a live audience - Presents actual events rather than an interpretation of events as is done in theater.
Conceptual Art
Art in which the idea presented by the artist is considered more important than the finished product.
Neo-Dada
Art movement that combined sculptural elements into painted works to create "combines." In a typical combine, paper/photographs would be attached to a canvas, which would then be covered with rough applications of paint.
Minimlaism
Art movement that sought to reduce the number of colors, values, shapes, lines, and textures of a work of art. Minimalist sculptors saw the ultimate goal of their works as an exchange between the object, the viewer, and the environment.
Feminist Art
Art of the 70's which challenged societies patriarchal tendencies by elevating the art of women to the heights of art created by men. Tended to focus on women's issues.
Art Deco
Art style of the 1920s and 1930s based on modern materials and repetitive geometric patterns. Created forms that reflected the sleek design of the machine age - long, thing forms; curved surfaces, and geometric patterning. Ex. Chrysler Building in New York City
Formalism
Art style that emphasizes visual elements over subject matter.
Pop Art
Art that joined popular and high culture together and that focused on depicting contemporary consumer culture. Placed the artist and audience on common grounds and made art accessible to the masses once again.
Frida Kahlo (1910-1954)
Artist frequently associated with the Realist movement whose piece incorporate symbolic imagery. Her works often scorned societal ideals of beauty and gender roles.
Alfred Stieglitz- The Steerage (1907)(Image 127)
Artist: Alfred Stieglitz - inspired by European impressionists who focused on modern city life subjects and captured moments in time. Form: Soft focus effects and romantic atmosphere. Content: Displays a group of lower class passengers standing on the steerage of a steam boat. Purpose: Created in order to elevate photography to an art form of equal value to painting, sculpture, and drawing - Pictorialism. Assert that a photograph was created by the artist who used a camera as merely a tool in the same way a painter would use a brush. Highlight the impact industrialization had on the environment and people.
batik
method of dyeing fabric by covering certain sections with wax.
Dutch wax textiles
resin-printed fabric that has long been manufactured in the Netherlands for a West African market. Bright colors and geometric patterns of the fabric became associated with the African struggle against colonialism and European dependence. Used to express the cultural hybridity of Shonibare's pieces.
Andy Warhol- Marilyn Diptych (1962) (Image 147)
Artist: Andy Warhol - major themes of human life - food, sex, death, money, power, success, and failure- were central to Warhol's works. Form: Marilyn Monroe appears mechanically reproduced (repeating pattern of images); bold garish colors flatly applied; blurring and fading outlines; contrast between the left brightly colored panel, and the right, dark one. Content: Depicts the movie star, Marilyn Monroe. His paintings are remote from traditional ideas about artistic composition and execution. Contrast in color between the two sides of the panel symbolize life and death. Purpose: Meant to draw the viewers' attention to the "overproduced" facade of the actress - symbolized how Marilyn Monroe became lost behind the mask of her public image. Blurring and fading outlines represent the star's demise.
Bill Viola- The Crossing (1996) (Image 239)
Artist: Bill Viola Form: Visual emphasized by high-intensity stereo sound; Action, scale, and sound used to convey meaning. Content: Consists of two video projections played side-by-side: one featuring a burning man and the other a drowning one. The videos are stretch and slowed element sensory experience through the use of art and technology - enhances viewers' spiritual experience. Embraces new media while maintaining classical aesthetic values. Purpose: Reveals the cycles and duality of life through the universal symbols of fire and water.
Cindy Sherman- Untitled (#228) (1990) (Image 231)
Artist: Cindy Sherman Form: Prostheses, bad wigs, and theatrical makeup give the image an artifical appearance; large -scale photograph; richly patterned fabrics saturated with rich color. Content: Portrait of the artist as the biblical heroine Judith, who rescued the Israelites from the invading Assyrian general Holofernes by seducing and beheading him. Judith holds up the masklike head of Holofernes in one hand a bloodied knife in the other. She stares stoically at the viewer - symbolizes the aftermath of her violent act. Purpose: Draw attention to the staged and mannered nature of historical portraiture.
Claes Oldenburg- Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks (1969-1974) (Image 150)
Artist: Claes Oldenburg Form: Lipstick stands upright on the body of a tank - contrast between these two parts of the sculpture work to make the lipstick more menacing. Content: I gigantic lipstick is mounted on the body of a tank. Purpose: Work became a symbol of anti-war demonstrations and student protests. Mean to represent the era of "free-love" and bring attention to the on-going Vietnam war. Simple, powerful representation of the on-going conflicts during this era. Also, stands as an obelisk to progress (women).
Constantin Brancusi- The Kiss (1907-1908) (Image 129)
Artist: Constantin Brancusi - influenced by primitive African sculpture as well as cubism. Form: Direct carving methods used on a limestone block; juxtaposition between rough and smooth edges; over-simplified. Content: Embodies one of the most important depictions of love in art history. Incised contours have been added to a limestone block to define a male and female shape.
Charles Demuth, My Egypt, 1927
Artist: Demuth - Precisionist Form: Elements of the painting have been reduced to their basic geometric form. Objects remain identifiable, however, the grain elevators in the center of the piece have been fractured by transparent planes and diagonal lines. Content: Presents two large, concrete grain elevators in the center and a smokestack releasing plumes of smoke to the right. The silos seem to be pushing the older structures in the painting off the edge of the canvas and out of sight. Purpose: Compare modern American architecture to the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Highlight how these grain elevators will support American families in the same way Egypt's grain exports supported the Roman Empire.
Diego Rivera- Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park (1947-1948) (Image 143)
Artist: Diego Rivera Content: Represents the three major stages of Mexican history: The Conquest, The Porfiriato Dictatorship, and The Revolution of 1910. The devastation and religious intolerance of the conquest scene is juxtaposed by the democratic revolution symbolized by the figure of Benito Juárez. The right side of the mural gives way to a society where "land and liberty" is the standard. In the central mural, Diego presents himself in a childlike way standing in front of his wife Kahlo who serves as his "protector." In addition, Diego is being led by the Dame Calavera Catrina, a skeleton personification of Vanity created by the political cartoonist, Posada, who is also present - signifies the respect Rivera held for him. The Calavera Catrina was a satirical symbol of the urban bourgeoisie. Purpose: Display the struggles the Mexican masses have overcome over the last couple centuries.
Doris Salcedo- Shibboleth (2007-2008) (Image 248)
Artist: Doris Salcedo - Known for transforming things of comfort into things of horror. Her sculptures embody the silence of the marginalized, serving as testimony for victims and perpetrators alike. Form: Interior space (space within the crack) heavily emphasized; crack cast from a Colombian rock face. Content: Consisted of a meandering crack in the floor of the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern. Transitions from a hairline crack into a much more serious, 2-foot deep one. Purpose: The crack represents borders - the experience, of immigrants, segregation, and racial hatred. Piece comments on the legacy that racism and colonialism have had in the world.
El Anatsui- Old Man's Cloth (2003) (Image 245)
Artist: El Anatsui Form: Mutability in form (can be shaped in many different ways); Colorful and patterned; Content: Curtain composed of flattened liquor bottle caps. The caps are methodically fastened together at their corners with copper wire. Flowing nature of the curtain recalls the Atlantic Ocean slave ships sailed across decades ago. Breaks with sculpture's traditional adherence to forms of fixed shape. Purpose: Freedom and flexibility visually recall the history in abstraction in both African and European art. Speaks to the economic/historical relationship between African and European countries.
Emily Kame Kngwarreye- Earth's Creation (1994) (Image 234)
Artist: Emily Kngwarreye Form: Swirling formations created with dots; dynamic sense of movement across the picture frame. Dots create planes of color and are manipulated to form lines of movement. Content: Represented the landscape of her country following the "green time" (torrential rains). Fresh green palette produce the illusion that the Earth is regenerating with life. Purpose: Celebrates Emily's country, life, dreams, and art.
Ernst Kirchner - Self-Portrait as a Soldier (1915) (Image 133)
Artist: Ernst Kirchner Content: Kirchner depicts himself in the uniform of the Mansfelder Feldartillerieregiment Nr. 75 in Halle on the Saale. His face is drawn, his eyes are empty, and a cigarette hangs loosely from his mouth. His lost hand is represented by a bloody stump, symbolizing the losses Germans were suffering from the war. An erotic painting hangs in the background, signifying a now lost previous life. Purpose: Symbolized Kirchner's fears that the war would destroy his creative abilities. More broadly, the piece represented the physical and mental impacts the war had on the artists of this period.
Cultural Appropriation
the process by which cultures adopt customs and knowledge from other cultures and use them for their own benefit.
Faith Ringgold- Dancing at the Louvre, #1 from The French Collection series, Part 1 (1991) (Image 232)
Artist: Faith Ringgold Form: Content: Tell the fictional story of Willa Marie Simone, a young black woman who relocates to Paris in the early 20th century. The narrative along the margins of the quilt describe the events that lead up to Simone's success as an artist and savvy business woman. Purpose: Ringgold used the quilt to literally rewrite the past - modern art, African-American culture, and her personal narrative replace European, male-dominated works. Uses gender specific devices(sewing)/ mediums(quilts) to challenge society's patriarchal nature.
Frank Gehry- Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997) (Image 240)- exterior, interior, and site plane
Artist: Frank Gehry - Deconstructivist Form: Distinctive titanium curves and soaring glass atrium; Organic forms; sculptural and expressionistic qualities; swirling forms and titanium finish of interior galleries. Content: Museum integrated into the surrounding urban environment, which is located along the Nervión River in the old industrial heart of the city. Its galleries are irregularly shaped, recognizable by their swirling forms and titanium finish.
Frank Lloyd Wright- Fallingwater (1936-1939) (Image 139)- exterior, interior, and plan
Artist: Frank Lloyd Wright Form: Influence of Japanese architecture- integration of architecture with nature. Emphasis on the horizontality of the structure - long bricks and terraces. Content: Waterfall incorporated into the design of the house itself. Onsite rocks incorporated into the exterior and interior design of the house - integrated the structure into the surrounding environment. Purpose: Served as a weekend retreat for the steel magnate, Edgar Kauffman, and his family. Wright wanted the waterfall to become part of the lives of the Kauffman family. Redefined the relationship of man, nature and architecture.
Frida Kahlo- The Two Fridas (1939) (Image 140)
Artist: Frida Kahlo Content: Presents a double self-portrait of Frida under a turbulent sky following her husband's request for a divorce. The left Frida sports a European dress and represents her outer reality, while the Frida to the right wears an indigenous dress and symbolizes her inner reality. Both are connected by a vein running through both hearts - where one is weak, the other is strong. Frida's heart pours out on the canvas, allowing the whole world to experience her crisis with her. Purpose: The piece explores difficult topics including Frida's culturally mixed heritage, the grim reality of her medical situation, and the control of all women.
Georges Braque- The Portuguese (1911) (Image 130)
Artist: Georges Braque Letters and numbers are a composition addition - make the viewer aware of the surface itself. Form: The guitar player and dock are pieces of broken form - overcomes the unified singularity of the object. Content: Everything has dissolved and fractured. Purpose: Numbers and the different surface textures of the piece highlight how the canvas is just as important as the subject matter that is painted onto it.
Helen Frankenthaler- The Bay (1963) (Image 149)
Artist: Helen Frankenthaler - Sensual and lyrical style. Form: Semi-transparent tones with brilliant, dense color possessing hard edges. Content: Represents the feelings associated with looking out onto a vast landscape.
Henri Matisse -Goldfish (1912) (Image 131)
Artist: Henry Matisse - influenced by the flood of goldfish from East Asia. Form: Placed complementary colors (blue and orange) next to one another in order to make each appear brighter. Content: The focal point of the piece is the goldfish themselves - intense orange color of the fish sets them apart from the more subtle colors surrounding the fish bowl. Purpose: Demonstrate Matisse's skill in using complementary colors, present a picturesque paradise, offer his viewers contemplative relaxation, and showcase his complex construction of pictorial space.
Jacob Lawrence- The Migration of the Negro, Panel no.49 (1940-1941) (image 141)
Artist: Jacob Lawrence Form: Tilted Tabletops and chairs emphasize the yellow barrier line dividing the piece in half. Content: Depicts a segregated dining hall with the caption: "They also found discrimination in the North, although it was much different from that which they had known in the South." A yellow barrier through the center of the work divides the whites from the blacks - The placement of the tables and chairs emphasize this separation. Purpose: Demonstrate how conditions in the North were not much better for African Americans than those in the south.
Maya Lin- Vietnam Veteran's Memorial (1982) (Image225)
Artist: Maya Lin Form: V-shaped monument with rising and falling elements; minimalist - no ornamentation. Content: The V-shaped monument of polished granite panels begins at ground level, rises to its highest point at the center, and declines back into the ground for a dramatic effect. The 59,739 names of those lost during the war are inscribed into the granite in order of their deaths. Purpose: Lin wanted to cut into the Earth to create the monument just as the Vietnam war had once cut into the psyche of the American people. Monument symbolizes a scar that heals overtime but that never disappears. Reflective surface of the granite allows the viewers to see themselves while reading the names - Influences them to consider their own morality.
Meret Oppenheim- Le Déjeuner en fourrure (1936) (Image 138)
Artist: Meret Oppenheim Content: Transformed everyday objects (cup and saucer) associated with elegance and femininity into something sensuous and sexually-amusing. Purpose: Made in response to a conversation with Picasso in a Paris Cafe at which he remarked that one could cover anything with fur.
Michel Tuffery- Pisupo Lua Afe (Corned Beef 2000) (Image 237)
Artist: Michel Tuffery Content: Life-sized bull made of flattened cans of corned beef. The bull represents the cattle raised in the Pacific, while the pisupo cans symbolize the importance of corned beef in the diets and cultures of Pacific islanders. Purpose: The sculpture makes use of recycling and comments on the value of economics in the pacific. "Un-Polynesian" looking bull raises the question of whether or not foreign intervention improves independence of Pacific colonies or perpetuates dependence.
Mies van der Rohe (Architect)- The Seagram Building (Image 146)
Artist: Mies Van der Rohe - Architect famous for his "less is more" and "God is in the details" philosophies. Content: Sleek, minimalist exterior and interior. Made use of glass and steel instead of the heavier stone and brick used in traditional ornamentation. Although the building emphasizes functionality, the non-structural bronze beams at the base our purely visual and serve no functional purpose. Purpose: Introduced an era of simple, straight-forward skyscrapers. Celebrated the building's structure and embraced minimalism.
Nam June Paik- Electronic Superhighway (1995) (Image 238)
Artist: Nam June Park Form: Content: Using televisions, DVD players and multicolor neon tubing, the artist created an electronic map of the United States. Neon lights create the outline of each state and encapsulate video footage of the artist's personal connections with each place. A video camera displays the viewer's image on one of the screens, incorporating them into the work. Purpose: Scale of the piece attests to the vastness of the nation. The neon lights represent the motels and restaurants that were popping up around the country, enticing families to stop by. Piece provides viewers with the information/images Americans used to leave home to discover.
Picasso - Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) (Image 126)
Artist: Pablo Picasso Form: Woman's bodies fractured into sharp, angular planes that lack three dimensional volume- makes it difficult to separate the figures from the background; Multiple perspectives created by fragmenting the piece's space - lower right figure seen from the front and back at the same time; no unity in style among the figures. Content: Features 5 sex-workers in a brothel on Avignon street in the red-light district of Barcelona. Break from conventions of Western art: Represented a marked departure from mimesis - realistic representation of the world around us. In addition, Picasso creates multiple perspectives by fragmenting the space itself. Lastly, there is no unity of style among the figures. Tradition: Pose and placement of the female nudes follow classical conventions. Purpose: Picasso wanted to express himself in a manner that was different from the current and classical French conventions of art. Laid the ground work for cubism - abstraction of forms.
Pepon Osorio- En la Barberia no se Llora (No Crying Allowed in the Barber Shop) (1994) (Image 236)
Artist: Pepon Osorio - Best know for his large-scale installations. His works were inspired by the neighborhoods and people he helped as a social worker. Form: Surreal yet real art installations; pays careful attention to public and private spaces; exaggerates the psychological effects of social spaces. Content: Fake barbershop complete with ornate, decorated barber chairs. Images of men crying are displayed all throughout the building. Purpose: Recreates the memory of Oscorio's most traumatic childhood haircut.
Piet Mondrian- Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow (1930) (Image136)
Artist: Piet Mondrian Form: "Pure" forms create a sense of dynamic balance and express a cosmic order in their simplicity. Content: Black bands on a white face create a grid of blocks containing the three primary colors in random placement. Purpose: Through absolute abstraction, Mondrian sought to express timeless, universal truths.
Robert Venturi- House in New Castle County, Delaware (1978-1983) (image 152)- exterior and interior
Artist: Robert Venturi - believed that the modernist movement was too simple. Form: Building juxtaposes contrasting architectural elements with one another- Bottom right corner of the triangular portico is placed on another portion of the right side of the house; vertical surfaces are both decorative and abstract. Content: House makes use of broken-gable roofs, segmentally arched windows, and interrupted string courses. Does not try to unify all elements of the house into a rigid, coherent structure. Influenced by vernacular and historic architecture. Purpose: Express how buildings were more complex than the rigid, formalist rules modernists applied to them.
Shirin Neshat- Rebellious Silence from the Women of Allah series (1994) (Image 235)
Artist: Shirin Neshat Form: Black and white; close-up; minimalist Content: A women covered in a veil holds a gun; her face is covered with writing, making it appear as if she is wearing one of the more stricter veils of Islamic society. The woman looks ready to fight, confronting the viewer with an intense stare. Self-portraiture used in a non-traditional way to address larger issues.
Song Su-nam, Summer Trees (1983) (Image 227)
Artist: Song Su-nam Form: Large vertical lines of various thickness; subtle tonal variations of ink wash.
Robert Smithson- Spiral Jetty (1970) (Image 151)
Artist: Spiral Jetty - interested with the interplay of art and the natural environment. Content: 6,000 tons of Earth and stone were used to create the counter-clockwise coil that stretches 1,500 feet into the sea. Located off Rozel Point in the north arm of the Great Salt Lake, the jetty sits in a place where the water level is continuously changing. Its shapes was Inspired by the salt crystals and microscopic organisms of the lake. Purpose: Withstand and be involved in the site's changing climate and conditions. The Jetty's shape was symbolic of Smithson's belief that the spiral was the underlying form of all living things. Emphasizes the decaying processes of erosion and physical disorder with which Smithson was interested in.
Varvara Stepanova- Illustration from The Results of the First Five-Year Plan (1932) (Image 137)
Artist: Varvara Stepanova Form: Incorporates only three types of color and tone: Black, white, and red. Composition arranged in sharp diagonals to increase the sense of drama in the piece. Content: On the left, Stephanova has inserted speakers on a platform with the number five to represent Stalin's 5 year plan. The Russian party initials, CCCP, are placed near a cropped, oversized head of Lenin (founder of the Russian Rev.) who is speaking to a crowd. Wires of an electric transmission link Stalin to the platform of speakers and party initials. The masses of people symbolize the popularity of the economic plan among the Russian people. Purpose: Produced as propaganda for the Russian party.
Le Corbusier (architect)- Villa Savoye (1928-1929) (Image 135)
Artist: Villa Savoye Form: Built in accordance to Le Corbusier's Five Points of Architecture: pilotis (slender columns), a flat roof terrace, an open floor plan, ribbon windows, and a facade free of structural members. Horizontality of the house reflected by open floor plan and ribbon windows. Content: The building is simple and streamlined with pilotis supporting an upper deck (floating), ribbon windows running down the side, and ramps that allow for easy movement between decks. Bottom level is the garage/maintenance level. Purpose: Built as a result of Savoye's love for mechanized design - celebrates the machine age.
Marcel Duchamp
Co-founder of the Dada movement in the United States. He created absurd compositions that often held multiple meanings. Believed that art should be about the idea of the artist and not a craft of hand.
Regionalism
Composed of a group of rural artists who were anti-modernist style and sought to present scenes of everyday life. Unlike the abstract artists in Europe, regionalists produced representational art. Grant Wood's American Gothic
Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (b.1935) and Jeanne-Claude de Guillebon (1935-2009)
Famous for their large-scale temporary outdoor installations with fabric.
Henry Matisse
Fauvist artist who used color to convey meaning. Used broad brush strokes and applied color in large, flat patterns.
Meret Oppenheim (1913-1985)
Female surrealist artist who created sculptural objects that represented her personal feelings (i.e. physical manifestation of something internal).
Guernica, Picasso
Form: Fragmentation, distortion, and colorless palette designed to highlight the brutality of the event. Content: Depicted the horrific attack carried out by the Nazis on the Basque capital of Guernica from the perspective of the victims. Black hatch marks painted along the white fields of the piece represent the newspapers that gave first-count reports of the massacre.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938)
Founding member of the Die Brucke movement, Kirchner was concerned about the negative impact the industrial revolution was having on humanity. Street, Dresden - The constricted space of the composition and its shrill, clashing colors create tension - A sea of people blocks anyone from escaping the claustrophobic environment. Even though the setting is crowded, the characters seem isolated and alone.
Frank Lloyd Wright
Greatest architect of the U.S., his constructions stressed the natural/organic over the machine age. First architect in the United States to use steel cantilevers and reinforced concrete for domestic structures in order to create open planning for interior spaces. Eliminated the confining walls between rooms.
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Grew up as a graffiti artist - combined his multicultural heritage, artistic practices, and expressive style to create a unique visual collage that reflected his urban experiences as well as his African-Caribbean heritage.
"Crowds"
Headless, rigidly posed figures.
Nam June Paik
His video sculptures, installations, performances, and single-channel videos comprise one of the most influential bodies of work in electronic media art. His work in music, performance and video explored the intersection between art, technology, and popular culture.
Mariko Mori
Japanese Artist who explores the universal questions of life, death, reality, and technology. Her works possess a sci-fi sensibility and emphasize the city as well as the future. Wanted to create art that reflected her unconventional perspective of the world and that could be understood by anyone.
Magdalena Abakanowicz
Known for her emotional bodies of worked shaped by her experiences in WWII and the post war period. Especially famous for her "crowds."
Happenings/Performance Art
Loosely structured theatrical pieces from the mid-1950s through the mid-1960s, which shared qualities of improvisation and subsequent unexpectedness. The line between the audience and the work was blurred. Could take a serious, political direction or a playful, poetic one.
Alfred Stieglitz
Recognized as a pioneer in the advancement of pictorial photography on an international scale, Stieglitz was a photographer, publisher, gallerist, and impresario. Opened his Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession in 1905 - cultivated an advanced circle of young American artists.
Purism
Rejected Synthetic Cubism's highly decorative forms in favor of simple, geometric shapes based on machine-manufactured forms. Found inspiration from the clean, precise machines of the industrial era.
Later analytical cubism
Replaced the volumetric flatness of earlier analytical cubism pieces with a grid - Moved further away from pictorial illusionism. Impossible to determine these piece's subject matter.
Neo-Expressionism
Returned to portraying recognizable objects like the human body. Their works were often abstract, used vivid color, and executed in a rough and violently emotional way. The style was both aggressive and personal, often incorporating brutally distorted figural forms as well as violent brushstrokes, bold color contrasts, and spontaneous emotional content over formalist ideals. Movement continued the tradition of the German expressionists and Abstract expressionists.
Gestural Abstraction
Rough, spontaneous and energetic applications of paint are used by the artists of this movement to express themselves. Ex. Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning
Wassily Kandinsky
Russian painter part of the Der Blaue Reiter movement who was concerned with portraying a "spiritual reality." Believed it was the artist's duty to make the viewer experience different emotions when examining a piece.
Francis Bacon- Painting (1946)
Satirical image commenting on the brutality of war. Content: Umbrella is symbolic of Britain's pre-WWII PM, Neville Chamberlain. Well-dressed central figure surrounded by Carcasses on all sides. His gaping mouth is stained with blood.
Mobile
Sculptures with balanced moving components driven either by a motor and or air currents. Pioneered by the artist Alexander Calder. Usually consisted of flat pieces of painted metal connected by wire veins and stems in biomorphic shapes.
Analytic Cubism
The first phase of Cubism, developed jointly by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Palette was limited to browns, grays, and off-white colors in order to focus the viewer's attention on the piece's forms. These forms were rigidly geometric and the compositions were subtle but intricate. Sought to present everyday objects from every angle at the same time. Goal of the movement was to appeal to intellect (opposite of emotion).
Mimesis
The imitation or representation of aspects of the sensible world, especially humanity, in literature and art
Illusionism
The representation of the three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional surface. Stella refrained from using thick brush work in order to protect the two-dimensional quality of his works.
Post-Painterly Abstraction
Unlike the overtly personal works of the Abstract Expressionists, Post-Painterly Abstraction paintings were impersonal, emotionally detached, and intellectual. Possessed the element of formal abstract paintings: Pure, unmodulated areas of color; flat, two dimensional space; and monumental scale. Ex. Ellsworth Kelly and Frank Stella
Constantin Brancusi
Used natural, organic forms in his abstract sculptures. Most famous for his Birds in Space series - sculptures were carved from stone or cast in bronze/ brass, and then polished to a high sheen.
Guitar, Sheet Music, and Wine Glass (Picaso)
Wallpaper, three colored facets (planes), a portion of sheet music, a piece of simulated wood grain, a drawing of a glass are all seen from multiple perspectives in typical Cubist fashion. Objects arranged in such a way that together they suggest the shape of a guitar.
Arcylic paint
Water-soluble, fast-drying paint.
Doris Salcedo
Works comment on Colombia's instability and discuss the effects that colonialism, racism, and social injustice have had on the country.
Color Field Painting
A trend within post-painterly abstraction that replaced the precision of hard-edged painters with softness created by diluting the paint applied to the canvas. Designed to immerse the audience in color.
hard-edge painting
A variant of Post-Painterly Abstraction that rigidly excluded all reference to gesture, and incorporated smooth knife-edge geometric forms to express the notion that painting should be reduced to its visual components (i.e. natural and geometric forms).
Max Beckmann
A Neue Sachlichkeit artist. His "Night" commented on the hellish conditions that followed the war. The piece's rough brushstrokes, angularity, and contortion combined with the cramped space and illogical perspective work together to communicate the brutality of war.
Suprematism
A Russian art movement founded by Kasimir Malevich in the early twentieth century that emphasized nonobjective forms. Sought to free art from the burden of representation - works consisted of geometric objects flatly painted along the surface of the canvas. Supremus No. 56 - symbolized a desire to flee from the material, physical form.
Constructivism
A Russian art movement that sought to create abstract objects for the modern machine age - Utilized industrial material like steel and plastic. Put emphasis on sculptural space instead of sculptural mass. Head No.2 - Head broken down into faceted planes and edges in space, and has an industrial aesthetic.
Bauhaus
A Weimar (German) architectural school created by Walter Gropius which combined the fine arts and functionalism. Characterized by rigid geometric forms and a design that focused on the nature of materials.
Mexican Muralists
A group of Mexican Artists determined to base their art on their indigenous history and culture existing before the European arrived (Jose Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, Frida kahlo)
Chador
A large cloth worn as a combination head covering, veil, and shawl usually by Muslim women especially in Iran.
Synthetic Cubism
A later phase of Cubism, in which paintings were constructed using shapes cut from paper or other materials to represent parts of a subject. Created objects from various mediums - these compositions contained simpler forms and brighter colors.
Fauvism
A painting style developed by Henri Matisse in 1905. Characterized by "wild" colors, "violent" brushstrokes, and extreme distortion. Represented a spontaneous and subjective view of the natural world - Designed to mirror the artist's vision and experiences.
Harlem Renaissance
A period in the 1920s when African-American achievements in art and music and literature flourished.
Existentialism
A philosophy based on the idea that people give meaning to their lives through their choices and actions.
Photomontage
A picture made of a combination of photographs - found discarded materials (magazines, newspapers, etc) to incorporate in their pieces.
Collages
A picture or design created by adhering such basically flat elements as newspaper, wallpaper, printed text and illustrations, photographs, cloth, string, etc., to a flat surface, where the result becomes three-dimensional. Introduced by the Cubist artists, it was widely used by artists who followed, and is a familiar technique in contemporary art
Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity)
A post-World War I German art movement that sought to express the brutality of war, the turmoil of its aftermath, and the effects of both on the German psyche.
Psychic automatism
A process of generating imagery through ideas received from the unconscious mind and expressed in an unrestrained manner.
Superrealism
A school of painting and sculpture of the 1960s and 1970s that emphasized precise depiction of subject matter. Artist's objectivity and technical skill were integral to creating objects with photographic clarity.
International Style
A style of 20th-century architecture associated with Le Corbusier, whose elegance of design came to influence the look of modern office buildings and skyscrapers. Buildings rendered in this style are rectilinear, and have been completely stripped of applied ornamentation and decoration. They possess open interior spaces and have a visually weightless quality engendered by the use of cantilever construction.
Abstract Expressionism
An artistic movement that focused on expressing emotion and feelings through abstract images and colors, lines and shapes. Artists expressed themselves through color and non-representational forms on huge canvases - absorbed the viewer into the work. First art movement to adopt formalism and to give American art international acclaim.
Cindy Sherman
American photographer who depicted herself in stereotypical female roles in Untitled Film Stills. In addition to her film stills, Sherman created a history portrait series. These photographs are a blend of post-modernist consciousness with the masterpieces of European art.
Jacob Lawrence
An African American painter who recorded the discrimination Blacks were forced to endure. Most famous for his Migration of the Negro series which chronicled the struggle and experiences of African Americans who moved North in search of a better life. Influenced by the expressiveness of abstraction and aware of the hardships many African Americans were enduring. He used bright colors and primitive shapes to create his works.
Surrealism
An artistic movement that displayed vivid dream worlds and fantastic unreal images of the artist's subconscious mind. Expressed the imagination of the subconscious free from the conventions of reason and traditional modes of representation.
Jaune Quick-to See Smith- Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People) (1992) (Image 233)
Artist: Jaune Quick-to See Smith Form: Triptych divided into three panels; Images, paint, labels, and objects layered on the surface of the canvas Content: Illustrates the historical and contemporary inequities between Native Americans and the U.S. Government. Canvas covered in collage, with newspaper articles about Native life, photos, comics, tobacco and gum wrappers, fruit carton labels, ads, and pages from comic books, all of which featured stereotypical images of Native Americans in modern America. Collaged text with photos of deer, buffalo, and Native men in historic dress holding pipes with feathers in their hair, and an image of Ken Plenty Horses. Purpose: Acts as a reference to the allegorical sorties that suggest Native Americans had been lured off of their land for inexpensive goods. Opposing views on the ownership of property between native and non-native peoples speaks to the title of the piece.
Jean-Michel Basquiat- Horn Players (1983) (Image 226)
Artist: Jean-Michel Basquiat Form: Canvas divided into three sections (triptych); flat, dark blue color unifies the painting; color flatly applied in patches; yellow, green, pink, and white used to create forms against the dark background; juxtaposition of light and dark. Content: The figures of famous jazz artists, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, appear on the left and right sides of the canvas - everything but their heads and torsos fade into the darkness of the background. A flat, abstract heads floats in the center of the piece. Outlines of geometric shapes float arbitrarily between the musicians. Rejects, contorts, and renders formal painting qualities unto a neo-expressionistic canvas. Rejects illusion of three-dimensional space.
Jeff Koons- Pink Panther (1988) (Image 230)
Artist: Jeff Koons - most well known neo-pop artist. Form: Refined porcelain material contrasts with the bawdy subject matter and cartoon colors. Content: Small-scale porcelain sculpture that depicts a 1950s pin-up model holding a stuffed Pink Panther. The models, whose appearance is based off the actress Jayne Mansfield, has one hand covering one breast and is hugging a stuffed pink panther whose tail seductively extends to the woman's waist. Purpose: draws on both popular culture and mass-market knickknacks
Julie Mehretu- Stadia II (2004) (Image 246)
Artist: Julie Mehretu Form: Triptych; abstraction - orange diamonds at the side edges, the black quadrilaterals interspersed above, and dynamic red "X" found at the top edge. Content: Piece explores the themes of nationalism/revolution as they pertain to art, athletics, and contemporary politics. Purpose: Begin a clean slate of history; one that promotes universalism and individualism.
Kara Walker- Darkytown Rebellion (2001) (Image 243)
Artist: Kara Walker Form: Silhouettes conceal detail; colored projections of abstract shapes heighten the ominous environment. Content: Presents a nightmarish scene: One figure stands over his severed leg, another lies on his back immobile, and a third uses a long instrument to beat a fourth puddle-like figure. Purpose: Offers a historical reflection of the representation of African Americans in American visual culture. Challenge visualizations about race within American culture.
Käthe Kollwitz- Memorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht (1919-1920) (Image 134)
Artist: Kathe Kollwitz Form: Composition divides the picture plane into three horizontal areas: Top section is crowded with faces, each with individualized expressions. Middle section is less detailed and characterized by the faces of those at the forefront of the crowd. A bending figure connects the middle section to the lower section. Content: Displays a crowd of people as they pay their respects to the fallen communist leader, Liebknecht. Woman and child in the forefront represent Kollowitz's attempt to elevate the status of women through her compositions. Purpose:
Kiki Smith- Lying with the Wolf (2001) (Image 242)
Artist: Kiki Smith - works depict the human condition in its relation to nature. Form: Abstract space on textured paper; Content: A nude female lies along side a wolf - the wolf affectionately nuzzles itself into the woman's arms who in turn tightly embraces the animal's body. The woman appears to comfort the animal - taming the wild beast. Purpose: Displays an act of bonding between a human and an animal. Illustrates women's' relationship with animals. The reversal of roles of the figures in the work highlight the overturning of male-dominance in society and the elevation of women.
Ai Weiwei- Kui Hua Zi (Sunflower Seeds) (2010-2011) (Image 250)
Artist: Kui Hua Zi - Chinese political activist and artist Form: Each seed is hand painted and unique; multiple layers Content: Great hall filled with 100,000,000 handcrafted porcelain sunflower seeds spread across the floor (comprised of 100 million individual pieces of art). Purpose: Recalls the hardship and hunger during the cultural revolution - era of Chinese history under a planned economy. Extols the value of individuals and their strength when they work together (related to society, politics and economics). Reference to Chinese factory workers and the effect that consumerism has had on worsening their deplorable situation.
Magdalena Abakanowicz- Androgyn III (1985) (Image 228)
Artist: Magdalena Abakanowicz Form: Fragmented human figure cast using a burlap mold. Content: A molded-torso shell sits on two low planks of wood, suggesting the presence of legs. Purpose: The ghostly image of the torso is meant to express the physical and spiritual condition of the human spirit.
Marcel Duchamp - Fountain (original version 1917; second version 1950) (Image 144)
Artist: Marcel Duchamp - Became involved in the Dada movement and its anti-rational/anti-art cultural ideas. Content: Porcelain urinal turned on its side and signed "R.Mutt." Part of a larger series of compositions dubbed "readymades." Purpose: Reflected Duchamp's fascination with mass production and incorporation of found objects into his art. In addition, it reflected Duchamp's belief that the artist had free liberty to decide whether or not an object was art.
Mariko Mori- Pure Land (1998) (Image 241)
Artist: Mariko Mori Form: Photo montage layered in glass; Content: The artist appears as the popular deity, Kichijoten, who wears a pink komono and floats over a dead-sea landscape. The artist, who resembles a dancing Shaman, is surrounded by elves (tunes), each of whom plays an instrument. While the viewer is examining the piece, he/she is blasted with scented air. Purpose: Help the viewer attain Nirvana.
Wangechi Mutu- Preying Mantra (2006) (Image 247)
Artist: Wangechi Mutu Form: Female figure's legs are crossed like a pray mantis; Figure's skin appears to be dappled by the sun and is the color of the leaves of a nearby tree. Content: In this painting, a female form reclines along the patterned, traditional cloth of the African Kuba people. The figure stares suggestively at the viewer, with her legs crossed and one hand behind her head. In her hand, she holds a snake, suggesting an Eve-like role from the biblical narrative. The tree envelopes the female figure, recalling the mythological creation stories of the past. Theme: Primal sensibility Purpose: Focuses on female subjectivity, exoticism, and the notion of hybridity (mixing of cultures). Composition shaped by Africa's disruptive history with colonizers and issues like woman's rights. Painting depicts the African body as sexual, dangerous, and aesthetically deformed to western standards.
Wassily Kandinsky- Improvisation 28 (second version) (1912) (Image 132)
Artist: Wassily Kandinsky - became interested in representing the Revelation of Saint John the Divine, through which his riders became the horseman of the apocalypse. Content: Depicted catastrophic events on one side of the composition and the paradise of spiritual salvation on the other half. Images of boats and waves signal the global deluge. A serpent and cannon appear on the left, while a couple, shining sun, and celebratory candles appear on the right.
Wilfredo Lam- The Jungle (1943) (Image 142)
Artist: Wildredo Lam - fused surrealism and cubism with the spirit and forms of the Caribbean. Forms: Constructed his figures from a collection of distinct forms: Curved faces; prominent backsides; long, thin arms and legs; and flat hands/feet. Sense of balance between the composition heavier top and simpler bottom. Places his figures inside a unconventional landscape - organic environment. Content: Cluster of ambiguous faces, limbs, and sugarcane crowd a painting that is nearly an 8 foot square. All at once, the figures are human, animal, organic, and mystical.
Willem de Kooning- Woman, I (1950-1952) (Image145)
Artist: Willem de Kooning - Gestural Abstract artist Form: Thick and coarse brushstrokes juxtaposed with thin and fluid ones; frantic application of color; spontaneous, energetic brushwork; layered paint. Content: Features a menacing and wild-eyed woman representing aggressive femininity. The woman possess angular features, piercing eyes, and a grimacing smile. In addition, she has a stiff pose and ponderous breast. Purpose: Served as a bitter commentary on billboard advertisements. Speaks to the age-old ambivalence between the reverence for and fear of the power of the feminine.
Xu Bing- A Book from the Sky (1987-1991) (Image 229)
Artist: Xu Bing (modern Chinese Artist) - trained in socialist realism, Bing's works focus on language and the nature of writing. Content: Composed of volumes of text containing 4,000 self-invented characters. Purpose: Raises fundamental questions about Chinese identity and its relationship to written word. The artist believes writing is what defines a culture and his subversion of it reminds the audience how communication/intended meaning can be suppressed by outside forces.
Yayoi Kusama- Narcissus Garden (1966) (Image 148)
Artist: Yayoi Kusama - Her works speak to her unique identity and frequently visit the theme of self-extinction. Additionally, she saw herself as an "obsessive artist" - obsessed with repetition, pattern and accumulation. Content: Comprised of hundreds of mirrored spheres placed outdoors in a "kinetic carpet." Following the placement of the balls, she began the performance portion of her exhibition, selling the balls to spectators for $2 each. Purpose: Commentary about the promotion of artists through the media and a critique of the mechanized and commodified nature of the art market.
Yinka Shonibare- The Swing (2001) (Image 244)
Artist: Yinka Shonibare Form: Piece created by appropriating the Rocco; brightly colored attire made from African print fabrics; African print fabrics create dis-junction, and causes the sculpture to be both familiar and strange; maintains the sensuality of the original painting. Content: Figure reclines on a swing hung from a verdant branch from the ceiling. Just as the original painting, a woman is placed as the highest point of her swing, causing her skirt to ride up. She has just kicked off her shoe, which now hangs in the air suspended from a wire attached to the ceiling. Purpose: Directly translate Fragonard's piece into a three-dimensional sculpture. Remind viewers that identity is a construction of society.
Zaha Hadid- MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts (2009) (Image 249)
Artist: Zaha Hadid Form: Dynamic, interactive space; sense of flow from the overlapping pathways; concrete sets boundaries for gallery walls; glass acts as a controlling element that filters light into the structure. Content: Built in Rome's Flamino neighborhood, the structure houses both MAXXI Art and MAXXI Architecture. Suspended black staircases directly viewer's eyes from space to space. Purpose: Create a structure that encourages flexibility of use and continuity of space. Creates "a new fluid kind of spatiality of multiple perspective points and fragmented geometry, designed to embody the chaotic fluidity of modern life."
Die Brucke (The Bridge)
Artists of this movement hope that their works would serve as a bridge out of the past and into the future. A short-lived German Expressionist movement characterized by boldly colored landscapes and cityscapes and by violent portraits.
Christo and Jeanne Claude - The Gates (1979-2005) (Image 224)
Artists: Christo and Jeanne Claude Content: Each gate, a three-sided rigid vinyl frame resting on two steel footings, supported saffron-colored fabric panels that hung loosely from the top. 7,503 gates ran over 24 miles of walkways. Did not divide/isolate their forms in the landscape. Purpose: Responded to two controversial questions in contemporary art: (1) How to create meaningful public art and (2) how art responds to and impacts our relationship with the environment.
Wilfredo Lam
Associated with both surrealism and the works of Matisse. His multicultural background and African religion were integral components of his works.
Emily Kame Kngwarreye
Australian aboriginal artist whose training in western techniques began with batiks. Her work was inspired by her batik designs, her role as an Anmatyerre elder, and her lifelong custodianship of the women's Dreaming sites in her clan Country, Alhalkere.
Wangechi Mutu
Believed females embodied the specific culture they lived in. Her works explore the divided nature of culture through its examination of colonial history, fashion and contemporary modern politics. Multicultural style (western and non-western forms) used to discuss the topics of race, gender, and cultural identity. Her subjects often include the female African body, and highlight how it is exposed to sexism and racism worldwide.
Kara Walker
Best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes that study American racial and gender inequalities. Themes of works: Power, sexuality, repression, and race.
Yinka Shonibare
Create works out of colored fabric that discussed the themes of cultural identity, impact of colonialism, and globalization.
Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory
Dali was of the most famous surrealist artists of the movement. In this piece, hard time pieces melt and morph, attracting ants like decaying flesh. His goal was to discredit the world of reality.
Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Last Weimar Beer- Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany (mod 8.06)
Demonstrates the calculated absurdity and chaos of Dada photomontage. Symbolized the corruption of the Weimer Republic.
Chromatic Abstraction
Explores the expressive qualities of color in a fluid, quiet manner. Aimed to created a visual and emotional impact. Ex. Barnett Newman (1905-1970) and Mark Rothko (1903-1970).
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Famous architect and designer known for his "less is more" and "God is in the details" philosophies. His creations were simple yet elegant.
Expressionistic
Devoted to representing subjective emotions and experiences instead of objective or external reality. Characterized the fauvist movement.
Expressionism
Dominant style of painting in Germany between 1905 to 1925. These works emphasized the emotive qualities of distortion (or abstraction), utilized aggressive brushwork, and portrayed figures as rough, flat outlines. Made in response to the industrialization of Germany.
Ben-Day dots
Dots of equal size and spacing. They are used to imply color throughout a specific area and were popular in the printing of comics during the 50's and 60's. Used by artists like Roy Lichtenstein ("Hopeless").
Blue Period (Picasso)
During this time, Picasso worked with a blue palette and depicted tragic subjects. The Old Guitarist - Old man clutches a guitar close to his frail body; elongated limbs and cramped, angular posture of old man reminiscent of the mannerism movement.
Rose Period (picasso)
During this time, Picasso's style and palette warmed. His works featured delicate figures (Ferdenande) and were characterized by a lighter palette. Family of Saltimbanques - featured a group of travelling circus performers; united by location but emotionally separated - symbolized the "homelessness" many artists felt in the absence of royal and religious patronage.
De Stijl
Dutch post-WWI movement that believed in using abstraction and simplicity to "purify" art. They reduced their forms to rectilinear geometric shapes and limited their palettes to the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow, and the primary values of black, white, and gray.
Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)
Famous for her prints that celebrated the predicament of the middle class.
Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, Boccioni (mod 8.05)
Futurist piece that captured the "motion" aesthetic and the perceived beauty within characteristic of this art movement. Features both speed and force - highlights the effects of motion on the human form.
Frank Gehry
Gehry is known for creating architectural models, cutting them up, and fitting the pieces back together in a way that matches his own artistic vision. One of the most relevant and influential architects in the world. Known for his use of unique shapes and materials. Creates emotive structures that reflect their function and as well as their environment.
Enviromental art
In environmental art, artists employ nature "in situ" or rearrange the landscape using Earth-moving equipment. Emerged out of a desire to move art into the public sphere.
Helen Frankenthaler
Inspired by Jackson Pollock, Frankenthaler poured paint directly onto her canvases using the soak-stain technique. Her paintings were known for their "purely optical" nature.
Precisionism
Inspired by cubism, Precisionism was an American art movement popular during the 1920s and 1930s. Created realistic images of objects with a hard-edged precision while simultaneously emphasizing their geometric forms Blend of cubism and realism.
Frank Lloyd Wright - Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1937)
Inspired by the spiral of a snail's shell, the structure incorporates circle of reinforced concrete, giving the building a sculptural quality.
Shahadat
Martyrdom.
Diego Rivera
Mexican Muralist who created artworks that validated Mexico's history and secured a place for the country in the global community. Depicted complex, decorative, and animated scenes that highlighted the suffering/devastation European conquest caused the country. Style incorporates simple, monumental shapes and bold colors.
Femmage
Miriam Schapiro's term for collages created with acrylic paint and fabric. Composed of fabrics, ribbons, and other materials that were intensely patterned.
Shirin Neshat
Most famous for her Women of Allah series - conceptual narratives on the subject of female warriors during the Iranian revolution. Themes: Alienation of women in repressive, Muslim societies. Juxtaposition between femininity and violence. Loss of individualism/sexuality (Chador).
Andy Warhol
Most famous pop artist. Know for his works of depicting mass-produced consumer goods. His art brought popular and high culture together.
Pablo Picasso
Most important figure in art history and founder of cubism.
Duane Hanson
Most important sculptor of the Super realist movement. Specifically known for his life-sized figural models created from plaster molds of live subjects. Hanson used the molds to cast his sculptures in polyester resin - he would then paint these sculptors to give them their realistic appearances.
ribbon windows
Narrow bands of windows on a façade, aka "strip windows"
Silk screen process
Permits the artist to create multiple versions of a single subject.
Claes Oldenburg
Pop sculptor who created large-scale versions of everyday objects commonly overlooked. His inclusion of commodities of the materialist culture into his works positioned him as a front-runner in the pop art movement.
Merz
Nonsense word invented by the German Dada artist Kurt Schwitters to describe his collage and assemblage works based on scavenged scrap materials.
Veristic Surrealism
Objects are realistically rendered but are placed in illogical combinations to make the viewer feel uneasy.
Readymades of Marcel Duchamp
Objects with which Duchamp questioned conventional ideas of making and exhibiting art. Combined ordinary, manufactured objects to create something brand new.
Contemporary Architecture
Optimize the use of space, and create spaces that are both flexible and functional.
Julie Mehretu
Overlays architectural plans, diagrams, and maps of the urban environment with abstract forms and personal notations. Her works are large-scale, gestural paintings composed of layers of acrylic paint and overlaid with mark-ups by pencil, pen or paint. Convey the energy and chaos of today's globalized world.
Soak Stain Technique
Painting technique in which the artist drenches the fabric of raw canvas with fluid paint to achieve flowing, lyrical, painterly effects. Created a sense of space while accentuating the flatness of the picture plane. Technique considered the epitome of the flatness of the picture plane.
Photorealism
Paintings executed in a highly realistic fashion that look almost like photography.
Thangkas
Paintings on cotton or silk with images of the Buddha.
Postmodernism
Postmodernism can be seen as a reaction against the ideas and values of modernism, as well as a description of the period that followed modernism's dominance in cultural theory and practice in the early and middle decades of the twentieth century. The term is associated with skepticism, irony and philosophical critiques of the concepts of universal truths and objective reality.
Deconstructivist Architecture
Postmodernist architectural movement that attempted to view architecture as fractured planes. Appear to have no logic - comprised of unrelated, disharmonious abstract forms.
Postmodernist view
Postmodernist art emphasizes surface rather than depth, blurs the line between high and low culture, and challenges a wide variety of traditional cultural practices. Experimentation and challenging established norms are encouraged.
Photomontage
Process of cutting images out of magazine, newspapers, etc and combining them in unique juxtapositions that created new visual imagery.
Oriental Ink Movement
Promoted idea of recovering a national identity through art. Artists turned to the traditional media of their culture, using subtle tonal variations of ink wash in particular. Return to traditional expressive forms reflected the revival of an inner spirituality that had been lost during the technological age.
Story Quilts
Quilts that combine images and handwritten text to tell imaginative, open-ended narratives.
Dada
Reacted against the horrors of modern warfare, ridiculed traditional art forms, and railed against contemporary culture. Works reflected a cynicism towards social values and a sense of nihilism. Result of the disillusionment of artists after WW1 and the social/moral injustices that followed.
Neo-Pop Art
Rebirth of recognizable objects and celebrities from popular culture
Bill Viola
Successfully combines video, film, and audio technologies with primal archetypes and a mystical sense of spirituality. Spiritual circuit of birth, life, and death is an element commonly examined in Viola's work.
Gino Severini - Armored Train (1915) (mod 8.05)
Summarize the futurist movement's stylistic and political aims. Form: Colors and crisp and clean - do not capture the destruction that accompanies war. Piece is fractured into facets and planes to indicate motion. Content: An armored train equipped with a large cannon speeds down a railway as soldiers shoot out of its sides.
Varvara Stepanova
Talented painter, designer, and photographer who saw herself as a constructivist. Works promoted the agenda of the soviet state - touted the success of Stalin's 5 year economic plan.
Painterly
Technique of painting when patches of color and brush strokes remain (viewer is able to see traces of the artist's "hand").
Pilotis
Thin steel or concrete posts that are used to support roofs and floor slabs. Their use began in the early 20th Century and eliminated the need for bearing walls.
Duane Hanson - Supermarket Shopper (1970)
a striking image of an unidealized consumer, complete with curler in her hair, a cigarette dangling from her mouth, and a cart overflowing with packaged foods. Offers an honest depiction of humanity as well as a satirical comment on the banality of stereotypes.
kitsch
art, objects, or design considered to be in poor taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality, but sometimes appreciated in an ironic or knowing way.
Faith Ringgold
painter, writer, speaker, mixed-media sculptor, and performance artist. Fought against the exclusion of blacks and females from New York's Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art. Created unstretched acrylic paintings on canvas with lush fabric borders like those of Tibetan thangkas.
Futurism
was an Italian literary and artistic movement that embraced the machine age and sought to convey the dynamic nature of twentieth-century life.
