Final Exam
Andre Masson
-"Battle of the Fishes" reflects his unique approach to composition and likewise his anger about the state of humanity
Thomas Hart Benton
-American painter and muralist. Along with Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, he was at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement. His fluid, sculpted figures in his paintings showed everyday people in scenes of life in the United States.
Paranoic Critical Method
-Dali's method
The Photo-Secession
-Henri used to belong, quit after The Eight's works were rejected
Salvador Dalí
-Un Chien Andalou: paranoic-critical method, exploiting the ability of the brain to perceive links between things that, rationally, are not linked -doubling phenomenon, produced by paranoia -"i dont do drugs, i am drugs"
Interwar Architecture
-based on De Stijl
The American Scene
-describes scenes of typical American life painted from WWI to the 40s -looking for native sources and aesthetics -wanted to create an authentic American aesthetic, one that was not the product of European Modernism; generally considered a reaction against European Modernism
Curtain Wall
-elimination of the load-bearing wall, outside wall is generally a curtain wall - no longer supports the building -non-necessity of load-bearing walls allowed for free flow of interior space and ambiguous indoor/outdoor space
291
-gallery opened by Stieglitz -one of the only places to see European and American modernism -Stieglitz, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keefe, Paul Straned
Social Realism
-left, socialist, etc
Jacob Riis
-photographer, began photographing urban conditions to use as evidence for reform -believed individuals were shaped by their environment, used photos to show people living in tenements or on the street had no opportunity to NOT be criminals bc of their bad environment
Ashcan School
-term first used by critic Holger Cahill and MoMA director Alfred Barr in Art in America and has since been loosely applied to the Eight and their followers -Called "ashcan" because their color palette looked as though it had been "scraped from the inside of a furnace" -Robert Henri, John Sloan, William J. Glackens, Everett Shinn and George Luks were the core of this informal association of painters -explicit challenge to the "Academic" aesthetic of the late 19th century -Henri proposed an "art for life" - abandon the techniques and polite subject-matter of the Academicians -celebrate instead the vitality that the painter saw in everyday situations -Drew subject-matter from life in the Bowery, Lower Sixth Avenue, West 14th Street, and Greenwich Village -convey a vivid impression of life in New York in the early years of the century
Dream or Fantastical Surrealism
Dali and Magritte -in detail, recognizable scenes and objects taken out of context, distorted, and combined in fantastic ways as they might be in dreams
Pilotis, Fenetre Longeur, Open Plan, Roof Top Space, Free Facade
Le Courbusier
Frottage and Grattage
-"frottage": rubbing stuff on paper lying on a textured surface -"grattage": canvas on texture, scrape paint over it
Leonora Carrington
-"self-portrait" (the white horse inn" -image tied to Celtic mythology (magical white horse, hyena) -helped redefine the surrealist image of women as irrational, women as muse (not artist)
Grant Wood
-American Gothic: based on Dibble house in Iowa, painted it with "the kind of people he fancied should live in that house" -people thought he painted it as satire
John Steuart Curry
-American painter whose career spanned from 1924 until his death. He was noted for his paintings depicting life in his home state, Kansas. Along with Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, he was hailed as one of the three great painters of American Regionalism of the first half of the twentieth century. -Curry's artistic production was varied, including painting, book illustration, prints and posters.
Precisionism
-Charles Sheeler, Georgia O'Keeffe and Charles Demuth -sharp definition, and highly geometric forms; Cubist inspired -American themes that glorified the country's modern technology, including architecture that was typical of the USA—skyscrapers, bridges, docks, and chimney-stacks -In general, the Precisionists sought to depict an idealized world; absolute order and clarity -Scenes are devoid of figures; highly structured arrangements -Atmospheric effects, painterly surfaces and sensual colors were usually avoided
Bauhaus School
-Gropius wanted artists to be craftspeople first -ending the distinction between "fine art" and "craft" was fundamental -based teaching on two parts: 6 months foundations courses to encourage students to liberate themselves and workshops that taught craft skills -Vorkurs = "demystify" art production by establishing in students the 'elements' of art -basis for modern Foundations courses
International Style
-Gropius, Mies, Le Corbusier -primary materials = glass, structural steel, and ferroconcrete -elimination of the load-bearing wall, outside wall is generally a curtain wall - no longer supports the building -no decoration -neutral/no color -free-flowing interior space -non-necessity of load-bearing walls allowed for free flow of interior space and ambiguous indoor/outdoor space -lent itself to urban planning and low cost mass housing -emphasis on volume as opposed to mass
Pablo Picasso
-Guernica: emotional intensity and dream-like state (but painted using analytic cubism)
John Sloan
-Hairdresser's Widow -Drew subject-matter from life in the Bowery, Lower Sixth Avenue, West 14th Street, and Greenwich Village convey a vivid impression of life in New York in the early years of the century
Ben Shahn
-Lithuanian-born American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content. -assistant to Diego Riviera -paintings, murals, and posters which vehemently inveighed against fascism, social injustice, hardships of urban poor, etc.
De Stijl
-Neoplasticism -"the style" -embraced geometric abstraction without the hindrance of a resurgent classicism (that had affected Paris) -dedicated to the "absolute devaluation of tradition" (i.e. pictorial traditions, illusion, mimeticism, etc.) -emphasized the need for abstraction and simplification; wanted to create art "for clarity... certainty... order" -development of a universal form of language and sense of harmony and/or unity seemed necessary as a mode of cultural preservation; against the divisive "despotism" of the individual -reduction to essentials of shape, form, line, and color -philosophical contemplation of rational, harmonious design -advocated a socially useful or functional art form -IMPACT ON MODERN ARCHITECTURE: art works were part of an integrated system with a social purpose -based on functionalism, with a doctrinaire insistence on the rectilinearity of the planes that constructed the building -beginning of International Style
Armory Show
-Organized by a group known as the Association of American Painters and Sculptors -Intended to show avant-garde art from Europe and the United States; meant as competition for the yearly Academy shows -Show proved to be monumental Included Daumier, Courbet, Manet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, Redon, the Nabis, Seurat, Matisse and the Fauves, Rodin, Brancusi, Duchamp, Lehmbruck, and others created a sensation, not least of all because it was the public's first opportunity to see Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase (1912) -Regular accusations of quackery, insanity, immorality, and anarchy in the press -The show itself was a powerful impetus for modern art in the United States -- inspired new artists, galleries, and collector
Le Corbusier
-Pseudonym of Charles-Edouard Jeanneret -development as a modernist marks the consolidation of the International Style in architecture -reconciliation of human beings with nature and the modern machine -created a house that was a "machine for living": aimed to maximize the interactions of indoor and outdoor space, and create plans allowing for freedom of movement, etc -early International Style masterpiece was the Villa Savoye (1929-31) -5 CHARACTERISTICS: -"pilotis" -house is raised on stilts to use the land efficiently -integral garage (curse of floor is based on turning radius of middle-class car) -"fenetre longeur" -long, horizontal "runs" of glass windows -allow for ventilation, light, and sense of vast space -conflates "indoors" and "outdoors" -"open" or "free plan" -integrated furnishings, free movement of inhabitants, air circulation -dynamic, non-traditional transitions between floors: spiral staircases, ramps -built-in furniture; emphasizes holistic nature of house design -use of rooftop space -all space is used -integration of "indoor" and "outdoor" spaces -the free façade (non-use of load bearing walls; the wall is merely a "skin") -allows for light, use of indoor and outdoor space -1922: plans to create a housing estate for urban renewal in Paris called "Ville Contemporaine" meant to house 3 million people in skyscrapers connected by glass walkways -designed to replace historic buildings that were unhealthy and poorly built -eliminate congestion by opening of more space for roads -never built, but principles used to build Brasilia
George Bellows
-Stag at Sharkey's -Ashcan School -subject matter from Bowery, Lower Sixth Ave, Greenwich Village -convey vivid impression of NY life
Straight Photography
-Stieglitz, Strand -no tricks or manipulation
Harlem Renaissance
-The Harlem district of New York became, during the 1920s, the "cultural capital of black America" -The ensuing Harlem Renaissance drew upon the community's African heritage and was the earliest race-conscious cultural movement by African Americans -One of the central ideas behind the movement was to dispel white stereotypes of African-Americans -ex. of white stereotypes: Birth of a Nation, KKK -emphasized status as middle-class, educated professionals and emphasized the need for African Americans to define what it meant to be black
Rene Magrite
-attempted to evoke "surreality" by disrupting the usual associations of objects, images, and their names -"Treachery of Images" -"Not to Be Reproduced"
Frank Lloyd Wright
-began to secure low-cost, prefabricated housing -successful creation of Usonian homes -Rosenbaum House in Florence, AL -new inexpensive products like concrete block and plywood -built Fallinwater in 1936-39 -cantilevered plateaus (ferroconcrete), anchored around a central chimney, use of natural materials, integration of landscape, sense of horizontal orientation, house is an extension of the cliff on it was built -grudging recognition of International Style in interlocking geometry of planes and flat surface -the boulders and rocks that act as fulcrums are also design features inside the house
Stuart Davis
-began to study effects of mass culture on visual art -influenced by Cubism, Futurism, and American Dada -Began to become more abstract in 1920s, influenced by synthetic cubism -"color-space logic" -diagonal lines and trapezoidal also enhance an illusion of three-dimensionality -abstract paintings that still have figurative elements and a suggestion of depth and perspective
Jean (Hans) Arp
-biomorphic forms -"objects arranged according to the laws of chance, or navels" -"collage with squares arranged according to the laws of chance" -arrangement forms without the use of logic or reason -"head with three annoying objects" -biomorphic mass on which 3 objects rest
Paul Klee
-bookbinding, stained-glass -believed art was more spiritual -forms have a lively dynamism or "pulsating energy -color played a big role: "it was a form of energy" -compared color to music in ability to transport the senses -emphasize the role of inner vision on the process of art-making -the process of creation is more important that the forms -transfer painting: tracing a pencil drawing, placed over a page coated in black ink or oil, onto a third sheet
Farm Securities Administration
-charged with responsibility of co-ordinating rural relief efforts -oversaw loans, flood control, migrant camps, agricultural education, etc -move farmers into more economically viable service and industrial work -FSA had to create a photographic archive, Roy Stryker appointed to hire photographer
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
-director of Bauhaus after Gropius' successor failed -influenced by Constructivism and its ideology of "efficient" structural constructions using modern industrial materials -found affinity with use of simple rectilinear and planar forms, clean lines, pure use of color, and the extension of space around and beyond interiors -theories of Adolf Loos resonated with him: eradication of ornament, disavowing superficial, use of unadorned but rich materials -left Germany bc Nazis and came to Chicago, huge impact on Chicago skyline through "Miesian" skyscrapers -"less is more" aesthetic; worked with pre-manufactured steel shapes in-filled with large sheets of glass -natural progression of the almost forgotten 19th century Chicago School style
James van der Zee
-documented all aspects of Harlem community; perhaps best recognized for society portraits of middle-class African-American men and women -traditional aesthetic related to styles evident in Victorian and Edwardian portraiture -dispelling white stereotypes about black communities, esp. those engendered in the wake of Birth of a Nation
Gunta Stölzl
-efficient workshop that collectively produced modern industrial designs -emphasized experimentation and improvisation -encouraged students to take into account the properties of a fabric -overall challenge of weaving was to create an aesthetic that was appropriate to the properties of the material
Walter Gropius
-established the Bauhaus in 1919 ("Building School" or "House of Building") -sense of welfare, architecture in the service of social justice -interest in the health and safety of the average worker; wanted them to be exposed to natural light and air -Fagus Shoe Factory in Alfeld-an-der-Laine in Germany (1911-1925) -completely sheathed in glass, even corners -invented the curtain wall; not a load bearing wall but rather the weight of the building is borne by the steel frame inside -not structural, an attachment that is "hung" on the structural steel by bolting or welding -also involved in the re-building of Germany after WWI -engineered a social form of architecture to increase health and welfare while also being cost-effective -simplified forms of his designs made mass-construction possible -geometric shapes could be infinitely repeated without excessive architectural intervention and reproduced without huge additional costs -standardization was key -removal of load-bearing walls means there is more room in the house and better use of space -designed the new buildings for Bauhaus School with an emphasis on horizontal and vertical lines, used curtain walls -long uninterrupted planes of white walls and continuous window voids creates a lightness that opens up the space of the structure -kicked out of Germany by Nazis in 1934 and came to USA to work at Harvard
The Eight
-group of American painters trying to change the NY art world, liberalize the exclusive Academy exhibition system -exhibited together at Macbeth Galleries following rejection of works at the National Academy of Design's show where Henri resigned in protest -painted urban realist scenes of everyday life including tenement buildings, shoppers, prostitutes, subway trains, street urchins, and vaudeville performers -subject matter, gritty palette, and "on the spot" or "sketch-like" renderings made the work "unacceptable" to Academy members when they submitted works to the annual exhibition in 1907 -considered a milestone in the development of artistic independence, inspiring other independent exhibitions, including the Armory Show (1913)
Gerrit Rietveld
-in 1920s commissioned to build a family home for Ms Truus Schröder -built in Utrecht and called "the Schröder House" -a building and home complete with furniture and practical living space -composition of steel beams and columns, wood, and concrete -built on to the end of a conventional brick terrace, but makes no attempt to "blend in" -no space goes un-used, all space is useful (form and function; nothing extraneous) -only colors used are primary colors, white, grey, and black -emphasis on horizontal and vertical lines -looks like a Mondrian painting on the outside, space can be transformed with moving walls
Georgia O'Keefe
-in late 1915, produced a series of large abstract works -"Kandinsky Inspired" (as thought by Stieglitz) -after 1929, traveled at least once a year to New Mexico, eventually moved there in 1949 -developed iconic "desert" motif
Vasily Kandinsky
-influence of Constructivism and Suprematism led him to emphasize geometric forms, hard-edged shapes, etc. -change from deeply saturated color to clearly delineated shapes on delicately modulated background
Oskar Schlemmer
-interest in human body and how it could be understood mathematically -trying to strike a balance between humanist interests and his investments in the "machine age" -best known piece is the Triadic Ballet -plotless costume play in which movement of geometrically stylized costumes direct the progress of the dancers
Gordon Parks
-joined the FSA in 1942 -came to DC on fellowship from the Julius Rosenwald Fund -famous photograph of Ella Watson who cleaned FSA office, echo of Grant Wood's American Gothic
Robert Henri
-leading force behind change in the early 20th century American Art -elected to National Academy of Design in 1906 (founded as an effort "to promote the fine arts in America through instruction and exhibition" -works by esteemed artists painting scenes of high society was the height of Academic achievement -"The Eight" joined Henri to change the New York art world, liberalize the exclusive Academy exhibition system -Ashcan School, "art for life"
Naum Gabo
-lectured at the Bauhaus in 1928 -explored theory and aesthetics of Constructivism in conjunction with possibilities of new materials and technologies -designed costumes for La Chatte ballet: large, geometric sculptures of transparent plastics and glass against an opaque black ground
Alfred Stieglitz
-legitimize photography as art -wanted to translate what the eye sees and HOW the eye sees (blurry, selective focus, no combination prints, etc) -basis of "Pictorialism" movement -subdued middle-gray tones, soft focus, etc -beginnings of "Photo-Secession" (poke at vienne secession, etc) -wanted art world to recognize "plastic" nature of photography -"truth to materials" and "straight photography" -Realization that the photograph should be true to its origins and methods; embrace the mechanical clarity of the apparatus = embrace of modernity
Meta Warrick Fuller
-mainly recognized as a sculptor (also accomplished poet) -precursor and part of Harlem Renaissance -protégé of Auguste Rodin -alienated from Philly art scene bc she was black -art work involved historical validation and celebration of Africa and its connection to African Americans
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
-met Gropius in 1922, invited to become professor at Bauhaus -promoted alliance of technology and art -constructivist agenda -changed priority from elaborate delicate metalwork to simple, practical, geometric designs for everyday use -investigation of relationship between light, space, and motion -introduction of kinetic and electric elements in his art -creation of "light-space modulators" -built from reflecting metals and plastics in geometric shapes -set machines in motion and they reflected and/or projected light onto all the other surfaces of the room -made photograms -"language of vision" - universal code that communicates through the mechanics of the eye and brain, bypassing verbal language and cultural context
Max Ernst
-new technique called "frottage": rubbing stuff on paper lying on a textured surface -also used "grattage": canvas on texture, scrape paint over it -"Europe After the Rain": made using decalcomania (putting glass or paper on top of a wet painted surface
Walker Evans
-one of the first to join the FSA -despite commitment to documentary, he wanted to find scenes and objects "whose appearance implied a story or acted as a metaphor for an attitude toward life" -evan's largest project was created while on leave from the FSA: human interest story for Fortune magazine, chronicled the lives of three families of tenant farmers in Hale County AL, was never published and independently called Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Diego Riviera
-one of the most famous influences on mural painters of the period was Diego Riviera -Detroit Industry: harmony between worker and technology, culminates in production of a car -also did Man at the Crossroads: depict social, political, industrial, and scientific possibilities of the 20th century... included scenes of worker May Day protest, Lenin leading demonstration
Federal Arts Project
-part of the Public Works project by FDR -2566 murals, 17744 sculptures, 108099 easel paintings, 240000 prints
Andre Breton
-poet, founder of french surrealism -left Dada because it was "too institutionalized" -did not attempt to destroy or react against existing work -psychic automatism: the actions of an individual when not controlled by reason -the truths of the unconscious mind were a gateway to personal freedom, the location of a "pure" art form -wants people to listen to their dreams and use the dream state -the surrealists give equal consideration to the unconscious and conscious worlds -surrealism: "the true function of thought" -the exquisite corpse
Charles Sheeler
-precisionist (depict and idealized world, absolute order and clarity) -was in contact w/ NY Dada and encouraged to study photography -combination of photographic interests, machines, and modernism in painting led to new aesthetic
Edward Hopper
-prominent American realist painter and printmaker. While he was most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching. Both in his urban and rural scenes, his spare and finely calculated renderings reflected his personal vision of modern American life -concentrated more on urban images and landscapes, often made more powerful by stark depiction of light -paintings famous for conveying sense of alienation and introspection during Depression-era and wartime -rejected association w/ Benton, Curry, and Wood
Josef Albers
-relations of color strips are meticulously calculated -created works through technique of sandblasting and painting thing layers of opaque glass, which were then baked in a kiln to achieve a hard surface
Regionalism
-right, nationalist, etc
Dorothea Lange
-settled in Bay Area, came to FSA in 1935, acute sense of social injustice and understanding of power of photography -bulk of her work documents migrant families re-settled in camps in California, questionable if her images promoted or criticized the work of the FSA
J.J.P. Oud
-translation of Mondrian painting into a building -"Café de Unie" built in 1925 -1918 to 1933: Municipal Housing Architect for Rotterdam -conceived and built housing estates for Dutch families -flat roof, rectangularity, openness; enlightened planning for well-designed, low-cost housing -reconcile strict, rational, cost-effective construction with emotional needs of inhabitatnts and aesthetic philosophy of the period -"poetic functionalism"
Joan Miro
-tried freely to transcribe his wandering imagination without preconceived notions -images are highly schematic but not without references to real things -unreal world that is painstakingly rendered on canvas -dynamism of line and color keeps the viewer's eye moving from place to place -"Painting" 1933 -appears completely abstract, but some forms hint at natural shapes, requires a letting go of reason to see them
Biomorphic Surrealism
Arp, Miro, Masson, and Ernst -bimorphic surrealism; automatism, results close to abstraction
Pictorialism
Pictorialists created images with tonal complexity, choosing techniques such as platinum printing (yielding a range of gray tones), hand-working the images, printing on textured paper (so images resembled watercolors), etc. producing a definite "creative" component
Antoine Pevsner
brother of Naum Gabo
Surrealism
two directions: 1, Arp, Miro, Masson, and Ernst -bimorphic surrealism; automatism, results close to abstraction 2. Dali and Magritte -in detail, recognizable scenes and objects taken out of context, distorted, and combined in fantastic ways as they might be in dreams
