apah notes (unit 4)

The Burghers of Calais - Auguste Rodin - 1884-1895 C.E.

- 1885, Rodin was commissioned by the French city of Calais to create a sculpture that commemorated the heroism of Eustache de Saint-Pierre, a prominent citizen of Calais, during the Hundred Years' War between England and France - six burghers (city councilmen) offer their lives to the English king in return for saving their besieged city during the Hundred Years' War - English king insisted burghers wear sackcloths and carry the key to city - parallels between Paris besieged during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and Calais besieged by the English in 1347 - figures sculpted individually, then arranged as the artists thought best - figures suffer from privations, are weak and emaciated - each figure has a different emotion -- some fearful, resigned, or forlorn - central figure is Eustache de Saint-Pierre, who has large swollen hands and a noose around his neck, ready for his execution - details reduced to emphasize overall impression - meant to be placed at ground level so that people could see it close up - rejected by town council of Calais as being inglorious -- they wanted a single allegorical figure

Revival Architecture

- 19th century architecture is characterized by a revival of nearly every style of the past - historicism and yearning for past ideals fueled a reliance on the old, the tried and the familiar - middle ages represented a time when religion was more and sincere -- centered around faith - artists felt modern living was corrupted by industrial revolution - people were so nostalgic for medieval ruins that when none were available, they had ruins built for romantic souls to ponder the loss of civilization - ironwork was important in the romantic period - architects concerned with reviving past architectural styles like Gothic or Romanesque used ironwork but hit it under the skin of the building

Late 19th Century Art Summary

- 19th-century is known for a series of art movements, one quickly following upon another: Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, and Art Nouveau - each movement expresses a different philosophy demonstrating the richness and diverse city of artistic expression in this period - Realism relied on the philosophy of positivism, which made paintings of mythological and religious scenes seemed not only outdated, but archaic - many Impressionist artists painted in the outdoors, seeking to draw inspiration from nature - Post-Impressionism explored the underlying structural foundation of images, and laid the groundwork from much of modern art - Symbolists drew upon personal visions to create works resembling a dreamworld - Art Nouveau was a stylish and creative art form that put emphasis on sinuous shapes and curvilinear forms - Late 19th century saw a revival of sculpture under the command of Auguste Rodin, who molded works in clay giving a very tactile quality to his works - late 19th century architecture was vertical - architects responded to increased land values and advances in engineering by designing taller and thinner - for the first time in history, cities began to be defined by their skylines, which rose dramatically in downtown area

Villa Savoye - Le Corbusier (architect) - Poissy-sur-Seine, France - 1929 C.E.

- 3-bedroom villa with servants quarters - boxlike horizontal quality -- abstraction of a house - main part of house lifted off the ground by narrow pilotis (thin freestanding posts) - turning circle on bottom floor is a carport, so that family members can enter the house directly from their car - all space is utilized, including the roof which acts as a patio - no historical ornamentation - subtle colors: white on exterior symbolized modern cleanliness, the new simplicity, healthful living - open interior free of many walls - furniture built into the walls - ribbon windows wind around the 2nd floor - streamlined look - house appears to float on pilotis - living spaces around an open courtyard-type setting on 2nd floor -- surrounded by glass - patrons -- Pierre and Emilie Savoye... wanted a country home

Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park - Diego Rivera - 1947-1948 C.E.

- 50 feet long fresco -- 13 feet high - originally in lobby of the Hotel Del Prado - after 1985 earthquake that destabilized the hotel it was placed in Alameda Park, Mexico City's first city park which was built on the grounds of an Aztec marketplace Three eras of Mexican history depicted: 1. conquest and colonization of Mexico by the Spanish 2. Porfirio Diaz dictatorship (1884-1911) 3. Revolution of 1910 (Porfirio overthrown) - depicts a who's who of Mexican politics, culture, and leadership - Sor Juana - Benito Juarez (5-term president of Mexico) - General Santa Ana handing the Keys of Mexico to General Winfield Scott - Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlotta - Jose Marti, father of Mexican independence (tipping his hat) - General Porfirio Diaz with medals, asleep - a police officer ordering a family out of an elitist park - Francisco Madero, a martyred president - Artist in center, at age 10, holding hands with Caterina ("Death") dreaming of a perfect love (Kahlo is behind them) - horror vacui -- didactic painting - colorful - revival of fresco painting, a Mexican specialty - compare with other historicism compositions -- Liberty Leading the People and School of Athens

The Coiffure - Mary Cassatt - 1890-1891 C.E.

- Cassatt's world is filled with women -- women as independent and not needing men to complete themselves -- women who enjoy the company of other women - no posing or acting -- figures possess a natural calm - decorative charm influenced by Japanese art - Japanese hair style -- Japanese point of view; figure seen from the back - shows a tenderness foreign to other impressionists - part of a series of ten prints exhibited together - contrasting sensuous curves of female figure with straight lines of the furniture and wall - pastel color scheme

Modern Art Summary

- Early modern Art is characterized by the birth of radical art movements - Avant-garde artists, with the help of their progressive patrons, broke new ground in rethinking the traditional figure, and in the use of color as a vehicle of expression rather than description - artists moved in many directions — for example, abstract art was approached in entirely different ways by artists as diverse as Kandinsky and Mondrian - other artists, such as Brancusi, come close to the abstract form, using representational ideas as a starting point - still others, such as Surrealists, see conventional painting as a beginning, but expanded their horizons immediately after that - modern architects embraced new technology, using it to cantilever forms over open space, imitate the machine aesthetic of Art Deco, or as spouse to complete artistic concept of the Bauhaus - whatever the motivations, modern architecture is dominated by clear, clean, simple lines, paralleling some of the advances made in painting and sculpture

Late 19th century Artistic Inspiration

- European artists influenced by influx of Japanese art (highly sophisticated genre scenes or landscapes) - Japanese art broke European conventions yet were elegant - Japanese art relies on a different sense of depth, enhancing flatness that dominates background -- subjects appear at tilt or odd angle - interest in all things Japanese was called Japanisme - Plein-air, movement that emphasized art outdoors rather than in the sterile studio -- characteristic of impresssionism -- seeks to capture the effect of atmosphere and light on a given subject

Falling Water - Frank Lloyd Wright - Pennsylvania, U.S. - 1936-1939 C.E.

- Falling Water stirred the imagination of a society wearing for a secluded, utopian life - built as a summer cabin for a department store owner, Wright built it over the top of a waterfall and allowed the waterfall and allowed the waterfall to go through the house and overlook a pool of water - pillars rise out of the rocks - ocher-colored reinforced concrete trays (cantilevered porches) extend over the waterfall and hover simulating the large horizontal rocks of the area - in elevation the composition appears flat -- volumes are arranged so that the walls seem to slide past each other in an abstract manner (like a de Stijl graphic) - compare with homes: Monticello and House of Vetti

Y no hai remedio - Historical Context

- Francisco Goya created the aquatint series The Disaster of War from 1810 to 1820 - aquatint = a print resembling a watercolor, produced from a copper plate etched with nitric acid - the 82 images add up to a visual indictment of and protest against the French occupation of Spain by Napoleon - the French Emperor had seized control of the country in 1807 after he tricked the king of Spain, Charles IV, into allowing Napoleon's troops to pass its border under the pretext of helping Charles invade Portugal... he did not... - instead, he usurped the throne and installed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as ruler of Spain - soon, a bloody uprising occurred, in which countless spaniards were slaughtered in Spain's cities and countryside - although Spain eventually expelled the French in 1814 following the Peninsular War (1807-1814), the military conflict was a long and gruesome ordeal for both nations - throughout the entire time, Goya worked as a court artist for Joseph Bonaparte, though he would later deny any involvement with the French "intruder king"

Romanticism Time Period

- French Revolution of 1789 and European revolts of 1848 form a neat, but not completely accurate, boundary for Romanticism - the late 18th century is known as the Enlightement, a period of scientific advancement -- it is followed by the revolutionary principles of the Romantic period - architecture is characterized by a series of "revivals"

Aquatint Process

- Goya created his Disasters of War series by using the techniques of etching and drypoint - Goya was able to use this technique to create nuanced shades of light and dark that capture the powerful emotional intensity of the horrific scenes in the Disasters of War - the first step was to etch the plate -- this was done by covering a copper plate with wax and then scratching lines into the was with a stylus (a sharp needle-like implement) thus exposed the metal - the plate was then placed in an acid bath -- the acid bit into the metal where it was exposed (the rest of the plate was protected by the wax) - next the acid was washed from the plate and the plate was heated so the wax softened and could be wiped away -- the plate then had soft, even, recessed lines etched by the acid where Goya had drawn into the wax - the next step, drypoint, created lines by a different method - Goya scratched directly into the surface of the plate with a stylus -- this resulted in a less even line since each scratch left a small ragged ridge on either side of the line,,, these minute ridges catch the ink and create a soft distinctive line when printed - because these ridges are delicate and are crushed by repeatedly being run through a press, the earliest prints in a series are generally more highly valued - finally, the artist inked the plate and wiped away any excess so that ink remained only in the areas where the acid bit into the metal plate or where the stylus had scratched the surface - the plate and moist paper were then placed atop one another and run through a press -- the paper, now a print, drew the ink from the metal, and became a mirror of the plate

La Grande Odalisque - Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres - 1814 C.E.

- Ingres spent time in Jacques Louis David's studio into the middle of the 19th century - Ingres actually returned to neoclassicism after having first rejected the lessons of his teacher David - could be said to have laid the foundation for the emotive expressiveness of Romanticism (the new style of Gericault and the young Delacroix that Ingres would later hold the line against) - Ingres's early romantic tendencies can be seen most famously in this painting - shown in Salon of 1819 and caused a scandal - inconsistent arrangement of limbs: rubbery arms, elongated back, placement of leg, one arm is longer than other - heavily influenced by Italian Mannerism in the exaggerated body forms - a languid nude is set in a sumptuous interior - seems to follow in the tradition of the Great Venetian masters (i.e. Titian's Venus of Urbino of 1538) -- but not a classical setting - odalisque = female slave or concubine in a harem - the peacock fan, the turban, the enormous pearls, the hookah (a pipe for hashish or perhaps opium), and of course, the title of the painting, all refer us to the French conception of the Orient - the word "orient" does not refer here to the Far East so much as the Near East or even North Africa - raphael-like face coupled with aloof eye contact - Ingres has created a cool aloof eroticism accentuated by its exotic context - in mind of early 19th century French male viewer (the sort of person for whom this image was made) the odalisque would have conjured up not just a "harem slave," but a set of fears and desires linked to the long history of aggression between Christian Europe and Islamic Asia - Ingres' porcelain sexuality is made acceptable even to an increasingly prudish French culture because of the subject's geographic distance - in contrast, the Renaissance painter Titian had veiled his eroticism in myth (Venus), Ingres covered his object of desire in a misty, distant exoticism

Self-Portrait as a Soldier - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - 1915 C.E.

- Kirchner was an "unwilling volunteer" driver in the artillery in WWI, rather than be drafted in the infantry - declared unfit for service due to his lung problems and weakness and mental breakdown -- debated if medical conditions were real or faked to avoid service - painted this work during recuperation period - founded the German Expressionist group Die Brüke (The Bridge) - Kirchner created their manifesto, a woodblock print that was to be widely disseminated as a call to arms - admirer of Nietzche's book, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which uses the bridge as a metaphor for the connection between the barbarism of the past and the modernity of the future - drawn face -- loss of right hand indicates the feeling that he has an inability to paint - nude model represents what he used to paint, but no longer can - nightmarish quality - colors are non-representations, but symbolic and chosen for jarring impact - expressive quality of horrified facial features and grim surroundings - titled perspective moves things closer to the picture plane - his life was plagued by drug abuse, alcoholism, and then paralysis

International Style

- LeCorbusier's dictum that a house should be a "machine for living" sums up international Style from 1920s-1950s - influenced by streamlined qualities of the Bauhaus - Bauhaus = school of design established in 1919 which focused on design of objects based on simplicity and functionality - international style celebrates the clean spacious white lines of the building's facade - internal structure is a skeleton system which holds the building up from within and allows great planes of glass to wrap around the walls using ferroconcrete (reinforced concrete) construction - key characteristics is the lack of architectural ornament and avoidance of sculpture and paintings applied to exterior surfaces

Monticello - Thomas Jefferson - 1786-1805 C.E.

- Monticello = Little

Monticello - Thomas Jefferson - 1786-1805 C.E.

- Monticello = Little Mountain (Italian) - this is the chief building on Jefferson's Virginia plantation - neoclassical - symmetrical interior design - brick building, stucco applied to trim to give the facade of marble - Jefferson left both Monticello and the U.S. in 1784 when he accepted an appointment as America Minister to France - the roman column elements recall the ideals of a republic - for the next 5 years, Jefferson had the opportunity to visit Classical and Neoclassical architecture in France - the west garden facade shows Monticello's most recognized architectural features: two column deep extended portico that contains doric columns that support a triangular pediment that is decorated by a semicircular window - although the short octagonal drum and shallow dome provide Monticello a sense of verticality, the wooden balustrade that circles the roofline provides a powerful sense of horizontality - example of French Neoclassical architecture in the U.S.

Nadar Raising Photography to the Height of Art - Honoré Daumier - 1862 C.E.

- Nadar was famous for taking aerial photos of Paris beginning in 1858 - presents Nadar as a quack photographer; in his excitement to get a daring shot, he almost falls off of his balloon and loses his hat - every building has the word "photographie" on it - mocks the claim that photography can be a "high art" -- irony is implied in the title - done after a court decision in 1862 that determined that photographs could be considered works of art - originally appeared in a journal: Le Boulevard - intrusive photography: Nadar's balloon reused in the 1870 Siege of Paris - foreshadows modern surveillance photographs

Pop Art

- Pop (or, Popular) Art is a term coined by an English critic in 1955 about a movement that gathered momentum in the 1950s and then reached is climax in the 1960s - draws on materials of the everyday work, items of mass popular culture like consumer goods or famous singers - Pop artists saw no distinction between "high" art or the design of mass-produced items - glorifies and magnifies the commonplace — bringing viewer face to face with everyday reality - most Pop Artists proclaim that their art is not satirical, although sometimes this is hard to believe given the images they used and the scale used to display them - vernally thought that Pop Art is a reaction against Abstract Expressionism

The Prairie Style

- Prairie School of architecture concerns a group of architects working in Chicago from 1900-1917 - Frank Lloyd Wright is the most famous member of The Prairie School (Fallingwater, designed well after Prairie School peaked, but reflects the school's characteristics) - rejected the idea that buildings should be done in historic styles of architecture - insisted that they should be in harmony with their site - write employed complex irregular plans and forms that seemed to reflect the abstract shapes of contemporary paintings: rectangles, triangles, squares and circles - Wright used cantilever construction to have porches and terraces extend out from the main section of a structure - cantilever -- a long projecting beam or girder fixed at only one end, used chiefly in bridge construction - cantilevers give the impression of forms hovering over open space, held up by seemingly weightless anchors - organic qualities of the materials -- concrete with pebble aggregate, sand-finished stucco, rough-hewn lumber, and natural woods -- believed to be the most beautiful - horizontal nature of the prairie is stressed in alignment of these houses

The Swing - Jean-Honoré Fragonard - 1767

- Rococo - figures are small in a dominant garden like setting - atmospheric perspective -- a technique of rendering depth or distance in painting by modifying the tone or hue and distinctness of objects perceived as receding from the picture plane, especially by reducing distinctive local colors and contrasts of light and dark to a uniform light bluish-gray color - puffy clouds; rich vegetation; abundant flowers; sinuous curves - patron in lower left looking up the skirt of a young lady who swings flirtatiously, boldly kicking off her shoe at a Cupid sculpture - unsuspecting bishop swings from her behind - an intrigue painting: patron hides in a bower,, Cupid asks the young lady to be discreet and / or may be a symbol for the secret hiding of the Patron - theme: figures in a landscape (i.e. Dürer "Adam and Eve"')

Rococo Patronage and Artistic Life

- Rome was the place to be.. to see the past - new artistic life was spring in up all over Europe, leaving Rome as the custodian of inspiration and tradition, but not of progress - Italy's position as cultural cornucopia was magnified in 1748 by discovery of Pompeii buried under volcanic ash - suddenly, genuine Roman works were being dug up daily, and the world could admire an ancient city - discovery of Pompeii inspired art theorist Johann Winckelmann to publish The History of Ancient Art in 1764, which many consider the first art history book -- Winckelmann heavily criticized the waning Rococo as decadent, and celebrated ancients for the purity of form and crispness of execution - with renewed interest in studying ancients, art academies began to spring up around Europe and in the U.S. - artists trained in what the Academy viewed as proper classical tradition -- part of that training sent artists to Rome to study artifacts - French Academy showcased selected works by its members in an annual or biannual event called the Salon - named for the large room it was held in, the Salom Carrè, in the Louvre - art critics and judgement would scout out the best of the current art scene, and accept a limited number of paintings for public view at the Salon - if an artist received this critical endorsement, it meant their prestige greatly increased as well as the value of their paintings - some had very traditional standards, insisting on flawless technique with emphasis on established subjects executed with conventional perspective and drawing - history paintings were most prized... portraits were next in importance followed by landscapes, genre paintings, and then still lifes - no education was completed without a grand tour of Italy -- usually under the guidance of a connoisseur - people could immerse themselves in the lessons of the ancient world and perhaps collect an antique or buy work from a contemporary artists under the guidance of the connoisseur - neoclassical period was firmly entrenched in the mind of art professionals and educated amateurs

Site Art

- Site Art (aka. Earth Art aka. Earthworks) is dependent on location to render full meaning - often works of Site art are temporary (i.e., Christo and Jean-Claude) - other-times, works remain, but need the original environment intact in order for it to be fully understood. - Site Art dates from the 1970s and is still being done today

Illustration from The Results of the First Five-Year Plan - Varvara Stepanova - 1932 C.E.

- Stepanova one of the main figures in the Russian avant-garde movement - graphic art for political and propaganda purposes - influenced by Cubism and Futurism (emphasized speed, technology, youth, and violence, and objects such as the car, the aeroplane, and the industrial city) - Five-Year Plan -- Soviet (and communist) practice of increasing agricultural and industrial output in five years... launched in 1928... considered complete in 1932 - emphasis on growth of heavy industry rather than consumer goods - huge increases in electrical output (dominant industrial symbol in the work) - a double page spread in a book - red dominates -- the color of Communist Soviet Union - CCCP -- Russian abbreviation of the "The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" - large portrait of Lenin dominated -- although deceased, his image is used to stimulate patriotism - compare with social commentary: Delacroix's liberty leading the people

The Steerage - Alfred Stieglitz - 1907

- Stieglitz photographed the world as he saw it, arranged little and allowed people and events to make their own compositions - interested in compositional possibilities of diagonals and lines acting as framing elements - diagonals and framing effects of ladders, sails, steam pipes, and so on - depicts the poorest passengers on a ship traveling from the U.S. to Europe in 1907 - some may have been people turned away from entrance to the U.S., more than likely were artisans whose visas had expired and were returning home - published in October 1911 in Camera Work - influenced by experimental European painting -- compared to a Cubist drawing by Picasso -- cubist-like in arrangement of shape and tonal values - represents social divisions of society - steerage -- the part of the ship reserved for passengers with the cheapest tickets - compare with works depicting disadvantaged persons: Turner's Slave Ship, Courbet's The Stone Breakers

The Oxbow - Thomas Cole - 1836 C.E.

- Thomas Cole was the founder of the Hudson River School - founded landscape paintings -- something Americans wanted, but was disdained by Europeans - this is an actual view of Massachusetts in 1836 - cole divides the landscape into two clearly contrasting areas, the Romantic left and the Classical landscape on the right - left -- ravaged landscape, bit of lightning, promise of America as a new Eden - right -- showing that Americans are settling on the land with sun shining in them, ordained by God, "manifest destiny", settling land - movement from sublime to pastoral (settled land... even a ferry) - in the foreground amidst a dense forest, with broken trees, and a wild landscape with storms, one can see Cole's left portrait -- the "sublime" seen in many Romantic paintings - painted in reply to British book that alleged that Americans had destroyed the wilderness with industry - painted for an exhibit and the National Academy of Design (very large: 51.5" x 76")

The Valley Of Mexico From the Hillside of Santa Isabel - Jose María Velasco - 1882 C.E.

- Velasco -- primarily an academic landscape painter - specialized in broad panoramas of the valley of Mexico - keen observer of nature: rocks, foliage, clouds, waterfalls - rejected realist landscapes of Courbet; romantic landscapes of Turner - Velasco settled in Villa Guadalupe with an overview of the Valley of Mexico - dramatic perspective -- small human figures - glorifies Mexican countryside

Self-Portrait - Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun - 1790 C.E.

- Vigée Le Brun, wrote autobiography, describing her father as doting and her mother as thinking her "awkward and ugly" - nevertheless, she grew up to be intelligent, beautiful, rich, and talented, characteristics on display in her Self-Portrait of 1790 - this 1790 self-portrait was created soon after her swift departure from France and is one of her best-known - example of the late Rococo style - Rococo epitomized a fashionable ideal: perpetual youth was wanton and pleasure-loving; sexual gratification was taken without guilt of consequence - Vigée Le Brun was extremely conservative in her politics though - painted while in hiding in Rome - she sits in a relaxed pose at her easel and is positioned slightly off center - wears a white turban and a dark dress -- in the free-flowing style that Marie-Antoinette had made popular at the French court -- with a soft, white, ruffled collar of the same material as her headdress - her belt is a wide red ribbon - Vigée-Lebrun holds a brush to a partially finished work; the subject is probably Marie-Antoinette -- perhaps intended as a tribute to her favorite sitter - slightly used brushes are at the ready along with a palette, she has everything cradled in her arm close to the viewer - painting expresses an alert intelligence, vibrancy, and freedom from care - as she painted this portrait, her Queen was being driven from power by revolutionaries who hated the wasteful lifestyle of the nobility - both Marie-Antoinette and her husband, King Louis XVI, would later be executed - would have been painting portraits of Marie Antoinette from memory at this point - shows evidence of inspiration from Rubens - given these circumstances, Vigée-Le Brun -- a working painter, wife, and mother -- displays an extraordinarily upbeat persona

Modern Art Historical Background

- WWI, Great Depression, WWII - yet, a very creative period in art - every artistic venue - literature, music, dane, and the fine arts - flourished - some movements fed on the cataclysmic events for inspiration -- others sought to escape the emotional world

The Jungle - Wilfredo Lam - 1943 C.E.

- Wilfredo Lam -- cuban born artist who's career took him to Europe and the U.S. - interested in Cuba's mixture of Hispanic and African cultures - influenced by African sculpture, cubist works, surrealist paintings - Lam was member of Surrealist movement in Paris - the Jungle was intended to communicate a psychic state - addresses the history of slavery in colonial Cuba - crescent-shaped faces suggest African masks - rounded backs, thin arms and legs, pronounced hands and feet - meant to suggest sugarcane, which are grown in fields, not jungles

Seagram Building - Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson - New York City - 1954-1958 C.E.

- a reflection of the Minimalist movement in painting - Mie's saying "less is more" can be seen in this building with its great simplicity, geometry of design, and elegance of construction - set back from the street on a wide plaza balanced by reflecting pools - bronze veneer gives the skyscraper a monolithic look (formed of a large block of stone) - interplay of vertical and horizontal accents - steel-and-glass skyscrapers became the model after WWII - a triumph of the International Style of architecture

Migration of The Negro. Panel No. 49. - Jacob Lawrence - 1940-1941 C.E.

- a series of 60 paintings that depict the migration of African Americans from the rural south to the urban north after WWI - overall color unity in the series unites each painting - forms hover in larges spaces - flat simple shapes - unmodulated colors - collective African American experience, little individuality to the figures - goes back to tempera paint; influenced by Italian masters of the 14th and 15th centuries - collective unity achieved by painting one color across many panels before going on to the next color - angularity of forms - this scene involved a public restaurant in the North -- segregation emphasized by yellow poles that zigzag down the center - tilted table tops show the surface of the table - narrative painting in an era of increasing abstraction

Satiric Painting

- afterward the paintings were transferred to prints so that the message could be mass produced - themes stem from exposing political corruption to spoofs on contemporary lifestyles - Hogarth knew that the pictorial would reach more people than the written, and he hoped to use his prints to didactically expose his audience to abuses of the upper class - society had changed so much that by now, those in power grew more tolerant of criticism - this tolerance allowed satirical painting to flourish (at least, in England) - relate to today's political cartoons, which are the descendants of these satirical prints - the satire painting was very popular during the Enlightenment period - English enjoyed the paintings that were basic satires which came from a moral perspective drawing on biblical, mythological, or classical literature

Early and Mid-20th Century Art

- all typical tools of artistic expression were under question in early 20th century - color was not only used to describe a setting or an artist's impression, but also to evoke a feeling and challenge the viewer - perspective discarded or violently tilted for dramatic impact - introduction of pure form abstraction -- became a primary feature of modern art - abstract art always existed (marginals areas, frames, etc) -- but with modern art, abstract is placed in the center of the composition -- message: abstraction has meaning independent of realistically conveyed representations - move away from tradition oil-on-canvas approach -- instead inspired by frottage and collage (frottage = taking a rubbing from another surface) - Europeans drew inspiration from African cultures, previously ignored as being "primitive" -- inspired by geometric, abstract forms that were unafraid of the lack of conventional reality - this new found freedom of expression from traditional representations prompted some artists to write down their thoughts in artistic manifestos, which served as a "call to arms" for other artists

The Portuguese - George Braque - 1911

- analytical cubism (highly experimental, showing jagged edges and sharp multifaceted lines) - worked with Picasso to develop this style - rejected naturalistic and conventional painting - fractured forms -- breaking down of objects into smaller forms - nearly monochromatic (single color) - only realistic elements are the stenciled letters and numbers -- perhaps they suggest a dance hall poster behind the guitarist -- a cafe atmosphere - not a portrait of a Portuguese musician, but rather an exploration of shapes - fragmented forms -- clear-edged surfaces sit on the picture plane, not recessed in space - an experimentation in perspective - Cubist artists tried to show their total visual understanding of the subject on a flat canvas

Romanticism essential knowledge

- art is influenced by changes in society -- it is affects by economic forces which cause widespread migration, war, and a concentration of population in cities,, new countries emerge and social movements gain strength - artists continue to become prominent members of society -- academies and salons -- less focus on religious and more focus on corporations - new philosophies, particularly those by Marx and Darwin, spread throughout the world -- these views were supplemented by a new understanding of worldwide cultures

Art Nouveau

- art nouveau developed in a few artistic centers in Europe (Brussels, Barcelona, Paris, Vienna) -- from about 1890 to WWI in 1914 - seeks to eliminate the separation amount various artistic media and combine them into one unified experience - art nouveau buildings were designed, furnished, and decorated by the same artist as an integrated whole - stylistically — relies on vegetal and floral patterns, complexity of design & undulating surfaces - straight lines avoided -- accent on the curvilinear - architecture -- elaborately conceived wrought ironwork for balconies, fences, railings, & structural elements

Avant-Garde

- artists understood the change and exchanged traditional beliefs for "avant-garde" beliefs -- people or works that are considered innovative and experimental - academies of the 18th century were abandoned by late 19th century - artists used the past for inspiration but rejected traditional methods (religious subjects, aristocratic portraits, history paintings, and mythical scenes) - instead spirit of modernism prevails along with scenes of peasants, landscapes, and still lifes

Romantic Painting

- artists were impressed by the sublime in art -- what the enlightenment saw as ordered, symmetrical, logical, and scientific (and therefore beautiful), the romantics viewed with disdain - artists wanted to create the fantastic, the unconscious, the haunted, and the insane - some visited asylums and depicted their residents; others painted the underside of the subconscious state of 100 years before Freud - photography had an enormous impact on painters - some fled painting, feeling that their effort could not match the precisions and speed of a photograph - other painters saw pictures as an aid in their work, from hiring models to capturing a landscape - painters eventually learned that photography was a new art form that was not in competition with the long-standing tradition of painting - artists, like everyone else, were caught up in European and American revolutions - fight for Greek independence was particularly shocking and exciting for European intellectuals - political paintings became important, expressing the artist's solidarity with a social movement or political position - Delacroix and Goya are among many who create memorable political compositions - even landscape painting had a political agenda - no longer content to paint scenes for their physical beauty or artistic arrangement, landscape painters needed to make a contemporary statement - paintings were sometimes an expression against the Industrial Revolutions or an answer to criticism on how the Americas had polluted their land

Neoclassical Sculpture

- before Industrial Revolution, bronze was the most expensive and most highly prized sculptural medium - mass production of metal made possible by factories in England and Germany caused the price of bronze to fall, while simultaneously causing the price of marble to rise - stonework relied on manual labor, a cost that was going up - it was felt that ancients preferred marble, making it seem authentic to use - it was also assumed that ancients preferred an unpainted sculpture, because the majority of ancient marbles that survived had lost their color - recovery of artifacts from Pompeii increased inspiration for sculptors to work in classical medium - antiquity inspiration reached height with importation of Parthenon sculptures (Elgin Marbles) to British museum - sculptors like Houdon saw Neoclassical style as a continuance of ancient tradition - sculpture, which was deeply affected by classicism, was also mindful of the realistic likeness of sitter - sculptors moved away from figures wrapped in ancient robes to more realistic figural poses in contemporary drapery - classical allusions were secondary influences - neoclassical sculpture was carved from white marble with no paint added, the way it was felt the ancients worked

Neoclassical Architecture

- best neoclassical buildings were not dry adaptations of the rules of ancient architecture, they were clever revisions of the classical principles onto a modern framework - while many buildings had outward trappings of Roman works, they were also efficiently tailored to 18th century living - ancient architecture came to Europe distilled through the books written by the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio -- reemphasized by the classicizing works of Inigo Jones - from renaissance sources, Neoclassicists learned about symmetry, balance, composition, and order - Greek and Roman columns -- with appropriate capitals -- appeared on the facades of most houses of the period - pediments crown entrances and top windows - domes grace the center of homes, often setting off gallery space - the interior layout is nearly or completely symmetrical, with rectangular rooms mirroring one another on either side of the building - each room is decorated with a different theme, some inspired by the ancient world - other rooms decorated with a dominant color using wallpaper or paint

Y no hai remedio (And There's Nothing to Be Done) - Francisco de Goya - 1810-1823 C.E.

- bitterly ironic and sardonic (mockingly satirical) - guns at a very close range point toward victims, assuredly Spanish patriots, who will be summarily killed by French soldiers - mangled body on the ground - are they civilians or soldiers who are being shot? - series not printed until 35 years after the artist's death, when it was finally safe for the artist's political views to be known - the images remain shocking today - influenced the novel of famous American author Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, a book about the violence and inhumanity in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) - Hemingway shared Goya's belief: war, even if justified, brings out the inhumane in man, and causes us to act like beasts - Hemingway and Goya felt that the consumer, who examines the dismembered corpses of the aquatints or reads the gruesome descriptions of murder but does nothing to stop the assassin, is complicit in the violence with the murderer

Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun

- born in 1755, Madame Lebrun, was a prominent French painter - artistic style is generally considered part of the aftermath of Rococo, while she often adopts a neoclassical style - while serving as the portrait painter to Marie Antoinette, Vigée Le Brun worked purely in Rococo in both her color and style choices - created more than 40 self portraits, more than 650 portraits, over 200 landscape paintings - major patron was Marie Antoinette who invited Madame Le Brun to Versailles for 6 years; painted 30 portraits of M. Antoinette and family during that time -- led to view that she was the official portraitist of M. Antoinette - after Marie Antoinette put pressure on King Louis XVI, Vigée Le Brun was elected to the Académie Royals in 1783 despite opposition - after arrest of royal family during the French Revolution, Vigée Le Brun fled France with her daughter - she lived and worked for some years in Italy, Austria, and Russia, where her experience in dealing with an aristocratic clientele was still useful

Cubism

- born in studio of Pablo Picasso - 1907, he revealed his first "cubist" painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon - influenced by simple geometries of African masks, which were all the rage in Paris - Picasso was inspired to break down the human form into angels and shapes, achieving a new way of looking at the human figure from many sides at once - use of multiple views show body parts from many angles - cubism is dominated by wedges and facets that are sometimes shaded to simulate depth - Analytical -- 1907-1912 -- highly experimental, showing jagged edges and sharp multifaceted lines - Synthetic Cubism -- after 1912 -- initially inspired by collages & found objects and features flattened forms - Curvilinear Cubism -- 1930s -- a more flowing, rounded response to the flattened and firm edges of Synthetic cubism

Harlem Renaissance

- came about in early 20th century after African-Americans moved in great numbers to Harlem, New York City - this migration and its subsequent infusion of talent created a deep cultural center that reached its fullest expression in painting, theatre, music, writing, and photography - movement began after WWI, around 1919 and reached peak in the late 1920s/early 1930s - it's influence extended well into the later 20th century - movement's general themes across the arts: racial pride, civil rights, and influence of slavery on modern culture

Color Field Painting

- color field painting lacks the aggression of abstract Expressionism - relies on subtle total values that are often variations of a monochromatic hue - with Frankenthaler, the images are mysteriously hovering in an ambiguous space - with artists like Barnett Newman, there is more clear-cut definition of forms with lines descending through the composition - color Field Painting was popular in the 1960s

Constructivism

- constructivists experimented with new architectural materials and assembled them in a way devoid of historical reference - beginning in 1914, Stepanova and others saw the new Russia as an idealistic center removed from historical reference and decoration - influenced the Cubists, Constructivism designed buildings with no precise facades - emphasis was placed on the dramatic use of the materials used to create the project

Olympia - Édouard Manet - 1863 C.E.

- created a scandal at the Salon of 1865 - traditional subject of a reclining nude -- inspired by Titian's Venus of Urbino - figure is cold and uninviting, no mystery, no joy - maid delivers flowers from an admirer, indicating upper class prostitute - olympia is a common name for prostitutes of the time - olympia's frank, direct, uncaring, and unnerving look startled viewers - simplified modeling; active brushwork - start contrast of colors - a mistress was common to upper class Parisian men - rejection of classical nude with perfect illusion (facial/bodily perfection) or allusion to mythology (Venus or Eve) - rather than the female nude appearing coy, Manet confronts viewer with her real gaze

Narcissus Garden - Yayoi Kusama - 1966

- created by internationally renowned Japanese-born artist - got her start showing large works of art featuring huge polka dots - one of the foremost innovators of Happenings art movement - she works in wide variety of media, including installations - first Narcissus Garden was seen in 1966 in Venice - Kusama originally featured the work as a non-participate in the 1966 Venice Biennale - featured 1500 large, mirrored, stainless steel balls placed on a lawn under a sign that said "your Narcissim for Sale" - Kusama offered the balls for sale for 1200 lira ($2 each) as a commentary on the commercialism and vanity of the current art world - Narcissus Garden references the ancient myth of Narcissus, a young man who is so enraptured by his image in reflecting water that he stares as it until he becomes a flower (the narcissus) — other myth says that he fell in love with his own reflection and when he reached for the one he loved, he drowned in the water and a narcissus flower sprung up on in the spot where he drowned - installation was later moved to water, where the floating balls reflect the natural environment — and the viewers — around the work; water placement makes a stronger connection to the ancient myth - balls moved with the current of the water and wind — organic reflection made for ever-changing viewpoints - installation has been exhibited in many places around the world — both in water and in dry spaces

Dada

- dada is a nonsense word that literally means "hobby horse" - term "dada" directed movement in Zurich, Cologne, Berlin, Paris, and New York from 1916-1925 - disillusioned by the useless slaughter of WWI, dadaists rejected conventional methods of representations and the conventional manner in which they were exhibited - oil and canvas abandoned - rather ready-mades (common place objects selected and used as a work of art) as an art form were accepted... often did work on glass - challenged relationship between words and images, often incorporating words prominently in their works - meaning is frequently contingent on location or accident - if glass shatters (a few did), it was hailed as an enhancement, acknowledging the hand of chance in the artistic achievement - dada accepts the dominance of the artistic concept over the execution

Destijl

- de Stijl (the style) is an art movement symbolized by Dutch painter Mondrian - reached height between 1917-1930s - at purest, DeStijl paintings are completely abstract (even titles make no reference to nature) - painting are planed on white background and use black lines to shape the rectangular space - only 3 primary colors used (red, yellow, blue)... painted without modulation (the process of changing from one form to another) - lines can only be placed perpendicularly -- diagonals are forbidden (dynamic equilibrium)

Fauvism

- debuted in 1905 at Salon d'Automne in Paris - named for critic, Louis Vauxcelles, thought paintings looked like they were created by "Les Fauves" or "wild beasts" - fauvism inspired by post-impressionist painters (i.e. Gauguin and Van Gogh) - fauves stressed a painterly surface with broad flat areas of violently contrasting color -- figure modeling and color harmonies were suppressed so that expressive effects could be maximized - fauvism died out by 1908

Liberty Leading the People - Eugene Delacroix - 1830 C.E.

- depicts July Revolution of 1830 in Paris -- shows barricade (including furniture and cobblestones) - shows figure of "Liberty" carrying the colors for France (red, white, and blue) marching over barricade - compare with America's Statue of Liberty - 1789 -- French Revolution - 1804 -- Napoleon declared emperor - 1815 -- Napoleon defeated and monarchy restored - 1830 -- July Revolution and Louis-Philippe ("Citizen King") becomes King to stop Charles X (Louis-Philippe was the younger brother of Louis XVI who was beheaded) - red, white and blue throughout the painting - brutality of war depicted - figure on left is dead and in nightshirt -- symbolic of the way that repressive government would go into people's homes, beat them to death and then drag them into the street in the middle of the night - at right, members of king's forces dead -- shows that even the king is not invincible - child with pistols symbolizes the role of students in the revolt - middle class (bourgeoisie) is represented by man in a top hat that is carrying a rifle - lower class is represented by the man at the extreme left with a sword in hand and pistol in his belt - liberty depicted at top of strong pyramidal structure - liberty -- strong figure that leads the people,, she wears a Phrygian cap which was worn in the ancient world by freed slaves - in ancient rome, freed slaves were given on to wear to indicate their newly liberated status, and this headwear became a symbol of freedom and liberty on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries - Notre Dame Cathedral is seen through the smoke on the far right -- french tricolors raised on its tower - Notre Dame is a Paris landmark -- mixed with true historical events and the allegorical and symbolic figures - Delacroix was the best example of French romanticism - Poussinists vs Rubenists -- example of Ruben winning out... color more important than line -- Delacroix placed more effort on his use of color and employed a fluid open brushwork rather than relying on line and a carefully polished painting surface - Delacroix instead looked to contemporary world events for his subject -- this "ripped from the headlines" approach was common for many romantic painters - uprising was the historical backdrop for Victor Hugo's famous novel, Les Miserables (1862) - exhibited and purchased by the state from the Salon of 1831 -- hidden for 25 years because of its subversive message - dramatic use of color and light - loose and painterly brushwork - atmospheric perspective - use of space into a pyramidal form - cross cultural comparisons: National symbols (i.e. Chairman Mao En Route to Anyuan; Menkaura and his Queen)

Characteristics of Rococo

- developed as a reaction against the grandeur, symmetry, and strict regulations of the Baroque - used a more jocular, florid, and graceful approach to the Baroque - styles was ornate and see light colors, asymmetrical designs, curves, and gold - unlike the political/religious baroque, the rococo had playful and witty themes - interior decoration of Rococo rooms was designed as a total work of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings

Marilyn Diptych - Andy Warhol - 1962 C.E.

- diptych = a painting, especially an altarpiece, on two hinged wooden panels that may be closed like a book - screen-printing photographic images onto backgrounds of rectangular shapes - reported imagery drains the image of Monroe of meaning - 50 ideas from a film, Niagara (1953) - reproduction of many denies the concept of the unique works of art - cult of celebrity - RIGHT: in black and white, represents her death - LEFT: in color, represents her in life - work completed in 4 months after Marilyn Monroe's tragic death — died of overdoes at age 36 - Marilyn's public face appears highlighted by bold, artificial colors - private persona of the individual submerged beneath the public face - social characteristics magnified — brilliance of blonde hair, heavily applied lipstick, seductive expression - Compare with Human Identity compositions: Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo and The Two Fridas

Enlightenment (Age of Reason)

- during industrial revolution, Europe was swept up by a new intellectual transformation called the Enlightenment - enlightenment -- philosophers and scientists based their ideas on logic and observation, rather than tradition and folk wisdom - knowledge began to be structured in a deliberate way -- Denis Diderot organized and edited a 52-volume French Encyclopedia in 1764... Samuel Johnson composed the first English dictionary by himself in 1755... Jean-Jacques Rousseau discussed how a legitimate government was an expression of the general will in his 1762 Social Contract - a lot of political upheaval caused great change... Artists, like David, were caught up in the politics of the time and advocated serious changed -- French Revolution

19th c. Art is influenced by changes in society

- during this period, there were new philosophies, particularly those by Freud and Einstein - new philosophies spread throughout the world - new views were supplanted by a new understanding of the worldwide cultures - art is also influenced by prominence of artists and new modern art movements, including photography and technology in architecture

Rococo

- early 1700s (end of the reign of Louis XIV), there was a shift away from the classicism and "Grand Manner" (baroque) that had governed the art of the preceding 50 years in Franc, toward a new style called Rococo - the Palace of Versailles was abandoned by the aristocracy, who went back to Paris - a shift away from the monarchy, toward the aristocracy characterizes the art of Rococo period - aristocratic life --they had enormous political power as well as enormous wealth,, many chose leisure as a pursuit and became involved themselves in romantic intrigues -- they created a culture of luxury and excess that formed a stark contrast to the lives of most people in France - the aristocracy -- only a small percentage of the population of France -- owned over 90% of its wealth -- a small, but growing middle class would not sit still with this for long (French Revolution of 1789 is coming)

Rococo and Neoclassical historical background

- early 18th century -- European conquest of the rest of the world was center stage - part of conquest was layering new settlers, languages, religions and governments onto an indigenous population - Europeans wanted to become wealthy by exploiting, but cost of maintaining foreign armies outweighed commercial benefits - as European settlers grew wistful for homes, they built Baroque and Rococo-inspired buildings, importing Rococo fashions and garments, and made the New World seem as much like the Old World as they could - in France, court at Versailles began to diminish after the death of Louis XIV, leaving less power in hands of kings and more with nobility - the result -- rococo style departs from the Baroque interest in royalty, and takes on a more aristocratic flavor -- esp. in decoration of lavish townhouses that upper class rest in Paris (not Versailles)

Rococo and Neoclassical Summary

- early 18th century saw shift of power turned from King and court at Versailles to nobles in Paris - royal imagery and rich coloring of Baroque replaced buy lighter pastels an theatrical flair of Rococo - lighthearted compositions of Rococo were symbolic of aristocratic taste of the period - inspired by French Rococo, strong school of portrait painting emerged in England - english painters and patrons delighted in satirical painting reflecting a more relaxed attitude in 18th century toward criticism and censorship - aristocratic association of the Rococo style caused that style to be condemned by Neoclassicists of the next generation who thought style was decadent and amoral - rococo continued to dominate style in areas occupied by Europeans as it symbolized a cultured and refined view of the world - intellectuals influenced by the Enlightenment rejected Rococo as decadent, claiming that Neoclassicism was a movement that expressed the liberty, equality, and fraternity of the French Revolution - discovery of Pompeii did much to revive interest in the classics and artists used the classical period as a model for their modern experience

The Saint-Lazard Station - Claude Monet - 1877 C.E.

- exhibited at the Impressionist exhibit of 1877 - one of a series depicting this train station - Monet famous for painting series of paintings on the same subject at different times of day and different days of the year - subject matter is of the new technology, gritty modernism - originally meant to be hung together for the effect - effects of steam, light, and color; not really about the machine or travelers - subtle gradations of light on the surface - forms dissolve and dematerialize; color overwhelms the forms

Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On) - Joseph Mallord William Turner - 1840 C.E.

- exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1840, which an excerpt from Turner's own poem title "The Fallacies of Hope" - based on a true story of an event in 1781 when slave ship, The Zong, sailed for the Americas full of slaves - slaves were insured against accidental drowning but not against sickness -- a policy instituted to force captains to treat slaves humanely - knowing that he would not collect insurance money on sick and dying slaves, the captain cast them overboard to collect insurance money - turner's painting was inspired by an account of the scandal published by Thomas Clarkson - England freed the slaves in 1833 by an act of Parliament; however, there were exceptions which were not addressed until 1843 - emotional use of color - rapid brush work - recognizable forms -- the ship, the hands, the chains -- are reduced in size and pile in comparison to the mightiest of the turbulent seascape - bloody sunset acts as a symbol of the scene taking place - use of the sublime to enhance the dramatic aspects - feeling of divine inspiration of nature and the retribution against the ship - juxtaposed against idea that this same storm will be taking the life of the slaves - nature is ambivalent to human struggle

the development of photography

- experiments in photography go back to the 17th century when artists used a device called a camera obscure to focus images in a box so that artists could render accurate copies of the scene before them - gradually, photosensitive paper was introduced that could replicate the silhouette of an object when exposed to light — called photograms —yeilded a primitive type of photography that captured outlines of objects and little else - modern photography was invented in two different places at the same time: France and England - French version was called daguerreotype after its inventor Louis Daguerre — single image that was characterized by sharp focus and clarity of detail - Englishman William Talbot invented the calotype — at first inferior in quality to Daguerreotype, less costly make and had an accompanying negative that could generate an unlimited number of copies from the original - to make a daguerreotype, the daguerreotypist would polish a sheet of silver-plated copper to a mirror finish; treat it with fumes that made its surface light-sensitive; expose it in a camera for as long as was judged to be necessary (as little as a few seconds for brightly sunlit subjects or much longer with less intense lighting) - resulting latent image on copper visible by fuming it with mercury vapor; remove its sensitivity to light by liquid chemical treatment; rinse and dry it; then seal the easily marred result behind glass in a protective enclosure - photography spread quickly and technological advances followed almost as fast - shutter speeds were made faster so that sitters could pose for pictures without blurring - cameras became more portable and user-friendly - advantages to photograph were obvious to everyone: went everywhere a person went, capturing and illustrating everything from the exotic to the commonplace

Modern Art Artistic Life and Patronage

- extremely cultivated and intellectual patrons, members of the avant-garde -- they promoted great art through their sponsorship (i.e. Gertrude Stein) - patronage of museums -- standard for great museums to hire finest architectural firms for expansion projects that turned museum buildings into a work of art - museums also commissioned sculpture and painting from contemporary artists to be showcased - not all art greeted with enthusiasm - the Armory Show of 1913 introduced modern art -- met with negative criticism by American audiences - Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and Duchamp's Fountain horrified the public - one result of WWII: abandonment of Paris as the art capital of world -- New York took over as many Europeans were fleeing Europe -- New York unafraid of experimentation - Mondrian, Duchamp, Kandinsky -- settled in NY to galvanize modern American artists in what is called the New York School -- De Kooning and Frakenthaler also in NY

Woman, I - Willem de Kooning - 1950-1952 C.E.

- ferocious woman with great fierce teeth and huge eyes - large bulls breasts are a satire on women who appear in magazines advertising - smile is a cut out of a female smile from a magazine advertisement - smile said to be influenced by an ad of a woman selling Camel cigarettes - slashing of paint onto canvas - jagged lines create an overpowering image - blank stare -- frozen grin - ambiguous environment -- vagueness, insecurity - combination of stereotypes: ironic comment on the banal and artificial world of film and advertising - one of a series of six on the woman theme - influenced by everything from Paleolithic goddesses to pin-up girls - thick and thin black lines dominate - compare with images of women: Manet's Olympia, Titian's Venus of Urbino

The Scream - Edvard Munch - 1893 C.E.

- figure walking along a wharf, boats are at sea in the distance - long thick brushstrokes swirl around composition - figure cries out in a horrifying scream — the landscape echoes his emotions - said to have been inspired by an exhibit of a Peruvian mummy in Paris - discordant colors symbolize anguish - emaciated twisting stick figure with skull-like head - prefigures Expressionist art - painted as part of a series called The Frieze of Life - Art Nouveau swirling patterns

Rococo wins...

- figures in Rococo painting are slender, often seen from the back - their light frames are clothes in shimmering fabrics worn in pastoral settings like park benches or downy meadows - gardens are rich with plant life and flowers dominate - figures walk easily through forested glens and flowery copses, contributing to a feeling of oneness with nature reminiscent of the Arcadian paintings of the Venetian Renaissance - colors are never thick or richly painted -- instead pastel hues dominated -- some artists specialized in pastel paintings that possessed an extraordinary lifelike quality -- others transferred the spontaneous brushwork and light palette of pastels to oils - rococo is more domestic than Baroque in that it is more for private rather than public display - Fête galante paintings feature the aristocracy taking long walks or listening to sentimental love songs in garden settings

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon - Pablo Picasso - 1907 C.E.

- first cubist work, influenced by late Cezanne, African masks - represents 5 prostitutes in a bordello on Avignon street in Barcelona, each posing for a customer - poses are not traditionally alluring but awkward, expressionless, and uninviting - the three on the left are more conservatively painted while the two on the right are more radical - reflects a dichotomy in Picasso - multiple views expressed at the same time - no real depth - influenced by Gauguin's "primitivism" (Western art movement that borrows visual forms from non-Western or prehistoric peoples, such as Paul Gauguin's inclusion of Tahitian motifs in paintings and ceramics) - compare with groups of figures: Velazquez, Las Meninas

Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks - Claes Oldenburg - 1969-1974 C.E

- first installed on Reinecke Plaza, New Haven, in 1969 - intended as a platform for public speakers -- rallying point for anti-Vietnam era protests - erected secretly - Tank-shaped platform base with lipstick ascending — anti-war symbolism - male and female forms unite - themes of death, power, desire, and sensuality - sculpture made of inexpensive and perishable materials (plywood tracks and an inflatable vinyl balloon tip) - later refurbished with steel, aluminum, fiberglass and reinstalled in 1974 in front of Morse College at Yale - Oldenburg's first monumental sculpture - Compare with War & Battle Commemorations: Column of Trajan and Siege of Belgrade

18th Century English Painting

- freedom of expression swept through France and England at the beginning of 18th century - expression found its fullest expression in the satires of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Voltaire's Candide - visual arts responded by painting the first overt satires, the most famous of which are by English painter Hogarth - satirical paintings were usually done in a series to help spell out a story as in Marriage à la Mode

Photo-Secession

- from 1902-1917 Alfred Stieglitz's gallery, Gallery 291, was the most progressive gallery in the United States - Gallery 291 showcased photographs as works of art beside avant-garde European paintings and modern American works - photo-secession was an early 20th century movement that promoted photography as a fine art in general and photographic pictorialism in particular - pictorialism = a style in which the photographer has somehow manipulated what would otherwise be a straight forward photograph as a means of "creating" an image rather than simply recording it

Palace of Westminister (Houses of Parliament) - Charles Barry and Augustus W.N. Pugin - 1840-1870 C.E.

- gothic revival style won out of the entires, and Barry and Pugin (interior design and stained glass) were chosen as the architects - enormous structure of 1,100 rooms, 100 staircases, 2 miles of corridors - it was a modern office building cloaked in medieval clothes - Barry, a classical architect, accounts for regularity of plan - Pugin, a Gothic architect, added gothic architectural touches to the structure which is why it looks so old - profusion of Gothic ornament is greater than would appear in an original Gothic building - Big Ben is a clock tower, in a sense a village clock for all of England - created during industrial revolution, a time when people looked around them and could not see beauty, so artists were looked past

Old Houses of Parliament

- great fire in 1834 burned down the big palace - competition held in 1835 for a new House of Parliament after the old burned down -- required either Gothic style of Elizabethan style (thought to be native English styles) - 97 entrants,, 91 submitted entries in the Perpendicular Gothich style and 6 in the Elizabethan style

The Tête à Tête, from Marriage à la Mode - William Hogarth - 1743 C.E.

- hogarth best known for prints, not painting - England -- Industrial Revolution -- widening middle class that is interested in buying art,, rise of merchant class - aristocracy interested in paintings despite losing power - middle class is now the mass consumer of art - Hogarth was intending to use paintings for Marriage à la Mode to turn into prints to sell for 1 shilling each to middle class (still considered very expensive); artist/entrepreneur - marriage à la Mode = marriage of the day or modern marriage - series was concerned with the idea of love vs. money and the rise of arranged marriages to secure financial future - the Tête à Tête is from 1 of the 6 scenes in a suite of paintings called Marriage à la Mode - these are a series of highly satiric paintings about aristocratic English society and those who would like to buy their way into it - this is an example of a narrative painting that was later turned into a series - depicts a moment shortly after the marriage and each partner has been pursuing pleasure without the other - Tête à Tête = head to head - husband has been out all night with another woman -- notice the dog sniffs suspiciously at another bonnet in the man's pocket - broken sword means he has been in a fight and probably lost -- symbol for sexual inadequacy - steward (left) indicates by his expression that she has lost a fortune on a whim - steward holds 9 unpaired bills in his hand -- one was paid by mistake - the wife has been playing cards all night: bodice undone, flirtatious look, mirror above head signaling to lover - overturned chair indicates that her billing player made a hasty retreat when the husband came home; music = pleasure/lovemaking - images of saints in paintings in the dining room beyond the couple - next to the saints is a nude foot alluding to a risqué painting - knick-knacks on mantle and painting of cupid seem gaudy in comparison to the rest of the settings - many morals to this series relating to the nature of marriage - warning to take care with craft lawyers (silvertongue) - extramarital affairs - poor parental behavior

Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building - Louis Sullivan - Chicago, Illinois - 1899-1903 C.E.

- horizontal emphasis symbolizes continuous flow of floor space - maximum window areas to admit light, also to display store wares - non supportive role of exterior - cast iron decorative elements transformed the store into a beautiful place to buy beautiful things - influence of Art Nouveau in decorative touches - Sullivan motto: "Form follows function" - exterior coated in decorative terra-cotta tiles -- original interior ornament elaborately arranged around lobby areas, hallways, elevator - some historical touches in the round entrance arches and the heavy cornice at the top of the building

House in New Castle County - Robert Venturi, John Rauch, and Denise Scott Brown - Delaware, U.S. - 1978-1983 C.E.

- house designed for a family of 3 - wife -- musician which is why there was a music room with 2 pianos, an organ and a harpsichord - husband -- birdwatcher, hence large windows facing the woods - post-modern mix of historical styles - Venturi's comment on the International Style -- "less is a bore"

Impressionism

- impressionism is a true modernists movement symbolized by the avant-grade artists who spearheaded it - relies on transient (quick and fleeting) brush strokes which seek to capture the sapling effect of light across a given surface - uses knowledge that shadows contain color, that time of day and seasons of the year affect the appearance of objects -- basic tenets of Impressionism - often work in plein-air, use spectacular color range (varying from subtle harmonies to start contrasts of brilliant hues) - concentrate on landscape and still-life painting, permeated with urban viewpoint (even with country scenes) - some. are human figure in movement or abandon figure paintings altogether (Monet) - influence of Japanese art -- artists struck by freedom that Japanese artists used to show figures from the back or solid blocks of color without gradations of hues... some imitated flatness and off-center compositional qualities of Japanese prints - impressionism originally prided itself on being anti-academic and anti-bourgeoise (today, it is the hallmark of bourgeoise taste)

Post-Impressionism

- impressionists stressed light, shading, and color - post-impressionists (painters of next generation) moved beyond light, shading and color to combine the elements with an analysis of the structure of the subject - Paul Cézanne, the quintessential Post-Impressionist, said that he wished to "make Impressionism something solid and durable, like the art of the museums" - common for post-impressionist to move toward abstraction in their work, and yet seemingly (paradoxically) retain solid forms while exploring underlying structure and preserving traditional elements such as perspective

George Washington - Jean-Antoine Houdon - 1788-1792

- in 1784 the French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) was commissioned to make a full-length marble statue of George Washington - statue was meant to present a living hero whose patriotism & leadership recalled Roman Republican civic virtue - Houdon's mastery of technique — including anatomy — came from direct experience of Roman portrait traditions - beginning in 1768 in Paris, Houdon began to produce sculpture in the prevailing academic mode — a realistic, Enlightenment-inflected, Classical style — Neoclassicism - the militaristic accoutrements exemplifying Washington's heroic battlefield exploits are balanced by elements establishing his love for the land and his status as a peace- loving civilian leader in a new republic - neoclassical stylistic elements also reinforce the political meaning of the sculpture - when the commission was awarded, Houdon insisted on studying Washington from life - he sailed with Franklin in the summer of 1785 to Washington's home, Mount Vernon - finished in Paris in 1792 - marble was a realistic image of a famous American — its appearance & iconography emphasized the new American republic's aesthetic and political debts to antiquity - in 1796 the work was installed in the Virginia State Capitol at Richmond - statue shows Washington as commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Army, wearing contemporary dress (allegedly at his request) - he holds a cane in his right hand, while his left hand rests on a fasces, a bundle of rods bound with an axe face that symbolized Roman authority - in Houdon's statue, the 13 rods allude to the 13 original states - Washington's sword is attached to the fasces and behind him one sees a plowshare, symbolic of agriculture and peace - Washington wears the badge of the Society of the Cincinnati; the Society, a fraternal order founded in 1783 by members of the Continental Army —associated itself with the 5th-century B.C.E. Roman soldier Cincinnatus, revered for having relinquished his military dictatorship to return to his farm - Cincinnatus's immediate resignation of his near-absolute authority with the end of the crisis has often been cited as an example of outstanding leadership, service to the greater good, civic virtue, lack of personal ambition, and modesty - when son was convicted and condemned to death, Cincinnatus was forced to live in humble circumstances, working on his own small farm, until an invasion caused him to be called to serve Rome as dictator, an office which he resigned two weeks later, after completing his task of defeating the rival tribes - the use of the exceptionally permanent material of marble, reliance on external support (the plowshare and the columnar fasces), the cloak draped over the fasces, and Washington's contrapposto all recall antique sculpture - the figure's serene expression derives from sculpted images of classical athletes, while its verism relates it to Roman portraiture - overall, the work radiates the high moral purpose of a Roman senatorial portrait, translated to the time of its creation by the choice of contemporary dress and often associated with civic virtue - Houdon's choice of contemporary dress was, at the time, a subject of debate — whether a portrait should be timeless by not being clad in current dress or be dressed in current fashion to situate it within its historical context - military associations minimized: epaulettes (ornamental shoulder piece) on shoulder and sword cast to side - naturalistic details: missing button on jacket; tightly buttoned bested around protruding stomach - washington seen as a man of vision and enlightenment - stance mimics that of the contraposto seen in Polykleitos' Doryphoros - Houdon captured not only what George Washington looked like, but more importantly, who Washington was, both as a soldier and as a private citizen

Expressionism

- inspired by Fauve movement - group of German artists in Dresden gathered around Kirchner and formed Die Brüke, The Bridge, in 1905 -- saw themselves as a bridge from traditional to modern painting - emphasized the same Fauve ideals expressed in violent juxtaposition of color, which purposefully roused the ire of critics and public - second Expressionists called Der Blaue Reiter, The Blue Rider, formed in Munich, Germany in 1911 - group named because of an affection the founders had for horses and the color blue - expressionists came to forsake representational art and move toward abstraction - highly intellectual, and filled with theories of artistic representation... artists (i.e. Kandinsky) saw abstraction as a way of conceiving the natural work in terms that went beyond representation - Kandinsky's theories were best expressed in his essay, Concerning the Spiritual in Art... outlined theories on color and form for the modern movement

Realism Characteristics

- inspired by the positivism movement, Realists believe in paintings that one can experience with the 5 senses - this often translated into paintings of the lower classes in their environment - peasants are usually depicted with reverence -- daily lives touched with basic honesty and sincerity, which was thought missing from middle and upper class - peasants are often shown as one with the earth and the landscape - brown and ochre are the dominant hues

Surrealism

- inspired by the psychological studies of Freud and Jung - surrealists sought to represent unseen world of dreams, subconscious thoughts, and unspoken communications surrealism went in 2 directions: 1. abstract tradition of biomorphic (models artistic design elements on naturally occurring patterns or shapes reminiscent of nature and living organisms) and suggestive forms 2. the veristic tradition of using reality-based subjects put together in unusual ways - those seeking to understand the world of Surrealism by looking at the title will find themselves even more confused - meant to puzzle, challenge, and fascinate - sources: mysticism, psychology, and symbolism - not meant to be clearly understood and didactic (intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive) - started with theories of Andre Breton in 1924

Lithography

- invention of lithography in 1789 - a lithography is a print made by drawing on limestone with crayons, applying ink onto the stone and printing the image onto paper - romantic artists saw potential - late 19th century artists (esp. politically inclined) used lithography to critique society's ills (Daumier) or mass produce posters (Toulouse-Lautrec)

Spiral Jetty - Robert Smithson - Great Salt Lake, Utah - 1970

- jetty = a landing stage or a small pier in the water where boats can be moored - coil of rock in a part of the Great Salt Lake -- located in an extremely remote & inaccessible area that features abandoned mines and mining equipment - upon walking on the jetty, the twisting and curling path changes the participant's view from every angle - artist used tractor with native stone to create the jetty - jetty is not a pier, rather is transformed into a curl of rocks sitting silently in a vast empty wilderness - coil is like an image seen in North American Native earthworks (Serpent Mount, Ohio) - Smithson liked the blood red color of the water due to the presence of bacteria that live in the high salt content - compare with other Spiral & Circular Constructions (Stonehenge and Great Serpent Mound)

Rococo Paintings

- just as in architecture, Rococo paintings shun straight lines, even in the frames of paintings -- it is typical to have curved frames with delicate rounded forms in which the limbs of several of the figures spill over the sides so that the viewer is hard-pressed to determine what is painted and what is sculpted - rococo art is frangantly erotic and sensual in its appeal to the viewer -- the curvilinear characteristics of Rococo paintings enhance their seductiveness -- unlike the sensual paintings of the Venetian Renaissance, these paintings tease the imagination by presenting playful scenes of love and romance with overt sexual overtones - although the French are most noted for Rococo, there are also active centers in England, central Europe, and Venice

The Two Fridas - Frida Kahlo- 1939 C.E.

- juxtaposition of two self-portraits - left -- Kahlo dressed as a Spanish lady in a white dress - right -- Kahlo dressed as a Mexican peasant -- the stiffness and provincial quality of Mexican folk art serves as a direct inspiration for the artist - her 2 hearts are twined together by veins that are cut by scissors at one end and lead to a portrait of her husband, Artist Diego Rivera, at the other - painted at the time of their divorce - "I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality." - Frida Kahlo - barren landscape, 2 figures sit against a wildly active sky - Kahlo rejected the label of Surrealism to her artwork - the vein acts as an umbilical cord, symbolically associated Rivera as a husband and son - blood on her lap suggests many abortions and miscarriages, also her surgeries related to her polio - Frida suffered a serious car accident at age 18 that left her bed ridden for some time -- endured continuous pain through her life and died at 47 - there was a gap between reality and the mythical beings Kahlo invented to make her life bearable - by transferring her pain to a representative (2nd Frida), she was able to face the pain and drive it away

The Kiss - Gustav Klimt - 1907-1908 C.E.

- little of the human form is actually seen -- two heads, four hands, two feet - the bodies are suggested under a sea of richly designed patterning - male figure has large rectangular boxes while female figure has circular forms - suggests all-consuming love, passion, and eroticism - spaced in an indeterminate location against a flattened background - gold leaf reminiscent of Byzantine mosaics - compare — Theme: Couples... Sarcophagus of the Spouses and Arnolfini Portrait

Mexican Muralists

- major revival of Mexican art took place in the 1920s-1930s by artists whose training was in the old tradition of fresco painting - using large murals that all could see and appreciate, the Mexican Muralists usually promoted a political or social message - these didactic paintings have an unmistakable meaning rendered in an easy-to-read format - themes generally promote the labor and struggle of the working class—usually have a socialist agenda

Late 19th century Artistic Life

- many artists wanted to be exhibited at the Salon of Paris, but found them stiflingly conservative -- artists went elsewhere - Corbet and Manet rejected the Salon -- set up oppositional showcases and achieved fame due to antiestablishment (impressionist exhibitions of the 1870s and 1880s) - emergence of art galleries -- more comfortable than crowded salon - persona of the struggling and misunderstood artist (i.e. Cézanne, Gaugin, van Gogh) -- fighting conventional family plans, seeking bohemian lifestyle, works for years without recognition, exploited stereotype of artist as rebel

Early & Mid-20th Century Architecture

- marked by complete embrace of technological advances - Ferroconcrete construction (esp. in Europe) allowed for new designs employing skeleton frameworks and glass walls - the cantilever helped push building elements beyond the solid structure of the skeletal framework - in general, architects avoided historical associations -- few columns and fewer flying buttresses - architects preferred clean sleek lines that stressed the building's underlying structure and emphasized the impact of the machine and technology

Improvisation 28 - Vassily Kandinsky - 1912 C.E.

- movement toward abstraction -- representational objects suggested rather than depicted - title derived from musical compositions - strongly articulated use of black lines - colors seem to shad around line forms - felt that sound and color were linked - gave musical titles to his works like "composition" and "improvisation" - Kandinsky wanted the viewer to respond to a painting the way one would an abstract musical composition like concerto, sonata, or symphony - synesthesia = the idea that you can see music - influenced by Schoenberg -- atonal music (lacks harmony, melody, and a tonal center) - 2 years before WWI -- chaotic moment - not "purely" abstract -- meaning you could recognize some elements of the natural world (church, horse, etc.) - colors used to create sense of rhythm

Late 19th century Architecture

- movement toward skeletal architecture increased - architects and engineers worked in the direction of a curtain wall (a building that is held up by an interior framework, called a skeleton) — exterior wall was a "curtain" made of glass or steel that keeps out the weather - emphasis on vertical due to land values — response is to build up - use of tall pilasters and setting back windows behind - architects considered buildings art and covered them in traditional terra-cotta or ironwork - greatest advances in architecture made by Chicago School — formed shortly after Great Fire burned much of the city to the ground in 1871 - "Great Fire" exploited faults of building downtown structures from wood, weakness of iron (melts and bends) - survived "Great Fire" — building ceramic (esp. steel/iron wrapped in terra-cotta casing) .... became mainstay of Chicago buildings in late 19th C. (i.e. Carson Pirie Scott) - buildings demanded open & wide spaces for light & air, and room for windows displays for passing traffic - Chicago window was developed with a central immobile windowpane flanked by two smaller double-hung windows that opened for ventilation - most important development in history of early modern architecture is the invention of the elevator by Elisha Otis — made buildings capable of indefinite height

Oath of the Horatii - Jacques-Louis David - 1784

- neoclassical - it depicts three men, brothers, saluting toward three swords held up by their father as the women behind him grieve - story of 3 roman brothers (the Horatii) who do battle with 3 other brothers from a nearby city - based on the Roman legend involving a conflict between the Romans and a rival group from nearby Alba - rather than continue a full-scale war, they elect representative combatants to settle their dispute - the romans select the Horatii and the albany choose another trio of brothers, the Curiatii - in the painting we witness the Horatii taking an oath to defend Rome -- when the elder, Horatius, gathers his sons in their family home and makes them swear to conquer or die - one of the three women on the right is a Horatii engaged to one of the Curiatii brothers, who is killed -- she is upset by her fiancé's death, so her brother kill's her for her disloyalty when he returns - another woman is the sister of the Curiatii brothers - the women know that they will also bear the consequences of the battle because the two families are united by marriage - forms are vigorous, powerful, animated, emphatic - figures are pushed to the foreground - neoclassical drapery and tripartite composition - not Neoclassical in its Caravaggio-like lighting and un-Roman architectural capitals - painted under royal patronage — Louis XVI - painted in Rome, exhibited at the salon of 1785 — 4 years before French Revolution - created a sensation at the Salon — physicality and intense emotion of the painting was new and undeniable - very geometric and rational which reflects the ideals of the Neoclassical

A Philosopher Giving a Lecture on the Orrery - Joseph Wright of Derby - 1763-1765 C.E.

- neoclassical - orrery = a mechanical model of the solar system that illustrates or predicts the relative positions and motions of the planets and moons, usually according to the heliocentric model - early form of planetarium, imitating the motion of the solar system - multiple figures -- mixed group of middle class people in attendance representing all ages - two young boys, gazing over the edge of the contraption in playful wonder - teen girl with arms resting on the machine, in quiet contemplation - young man shielding his eyes from the brilliance of the light emanating from the center - young woman staring unblinkingly at left - another man is standing and taking copious notes on the proceedings - another man leaning back in his seat, listening to the gray-haired lecturer, captivating his audience like a magician - range of reactions of the viewers -- curious, contemplative, wonder, fascination - illustrates a key idea of the Age of Enlightenment -- empirical observation grounded in science and reason can best advance society - painting was influenced by the meetings of the provincial group of intellectuals called the Lunar Society -- met 1x per month to discuss current scientific discoveries and developments - there is a lamp in the center that is out of view -- simulates the sun - philosopher is based loosely on a portrait of Isaac Newton; he is demonstrating an eclipse - the philosopher stops to clarify a point to the note-taker on the left - to complete the celestial theme, each face in the painting is an aspect of the phases of the moon - this is one of a series of candlelight pictures by Wright; inspired by Caravaggio's use of tenebrism

Mont Sainte-Victoire - Paul Cézanne - 1902-1904 C.E.

- one of eleven canvases of this view - series paintings dominate Cézanne's mature period - had contempt for flat painting -- wanted rounded and firm objects, but ones that were geometric constructions made from spaces of undiluted color - used perspective through juxtaposing forward warm colors with receding cool colors - landscape rarely contains humans - not the countryside of Impressionism, more interested in geometric forms rather than dappled effects of light - not a momentary glimpse of atmosphere as in the Impressionists, but a solid and firmly constructed mountain and foreground - landscape seen from an elevation - invited to look at space but not enter

Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow - Piet Mondrian - 1930 C.E.

- only primary colors used -- red, yellow, blue and the neutrals (white and black) - severe geometry of form, only right angles -- grid-like forms - no shading of colors - asymmetrical composition

The Bay - Helen Frankenthaler - 1963 C.E.

- painted directly on unprimed canvas -- canvas absorbs paint more directly - uses a runny paint, sometimes thinned with turpentine - uses landscape as a starting point -- basis for imagery in the works - accentuates the 2-dimentionality of the canvas - worked in the avant-garde New York School at mid-century - compare with nature theme: Breughel's Hunters in the Snow

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? - Paul Gauguin - 1897-1898 C.E.

- painted during his second stay in Tahiti between 1895-1901 - Gauguin suffered from poor health and poverty -- obsessed by thoughts of death - he learned of the death of daughter, Aline, in April 1897... deeply shaken... determined to commit suicide and have this painting be his artistic last will and testament - story of life, read right to left - right -- birth, infant and three adults - center -- mid-life, picking of the fruit of the world - left -- death (a figure derived from a Peruvian mummy exhibited in Paris) - Blue Idol represents "The Beyond" - figures in foreground represent Tahiti and an Eden-like paradise - background figures are anguished darkened figures - a rejection of Greco-Roman influence - many non-traditional influences -- Egyptian figures used for inspiration, Japanese prints in the solid fields of color and unusual angles, and Tahitian Imagery in the Polynesian idol - Gauguin thought of the painting as a summation of his artistic and personal expression - compare: Europe encounters with the world (i.e. Codex Mendoza, Spanish and Indian Produce a Mestizo)

The Horse in Motion - Eadweard Muybridge - 1878

- photography now advanced enough that it can capture moments the human eye cannot - cameras snap photos at evenly spaced points along a track, giving the effect of things happening in sequence - these motion studies bridge the gap between still photography and movies - used a device called a zoopraxiscope - great influence on painters -- idea of multiple i,ages (China's Terra-Cotta, Warhol's Marilyn Monroe) - first film

Postmodern Architecture

- postmodern architecture emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s - postmodern architects see the achievements of the International Style as cold and removed from the needs of modern cities with their cosmopolitan populations - incorporate ornament, traditional architectural expressions and references to past styles in a modern context

Disasters of War series

- published in 1863 -- 35 years after Goya's death - art work was critical of French occupation of Spain and subsequent Spanish rulers - influence was Spain's continuous warfare - original title of series: "Fatal Consequences of Spain's Bloody War with Bonaparte and other Emphatic Caprices" - series explored themes of war, famine, and politics - first group of prints shows the sobering consequences of conflict between French troops and Spanish civilians - second group documents the effects of a famine that hit Spain in 1811-1812, at the end of French rule - final set of pictures depicts the disappointment and demoralization of the Spanish rebels -- after finally defeating the French, they found that their reinstated monarchy would not accept any political reforms - although they had expelled Bonaparte, the throne of Spain was still occupied by a tyrant -- this time, they had fought to put him there

Fountain - Marcel Duchamp - 1917 (original), 1950 (second version)

- ready-made sculpture, actually a found object (porcelain urinal) that Duchamp deemed to be a work of art - readymades, such as Fountain, challenged the importance of the artist's hand in creating a work of art, but still reinforced the artist's creative authority - entered in an unjuried show (the Society of Independent Artists in 1917) - the work was refused by the committee, even though the rules stated that all works would be accepted from artists who paid the fee - signed by the "artist" R. Mutt... a pun on the Mutt and Jeff comic strip and Mott Iron Works - Duchamp's art encourages us to think about art more as a philosophical question than a physical object on display in a museum

Art Movements

- realism -- 1848-1860s - impressionism -- 1872-1880s - post-impressionism -- 1880s-1890s - symbolism -- 1890s - art nouveau -- 1890s-1914

Romanticism Historical Backgorund

- revolutionary spirit of casting off oppressors and installing "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" created a dynamic for freedom all over Europe and in North and South America - French Revolution (though well intentioned) devolved into the chaos of the Reign of Terror and eventually the Napoleonic Wars - philosophical powers that were unleashed by these revolutionary impulses had long term positive effects on European life, which are embodied in the Romantic spirit - romantics supported social independence, freedom of individual thought, and the ability to express oneself openly - this was manifested not only in the political battles of the day, but also in society changes in general education, social welfare, and a newfound expression in the arts - as a reaction against the Enlightenment, Romantics would argue that you should trust your heart, not your head... your imagination, not your logic

1848 - Busy Year

- revolutions challenging aristocracies with democracies in Europe: Sicily, Venice, Germany, Austria, Lombardy - France -- Louis-Philippe (Citizen King) is victor of Revolution of 1830, but under pressure from public, he removes himself from office and Napoleon III replaced him (who causes Franco-Prussian war of 1870 with his belligerency) - while all others are in turmoil, Germany rises to the top as masters of the continent - social concept -- positivism -- all knowledge may come from proven ideas based on science or scientific theory's -- states that only tested concepts can be taken as truths - this influences Charles Darwin (human evolution) and Karl Marx (human equality) -- shook up traditional thinking - new inventions: telephone, motion pictures, bicycles and automobiles -- caused communication to open up in the world - scientific archaeology begins with excavation in Greece, Turkey, and Egypt

Rubenists vs. Poussinists

- rococo painting is the triumph of the Rubenists and Poussinists - in 1671 an argument broke out in the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpting in Paris about whether drawing or color was more important in painting - on one side stood Poussinists, named after the painter Nicolas Poussin, who believed that drawing was the most important thing - on the other side were the Rubenists, named after Peter Paul Rubens, who prioritized color - there was a strong nationalistic pride to the debate as Poussin was French but Rubens was Flemish (neither was alive at the time) - after over 40 years the final resolutions of the matter in favor of the Rubenists was signaled when Antoine Watteau's The Embarkation for Cythera was accepted as his reception piece by the French Academy in 1717 -- by that time the French Rococo was in full swing

Romanticism Summary

- romanticism inspired artists to move beyond former boundaries and express themselves as individuals - romantic artists introduce new subjects such as grand political canvases, the world of the unconscious, and the awesome grandeur of nature - romantics were influenced by invention of photography which was used as a tool for preserving things like a model's pose or a mountain landscape - photography was immediate and realistic and made a sensation from its creation — the art form spread quickly among all classes of people - rarly 19th century architects suck to revive former artistic styles and placed them on modern buildings - common to see an office building wrapped in a Gothic façade - this yearning for the past is a reaction against the mechanization of the industrial revolution and the way of life that seemed to have permanently passed

Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure) - Meret Oppenheim - 1936 C.E.

- said to have been done in response to Picasso's claim that anything looks good in fur - combination of unlike objects -- fur covered teacup, saucer, and spoon - erotic overtones -- turning cool, smooth ceramic and metal into something warm and bristly -- fetishistic qualities of the fur-lined set as the fur imbues these functional, hand-held objects with sexual connotations - assemblage = a work of art made by grouping found or unrelated objects - combined traditionally female and genteel objects vs. masculinity of sculpture dome in hard surfaces in great scale and made vertically - chosen by visitors of a Surrealist show in New York as the quintessential Surrealist work of art - fame came to Oppenheim young -- 22 when she made the work, which inhibited her growth as an artist

Central Lobby (Palace of Westminster)

- saturated between the House of Commons and the House of Lords - meant to be a space where constituents can meet their members of Parliament - metal grills on doorways were originally in the House of Commons and marked off the spots where women could be seated to watch the parliament - now they are symbols of the suffrage movement - central octagonal space with statures of the Kings and Queens of England and Scotland - 4 large mosaics over each doorway represent the 4 saints who represent different areas of the UK: England = St. George... Scotland = St. Andrew... Wales = St. David... Northern Ireland - St. Patrick

Late 19th century sculpture

- sculpture, symbolized by Rodin, visibly represented imprint of the artist's hand on a given work - most work molded first in clay, then later cast in bronze or cut in marble, usually by a workshop - sculptor then put finishing touches on a work he/ she conceived, but never executed - physical imprint of the hand is analogous to the visible brushstroke in Impressionist painting - revival of sculpture — modeled in clay giving a very tactile quality to work

Abstract Expressionism

- sometimes called The New York School - Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s is the first American avant-garde art movement - developed in reaction to artists like Mondrian who took Minimalist approach to abstraction - Abstract Expressionists seek a more active representation of the hand of the artist on a given work - action painting is a big component of Abstract - Expressionism — technique and style of abstract painting in which paint is randomly splashed, thrown, or poured on the canvas, made famous by Jackson Pollock

Still Life in Studio - Louis-Jacques Mandé Daguerre- 1837 C.E.

- still life inspired by painted still lifes, like vanitas paintings - variety of textures: fabric, wicker, plaster, framed print, metal, wood, etc. - earliest reliably dated daguerreotype - daguerreotypes have a shiny surface with great detail

Goldfish - Henri Matisse - 1912 C.E.

- still life painting - violent contrasts of color - thinly applied colors -- white of canvas shows through - energetic painterly brushwork - "painterly" = characterized by brushwork, color and texture... not line - may have been influenced by the decorative qualities of Asian Art - broad patches of color anticipate Color-Field painting in the later part of century

Neoclassical Painting

- stories from the great epics of antiquity spoke meaningfully to 18th century painters - mythology or biblical scenes were painted with a modern context in mind - retelling of the story of Horacio would be a dry academic exercise without added lesson of self-sacrifice for the greater good - paintings with implications of values were called exemplifies virtutis - even paintings that did not have mythological references had subtext inviting the viewer to take a measure of a person, a situation, or a state of affairs - compositions in Neoclassical paintings were symmetrical with linear perspective leading the eye into a carefully constructed background - most exemplary works were marked by invisible brushwork and clarity of detail

The Stone Breakers - Gustave Courbet - 1849 C.E.

- submitted to the Salon in 1850-1851 - breaking stones down to rubble to be used for pavement - poverty emphasized - figures were born poor, will remain poor their whole lives - reaction to the labor unrest of 1848: demanding better working conditions - large size of painting usually reserved for grand historical paintings (65" x 101"): elevating commonplace into the realm of legend and history - It was destroyed during World War II, along with 154 other pictures, when a transport vehicle moving the pictures to the castle of Königstein, near Dresden, was bombed by Allied forces in February 1945 - Courbet's comments on the painting: "I stopped to consider two men breaking stones on the highway. It's rare to meet the most complete expression of poverty, so an idea of a picture came to me on the spot. I made an appointment with them at my studio for the next day...On the one side is an old man, seventy...On the other side is a young fellow...in his filthy tattered shirt. Alas, in labor such as this, one's life begins that way, and it ends the same way."

The Kiss - Constantin Brancusi - 1907-1908

- symbolic, almost cubist, rendering of the male and female bodies - intertwined and enveloped figures - two eyes become one, almost cyclops like - interlocked forms - Brancusi worked in Rodin's studio, where Rodin created "The Kiss" - pictured is the 4th stone version of this subject, done as a commission - 1st version was one of Brancusi's earliest efforts at stone carving (located in Romania) - 2nd version of The Kiss (a plaster cast) exhibited at the Armory Show - 3rd version used as a tombstone in Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris over the body of a suicide victim -- a young Russian anarchist - a friend of the deceased asked for something to mark her grave, Brancusi said take what you want, and thus the third version was taken

Symbolism

- symbolism is a reaction against the literal world of Realism - symbolist artists felt that the unseen forces of life (things that are deeply felt rather than merely seen) were the guiding forces of painting - embraced a mystical philosophy in which dreams and inner experiences of artist's life became the source of inspiration - symbolists vary greatly in their painting styles — from flat primitive quality of a work by Rousseau to the expressionist swirls of Munch's art

Romanticism patronage and artistic life

- the Romantic artist was a troubled genius, deeply affected by all around them... temperamental, critical, always exhausted - romantic artists sought pleasure in the things of greatest refinement, or adventures of the audacious daring... romantics were a product of the extremeness of human endeavor - Turner, for example, liked to be tied to the deck of a ship in a storm so that he could bring a great sense of the sublime to his paintings - sublime = excellence, grandeur and beauty that inspire awe - stereotypically, romantic artists were loners who fought for important causes - romantics enjoyed a state of melancholy (gloomy, depressed, and pensive mindset) that is soberly thoughtful - romantics also championed the antihero, a protagonist who does not have the typical characteristics of a hero, often shunning society and rarely speaking, but capable of great heroic deeds - greatest artistic invention of the period was the development of photography - since photography was a new art form, there were no academies, salons, or school from which to learn the craft - mechanical nature of the camera prejudiced the public against viewing photographs as a work of art - anyone with a camera and a how-to book could open a photo shop - because of photography's universality and lack of preconceived notions about the ability to create great art with photography, marginalized populations (incl. women) easily entered the field - photography represents the first instance of equal opportunity in the arts because of the advances made by marginalized groups

Industrial Revolution

- the late eighteenth century was the age of the Industrial Revolution - populated boomed as mass-production, technological innovation, and medical science marched relentlessly forward - the improvement in the quality of life that the Industrial Revolution yielded were often offset by a new slavery to the mechanized work and inhumane working conditions

Zong Massacre of 1781

- the slave ship Zong departed the coast of Africa on september 6th, 1781 with 470 slaves onboard - human chattel -- valuable commodity at that time - many captains took on more slaves than their ships could accommodate in order to maximize profits - the Zong's captain overloaded the ship with slaves and by november 29th many of them had begun to die from disease and malnutrition - captain decided to "jettison" some of the "cargo" in order to save the ship and provide the ship owners the opportunity to claim for the loss on their insurance -- a legal battle ensued

Memorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht - Käthe Kollwitz - 1919-1920 C.E.

- themes of war and poverty dominate her oeuvre (collection of artistic work) - theme of women grieving over dead children-- her son died in WWI, then she became a socialist - Karl Liebknecht was among the founders of the Berlin Spartacus League, which became the German Communist Party - in 1919 Liebknecht was shot to death during a communist uprising in Berlin, called the Spartacus Revolt - no political reference in the woodcut - though it memorializes the man, it does so without advocating for his ideology - space is compressed due to all the mourners packed in -- impression of multitudes coming to pay respect - human grief dominates - stark black and white of woodcut used to magnify the grief - Kollwitz had heard Liebknecht speak and admired his charisma -- family asked her to create a work to memorialize him and she agreed - Käthe Kollwitz worked almost exclusively in this medium and became known for her prints that celebrated the plight of the working-class

The Starry Night - Vincent Van Gogh - 1889 C.E.

- thick, short brushstrokes - mountains in the distance that Van Gogh could see at his hospital asylum room in St. Remy -- steepness exaggerated - aftermath of his December 1888 breakdown that resulted in the self-mutilation of his left ear - composite landscape -- Dutch church, crescent moon, Mediterranean cypress tree - at one with the forces of nature - Landscape painting -- compare with Cole's Oxbow - parts of the canvas can be seen through the brushwork -- artist need not fill in every space of the composition - strong left-to-right wavelike impulse in the work, broken only by the tree and church steeple - tree looks like green flames reaching into the sky exploding the stars over a placid village - cypress tree is a traditional symbol of death and eternal life

Perpendicular Gothic

- very strong vertical lines - very large windows with elaborate tracery - fan vaulting (picture) - hammerbeam roofs

Thomas Jefferson

- wanted to be known for: author of the Declaration of American Independence and the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom -- father of the University of Virginia - Governor of Virginia - American minister to France - first Secretary of State - 3rd president of the United States - one of the most accomplished gentlemen architects in American history

Westminister Hall (Palace of Westminister)

- when the old Houses of Parliament were burned to the ground, this was reminiscent of the vestige of the medieval parliament building - hammerbeam roof

Happenings

- word "happening" was coined by the late 1950s to describe an act of performance art that is initially planned but involves spontaneity, improvisation, and often audience participation - Happenings continue today in various forms -- Flash Mobs, Improvisational Theatre, and Performance Art

avant-garde

ahead of the times, especially in the arts