ar103 final
vermeer woman holding a balance 17th century washington dc baroque in northern europe
-she's wearing very fine clothing indicating that she is from upper class society (wearing a typical hat and fur trimmed coat) -she stands infront of a table, on the wall opposite her is a window letting in a tiny bit of light and a mirror -its as if she's waiting for the balance to rest -on the table before her there is a number of boxes; one is open which would have held the balance and weight and the other are strings of pearls and coins -perhaps she's weighing the valuables -behind the woman's head there is a painting with christ portraying the last judgement -her head divides the blessed from the dammed in the picture -the light comes in illuminating her face allowing the artist to create the motion of the woman waiting for the balance to come to alignment -idea of time and change but the painting seems frozen and quiet -center of the painting is the balance -way the color is handled--> gold of the curtain picked up by the two bars of the frame on the right side and by the gold on her pearls and dress -during a time artists were painting for merchants as opposed to the church -sense of intimacy and perhaps need to balance wealth and spirituality -symbolizes she has worldly possessions on the table but behind her the image of christ at the last judgement there is the idea of weighing or judging -mirror can mean she is attending to the physical world, as symbols of vanity to the worldly possessions on the table infront of her
cezanne basket of apples 19th century chicago
-still life was the least important subject; it only flourished in the netherlands for a brief period of time -image looks simple--> a wine bottle, a basket tipped up to expose a bounty of fruit inside, a plate of stacked cookies or small rolls, and a table cloth both gathered and draped -if you look closely you begin to notice the odd and purposeful errors -table seems to be too steeply tipped at the left, so much that the fruit is in danger of rolling off it -the bottle looks tipsy and the cookies are very odd; they are stacked below the top layer as if they are viewed from the side and at the same time the two at the top seem to pop upward as if we were looking down at them -cezanne was prompted to rethink the value of various illusionistic techniques that he had inherited from the renaissance and baroque eras -his perspective seems jumbled; it appears as if he was unable to draw but he was actually drawing according to a new set of rules -since early renaissance, constructing the illusion of space required the artist remain frozen in a single point in space to maintain consistent recession among all receding orthogonal but cezanne did not agree that this was a full description of the experience of human sight -concern with representing the true experience of sight; human vision is less like the frozen vision of a camera and more like a video camera -objects have lost something of their individual character as bottles and fruit and have almost become cylinders and spheres -he explored his arrangements from different viewpoints to understand three dimensionality and convey the placement of forms relative to the space around them -interest in the study of volume and solidity is apparent from the disjunctures in the painting -captured the solidity of each object by juxtaposing color patches
remembrandt van rijn self portrait 17th century london baroque in northern europe
-carried over the spiritual quality of his religious works into his later portraits in which what could be called the psychology of light -light and dark are not conflicted; they are reconciled producing the visual equivalent of quietness -mood is one of tranquil meditation, philosophical resignation, of musing recollection -the light source on the upper left of the painting bathes the painter's face in soft highlights, leaving the lower part of his body in shadow -he depicted himself as having dignity and strength -serves as a summary of the many stylistic and professional concerns that occupied him throughout his career -distinctive use of light is evident as is the assertive brushwork suggesting his confidence and self assurance -presents himself as a working artist holding his brushes, palette and maulstick and wearing his smock and painters turban -circles on the wall behind him may allude to a legendary sign of artistic virtuosity-the ability to draw a perfect circle freehand -abiding interest in revealing the human soul emerges here in his careful focus on his expressive visage -his controlled use of light and the nonspecific setting contribute to this focus
delacroix liberty leading the people 19th century paris
-delacriox takes on a contemporary subject--> revolution in paris that ousted king charles x and reinstalled king louis philippe on the throne -seeing fighting on the streets of paris and cathedtral of notre dame in the background (symbol of monarchy) -delacroix shows us the tricolor flag of the revolutionaries -liberty is an allegorical figure and symbol of the idea that led the revolutionaries who gave up their lives to oust a conservative monarch -woman is a personification of the idea of liberty and freedom -her visible breasts are a reference to the birthy of democracy and the roman republic -liberty strides to climb over the barricade and trespass the barrier and continue to fight more agrssively for these ideals -foreground there is a man wearing a pistol in his waste and a shirt with no jacket--> from lower class but he expresses his revolutionary sympathies -all classes of people are coming together because the figure to the right of the worker is more nicely dressed with a top hat, a jacket, vest and hunting rifle -the figures on the foreground are dead or wounded and he puts forward the violecne in an unidealized way; scene is of chaos and energy -loose brushwork, brilliant colors that stand out in contrast to the muted colors that were traditional; sense of openness of contours, looseness of the handling of the paint, contingency of each figure
west the death of general wolfe 18th century canada
-departed from conventions in 2 regards--> 1. depicted a contemporary event from the seven years war; generally history paitning were reserved from stories from the bible or from the classical past 2. painted the figures in modern costumes -created a dramatic composition from the theatrical clouds to the messenger approaching on the left side of the painting to announce british victory -gave viewers a unique view of the north american scene which was achieved through landscape and architecture; st lawrence river appears on the right and the steeple represents the cathedral in the city of quebec -he also depicts a tattooed native american on the left side; his pose situates the event as from the new world -west potrayed the painting of wolfe as christ like influenced by images of the dead christ -deliberate association between the dying general wolfe and the dead christ underscores the british officer's admirable qualities -like christ, wolfe is innocent and died for a worthwile cause --> advancement of british position in north america -depicted the mortally wounded young english commander just after his defeat of the French in the battle of Quebec in 1759 during the french and indian war , which gave canada to great britain -west clothed his characters in contemporary costumes and included a rare glimpse for his english audience of a native american warrior, depicted as an exemplary noble savage -west blended the this realism of detail with the tradition of history painting by arranging his figures in a complex and theoretically ordered composition -his modern hero dies among grieving officers on the field of victorious battle in a way that suggests the death of a saint -west wanted to present this hero's death in the service of the state as a martyrdom charged with religious emotions -his innovative and highly effective combination of the conventions of traditional heroic painting with a look of modern realism influenced history painting well into the 19th century
thomas jefferson monticello, charlottesville, VA 18th century
-jefferson led the movement to adopt neoclassicism as the architectural style of the united states -admired palladio immensely and read carefully the italian architect's four books of architecture -later while minister to france he studied the 18th century french classical architecture and city planning and visited the maison caree, an ancient roman temple at times -after his european sojourn he decided to remodel monticello -the final version is somewhat reminiscent of palladios villa rotunda and of chiswick house but its materials are local wood and brick used in virginia -single story home with an octagonal dome set above the central drawing room -its behind a pediment capped columnar porch that sits on a wooded plot of land with mountain vistas all around -monticello means little mountain in italian
friedrich wanderer above the sea of fog 19th century germany
-man has its back facing towards the viewer so his identity is hidden and we cannot see his face or emotions that hes conveying -the diagnol lines in the mountains in the distance and the fog itself swirling around points us towards the man -hes probably looking with amazement and his hand is in his pocket an his stance indicates that he's studying the landscape fully engaged with what he is seeing -intentionally concealed the man's face to compel the audience to look at life and nature from his own perspective -stresses the solitude nature can be associated with a physical and spiritual fulfillment -understanding nature can lead to enlightenment -man looks as if he is on top of the world but if you look clasely he is just a tine speck; there is a farm in the distance and tall mounatins -he is inferior to nature -man is clearly from an upper class in the city indicates that in nature social class no longer matters, its simply man in nature -some think the man is not an anonymous hiker but a prussian war hero contemplating the scenery of his native land -The costume the figure wears was worn by students and others during Germany's Wars of Liberation; by the time of this painting, the clothing was forbidden by Germany's new ruling government. By deliberately depicting the figure in this outfit, he made a visual, albeit understated, stand against the current government
wood american gothic chicago 20th century
-represents america and middle america and small town america -wood said this was a father and daughter but he modeled them after his dentist and sister -has many readings as we have idea about what our country is; depends on which side of the political spectrum you're in -city person--> you think he's mocking people who live in the midwest -midwestern-->you think he's one of them and captured who they are -easterners looked at these iowans represented and said thats what they look like and the iowans look at this worried they were being mocked -farmer and his daughter standing before their simple farm house -sense of hard working practical people, kind of conservative america -everything in the painting seems homemade; carpenter gothic house, the apron she wears, his overalls -this is 1930 and the US is very industrial; this is an archaic image -confrontation with these figures; they stand right up in front of us and we don't know what he's going to say but his face is about to change and its either going to be a smile or something stern -he is hard to read -she looks off at something we can't see outside of the painting -ambiguity throughout the painting and this is why it is so powerful because americans can see it in what they want -wood grew up on a farm in aiwa with his family and he was very isolated; he didnt fit in with his family since he was more artistic than masculine compared to his brothers and father -spent time in paris and munich so he want quite as american as our idea of him -turning lessons of european traditions on his own people on the american landscape and psyche -can see influence of northern renaissance in the detailed features of the mans face but the rest of the painting has a sense of geometry seen in the trees -both real and symbolic -prosperous moment of the US before the stock market crash; political situation--> in europe the fascists were beginning to take power -historians see a sense of anti-internationlism
munch the scream 19th century norway
-symbol of the unbearable pressures of modern life on individual people -image of a man standing on a bridge belongs to the real world -inspiration for the painting came after munch had experienced a fit of anxiety after walking, intoxicated, across an oslo bridge on a summer evening -his depiction of the scene departs from visual reality -evokes a powerful emotional response from the viewer because of the painter's dramatic presentation -the man in the foreground, simplified to almost skeletal form, emits a primal scream -the landscape's sweeping curvilinear lines reiterate the shapes of the man's mouth and head, almost like an echo as the cry seems to reverberate through the setting -the fiery red and yellow stripes give the sky and eerie glow and contribute to the work's resonance -figure has a skull shaped head, elongated hands, wide eyes, flaring nostrils, and an ovoid mouth -swirling blue landscape and fiery orange and yellow sky -composed of 3 main areas: 1. the bridge; extends at a steep angle from the middle distance at the left to fill the foreground 2. the landscape of shoreline or lake and hills 3. the sky; curving lines with tones of yellow, orange, red and blue-green -human figures are separated from this landscape by the bridge; its linearity provides a contrast with the shapes of the landscape and the sky -the 2 faceless figures in the background belong to the geometric precision of the bridge while the lines of the foreground figure take up the curving shapes that dominate the background landscape
manet luncheon on the grass 19th century paris
-this painting was in the exhibition of rejected artwork under emperor napoleon 3 rd reign yet it still caused controversy on what was being portrayed and how it was portrayed -these figures are modern parisian figures wearing fashionable parisian clothing except for the nude woman (both problems) -by placing a woman who is nude in this context and since she is not veiled or linked with mythology, she's not a nymph, rather she is a recongizable figure -manet's model is victorine meurent and the two men are also recognizable figures, giving discomfort for the viewer -the figures look like actual people you would see on the streets -other problem is that no-one seems to be interacting the nude female looks directly at us in a gaze that is calm but direct, returning the viewer's gaze which breaks tradition -the man on the right gestures toward the figure in the center but the figure in the center seems to gaze absently out of the painting -odd figure in the background who is too large for where she should be -all kinds of spatial problems -ex:woman in the background seems to reach down to scoop something out of the water but she seems to be reaching down to the thumb of the man in the foreground collapsing all traces of depth -also flat representation of the nude woman; only minor modeling around her breast and under her thigh -sense of her being outlined in dark grays and blacks -painting is loosely brushed, no sense of finish; priority at the time was to have finished painting and monet disregarded that -figure who seems naked and not nude because we have her discarded clothing; her hat in the foreground and she's wearing a kind of ribbon -shes a modern parisian woman who had discarded her clothing, not a venus -manet's teasing his viewers giving indication that theres a narrative but not including it so the subject is no longer what is occurring but how the art was created -hes make a challenge to the authorities who controlled art in france
clodion nymph and satyr carousing 18th century new york
-two followers of Bacchus, the roman god of wine -sensuous nymph who rushes to pour wine from a cup into the open mouth of a semi human goat legged satyr -reminiscent of the nude female figures of benvenuto cellini who worked at fonatainebleu for francis I and of giambologna, a french mannerist sculpture who moved to italy -erotic playfulness of boucher and fragonard is evident in clod ion's 2 feet tall terracotta -sensual embrace is asymmetrical and dynamic weightless -posed the nymph and satyr off balance most noticeable in the tightened arm of the satyr that supports both of their weight -the execution of the nymph is weightless with only the ball of a single foot touching the ground -her arching posture suggests bounding movement and enforces the sense of weightlessness as well -clay enables us to feel the liveliness of the characters flesh -quality is seen in the supporting arm and muscular torso of the satyr as well as the gentle wrinkles and creases on the underarms of the nymph -exhibits mythological qualities that infused the rococo
van gogh the night cafe 19th century connecticut
-the subject is apparently benign but he invested it with a charged energy -he stated in a letter to his brother that he wanted the painting to convey an oppressive atmosphere- a place where one can ruin one's self, go mad, or commit a crime -he wanted to express the power of darkness in a low drinking spot; in an atmosphere that resembles the devil's furnace -the room is seen from above and the floor takes up a large portion of the canvas -ghostlike proprietor stands at the edge of the cafe's billiard table, disengaged from his customers, as they are from each other -he depicted the billiard table in such a deeply tilted perspective that it threatens to slide out of the painting into the viewer's space -despair from the figure's stances and the combination of colors used -The violent colors and the thick texture of paint almost resemble an atmosphere of the devil's furnace -The five customers in the painting sitting at the table almost seem as if they are drunks, slumped over either from sleepiness of their drunken stupor -His thick, layered brushwork highlights the intense yellow color that permeates the picture. The blood red walls and the green on the billiard and ceiling contrast and clash with each other. -The intense yellow color on the floor and on the lights hanging from the ceiling display night as more alive and richly colored than the day -The harsh colors and disorienting angles evoke a feeling of sadness and loneliness -painted while he was living in arles -he had moved to a room at the cafe de la gare, where the room depicted in this painting was
impressionism
a late 19th century art movement that sought to capture a fleeting moment, thereby conveying the elusiveness and impermanence of images and conditions -monet, impression sunrise, 19th century, paris
impasto
a layer of thickly applied pigment -monet, impression sunrise, 19th century, paris
realism
a movement that emerged in mid 19th century france representing the subject matter of everyday life (especially subjects that previously had been considered inappropriate for depiction) in a relatively naturalistic mode -millet, the gleaners, 19th century, paris
surrealism
a successor to dada, incorporated the improvisational nature of its predecessor into its exploration of the ways to express in art the world of dreams, and the unconscious -dali, the persistence of memory, 20th century, new york
romanticism
a western cultural phenomenon, beginning around 1750 and ending about 1850, that gave precedence to feeling and imagination over reason and thought -delacroix, liberty leading the people, 19th century, paris
fauvism
an early 20th century art movement led by henri matisse; color became the formal element most responsible for pictorial coherence and the primary conveyor of meaning -matisse, red room, 20th century, saint petersburg
dada
an early 20th century art movement prompted by a revolution against the horror of world war 1; embraced political anarchy, the irrational and the intuitive -duchamp, fountain, 20th century, california
fragonard the swing 18h century london
-woman is going up on a swing and shes sitting on a red, velvet and gold seat on that swing held up by ropes -swirl of a hat and you can see her white silk stockings an she flips one pink slipper into the air looking mischevious -shes looking down on the left figure in the corner who is her lover hidden in the bushes while shes convinced the older man in the opposite corner to push her on a swing who does not know the young man is hidden in the bushes -the statue of cupid holds his finger to his lips as if he is saying to keep it a secret -were behind a villa or palace, and you can see architecture in the distance -the garden is overgrown but not out of control; in a way it is fertile and abundant -speaks to the sensual being and is dreamlike in its mists -the trees and its boughts are at times full of foilage and at times bare which is used as an expression of passion -in the bottom right corner there is a dog that seems to be yapping which is a symbol of fidelity -ironic here ecause the dog seems upset and it is almost as if he is giivng away the secret and sculpture is saying shh -kind of indulgence and expression of pleasure that characterizes the aristocracy and ruling class in france -this kind of painting that seems only about pleasure are going to be railed against by the enlightenment to call for art that is heroic and virtuous -clodion embraced his eras taste for antiquity; career spanned through the french revolution and napoleon's reign -embodied the rococo movement that gripped furnace during the revolutionary period
avant-garde
french "advance guard"; late 19th and 20th century artists who emphasized innovation and challenged established convention in their work -picasso, les demoiselles d'Avignon, 20th century, new york
fete galante
french "amorous festival";a type of rococo painting depicting outdoor parties of french upper class society -pilgrimage to cythera, watteau, 18th century, paris
monet impression sunrise 19th century paris
-a view of the harbor of monet's boyhood home in LeHavre -fascinated by reflected sunlight on water -broke with traditional studio practices and painted his impression en plain air using short brushstrokes of pure color on canvas without any preliminary sketch -recorded the boats, water and sky and made no attempt to disguise the brushstrokes or blend the pigment -lack of form, lines and shades -has some semblance of form-> looks like a small boat in the middle with 2 members on board -there is form for the human brain to interpret the portrait between the short brushstrokes -gives the illusion of movement when staring at the painting -degree of ambiguity that solicits subjective perspective -emphasized composition, saturation and movement of light which caused controversy in the beginning -tried to capture the breaking dawn of the skies that was also reflected on the harbor waters -gave an impression of the landscape and not an accurate description -received criticism bc people believed it was an unfinished work -when first shown to the public it was disapproved of -calm feeling of a misty sea -early morning sun is rising over the foggy harbor and the shadows of the boats and figures and the reflection of the sun's rays can be seen on the water's surface -uses dull blues and grays in contrast to warm colors in the orange and red in the sky which draws attention to the main focus, the sun -cranes and heavy machinery can be seen to the right of the painting ; the emissions of the factories, ships and machineries mix with the early rays of the sun to generate a beauty that is surprising and seductive
dali the persistence of memory 20th century new york
-attack on the rational -enter into a really deep open and lonely space, and is this really quiet image -kind of deserts cape, when ignoring the melting clocks you feel as if you could wither and die there and no-one would care; theres no waves in the water in the background and theres no activity whatsoever -unbearable sense of quiet and no sense of movement -desert life and very hot; time has literally melted -dead tree on the left growing out of something that seems man made and it looks like a table top -ants seem to be eating and attracted to a piece of metal as opposed to a piece of rotten flesh; eating away at a time piece -drooping clocks which is provocative because time is something that rules us yet here is responds to the environment as we do -the way the light is set up especially on the cliff looks like the sunset is nonchalant about another day passing -the cliffs in the back are the cliffs of the catalonian coast in northern spain where dali is from so this is his childhood -there is a strange figure looks almost like a profile of a face with extremely long eyelashes and a tongue under the nose; originally looks like a white blanket -optical illusion -one object can actually be several thins at once -idea that the dream was a place where the irrational mind came to the fore unrestricted -how we perceive what we think is objective reality is really based on how our brain is wired -dali is thinking about a philosopher named berkson who thought about time as something that was not simply what struck on a clock but that there was something more subjective and that expanded and contracted according to our experience -here these clocks are trying to point out they are just futile attempts to try to label
seurat a sunday on la grande latte 19th century chicago
-brightly illuminous and incredibly complex when it comes to color -taken earlier traditions of impressionists and imposes on them the science of vision -interested in this idea of dividing color into its components -idea of optical mixture-->take 2 different colors, place them together, and the lightwaves mix the color together as your eye receives the light -sense of parisians outside on a sunny day and sunlight streaming through the trees -dozens of drawings and oil sketches outside and then goes back to the studio and makes a very composed and structured painting -wanted his figures to have a kind of solemnity found in the sculptures of the friars of the parthenon so theres sense of timelessness and classicism -alternating shadow and light -receding diagonal line that creates an illusion of space -draws our eye to the surface of the canvas -lower left corner of the painting, the man is smoking a pipe and leaning on his back and there is volume in his body from all the different strokes of color -figure has clear contours not seen in impressionism -figure seems 3 dimensional -we are in the northwest of paris which was frequented by middle and upper class society; the other side of river was frequented by working class -question about what seurat is saying about class in paris in 19th century -ambiguity of class was an issue during this time -class was important and had always been clear in french society, but this city now had a way of mixing classes -fashion and clothing now blurred class distinctions that were more clear before -seurat is confounding the expectations of a typical viewer in the end of the 19th century -seurat is giving us figures who don't talk to each other or interact; no sense of narrative -painting was a challenge for the community bc it did not give a narrative or sense of emotion -when it was first exhibited, it caused a stir -it was so different and advanced compared to other artists whose most advanced artwork was impressionist technique
millet the gleaners 19th century paris
-edges are soft,colors are muted and theres no hard lines -yet the subject being depicted is harsh -the three woman are gleaners, they're going out into the field after the harvest and picking up the leftovers of corn that have fallen -you can see the great grain stacks in the distance and grain wagon piled very high -main army of harvesters in the distance all bent over working -large bundles of grain gathered and on the foreground you see these 3 woman working in a solitary way -they are trying to feed their families and you can see the small bundles to their right what they have gathered -you can see the hierarchy--> these woman are large and substantial and in the foreground, giving a sense of importance -but in a diminished scale, they're far away, and on the main enterprise there are people working and a supervisor on horseback overseeing that operation net even paying attention to the women -when this painting was shown in the salons in paris, it was criticized bc people were fearful of what would happen if people like this in these circumstances were radicalized and mobilized -millet has rendered these woman doing harsh labor yet they're not in rags; they seem well fed and strong which send a mixed message -there is something beautiful about the image in the rhythm between their backs and the landscape embracing them -millet is giving us a difficult image but softening the blow for us - Having recently come out of the French Revolution of 1848, these prosperous classes saw the painting as glorifying the lower-class worker.[1] To them, it was a reminder that French society was built upon the labor of the working masse
horta staircase in the van eetvelde house belgium 19th century
-every detail of the interior functions as part of a living whole -furniture, drapery folds, veining in the lavish stone paneling, and the patterning of the door moldings join with real plants to provide graceful counterpoints for the twining plant theme -metallic tendrils curl around the railings and posts -delicate metal tracery fills the glass dome -floral and leaf motifs spread across the fabric panels of the screen -flower and plant motifs also figure prominently in the immensely popular stained glass lamps -combination of the spiral staircase and web like decor implies that the residents are firmly enfolded within natures grasp
ruysch flower still life toledo 18th century
-floral paintings as a distinct genre were popular in the dutch republic since the dutch were the leading growers and exporters in 17th century europe -ruysch served as court painter to the elector palatine in germany -her dad was a professor of botany and anatomy -lavish floral arrangement is so full, many of the blossoms seem to be spilling out of the vase -each flower is accurately depicted and the texture seems realistic -if you look closer there are tiny insects a caterpillar crawls on a stem and a bee gathers pollen from the center of a poppy -flowers arranged into specific grouping to create meaning for the viewer to decode -extreme symbolism -iris: refers to christian trinity -white poopies and morning glory at the center left refer to the crucifixion and resurrection -revelations come when viewer sees the flowers are infested with insects to consume or destroy flowers -at first viewer is attracted to the beauty of the blooming flowers but looking beyond these superficial interests w discover deeper values as embodied int he christian spiritual tradition -valuable beyond ornamental beauty; creates an opportunity to look beyond surface meaning and engage in critical reflection
essay question
-henri matisse, red room, 20th century, saint petersburg -shows the influence of post impressionist art but employs intense color juxtapositions for expressive ends -built on influence on van gogh, but the fauves further liberated color from its descriptive function and explored the effects that different colors have on emotions -like van gogh was an admirer of japanese art - outlined his forms in the same manner as van gogh -like post impressionist monet this painting has no central focus -influenced by van gogh to start painting with more color intensity (the night cafe) and translate feelings into color and short brush strokes -followed the ideas of van goth's time-> construction through colored surfaces, experimenting with intensity of color, subject matter being unimportant, and light being expressed through the harmony of brightly colored surfaces -employed contrasts of vivid green, yellows, and reds by sweeping brushstrokes and bold patterns to release internal feelings -his canvas is radically different from traditional paintings of domestic interiors -he depicted objects in simplified and schematized fashion and flattened out the forms -ex: he eliminated the front edge of the table, rendering the table with its identical patterning as flat as the wall behind it -the window in the upper left could also be a painting on the wall, further flattening the space -colors contrast richly and intensly; he overpaints to reveal the importance of color -it was originally green, then he repainted to blue and then red did he feel he found the right color for the harmony he wished to compose -uses color as a form of expression most responsible for pictorial coherence and primary conveyor of meaning -choose compositions and colors that express their feelings
kandinsky improvisation 28 20th century new york
-interesting because the title is the kind of notion a composer uses -in a way kandinsky is composing here with form still rooted in the stories of the bible and of his particular historical moment -trying to associate painting with music; like music painting can signify and mean thing without representing anything concrete -can hear color and see music--> idea of synesthesia; crossing of the senses -may have wanted us to hear something -very influenced by arnold schumberg who was challenging familiar western harmonies to create a difficult atonal music -something atonal and difficult here -this painting would sound dangerous and chaos -brilliant color and hazy atmosphere through which color pops -black diagonal lines that criss cross and almost feel like weapons -the analogy drawing is one of war; this is 2 years before world war 1 and russian history is filled with political chaos -verge of abstraction -recognize some elements from the natural world -upper right seems to be a mountain and some buildings on it with chimneys or perhaps a church representing an ideal city or heavenly jerusalem -deeply influenced by biblical imagery which makes sense there is a battle field and horses at war -can be representation of an apocalypse; a moment when the sins of the world are gonna be washed away -lower left there is a great flood and the idea of the wave in which god in the old testament wiped man from the earth except for noah and his family -above the wave cannons are being fired at the atmosphere effect almost looks like the smoke on the battle field -at the bottom historians recognize the manes and necks of the horses -he was very interested in the idea of a horse and rider referencing the apocalypse and redemption -also utopian-idea that we could wash away the old world; world that was about to be destroyed by the russian revolution and the first world war -he was convinced that he could help leave that in the individual realm -uses color in a radical way in its own sake which is absolutely new
david the death of marat 18th century brussels
-painted during the revolution -david commemorates a hero of the revolution and depicts a contemporary event -david became close with the leader of the jacobins and voted for the beheading of king louis xiv -minister of propaganda spreading the ideals of the revolution through images -a royalist charlotte corday who believed in absolute rule went to see marat (the leader of the revolution) and tricked him and murdered him in his bathtub -you can see the knife she used to stab him lying on the bottom left corner of the canvas and the letter that she used to gain entrance being held by marat -david is showing how duplicitous this woman was; she tricked marat though he was good and she brutally stabbed him -extreme contrast between her duplicity and his nobility -hes ideally beautiful though he had a skin disease and his pose reminds us of the pieta -the idea that a martyr to the revolution is replacing the christian martyr -below his signature he has written year 2 referring to the revolution -idea of rationalism was being violently instituted; during the enlightenment that was a time of rational thinking -painting about observations; contrast between the specificity of the foreground, especially on the crate which he's written his name, against the open brushwork of the background that doesn't look finished -has a soft quality that focuses our attention on marat -neoclassic interest is seen in his body through the study of the anatomy which pays attention to contours -stark interior with no gold or elaborate furniture expressing that this man is living according to the republican ideals of the revolution -david was imprisoned for his involvement and then became he first painter to napoleon
renoir moulin de la galette 19th century paris
-people socializing, flirting and dancing -sense of leisure -outside place to gather perhaps after work more frequented by the working class -can be seen in the garments of the men who wear very few top hats and the women are fashionably dressed -love of fashion here, interactions -two female figures in the center in the foreground talking the man; she puts her shoulder on the seated figure dressed in the pink striped dress -interaction among groups -2 men seated at the right and one seems to be writing -the group of three in the low center -pairs of couples dancing moving across the left side -tree to the right man perhaps whispering something to the ear of the woman and a little boy peaks out under him -interesting is how our eye isn't drawn to a single place or couple -academic paintings had a focus but here they're spread across -handling of paint;colors spread across the picture with loose brushwork -violated the rules -glasses in the lower right corner the shine is so much you see the white paint -asymmetry of the composition -artists held their own public exhibition and it is these people that are pictured that are viewing the impressionist paintings -capture of fleeting effects of light -man smoking from the pot and man on the foreground who's jacket looks polkadotted -feels so modern is sense of arbitrary; the way a photo has captured a moment in time -feeling we have entered into this space
picasso les demoiselles d avignon (the young ladies of avignon) 20th century new york
-refers to a street in barcelona associated with prostitution -looking at a brothel -foundation of cubism; radical break that points to the future -break with these conventions of representation that had for so long been accepted in the west about how you make a body in space and how you create space -shatters linear perspective, chiaroscuro -conveys the ideas about sexuality, about the female new, about sexually transmitted diseases -confrontational painting -original painting the women were focusing on a male that was included, a sailor that was also a medical student but picasso takes those men out -the women turn their gaze outward to the viewer directly -a sailor someone who's in a brothel as a customer who was seated at a table originally; the medical students looks at the women from a more scientific perspective and possibly artistic -the medical student carried in some sketches a skull; carrying something related to his profession tells us who he is -the skull is a reminder of death -tension between the sensuality of the sailor and a moralizing reminder that the pleasures of life are short -faces of the women on the right are seen as representations of african masks -figure on the left is an archaic figure going back to ancient spain -here this is an agglomeration of styles -there is danger here and the figures are really close to us -the curtains in between the figures are pressed right up against them; there is no space behind or between them creating some sense of illusion -three dimensions forms placed on a two dimensional surface makes us look at the central figure as one that were both looking across at but both looking down as if were standing over her while she lies on a bed -ugliness -african masks represent danger and is used as an expression of france's colonialism -these objects were coming to furnace because france had large colonial possessions in africa -also represented otherness; the needing to go outside the western tradition o express hat the early 20th century and late 19th century feb like is important -tendency toward expressing the flatness of the picture pale by creating this false illusion -speaks to the oppressiveness of the academics of the 19th century all weighted on contemporary artists who were seeking a new visual language to represent modern culture
vanitus
latin for vanity -a term describing paintings that include references to death -ruysch, flower still life, toledo, 18th century
duchamp fountain 20th century california
made in 1964 after his original work in 1917 -he went to a plumbing supply called mott and purchased this -he turned the urinal on its side and signed it R. Mott and dated it -he submitted it to an art exhibition that he was a founding member of, the american society for independent artists, and this new group wanted to bring in new possibilities -they rejected this one -he submitted it as a sculpture -he is asking us to see the urinal in a new way; to make us ask the philosophical questions about what art is and what the artist does -separates craftsmanship and its relationship to aesthetic enjoyment and the the profundity of a work of art -question: does art have to be made by the hand of the artist? and he's doing it in the most absurd way
