ART 558 MIDTERM SG
LALIQUE, Dragonfly brooch
Jewelry of the period: pendants were crafter with ivory, gold, sapphires, diamonds; intricate high class metalwork; the figure is a mixture of different things (dragonfly with a bust of a woman with claws) possibly a chimera • Looks alluring yet intimidating
NADAR (GASPARD-FÉLIX TOURNACHON), Portrait of Charles Baudelaire
Nadar's photo studio was the first place where the impressionists exhibited their works
KIRCHNER, Self Portrait as a Soldier
The artist committed suicide in 1938 The self portrait has a severed hand, we can assume he's been wounded His eyes in the self portrait look vacant and lifeless He experienced trauma and feels dead inside Kirchner was actually rejected for service (given a medical discharge, this likely gave him anxiety and vulnerability) As an artist, he was pretty successful When the Nazi's came to power, they hated paintings like this, they explicitly tried to destroy works like this as degenerate art
S. Hollis Clayson, "The Family and the Father: The Grande Jatte and Its Absences"
" Despite the probity of various discussions of Seurat's figuration of social variety in the painting,1" its ab- stracted, formal language, with the clean edges of its forms and stylized costumes, has made difficult any de- cisive verdict on Seurat's depiction of class difference. Indeed it is somewhat ironic that the aspect of identity about which the painting is least distinct-social-class membership-is the item that scholars of iconography have scrutinized most extensively. The characteristic Marxist concern with social stratification has led schol- ars to focus on class in the painting, but so has an insen- sitivity to and general disinterest in issues of gender and age. Clearly the crowd in the painting contains people of both sexes and of a wide variety of ages. If we sort out the forty-odd figures in the painting by gender, the women outnumber the men. It is clear that Seurat de- cided to feature women and children. Of the painting's eighteen largest figures, fourteen are female.'6 Of the females, three are young children and one is an adoles- cent, leaving ten adult women sharing the foreground with only four adult men. Certain figure groupings merit comment in this re- gard. The mother and child holding hands and facing the viewer at the center of the picture (fig. 1) underscore the thematic importance given here to family relations, and call attention to the contrasts between them and the par- tial family units that surround them. There are three additional pairs of mothers and daughters in the fore- ground space of the picture;"7 none is accompanied by a man. Why did Seurat include so many women and children and relatively few men in his picture of mer Sunday? Perhaps he found the island filled up in this way, but the evidence of the small-scale studies suggests this was not so.20 And since both concept and percept mattered equally to Seurat in the mid-1880s, we must stretch well beyond our knowledge of his subject in order to explain his painting of it. To find out why he devised this cast of characters and handled them the way he did, we need to focus on the painting's two principal social themes-the day off and the family-and how they are interrelated here. The traditional practice of stopping work on the Sab- bath and religious holidays changed during the nine- teenth century. The practice was suspended after the rev- olution of 1789, but reinstated by law in 1814, at the start of the Bourbon Restoration. It was apparently allowed to lapse from about 1830.21 The right to leisure was de- bated with fervor in 1871, during the Paris Commune, when work was attacked as social regimentation. This debate inspired Paul Lafargue's pointed and widely cir- culated 1880 critique of the obligation to work, entitled "The Right to Laziness." One thing we do know of course is that he lived a completely secret personal life, utterly unknown to and unsuspected by his parents. When he appeared mortally ill at the family apartment at 110 Boulevard Magenta, on March 17, 1891, he was accom- panied by his pregnant mistress, Madeleine Knobloch, and their thirteen-month-old son, Pierre Georges. Within one, extraordinary, thirty-six-hour period, An- toine and Ernestine Seurat learned of Georges's liaison and child and witnessed their younger son's death at the age of thirty-one.
Robert Herbert, "Impressionism, Originality, and Laissez Faire"
"with the advent of Symbolism in the late 1880s, and the growth of an antinaturalist current in the paintings of younger artists (Seurat, Van Gogh, Gauguin), Impressionist art came to be regarded as an unthinking form of naturalism. The Symbolist critics praised the new painters by claiming that their art was rich in intellectual, expressive, and decorative ideas, as opposed to Impressionism which, they believed, merely added a heightened color sense to the old Renaissance tradition of verisimilitude. Impressionist naturalism was dismissed by Félix Fénéon, Seurat's chief defender, in these derisive terms:" "Originality and handcraft gave distinction and, eventually, great value to the Impressionists' paintings. They were not, therefore, radicals seeking the overthrow of their society, despite their flirtations with gypsies, urban itinerants, and other marginals. They were more like other aggressive members of the bourgeoisie, doing battle with outmoded institutions in order to push themselves and their culture in new directions. Nineteenth-century industrial society thrived on its critics, using them to lurch forward, to shed old ideas, painfully and awkwardly, in a process that bound together critic and target, each requiring the other.15The Impressionists were the vanguard of the bourgeoisie, not of any revolution. Of course it did not seem so at the time, not just because their work was new or "radical," but also because the world of entertainment and leisure that they favored was so opposed to the work ethic and the other moral underpinnings of the bourgeoisie. From the vantage point of over a century later, it is easy to see this. Even so, historians have paid too little attention to the undercurrents flowing beneath the brilliant surfaces of Impressionist paintings. Their innovations have been largely seen in terms of style, and the social meanings of their forms and their subjects have remained too seldom explored. The history of Impressionism should be rewritten by integrating style and subject, individual and society. " "The Impressionists' originality was based upon individuality and craftsmanship, and was therefore free of the monotonous eªects of that unimaginative kind of work that emulates the perfectly finished product, that is, the industrial artifact. "
LUMIÈRE BROTHERS, The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat
1895 Lumiere project the first commercial film for an audience in Paris 1895 The Lumiere Bros were working on the Cinematograph, 1895 • Was the first movie going experience for wide audiences • The cinematograph is very close together • Film: A Childish Quarrel • Thje Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, 1896 • Urban Myth that surrounds the film: The first time, this was shown, the audience fleed the theater; they screamed • How did they decide to film this? • As a train was arriving; while they were boarding; on location (on the platform) • The train is coming directly at the viewer READING: • Did audiences actually believe the train real? • People were shocked and impressed by the film; it's not like the audience thought they were going to get hit, but were more impressed that you can create something that was so real and immersive it felt. One of the reasons we might know that, the film would normally have a narrator, and it would normally start out with a still image, and then they play it and the image would start playing and it would transform into an image that was moving in real time • *Cinema of attractions*: film focused on visual curiosity or shock, rather than psychological involvement with a narrative • "Rather than being involvement with narrative action or empathy with character psychology, the cinema of attractions solicits a highly conscious awareness of the film image engaging the viewer's curiosity. The spectator does not get lost in a fictional world and its drama, but remains aware of the act of looking, the excitement of curiosity and its fulfillment." (Gunning, p.121) • Author of reading talks about also where the movie was also held--movie palaces. • Kings theater, Brooklyn, NY. Opened in 1929, restored 2014
GÉRÔME, The Slave Market
A persistent trend in the fine and decorative arts throughout the nineteenth century, Orientalism explored themes and motifs drawn from exotic, non-European cultures as a foil to the "civilized" world of nineteenth-century Europe. Orientalist scenes represented the antithesis of modern urban realities and offered an atmospheric escape into the simpler world of a fabricated past. These paintings were not realist documents, but romantic reveries, evoking passion, eroticism, primitivism and danger, but at a comfortable remove. The artist was the most important and influential Orientalist painter in France. His painterly style is highly realistic, with precisely rendered faces, bodies, buildings, and landscapes. Among his most typical subjects were exoticized, eroticized scenes of slave girls, harems, and other images that stereotyped "the Orient" as a locus of mystery, sensuality, decadence, and savagery. Slavery and slave markets were still in operation in Egypt in the 1870s, and the artist may have witnessed one during his many travels in the area. He portrays the wretched despair of the slaves waiting to be sold, but lingers on their sensual poses and the completely nude body of one of the women. This allowed both painter and viewer to condemn the savage trade in humans by humans, but also to fantasize about its sexual possibilities—a risqué mix of pity and lust.
CÉZANNE, Mont SainteVictoire
Analysis of color, shape and line wide brushstrokes, objects broken down into fundamental shapes, flatness & depth o He makes a lot of still lifes, artful classical nudes, and landscapes; people are interested the way Cezanne paints; • His angled geometric style carries over in cubist paintings • The manipulation of space Short brushworks
SCHIELE, Self Portrait with Grimace
Artist had tragic life, died of Spanish flu epidemic Like in other self-portraits from 1910, this work lacks neither exaggeration nor distortion. The face contorted into a grimace, the mouth pulled wide open to reveal just a single tooth, the eyebrows acutely raised, the forehead and neck furrowed with wrinkles - the entire face screams repulsion and resistance. In a sense, the artist was emulating Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's Character Heads, pushing physiognomy to the limits of what is bearable. While the crude grimace expresses alienation, it could also express a side of himself which had to stay hidden from the outside world. The color scheme ranges between light reds and blues, which the artist also applied to the stripes of the jacket. Ugliness in its entirety is rendered here in garish but "beautiful" colors.
Cubism
BRAQUE, Violin and Pitcher PICASSO, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler PICASSO, Still Life with Chair Caning PICASSO, Glass and Bottle of Suze DELAUNAY-TERK, Electric Prisms BEARDEN, Three Folk Musicians •name comes from critic Louis Vauxcelles, mocking one of George Braque's paintings ≠ tiny cubes •analytic cubism •synthetic cubism • style offshoots • "Salon" cubism: Henri Le Fauconnier, Juan Gris, Fernand Leger, Marcel Duchamp • Orphism: Robert Delaunay and Sonia Terk Delaunay • Vorticism: Wyndham Lewis o MULTIPLE VIEWPOINTS: multiple viewpoints simultaneously (look at nose) o JOINED CONTOURS: 2 or more objects are joined together with a single edge o SUBSTITUTE PART FOR THE WHOLE: part of an object or form stands in for the whole; giving someone a part of something that makes it understood of what it is without having to bring the entire thing into the picture; synecdoche o CUBIST ABSTRACTION: simplify, distort, or break apart objects, often into geometric forms o SPATIAL MANIPULATION: reject traditional techniques (perspective, modeling, foreshortening) in favor of flattened forms that emphasize the two-dimensionality of the canvas
Avant Garde
COURBET, A Burial at Ornans MANET, Olympia Non-traditional; challenging to look at; "The Front of the Army" in French; comes from French military' the idea is that you are a revolutionary as an artist; they want to change art, they want to change society as well AT THE TIME: • Art & Revolution in France o Over a century of political turmoil o Rapid urbanization, industrialization, and class mobility • Well-established artistic traditions are rapidly overturned people would hang out at the morgue In the 19th century, when the French can casually see the dead in a morgue, there are viewing galleries to unidentified nude bodies; morbid fascination At the time, Victorian women looking at Olympia was very clothed
VAN GOGH, Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear
Emotionally expressive color + forms Impasto, vibrant colors, off-killer perspectives o He has a Japanese Print in the background; inspired; his easel is behind o His face is sickly looking, cheeks emaciated o He could be proud of himself for cutting his ear off
Primitivism/Fauvism
GAUGUIN, The Spirit of the Dead Keeps Watch (Manao Tupapau) MATISSE, Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra) PICASSO, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon o Movement in late 19th and 20th cen euro. Art that adapted the representational styles of so called "primitive" peoples, ie. African, south pacific, and asian cultures o Desire to escape western culture (capitalist, urban, disconnected from nature & spirituality) o Desire to beat with traditions of western art, utilize abstracted forms of other cultures o Tahiti • French colony • Why would Gaugin want to go here? Jardin Zoologique -- a degrading practice that put people of color on display in zoos This was a part of European culture at the time Another part of the culture is Buffalo Bill's Wild West show; Gaugin saw this and was fascinated from it These practices are very highly stereotyped
Orientalism
GÉRÔME, The Slave Market DINET, Group of Spectators in a Dancer's Café MONET, Madame Monet en Costume Japonais • About Europeans looking into other cultures and appropriating them/the stereotypes, style, artifacts, or traits considered characteristic of the peoples and cultures of Middle East and Asia. • depictions of Middle Eastern and East Asian cultures that esstialize/fetishize these societies as exotic, static (unchanging), underdeveloped, very stereotypical • Edward Said on Orientalism: "The orient exists for the west and is constructed by or in realtion to the west. Mirror image of what is inferior and alien "other" to the west" • "us v. them" mentality this movement's scenes represented the antithesis of modern urban realities and offered an atmospheric escape into the simpler world of a fabricated past. These paintings were not realist documents, but romantic reveries, evoking passion, eroticism, primitivism and danger, but at a comfortable remove. Why do we get this imagery at this point of time? • This is the era of colonialism among European countries • Britain and France especially were trying to take territorial control • In return, Europeans were fantasizing what the colonies were like (were projecting what they want to think about the colonies) • Most Europeans did not visit the colonies Japonisme: craze for Japanese culture and art, which was dominant in France from about 1865 until the end of the century.
BEARDEN, Three Folk Musicians, 1967.
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BRAQUE, Violin and Pitcher
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CAILLEBOTTE, Le Pont de l'Europe,
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CASSATT, In the Loge
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COURBET, A Burial at Ornans
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CÉZANNE, Mont SainteVictoire
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DELAUNAY-TERK, Electric Prisms
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DINET, Group of Spectators in a Dancer's Café
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GAUGUIN, The Spirit of the Dead Keeps Watch (Manao Tupapau)
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GÉRÔME, The Slave Market
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KIRCHNER, Self Portrait as a Soldier
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KLIMT, Judith I
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KLIMT, The Kiss
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LALIQUE, Dragonfly brooch
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LUMIÈRE BROTHERS, The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat
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MANET, Déjeuner sur l'herbe
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MANET, Olympia
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MAREY, Movements in Pole Vaulting
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MATISSE, Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra)
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MONET, Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare
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MONET, Madame Monet en Costume Japonais
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MUNCH, The Scream
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MUYBRIDGE, Horse Galloping
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MÉLIÈS, Trip to the Moon (Voyage dans la Lune)
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PICASSO, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler
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PICASSO, Glass and Bottle of Suze
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PICASSO, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
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PICASSO, Still Life with Chair Caning
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RENOIR, Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette,
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SABATIER-BLOT, Portrait of Daguerre, Daguerrotype
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SCHIELE, Self Portrait with Grimace
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SEURAT, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
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VAN GOGH, Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear
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NADAR (GASPARD-FÉLIX TOURNACHON), Portrait of Charles Baudelaire
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Vienna Secession
KLIMT, The Kiss KLIMT, Judith I LALIQUE, Dragonfly brooch group of modern artists in Vienna who broke away from the official Academy of Art; Gustav Klimt was the first president o • no unifying style o • belief that art should be left to artists, not controlled by politicians o • Secession building center of activities: held 23 exhibitions, introduced Austrians to Impressionism, Japanese art, Symbolism, etc. • Plenty of organic motifs; very elaborate and well thought out • "To ever age its art, to every art its freedom" on building • Women play a strong role in Klimt's work (mostly has to do with explicit sexuality and how it affects how society can accept it) Plays w idea of femme fatale
Modernism
MANET, Déjeuner sur l'herbe a style or movement in the arts that aims to break with classical and traditional forms. o Paintings acceptable are classical paintings about mythology
Film
MAREY, Movements in Pole Vaulting MUYBRIDGE, Horse Galloping LUMIÈRE BROTHERS, The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat MÉLIÈS, Trip to the Moon (Voyage dans la Lune) 1839 Photography anounced 1878 First successful motion studies (horse) - Muybridge 1889 Edison and Dickinson develop kinetoscope, individual film viewer 1895 Lumiere project the first commercial film for an audience in Paris 1895 1927 First Film with sound The first films: • What do they all have in common? They are all very simple films, one shot, made in a straightforward way Some of them are repeating motions/frames Very interested in showing us movement--wants to separate film from photography
Impressionism
MONET, Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare RENOIR, Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette CAILLEBOTTE, Le Pont de l'Europe CASSATT, In the Loge Radical new techniques o Loose brushwork o Colors are conditional, changing according to the light o Focus on sensory perception rather than illusionistic style • Respond to and depict of modern life o Depicts spaces of leisure and entertainment, new parts of city life; attn to fleeting moments • Mostly abandon traditional subjects like historical events or religion (see ppt) to finish)** • o Most artists here did not have patrons, instead they were using galleries and independent buyers, so artists have to be proactive • What's happening in Paris at this time? o There's plenty of reconstruction projects happening at this time o The streets were very narrow, and eventually become wide, old, open sewers going away, wide clear streets (they want the city to be more organized to easier to travel to) ; new additions of parks o City structures transforming; clearer maps; wanted to prevent revolts from happening o Political goals to prevent instances like the Hotel de Ville from happening (though the building is not really a hotel, but an institution that hold records, the place is a mess due to a riot) o What they want to do: new modern conveniences and also new showcases for artworks (e.g. Avenue of the Opera - construction has displaced people but the place is beautiful with neo-classical architecture) o Public parks became a new thing at the time, typically, people used to own private parks, but they became open public places for the city o In this era, casually hanging out in a public space is new at the time
Expressionism
MUNCH, The Scream KIRCHNER, Self Portrait as a Soldier SCHIELE, Self Portrait with Grimace o Popular across a number of countries in Europe o No single style, but shared a tendency to reject the imitation of the natural world in favor of expressing interior states (focused on how the world feels compared to impressionists who focused how the world looks) - feeling dead inside, etc. o Often uses bright color and visual distortions o In Germany, spreads to architecture, dance, sculpture, and cinema o Main groups: • BLAUE REITER/"BLUE RIDER" - Munich, Germany • DIE BRUCKE/ "THE BRIDGE" - Dresden, Germany • THE FAUVES/"The Wild Beasts" - Paris, France o Key influences: • Van Gogh • Munch • Ensor • Klimt
En Plein Air
Painting in outside world
Flaneur
Quintessential Bohemian; one who loafs or wastes time (almost always a male bc were more independent at the time, women were supposed to be at home), a perceptive person who strolls about a city (resulting in Ephemeral = temporary feelings; quote: we should enjoy the moment now, things can change (through the smoke and the people in motion, the shadow could change-tells us the time of day); gives a sense of what actually is happening in the world.)
Realism
REALISM IS NOT naturalism -> illusionistic, looks like a photograph; Being truthful
Photography
SABATIER-BLOT, Portrait of Daguerre, Daguerrotype NADAR (GASPARD-FÉLIX TOURNACHON), Portrait of Charles Baudelaire 5000 BC CAMERA OBSCURA by Chinese and Greek philosophers 1804 Steam locomotive invented 1827 First permanent photograph - Nicephore Niepiece *1839 Louis Dauguerre publicly introduces daguerreotype; Henry Fox Talbot introduces calotype* 1861 James Maxwell makes first color photographs 1878 Eadweard Muybridge makes first high-speed photographs of motion 1888 Kodak introduces first easy-touse camera 1895 Lumiere brothers project first film • Baudelaire "Modern Public and Photography" of his review of the Salon in 1859 - hates it; WILL CORRUPT PAINTING; should be a secretary helper medium not a main medium of art • Wertz "Photography" - thinks photography is good; painters who just paint to paint will be taken over, but the painters who paint with meaning/great ideas will live forever; painting is free to do other things and not just record
Post-impressionism
SEURAT, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte VAN GOGH, Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear CÉZANNE, Mont SainteVictoire subjective, based on observation, heighten senses (physical or intellectual) = synesthesia = senses crossed in some way Scientific color + social commentary Emotionally expressive color + forms Analysis of color, shap and line Pointilism or divisionism Impasto (wet paint on paint), vibrant colors, off-killer perspectives wide brushstrokes, objects broken down into fundamental shapes, flatness & depth
SEURAT, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
Scientific color + social commentary Pointilism or divisionism o Comparison from Renoir's Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette • There isn't as much detail in the Seurat, but more organized in placement, the people are very rigid whereas Renoir's painting has a lot of movement • this painting has pointilism (dots sitting on the canvas) • Both are days of leisure • this painting is 7 ft by 10 ft • The pointilism was an intense process for the artist, he worked on this painting for two years--well planned, well thought out; the sketches of the paintings were made on the spot (the setting is a real place in the world) • the artist made plenty of Studies of this piece • Make a quick list of the visible figures that you see. Do you see any patterns and connections between the people. They're mostly women The central person on the image, the little girl is the only one facing the viewer Most of the women are possibly mothers or nannies, women with children The men are just hanging out Contextually Sundays were a family day at the time There is one man with no sleeves and everyone else seems fully clothed (he's very relaxed (working class man) - What is behind him? The lady's knitting materials; are they together? No; they're very close in placement, but they're not in engagement however In the very front there's a money on a leash, that could point to the fact that the lady is very wealthy for having such an exotic pet.. People are a bit showy with their lifestyles, purposefully outrageous The couple in the foreground could probably not be husband and wife (from reading) • Her dress has a giant butt; she could be a representation of contemporary fashion in Paris • One commenter remarked that she could possibly be a courtsean The bodies and style he chose; the posing is very stiff and formal. Is this a critical painting? Saying that Parisians are super uptight that they are not enjoying themselves? Perhaps the expectations how you behave might affect how people interact One other comparison: With this v. Bathers at Asnieres, by Seurat; their posture is hunched and comfortable; this painting is thought to be a companion piece to the A Sunday on La Grande • On the reading, this painting questions if the people in the painting have jobs, because of the smokestacks at the background blowing smoke. • Geographically the two paintings look like on the opposite side of the river. A call and response type thing
Charles Baudelaire, "The Painter of Modern Life"
Talks about constantin guys
Persistence of Vision
The eye blending things together
optical mixture
coined by Charles Blanc, asserts that small areas of complementary colors placed next to one another are more likely to be "mixed" by the human eye
Cinema of Attractions
film focused on visual curiosity or shock, rather than psychological involvement with a narrative "Rather than being involvement with narrative action or empathy with character psychology, the cinema of attractions solicits a highly conscious awareness of the film image engaging the viewer's curiosity. The spectator does not get lost in a fictional world and its drama, but remains aware of the act of looking, the excitement of curiosity and its fulfillment."
Simultaneous contrasts
idea formulated by chemist Michel Eugene Chevril, holds that two colors placed next to each other affect the eye's reception of each, making them appear more dissimilar, i.e. placing light and dark blue next to each makes the light blue look lighter & dark blue look darker
pointilism/divisionism
involves carefully observing color and separating into component parts; artist then applies pure component colors to canvas in tiny dots; shapes, figures, and spaces comprehensible only from a distance, when viewer's eye blends pigment dots
Victorine Meurent
model that artist painted 9 times o there is age progression throughout Dejeuner Sur l'heerbe, Young Lady in 1866, Madamoiselle Victorine Meurent in the costume of an Esapda, Olympia for example) o She is integral to Manet's paintings o She is a painter as well o There was discussion that she could possibly be sleeping with him, but probably not a romantic relationship since artist died of syphillis at 56 (?) and she lived until 80~
GAUGUIN, The Spirit of the Dead Keeps Watch (Manao Tupapau)
o Artist leaves behind family in europe, goes to islands and paints a lot of their culture o Compare to Manet's Olympia: • Gaugin was inspired by Manet; in fact even tried copying it in this particular painting • The subject in Gaugin's painting was romantically involved with Gaugin, she was 14; also appears in a number of his works • Gaugin was focused on a woman of color, laying on her stomach, does not look comfortable/relaxed • In a sense, Gaugin's subject is covering herself up • A Lot of the orientations are opposite (positioning of body is reversed) • Gaugin's subject is looking at the viewer as well o What is this painting about? • Spiritual culture in tahiti • The sparks of colors (star-like) were spirits (you can only see them at night) - there is a connection to the culture he is observing • Her uncomfortable position could likely be from the presence of spirits or of the artist himself (note the age difference) o Tahiti • French colony • Why would Gaugin want to go here? Jardin Zoologique -- a degrading practice that put people of color on display in zoos This was a part of European culture at the time Another part of the culture is Buffalo Bill's Wild West show; Gaugin saw this and was fascinated from it These practices are very highly stereotyped Gaugin's time in Tahiti & Marquesas: wants to explore the country with a more "savage" subject (see ppt quote) When he moves to these islands, there are already french people colonizing the area, so when he goes, Gaugin gets in a fight with the religious officials/other colonizers; the catholic community is very angry with him Wood carvings made of miro wood (scared wood for spiritual purposes) • These carvings Therese and Pere Paillard are indicative of the conflict he has with the community (therese is the woman he was involved with and the Paillard is the priest carved as the devil)
MONET, Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare
o Atmosphere is polluted and gloomy, can't see very far To compare to MANET's painting, The railway (Gare Saint-Lazare): Manet's painting has a lot of focus on the individual's experience; the color palettes are different--Manet's work has a greater range of color, whereas the Monet has lots of grays and blues; The main subjects are opposite (sense of place), Manet's is a great focus on people than the train, and vise versa in the Monet;
CASSATT, In the Loge
o Both are leering o Women are looking at other people in Cassatt's painting, in Renoir's painting, the woman is not looking at others but the man with her is, and not paying attention to her. Other differences is how the women are dressed in the paintings, Renoir's painting has the woman in more ornate and jewelled dress
RENOIR, Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette
o In this era, casually hanging out in a public space is new at the time o Relationships of subjects: They are dancing with each other and enjoying each other's company, women are the objects of attention in this painting; it's a joyous occasion; we know for a fact that in this place that women got in free; the sense of the place is that it's mean for lots of socializing and enjoying little cakes, and drinking beer
MAREY, Movements in Pole Vaulting
o Intensely studied the human body o Creates an illusion of movement o Persistence of Vision: The eye blending things together
MATISSE, Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra)
o Loosely inspired by his visits there o This was an unusual painting at the time • People thought this was ugly and was offended by it • Students at Art Institute Chicago made a copy of the painting and put him in trial, decided it's guilty of multiple art crimes, and burned the copy. • In terms of the body and the way she is painted: The thing that could be shocking to viewers could likely be the strokes where it shows the contours by her breast The body is almost masculine in a sense than a classic female nude; almost confusing There was a question of her race • The subject is painted blue • People question if she was a white woman in north africa (algeria)
BRAQUE, Violin and Pitcher
o More spatial modeling in this painting compared to Picasso's Kahnweiler o Still life fragmentalized the objects in the painting into pieces, which are then meshed into the background. Viewers thus see fragments of the objects in the picture that seem broken amidst other pieces of the painting, as if hidden in a jigsaw puzzle. this piece marked another era in the artist's journey through painting. Paul Cezanne had begun works with geometrized compositions that fascinated the artist and started him working on simplified forms and flattened spatial planes. Fueled by his meeting with Picasso in 1907, during which they discovered a common interest in Cubist techniques, Braque abandoned a bright Fauve palette for muted colors. Stare at the various shades of color and we will find fragments of the violin at the bottom left side of the painting against the backdrop of what appears to be music scores, all aligned vertically along the length of the painting. Stare hard at the violin and we will see the fragmented strings and the carved S and inverted S shapes that are typical of violins. Stare harder and the pieces seem to float before our eyes. The muted colors allow the play of light and shadows so that as we move from side to side or stare hard at the painting, the various pieces seem to move or merge with other pieces. Examine each piece, and we will be amazed at how detailed Braque had been in examining a violin, so that we are able, as a violin maker would, to identify the pieces that go into making a violin.
MANET, Déjeuner sur l'herbe
o Rejected from the salon o What we see: two women and men; nature (with forest and food, a rowboat, a stream) o Nude women vs dressed men o Conclusions we can draw: central density of subjects (optical illustion which Manet was obsessed over,) separate mini-compositions, shocked its society o France o This painting breaks the rules of painting by having loose brush strokes, and such detail on the bathing lady makes makes her small (in terms of hierarchy of scale) o Paintings acceptable are classical paintings about mythology • Victorine Meurent in painting • Picasso also inspired by dejeuner sur l'herbe • There have been photos, sculptures, pop culture and other paintings inspired by this work
PICASSO, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler
o Subject sat 30 times with this painting o Looks more flat represents a further incursion into the break-up of form to the point at which the sitter seems barely discernible, Kahnweiler's face can just about be picked out in the upper-right of the image, identifiable mainly by the inclusion of a wave of hair and a simple line to suggest a moustache. Two similar lines in the lower centre of the image register his watch chain, whilst his clasped hands can be seen at bottom-centre. Interestingly, Picasso included on African mask in the top-left, though this is barely discernible. From this point onwards, Cubism would rapidly develop into on even more experimental and challenging art form. subject is a a German-born art dealer, writer, and publisher. the subject opened an art gallery in Paris in 1907and in 1908 began representing the artist, whom he introduced to Georges Braque. the subject was a great champion of the artists' revolutionary experiment with Cubism and purchased the majority of their paintings between 1908 and 1915. He also wrote an important book, The Rise of Cubism, in 1920, which offered a theoretical framework for the movement. Hailing originally from Germany, the subjecthad begun to make inroads into the Parisian art market, and at this time he was beginning to buy works by the artist. Not long after this portrait was painted, the subject offered the artist an exclusive contract that secured the artist's financial security until the outbreak of the First World War.
PICASSO, Glass and Bottle of Suze
o What are these objects? • There is a glass bottle in the middle of the composition, the label makes the form obvious • That cutout above "suze" could be the reflection of the glass • The glass is the ccharcoal thing to the left of the bottle • That white quadrilateral by the glass could be a cigarrette with an ashtray • The newspapers could be what is read or could be metaphoric of the conversation at play
MUYBRIDGE, Horse Galloping
o Zoopraxiscope o Is the first to do a more natural set, frame-by-frame picture o Funded by Leland Stanford, owner of Stanford U & is the gov. of CA, and they come up with the horses in motion photographs o Whenever the horse passes the strings, it trips the tripwires, and triggers the cameras--taking a shot of the horse in motion o He improves shutter accuracy; he considered th elighting as well o His picture of the Horse Galloping is considered to be one of the building blocks of cinema o He's figuring out how to make this tech, and how to view them as well.
Emily Beeny, "Christ and the Angels: Manet, the Morgue, and the Death of History Painting?"
talks about how Manet's subjects compare to a dead body and the frnch fascination of the morgue; One might reasonably describe both the Olympia and the Dead Christ as ''irreducibly there.'' The bodies in these paintings are represented with a frankness Manet's original viewers might have associated more immediately with science or entertainment—or the Morgue, which combined the two—than with high art. I propose that, perhaps as much as his notoriously frank representation of a prostitute in the Olympia, it was Manet's apparent introduction of thereness and the new way of looking conceived at the Morgue into the province of grande peinture that so scandalized his public. Like a prostitute, a Morgue cadaver confronted its viewer with an unmistakably modern and eerily inexpressive body; like the maison close, the Morguewould prove a foundational site (and sight) for modernism
MONET, Madame Monet en Costume Japonais
the artist painted this lifesize portrait of his wife, Camille, in 1876. The work was exhibited at the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876. It was well accepted by the public and could be sold to a collector. Later the artist would call the painting a heap of trash. Shows Japonisme: the artist was among the Impressionist painters who admired Japanese art, and especially Japanese woodblock prints. • The image shows Madame Monet dressed in an elaborate kimono, holding a Japanese fan in her hand. She wears a blond wig. Her kimono is lavishly embroidered and the background is decorated with numerous Japanese fans. Such items could then be bought for a few pennies in many shops in Paris. Even the big department stores had special sections for Japanese items.
GESAMTKUNSTWERK
total work of art; in music, architecture, painting, jewelry
analytic cubism
• 1908 - 1912 • Georges Braque & Pablo Picasso • influences: African art, Paul Cézanne • medium: painting
synthetic cubism
• 1912-1914 • Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, and Juan Gris • media: papier collé & collage
COURBET, A Burial at Ornans
• Being a realism in this context, to make a very very large painting very large at a funeral was not very normal at the time. • Unusual painting at the time; painting's scene was a regular, ordinary scene; not like the Liberty painting. • Setting in the painting is a real place by the Swiss border, everyone in the painting is looking all over the place/everyone is pretty equal, no central figure; the dog is in the funeral, the kids in the funeral looking bored. While overall the mood is very somber, the various moods are true to real life
MANET, Olympia
• Controversial The pale figure (Victorine Mourent) is making eye contact with the audience; confident with her nudity In the reading, compared it to a time when people would hang out at the morgue In the 19th century, when the French can casually see the dead in a morgue, there are viewing galleries to unidentified nude bodies; morbid fascination A lot of comments when the painting was first exhibited said that the pale figure was like a corpse; the way she's posed, to the flowers, the cat, the way how she's looked down on (the root word for "morgue") to the green curtains that were also in a French morgue Of the darker figure (servant: Laure) and the cat, they are very very hard to see; very much a racial divide in the painting When this was made, there were a lot of racial prejudices of black people; having Laure in the painting makes the pale figure more sexual (stereotype that black women are more sexual) Cat is very straightforward as the vulgar term At the time, Victorian women looking at the painting were clothed Paint handling was very light, not enough illusionistic modeling, looks cartoony at the time
MÉLIÈS, Trip to the Moon (Voyage dans la Lune)
• French filmmaker in 1900s • Started out as a magician/illusionist • His early films incorporate his experience as an illusionist • Made over 500 short films • Got pushed out when the big studios came along, but he was very popular at a time • Four Troublesome Heads (Four Heads are Better Than One) • He's snipping and cutting out frames to make illusions • Interested in visual curiosity • Trip to the Moon, 1902 • Colored version of this black and white film has been hand painted with color, frame by frame
MUNCH, The Scream
• He's projecting the anxieties and depression unto the world, it's a beautiful sunset in real life, but the painting and the description shows otherwise • "Blood" "Flaming sword" = words that project the feeling of agony and pain; very visceral, cathardic • The entry was likely written after the painting was made as an attempt to describe what the painting is about • "The fjord" - Norwegian/Northern European formation • In the painting, the artist does not know the two people in the background • In the painting, the way that the figure is depicted; the figure looks like a skull, emaciated, like a sense of death/existential fear • In the entry, the artist mentions oscillations, which could imply that this is a depiction of his mental state • In the painting, we can "feel" the sound of the scream from the strokes/vibrations o Readings: There is a debate -- How much should we read the artist's life into his paintings • In Nahum's "Wild Embrace", she argues that his art is about his experiences in attachment in loss; really about his story; also talks about his relationship with women (as a mother figure and as a sexual figure); artist lost his mother and sister died of tuberculosis when he was young • In Clarke's reading, they were partly true experience, and part about imagination according to the artist; we get an interesting idea that the Scream could be autobiographical and/or simply just constructing a personality of a tortured artist • When the artist wrote the diaries, he intended for people to read it by publishing it • the artist was also a prolific printer; would often slice pieces of the block, and when put back together, you can see that there's disconnect; kind of to portray the disconnect of life • The Scream is still so commercialized today
CAILLEBOTTE, Le Pont de l'Europe,
• How are the people in the painting connected to each other? The people look middle-high class, judging by the way they are dressed, they seem like they are enjoying the day Are the couple together? • It could because of his movement together • It could not, because they are not actually next to each other o The assumption of the woman, is that if she is there by herself, she could be a prostitute, he could be soliciting her for sex. • Context: typically high class women belong in the home; to be outside, means they could be a prostitute. o People argue that the dude in the black jacket turning toward the lady could be the painter himself CAILLEBOTTE • Where is the guy actually looking? • Some people argue that he cold be looking at the man looking at the bridge (could be gay) o CAILLEBOTTE was a lifelong bachelor o The painting is very open to interpretation • Poet, essayist, and literary and art critic Charles BAUDELAIRE quote to painting Encouraged artists to represent modern life
KLIMT, The Kiss
• Oil and gold leaf on canvas • From Klimt's gold period • Influence: Klimt's father was involved in metalsmithing also inspired by early Christian art in the byzantine period, made up of tesserae (little tiles/glass embedded with metal as a mosaic) William Morris, Wandle: printed cotton textile design • Describe the scene (reading: how are men and women represented here?) The man is wearing clothing with angular geometric shapes The woman has very organic shapes on her clothing Possibly playing on the ideas of masculinity The woman looks unconscious--possibly entranced Both of their bodies are intertwined into one big shape (patterns come together if you look closely): sense of human passion Has an otherworldly sense with his crown of ivory, and the intense coloration These two figures could possibly be Dionysus and Ariane (sp??) or it could be Klimt and his lover
PICASSO, Still Life with Chair Caning
• Over time, Picasso and Braque get tired of painting so they turn to assemblages for a time • o "JOU" pops up a lot, it could be Jouer (to play) or Jounal (newspaper) o They think of these as visual games in a sense o You could think that this is a table with objects piled on top, or an abstract still life • Picasso, Glass and Bottle of Suze o What are these objects? • There is a glass bottle in the middle of the composition, the label makes the form obvious • That cutout above "suze" could be the reflection of the glass • The glass is the ccharcoal thing to the left of the bottle • That white quadrilateral by the glass could be a cigarrette with an ashtray • The newspapers could be what is read or could be metaphoric of the conversation at play
KLIMT, Judith I
• Related painting: Artemisia Gentileschi's Judith Beheading Holofernes Aubrey Beardsley's work that feature beheadings featuring contemporary, stylish women You see a beautiful woman, very focused on her face, but there's also the head of a man (beheaded)--Klimt's woman looks satisfied, the painting is sexual Femme Fatale Story was that the murder is justified
PICASSO, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
• Spanish painter moves to france • This was a shocking at the time, but delayed response because he didn't release it for a while (it was just in his studio for a time) • Bought by the NY MOMA in 1938(?) • For sure, compared to Matisse's Blue Nude, this was a jumping off point for Picasso in this painting • Picasso was very intruigued by that and wanted to push the envelope • Borrows poses from Matisse's work in The Joy of Life--the body shapes and poses • Spent 6 months to prepare this work Look at the sketches and compare--what changed along the way? (Medical student, sailor, and five nudes in a bordello to Demoiselles d'avignon) At first, the figures were men, and by the end, became all women This was in a brothel in spain on a street call avignon Why identify a medical student? Possibly studying anatomy or disease (stds; at this time, people are starting to realize that they exist) The middle sketch has color study (color of flesh), it has only a little bit in the beginning In the final painting, the one posed with the arm above her head appears only there, and not in the first two preliminary work. Possibly inspired by matisse in the end The vibe of this painting: • It feels like it escalates--looks normal from end and then abstract on the other side; looks inviting and not as well; it's confusing especially with the masks on the figures This is one of Picasso's earliest works that lead to his cubist style--revolutionizes painting Overall, Picasso is very interested in breaking up space in a new way Matisse was horrified by this painting too Picasso called this painting his "exorcism" painting A lot of the commentary of this says that the masked women are repulsive; possibly the painting is about sexual anxiety
BEARDEN, Three Folk Musicians
• The reading ties in african art and talks about where that does, the essay talks about how african american artists and takes this full circle, and shows that african art is very interesting, and is shown in galleries and people get inspired by these How is the artist inspired by picasso's ithree musicians? There is playfulness in patterns There are musicians In picasso's painting, the subject playing the flute is a harlequin Bearden writes that modern art is borrowed from african sculpture and he is ok w that "practically all great artists have accepted the influence of others" the artist himself is Inspired by african art There is quilting which is strong in african american communities Decorating your home w all these images and articles to help insulate the house and provide insulation comparing the artist's work to Picasso's: The eye moves around Both represents portraits Expands on the original cubist piece and pplies what he sees Sections color pieces and monochrome Oscilations of scale disorients our perception
DELAUNAY-TERK, Electric Prisms
• What's new that they added to the cubist formula? Added color; especially contrasting colors Played with the architecture of the Eiffel Tower Electric Prism does not give you objects to latch on to, but the subject could represent lights the artist became popular in costuming, though he was more famous than her; but she financially supported her husband
Sigmund Freud
• psychoanalysis: the "talking cure"; therapy that investigates interactions of conscious and unconscious mind • used free association, hypnosis, and dream analysis • self is constituted by three parts: • id: most childish, demanding part of self, ruled by the "pleasure principle," i.e. seeks pleasure and avoids pain • ego: mediates between the id and the ego with reason and logic; ruled by the "reality principle," i.e. understanding that desires can't always be satisfied • superego: contains our values; ruled by "moralistic principle," i.e. concepts of right and wrong gained from life experiences and cultural mores •universal drives: • the life drive (eros): preservation of life, basic needs of health, safety, sustenance, sexual reproduction • the death drive (thanatos): drive toward death and self destruction, i.e. traumatic repetition of an event
SABATIER-BLOT, Portrait of Daguerre, Daguerrotype
• subject of the photo Became more known as the father of the photograph • Parts of the daguerreotype: daguerreotype, leather/velvet case, mat, glass, preserver--this is very fragile, but the actual photo is very detailed • subject of the photo partnered with the French Govt to make his tech more accessible He gets a pension from the French Govt, and his daguerreotype becomes shared with the world According to how you hold the image to the light, you can see that the surface is completely mirrored, and that has to do with the process with the plate. Daguerre-Giroux Camera (original camera that Daguerre developed with a relative) with a plate, plate holder, iodine box for sensitizing, and mercury box for development. • Camera produced unique images that measured 8.5 x 6.5 in. • Cost approx. 400 francs (one year's salary; not cheap at the time.) • What does the subject say of his invention? That it will be of great interest to science, give new impulse for the arts and far from damaging them The Daguerreotype is not merely an instrument which serves to draw nature; on the contrary that it is a chemical and physical process which gives nature the power to reproduce itself
