Art History II final exam prep
Fin de siécle culture
"End of century"-Paris night life, bourgeois, political development, formation/acquisition of colonies. Artistic climate of sophistication, escapism, extreme aestheticism, world-weariness, and fashionable despair.
Georges Seurat
1st artist to starve to death. Had a very personal connection to color. Invented divisionism: blue and yellow dots to make green. Exhibited with the Impressionists once but saw that their obsession with light was at the expense of structure. He believed in solidity. Light is only valid when you emphasize color. Had a strong dislike for impressionists. Context: bourgeois art world. 1st stage of capitalist art market as opposed to government patronage. Art school education was slowly becoming expendable, the diploma did not carry as much weight. Art became extremely diverse during modernism.
Lazlo Moholy-Nagy
A Hungarian painter and photographer as well as professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the integration of technology and industry into the arts. Surrealist
Edvard Munch, Scream, 1893
A symbolic work, depicts restlessness and agony, bourgeois alienation, nightmarish atmosphere. Contour lines were a nonacademic approach to painting Surrealists were inspired by Munch Dramatic presentation evokes a visceral, emotional response in the viewer...the fiery red and yellow stripes give the sky an eerie glow. Original title of this work was Despair Context: Fin de siécle (end of the century) culture and La belle époque (the Beautiful Era)
Vincent van Gogh
A very passionate artist who was not trained in an Art school- he took private lessons but instructor told him he was a terrible painter. 1st to apply paint on canvas with the paint tube. Post Impressionist Major contribution to the art world: intense color palette and compositional style. Seen as the bad boy of the art world, painted for 7 years and never sold a painting. Agonized, eccentric with neurological problems (seizures). Eye sensitivity wanted to be normal. He didn't like urban environments, too noisy and not a very social person. Removed from politics.
Munch
An intense person with a miserable life who refused to look outside. Symbolism: not a style but an approach where the artists looks inside himself when he paints. Subjective approach, open to interpretation, no right or wrong interpretations. He believed humans were powerless before the great natural forces of death and love.
Pablo Picasso, Still-Life with Chair Caning, 1912
Avant-garde art of the second half of the twentieth century is indebted to this brave renunciation. But that doesn't make this kind of Cubism, often called Synthetic Cubism (piecing together, or synthesis of form), any easier to interpret. mixed media painting Like the Analytical phase of Cubism, the Synthetic phase conveyed a sense of the tableau-objet (painting as a subject in of itself). This work is revolutionary in that the inclusion of exterior materials into art was to transform Cubism and to become the source for much of 20th century art. As the first Cubist Collage, Still Life with Chair Canning creates a reality without using illusionism. Instead of using traditional painting methods, Picasso incorporates a piece of commercially made oil cloth printed with a cane chair pattern, and thick textured rope as a frame.
Modern Art blurb
Brought context to the foreground. Art is always about context. Modernism embraces contradictions, it is built on fragments. What does a brush stroke signify? Dialogue between seeing a brushstroke for a brushstroke vs whatever it is signifying. Modern art is a language.
Alberto Giacometti, City Square. 1949
Bulky base becomes an integral part of the piece, base used a lot of bronze--more in the base than on the figures, not traditional. Revolutionized sculpture, minimal positive space and minimal figure mass. Suspended identity, stick figures walk w/o contact with one another, raises questions about positive and negative space (you see more negative), figures are ghost like. 1st sculpture to express bourgeois alienation
Futurism
Formed in 1911 celebrated the machine, speed, movement---symbolized progress, often pro-facist...started as a poetic movement then became a visual one. In the early years of the twentieth century, industrialization swept across Italy, motion became very important capital. Brilliant representation of motion, layering- very similar to/leaned on cubist language for their own purposes Quickly adapted by film makers It was considered bad art for a long time
Russian Constructivism, Productivism, and Proletkult
Constuctivism: was a movement created by the Russian avant-garde and spread throughout Europe. Constructivist art is committed to complete abstraction with a devotion to modernity, themes are often geometric, experimental, and rarely emotional. Constructivist themes are also quite minimal, the artwork is broken down into its most basic elements. Productivism: Emerged after the Russian revolution and an off shoot of constructivism ---Tatlin was one of the leaders, abstraction was used for social development and advancement, utilitarian abstraction Proletkult: Proletarian culture, culture of the people
3 well known art movements in Modern Visual art
Cubism (although no manifesto), Surrealism (started as a literary movement) and minimalism. Cubism and Surrealism influenced cinema.
Giorgio de Chirico, Melancholy and Mystery of a Street, 1914
De Chirico intentionally used two contradictory vanishing points, thus destroying any resemblance to reality. Strange geometric abstraction not cubist, kind of flat Irrational juxtapostion, ambigious...shadow can not exist without an object, a sign w/o reference. Psychological element and investigation into the shadow Stark distinction between light and shadow, simplified architecture, not thick painting. Meaningless arch that leads no where, train passing random sculpture. All of the lines of the fully illuminated building on the left meet slightly above the horizon; the alignments of the dark building meet at a point where the truck roof touches the yellow of the ground. One last detail concerning the perspective is an isometric depiction of a freight car, mysteriously lit by a light coming from...well, nowhere. This juxtaposition of light sources and perspectives enabled de Chirico to create a mysterious and impossible universe where spaces will never converge and the girl will never reach the statue.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge, 1892-5
Depicts a scene of Parisian nightlife. A different view of society, a compassionate dark side. The characters in the painting are dramatic, the painting has a drastic perspective, cut offs, and interesting details. Not keyhole perspective, he is there fully inside the scene Degas, Japanese prints, and photography influenced this painting's oblique composition, but the glaring lighting, mask-like faces, and dissonant colors are distinctly Lautrec
Impressionism- style with manifesto
Developed in Paris in the 1860s, its influence spread throughout Europe and eventually the U.S. Its originators were artists who rejected the official, government-sanctioned exhibitions, or salons, and were shunned by powerful academic art institutions. They turned away from the fine finish and detail to which most artists of their day aspired, the Impressionists aimed to capture momentary, sensorial effects of a scene - the impression objects made on the eye in a fleeting instant. To achieve this effect, many Impressionist artists moved from the studio to the streets and countryside, painting en plein air. Primarily interested in the effect of light, clinical discoveries, influenced by science and thought what they were doing as scientific. They were not interested in the proper representation of material of buildings. L'effect: immediate effect of light on the retina
Franz Marc
German Expressionist- Blue Rider group painter (founded by Kandinsky). Early visits to Paris in 1903 and 1907 introduced him to Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, he was strongly attracted to the work of Van Gogh and he influenced his style and pushed Marc towards expressionism.
Paul Cézanne
First exhibited with the Impressionists but he was annoyed with the preoccupation of light at the expense of structure. Everything you see is made of geometrical forms. Forms are made of building blocks alerting the viewer to the artificial nature of painting. Referred to as the father of cubism- 1st western artist to emphasize geometric forms over everything else.
Paul Cézanne, The Basket of Apples, c. 1895
Flat, not a lot of shadows, the drapery is too stiff, the table lacks perspective, the bottle looks like it is falling, apples are like orbs. Applied color in blocks no middle tones, makes you look at it as geometrical shapes Still lifes were a good place to experiment, viewers are aware of the 2d aspect of the painting
Images
Have the potential for both realistic and abstract interpretations- you can't see abstraction exclusively, two sides of the same coin. All representations have both realistic and abstract qualities
Kazimir Malevich
He came out of Constructivism, he abandoned proletkult ideals- made work that was more personal and spiritual. Spoke out against Stalin and Art constructivism
Paul Gauguin
He started as an Art dealer not a trained painter. Symbolist- subjective color palette. Fantasy as authentic, some modeling, planes of color. Looking out and looking in yields different results and contributions. He was interested in Primitivism approaches. Primitivist approach to art: rejected proportion and perspective similar to Japanese prints. A new way of seeing space and different approach to representations of bodies. 1st painter to leave the country to go live with natives (in Tahiti) the exotic other. Called himself a savage. His work was rejected in Paris yet it also opened new doors for modernist paintings Disney land representation of Tahiti, fabricated authenticity. By this time in history indigenous people dressed in western clothes.
Georges Braque
Helped to develop what we call Cubism. Braque's work throughout his life focused on still lifes and means of viewing objects from various perspectives through color, line, and texture.
Vincent van Gogh, Night Café, 1888
Here the lights come alive. He used warm shadows made from warm colors not cool colors like other approaches. Harsh contours. Subject matter: usually members of socially marginalized populations (he never painted the elite). He explored the ways in which colors and distorted forms express emotions. The thickness, shape, and direction of the brushstrokes create a tactile counterpart to the intense colors
Picasso
Highly influenced by African Art, similar to primitivism-denies Western progress in search of pureness and freshness. He was only interested in the objects (that poured in from Anthropological exploits) not African culture Objects helped him find resolutions to his artistic problems, they had the geometrical forms Cezanne was advocating for. Imperialist approach to these objects- ground breaking nonetheless
Paul Gauguin, Vision after the Sermon, 1888
Intensely religious place, similar to the Amish, separate from urban modernity. He chose a location and community that he believed was primitive, pristine, and more innocent. He pushed the limits of flatness, abstract patterns, solid planes, flat and deflated look. Influenced by Japanese prints, stained glass- outlines enclose large areas of unmodulated color
Cubism
Is never complete abstraction. The stage for cubism was set by Cezanne. It left a long and important legacy in Modern Art. Fundamental break from Renaissance art. Not about subject matter. In depth investigation of an image, 2d or 3d. The 1st to start dialogue between 2d and 3d. It is an experimentation of planes and forms. It rejected the pictorial illusionism that had dominated Western art for centuries. Disrupts the illusion of realism (trompe l'oei-tromploy) Cubism crosses artistic and philosophical ways of understanding the self and objects in space. Stylistically, it flattens space but does not deflate the object, compressed even claustraphobic compositions. The way we think about artists (bohemian etc.) came about during this time. Picasso generation blurred the line between art and life broke social codes. When Braque and Picasso met they saw that were experimenting in similar ways, reacting to the same culture and crisis. Picasso cubism through portraits, Braque through landscapes.
Post Impressionism
Is not a style no manifesto...a medley of things happening around a similar time in some ways reacting to Impressionist approach
Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Space-Time Modulator, 1921-30.
Kinetic sculpture, different components -light effect, sculpture with dynamic possibilities. Revolutionized sculpture--moving parts
Gustave Caillebotte, Paris: A Rainy Day, 1877
Large painting, very meticulous, figurative Flanuer: an idea of an imagined man- who goes around the city looking. Usually middle class, he wanders around dispassionately. He is a symbol, the vision of modernity, and the concept of fleeting moments. Modern way of looking at life. Powerful image of life in France.
Analytic Cubism
Objects are examined for shapes from any angle of view, not just one fixed point of view (linear perspective). Selected shapes are shuffled, rearranged, and embedded in the picture plane as facets.
Henri Matisse, Red Room (Harmony in Red), 1908-09
Painting is a flat surface, ambiguous illusion- wall paper and table are the same color, no change in tonality, contradicts the role of color. The flatness reminds the viewer of the 2d nature of painting and the canvas. Flatness is his sole concern. Matisse collapses space and reason. He is not trying to fool the viewer into thinking this is real (unlike trumplo- fooling the eye-where illusion is the objective). Red is just red-it is self referential. Matisse deconstructs illusion consciously, a radical departure from academic painting techniques. Is the window a window or a painting within a painting? He makes no attempt to direct you- ambiguous depiction
Franz Marc, Large Blue Horses, 1911
Pastoral, raw colors, utopian view, patterns and rhythm. Different approach than Kandinsky, quasi spiritual. The horses are rather awkward and bulky, they are bunched in a small, constricted with the viewer's vantage point close to the action. The blue horses symbolically reference the conceptual origins of the Blue rider group: the symbol of the horse as a vehicle of breakthrough, the emphasis on the spirituality of blue, and in the idea of spirituality battling materialism.
Georges Braque, The Portuguese, 1911
Portrait/still life. Monochromatic, rejected color- he thought is was too distracting. All about planes, and breaking plans. Analytic approach to Cubism, neutralized subject matter, very impersonal. Never completely abstract- you can still make out some details (man, instrument)- viewer has moments of recognition, he deconstructs and then reconstructs the image. It is in between realism and abstraction. 1st painting to use stenciled letters and numbers- 1st to have floating text out of context---hints to consumerism/capitalism, visual codes, urban spaces- writings on a ship Forecasts collage art
Henri Matisse
Post Impressionist and formalist, had an instinctual response to color. Student of academic painters, excellent draftsman but deviated from this approach completely. Flatness is his sole concern. He is not trying to fool the viewer into thinking this is real (unlike trumplo- fooling the eye-where illusion is the objective). His worked is considered a part of Fauvism Non-confrontational and non political, he focused on Art and painting not the Nazi occupation like his radical daughter. He believed painters should choose compositions and colors that express their feelings.
Francis Bacon, Painting. 1946.
References the atrocities of war word II, human immorality, trauma, evil side of humanity instead of human greatness. Influenced by Surrealists Image of a powerful, stocky man with a gapping mouth and vivid red stain on his upper lip, as if he were a carnivore devouring the raw meat sitting on the railing around him. Flayed carcass in the background is like a human crucified form..."an attempt to remake the violence of reality itself" Purely Existential Art: no redemption here, no hope---Neither Nietzsche or the Surrealists went this far References the work of Valesquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X as well as Rembrandt's Slaughtered Ox. Unlike Rembrandt, this is a thinly painted painting without sensuous light. Context: Postwar Expressionism in Europe
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Saw himself as a pariah similar to Parisian entertainers and prostitutes (who where famous and reviled at the same time). He looked outside at society but still apart of the post-impressionist approach. He was a small person (not a dwarf) born to a wealthy family and frequented brothels. 1st artist to make posters for Nightclubs: colored lithographs. Context: Advertisement and capitalism is becoming more prominent.
Edgar Degas, The Little Dancer, c. 1880
Small sculpture that Degas made for himself. He was not a sculptor, this is a very significant work, an example of an artist crossing disciplines- violates sculptures rules, skirt is made of bronze as well. Context: Degas created this piece during a time where specializations were changing slowly, painters were also doing sculpture
Meret Oppenheim, Cup, Saucer and Spoon in Fur, 1936.
Surrealist. Incongruent juxtaposition of fur and kitchenware, completely constructed. Captures the incongruity, humor, visual appeal and eroticism of Surrealism Andre Breton asked her to participate in a Surrealist exhibition dedicated to ordinary objects, Oppenheim went to a department store and bought a teacup, saucer and spoon. She covered the items with the fur of a Chinese gazelle. In doing so, she said she wanted to transform items typically associated with feminine decorum into sensuous tableware. It also provoked the viewer into imagining what it would be like to drink out of a fur-lined cup.
Synthetic Cubism
Synthetic Cubism, this symbolic style of art is more colorful than the earlier analytic cubism, incorporates a wide variety of extraneous materials, and is particularly associated with Picasso's novel technique of collage and Braque's papier colles. A collaboration between Picasso and Braque.
Vladimir Tatlin, Monument to the Third International. 1919-20
Tatlin's most famous work known as Tatlin's tower Iconic image, model for a building (conference center) Center of society Optimistic climate, uses geometry (reductive geometry), structure and cubist approaches Famous structure made out of abstract principles- Designed to revolve per day, month and year, never built but highly celebrated
Bauhaus School
Taught the idea of total art, art that incorporates a vision of a just society, with utility, aesthetic balance, and harmony. Left a strong legacy in modern art. Two part training: abstract ideas and concepts and hands on. The same commitment and passion was give to both. 2nd wave: practicality, comfort, cost effectiveness and utility.
Kazimir Malevich, White on White. 1918.
Total denial of reality, it is a paradox concerning abstraction and reality. A blank tilted canvas on a white wall...the slide gives no sign that it is a painting. It can lend itself to a realistic interpretation by being completely abstract.
La belle époque:
The Beautiful Era from 1890s to the beginning of first WWII. On the surface everything looked good but underneath there was unrest, a great tension between nations, colonizers and colonies. Corrupt city life, crime and prostitution. An era where Europe shoved crap underneath the rug until everything feel apart around 1914s Artists and intellectuals saw through the facade
Primitivism
The artistic and stylistic incorporation of elements/characteristics of primitive cultures (African, Oceania, indigenous peoples etc)
Georges Seurat, La Grande Jatte, 1884-6,
The entire surface of the painting is made up of dots of raw color. The painting has a soft light. The figures and trees have statuesque qualities. Everything is very distinct and delineated. Created divisionism technique.
Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913,
The figure is aerodynamically deformed by speed. Represents speed and motion. Roman god Mercury-breaking of planes, no hands. Radical two bases--forceful momentum, gesture running. Futurist application to sculpture. Influenced animation Context: The beautiful Era headed towards war. Futurism: The movement was founded by writers and artists such as Umberto Boccioni, who were excited about new inventions such as cars and electricity.
Giorgio De Chirico
The predecessor of the Surrealist movement, Giorgio de Chirico intentionally subverted fictive spaces, typically city squares bordered by arcades or brick walls, to create enigmatic experience and refute reality. Interested in Fredrick Nietzsche's work- questioned reality and what reality means to us
Sculpture
Used to have a very limited subject matter-humans and animals figures, Christian based. The subjects represented God's finest creations and this gave it aesthetic importance. Sculpture was seen as public and powerful but a lower form of visual arts during the Renaissance. Objects, landscapes etc would not make sense in this philosophy of sculpture. In the 18th century painters (intellectuals) did not sculpt, sculpture was seen as a form of manual labor. Historically sculpture was very confined but when it broke free it exploded and became more radical than painting
Cycle of life painting, Primitivism and Le Savage
Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? Precursor to Existentialism The search for authenticity was a part of the primitivist approach Le savage to Gauguin was pristine and elementary not burdened by western decadence. Problematic approach laden with socio-political, cultural, and economic power dynamics between the colonizer and the colonized.
Fauvism style no manifesto
Wild animal- Derogatory term/label made up by critics who hated the work/aesthetic. Fauvists made impressionists look conservative. Did not last long, left a legacy-a passion for color not symbolism purely formal. Matisse's work fell under this category