content area 4

The Kiss, Gustav Klimt

- Austria - 1907 CE Form Almost a perfect square painting There's lots of gold. This usually reminds people of religious icons (byzantine tradition) , so Klimt was trying to create a modern icon and a sense of spirituality and transcendence The gold circles rise off the surface of the canvas and catch the light On the male figure there are patterns that are direct of linear in contrast to the curvilinear to the circles and the ovals in the female figure The background is darker gold Function It seems as if the figures are lost in the intensity and eternity of the kiss Content Removed from the everyday world The bodies are not present here, they are cloaked in such decorative forms. The sensuality is covered The female is fully frontal but horizontal. There's a sens of passivity receiving that kiss, but also a kind of deep interior feeling with her eyes closed. Her fingers delicately touching his hands as he holds her head and his nek reaches out and round, and you get a sense of physical power through the strength og that neck, and the intensity of his desire They're both crowned. The male has a wreath of leaves and the females' looks like the stars of the heavens Context During Modernization of Vienna-- in a time of chaos and stress

A philosopher Giving a lecture on the Orrery

- England - 1763 CE -joseph wright FORM -Wright was known for his deft depiction of the contrasts between light and dark, also known as chiaroscuro, and his unflinching portrayal of the true personalities of his subjects. -This trait caused his downfall when he attempted to work as a portraitist—few wanted a portrait, warts and all. -In the 1760s Wright began to explore the traditional boundaries of various genres of painting. According to the French academies of art, the highest genre of painting was history painting, which depicted Biblical or classical subjects to demonstrate a moral lesson. -Wright applied it to this painting. Rather than a moral of leadership or heroism, this painting's "moral" is the pursuit of scientific knowledge. ** -With its collection of non-idealized men, women, boys, and girls informally arranged in a small physical space around a central organizing point, Wright's painting mimics the compositional structure of a conversation piece (an informal group portrait) with the dramatic lighting and scale expected from a major religious scene -Wright mimics Baroque artists like Caravaggio, who inserted strong light sources in otherwise dark compositions to create dramatic effect. -Most of these earlier works were Christian subjects, and the light sources were often simple candles - The gas lamp illuminates the scene, allowing the viewer to clearly see the figures, and it symbolizes the active enlightenment in which those figures are participating. FUNCTION -A key idea of the Age of Enlightenment—that empirical observation grounded in science and reason could best advance society—is expressed by the faces of the individuals CONTENT -Two young boys, gazing over the edge of the contraption in playful wonder. -A teenaged girl, her arms resting on the machine, in quiet contemplation. -A young man shielding his eyes from the brilliance of the light emanating from the center, -a young woman staring unblinkingly. -A standing man taking copious notes on the proceedings. Another man leaning back in his seat, listening intently to the gray-haired lecturer, captivating his audience like a magician. -Most likely the man standing and taking notes is Wright's friend Peter Perez Burdett, and the man seated at the far right may be Washington Shirley, 5th Earl Ferrers, the initial owner of the work. (unclear) -The most tempting theory is that his face is modeled on that of Sir Isaac Newton, the great English scientist whose work helped herald in the Enlightenment. -Another possibility is that it is a member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham. -The lamp takes the role of the sun -Theme is nature CONTEXT -encapsulates in one moment the Enlightenment, a philosophical shift in the eighteenth century away from traditional religious models of the universe and toward an empirical, scientific approach."Enlightenment" indicates an active process -The provincial English painter Joseph Wright of Derby became the unofficial artist of the Enlightenment, depicting scientists and philosophers in ways previously reserved for Biblical heroes and Greek gods. -An orrery is a mechanical model of the solar system, a miniature, clockwork planetarium. The orrery depicted by Wright has large metal rings which can simulate eclipses, and give the model a striking and exciting three-dimensionality.

Slave Ship, Joseph Mallord William Turner

- England - 1840 CE FORM - The paint is thick and sensual - Sublime- enhances the dramatic effect. scary and wild FUNCTION - Tell the story of a poem and what actually happened -Beauty of nature (Has typical Turner sunset) and power of nature CONTENT -Full title: "Slave Ship Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On" -We're looking at an image of a slave ship which is a ship carrying slaves and a typhoon has come on -The captain of the ship decided to throw the slaves overboard because the typhoon is coming -That's the only way you could collect insurance. If the slaves died of illness of other things while on board, the captain of hte ship couldn't claim insurance -bottom right hand corner- there's a foot and a leg and a shackle in chains -There's a sense of divine retribution- the punishment of the storm is justified by what's happening on the ship -There's a sense of indifference of nature because the same storm that's going to overcome the slave ship is also going to drown the slaves themselves CONTEXT -Based on a poem, but it actually happened in reality too -The first owner of this painting was the great Victorian art critic, John Ruskin. Then it made its way to boston to an abolitionist -Ruskin wrote: "Purple and blue, the lurid shadows of the hollow breakers are cast upon the mist of night, which gathers cold and low, advancing like the shallow of death upon the guilty ship, as it labors amidst the lightning of the sea, it's thin masts written upon the sky in lines of blood"

The Swing, Jean-Honore Fragonard

- France - 1767 CE - Jean-Honore Fragonard FORM -Rapid brush strokes for movement -Rococo- the style of art that comes out of the Baroque but abandons the seriousness and morality but maintained the sense of energy and movement -Baroque used diagonal lines and we see those lines in this painting, through the female figure and down to her lover FUNCTION -Commissioned by a member of the French royal court (aristocracy) who asked Fragonard to paint his lover on a swing being pushed by a bishop while he hid and looked up his mistress's dress -A private commission, for a private home Meant to be playful, erotic, sexually charged. You can see the man is very in love with the woman CONTENT -The bishop is no longer a bishop in the rendering, but just an older man. He's barely visible in the lower right T-he young woman is wearing a pink silk dress lined with lace, and her shoe is flying in the air. She's sitting on red velvet that has a gilded molding at the bottom of it -At the left there's a sculpture and the sculpture is by a Rococo sculptor named Falconet and it's called "Menacing Love" -The cupid has his finger to his mouth as if asking us to keep a secret -Below that we see a relief sculpture that looks like maenads or nymphs dancing -To the lower right there are two Cupid figures that seem to be riding a classicizing dolphin, part of a fountain, and you can see the water spraying out towards the lower right of the painting -The setting is a cultivated aristocratic garden- where nature is abundant and fertile, relating to the sensuality of the story -Different from the spareness, severity, and plainness that is seen in paintings by David before the revolution CONTEXT -Fragonard is known for large scale formal history paintings and this painting abandons that kind of career -His technique changed too - rapid brush strokes- you can see the movement in the dress because of the rapid brush strokes -People opposed rococo because it was different from neoclassicism ("Oath of the Horatii")

The Oath of the Horatii, Jacques-Louis David

- France - 1784 CE FORM -There was physicality and intense emotion -example of Neoclassical history painting. -Brings classical elements into the painting -the dramatic, rhetorical gestures of the male figures convey the idea of oath-taking and the clear, even light makes every aspect of the story legible. -Instead of creating an illusionistic extension of space into a deep background, David radically cuts off the space with the arches and pushes the action to the foreground in the manner of Roman relief sculpture. -Before this painting, French history paintings in a more Rococo style involved the viewer by appealing to sentiment and presenting softly modeled graceful figures. -David acknowledged that old approach in the figures of the women in Oath of the Horatii, but challenged it with the starkly athletic figures and resolute poses of the men. -before composing Oath of the Horatii, David went to see Poussin's "Rape of the Sabine Women" and employed the lictor, the caped man, on the far left as the basis for the Horatii. -The men are very geometric and the women are curvilinear and soft looking FUNCTION - tells a story derived from the Classical world that provides an example of virtuous behavior (exemplum vertutis) -Today the painting is typically interpreted in the context of the French Revolution and David's own direct involvement as a revolutionary. CONTENT -depicts three horatii brothers saluting toward three swords held up by their father as the women behind him grieve -In the painting we witness the Horatii taking an oath to defend Rome. -It's a scene set in what might be a Roman atrium -the three men framed by the first arch, bound together with their muscled arms raised in a rigid salute toward their father framed by the central arch. -He holds three swords in his left hand and raises his right hand signifying a promise or sacrifice. -David lit the figures with a stark, clinical light that contrasts with the drama of the scene as if he wanted the viewer to respond to the scene with passion and rationality. CONTEXT -The story of Oath of the Horatii came from a Roman legend encountered by the Roman historian Livy involving a conflict between the Romans and a rival group from nearby Alba. -Rather than continue a full-scale war, they elect representative combatants to settle their dispute. --The Romans select the Horatii and the Albans choose another trio of brothers, the Curatii. -The women know that they will also bear the consequence of the battle because the two families are united by marriage. -One of the wives in the painting is a daughter of the Curatii and the other, Camilla, is engaged to one of the Curatii brothers. At the end of the legend the surviving Horatii brother kills Camilla, who condemned his murder of her beloved, accusing Camilla of putting her sentiment above her duty to Rome. -David was a dominant artist during his time

Self Portrait, Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le brun

- France - 1790 CE FORM - Oil on canvas - It is a late example of the Rococo style. CONTENT - The artist sits in a relaxed pose at her easel and is positioned slightly off center. - She wears a white turban and a dark dress—in the free-flowing style that the queen had made popular at the French court—with a soft, white, ruffled collar of the same material as her headdress. - Her belt is a wide red ribbon. She holds a brush to a partially finished work; the subject is probably queen Marie-Antoinette—perhaps intended as a tribute to her favorite sitter. -She holds slightly used brushes along with a palette, she has everything cradled in her arm close to the viewer. -The painting expresses an alert intelligence, vibrancy, and freedom from care. CONTEXT -Painted in rome -Élisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun- a French artist known especially for her portraits of Marie-Antoinette and other European monarchs and nobles -Vigée-LeBrun first met Queen Marie-Antoinette at the royal palace at Versailles in 1778. She painted the queen -Le brun became famous and wealthy as Queen Marie-Antoinette's official court painter. I-n her autobiography Souvenirs written towards the end of her life, Vigée-LeBrun wrote that her father, a minor portraitist, adored her, wishing his daughter fame and good fortune. She wrote that her mother thought of her as awkward and ugly. -Nevertheless, she grew up to be intelligent, beautiful, rich, and talented, characteristics on display in her Self-Portrait -Created soon after her departure from France at the onset of the French Revolution -in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence -one of her best-known pictures. -Rococo summarized a fashionable ideal, wherein eternal youth was pleasure-loving, characterized by a disregard of morality, especially in sexual matters. -Despite this, the artist, like her royal patron, was extremely conservative in her politics. -As she painted this portrait, her Queen was being driven from power by revolutionaries who hated the wasteful lifestyle of the nobility and would later execute both Marie-Antoinette and her husband, King Louis XVI. - Given these circumstances, Vigée-LeBrun—a working painter, wife, and mother—displays an optimistic persona.

La Grande Odalisque, Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres

- France - 1814 CE FORM - Oil on canvas - Neoclassical and romanticism - Ingres's early Romantic tendencies can be seen in this painting -At first glance this nude seems to follow in the tradition of the Great Venetian masters, for instance, Titian's Venus of Urbino. But upon closer examination, it becomes clear that this is no classical setting. -Instead, Ingres has created an aloof (not friendly and distant) eroticism accentuated by its exotic context. -The peacock fan, the turban, the enormous pearls, the hookah (a pipe for hashish or perhaps opium), and the title of the painting all refer us to the French conception of the Orient. -orientalism -Elongated back- sensuality was more important than anatomy -The left leg is in an impossible position- it would not connect with the hip -Historically, the image is inaccurate because Ingres has never been to a harem, and this image is a harem. So this is a Western idea of what a harem would look like. -She doesnt fit the painting- she is touching almost all four edges of the canvas FUNCTION -Commissioned likely by a French male viewer. the sister of Napoleon Hired Ingres to paint it. She was married to the king of Naples -Ingres covered his object of desire in a misty, distant exoticism. CONTENT - A nude with lack of energy in a luxurious interior. - Odalesque is a mistress or female slave, or woman in harem - The look she gives is an aloof look, and there is tension because of the distant between her and the viewer - She is a concubine CONTEXT - jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres worked in Jacques Louis David's studio - Ingres returned to neoclassicism after being rejected the lessons of his teacher David - He could even be said to have laid the foundation for the emotive expressiveness of Romanticism -In the mind of an early 19th century French male viewer, the sort of person for whom this image was made, the odalisque would have conjured up not just a harem slave—itself a misconception—but a set of fears and desires linked to the long history of aggression between Christian Europe and Islamic Asia. -Ingres' porcelain sexuality is made acceptable even to an increasingly strict French culture because of the subject's geographic distance. - By the time ingres finished the painting, napoleon was overthrown and there was no more Naples -Shown in the Salon of 1819 -It caused a scandal-it's a female nude and it's not Venus

Liberty Leading the people, Eugene Delacroix

- France - 1830 CE FORM - Oil on canvas - French romanticism - Chaotic, but fille with subtle order - There's a classicizing pyramid to organize these figures - Historical painting - Liberty- classical profile - Loose brushwork to energize the painting and brilliant colors FUNCTION - He depicts an event from the July Revolution of 1830, an event that replaced the resigned King Charles X with Louis Phillipe I. - It's the Trois Glorieuses—the Three Glorious Days as it came to be known—of the July Revolution CONTENT - Setting- barricade in the streets of paris - The monumental- a nude to the waist- a female figure. - The fact that her breasts are visible is a reference to antiquity, to the birth of democracy, to Ancient Greece and the Roman republican tradition. - Her yellow dress has fallen from her shoulders, as she holds a bayonetted musket in her left hand and raises the tricolor—the French national flag—with her right. - This red, white, and blue arrangement of the flag is mimicked by the attire worn by the man looking up at her. -She powerfully strides forward and looks back over her right shoulder as if to ensure those who she leads are following. -Her head is shown in perfect profile—like a ruler on a classical coin—and she wears a Phrygian cap, a classical signifier of freedom -This is an important bit of costuming—in ancient Rome, freed slaves were given one to wear to indicate their newly liberated status, and this headwear became a symbol of freedom and liberty on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. -this figure is not a specific individual. Instead, she serves as an allegory— a pictorial device intended to reveal a moral or political idea—of Liberty. -The man on the far left holds a briquet (an infantry saber commonly used during the Napoleonic Wars). -His clothing—apron, working shirt, and sailor's trousers—identify him as a factory worker, a person in the lower end of the economic ladder. His other attire identifies his revolutionary leanings. -The handkerchief around his waist, that secures a pistol, has a pattern similar to that of the Cholet handkerchief, a symbol used by François Athannase de Charette de la Contrie, a Royalist solider who led an ill-fated uprising against the First Republic, the government established as a result of the French Revolution. The white cockade and red ribbon secured to his beret also identify his revolutionary sensibilities. -This factory worker provides a counterpoint to the younger man beside him who is clearly of a different economic status. He wears a black top hat, an open-collared white shirt and cravat, and an elegantly tailored black coat. Rather than hold a military weapon like the man beside him, he has a hunting shotgun. -These two figures make clear that this revolution is not just for the economically oppressed, but for the wealthy too. -There are two young boys. On the left, a fallen adolescent who wears a light infantry bicorne and holds a short saber, struggles to regain his footing amongst the piled cobblestones that make up a barricade. -The other is on the right side. He wildly wields two pistols. He wears a faluche—a black velvet beret common to students—and carries what appears to be a school or cartridge satchel (with a crest that may be embroidered) across his body. - With no less than five guns and three blades among these six primary figures, it is not surprising that the ground is littered with the dead. -Some are members of the military, perceived by the uniform decorated with shoulder epaulettes on the figure in the lower right, while others are likely revolutionaries. -Notre Dame can be seen on the right side of the painting. This cathedral was a symbol of the monarchy and conservatism. At the top of one of its towers is the tricolor, the flag of the revolutionaries -Delacroix signed and dated his painting underneath this monument. CONTEXT - He painted this the same time the events were happening - the painting accurately renders the fervor and chaos of urban conflict - The revolutionaries dug up cobblestones that paved the streets and piled them up and erected barricades that were both defensive positions and impeded the movements of the Royalist troops. Liberty climbs over the barricade, trespassing the barrier, and continues to fight for her ideals - Delacroix completed what has become both a defining image of French romanticism and one of the most enduring modern images of revolution. - Purchased by King louis Phillippe to show he was a champion of democratic values. But it was returned to delacroiz bc it was perceived as dangerous- an image showing people coming together to overthrow a king

Still Life in Studio, Jacques-Mande Daguerre

- France - 1837 CE FORM -Daguerrotype- one-of-a-kind photographic image on a highly polished, silver-plated sheet of copper, sensitized with iodine vapors, exposed in a large box camera, developed in mercury fumes, and stabilized (or fixed) with salt water or "hypo" -Black and white -Used thin metal plate CONTENT -Images of other works of art CONTEXT -By Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre -Artists from the Renaissance onwards used a camera obscura (Latin for dark chamber), or a small hole in the wall of a darkened box that would pass light through the hole and project an upside-down image of whatever was outside the box. -However, it was not until the invention of a light sensitive surface by Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce that the basic principle of photography was born. -Many of Niépce's early images simply turned black over time due to continued exposure to light. This problem was largely solved in 1839 by the invention of hypo, a chemical that reversed the light sensitivity of paper. -Photographers after Niépce experimented with a variety of techniques. -Louis Daguerre invented a new process he dubbed a daguerrotype in 1839, ***which significantly reduced exposure time and created a lasting result, but only produced a single image. -At the same time, Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot was experimenting with what would eventually become his calotype method, patented in February 1841. Talbot's innovations included the creation of a paper negative, and new technology that involved the transformation of the negative to a positive image, allowing for more than one copy of the picture. -The collodion method was introduced in 1851. - This process involved fixing a substance known as gun cotton onto a glass plate, allowing for an even shorter exposure time (3-5 minutes), as well as a clearer image. The big disadvantage of the collodion process was that it needed to be exposed and developed while the chemical coating was still wet, meaning that photographers had to carry portable darkrooms to develop images immediately after exposure. - Further advances in technology continued to make photography less labor intensive. By 1867 a dry glass plate was invented, reducing the inconvenience of the wet collodion method. -Finally in 1888 George Eastman developed the dry gelatin roll film, making it easier for film to be carried.

The Stone Breakers, Gustave Courbet

- France - 1849 CE FORM -The painting seems disjointed (not connected) The brushwork is rough, like the stones. -Suggests that the way the artist painted his canvas was in part a conscious rejection of the highly polished, refined neoclassicist style that still dominated French art in 1848 -He refused to focus on the parts of the image that would usually receive the most attention like the hands, faces, and foreground. He instead focused on the faces and rock equally. -This painting seems to lack the basics of art (things like a composition that selects and organizes, aerial perspective and finish) and as a result, it feels more "real." -The large size gives respect to ordinary people FUNCTION -Show's the artist's concern for the plight of the poor CONTENT -Two figures labor to break and remove stone from a road that is being built. Such work was reserved as punishment for chain-gangs -Coubet depicts figures who wear ripped and tattered clothing. -The stone breakers are set against a low hill of the sort common in the rural French town of Ornans, where the artist had been raised and continued to spend much of his time -The hill reaches to the top of the canvas everywhere but the upper right corner, where a tiny patch of bright blue sky appear -The effect is to isolate these laborers, and to suggest that they are physically and economically trapped -There's a man that seems too old and a boy that seems too young for such labor. -This is not meant to be heroic. It's meant to be an accurate account of the abuse and deprivation that was common in mid-century French rural life CONTEXT -mid-century French rural life They're going to be stonebreakers forever -Working class here Reminds of augustine, calling of matthew, hunters in the snow

Nadar Raising photography Honore Daumier

- France - 1862 CE FORM - Lithograph (printing from a stone or smooth metal plate to produce mass images.) - Impressionist- nadar wanted to do this?? FUNCTION - To mock Nadar; to show that ridiculous and dangerous means have to be used to elevate photography to the height and importance of "high art." Serves as a commentary on the 1862 court decision permitting photography to be seen as high art. CONTENT - Daumier depicts Nadar as a daring photographer; - Nadar's hat is flying off, and in his own excitement to capture the perfect shot, he almost falls out of his balloon. - All building have "photographie" on them CONTEXT - The big disadvantage of the collodion process was that it needed to be exposed and developed while the chemical coating was still wet, meaning that photographers had to carry portable darkrooms to develop images immediately after exposure. - Both the difficulties of the method and uncertain but growing status of photography were lampooned by - Honoré Daumier in his Nadar Elevating Photography to the Height of Art (1862). - Nadar, one of the most prominent photographers in Paris at the time, was known for capturing the first aerial photographs from the basket of a hot air balloon. - Obviously, there were difficulties in developing a glass negative under these circumstances - Further advances in technology continued to make photography less labor intensive. - By 1867 a dry glass plate was invented, reducing the inconvenience of the wet collodion method. Prepared glass plates could be purchased, eliminating the need to fool with chemicals. - In 1878, new advances decreased the exposure time to 1/25th of a second, allowing moving objects to be photographed and lessening the need for a tripod. - Photographers in the 19th century were pioneers in a new artistic endeavor, blurring the lines between art and technology. - Frequently using traditional methods of composition and innovative techniques, photographers created a new vision of the material world. Despite the struggles early photographers must have had with the limitations of their technology, their artistry is also obvious.

Olympia, Edouard Manet

- France - 1863 CE FORM - Modern - The model was Titian's Venus of Urbino, except Manet strips away the academic technique of the representation of space of the turn of the body, and the veil of mythology - Academic art is the kind of art that was sanctioned by the official Academy that was associated with the government of France academic artists barely show any brushstrokes, while manet does - People believed that "great art" was based on the classical and the Renaissance. Manet is challenging these established ideas - Venus and other nudes were often shown in a coy way. Olympia looks directly at us. - The reality of a nude woman is present. It's not a represetntation of beauty like Venus - The area that you can see the two=dimensional surface is the way her toes peek out from under her slipper. - The awkwardness reminds us of the illusion and 2 dimensionality - realistic FUNCTION - Confronts the 19th century Paris with its own corruption CONTENT - She's not Venus, she's olympia. She looks like a real woman in a real apartment in Paris - She looks real bc her features are not idealized - This woman is a courtesan, which is a prostitute - We see olympias servant handing her flowers that probably came from one of her customers or patrons - The viewer is probably the customer that startled the cat on the right and the two people CONTEXT - Olympia was a common name for prostitutes - Ancient Greeks and Romans have a tradition of Goddess Venus modestly covering herself nude - Prostitutes were thought of to be of lower class, but in this painting she is of higher class. - So people were not pleased. The press said she looked like she was dead. - Manet outlined her in black and hardly modeled her flesh. - There were caricatures that emphasize the shadow on her hands and feet and some of the press said her hands were filthy and that those are the only areas where there's significant modeling. - The breasts and abdomen were expected to have modeling. - Manet kept these flat and the shadows on her hands draw attention to her sexuality even though nudes for centuries had shown women with their hand placed across their genitals. - There's a flatness to her body.

The Saint-Lazare, Claude Monet

- France - 1877 CE FORM - Expresses modernity and architecture through impressionism - Trains were powered by burning coal and creating steam, that required large open sheds which were held aloft by iron - Painting is drenched in steam and light and smoke - Monet is interested in pure color and light - Monet reduced the figures to quick brushstrokes, you can't make out faces - There's no atmospheric perspective. The atmosphere is in the foreground as well as in the background the paint has built up over time - Light!-the dominant formal element in many impressionist paintings - Atmosphere is everywhere. No perspective FUNCTION - Show urban life CONTENT - One of the largest train stations in the city of Paris, part of urban life (Gare Saint-Lazare - The apartment buildings int he back look modern - The puffs of steam obscure the iron framework on the top - Light is pouring in through the opening at the top of the shed creating a prism of color that is playing across the steam within - The trains dissolve into light and atmosphere, even though a train is very solid - has the Pont de l'Europe (a bridge that overlooked the train station) CONTEXT - During the 19th century, Paris was rebuilt to be more modern, a place where there's more leisure and more cash to spend and catering to middle class - The painting is not so much a single view of a train platform, it is rather a component in larger project of a dozen canvases which attempts to portray all facets of the Gare Saint-Lazare. - Of these twelve linked paintings, Monet exhibited between six and eight of them at the third Impressionist exhibition of 1877, which was independent of the official exhibitions called salons that were sponsored by the Royal Academy - So this painting is not a factual account of this station but an optical experience of light and atmosphere, a very subjective experience - this is one of only two paintings of the train station shown on a bright bright, sunny, day - Monet's paintings of trains, steam and industrial activity were severely criticized. Perhaps the criticism is due to the fact that Monet shows the locomotives as the main subject, rather than as background elements. he does not show is the grand hotel, lavish entrance or sculpture of the station's impressive façade.

The Horse in Motion, Eadweard Muybridge

- France - 1878 CE FORM - 4 rows and 4 columns in a rectangle FUNCTION - Designed to settle the question of whether or not a horse ever takes all four legs completely off the ground during a gallop, the series of photographs also demonstrated the new photographic methods that were capable of nearly instantaneous exposure. CONTENT - Racing horse with a jockey - Each still captures different moments in the horse's stride - Collectively, the photos create a sense of movement. CONTEXT - Further advances in technology continued to make photography less labor intensive. -By 1867 a dry glass plate was invented, reducing the inconvenience of the wet collodion method. -Prepared glass plates could be purchased, eliminating the need to fool with chemicals. -In 1878, new advances decreased the exposure time to 1/25th of a second, allowing moving objects to be photographed and lessening the need for a tripod. -This new development is celebrated in Galloping Horse

The Coiffure, Mary Cassatt

- France - 1890 CE Form Drypoint and aquatint on laid paper (drypoint etching) As the viewer, we are placed at a slight leftward angle from the woman in the chair so that we see her through her reflection in the mirror while she is looking away from it. It's partly a study of shape and line so that the viewer, realizing that he or she is not looking at a psychological portrait, could focus more intently on the compositional elements of the work. The curve of the woman's sloping back and neck echoes the curves of the chair which stand in contrast to the vertical lines of the mirror—a compositional counterpoint that further enhances the tension within the tight composition. The limited color palette of shades of rose, brown, and white, enables us to focus closely on the form and clarity of line. It also mimics the quality of pastels. Through the process of the drypoint and aquatint etching, La Coiffure combines Cassatt's propensity for hazy shading and soft tones with a bold sharpness in line allowing the artist to integrate the qualities of two disparate media. Her desire to emulate the haziness, sensual, and suggestive possibilities of pastels is what motivated Cassatt not to use woodblock printing but intaglio. First, Cassatt carved her designs onto a smooth copper plate with a fine metal needle. Then the plate would be dusted with a powdered resin and heated until the resin melted in tiny mounds that hardened as they cooled. Acid was then added on to the metal plate biting the channels along the resin droplets. The deeper penetration of acid produced richer, darker tones, while a lighter application of acid produced lighter shades of color and a variety of nuanced gradients could be generated within a single print. Once Cassatt had replicated a certain number of images from a plate, she would incise the plate with a needle so that no one could use the same image again. Function This is one of the hundreds of drpoints that Mary Cassatt made in her in-home studio in the summer and fall of 1890 and in the winter of 1891. It was inspired in part by a woodblock print in her personal collection, Kitagawa Utamaro's boudoir image of the daughter of a prosperous Edo businessman, Takashima Ohisa Using Two Mirrors to Observe Her Coiffure. The voyeuristic (relating to or denoting sexual pleasure gained from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity) element to the scene is drawn from precedents like Ingres (La Grand Odalisque), which Cassatt studied at the Louvre when she was a young student in the mid 1860s. The woman in La Coiffure is not sexualized. Though her breasts are exposed, her chest and the details of her body are deliberately muted into an overall structure of curves and crisp lines. This is an exercise in clarity and tone where the subject, the woman's body, is a compositional element in the picture—as vividly realized as the other significant patterns of the room—the wallpaper, the fabric of the armchair, and the carpet. The prints provided artists with an opportunity to showcase their skill in concision—using no more than is necessary to convey an idea Cassatt's motivation in making the prints was to make her art more accessible for a large audience. Content The woman sits in a plush armchair in front of mirror, her head focused downward, her back arched, as she adjusts her bun. Cassatt was inspired in part by some of Degas' pastels of women grooming. In the spirit of ukiyo-e and Impressionism, these prints capture fugitive, fleeting moments of the busy lives of the Parisian bourgeois and working class. Context In April of 1890, the École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Paris showcased an exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints. These ukiyo-e images, "pictures of the floating world," as they were evocatively called, were comprised mostly of scenes of urban bourgeois pleasure—geishas, beautiful women, sumo wrestlers, kabuki actors—and pictures of the natural beauty around Edo (present day Tokyo)—the mists of Mount Fuji, cherry blossoms, rain showers, and surging waves along the port of Kanagawa. Among the audience at the exhibition was the American expatriate painter, Mary Cassatt. Cassatt was spellbound. The word "la coiffure" evokes a precise image, one of wealthy women in glamorous settings. The ritual of grooming, dressing, and preparing one's hair from the seventeenth and eighteenth century court days was passed down to nineteenth-century ideals of femininity and beauty. To wear such an elaborate hairstyle, one needed to have a maid to help with one's hair. "La coiffure" was part of a specific lifestyle. Yet the woman in Cassatt's print is tending to her hair alone. Perhaps what we are seeing is a working woman getting ready to start her day. The counterpoint of the print's title and the reality of its subject matter characterizes the ironic tension within the image. artists were always aware that their works were made for a male-dominated market and designed them to be enticing

Mont Sainte-Victoire, Paul Cézanne

- France - 1902 CE Form after his adoption of Impressionism, he began to consistently feature the mountain in his landscapes. Cézanne divides his composition into three roughly equal horizontal sections. Our viewpoint is elevated. Closest to us lies a band of foliage and houses; next, rough patches of yellow ochre, emerald, and viridian green suggest the patchwork of an expansive plain and extend the foreground's color scheme into the middleground; and above, in contrasting blues, violets and greys, we see the rough mountain surrounded by sky. The blues seen in this section also accent the rest of the work while, conversely, touches of green enliven the sky and mountain. In other words, Cézanne introduced subtle adjustments in order to avoid too simple a scheme. So the peak of the mountain is pushed just to the right of center, and the horizon line inclines gently upwards from left to right. In fact, a complicated counterpoint of diagonals can be found in each of the work's bands, in the roofs of the houses, in the lines of the mountain, and in the arrangement of the patches in the plain, which connect foreground to background and lead the eye back. Cézanne evokes a deep, panoramic scene and the atmosphere that fills and unifies this space. But we also remain aware of the painting as a fairly rough, worked surface. Flatness coexists with depth and we find ourselves caught between these two poles—now more aware of one, now the other. The mountainous landscape is both within our reach, yet far away. the left side of the mountain- Though the outermost contour is immediately apparent, inside of it one can also discern a second line (or, more accurately, a series of lines and edges). The area between this outer contour and the interior line or ridge divides a distinctive spatial plane; this slope recedes away from us and connects to the larger mountain range lying behind the sheer face. the mountain seems to gain volume. It becomes less of an irregular triangle and more of a complicated pyramid. the painting's most obvious focus of interest- the top of the mountain. Cézanne's other works show that the mountain has a kind of double peak, with a slightly higher point to the left side and a lower one to the right. At first glance, the Philadelphia canvas seems to contradict this: the mountain's truncated apex appears to rise slightly from left to right. But a closer look reveals that Cézanne does respect topography. The small triangular patch of light gray—actually the priming of the canvas—can be read as belonging to the space immediately above the mountain or perhaps as a cloud behind it. Thus it is the gray and light blue brushstrokes immediately below this patch that describe the downward slant of the mountain top. Function Dating from the very last years of the artist's life, these landscapes feature a heightened lyricism and a consistent viewpoint. They show the mountain as it can be seen from the hill of Les Lauves, located just to the north of Aix. Content Mont Sainte-Victoire has a commanding presence over the country and in particular, over Aix-en-Provence, the hometown of Paul Cézanne. our point-of-view is actually a little misleading. the left peak is not the highest point, but merely appears to so from Les Lauves. A huge iron cross—la croix de Provence—was erected on this spot in the early 1870s, the fourth to be placed there. Though visible from afar, the cross appears in none of Cézanne's depictions of the mountain. Context He has many oil paintings and watercolors of the mountain so the painter has become unforgettably associated with it. Steeped in centuries of history and folklore, both classical and Christian, the mountain—or, more accurately, mountain range—only gradually emerged as a major theme in Cézanne's work. Cézanne would return to the motif of Mont Sainte-Victoire throughout the rest of his career, resulting in an incredibly varied series of works. They show the mountain from many different points of view and often in relationship to a constantly changing cast of other elements (foreground trees and bushes, buildings and bridges, fields and quarries). From this series we can extract a subgroup of over two-dozen paintings and watercolors. Cézanne bought an acre of land on this hill in 1901 and by the end of the following year he had built a studio on it. From here, he would walk further uphill to a spot that offered a sweeping view of Mont Sainte-Victoire and the land before it. Cézanne cperhaps even wanted to be documented painting it. When they visited Aix in 1906, the artists Maurice Denis and Ker-Xavier Roussel found themselves being led to the same location. In an oil painting by Denis and in some of Roussel's photographs, we see Cézanne standing before his easel and painting the mountain. Cézanne had presumably stood on this summit, or these summits, several times. He had thoroughly explored the countryside around Aix And we know for certain that he had climbed to the top of the mountain as recently as 1895. Armed with these experiences, he could have estimated the distance from Les Lauves to the top of Mont Sainte-Victoire with some accuracy—it's about ten miles as the crow flies.

The Kiss, Constantin Brancusi

- France - 1907 CE Form Limestone The arms turn at right angles and those angles are aligned with the corners of the block Each figure is defined by the single line between them The female is slightly thinner and her eyes are smaller The surface is allowed to be rough We can describe it as archaic, before the classical It's not on a base like a typical sculpture. In fact brancusi didnt want anything underneath the sculpture to display it. It takes the sculpture out of the academic realm. (truth in nature) Function To show something primitive and truthful ( union of the male and female) This was the fourth version of the kiss and it was commissioned by an american collector who was interested in acquiring the first but Bracusi said it was not available Content The hands clasp and hold the other figure The figure on the right is a woman because the line makes an arch to create breasts The eyes join together to create almost a single cyclopean eye in the miggle of the forehead The mouths which are lips reaching to each other, are singular Female has longer hair Context Brancusi redefined sculpture in the modern age He briefly worked in auguste rodin's (another well known sculptor) studio He's romanian (in romania there was a longstanding peasant tradition of stone carving and wood carving, a kind of folk art) and went to the academy in Bucharest and made his way as a young man in paris Paris is the center of the art world for the 19th century Artists wanted to elave paris to find other traditions so there's this interest in something that was thought of as more primitive and true. Brancui brings that king of primitive truth to paris rather than leaving paris to find it The third version was used for a tombstone for a person who committed suicide

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Pablo Picasso

- France - 1907 CE Form Modern cubism - first cubist work There's flatness- he's not denying the picture plane with a false illusion This speaks to the oppressiveness with which post-renaissance culture, mannerism, the baroque neoclassism, the academies of the nineteenth century, all weighed on contemporary artists who were seeking on new visual language to represent modern culture There's no linear perspective or chiaroscuro, the modulation of light and shadow that creates illusion- is absent here. The figures are very close to us and space has become visible three dimensional fractured planes Function Available to a male viewer He found the formal means to convery the ideas behind sexuality and sexually transmitted diseases- it's a confrontational painting Content The title means "the young ladies of avignon" which refers to a street that's not in France but is in Barcelona and associated with prostitution We re looking at a brothel, place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. the women turn their gaze outward like manet's olympia to engage the viewer directly The faces of the women on the right are often seen as representation fo African masks that we know picasso was looking at The fact that it's supposed to represent danger is an expression of france's colonialism. Those masks were coming to france bc france has large colonial possessions in africa The figure on the left is an archaic figure, going back to Ancient Spain and going back to Iberian art before the classical period Usually there is stylistic coherence but here it's kind of an invention The curtains in between the figures are pressed right up against those figures. There's no space behind or between. There is still some sense of illusion. There's still some shadow and highlight Art historians look at the central figure as the one that we're both looking across at, but also looking down as if we are standing over her while she lies on a bed Fruit at the bottom- fertility Context Spanish artist that was in paris when he painted this Goes back to Manet's Olympia This apitign is seen as a break with the 500 years of Europoean painting that begins with the Renaissance In the original sketch, the women were focusing on a male sailor ad a medical student (who sees the women in a more scientific or artistic perspective), in a brothel as a customer. But he takes those men out and the women turn their gaze outward like manet's olympia to engage the viewer directly The medical student carried in some sketches, a skull. It makes sense for medical student to study anatomy but on the other hand a skull is a reminder of death, a memento mori So there is tension between the sensuality that the sailor is indulging in and a mroalizing reminder that the pleasures of life are short, indicated by the skull carried by the medical student Considered one of hte greatest photographs of all time- captured history and spoke on art

The Steerage, Alfred Stieglitz

- France - 1907 CE Form Photogravure- intaglio printmaking or photo-mechanical process with copper Function The Steerage is not only about the "significant form" of shapes, forms and textures, but it also conveys a message about its subjects, immigrants who were rejected at Ellis Island, or who were returning to their old country to see relatives and perhaps to encourage others to return to the United States with them. it was precisely this discomfort among his peers that prompted him to take a photograph Stieglitz describes how The Steerage summed up his career's mission to elevate photography to the status of fine art by engaging the same dialogues around abstraction that preoccupied European avant-garde painters Content In his 1942 account "How The Steerage Happened," Stieglitz recalls: "How I hated the atmosphere of the first class on that ship. One couldn't escape the 'nouveau (modern) riches.'On the third day out I finally couldn't stand it any longer. I had to get away from that company. I went as far forward on the deck as I could [...] As I came to the end of the desk [sic] I stood alone, looking down. There were men and women and children on the lower deck of the steerage. There was a narrow stairway leading up to the upper deck of the steerage, a small deck at the bow of the steamer. To the left was an inclining funnel and from the upper steerage deck there was fastened a gangway bridge which was glistening in its freshly painted state. It was rather long, white, and during the trip remained untouched by anyone. On the upper deck, looking over the railing, there was a young man with a round straw hat. He was watching the men and women and children on the lower steerage deck. Only men were on the upper deck. The whole scene fascinated me. I longed to escape from my surroundings and join these people." this essay-written 35 years after he took the photograph Lower class was probably on the lower deck and upper was upper class Context After his 8-year-old daughter Kitty finished the school year and he closed his Fifth Avenue art gallery for the summer, Alfred Stieglitz gathered her, his wife Emmeline, and Kitty's governess for their second trip to Europe as a family. The Stieglitzes departed for Paris on May 14, 1907, aboard the first-class quarters of the fashionable ship Kaiser Wilhelm II. Although Emmeline looked forward to shopping in Paris and to visiting her relatives in Germany, Stieglitz was not. His marriage to status-conscious Emmeline had become stressful amid rumors about his possible affair with the tarot-card illustrator Pamela Coleman Smith. In addition, Stieglitz felt out of place in the company of his fellow upper-class passengers. Stieglitz would have been familiar with the debates about immigration reform and the ghastly conditions to which passengers in steerage were subjected. Stieglitz's father had come to America in 1849, during a historic migration of 1,120,000 Germans to the United States. His father became a wool trader and was so successful that he retired by age 48. By all accounts, Stieglitz's father exemplified the "American dream" that was just beyond the grasp of many of the subjects of The Steerage. Stieglitz was conflicted about the issue of immigration. While he was sympathetic to the plight of aspiring new arrivals, Stieglitz was opposed to admitting the uneducated and marginal to the United States. Perhaps this may explain his preference to avoid addressing the subject of The Steerage, and to see in this photograph not a political statement, but a place for arguing the value of photography as a fine art.

The Portuguese, Georges Braque

- France - 1911 CE Form Oil on canvas The artists adopted a neutral palette of browns and blacks, intending the viewer to focus on the geometric composition rather than the color. Almost monochromatic Synthetic cubism- more simple but this is analytical cubism Content Potrugese musician- person playing a guitar and there's a dog As a Cubist, he wanted to express his total visual understanding of an object, such as a cup. He wanted to express the entire cup simultaneously on the static surface of the canvas since he can hold all that visual information in his memory. He wanted to render the cup's front, its sides, its back, and its inner walls, its bottom from both inside and out, and he wanted to do this on a flat canvas. In this canvas, everything was fractured. There are jagged edges, sharp and multifaceted lines. There are so many pieces of broken form, almost broken glass. By breaking these objects into smaller elements, Braque and Picasso are able to overcome the unified singularity of an object and instead transform it into an object of vision. Context and function Following their 1907 meeting in Paris, artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque pioneered the Cubist style, a new vision for a new century that inspired paintings that were initially ridiculed by critics for consisting of "little cubes." Often painting side-by-side in their studios Traditional subjects like nude figures, landscapes, and still lifes were reinvented as increasingly fragmented compositions by Picasso, Braque, and other artists working in and around the French capital. To understand Cubism it helps to go back to the Renaissance. If he were a Renaissance artist in Italy painting a cup on a table, he would position himself at particular point in space and construct the surrounding objects and space frozen in that spot and from that single perspective. But Braque or Picasso in the early 20th century would want to express even more on the canvas. They would not be satisfied with the limiting conventions of Renaissance perspective Also inspired by cezanne

The Goldfish, Henri Matisse

- France - 1912 CE Form The goldfish immediately attract attention due to their color. The bright orange strongly contrasts with the more subtle pinks and greens that surround the fish bowl and the blue-green background. Blue and orange, as well as green and red, are complementary colors and, when placed next to one another, appear even brighter. Although he subsequently softened his palette, the bold orange is reminiscent of Matisse's fauvist years, which continued to influence his use of color throughout his career. Matisse admired the Moroccans' lifestyle, which appeared to him to be relaxed and contemplative. For Matisse, the goldfish came to symbolize this tranquil state of mind and, at the same time, became evocative of a paradise lost. Matisse paints the plants and flowers in a decorative manner. The upper section of the picture resembles a patterned wallpaper composed of flattened shapes and colors. the table-top is tilted upwards, flattening it and making it difficult for us to imagine how the goldfish and flowerpots actually manage to remain on the table. Matisse constructed this original juxtaposition of viewpoints and spatial ambiguity by observing Paul Cézanne's still-life paintings. Cézanne described art as "a harmony parallel to nature". And it is clear here that although Matisse was attentive to nature, he did not imitate it but used his image of it to reassemble his own pictorial reality. This painting is an illustration of some of the major themes in Matisse's painting: his use of complementary colors, his quest for an idyllic paradise, his appeal for contemplative relaxation for the viewer and his complex construction of pictorial space. Function Goldfish, 1912 belongs to a series that Matisse produced. However, unlike the others, the focus here centers on the fish themselves. Matisse distinguished predatory observation from disinterested contemplation, the latter being his preferred approach. Goldfish invites the viewer to indulge in the pleasure of watching the graceful movement and bright colors of the fish. Content We see Matisse's own plants, his own garden furniture, and his own fish tank The artist was drawn to the tank's tall cylindrical shape, as this enabled him to create a succession of rounded contours with the top and bottom of the tank, the surface of the water and the table. Matisse also found the goldfish themselves visually appealing. Matisse painted Goldfish in his garden conservatory, where, like the goldfish, he was surrounded by glass. The painting contains a tension created by Matisse's depiction of space. The fish are seen simultaneously from two different angles. From the front, the goldfish are portrayed in such a way that the details of their fins, eyes and mouths are immediately recognizable to the viewer. Seen from above, the goldfish are suggested by colorful brushstrokes. If we then look at the plants through the transparent glass surface, we notice that they are distorted compared to the 'real' plants in the background. Context Goldfish were introduced to Europe from East Asia in the 17th century. goldfish became a recurring subject in the work of Henri Matisse. They appear in no less than nine of his paintings, as well as in his drawings and prints. Why was he so interested in goldfish? One clue may be found in his visit to Tangier, Morocco. He noted how the local population would day-dream for hours, gazing into goldfish bowls. The paradise theme is prevalent in Matisse's work. the goldfish should be understood as a kind of shorthand for paradise in Matisse's painting. The mere name "gold-fish" defines these creatures as ideal inhabitants of an idyllic golden age. It is also likely that Matisse, who as already familiar with the art of Islamic cultures, was interested in the meaning of gardens, water and vegetation in Islamic art—as well as symbolizing the beauty of divine creation, these were evocations of paradise. However, Goldfish was not painted in Morocco. Henri Matisse painted it at home, in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris. Influenced by asian art- japanese block print

Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier

- France -1929 CE Form During the 1920s, Le Corbusier designed a series of houses which allowed him to develop his ideas further. By 1926, he had devised his Five Points of Architecture, which he viewed as a universal system that could be applied to any architectural site. The system demanded pilotis (slender columns) to raise the building off the ground and allow air to circulate beneath; roof terraces, to bring nature into an urban setting; a free plan that allowed interior space to be distributed at will; a free façade whose smooth plane could be used for formal experimentation; and ribbon windows, which let in light but also reinforced the planarity of the wall. The Villa Savoye incorporated these principles, and also many of the concepts expressed in Vers une Architecture. Made of reinforced concrete, the ground floor walls are recessed and painted green so that the house looks like a box floating on delicate pilotis. Visitors arrive by car, in true machine-age fashion. The stark white exterior wall, with its strips of ribbon windows, has a smooth, planar quality. This stands in contrast to the fluidity of the interior, which is organized by a multistory ramp that leads the viewer on a gently curving path through a building that is nearly square. The contrast between the sharp angles of the plan and the dynamism of the spaces inside charge the house with a subtle energy. The ramp winds from the entrance up to the salon, a formal interior space that flows seamlessly into the roof terrace outside. Corbu, as he is also known, treated the terrace as a room without walls, reflecting his desire to fully integrate landscape and architecture. The ramp finally culminates in the curved solarium crowning the house, whose rounded enclosure appears to be an abstract sculpture when viewed from below. Seen from the roof terrace, the ramp and cylinder of the solarium echo the forms of the ocean liners lauded in Vers une Architecture. Le Corbusier and Madame Savoye believed in the health benefits of fresh air and sunshine, and considered leisure time spent outdoors one mark of a modern lifestyle. The Villa Savoye's integration of indoor and outdoor spaces allowed the family to spend time outdoors in the most efficient way possible—the house was, in a sense, a machine designed to maximize leisure in the machine age. The Villa Savoye can be understood as Le Corbusier's refinement of his architectural system, his own personal Parthenon. Its essential geometric volumes embody his concept of the type form, and its careful consideration of procession and proportion connect the building to Classical ideals. At the same time, its clean simplicity and its use of concrete evoke the precisely-calibrated works of engineering so admired by the architect. Function represents the culmination of a decade during which the architect worked to articulate the essence of modern architecture. Content Located just outside Paris, it offered an escape from the crowded city for its wealthy patrons. Its location on a large unrestricted site allowed Le Corbusier total creative freedom. The delicate floating box that he designed is both functional house and modernist sculpture, elegantly melding form and function Context Throughout the 1920s, via his writings and designs, Le Corbusier (formerly Charles-Edouard Jeanneret) considered the nature of modern life and architecture's role in the new machine age. His famous saying, that "The house should be a machine for living in," is perfectly realized within the forms, layout, materials, and siting of the Villa Savoye. Le Corbusier had been developing his theories on modern architecture throughout the previous decade. In 1920, he founded the journal L'Esprit Nouveau, and many of the essays he published there would eventually be incorporated into his landmark collection of essays, Vers une architecture (Toward an Architecture) This book celebrated science, technology, and reason, arguing that modern machines could create highly precise objects Le Corbusier lavished praise on the totems of modernity—race cars, airplanes, and factories—marveling at the beauty of their efficiency. However, he also argued that beauty lay not only in the newest technology but in ancient works such as the Parthenon, whose refined forms represented, in his view, the perfection of earlier Archaic systems. Le Corbusier sought to isolate what he called type forms, which were universal elements of design that can work together in a system. He found these in the fields of architecture and engineering.

Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow, Piet Mondrian

- France -1930 CE Form Modernism Inspired by analytic cubism This is a system he called neoclassism Primary colors and black and white The bottom right corner looks a little grey The composition is similarly reduced to the simplest of rectilinear forms, squares and rectangles defined by vertical and horizontal lines. You can see the rbushs trokes if you look closely but it's not painterly It looks liek the red is receding and the blue is coming forward Mondrian called his style Neo-Plasticism or "The New Plastic Painting," the title of his famous 1917 essay promoting abstraction for the expression of modern life. Don't be confused by Mondrian's use of the term "plastic." He uses it to refer to the plastic arts—media such as sculpture, that molds three-dimensional form, or, in Mondrian's case, painting on canvas. For centuries, European painters had attempted to render three-dimensional forms in believable spaces—creating convincing illusions of reality. He wanted to focus on the material properties of paint and its unique ability to express ideas abstractly using formal elements such as line and color. Function Replicate nature with wild symbolist color The colors are about elemental purity and elemental balance Content The canvas says 1925 with a little initial by the artist incorrectly (the date was actually 1929) The frame in moma even looks like a platform, not a frame It looks like the red and blue are held by the black bars, like the grid of a stained glass window There's vertical and left and right balance And a balance that has to do with what moves towards us and what creates the illusion of space Context Mondrian is a dutch artist who just came out of the first world war and he also lived throguh the second world war Mondrian was interested in balance and reducing things to their basic elements bc in the world in the 20s, europe had just been devastated There was a Utopian notion that art could have a kind of agency that could help to create harmony in the world Mondrian's earliest paintings were quite traditional in both subject and style. He studied at the art academies in the Hague and in Amsterdam in his home country of the Netherlands. Then, he began to emulate a variety of contemporary styles, including Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, and Symbolism in an effort to find his own artistic voice. His emphasis on line, color, and geometric shape sought to highlight formal characteristics.

Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure), Meret Oppenheim

- France -1936 CE Form it has become the definitive surrealist object...ultimately to Oppenheim's dismay. Such physical manifestations of our internal psyches were indicative of a surreality, or the point in which external and internal realities united Function The art historian Whitney Chadwick has described it as linked to the Surrealist's love of alchemical transformation by turning cool, smooth ceramic and metal into something warm and bristley, while many scholars have noted the fetishistic qualities of the fur-lined set—as the fur imbues these functional, hand-held objects with sexual connotations. In a 1936 issue of the New Yorker Magazine, it was reported that a woman fainted "right in front of Object [while it was exhibited at MoMA]. Such visceral reactions to the sculpture come closest to what were likely the artist's aspirations. In an interview later in life, Oppenheim described her creations as "not an illustration of an idea, but the thing itself." Oppenheim stresses the physicality of Object, reinforcing the way we can imagine the feeling of the fur while drinking from the cup, and using the saucer and spoon. The chill we experience when china is wrapped in fur is based on our familiarity with both objects Object insists we imagine what sipping warm tea from this cup feels like, how the bristles would feel upon our lips. how we understand those visceral memories, how we create metaphors and symbols out of this act of tactile extension, is entirely open to interpretation by each individual Which is the whole point of Surrealism Content an ordinary cup, spoon, and saucer wrapped evocatively in gazelle fur Context The story behind the creation of Object has been told so many times its importance in modernist history transcends the fact it might be fictitious The twenty-two year old Basel-born artist, Meret Oppenheim, had been in Paris for four years when, one day, she was at a café with Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar. Oppenheim was wearing a brass bracelet covered in fur when Picasso and Maar, who were admiring it, proclaimed, "Almost anything can be covered in fur!" As Oppenheim's tea grew cold, she jokingly asked the waiter for "more fur." Inspiration struck—Oppenheim is said to have gone straight from the café to a store where she purchased the cup, saucer, and spoon used in this piece. Object was created at a moment when sculpted objects and assemblages had become prominent features of Surrealist art practice. British art critic Herbert Read emphasized that all Surrealist objects were representative of an idea and Salvador Dalí described some of them as "objects with symbolic function." When Object was finished, Oppenheim submitted it to Breton for an exhibition of Surrealist objects at the Charles Ratton Gallery in Paris in 1936. However, while Oppenheim preferred a non-descriptive title, Breton called the piece Le Déjeneur en fourrure, or Luncheon in Fur. This title is a play on two works: Édouard Manet's infamous modernist painting Luncheon on the Grass and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's erotic novel Venus in Furs. With these two references, Breton forces an explicit sexualized meaning onto Object. the original inspiration for this work was implicitly practical: when Oppenheim asked the waiter for more fur for her cooling teacup, it was suggested as a way to keep her tea warm, and not necessarily sexual. Yet, the early acclaim for the fur-covered Object had a negative effect on Oppenheim's early career. When it was purchased by The Museum of Modern Art and featured in their influential 1936-37 exhibition "Fantastic Art, Dada, and Surrealism" visitors declared it the "quintessential" (typical) Surrealist object. And that is how it has been seen ever since. But for Oppenheim, the prestige and focus on this one object was too much, and she spent more than a decade destroying much of the work she produced during that period. It was only later when she re-emerged, and began publicly showing new paintings and objects

Improvisation 28 (second version), Vasily Kandinsky

- Germany - 1912 CE Form Brilliant color and hazy atmosphere The black diagonal lines cross each other like weapons (see context) Enitrely abstract (we dont immediately recognize the things of the world) But it's not an abstract painting, but an abstracted painting, which means we can still be able to recognize some elements of the natural world Kandinsky was concerned that if we can recognize things too clearly, our conscious minds would take over the interpretation and we would close off our emotional abiility to respond to pure color and form Even though this is a mdoern painting, it's still rooted in this ancient tradition of representing christian stories Color and lines are used in a new way, for it's own sake. Not to mimic or describe Function The title is a kind of notation that a composer uses Kandinsky is composing with form but this is still rooted in stories of the bible and of his particular historical moment He's trying to associate painting with music you can hear color an see music- he was interested in synesthesia Content The painting would sound chaotic and dangerous You can see a mountain with some buildings on it, mabe chimney sacks or a church on a hill (an ideal city, a king of heavenly Jerusalem) He was deeply influenced by biblical imagery It makes sense that this is a battle field with forces at war Art historians interpreted this as a representation of an apocalype, of a moment when the sins of the world are going to be washed away In the lower left, there's a great flood. There's a wave- the idea of the way in which God in the old testament had wiped man from the earth except Noah and his family Above that wave there are canons being fired. The atmospheric effect almsot reads like the smoke on a battle field On the bottom art historians recognize the manes and the arcs of the necks of horses and we know that Kandinsky was really interested throughout his career in the idea of the horse and rider Sybolizing diff meanings- referencing the four horsemen of the apocalypse, but also the idea of redemption. This was a utopia- the idea that we can wash away the old world , a world that was about to be destroyed not only by the russian revolution, but also by the frist world war Context He was influenced by Arnold Schonberg, a composer This was during 1912, two years before the first world war began and early twentieth century russian hsitory is filled with political chaos

Self-Portrait as a Soldier, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

- Germany - 1915 CE Form The roughly sketched, long forms and tapered limbs of the nude model in this painting is representative of the style of Kirchner's nudes from the primitive period Function Kirchner never fought in the war, and this painting is instead an exploration of the artist's personal fears. The severed hand is not a literal injury, but a metaphor. self-amputation—a potential injury, not to the body—but to his identity as an artist. Content shows Kirchner dressed in a uniform but instead of standing on a battlefield (or another military context), he is standing in his studio with an amputated, bloody arm and a nude model behind him. It is in this contrast between the artist's clothing and studio space that we can read a complicated coming of age for an idealistic young artist. "Self-Portrait As a Soldier" can perhaps be best understood by comparing it with an earlier painting by the artist with similar subject-matter, his "Self-Portrait with Model". Here, a rounder, healthier-looking Kirchner stands confidently in his studio in a jaunty striped robe. He holds a brush and palette and seems to be wearing less clothing than the model seated behind him, clearly suggesting a sexual relationship. Even the warm colors give the work a sensuous atmosphere. This is the artist at the height of youthful confidence. Compare that with the sallow, angular artist we see in the Self-Portrait as a Soldier. The later painting features darker, colder colors, and the glassy-eyed model looks more like a carved statue than an actual person. Even the skinny, limp cigarette seems to stand in opposition to the robust pipe that the artist smokes in the earlier portrait. Kirchner the soldier stands impotently in his studio, surrounded with everything he would need to make art, if he were able to do so. Context In 1905, Kirchner, together with several other young artists from Dresden founded the German Expressionist group Die Brücke (The Bridge). Kirchner created their manifesto, a woodblock print that was to be widely disseminated as a call to arms: "We call all young people together, and as young people, who carry the future in us, we want to wrest freedom for our actions and our lives from the older, comfortably established forces." Kirchner was a great admirer of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche's book, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" uses the bridge as a metaphor for the connection between the barbarism of the past and the modernity of the future. The Brücke artists considered themselves the inheritors of this idea, and created art that looked to the past and the future at once. Another important influence on the Die Brücke artists was so-called "primitive" art (art and ritual objects from ancient cultures or nonwestern societies, particularly in Africa and Central Asia). This art was perceived to be more honest and direct, more natural than work produced by artists from industrialized Western European nations. There was also interest in the so-called "folk art" of Europe, particularly the art and craft found among rural populations. It is important to note that Germany remained a major colonial power in Africa through the First World War. There is, therefore, a complex heirarchy that frames this cultural appropriation. this "primitive" and "natural" aesthetic (despite the fact that it is a modernist construction), had a strong impact on Expressionist art. Paintings created outside, in nature, together with the unidealized nudes were hallmarks of the group's work. Kirchner volunteered to serve as a driver in the military. However, he was soon declared unfit for service due to issues with his general health, and was sent away to recover. Self-Portrait was painted during that recovery. During the war, Kirchner suffered from alcoholism and drug abuse and for a time his hands and feet were partially paralyzed. In a sense his fears about the war were self-fulfilling. Kirchner recovered and his work was exhibited internationally to much praise during the interwar period. Adolf Hitler persecuted artists who painted in a style that he considered outside of the Aryan ideal. The Degenerate Art exhibition of 1937 was a grand spectacle that the Nazis organized to mock the modernist art they hated. This was a humiliating time for Kirchner. At least thirty-two of his works were exhibited in the Degenerate Art exhibition. In addition, more than 600 of his works were removed from public collections. He committed suicide in 1938.

Memorial Sheet of Karl Liebknecht, Käthe Kollwitz

- Germany - 1919 CE Form Woodcut heightened with white and black ink in the style of a lamentation, a traditional motif in Christian art depicting the followers of Christ mourning over his dead body, casting Liebknecht as the Christ figure. The iconography would have been easily recognizable by the masses who were the artist's intended audience. Woodblock printing is a technique in which a design is carved into a slab of wood which is then covered with ink and printed onto paper. Ink coats the original surface of the wood block, which prints as black, while the cut away areas stay blank. This is different from printmaking methods such as engraving in which the ink is caught in the recesses carved into the metal plate by the stylus and therefore the lines print black and the untouched areas of the plate come out white Kollwitz' felt that her protest against the horrors of war was best communicated in the rough edges and stark black and white that woodblock prints afforded. Function Celebrated the plight of hte working class This work is unique among her prints, and though it memorializes the man, it does so without advocating for his ideology. focuses not on the man himself, but on the workers who had put their faith in him,. The focus on those broadly affected, rather than those in the spotlight is a constant theme in the artist's work Content The composition divides the sheet into three horizontal sections. The top section is densely packed with figures. Their faces are well modeled and have interesting depth in themselves, but the sense of space is very compressed - the heads push to the foreground and are packed into every available corner of space. It gives the impression of multitudes coming to pay their respects, without compromising the individuality of the subjects. The middle layer contains fewer details, further emphasizing the crowding at the top of the printing plate. This section draws attention to the specific action of the bending mourner. His hand on Liebknecht's chest connects this section to the the bottommost level of the composition, the body of the martyred revolutionary. Above the bending mourner, a woman holds her baby up to see over the heads of those in front of them. Women and children were a central concern of Kollwitz's work, making her a unique voice in a creative environment dominated by young men (in fact, Kollwitz was the first woman to be admitted into the Prussian Academy). Engraving at the bottom about what he did and how he died? Context In the political turmoil after the First World War, many artists turned to making prints instead of paintings. The ability to produce multiple copies of the same image made printmaking an ideal medium for spreading political statements. German artist Käthe Kollwitz worked almost exclusively in this medium and became known for her prints that celebrated the plight of the working-class. She rarely depicted real people she frequently used her talents in support of causes she believed in. Created in response to the assassination of Communist leader Karl Liebknecht during an uprising of 1919. From the end of the First World Warto the founding of the Weimar Republic (the representative democracy that was the German government between the two World Wars), Germany went through a period of social and political upheaval. During this time, Germany was led by a coalition of left-wing forces with Marxist sympathies, the largest of which was the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Other, more radical groups were grappling for control of Germany at the same time, including the newly founded German Communist Party (KPD). The Socialists and Communists both wanted to eliminate Capitalism and establish communal control over the means of production, but while the Socialists believed that the best way to achieve that goal was to work step by step from within the Capitalist structure, the Communists called for an immediate and total social revolution that would put governmental power in the hands of the workers. In this spirit, the KPD staged an uprising in Berlin in January 1919. Military units called in by the SPD suppressed the uprising and captured two of the leaders, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. Liebknecht and Luxemburg were murdered while in custody. Their deaths struck a chord across the left-wing landscape and they were widely celebrated as martyrs to the Communist cause. Kollwitz was not a Communist, and even acknowledged that the SPD (generally more cautious and pacifist than the KPD), would have been better leaders. But she had heard Liebknecht speak and admired his charisma, so when the family asked her to create a work to memorialize him she agreed. Several artists at the time created memorial works for Liebknecht and Luxemburg. Kollwitz's career overlapped with the German Expressionists but she was not an Expressionist herself and was about a generation older than most of them. Her use of such a trendy technique was uncharacteristic, and in fact, she only worked in woodblocks for a few years after the First World War. Kollwitz created some of her most powerful work in this style

Portrait of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz

- Mexico - 1750 CE -Miguel Cabrera FORM - She looks towards us, her gaze direct and assertive, as she sits at a desk, surrounded by her library and instruments of learning. - The rosary—a sign of her religious life—is juxtaposed with items signifying her intellectual life. -The books, the desk, the quills and inkwell aid in conveying her intellectual status. The red curtain, common in elite portraiture of this period, also confers upon her a high status. FUNCTION -a depiction of the esteemed Mexican nun and writer. CONTENT -Cabrera never actually met sor Juana, so he likely based his image of her on earlier portraits of her, possibly even some self-portraits. -Cabrera likely modeled this painting on images of male scholars seated at their desks. Most importantly, he possibly found inspiration in depictions of St. Jerome, the patron saint of sor Juana's religious order. -Images often portray St. Jerome seated at a desk within a study, surrounded by books and instruments of learning. -Sor Juana wears the habit of her religious order, the Jeronymites. -She also wears an escudo de monja, or nun's badge, on her chest underneath her chin. Escudos de monja were often painted, occasionally woven, and they usually displayed the Virgin Mary. Sor Juana's escudo shows the Annunciation, the moment in which the archangel Gabriel informs Mary that she will bear the son of God. -Her left hand toys with a rosary, while she turns a page of an open book with her right hand. The book is a text by St. Jerome, the saint after whom her religious order was named. -Advanced technology- clock CONTEXT -About Sor Juana: Born to a creole family in 1648, she was a child prodigy. At the age of fifteen, she amazed people at court by excelling at an oral exam that tested her knowledge of physics, philosophy, theology, and mathematics. -Considered the first feminist of the Americas, Sor Juana lived as a nun of the Jeronymite order -Rather than marry, she chose to become a nun so she could pursue her intellectual interests. -She wrote poetry and plays that became internationally famous -In 1690 she became involved in a dispute between the bishops of Mexico City and Puebla. -She responded to the criticism she received as a woman writer -the Church forced her to abandon her literary pursuits and her library. -After giving up her intellectual pursuits, she cared for the sick during an epidemic but she fell sick and passed away.

The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel, José María Velasco boop

- Mexico - 1882 CE FORM - romanticism - Velasco's compositions united pre-Hispanic symbols and contemporary national sentiments. For example, the white peaks that predominate his vistas are the Popocatepetl and Iztacchihuatl volcanoes. the two volcanoes were the main characters of a legendary ill-fated love between an Aztec princess (Iztacchihuatl, or "white woman") and a courageous warrior (Popocatepetl, or "smoking mountain"). At one point, the brushstrokes that form the peaks of the snow-covered volcanoes, the rock formations and other details were done from memory, making it possible for the artist to change and manipulate the details of the landscape as he saw fit. Function This imagery offered an opportunity to highlight symbols of patriotism valuable to a newly independent society. Content In the background, there are receding waters of Lake Texcoco and the contours of Mexico City. The ancient Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was founded in the middle of this lake in 1325. Velasco's home was located at the foot of the small hill shown in the middle of the canvas. This hill was also an important sacred colonial site where the Virgin of Guadalupe first appeared to the indigenous man Juan Diego in 1531. This version of The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel is perhaps the most celebrated of a dozen or so images with the same subject done by the artist between 1875 and 1892. Velasco introduces his figures not as mere staffage, or accessories enhancing the rest of the artwork, but as key components behind the composition's poetics. Velasco explored the romantic relationship between human figures and the scenery they inhabit. Two indigenous individuals are presented in transit from the city to the country, reflecting a romantic, yet difficult socio-economic relationship between people and their ancestral land. The figures' indigenous garments relate to the national iconography displayed throughout the image This image has national pride, romantic poetry, and daily life Woman and child Context the first art school in the Americas was established in Mexico City in the late eighteenth century. This important school fostered Romantic and Neoclassical aesthetics through previously unexplored genres of painting. For example, the Valley of Mexico. The development of these images offered the opportunity for artists to explore the Romantic qualities of "pure landscape," which in Mexico, through the teachings of the Italian professor Eugenio Landesio, emerged as a popular genre in the Academy. After the 1821 war of independence (from Spain), Mexico sought to establish its identity through artistic endeavors. The development of the practice of national landscape painting was part of the dictator López de Santa Anna's efforts to re-establish the art academy after decades of neglect following the formation of Mexico as an independent nation. The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel can be viewed as a re-interpretation of the common late eighteenth-century German subject, "pastoral idylls," where a sense of poetic harmony and daily life were united.

The Two Fridas, Frida Kahlo

- Mexico -1939 CE Form Oil on canvas Her self portraits were accurate Function why would Kahlo paint herself twice? One way to answer this question is to examine The Two Fridas as a bookend to the 1931 portrait, Frieda and Diego Rivera. Though this painting was meant to celebrate the birth of their union, their tentative grasp seems to reflect Kahlo's misgivings about her husband's fidelity. By contrast, the double self portrait, though burdened with emotional suffering, exhibits resilience. Kahlo utilized blood as a visceral metaphor of union She paints so many self portraits because she is the person she knows best Content The double self portrait features two seated figures holding hands and sharing a bench in front of a stormy sky. The Fridas are identical twins except in their attire, a poignant issue for Kahlo at this moment. The year she painted this canvas she was divorced from Diego Rivera, the acclaimed Mexican muralist. Before she married Rivera in 1929, she wore the modern European dress of the era, evident in her first self portrait (left) where she dons a red velvet dress with gold embroidery. With Rivera's encouragement, Kahlo embraced attire rooted in Mexican customs. In her second self portrait (left) her accessories reference distinct periods in Mexican history—her necklace is a reference to the pre-Columbian jadite of the Aztecs, and the earrings are colonial in style—while her simple white blouse is a nod to peasant women. white, stiff-collared dress. the grotesque view into each woman's insides is heightened by the virginal whiteness of both dresses. The two Fridas clasp hands tightly. This bond is echoed by the vein that unites them. Where one is weakened by an exposed heart, the other is strong; where one still pines for her lost love—as underscored by the vein feeding Rivera's miniature portrait—the other clamps down on that figurative and literal tie with a hemostat. The centerpoint is where their hands are clasped Context Facial hair marks the self portraits of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. In an era when women still wore elaborate hairstyles, hosiery, and attire, Kahlo was a rebellious loner, often dressed in indigenous clothing. Moreover, she lived as an artist during a period when many middle-class women sacrificed their ambitions to live entirely in the domestic sphere. Kahlo defied both conventions of beauty and social expectations in her self-portraits. These powerful self images explore complex and difficult topics including her culturally mixed heritage, the harsh reality of her medical conditions, and the repression of women. Kahlo's growing fondness for indigenous attire and hair-styling is evident in The Two Fridas. Yet Kahlo never abandoned dressing her subjects and herself in mainstream, European dress In her brief lifetime, Kahlo painted about two hundred works of art, many of which are self portraits. Kahlo's work often graphically exposes human anatomy, a topic she knew well after a childhood bout with polio deformed her right leg and a bus accident left her disabled and unable to bear children when she was eighteen years old. She would endure 32 operations as a result of this accident.

The Scream, Edvard Munch

- Northern Europe - 1893 CE Form It has an androgynous, skull-shaped head, elongated hands, wide eyes, flaring nostrils and ovoid mouth the swirling blue landscape and especially the fiery orange and yellow sky have engendered numerous theories regarding the scene that is depicted. The Scream's composition exists in four forms: the first painting, done in oil, tempera, and pastel on cardboard, two pastel examples, and a final tempera painting Munch also created a lithographic version. The various renditions show the artist's creativity and his interest in experimenting w diff media, while the work's subject matter fits with Munch's interest at the time in themes of relationships, life, death, and dread. The Scream is in fact a surprisingly simple work, in which the artist utilized a minimum of forms to achieve maximum expressiveness. It consists of three main areas: the bridge, which extends at a steep angle from the middle distance at the left to fill the foreground; a landscape of shoreline, lake or fjord, and hills; and the sky, which is activated with curving lines in tones of orange, yellow, red, and blue-green. Foreground and background blend into one another, and the lyrical lines of the hills ripple through the sky. The human figures are starkly separated from this landscape by the bridge. Its strict linearity provides a contrast with the shapes of the landscape and the sky. The two faceless upright figures in the background belong to the geometric precision of the bridge, while the lines of the foreground figure's body, hands, and head take up the same curving shapes that dominate the background landscape. The screaming figure is thus linked through these formal means to the natural realm, which was Munch's intention. Function Themes: relationships, life, death, and dread Munch sought to express internal emotions through external forms and thereby provide a visual image for a universal human experience. Content Conceived as part of Munch's semi-autobiographical cycle "The Frieze of Life" Context The Scream has been the target of dramatic thefts and recoveries, and in 2012 a version created with pastel on cardboard sold to a private collector for nearly $120,000,000 making it the second highest price achieved at that time by a painting at auction. A passage in Munch's diary dated January 22, 1892, and written in Nice, contains the probable inspiration for this scene as the artist remembered it: "I was walking along the road with two friends—the sun went down—I felt a gust of melancholy—suddenly the sky turned a bloody red. I stopped, leaned against the railing, tired to death—as the flaming skies hung like blood and sword over the blue-black fjord and the city—My friends went on—I stood there trembling with anxiety—and I felt a vast infinite scream [tear] through nature." The figure on the bridge—who may even be symbolic of Munch himself—feels the cry of nature, a sound that is sensed internally rather than heard with the ears. Yet, how can this sensation be conveyed in visual terms? Munch's approach to the experience of synesthesia, or the union of senses, results in the visual depiction of sound and emotion. As such, The Scream represents a key work for the Symbolist movement as well as an important inspiration for the Expressionist movement of the early twentieth century. Symbolist artists confronted questions regarding the nature of subjectivity and its visual depiction. critics and scholars have attempted to determine the exact scene depicted, as well as inspirations for the screaming figure. For example, it has been asserted that the unnaturally harsh colors of the sky may have been due to volcanic dust from the eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia, which produced spectacular sunsets around the world for months afterwards. `This event occurred in 1883, ten years before Munch painted the first version of The Scream. However, as Munch's journal entry, The Scream is a work of remembered sensation rather than perceived reality. Art historians have also noted the figure's resemblance to a Peruvian mummy that had been exhibited at the World's Fair in Paris in 1889 or to another mummy displayed in Florence.

Palace of Westminster, Charles Barry and Augustus W.N.

- Pugin, London, England - 1840 CE FORM -Perpendicular high Gothic style, which was from the late medieval period, which was long ago -In England in the 19th century, the gothic was English -This is not real gothic. It's a modern invention. -In fact the building itself uses a number of modern innovations in its constructive technique. -It's built on a concrete bed, certainly not a medieval tradition, concerned with ventilation. - In fact the central tower (Elizabeth tower (Big Ben)) was added to support the ventilation of the building so this building really is a product of the 19th century -Large windows and emphasis on the rectilinear, vertical, tracery, and lacework -Each window has its top tracery work that divides the glass up, like a filigree -The architecture is maximizing the window space Barry was interested in classical- this building has the regularity of the facade, the sense of rhythm and balance, symmetrical, which are classical FUNCTION -Seat of government- where the House of Commons and House of Lords meets -This building represents the Parliamentary system CONENT -It spans the River of Thames at the Houses of Parliament in London -Based on the chapel of Henry VII -It's at the east end of the Westminster Abbey CONTEXT -Built in the early Victorian era -There was a great fire in 1834 that burned down the old palace that had been at the houses of parliament in london and there was a competition that was held for designs for a new building. The new structure had to be designed in one of two historical styles: gothic or elizabethan -The competition was won by an architect whos name is Charles Barry with the assistance of Augustus Pugin, who's responsible for the interior designs and stained glass and some of the exterior decorative forms. -Pugin was known for his love of the Gothic. He believed that it was the true moral style of architecture and was associated with Englishness -People disliked the ugly modern era full of factories and hunger for money, so they liked the beautiful past -The gothic was a time of medieval artisan craftsmanship. And this is not only an architectural style, but a set of values that the Victorians were trying to return to.

Y no hai remedio, Francisco de Goya

- Spain - 1810 CE FORM - Disasters of War series was created using Aquatint- etching and drypoint technique this technique created nuanced shades of light and dark that capture the powerful emotional intensity of the horrific scenes - The first step was to etch the plate. This was done by covering a copper plate with wax and then scratching lines into the wax with a stylus exposed the metal. - The plate was then placed in an acid bath. The acid bit into the metal where it was exposed (the rest of the plate was protected by the wax). - Next the acid was washed from the plate and the plate was heated so the wax softened and could be wiped away. The plate then had soft, recessed lines etched by the acid where Goya had drawn into the wax. -The next step, drypoint, created lines by a different method. Here Goya scratched directly into the surface of the plate with a stylus. -This resulted in a less even line since each scratch left a small ragged ridge on either side of the line. -These minute ridges catch the ink and create a soft distinctive line when printed. However, because these ridges are delicate and are crushed by repeatedly being run through a press, the earliest prints in a series are generally more highly valued. -Finally, the artist inked the plate and wiped away any excess so that ink remained only in the areas where the acid bit into the metal plate or where the stylus had scratched the surface. The plate and moist paper were then placed atop one another and run through a press. The paper, now a print, drew the ink from the metal, and became a mirror of the plate. FUNCTION -The eighty-two images in the series add up to a visual indictment of and protest against the French occupation of Spain by Napoleon Bonaparte.** CONTENT -There's a man, blind-folded, head downcast, and he stands bound to a wooden pole. -His white clothes, despite tears and rips, seem to emit light; although his posture signifies defeat, he is yet heroic, an Alter Christus—another Christ. -On the ground in front of him is a corpse, contorted, the spine twisted, arms and legs sprawled in opposite directions. -His face looks at us through obscured eyes as blood and brain matter ooze out of his skull and pool around his head. Seconds ago this man was alive. -To the hero's left, other men on their knees, are similarly secured to wooden stakes. -To his right we see the cause of the carnage: a line of soldiers aiming rifles at the men, the muzzle of their weapons disappearing behind the hero's hip. -Suddenly, the barrel of three rifles appear from the right edge of the picture, aimed at the hero. -Not only is he about to die, but his executioners are everywhere. the caption of the picture tells us, "Y no hay remedio" (And there's nothing to be done). -this theme—the cruelty of one group of people towards another—was a preoccupation of the artist** CONTEXT -Francisco Goya created the series The Disasters of War from 1810 to 1820. -the series is a visual indictment of and protest against the French occupation of Spain by Napoleon Bonaparte. -The French Emperor had seized control of the country in 1807 after he tricked the king of Spain, Charles IV, into allowing Napoleon's troops to pass its border, under the pretext of helping Charles invade Portugal. He did not. Instead, he seized the throne and made his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as ruler of Spain. Soon, a war occurred. -Throughout the entire time, Goya worked as a court artist for Joseph Bonaparte, though he would later deny any involvement with the French "intruder king." -The first group of prints, to which "Y no hay remedio" belongs, shows the consequences of conflict between French troops and Spanish civilians. -The Disasters of War were Goya's second series -This set of images was also a critique of the contemporary world, satirizing the socio-economic system in Spain that caused most people to live in poverty and forced them to act immorally just to survive. -Goya's Disasters of War series was not printed until thirty-five years after the artist's death, when it was finally safe for the artist's political views to be known. -Goya's belief, expressed in The Disasters of War, that war, even if justified, brings out the inhumane in man, and causes us to act like beasts.

Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?, Paul Gauguin

- Tahiti - 1897 CE Form Oil on canvas Symbolist work Painted on rough, heavy sackcloth Gauguin himself provided a description of the painting's esoteric imagery in the letter to de Monfried he said: The two upper corners are chrome yellow, with an inscription on the left and my name on the right, like a fresco whose corners are spoiled with age, and which is appliquéd upon a golden wall. To the right at the lower end, a sleeping child and three crouching women. Two figures dressed in purple confide their thoughts to one another. An enormous crouching figure, out of all proportion and intentionally so, raises its arms and stares in astonishment upon these two, who dare to think of their destiny. A figure in the center is picking fruit. Two cats near a child. A white goat. An idol, its arms mysteriously raised in a sort of rhythm, seems to indicate the Beyond. lastly, an old woman nearing death appears to accept everything, to resign herself to her thoughts. She completes the story! At her feet a strange white bird, holding a lizard in its claws, represents the futility of words.... So I have finished a philosophical work on a theme comparable to that of the Gospel. Gauguin's text clarifies some of the painting's obscure, distinctive iconography and invites us to "read" the image. Stylistically, the composition is designed to recall frescoes or icons painted on a gold ground. The upper corners have been painted with a bright yellow to contribute to this effect, and the figures appear out of proportion to one another deliberately as if they were floating in space rather than resting firmly upon the earth. Function "So I have finished a philosophical work on a theme comparable to that of the Gospel." Gauguin suggests that the figures have mysterious symbolic meanings and that they might answer the questions posed by the work's title. in the manner of a sacred scroll written in an ancient language, the painting is to be read from right to left: from the sleeping infant—where we come from—to the standing figure in the middle—what we are—and ending at the left with the crouching old woman—where we are going. Although this is painted on a large scale, it is essentially a private work whose meaning was likely known only to Gauguin himself Content Contains numerous human, animal, and symbolic figures arranged across an island landscape. The sea and Tahiti's volcanic mountains are visible in the background. themes of life, death, poetry, and symbolic meaning. Like other Symbolist works of this period, precise, complete interpretations remain out of reach. The painting is a deliberate mixture of universal meaning—the questions asked in the title are fundamental ones that address the very root of human existence—and esoteric mystery. Context It is Paul Gauguin's largest painting, and he understood it to be his finest work. Where are we going? represents the artist's painted manifesto created while he was living on the island of Tahiti. The French artist transitioned from being a "Sunday painter" (someone who paints for his or her own enjoyment) to becoming a professional after his career as a stockbroker (professional trader who buys and sells shares on behalf of clients) failed in the early 1880s. He visited the Pacific island Tahiti in French Polynesia staying from 1891 to 1893. Gauguin completed this within one month's time, and even claimed that he went into the mountains to attempt suicide after the work was finished. Gauguin may or may not have actually poisoned himself with arsenic, but this legend was in line with the painting's themes of life, death, poetry, and symbolic meaning. A few months after completing the painting, Gauguin sent it to Paris along with several other works of art, intending that they should be exhibited together in a gallery or an artist's studio. He sent de Monfried careful instructions about how the painting should be framed ("a plain strip of wood, 10 centimeters wide, and white-washed to resemble a mural") and who should be invited to the exhibition ("in this way, instead of crowds one can have whom one wants, and thus gain connections that cannot harm you.") The concern Gauguin reveals in the details indicates his continued awareness of the Parisian art market, which remained a central focus even as he exiled himself on a small tropical island on the other side of the globe.

Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building, Louis Sullivan

- US - 1899 CE Form bronze-colored ground floor and broad white façade stretching twelve stories above it. an important example of early Chicago skyscraper architecture The firm of Adler & Sullivan first became known in Chicago in the early 1880s for the design of the Auditorium Building and other landmarks utilizing new methods of steel frame construction and a uniquely American blend of Art Nouveau decoration with a simplified monumentality. The corner entryway and the entire base section are differentiated from the spare upper stories by a unified system of extremely ornate decoration. The cast-iron ornament contains the same highly complicated, delicate, organic and floral motifs that had become hallmarks of Sullivan's design aesthetic. For Sullivan, the decorative program served a functional project as well, to distinguish the building from those surrounding it, and to make the store attractive to potential customers. The upper parts of the building also reflect Sullivan's adaptation of his skyscraper theory to a department store. Each successive story of the white terra-cotta façade contains identical windows, in this case the three-sectioned "Chicago" window common to late nineteenth-century skyscrapers in the city. There is an overhanging cornice at the very top that seems to signify the end of the building's ascent, and makes the slightly set-back attic level distinct from the broad mid-section and the dark cast-iron decoration of the base level. Unlike Sullivan's office buildings, however, the building's primary thrust is horizontal rather than vertical. Sullivan's design emphasizes the long, uninterrupted lines running under each window from each side of the building towards the entry bay, while the decorative base at the bottom and the cornice line at the top flow seamlessly around the corner. The wide rectangular window frames and relatively squat twelve-story frame were intended to meet the specific requirements of a department store, whose mission called for expansive open spaces to display products to customers, not endless individual offices. Combined classical elements Hypostyle Has columns Function a department store constructed in two stages in 1899 and 1903-04. Content In Chicago At the intersection of State and Madison Streets with large glass windows and a rounded corner entryway covered with lavish decoration. Context (and some form) can be seen as an indicator of the relationship between architecture and commerce. Sullivan wrote his treatise on skyscraper architecture called "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered," In it, Sullivan analyzed the problem of high-rise commercial architecture, arguing with his famous phrase "form must ever follow function" that a building's design must reflect the social purpose of a particular space. Sullivan illustrates this philosophy by describing an ideal tripartite skyscraper. First, there should be a base level with a ground floor for businesses that require easy public access, light, and open space, and a second story also publicly accessible by stairways. These floors should then be followed by an infinite number of stories for offices, designed to look all the same because they serve the same function. Finally, the building should be topped with an attic storey and distinct cornice line to mark its endpoint and set it apart from other buildings within the cityscape. For Sullivan, the characteristic feature of a skyscraper was that it was tall, and so the building's design should serve that goal by emphasizing its upward momentum. Later, Sullivan adapted these ideas to a department store for the Schlesinger & Mayer company that was soon purchased by Carson, Pirie, Scott. In contrast to Sullivan's earlier office buildings, Carson, Pirie, Scott in downtown Chicago was intended to meet its patron's needs in a different way. Instead of emphasizing the identical windows meant to reflect the identical work in each office, in the Carson Pirie Scott building, Sullivan highlighted instead the lower street-level section and entryway to draw shoppers into the store. This was done in a number of ways. The windows on the ground floor, displaying the store's products, are much larger than those above. The three doors of the main entrance were placed within a rounded bay on the corner of the site, so that they are visible from all directions approaching the building. Some later critics viewed the lower, ornamental section of the building as an uncomfortable disruption to the otherwise stripped-down, planar style they favored.

Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright

- US -1936 CE Form Perched above a mountain cataract on a rocky hillside deep in the rugged forest of Southwestern Pennsylvania, some 90 minutes from Pittsburgh Wright appears to be concerned with responding to the European Modernist design that he had in part inspired It looks like there are no corners Influenced by japanese architecture- sliding doors Function The commission for Fallingwater was a personal milestone for the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright Content from the beginning, the architect rejected a site that presented a conventional view of the waterfall; instead, he audaciously offered to make the house part of it, stating that the "visit to the waterfall in the woods stays with me" The South-southeast orientation gives the illusion that the stream flows, not alongside the house, but through it. Edgar Kaufmann Jr. pointed out that Wright's famous concept of "Organic Architecture" stems from his Transcendentalist background. The belief that human life is part of nature. Wright even incorporated a rock outcropping that projected above the living room floor into his massive central hearth, further uniting the house with the earth. Wright further emphasizes the connection with nature by liberal use of glass; the house has no walls facing the falls, only a central stone core for the fireplaces and stone columns. This provides elongated vistas leading the eye out to the horizon and the woods. The kaufmanns loved the idea, but edgar kaufmann sent the blueprints to his engineer, and his engineer said that the ground was not stable and he would not recommend that he proceed with the house. Wright was not happy but permitted an increase in the number and diameter of the structure's steel reinforcements—Kaufmann agreed to proceed. the engineer's warnings later proved valid, an issue that "haunted" Wright for the rest of his life. he chose ferro-concrete for his cantilevers, this use of reinforced concrete for the long suspended balconies was revolutionary. He boldly extended the balcony of the second floor master bedroom soaring six feet beyond the living room below. However, due to the lack of proper support, cracks began appearing in the balcony floors soon after they were poured. Over the years since, cracks have been repeatedly repaired as the cantilevers continued to sag. By 2001 some of the 15 foot cantilevers had fallen more than 7 inches. To avoid a complete collapse, an ingenious system was devised using tensioned cables to correct the problem and stabilize the house He built around a tree. He didn't cut it down Context the sixty-seven year old went on to create a series of highly original designs that would validate his claim as "The world's greatest architect. The mid-1930s were among the darkest years for architects in American history; the country's financial system had collapsed. Almost no private homes were built. Now in his sixties, Wright and his new wife Olgivanna were struggling to keep Taliesin, his Wisconsin home and studio, out of foreclosure.His peers were also beginning to regard Wright as an irrelevant anachronism In 1932 Henry-Russell Hitchcock had praise for his early work, for its "many innovations," but he condemned Wright for a "lack of continuity in his development and his unwillingness to absorb the innovations of his contemporaries and his juniors in Europe." The catalogue that Hitchcock opened calls Wright a "half-modern" throwback, one of the "last representatives of Romanticism." Wright responded by denigrating European Modernism as an "evil crusade," a manifestation of "totalitarianism." The Wrights devised an architectural apprenticeship program that came to be known as the "fellowship." And among the first candidates was Edgar Kaufmann Jr. who became enamored with Wright after reading his biography. Kaufmann was the son of Pittsburgh department store tycoon Edgar Kaufmann Sr.. Kaufmann senior was involved in numerous public projects and built several stores and homes. Kaufmann let Wright know that he had several civic architectural projects in mind for him. He and his wife Liliane were invited to Taliesin and were impressed. There are varying accounts regarding the circumstances that brought Kaufmann to offer Wright a chance to design a "weekend home" in the country; but we know that Wright made his first trip to the site on Bear Run, Pennsylvania in December, 1934. Perhaps the most famous tale about Fallingwater is the story that Wright, after receiving the commission procrastinated for nine months until he was forced to draw up the complete plans while his patron was driving the 140 miles from Milwaukee to Taliesin. However, the essential story is validated by several witnesses. Apprentice Edgar Taffel recalled that after talking with Kaufmann on the phone, Wright sketched the design effortlessly. the whole process took about two hours.

Woman I, Willem de Kooning

- US -1950 CE Form Layers of different textures of paint- some thin and drippy and some thick and matte There's a quickness of the brushstrokes, which are visible, which imply the painting is made quickly The brushwork is almost calligraphic and muscular and tough. The paint is thick The colors are bright. He also put a border of silver on the right side The eyes and breasts are emphasized Abstract- where are her limbs? Function He didn't want a finished product, but the process Similar to images of pinup girls- sexualized images of women De kooning was able to draw traditionally, but he wanted to find art that was still meaningful in a sea of reproductive technologies Content Large scale seated female figure Her teeth are bare There's aggression and improvisation. It's a contemporary representation of the female figure Context Worked on this painting for years De kooning worked on a whole series of images of a woman on the same canvas and would work on it until it fell apart. Then he would wipe it away and start over again Willem de kooning is one fo the central abstract expressionists Goes back to the history of Madonna This was sacred art brought into the 20th century and made profane Women were sexualized on screen or movie posters after the war You have to know jackson ____? In order to know de kooning

The Bay, Helen Frankenthaler

- US -1963 CE Form Abstract expressionist an imposing fluid blue promontory colors ranging from violet to indigo run into one another with a clear zone of navy near the top of the canvas that draw our eyes up to it. The blurring of the colors gives an immediate sense of the artist's process: paint poured onto the canvas when it was wet. We can almost watch as the blues meld into one another during this early stage giving the image its blurred and smooth finish. Soak-stain method with diluted acrylic paint- Acrylics gave her more flexibility with viscosity and movement than oils, and allowed her more control as she poured that thinned paint onto the taut unprimed canvas so that it would get absorbed into the weave of the fabric. As a substitute for the action of the brush, Frankenthaler would lift the canvas and tilt it at various angles so that the paint would flow across the surface. She had to account for gravity and the ebb and flow of a liquid across a flat surface, so an aspect of Frankenthaler's method is the blend of the artist's control paired with the unpredictability of the forces of nature. This kind of painting is often classified as Color Field painting, painting characterized by simplicity of line and a focus on color as the subject rather than as an add-on. The first generation of Abstract Expressionists, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman were the first important Color Field painters, while Helen Frankenthaler is often classified as a second-generation member of the group. Function The sense of natural spontaneity and devotion to color is part of what makes The Bay and the work of the Color Field painters so compelling. The artist said: When you first saw a Cubist or Impressionist picture there was a whole way of instructing the eye or the subconscious. Dabs of color had to stand for real things. It was an abstraction of a guitar or a hillside. The opposite is going on now. If you have bands of blue, green and pink, the mind doesn't think sky, grass and flesh. These are colors and the question is what are they doing with themselves and with each other. Sentiment and nuance are being squeezed out. The last line: The colors on the canvas don't have to represent something in particular, but can have a more ambiguous, emblematic quality for the viewer. Content The subject could be what the title suggests—a landform of some kind with certain symbolic associations Context When Helen Frankenthaler painted The Bay, she was already a well-regarded artist. She'd been the subject of a LIFE Magazine profile in 1956 and was one of the handful of women among the traditional all-boys' club of the New York Abstract Expressionists. The Bay was chosen as one of the paintings for the American pavilion of the 1966 Venice Biennale. Frankenthaler was inspired by the drip method of Jackson Pollock who began painting on the floor in the late 1940s, but she knew she wanted to work differently.

Monticello, Thomas Jefferson

- United States - 1768 CE FORM -Monticello is a example of French Neoclassical architecture in the United States. FUNCTION -By helping to introduce classical architecture to the United States, Jefferson intended to reinforce the ideals of the classical past: democracy, education, rationality, civic responsibility -Jefferson's home CONTENT -From 1793 until 1809, Jefferson redesigned and rebuilt his home, creating one of the most recognized private homes in the history of the United States. He integrated the ideals of French neoclassical architecture for an American audience. -In this later construction period, Jefferson fundamentally changed the proportions of Monticello. -Jefferson's later remodeling gives the impression of a symmetrical single-story brick home under an austere Doric entablature. -The west garden façade shows Monticello's most recognized architectural features. -The two-column deep extended portico contains Doric columns that support a triangular pediment that is decorated by a semicircular window. -Although the short octagonal drum and shallow dome provide Monticello a sense of verticality, the wooden balustrade that circles the roofline provides a sense of horizontality. -Monticello means "little mountain" i think CONTEXT -Jefferson was the Governor of Virginia, American minister to France, the first Secretary of State, the third president of the United States, and one of the most accomplished gentleman architects in American history. -Jefferson believed art was a powerful tool; it could elicit social change, could inspire the public to seek education, and could bring about enlightenment for the American public -Although never formally trained as an architect, Jefferson expressed dissatisfaction with the architecture that surrounded him in Williamsburg, believing that the Wren-Baroque aesthetic common in colonial Virginia was too British for a North American audience. -Construction began in 1768 when the hilltop was first cleared and leveled, and Jefferson moved into the completed South Pavilion two years later. -The early phase of Monticello's construction was largely completed by 1771. Jefferson left both Monticello and the United States in 1784 when he accepted an appointment as America Minister to France.

George Washington, Jean-Antoine Houdon

- United States - 1788 CE FORM - Given Houdon's skill and ambition, the sculptor likely hoped to cast a larger than life-sized bronze statue of General Washington on horseback. Houdon wanted an equestrian bronze final product, but delivered more than a decade later, it was a simple standing marble. FUNCTION - Represent george washington as a hero CONTENT - Washington stands and looks slightly to his left; his facial expression could be described as fatherly. -He wears his military uniform. His stance mimics that of the contrapposto seen in Polykleitos' classical sculpture of Doryphoros. -Washington's left leg is slightly bent and half a stride forward, while his right leg is weight bearing. His right arm hangs by his side and rests atop a gentleman's walking stick. -His left arm—bent at the elbow—rests atop a fasces, a bundle of thirteen rods that symbolizes not only the power of a ruler but also the strength found through unity. -This visually represents the concept of E Pluribus Unum, a congressionally approved motto of the United States from 1782 until 1956. -Rather than hold his officer's sword, a symbol of military might and authority, it instead hangs on the outside of the fasces, beyond Washington's immediate grasp. -This surrendering of military power is further reinforced by the presence of the plow behind Washington. -This refers to the story of Cincinnatus, a Roman dictator who resigned his absolute power when his leadership was no longer needed so that he could return to his farm. Like this Roman, Washington resigned his power and returned to his farm to live a peaceful, civilian life. CONTEXT -After the successful conclusion of the American Revolutionary War, the Virginia General Assembly wanted a statue of George Washington for display in a public space because of his critical role in Virginia and the colonial cause -in 1784, the Governor of Virginia, Benjamin Harrison V, asked Thomas Jefferson, a Virginian who was then in Paris as the American Minister to France, to select an appropriate artist. He sought a European sculptor. So he picked Jean-Antoine Houdon. -Houdon was, by the middle of the 1780s, the most famous and accomplished neoclassical sculptor at work in France. -Jefferson commissioned Houdon to complete a monumental statue of Washington. -Evidence suggests that Houdon was to remain in Paris and sculpt Washington from a likeness Charles Willson Peale had drawn. -Dissatisfied, and uncomfortable with carving in three dimensions what Peale had drew in two dimensions, Houdon made plans to visit Washington in person. -Houdon departed for the United States and was joined by Benjamin Franklin and two assistants. The group went to Washington's home where they took detailed measurements of Washington's body and sculpted a life mask -Houdon created a slightly idealized and classicized bust portrait of the future president. Unfortunately, Washington disliked this classicized aesthetic and insisted on being shown wearing contemporary attire rather than the garments of a hero from ancient Greece or Rome. -Houdon returned to Paris in December 1785 and set to work on a standing full-length statue carved from Carrara marble. Although Houdon dated the statue 1788, he did not finish it until about four years later, and the statue was not delivered to the State of Virginia until May of 1796

The Oxbow, Thomas Cole

- United States - 1836 CE FUNCTION -One of cole's wealthy and prominent patrons, Luman Reed, an affluent merchant who commissioned Cole to paint the five-canvas series -The Course of Empire. - It is in this series that Thomas Cole found the voice to lift the genre of landscape painting to a level that approached history painting. -During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, landscape paintings, in comparison to historical paintings, were often though more imitative than innovative. - But in The Course of Empire, Cole was able to take the American landscape and incorporate a moral message, as was often found in history paintings. -In these works, Cole used the land as a way to say something important about the United States. CONTENT AND FORM -A View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, -Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm, a painting that is generally known as The Oxbow. It's a hudson river school painting -At first glance this painting may seem to be nothing more than an interesting view of a recognizable bend in the Connecticut River. But when viewed through the lens of nineteenth-century political ideology, this painting speaks about the widely discussed topic of westward expansion. -Cole used a diagonal line from the lower right to the upper left to divide the composition into two unequal halves. -The left-hand side of the painting depicts a sublime view of the land, a perspective that elicits feelings of danger and even fear. -This is enhanced by the gloomy storm clouds that seem to pummel the not-too-distant middle ground with rain. This part of the painting depicts a virginal landscape, nature created by God and untouched by man. -It is wild, unruly, and untamed. Rain is pouring and birds are frantic. This half of the painting is called the "sublime"- image of nature that is wild and untamed and scary and awesome -untamed wilderness is represented through the "Blasted Tree, a motif Cole paints into the lower left corner. -That such a formidable tree could be obliterated in such a way suggests the enormous power of Nature. -on the right side of the composition we can observe a peaceful landscape that humankind has subjugated to their will. -the land, which was once as disorderly as that on the left side of the painting, has now been overtaken by the order and regulation of agriculture. -****This side is called "pastoral"- tranquility and peacefulness -You can see a ferry with people crossing over and other ppl that have been let off at one side. There is also a pathway where you can see sheep grazing on the side and you can see chimney stacks of houses. There is a valley where the sun is shining -The thunderstorm, which threatens the left side of the painting, has left the land on the right refreshed and no worse for the wear. The sun shines brightly, filling the right side of the painting with the golden glow of a fresh afternoon. -When viewed together, the right and left side clearly speak to the ideology of ***Manifest Destiny. During the nineteenth century, discussions of westward expansion dominated political discourse. -The Louisiana Purchase of 1804 essentially doubled the size of the United States, and many believed that it was a divinely ordained obligation of Americans to settle this westward territory. -in The Oxbow, Cole visually shows the benefits of this process. The land to the east is ordered, productive, and useful. In contrast, the land to the west remains unbridled. Further westward expansion—a change that is destined to happen—is shown to positively alter the land. -The hill in the center of the painting reads in Hebrew letters. When looked at from above, and in reverse, from God's viewpoint, it reads "shaddai" which means "almighty" referring to God -There is an easily overlooked self-portrait in the lower part of the painting. Cole wears a coat and hat and stands before a stretched canvas placed on an easel, paintbrush in hand. The artist pauses, as if in the middle of the brushstroke, to engage the viewer. -Next to him is his supplies, his umbrella that will shelter him, a portfolio, and a chair. The chair is also a cross, which means this painting is in the Christian CONTEXT -The portfolio has his signature on it and it also reads as a tombstone for the artist. There's a sense of passage of time CONTEXT -During the nineteenth century, the elevation of landscape painting came to a point of national pride—- Thomas Cole reigned supreme as the undisputed leader of the Hudson River School of landscape painters (not an actual school, but a group of New York city-based landscape painters). -It is ironic, however, that the person who most embodies the beauty and grandeur of the American wilderness during the first half of the nineteenth century was not originally from the United States, but was instead born and lived the first seventeen years of his life in Great Britain

The Jungle, Wilfredo Lam

-France -1943 CE Form Gouache on paper mounted on canvas Latin American art Nearly an 8 foot square During the interwar period in Paris, Lam befriended the Surrealists, whose influence is evident in The Jungle. Surrealists aimed to release the unconscious and suppressed mind by the rational—in order to achieve another reality. In art, the juxtaposition of irrational images reveal a "super-reality," or "sur-reality." In Lam's work, an other-worldly atmosphere emerges from the constant shifting taking place among the figures; they are at once human, animal, organic, and mystical. This transformation among the figures is also related to Lam's interest in Afro-Caribbean culture. When the artist resettled in Cuba in 1941, he began to integrate symbols from Santería, an Afro-Cuban religion that mixes African beliefs and customs with Catholicism, into his art. During Santería ceremonies the supernatural merges with the natural world through masks, animals, or initiates who become possessed by a god. These ceremonies are moments of metamorphosis where a being is at once itself and otherworldly. Function Sugarcane does not grow in jungles but rather is cultivated in fields. In 1940s Cuba, sugarcane was big business, requiring the toil of thousands of laborers similar to the cotton industry in the American South before the Civil War. The reality of laboring Cubans was in sharp contrast to how foreigners perceived the island nation, a playground. Lam's painting is an unusual Cuban landscape compared to the tourism posters that depicted the country as a destination for Americans seeking beachside resorts. While northern visitors enjoyed a resort experience, U.S. corporations ran their businesses, including sugar production. Content There's a cluster of enigmatic faces, limbs, and sugarcane The painting is a game of perception. The artist haphazardly constructs the figures from a collection of distinct forms—crescent-shaped faces; prominent, rounded backsides; willowy arms and legs; and flat, cloddish hands and feet. When assembled these figures resemble a funhouse mirror reflection. The disproportion among the shapes generates an uneasy balance between the composition's denser top and more open bottom—there are not enough feet and legs to support the upper half of the painting, which seems on the verge of toppling over. Another significant element within Lam's game of perception is how he places the figures within an unorthodox landscape. Lam's panorama excludes the typical elements of a horizon line, sky or wide view; instead this is a tight, directionless snapshot, with only the faintest sense of the ground. Context 1959 Revolution- revolution that overthrew the corrupt government of Cuba's leader at the time, Fulgencio Batista. Cuba had already spent over four decades at the mercy of United States-interests when lam painted this In the 1920s and 30s, Lam was in Madrid and Paris, but in 1941 as Europe was engulfed by war, he returned to his native country, cuba Though he would leave Cuba again for Europe after the war, key elements within his artistic practice intersected during this period: Lam's consciousness of Cuba's socio-economic realities; his artistic formation in Europe under the influence of Surrealism; and his re-acquaintance with Afro-Caribbean culture. This resulted in The Jungle. Though Cuba gained independence from Spain at the end of nineteenth century, the United States maintained the right to intervene in Cuba's affairs, which destabilized politics on the island for decades.

Fountain, Marcel Duchamp

-France -1950 CE Form Duchamp called this a "readymade" Function Most people think of art as something that is created from ordinary materials into something that can make us see things in a new way. Duchamp is doing this here He makes people question what art is Is art an idea? The concept? Can the artist have the idea but not make the object Content He signed it R. Mott and dated it on the side Context He originally made it in 1917, but he remade it in 1964 This was a small series that was made in 1964, after the original work Duchamp went to a plumbing supply house called mott and purchased the urinal- he did not make it He submitted it to an art exhibition for a new group that he was a founding member of, the American Society for Independent Artists Their notion was that the juried exhibition that was prevalent in the US in NY at this time was a problem bc the jury always selected the traditional work that they were associated with. His new group wanted new possibilities They were supposed to accept every work that was submitted but they rejected this one

Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Central Park, Diego Rivera

-Mexico -1947 CE Form Though Rivera never officially joined the Surrealists, he uses this approach in this painting 40 ft long fresco and 13 ft high Hieratic scale Haravacoui?- scared to not fill space? Didactic painting?? Function In the spirit of Surrealism, this is a complex dream. For Surrealists, dreams were the principal subject matter. Since dreams are so personal and strange, this allowed artists to juxtapose unrelated matter. The artist reminds the viewer that the struggles and glory of four centuries of Mexican history are due to the participation of Mexicans from all strata of society. Content and context Right hand side is mexican revolution hundreds of characters from 400 years of Mexican history gather for a stroll through Mexico City's largest park. But the colorful balloons, impeccably dressed visitors, and vendors with diverse wares cannot conceal the darker side of this dream: a confrontation between an indigenous family and a police officer; a man shooting into the face of someone being trampled by a horse in the midst of a skirmish; a sinister skeleton smiling at the viewer. a scene composed of disparate historical personages, including Hernán Cortés (the Spanish conqueror who initiated the fall of the Aztec Empire), Sor Juana (a seventeenth-century nun and one of Mexico's most notable writers), and Porfirio Díaz (whose dictatorship at the turn of the twentieth century inspired the Mexican Revolution). Perhaps the most striking grouping is a central quartet featuring Rivera, the artist Frida Kahlo, the printmaker and draughtsman José Guadalupe Posada, and La Catrina. "Catrina" was a nickname in the early twentieth century for an elegant, upper-class woman who dressed in European clothing.This character became infamous in Posada's La Calavera de la Catrina (The Catrina Skeleton) Here, the renowned printmaker depicted La Catrina as a skeleton in order to critique the Mexican elite. In this painting, Rivera reproduces the original Posada print and adds an elaborate boa—reminiscent of the feathered Mesoamerican serpent god Quetzalcóatl—around her neck. La Catrina unites two great Mexican artists in this mural: she holds Rivera's hand as her other arm is held by Posada. Though Posada died in obscurity in 1913, artists later brought attention to his work and he was a significant influence on the Mexican muralists. The fourth character in this quartet is Kahlo. She stands behind a child-version of her husband, with one hand protectively on his shoulder as her other holds a Yin and Yang object. In Chinese philosophy, Yin and Yang refers to opposite yet interdependent forces, like day and night. Within the name of this concept is perhaps the most fundamental duality in humanity: female ("Yin") and male ("Yang"). Thus, this Chinese symbol becomes a metaphor for Rivera and Kahlo's complex relationship: Rivera began as Kahlo's mentor; they then married, separated, and got back together; they were political comrades; and they painted each other frequently. Their double-portraits often reflect the state of the couple's relationship at that moment. if one reads the mural like a text, a chronology emerges: the left side of the composition highlights the conquest and colonization of Mexico, the fight for independence and the revolution occupy the majority of the central space, and modern achievements fill the right. For some art historians the central area is a snapshot of bourgeois life in 1895—as refined ladies and gentlemen promenade in their Sunday best, under the watchful eye of Porfirio Díaz in his plumed military garb. One gets a sense of the inequality that stirred average Mexicans to overthrow their dictator and initiate the Mexican Revolution which lasted from 1910 until 1920. In this light we can appreciate the dreams and nightmares within each era. To the left of the balloons the nightmares of the conquest and religious intolerance during the colonial-era give way to the dream of a democratic nation during the nineteenth century, represented by the over-sized figure of Benito Juárez, who restored the republic after French occupation and attempted to modernize the country as president. On the right of the composition, beyond the bandstand, the battles of the revolution give way to a society where "land and liberty," as championed by the workers' flags, becomes a tangible reality.

The Migration of the Negro, Panel no. 49, Jacob Lawrence

-US -1940 CE Form Brilliant use of color and very stark composition using tempera on hard board There are geometric shapes, flat areas of color Expression of the modern condition of this modern migration of industrialization Modern by the flatness of the forms Linear perspective Function This entire series is about movement and change Content Captures the complexity of what happened to people's lives when they move The titles are like a poem that weave its way thru the images\ 60 panels The very first and last panel have to do with train stations and the movement of people Panel 49- shows racism and discriination. There's a gold barrier, a rope that separates the people in linear perspective and bird's eye view. The gray is entirely flattened. The figures are silhouetted in the dark colors. The whites on the left are very separate. The one on the top is facing away and looks vain The man below him looks lost in his own thoughts. His hands are big, and he seems to be clutching the newspaper, refusing to acknowledge anyone else around him There's so much expressiveness The figure on the upper right looks small and isolated and distanced We can tell the figure ont he bottom right is an older female from an economy of form- her head is lower than her shoulders so she seems stooped over. He hair looks like a bell. Only the whites have their facial features depicted. The African Americans are given form and personality by the contours of their bodies The viewer feels more sympathy for the figures on the right bc the figures on the left seem aloof and menacing Context Moma has the even numbers, The Phillips Collection has the odd numbers Lawrence was a very young artist The paintings were about migration of African Americans from the agricultual South into the industrial North at the end of the 19th and especially in the first half of the 20th century What led to this was the racism and Jim Crow Laws in the South and also a lack of labor in the North Northern industrial companies had jobs to fill Sic million people are estimated to have moved during these waves of migration and Lawrence's family is one of them Lawrence's family moved to NY, but people also moved to chicago, st. louis, and other industrial centers There was struggle and hope for a better life in the north He was careful when e produced this- he did lots of research at the Schomburg Center in Harlem

Seagram Building, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson

-US -1954 CE Form and content Bronze and copper Classical Has a patina- not just a uniform dark brown black. There is some subtlety to the color Each year it's rubbed with oil so it doesn't oxidize Greek architecture characteristics- it's symmetrical, there are various pillars in the front that look like fluted columns- it's like the parthenon There's vertical velocity- an ascent There are vertical mullions between the window bays. We basically rise front he base f the tower to the top without any interruption The mullions look like i beams- they have girders. They serve no other purpose than decoration- they give the surface texture and light and shadow The mosaics are marble and granite? There are reflecting pools in front of the building There are four elevator banks- they move past the glass membrane that encloses the lobby The building is deeply set back on park Avenue. It has a couple of smaller editions in the back because mies wanted to pay respect to teh Racquet and Tennis Club directly across the street Function Commissioned Liquor company. Perhaps the largest liquor company at the time Context Mies has been designed buildings like this since the 1920s but he never had a chance to build an office building until this one He went through the war, the end of the depression He moves to the US and designs the amus of the Armor Institute Liquor was prohibited and this liquor company was based in canada. So the liquor would be smuggled down to chicago, across the Great Lakes They were impressed byt he notoriety that the Lever House had- first curtain wall building in manhattan Mies loved greek architexture

Marilyn Diptych, Andy Warhol

-US -1962 CE Form made of two silver canvases on which the artist silkscreened a photograph of Marilyn Monroe fifty times. At first glance, the work—which explicitly references a form of Christian painting (Diptych wth the virgin and child enthroned and the crucifixion) in its title—invites us to worship the legendary icon, whose image Warhol plucked from popular culture and immortalized as art. Function and context in all of Warhol's early paintings, this image is also a carefully crafted critique of both modern art and contemporary life. With sustained looking, Warhol's works reveal that he was influenced not only by pop culture, but also by art history—and especially by the art that was then popular in New York. For example, in this painting, we can identify the hallmarks of Abstract Expressionist painters like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. As in the work of these older artists, the monumental scale of Marilyn Diptych (more than six feet by nine feet) demands our attention and announces the importance of the subject matter. Furthermore, the seemingly careless handling of the paint and its "allover composition"—the even distribution of form and color across the entire canvas, such that the viewer's eyes wander without focusing on one spot—are each hallmarks of Abstract Expressionism, as exemplified by Jackson Pollock's drip paintings. Yet Warhol references these painters only to undermine the supposed expressiveness of their gestures: like Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, whose work he admired, he uses photographic imagery, the silkscreen process and repetition to make art that is not about his interior life, but rather about the culture in which he lived. Aside from radically changing our notion of painting, Warhol's choices create a symmetry between the artist and his subject, who each seem to be less than fully human: the artist becomes a machine, just as the actress becomes a mask or a shell. Another word we could use to describe the presence of both the artist and the actress might be ghostly, and in fact, Warhol started making his series of "Marilyn" paintings only after the star had died of an apparent suicide, and eventually collected them with other disturbing paintings under the title "Death in America." Her death haunts this painting: on the left, her purple, garishly made-up face resembles an embalmed corpse, while the lighter tones of some of the faces on the right make it seem like she is disappearing before our eyes. Warhol once noted that through repeated exposure to an image, we become de-sensitized to it. In that case, by repeating Monroe's mask-like face, he not only drains away her life, but also ours as well, by deadening our emotional response to her death. Then again, by making her face so strange and unfamiliar, he might also be trying to re-sensitize us to her image, so that we remember she isn't just a symbol, but a person whom we might pity. From the perspective of psychoanalytic theory, he may even be forcing us to relive, and therefore work through, the traumatic shock of her death. The painting is more than a mere celebration of Monroe's iconic status. It is an invitation to consider the consequences of the increasing role of mass media images in our everyday lives. Content Warhol takes as the subject of his painting an impersonal image. Though he was an award-winning illustrator, instead of making his own drawing of Monroe, he appropriates an image that already exists. Furthermore, the image is not some other artist's drawing, but a photograph made for mass reproduction. Even if we don't recognize the source (a publicity photo for Monroe's 1953 film Niagara), we know the image is a photo, not only because of its verisimilitude, but also because of the heightened contrast between the lit and shadowed areas of her face, which we associate with a photographer's flash. True to form, the actress looks at us seductively from under heavy-lidded eyes and with parted lips; but her expression is also a bit inscrutable, and the repetition remakes her face into an eerie, inanimate mask. Warhol's use of the silkscreen technique further "flattens" the star's face. By screening broad planes of unmodulated color, the artist removes the gradual shading that creates a sense of three-dimensional volume, and suspends the actress in an abstract void. Through these choices, Warhol transforms the literal flatness of the paper-thin publicity photo into an emotional "flatness," and the actress into a kind of automaton. -In this way, the painting suggests that "Marilyn Monroe," a manufactured star with a made-up name, is merely a one-dimensional (sex) symbol—perhaps not the most appropriate object of our almost religious devotion. While Warhol's silkscreened repetitions flatten Monroe's identity, they also complicate his own identity as the artist of this work. -The silkscreen process allowed Warhol (or his assistants) to reproduce the same image over and over again, using multiple colors. Once the screens are manufactured and the colors are chosen, the artist simply spreads inks evenly over the screens using a wide squeegee. Though there are differences from one face to the next, these appear to be the accidental byproducts of a quasi-mechanical process, rather than the product of the artist's judgment. Warhol's rote painting technique is echoed by the rigid composition of the work, a five-by-five grid of faces, repeated across the two halves of its surface. Here, as in many Neo-Dada, minimalist and conceptual works, the grid is like a program that the artist uses to "automate" the process of composing the work, instead of relying on subjective thoughts or feelings to make decisions. In other words, Warhol's "cool," detached composition is the opposite of the intimate, soulful encounter with the canvas associated with Abstract Expressionism. But whereas most works that use grids are abstract, here, the the grid repeats a photo of a movie star, causing the painting to resemble a photographer's contact sheet, or a series of film strips placed side-by-side. These references to mechanical forms of reproduction further prove that for Warhol, painting is no longer an elevated medium distinct from popular culture.

Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks, Claes Oldenburg

-US -1969 CE Form The sculpture was not intended to be permanent. They made the base of plywood, and the red vinyl tip of the lipstick could be comically inflated and deflated—although the balloon mechanism didn't always work. The original remained in Beinecke Plaza for ten months before Oldenburg removed it in order to remake the form in metal. The resulting sculpture was placed in a less-prominent spot on Yale's campus, where it remains to this day. 24 feet tall Function While the sculpture may have seemed like a playful, if elaborate artistic joke, it was also deeply critical. By bringing both domestic and military objects into a public space, Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks blurred the lines between public and private, and between the war in Vietnam and culture of the United States. Content A tube of lipstick sprouting from a military vehicle Context It appeared, uninvited, on the campus of Yale University amidst the 1969 student protests against the Vietnam War. Oldenburg made the 24-foot-high sculpture in collaboration with architecture students at his alma mater and then surreptitiously delivered it to Yale's Beinecke Plaza. In Beinecke Plaza, the sculpture overlooked both the office of Yale's president and a prominent World War I memorial. Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks claimed a visible space for the anti-war movement while also poking fun at the solemnity of the plaza. The sculpture served as a stage and backdrop for several subsequent student protests. Oldenburg had experimented with lipstick forms earlier in the 1960s, pasting catalog images of lipstick onto postcards of London's Picadilly Circus. The resulting collages showed lipstick tubes looming like massive pillars over Picadilly's plaza. In the Yale sculpture, the artist combined the highly "feminine" product with the "masculine" machinery of war. In doing so, he playfully critiqued both the hawkish, hyper-masculine rhetoric of the military and the blatant consumerism of the United States. In addition to its feminine associations, the large lipstick tube is phallic and bullet-like, making the benign beauty product seem masculine or even violent. The juxtaposition implied that the U.S. obsession with beauty and consumption both fueled and distracted from the ongoing violence in Vietnam. Oldenburg had been designing large-scale, vinyl versions of household (domestic) objects since his Green Gallery exhibition in 1962. but Lipstick was his first large-scale public artwork.

Spiral Jetty, Robert Smithson

-US -1970 CE Form By creating a spiral, smithson created lots of opportunities where the land and water could meet one another Right now the American west is in the midst of a drought so the water has receded. So instead of water filling the spaces between the spiral, it's sand So this is a work of art that changed based on natural principles And as we stand here, we see mountains, we see the basalt that's formed from a volcano. So we have a very powerful sense of the passage of time Function By putting art outside in the world it becomes part of the process of nature. It can't be conserved. And thereby outside of the commercial, of a work that could be bought and sold. However, there are documentations of it entropy, which was so important to Smithson, this idea that the tendency of all things, according to the laws of physics, is to move from order to disorder, to chaos. So Smithson is imposing a geometric order into this natural landscape, into this vast space that is in the process, over millions of years, of disassembling. we can see the way his intervention is slowly coming apart. Content At the edge of the Great Salt Lake in Utah- a terminal basin, a huge lake that had been largely freshwater, but there is no outlet so when the water flows here from the rivers and streams, collects and then simply evaporates. Which means that the water is dense with minerals, especially with salt. Like the Dead Sea. almost nothing can live here. We are not seeing it how it existed when Smithson first created it, where it was an intersection between the land and the odd water of the lake. Context Smithson hired several people to help create this He brought a front-loader and dump trucks, a tractor, to help move these basalt stones and sand and some soil into place. The shape of the spiral is a form that has shown up in petroglyphs throughout the American West. and it appears in nature frequently One of the anecdotes that Smithson was aware of was the centuries-old idea that the Great Salt Lake contained a whirlpool that somehow connected it to the Pacific Ocean. So the idea of a spiral or whirlpool is active even in these stories that predate Smithson. But this is also a sculpture that is rooted in the 20th century, in an industrial culture. 1970 was the year of the first Earth Day, and that signaled an important early moment in the environmental movement. The idea of the ruination that man was visiting on nature is clearly informing work like this. And Earth Day being this time when we reflect on environmental issues, but the relationship between the growing industrial nature of the United States and the vast, virgin landscape that was here when Europeans arrived, is a theme throughout 19th-century American painting. This work of art and the land that it sits on came under the control of the Dia Art Foundation. What does an institution like Dia do with something like this? Does it try to protect it? Does it allow natural and industrial forces to play with the landscape around it? And so what Dia did is, in concert with the Getty Conservation Institute, is to make the decision to regularly document this object.

House in New Castle County, Robert Venturi, John Rausch and Denise Scott Brown

-US -1978 CE Form The New Castle County House dates to an important period in Venturi's career and Post Modernism. Rather than copy a specific style, he borrowed freely, juxtaposing, collaging, and reinterpreting forms from distinct periods and places. Like many traditional American farmhouses and barns, the painted siding is white and the intersecting gables are clad with unstained wood shingles. It may look conventional and familiar but on closer inspection the exterior is enlivened by a diverse array of mischievous and sometimes perplexing architectural features. In "Learning from Las Vegas", the authors celebrated the concept of the "decorated shed"- buildings that exploit easily recognizable two-dimensional elements to generate visual interest and meaning. The "front" façade of the New Castle County House incorporates a floating arched screen that, like a highway billboard, rises somewhat awkwardly from the lower edge of the gable. Though Venturi claimed this curved feature had Austrian Baroque origins, like a garden gate or eyebrow dormers found on some Victorian houses, it functions as a sign, identifying the structure as a residence. since the owners enjoyed bird watching it may also have doubled as a blind, camouflaging the large windows behind it. The "rear" facade is even more complex. While it, too, is dominated by a prominent arched screen, this screen is framed by the edges of the gabled roof. Supported by what appears to be a Doric colonnade, the four stubby columns are, in fact, almost flat. Thin as the outer walls, these cut-outs carry little weight and enclose the recessed porch. While the column on the far right grows seamlessly out of the adjoining wall, the left column appears split in half by the addition of an aluminum drain pipe. Classical in derivation yet slightly cartoonish, this somewhat awkward assemblage gives the house a simultaneously grand and whimsical appearance. In photographs dating from the time of the building's completion the spacious interiors appear simple and comfortable, with wood decorations inspired by various 19th century design traditions. The painted arches in the vaulted music room, the quirky chandeliers, and perforated wall patterns exhibit a straight-forward craftsman-like quality, as if cut by hand or jigsaw. Conspicuously two dimensional, their fanciful silhouettes evoke the Carpenter Gothic and Queen Anne styles. Function built for a family of three he highlighted historic structures that exhibit a "messy vitality over obvious unity" preferring complexity and contradiction over abstraction and what Venturi called the "fairy stories" of modernist purity. For Venturi, how buildings look, and are perceived, was far more important than the techniques, systems, and theories used to plan and construct them. Content sits comfortably in nature. it neither crowns a hilltop nor hovers above a well-trimmed lawn. Instead, the house sits surrounded by rolling fields, beside a thickly-wooded forest. Context In New Castle County, Delaware Venturi was an influential teacher and theorist and studied architecture at Princeton University and attended the American Academy in Rome during the mid-1950s, where he developed a "partiality" towards post- Renaissance architecture, particularly works built during the Mannerist and Baroque periods in Italy. In 1966, The Museum of Modern Art in New York published his first book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. Written while he was teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, it contains dozens of small black-and-white photographs of Western architecture from ancient times to the present day, as well as examples of the architect's early work. Venturi used the first chapter, sub-titled "A Gentle Manifesto," to express his strongly held belief that orthodox Modern architecture and city planning had run its course

Narcissus garden, Yayoi Kusama

-Japan -1966 CE Form The tightly arranged 1,500 shimmering balls constructed an infinite reflective field in which the images of the artist, the visitors, the architecture, and the landscape were repeated, distorted, and projected by the convex mirror surfaces that produced virtual images appearing closer and smaller than reality. The size of each sphere was similar to that of a fortune-teller's crystal ball. When gazing into it, the viewer only saw his/her own reflection staring back, forcing a confrontation with one's own vanity and ego. Function It is within this context that we examine Kusama and her infamous Narcissus Garden (narcissism is, in part, the egotistic admiration of one's self). Content according to her autobiography, she received the moral and financial support from Lucio Fontana and permission from the chairman of the Biennale Committee to stage 1,500 mass-produced plastic silver globes on the lawn outside the Italian Pavilion. Context Born in japan, self taught artist, now chooses to live in a private Tokyo mental health facility, while prolifically producing art in various media in her studio nearby. Art historian Jody Cutler places Kusama's oeuvre "in dialogue with the psychological state known as narcissism," as "narcissism is both the subject and the cause of Kusama's art, or in other words, a conscious artistic element related to content." During the opening week, Kusama placed two signs at the installation: "NARCISSUS GARDEN, KUSAMA" and "YOUR NARCISSIUM [sic] FOR SALE" on the lawn. Acting like a street peddler, she was selling the mirror balls to passers-by for two dollars each, while distributing flyers with Herbert Read's complimentary remarks about her work on them. She consciously drew attention to the "otherness" of her exotic heritage by wearing a gold kimono with a silver sash. The monetary exchange between Kusama and her customers underscored the economic system embedded in art production, exhibition and circulation. The Biennale officials eventually stepped in and put an end to her "peddling." But the installation remained. Her interactive performance and eye-catching installation garnered international press coverage. This original installation of Narcissus Garden from 1966 has been frequently interpreted by many as both Kusama's self-promotion and her protest of the commercialization of art. Since then, Kusama's oeuvre has become integrated into the canon of art history, and popular with art institutions around the world. In 1993, Kusama was officially invited to represent Japan at the 45th Venice Biennale. Her Narcissus Garden continues to live on. It has been commissioned and re-installed at various settings, including the Brazilian business tycoon Bernardo de Mello Paz's Instituto Inhotim, Central Park in New York City, as well as retail booths at art fairs. The re-creation of Narcissus Garden has erased the notion of political cynicism and social critique; instead, those shiny balls, now made of stainless steel and carrying hefty price tags, have become a trophy of prestige and self-importance. Originally intended as the media for an interactive performance between the artist and the viewer, the objects are now regarded as valuable commodities for display. The profound narcissistic undertone however has been ironically amplified not only by the artist's pervasive ostentation, but also by the viewership in the age of Internet. Seduced by his/her own reflective images on the convex surfaces, viewers snap photographs with a smart phone and instantly upload them to social media for the rest of the world to see. The urge to capture and disseminate the moment one's own image coalesces onto a privileged object in a privileged institution seems to motivate the obsession with the self. To further accentuate the effect of gazing at one's multiple selves, many installations now take place on the water where the original Narcissus from the Greek mythology fell in love with his own reflection and eventually drowned.

The Burghers of Calais, Auguste Rodin

- France - 1884 CE Form Bronze The men, at first glance, may look fragile but the heavy, rhythmic drapery that hangs from their shoulders falls to the ground like lead weights, anchoring them and creating a mass of strong, unyielding bodies. the fabric appears to almost fused to the ground, conveying the conflict between the men's desire to live and the need to save their city. Includes raised portions of the floor under the men's feet which would have, ultimately, made some of the men appear higher than others, yet they are all sculpted to be around the same height of an adult male. The burghers were not meant to be viewed in the form of a hierarchal pyramid with Eustache de Saint-Pierre at the top, which would have been typical in a multi-figure statue, but as a group equal in status. By bringing these men down to 'street level,' Rodin allowed the viewer to easily look up into the men's faces mere inches from his/her own; enhancing the personal connection between the viewer and the six men. Function commissioned by the French city of Calais to create a sculpture that commemorated the heroism of Eustache de Saint-Pierre, a prominent citizen of Calais, during the dreadful Hundred Years' War between England and France (begun in 1337). Content There are six men covered only in simple layers of tattered sackcloth; their bodies appearing thin and malnourished with bones and joints clearly visible. Each man is a burgher, or city councilmen, of Calais, and each has their own stance and identifiable features. However, while they may stand together with a sense of familiarity, none of them are making eye contact with the men beside them. Some figures have their heads bowed or their faces obscured by raised hands, while others try to stand tall with their eyes gazing into the distance. They are drawn together not through physical or verbal contact, but by their slumped shoulders, bare feet, and an expression of utter anguish. Bc the patrons wanted a heroic quality with a raised pedestal that would place the figures in a God-like status high above the viewers, Rodin presented them on a pedestal. However, the raised pedestal did not allow an audience to view the work of art as Rodin had intended. Therefore, he created a second version, one lacking a pedestal, to be placed at the Musée Rodin at the Hôtel Biron in Paris. Rodin's goal was to bring the audience into his sculpture of The Burghers of Calais, and he accomplished this by not only positioning each figure in a different stance with the men's heads facing separate directions, but he lowered them down to street level so a viewer could easily walk around the sculpture and see each man and feel as if personally experiencing the tragic event. Context Rodin followed the recounting of Jean Froissart, a fourteenth-century French chronicler, who wrote of the war. According to Froissart, King Edward III made a deal with the citizens of Calais: if they wished to save their lives and their beloved city, then not only must they surrender the keys to the city, but six prominent members of the city council must volunteer to give up their lives. The leader of the group was Eustache de Saint-Pierre, who Rodin depicted with a bowed head and bearded face towards the middle of the gathering. To Saint-Pierre's left, with his mouth closed in a tight line and carrying a giant set of keys, is Jean d'Aire. The remaining men are identified as Andrieu d'Andres, Jean de Fiennes, and Pierre and Jacques de Wissant. Wihtout the six men knowing, at the time of their departure, their lives would eventually be spared. Rodin made the decision to capture these men in the moment that they gathered to leave the city to go to their deaths. Instead of depicting the elation of victory, the threat of death is very real. Furthermore, Rodin stretched his composition into a circle causing no one man to be the focal point which allows the sculpture to be viewed in-the-round from multiple perspectives with no clear leader. It was common in the nineteenth-century to depict an event with a single heroic figure. they were displeased with Rodin's concept. the one of Eustache de Saint-Pierre. Instead, Rodin included all six men from Froissart's account.

The Starry Night, Vincent van Gogh

- France - 1889 CE Form and content Oil on canvas curving, swirling lines of hills, mountains, and sky simplified forms, thick impasto, thickly layered brushstrokes brilliantly contrasting blues and yellows flame-like cypress trees it is assumed that Van Gogh composed The Starry Night using elements of a few previously completed works still stored in his studio, as well as aspects from imagination and memory. It has even been argued that the church's spire in the village is somehow more Dutch in character and must have been painted as an combination of several different church spires that Van Gogh had depicted years earlier while living in the Netherlands. Van Gogh also understood the painting to be an exercise in deliberate stylization. Van Gogh was experimenting with a style inspired in part by medieval woodcuts, with their thick outlines and simplified forms. "It often seems to me that the night is even more richly colored than the day, colored with the most intense violets, blues and greens. If you look carefully, you'll see that some stars are lemony, others have a pink, green, forget-me-not blue glow. And without labouring the point, it's clear to paint a starry sky it's not nearly enough to put white spots on blue-black." Van Gogh followed his own advice, and his canvas demonstrates the wide variety of colors he perceived on clear nights. Bright stars represent venus (love) Inspired by Ukiyo-e Function Van Gogh mentioned it briefly in his letters as a simple "study of night" or "night effect." Context comparison to favored subjects like irises, sunflowers, or wheat fields, night landscapes are rare. His brother Theo, manager of a Parisian art gallery and a gifted connoisseur of contemporary art, was unimpressed. Although Theo Van Gogh felt that the painting ultimately pushed style too far at the expense of true emotive substance, the work has become iconic of individualized expression in modern landscape painting. Van Gogh had the subject of a blue night sky dotted with yellow stars in mind for many months before he painted The Starry Night. It presented a few technical challenges he wished to confront— the use of contrasting color and the complications of painting en plein air (outdoors) at night. the idea of painting an invented scene from imagination troubled Van Gogh because he often painted in front of the actual scene. When he painted a first example of the full night sky in "Starry Night over the Rhône", the work was completed outdoors, but evidence suggests that his second Starry Night was created largely if not exclusively in the studio. After he cut part of his own ear, Van Gogh was ultimately hospitalized at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, an asylum and clinic for the mentally ill near the village of Saint-Rémy. During his time there, Van Gogh was encouraged to paint, though he rarely ventured more than a few hundred yards from the asylum's walls. After leaving Paris for more rural areas in southern France, Van Gogh was able to spend hours contemplating the stars without interference from gas or electric city street lights, which were increasingly in use by the late nineteenth century.

Illustration from The Results of the First Five-Year Plan, Varvara Stepanova

- Soviet Union -1932 CE Form Photomontage- images are combined and manipulated to express a message. Function The public targeted by USSR in Construction was mostly foreign. The purpose of the magazine was to show countries such as France and Great Britain that the USSR was also a leading force in the global market and economy. By choosing to include images rather than just articles, the public would be able to see with their own eyes the accomplishments achieved under Stalin. At first the subjects depicted were strictly industrial, but as the magazine gained recognition and readers, topics diversified, and included subjects from education to sports and leisure. Soviet strategists were well aware that many European countries were witnessing the rise of a small base of devoted Communists, despite general mistrust and even contempt by the continental social and political elite. As its title suggests, this photomontage is an ode to the success of the First Five-Year Plan, an initiative started by Stalin in 1928. The Plan was a list of strategic goals designed to grow the Soviet economy and accelerate its industrialization. These goals included collective farming, creating a military and artillery industry and increasing steel production. By the end of the First Five-Year Plan in 1933, the USSR had become a leading industrial power, though economists from the USSR inflated results to enhance the image of the Soviet Union. In this work of art, Stepanova has also used the tools of the propagandist. This photomontage is an ideological image intended to help establish, through its visual evidence, the great success of the Plan. Content The artist uses only three types of color and tone. She alternates black and white with sepia photographs and integrates geometric planes of red to structure the composition. On the left, Stepanova has inserted public address speakers on a platform with the number 5, symbolizing the Five Year Plan along with placards displaying the letters CCCP, the Russian initials for USSR. The letters are placed above the horizon as is a portrait of Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union. The cropped and oversized photograph of Lenin shows him speaking; his eyes turned to the left as if looking to the future. Lenin is linked to the speakers and letter placards at the left by the wires of an electrical transmission tower. Below, a large crowd of people indicate the mass popularity of Stalin's political program and their desire to celebrate it. Red, the color of the Soviet flag, was often used by Stepanova in her photomontages. She also commonly mis-matched the scale of photographic elements to create a sense of dynamism in her images. Despite the flat, paper format, different elements are visually activated and can even seem to 'pop out.' Several clear artistic oppositions are visible in The Results of the First Five-Year Plan. For example, there is a sharp contrast between the black and white photographs and the red elements, such as the electric tower, the number 5, and the triangle in the foreground. Our eyes are attracted to these oppositions and by the contrast between the indistinct masses and the individual portrait of Lenin, as an implicit reference to the Soviet political system. Context After the First World War, artists in Germany and the Soviet Union began to experiment with photomontage, the process of making a composite image by juxtaposing or mounting two or more photographs in order to give the illusion of a single image. A photomontage can include photographs, text, words and even newspaper clippings.\ Russia had for centuries been an absolute monarchy ruled by a tsar, but between 1905 and 1922 the country underwent tremendous change, the result of two wars (World War I and Civil War) and a series of uprisings that culminated in the October Revolution of 1917. The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) was established in 1922 under Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The young communist state was celebrated by many artists and intellectuals who saw an opportunity to end the corruption and extreme poverty that defined Russia for so long. The Russian avant-garde had experimented with new forms of art for decades and in the years after the Revolution, photomontage became a favorite technique Stepanova was a talented painter, designer and photographer. She defined herself as a constructivist and focused her art on serving the ideals of the Soviet Union. She was a leading member of the Russian avant-garde and later in her career, she became well known for her contributions to the magazine USSR in Construction, a propagandist publication that focused on the industrialization of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, a ruthless dictator who took power after Lenin's death and who's totalitarian policies are thought to have caused suffering and death for millions of his people. this image celebrating of the results of the First Five-Year Plan is the artist's interpretation of events, under the strict supervision of Party ideologues. The Plan resulted in radical measures that forced farmers to give up their land and their livestock. Many people were reduced to extreme poverty and famine became widespread. Terror, violence, and fear replaced the initial optimism about the Plan. What started as positive propaganda became a means to hide a disastrous economic policy from the rest of the world. It became an absolute necessity for the State to project a pristine image of its society no matter how dire the situation became. Stepanova admits no fault or imperfection in The Results of the First Five-Year Plan.