Primitivism & Modern Art

Vocabulary:

1. Abstracting Pulling out certain elements and magnifying them 2. Cubism Trying to depict something that has multiple angels (is a 3D experience) but you're trying to depict it in a 2D medium 3. Fauvism -Color creates structure in the work of art -Henri Matisse, The Green Line (1905) --The pains of colors: -Create square geometric shapes -3 plains/zones -The entire image is divided by the green line in her face -The color is being used to structure the composition not trying to evoke an emotion 4. Foreshortening Reduced continuity between near and far. Flattening of distance. 5. Post-Impressionism Play around with colors to evoke emotions

Pablo Picasso, Bust of young woman from Avignon (1907)

--African period --The idea of the mask and how it's being depicted --Abstracting: -Her nose (the proportions, higher concentration of color opposed to the rest of her face) --References the genre of portraits of young woman around this conversation --Taking this genre and taking it through the vision of african and iberian masks

Pablo Picasso, Mother and Child (1907)

--African period --These masks are making their way into French markets. --This became the holding for a lot of these commodities that were taken and brought back from these colonies. --He's now in the Trocadero and he's is thrillingly overwhelmed and stimulated by what he's seeing --References the madonna child portraits -Mary is always in a blue robe (royalty, purity, spiritual) and wearing red (passion) -Expect to see Mary in red in a blue robe and holding Jesus --Picasso is secularizing the reference -Secularing what many deemed as a 1- it was secularizing something that was sacred 2- for its original audience, it was taking Christ and conflating Christ with the paganism of Africa 3- (Picasso's intention) trying to venerate cultures that had previously been seen as inferior and oppressed. Call attention to and to celebrate non-western cultures.

Primitivism in Modern Art (extra)

--All become united in their desire to move beyond traditional ways to represent human nature --Gauguin (Post-impressionism) -Within a post-impressionist work of art: emphasis of use of color to evoke/convey emotion (not really intended to be realistic) --Matisse (Fauvism) -Gauguin influences his colors --Picasso (Cubism) Gauguin influences his subject matter and technique

Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein (1905-1906)

--Background of Picasso: fundamentally changes the course of art history. Renaissance man, long list of mediums in which he worked. --Story: Gertrude Stein and her brother were important patrons of the arts. Her salons are considered very influential in connecting other artists. This is how she meets Picassoa and she asks him to paint her. After his exposure at the Louvre (studying aberian masks and sculptures) and having blotched out her face, he recreates from memory her features. --*studying iberian masks and sculptures at the Louve influenced how he created her facial features

Paul Gauguin, The Day of the God (1894)

--Background: Known for having multiple sexual, very young women, alcoholic, 5 children, left his wife... his decisions came at the expense of others. He spent his whole life trying to recapture his childhood in Peru. He needed to lose his life of civility to pursue his art. Saw indigenous nations as closer to nature. Saw indigenous people as beautiful. But was creating this romance and myth about what the reality was of these indigenous people. --What do you see? -Lots of women. -Women in red= dancing. Women in blue= carrying platters of food -Someone on a horse is on the beach in the distance, just off the beach is a kayak with people in it -Dark figure in background= vague reference to non-western religion -Suggestion of a feast, platters of food, feast, and statue figure --Foreground: 3 women -The 3 women represents the 3 stages of life (birth, life & death) -Woman on the left, fetal position= birth -Central figure= life -Fetal position with back to you= death --Amorphous shapes/colors in water: -Reads as mostly 2D/flatness/not having the water reflect -*Gauguin is trying to suggest rather than represent → mantra for modern art in general. It's about suggestions rather than exact representation. "Exactitude is not true" -It's not about some universally accepted standard of what it is, but rather how I saw it.

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907)

--Getting farther away from representation of objective reality --Context: first example of cubism, revolutionizing modern painting by forging a new way to depict reality. Borrowing from other cultures and breaking traditional rules. --Figure at lower right: -Example of cubism -Her head is turned all the way around -Defies bodial porcorial reality --Fruit in foreground -Example of foreshortening --Faces of two faces of women on the right -Influenced by his fixation of the african masks --Face on the left: -Her profile is reminiscent of mash-up of non-westernized peoples --Sharp angels, use of foreshortening and abstracting= you're definitely not invited into this painting at all.

Henri Matisse, Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra) (1907)

--Use of color to create structure/composition --Would never be an example of realism -her proportions are off -There's shading, but it's still very flat -Her face is mask-like --Example of Fauvism and Primitivism

Primitivism:

1. Definition: -Late 19th century, early 20th century sensibility which borrowed from the cultures of the non-Western world. Primitivism influences many movements of Modern art, including Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism. -Subdivision of Modernism -An attitude that also became a movement within the visual arts. Had everything to do with colon islam and industrial revolution. --**The irony is: The exact moment when they conquered most of the globe, these places became sources of inspiration for the visual arts. --Obsession of non-western cultures who were more in tune with the natural world. Ex. The Human Zoo -Over 400 people were represented to be indigenous people behind colonies. -Particularly whites were fascinated of this -A lot of these artists were exposed to ideas they were not exposed to before 2. Characteristics/Content: -Subject matter tended to be the sexuality, spirituality, and habits of non-Europeans cultures -The glorification of the alleges simplicity and naturalness of non-Western settings 3. Characteristics/technique: -The abstract representation of figures -The use of geometric shapes with b old contrasts and dramatic arrangements -The reduces continuity between near and far (e.g., foreshortening)