VIAR 220 -- EXAM 2

zero-form

"I have transformed myself *'in the zero of form'* and have fished myself out of the 'trash heap of academic art.'* I have destroyed the ring of the horizon and got out of the circle of objects. To produce favorite objects and little nooks of nature is just like a thief being enraptured by his shackled legs." (Malevich)

non-objectivity

"In referring to non-objectivity, I merely wished to make it plain that Suprematism is not concerned with things, objects, etc..." (Malevich)

German Expressionism case study

-- "Gender or Genius?" by Alessandra Comini. -- "...much of the art history of the past seventy-five years after the fact has seen, exhibited, and explained German Expressionism primarily through one-gender glasses: masculine. Is it perhaps a question of quality? Were women Expressionist artists just not as "good" as their colleagues of the opposite sex?" -- "I wonder, by the way, why we never say "man" in front of the word "artist..." -- "This is not a competition. Neither is it a battle between the sexes. We are contrasting not different genders, but different artists." -- Comini makes comparisons to make her points. *1) Munch vs Kollwitz:* -- "Let's look at just one of Munch's contemporaries... I propose Kollwitz. Not because German Expressionism lacks a mother (which, according to the litany, it does), but because Kollwitz fulfills the rather stringent requirements just cited. Oh! But Kollwitz is so grim, depressing, socially involved. Always the same themes: poverty, dying mothers or children, war, and death. Is she the right artist to compare with Munch, who is so grim, depressing, and always picturing the same the themes: dying mothers or children, jealousy, aggression, and death?" -- Munch grieved for himself. Kollwitz grieved for humanity. -- "For every devouring woman in Munch's febrile imagination there was a supportive wife or nurturing mother in Kollwitz's world mirror." (This refers to Munch's "Vampire II," a depiction of the femme fatale, which is a misogynistic view of women: they lure men in, always ready to strike and suck everything out of them) *2) Modersohn vs Modersohn-Becker:* -- Transition to next point: "Would dying young have helped nominate Kollwitz for admission into Expressionist ranks?" -- Answer: "Apparently not always. Not if the genius is of the 'wrong' gender." -- Modersohn-Becker was 31 when she passed away from childbirth complications. (1876-1907) -- Her and her husband often painted the same subject, but in different ways of method. *3) Kandinsky vs Munter:* -- The Blue Riders group founders. -- Kandinsky: "Color provokes a psychic vibration. Color hides a power still unknown but real, which acts on every part of the human body." *WEAK ABSTRACTION* -- Kandinsky thought Munter was so good that there was nothing to teach her. As a result, they worked side by side. -- The two were in a relationship but never married. When Kandinsky goes to Russia, he leaves Munter for a Russian general's teenage daughter. This put Munter in a deep depression and stops painting for a long time. -- After a German critic reviewed her work as "a typical work of Kandinsky," she wrote back to set things straight: " Some of Kandinksy's students moved in similar directions to my own and also to Jawlensky's. Later we went our individual ways. The meetings and departures, working together and yet expressing your own ideas--all this does not get expressed when my person and my work are mentioned under the catchword "Jawlensky-student." --Final conclusion: "Not the least of the German Expressionist artists then was Gabriele Munter: pupil of Kandinsky, yes, but also a rare, copious talent in the bud. She takes her rightful place in the *new history of modern art* alongside Kollwitz and Modersohn-Becker. And in the future, when we think of German Expressionism, perhaps we shall not think, teach, and exhibit exclusively in terms of Munch, or Kirchner, or Kandinsky, but rather expand our scope to embrace the individual and fascinating qualities of Munter and her co-travelers, Kollwitz and Modersohn-Becker, in their different routes toward Expressionism."

Picasso case study

-- "Picasso and Appropriation" by Timothy Anglin Burgard. -- "Picasso's use of appropriation is usually associated exclusively with this borrowings from the history of art, especially his later variations after such famous works as Delacroix's "The Women of Algiers (1954-55), Velazquez's "Las Meninas" (1957), and Manet's "Dejeuner sur l'herbe" (1959-62). The creation of a new work through copying or paraphrasing of an existing image was, however, *only one aspect of Picasso's multifaceted concept of appropriation.* For Picasso, appropriation was not merely an artistic exercise in which he critiqued the Modernist reverence for originality and explored his relationship to great art and artists. Indeed, the artist perceived appropriation as a *magical transference of power* that could be applied to both historical and contemporary art and to objects and people. Picasso's early and lasting interest in appropriation *transformed and shaped his life and his mature artistic practice." *-- Four important events in Picasso's life appear to have induced him to adopt appropriation:* *1) The decision of his artist-father to give up painting and turn over his brushes and palette to his son.* -- Don Joez Ruiz Blasco, Picasso's father, specialized in depicting pigeons and flowers. -- He suffered with depression and began to neglect his painting. This deepened after the death of his daughter Conchita. -- He gave Picasso his brushes and paints and "never went back to painting." *2) The death of his sister Conchita in 1895.* -- The loss of his sister nearly made him drop his career entirely. -- He painted a study of the traumatizing event he called "Last Moments." -- "His heightened emotional state at that time led him in desperation to promise God that he would give up painting if his painting survived." *3) The suicide of his friend Carles Casagemas in 1901.* -- Carles Casagemas was an artist and poet who was a close friend in both Barcelona and Paris. -- He suffered from severe depression, which overwhelmed Picasso so much that he abandoned him and left for Madrid. Casagemas took his life sometime after he left. -- Picasso felt guilty from leaving his friend alone. -- Picasso made studies and paintings of his dead friend, one known as "Dead Casagemas." He borrowed the vivid colors and broad brushstrokes from the paintings of Van Gogh. -- Heavily identified with his dead friend, notable in "La Vie." *4) His visit to the Trocadero Museum in Paris in 1907.* -- Picasso's words: "Men had made those masks and other objects for a sacred purpose, a magic purpose, as a kind of mediation between themselves and the unknown hostile forces that surrounded them, in order to overcome their fear and horror by giving it a form and an image. At that moment I realized that this was what painting was all about. *Painting isn't an aesthetic operation; it's a form of magic* designed as a mediator between this strange, hostile world and us, a way of seizing the power by giving form to our terrors as well as our desires. When I came to that realization, I knew I had found my way." -- In "The Dead Casagemas, La Vie, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, and Picasso's subsequent work, he turned to appropriation as a way of coming to terms with, and regaining control over, the "unknown hostile forces" of nature and man. He accomplished this in par through three interrelated strategems of appropriation: *1) By transforming his art works into magical objects.* *2) By assuming the identities of both God the Creator and the primordial artist whom he termed "the little man."* *3) By appropriating art works as a form of "intercourse" with rival artists the past and the present.* --Picasso's response regarding women and appropriation: " I am full of contradictions. I love what belongs to me, yet at the same time I have a strong urge to destroy. It's the same with love. Any desire I have for procreation is an expression of my other desire, namely to free myself from the woman in question. I know that the birth of a child will be the end of my love for her. I shall have no more sentimental attachment. But the child will bind me to moral obligations."

Expressionism

-- (1905). -- 20th century movement. -- Germany. -- Notable artists: Kirchner, Kandinsky, Munter, Kollwitz. -- Free use of color, form, and space. -- Interest in conveying intense moods through formal experimentation. -- German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: "GOD IS DEAD." This resonated with the bleak certainty that humanity had only its own basest instinct to guide it. THIS MOVEMENT is the visual corollary to his statement. -- "What is the basis of morality? Why should individuals embrace one set of values over another?" -- There is a turn from the 19th century, shattering the view of the world. -- There are two groups in this movement: "The Bridge (Die Brucke)" and "The Blue Riders (Der Blaude Reiter)."

The Bridge (Die Brucke)

-- (1905-1913) -- German Expressionist movement started by Kirchner. -- Nihilism: GOD IS DEAD. -- Confrontation with modern society. -- "...what is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end." -- Interest in conveying intense moods through formal experimentation.

Futurism

-- (1909-1914). -- 20th century movement in Italy. -- Notable artists: Carra, Boccioni, Severini, Marinetti -- Marnetti wrote the manifesto for the group in 1909, which was published on the front page of "Le Figaro," a newspaper in France ("The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism") -- Major points: 1) " Art and literature has only magnified in pensive immobility, ecstasy, and slumber. We want to exalt movements in the opposite way." 2) "We declare a new beauty: the beauty of speed." 3) "Beauty exists only in struggle." 4) "Time and Space are dead." 5) "We want to glorify war, the only cure for the world." 6) "We want to demolish museums and libraries, fight morality, feminism, and all opportunist and utilitarian cowardice." (Note: he thinks museums = dead things) -- Modernism is conceived as failures by Futurists: "They continue to paint objects motionless, frozen, and all the static aspects of Nature. They worship traditionalism. We seek for a style of motion. The viewer must participate in the action." -- New beauty, violence, aggression, speed. -- "Primitives of a complete sense of sensitiveness." -- It is hard to break away from traditionalism, but Futurists stopped at nothing to make it happen.

The Blue Riders (Der Blaue Reiter)

-- (1911-1914) -- German Expressionist movement started by Kandinsky and Munter. -- Attraction to spirituality. -- Retreat from city and modern life (turn to nature and folk culture).

Suprematism

-- (1913-1920s). -- Russian movement. -- Notable artists: Malevich -- Major shift: movement that leaves Western Europe for the first time. -- Spreads through education and writing of Malewich. -- Malevich's definition: "To the Suprematist, the visual phenomena of the objective world are, in themselves, meaningless; the significant thing is feeling..." -- Introduces zero-form and non-objectivity. -- World War I (1914-1918) starts during this movement. Leads to Russian Revolution. -- Russian Revolution occurs during this time (1917-1922).

Cubism

-- 1907 / 1908. -- Notable artists: Picasso and Braque. -- "Modern artists rested on the brink of total abstraction in 1910." -- "Whether in pursuit of pure emotion or aesthetic autonomy, progressive artists were abandoning the tradition of naturalism that had guided the visual arts since the Renaissance." -- "A form of weak abstraction, Cubism maintained an empathetic hold on the physical world." (Associate with Kandinsky and Picasso) -- Subjective expression AND objective rationality. -- Movement begins with Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avigon" in 1907, who used to be Realist painter. -- As Braque puts it: "The *materialization of a new space* was the essence of Cubism. --The natural world is never relinquished altogether though! -- There are two types of Cubist styles: Analytical and Synthetic.

Picasso. Two Nudes. 1910. oil on canvas.

-- Expressionism. -- At this point in time, there is a major turning point happening. -- Naturalism is transforming into abstraction. Artist is becoming more interested in sharpness and shapes. -- Artist picks up influences from many places, such as... 1) Ancient Greek vase paintings. 2) 1905 retrospective of the Neoclassical work of Ingres. 3) 1906 exhibition of Iberian sculpture from the 6th and 7th centuries BCE at the Louvre. 4) Van Gogh. 5) Cezanne (flat tectonic plates of color). 6) 1906 retrospective of Gauguin's work in exhibition (primitivism, which is the imitation of cultural products and practices perceived to be "primitive;" in Western art, primitivism typically has borrowed from non-Western or prehistoric people, such as Gaugin's inclusion of Tahitian motifs in paintings).

Picasso. Le Moulin de la Galette. 1900. oil on canvas.

-- Expressionism. -- Impressionism and Post-Impressionism influences. -- Made prior to Cubism. -- Depiction of Renoir's 1876 "Dance at Moulin de Galette" at night. -- Distortion of mainly women.

Picasso. La Vie (Life). 1900. oil on canvas.

-- Expressionism. -- Made during artist's "Blue Period." -- Painted over a study he called "Last Moments," which depicted his dying sister Conchita. -- Depicts Carles Casagemas, a friend of the artist, and his lover Germaine. The artist often identified himself as his friend, so it could be interpreted as a love affair in a way.

Kirchner. Street, Dresden. 1910. oil on canvas.

-- Expressionism. -- Vibrant but soulless and sickly figures. -- Depicts what street life was like back then. -- Women, like in past movements, are a crucible; a playground for experimentation. Here, they are painted in a negative way (e.g. color of the faces, empty, sickly proportions, etc.) -- Expresses how the artist feels about the environment. -- Artist is deeply inspired by Van Gogh's "Night Cafe," and Matisse's work overall (Fauvism), who was one of the first to separate form from color. -- Instance of primitivism. -- Deeply influenced by other artists, surroundings, and changes going on around them, much like other artists at the time. Here, it's grotesque. -- Like Degas, this artist crops figures and distorts them.

Kirchner. Portrait of Henry van de Velde. 1920. woodcut.

-- Expressionism. -- Woodcut. -- One of many artist's rendition of portraits done at the time.

Carra. Patriotic Celebration (Free-Word Painting)." 1910. mixed media.

-- Futurism. -- Reminiscent of Synthetic Cubism. -- Depicts the energy of a crowd.

Boccini. Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. 1910. bronze.

-- Futurism. -- The beauty of speed. -- Fragmentation of form. -- Weak abstraction. -- Cubist looks, Futurist ideals. -- "...it is necessary to destroy the pretended nobility... of marble and bronze, and to deny squarely that one must use a single material for a sculptural ensemble. The sculptor can use 20 different materials, or even more, in a single work..."

Severini. Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin. 1910. oil on canvas with sequins.

-- Futurism. -- The interior of a dance hall and what it felt like at the time. -- Drawn from Synthetic Cubism. -- "Contempt for woman."

Constructivism

-- 20th century movement in Russia. -- Notable artists: Tatlin -- This movement and Suprematism were competitive against the other. This one wins. -- First abstract movement in "sculpture." -- Based on *assembling* materials rather than carving or modeling. -- Use of unorthodox materials (often from the world of machines and industry). -- Valuing of form and function --> not decorative or ornamental. -- "According to the principles of what Tatlin called *'truth to materials,'* each substance dictates specific forms, such as the flat geometric plane of wood, the curved shade of glass, or the rolled cylinder." (materials dictate form) -- Introduces faktura. -- Introduces spatial-construction. -- The Russian Revolution fuels this movement. -- "Artist-Engineer" (Engineers of the soul, the future, humanity. Utopian ideas and hopes) -- Art as a vehicle for creating a utopian society: undermine bourgeois values, destroy capitalism, create classless society. -- Use industry and machines to create a better world (focus on form and function). -- "Art is dead! Art is as dangerous as religion as an escapist activity... Let us cease our speculative activity (painting pictures) and take over the healthy bases of art--color, line, materials, and forms--into the field of reality, of practical construction." (Alexi Gran, 1922) -- Passage taken to its furthest form. -- There is no longer a ground in art. -- Socialist Realism comes into play by the end of the Russian Revolution. -- Movement ends in 1929.

Tatlin. Counter-Relief. 1920. iron, copper, wood, and rope.

-- Constructivism. -- Featured in the "0,10 (zero, ten), Last Futurist Exhibit" in 1915. -- Unlike past sculptures in history, it is not modeled and cast in bronze. -- Made from materials that have never been put together before. -- Unlike past sculptures, this sculpture doesn't require a pedestal, go on the floor, etc. *This is the first sculpture in history to be place on the wall.* -- Creating a three-dimensional strong abstraction sculpture was not common and actually quite difficult.

Picasso. Girl with a Mandolin (Fanny Tellier). 1910. oil on canvas.

-- Cubism (Analytical). -- Although the figure is abstract, the instrument is still realistic and natural. -- It is difficult for the artist to let go of older style. -- Artist wants to create his own perspective by also killing linear perspective.

Picasso. Guitar, Sheet Music, and Wine Glass. 1910. mixed media.

-- Cubism (Synthetic). -- Collage.

Picasso. The Young Ladies of Avignon. 1910. oil on canvas.

-- Cubism. -- "Single most important painting of the 20th century. -- "Long regarded as the first Cubist painting, the Demoiselles is now generally seen as a powerful example of expressionist art -- *an "exorcist painting,"* artist said, [one that] obliterated the lessons of the past." -- Depiction of five nude women with still life in brothel. -- Originally titled, "My Brothel." -- All sense of naturalism is gone. There is no depth (flat), geometric shapes are more like shapes, morphing ground and perspective, etc. -- "Most important of all for [this artist] was the powerful example of Cezanne, who died in 1906 and whose work was shown in a retrospective... his depictions of bathers were fraught with an anxiety and violence that no doubt attracted [the artist]. He, however, chose not to cast his models as inhabitants of a timeless pastoral, but as sex workers in a contemporary brothel." -- "When compared to "Two Nudes," the anatomies of the Demoiselles seem *crudely flattened and simplified, reduced to a series of interlocking, angular shapes.*" -- Weak abstraction, most notable with the breasts. -- Simplification and reduction.

Picasso. Homage to Braque. 1960. lithograph.

-- Cubism. -- "While Braque was alive, Picasso often remarked condescendingly, 'Oh, Braque is only Madame Picasso,' or 'Braque is the woman who has loved me the most,' thus revealing his view of Braque as his subservient counterpart, playing a role comparable to that of the women in Picasso's life as mistresses and muses." -- The female nude is the artist's perception of Braque.

Picasso. Maya in a Sailor Suit. 1940. oil on canvas.

-- Cubism. -- Depicts his daughter Maya wearing a sailor suit with "Picasso" inscribed on the hat band. -- In actuality, it depicted the artist himself. -- "He appropriated his daughter's identity in order to project himself in an eternally youthful state."

Picasso. Three Women. 1910. oil on canvas.

-- Cubism. -- Uses passage techniques. -- Space becomes a figure itself, most notable with the breast -- Reminiscent of Cezanne's techniques.

Analytical Cubism

-- Cubist style introduced in 1910. -- A recalibration of some of the assumptions that motivated Western art since the Renaissance. -- A new system for depicting space (the use of different techniques to represent space and volume).

Synthetic Cubism

-- Cubist style introduced in 1912. -- Paintings and drawings were constructed from objects and shapes cut from paper or other materials to represent parts of a subject, in order to engage the viewer with pictorial issues, such as figuration, realism, and abstraction. -- Simpler shapes and brighter colors.

Malevich. Morning in the Village after a Snowstorm. 1910. oil on canvas.

-- Cubo-Futurism. -- Made prior to Suprematist movement.

Munch. The Scream. 1900. oil, tempera, pastel, and crayon on cardboard.

-- Expressionism (Note: since this painting was technically made BEFORE the Expressionism movement started, this artist was considered a "Proto-Expressionist." -- Embodiment of pre-World War I anxiety. -- Self-representative of the 1890s. -- Theme at the time: individual in society (objectively or subjectively rendered); "determinism seemed a universal fate, pessimism or stubborn faith the only qualifiers." -- Grieved for artist's self.

Kandinsky. Sketch for Composition II. 1910. oil on canvas.

-- Expressionism. -- "Color provides a psychic vibration. Color hides a power still unknown but real, which acts on every part of the human body." -- Weak abstraction.

Modersohn-Becker. Self-Portrait on 6th Wedding Anniversary. 1910. oil on canvas.

-- Expressionism. -- A self-portrait of the artist. -- The artist was unable to have children for a long time. She does eventually have a child, but passes in the process due to complications.

Munter. Kandinsky Painting a Landscape. 1900. oil on canvas.

-- Expressionism. -- Artist depicts Kandinsky as closely as she can. The two painted the other as a study one day in 1903.

Malevich. Suprematist Composition: White Square on White. 1920. oil on canvas.

-- Suprematism. -- "I have ripped through the constraints of color. I have come out into white. Follow me, comrade aviators. *Swim into the free abyss, infinity is before you.*" -- Strong abstraction. -- Anti-illusionistic. -- Non-figurative. -- Non-objective. -- "[There were] two dominant wings of 20th century abstraction--*painterly Expressionism of Kandinsky* and *hard edged purity of Malevich (both objective rationality and subjective expression)*" -- Russian Revolution has started prior to this painting being made. World War I has ended. -- "[I have] swallowed up all the colors and place *everything beyond mere difference and advantage.* Everything us now the same." -- Artist has a utopian sense of longing: a future with no more suffering. -- Painting is in tune with what's happening at the time: toppling of forces. -- "I say to all: Abandon love, abandon aestheticism, abandon the baggage of wisdom, for in the new culture, your wisdom is ridiculous and insignificant. I have united the knots of wisdom and liberated the consciousness of color! Hurry up and shed the hardened skin of centuries, so that you can catch up with us more easily. I have overcome the impossible and made gulfs with my breath. You are caught in the nets of the horizon, like fish! We, suprematists, throw open the way to you. Hurry! For tomorrow you will not recognize us." -- The development of abstraction has all led up to this moment.

Malevich. The Black Square. 1910. oil on canvas.

-- Suprematism. -- Piece that begins the Suprematist movement. -- "In the year 1913, in my desperate attempt to free art from the burden of the object, I took refuge in the square form and exhibited a picture which consisted of nothing more than a black square on a white field." -- Appears in public for the first time months after it was painted. -- Placement of the piece in the exhibit is intentional. Known as the "beautiful corner," this refers to where religious figures are placed in the upper left corner of homes in Russian culture. -- The black square is not a square, not set in the center, and is full of imperfections. This gives the piece of humanity. -- The flatness and depth of the square gives the piece dynamic energy. -- Strong abstraction. -- The white background was actually painted first. -- Crackular. Occurred due to painting over a painting, which was painted over another painting. -- Zero-form. -- Non-objective. -- World War I was going on at this time.

manifesto

A published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of an art movement or an individual within an artistic group.

construction

A three-dimensional assemblage of materials.

Munch, Becker, Kirchner, Schiele, Kandinsky, Munter, Kollwitz

From just before the Expressionism movement starts to shortly after, in chronological order, who are the artists that contributed to the movement? (7)

collage

Literally "gluing" (French); involves gluing disparate elements onto a canvas.

primitivism

Modern artists' appropriation of the forms of African art in the hope of investing their work with a primal truth and expressive energy. Examples include Kirchner, Picasso, Gauguin.

spatial-construction

New kinds of sculpture that were not meant to just occupy space (like traditional 3D sculpture) but to advance space itself as a "concrete" material.

woodcut

One of the oldest types of printmaking (used in the West since 15th century); a design is drawn on a block of wood, which is then carved so the desired image remains in relief; ink is applied to the raised design and the block pressed on sheet of paper.

Cubo-Futurism

Style that combines Cubist and Futurist styles.

passage

Technique whereby the edges of color planes merge with adjacent areas. Troubles any sense of demarcation between the figures and their environment. Total ambiguity of figure and ground.

faktura

The artist as the material's assistant, affecting the artist's presence within the work, fostering the volition of the material rather than exposing the artist's individual will. Opposite of fracture.