Art History Section 3

Linear perspective

In a painting, a mathematical method for depicting spatial recession that uses a horizon, a vanishing point, and orthogonal lines

Sfumato

In a painting, hazy, smoky light, most frequently associated with Leonardo's art

Tenebrism

In a painting, the use of a single light source to create strong contrasts between highlights and deep shadows

Symbolism

In a work of art, the use of a material object to represent larger ideas and themes

History painting

Paintings based on mythological or biblical narratives. Once considered the noblest form of art. They generally convey a high moral or intellectual idea and are often painted in a grand pictorial style.

Line vs. color

Poussinists were a group of French artists, named after the painter Nicolas Poussin who believed that drawing was the most important thing. On the other side were the Rubenists named after Peter Paul Rubens, who prioritize color.

Expressionism

Refers to art that is a result of the artist's inner or personal vision and flows from feeling.

Benday dots

Technique taken from comic books that uses closely-spaced colored circles

Paragone

The Renaissance discourse on the comparison of forms of art

Symbolism

The art or practice of using symbols especially by investing things with a symbolic meaning or by expressing the invisible or intangible by means of visible or sensuous representations Defining a subjective feeling, not a specific moment or depiction of the objective reality Impressionists ask why art has to look like the world we see. The symbolists take this and run with this.

Illusionism

The artistic tradition in which artists create a work of art that appears to share the physical space with the viewer or more broadly the attempt to represent physical appearances precisely - also called mimesis.

Haussmannization

The creative destruction of something for the betterment of society.

Naturalism

The depiction of realistic objects in a natural setting. The Realist movement of the 19th century advocated for this in reaction to the stylized and idealized depictions of subjects in Romanticism, but many painters have used a similar approach over the centuries.

Royal academy

The french one was established in 1648 and had a monopoly on French art tastes for decades after. Favored academic art, and subjects high on the hierarchy of genres. Still accepted Realistic works, however, such as Courbet's Stone Breakers. Women were not allowed to be let in due to life drawing session requirement

Mimetic

The imitative representation of nature and human behavior in art and literature

Pope Julius II

This historical figure commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling

Pop Art

Used techniques like stencils and screen printing that removed their hand from the work Appropriated images from popular culture More figurative/narrative Nontraditional method of art making Challenged expectations of what art could be

Salon

a social gathering of intellectuals and artists, like those held in the homes of wealthy women in Paris and other European cities during the Enlightenment

Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, Romanticism (1810-1840)

-"There is in me something that is often stronger than my body, which is often enlivened by it. In some people the inner spark scarcely exists. I find it dominant in me. Without it, I should die, but it will consume me (doubtless I speak of imagination, which masters and leads me)." -His journals have been so important to the history of art. Painters who come after read from his journals and learned about him and about painting. -Talks about himself as having an inner spark -Attempt to rework the passions of the raft of the medusa -Painting that documents an uprising that happens in yet another chapter of the French revolution - July of 1830 - when people of Paris revolt against monarchy -Moment of uprising - Civilians are gathered together to fight -Composition - people have broken through barricade - person falls off. Quotes the person falling off Raft of Medusa -Woman - allegorical symbol of France. Is named Mary Anne -Represents democracy not ruled by monarchy -Wears a hat worn by people during the war -Wears a neoclassical tunic -Pinnacle of an off-kilter triangle -Barefoot on barricades

Vincent Van Gogh, Artist's Bedroom at Arles, Post-Impressionism (1880-1900)

-A critique on modern society - draws out the possibility of deep emotion, passion, and individuality. Wants a way to articulate how he feels -From a wealthy Dutch family, well-connected in the art world -Theo was a successful art dealer in Paris. -Suffered from epilepsy -Zealous, passionate personality -Short, prolific career -First major painting in 1885 -Committed suicide in 1890 -Created over 700 paintings in that 5 year period -His bedroom as a self portrait -An allegory for the private soul -Doors and windows are closed -Linear perspective is skewed- strategic manipulations of the space reading = tries to surprise and refuse to us what we expect of the space -Hard to enter the room - becomes a hard room to enter, we can see it. Preserves it as a place of privacy and idiosyncrasy -Transforms what he sees into a deeper vision -Emotional reading of the world If only we see through the everyday into a deeper realm to see a place of beauty. What we need to do in industrial society

Realism

-A mid nineteenth century artistic movement characterized by subjects painted from everyday life in a naturalistic manner; however the term is also generally used to describe artworks painted in a realistic almost photographic way -Focuses on the "real" - typical/mundane -Depicts the working class with the same seriousness as other classes Themes of industrialization. Nature isn't idealized - it is represented as something backbreaking and manipulated by humans . We recognize the figure's labor, and the background becomes the evidence/aftermath of it

Romanticism

-A movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual. Nature over civilization -Focuses on intense emotion and aesthetic experience, the figure is gazing out at the sea, either in admiration or fear -Scenes that are intensified or glorified. -Nature is depicted as aware inspiring and grand, an overall dramatic landscape - the painter wants us to feel the same rush of emotion as the figure in the painting

Post-Impressionism

-A predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. -Emerged as a reaction against Impressionists' concern for the naturalistic depiction of light and color. -The movement was led by Paul Cézanne (known as father of Post-impressionism), Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Georges Seurat -Embraces flatness of the canvas -Extreme use of line - often outlining objects and figures -Bold color, non-naturalistic -Emotion -Thick application of color to large areas

Neoclassicism

-A style of art and architecture that emerged in the later 18th century. Part of a general revival of interest in classical cultures, Neoclassicism was characterized by the utilization of themes and styles from ancient Greece and Rome. -Spans across the 18th and 19th centuries. Draws inspiration from ancient Greek and Roman ideals. During this period, historical paintings become more popular and a stronger emphasis on education emerges.

Impressionism

-A style or movement in painting originating in France in the 1860s, characterized by a concern with depicting the visual impression of the moment, especially in terms of the shifting effect of light and color. -Short distinct brushworks -Sensory experience (impression) -Depicts the effect of light and how it shifts on objects and figures -Scenes of upper and middle class leisure 0Unusual framing of scenes

Pointillism

-A technique of neo-impressionist painting using tiny dots of various pure colors, which become blended in the viewer's eye. It was developed by Georges Seurat with the aim of producing a greater degree of luminosity and brilliance of color. -A painting style featuring individual small fots of pure color placed next to each other so the viewer's eye will mix the colors. Post-impressionism.

Stele with Akhenaton, Nafertiti, and three daughters, from Tell el-Amarna, Ancient Egyptian (3rd - 1st millennium BCE)

-Akhenaton- monotheistic -New approach to rendering figure- casual, crouched, legs are shuffling against each other, strong sense of motion -Anecdotal, casual interaction, intimacy -Irregularity, lack of perfectionism in his body -He's a distinct person with a distinct personality -King Tut was his son and later negated everything his father did while in power

Kara Walker, Slavery! Slavery!, Contemporary Art (1990-Present)

-All the figures are black, but we are encouraged to see them as racially white or racially black -At center is a female African American figure standing atop of a fountain -Her body is spouting fluids - out of control, completely exposed, vulnerable -Tableau, bodies that were central to black history -Overhead projector projecting colored silhouettes onto the wall -Introducing color - ratches up an emotional tenor to it, the figures seem to be w washed in blood -Uses projectors in strategic and platonic way -Projector from school - where we learn truths - a history of truth telling/history telling -Her work can be placed in the same category as Dali, dreamscapes

Paul Cezanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, Post-Impressionism (1880-1900)

-An older artist -Spends the last decades of his life painting alone in southern France -How can he as an artist be true to the 2d limitations of canvas and the 3d world? -Constructs painting out of small square patches of paint -Builds up form by stacking color patches -Reminded of flatness of painting even as we see 3dimensionality -Cezanne simplifies the landscape into a series of patches of color, flattening the land and calling attention to the flatness of the canvas -Depicts nature while experimenting with form and space

West facade, Notre Dame, Paris, France, Gothic (1200-1400)

-Appears silent and sober vs. the inside appearance -Flying buttresses take weight/thrusts outside of the structure. Look as though they're flying from building -Carry weight away from structure and collapse it in a pier which stands far away from the building outside. -As the pier runs down, it connects to the main building at the lower level. -Gothic architecture -Tends to have increased emphasis on light, height, and ornament -Pointed arches instead of rounded arches -Blur between the inside and outside of the structure

Roy Lichtenstein, Drowning Girl, Pop Art (1960-1970)

-Artists who play with 2d visual paraphernalia of consumerist world -Best known for his comic book imagery appropriation in his art -Takes a low brow source for his art vs. something elevated (spiritual concepts) -Uses paint -"Art should be about big important things" -Ppl like Poussin. Lichtenstein goes against this -Makes strategic changes to original comic book art - crops it radically, focuses in on one single thing vs. including other complicated narrative stuff -Uses visual tropes that are central to how comic books work - uses dialogue balloons, uses very heavy black outlines (a clear common trope in these images), uses fields of unmodulated color (no shading to give us sculptural depth - flat washes throughout the image) -Copies visual appearances of what comic books look like - comic book washes, benday dots - does it on pink of skin and pale blue of water around her). Painting has none of his distinctive hand in it. Erased vs. with artists like De Koonig -Puts up stencil and rubs paint over stencil -"I wanted my painting to look like it had been programmed, I want to hide the record of my hand" -Lichtenstein uses a cropped image from a comic book -Stencil technique, mechanical reproduction -Mixture of high and low art -Extreme moment of teenage love story -Paints romance comic books - putting narrative back into painting -By giving us one single pane of story - we can immediately conjure up the meta narrative -Girl meets boy - obstacle in their path, torn apart, and happy reunion comes at end -We look at these and laugh but we are able to connect them to our adolescent romances -Doubleness to paintings - these woman are sad and we are right up in their faces -Benday dots force us to pay attention to the fact that this is a mechanically reproduced effect, gives the art less room to have the gesture of the artist -Painting denying any statement of the artist's subjectivity -Nothing special, individual about comic books - is what he's saying - erases individual drama that was so central to abstract expressionism

Edgar Degas, The Dance Lesson, Impressionism (1865-1880)

-Ballet was one of Degas's favorite subjects. -Although also a "painter of modern life," Degas was not concerned with light and atmosphere. -Specialized in indoor subjects and made many preliminary studies for his finished paintings. -His interests were primarily with recording body movement and exploring unusual angles of viewing. -He was fascinated by the formalized patterns of motion of the performers at the Paris Opera and its ballet school. -Became fascinated by photography and often used a camera to make preliminary studies for his works. Japanese prints were another inspirational source -Has compressed the frame in a way that contains the dancers. This unusual framing underscores the fact that these women are performers to be looked at by the audience. By confining the dancers to this limited space, Degas reminds us of the power of the gaze.

Kehinde Wiley, Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, Contemporary Art (1990-present)

-Based on Jacques-Louis David's 1801 equestrian portrait, Napoleon Crossing the Alps. This painting was chosen by a man who Kehinde had approached in the streets

Antoine Watteau, Fetes Venitiennes, Rococo (1520-1580)

-Best known for his fete galante paintings - paintings of wealthy aristocrats having parties in gardens that may or may not be real. -About playful flirtation and parties -He loves the shimmery effects of oil paint, how it captures light -Most powerful thing of Rococo- owns up to imagination -Allows us to engage in the imaginal

Jan Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance, Baroque (1580-1700)

-Calibrating the balance -Getting ready to weigh pearls- determining their value -Last judgment in background where mortals' souls are weighed -Vermeer was a Catholic- has a bit of his own outsider critique on outsider culture -Her actions are a parody- weighing jewelry vs. souls -Is judging purity and who is she, as a moral, one to judge purity -Weighing her acquisitions vs. her moral value -A dark painting- a meditation on greed -The dark side of what Dutch culture has become -A painting of a woman alone.

Georges Seurat, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte, Post-Impressionism (1880-1900)

-Came from a Bourgeoisie family -One generation younger than the Impressionists -Takes their work to a further extreme -Distinct brushwork - pointillism - each touch to the canvas is identical, methodically placed on canvas -Adjacent and complimentary colors -More scientifically accurate - taking away the expressionism/emotionalism of mixing color and lines on canvas -Critical through the use of form

Mary Cassatt, In the Loge, Impressionism (1865-1880)

-Cassat's subjects were principally women and children, whom she presented with a combination of objectivity and genuine sentiment. -She felt strongly that painting needed to break free of old methods and adapt to the modern world. -Became one of only three women, and the only American, ever to join the French Impressionists. -Was the first of Cassatt's Impressionist paintings to be displayed in the United States. When it was shown in Boston in 1878, critics described the picture as "striking," adding that Cassatt's painting "surpassed the strength of most men." -Depicts a fashionable lady dressed for an afternoon performance at a theater in Paris. -Entertainments like the theater, the opera, and the racetrack were extremely popular among Parisians, who enjoyed such diversions not only for the show, but also for the opportunity to see—and to be seen by—their peers. -The Impressionists took delight in painting these spectacles of modern life, and the theater, with its dazzling variety of lights and reflections, was an especially appealing subject. -Cassatt gave her female figure a noticeably more dynamic role, for she peers avidly through her opera glasses at the row of seats across from her. -In the background at upper left, a man trains his gaze upon her. -The viewer, who sees them both, completes the circle. -Cassatt's painting explores the very act of looking, breaking down the traditional boundaries between the observer and the observed, the audience and the performer.

Norman Lewis, Every Atom Glows, Abstract Expressionism (1940-1960)

-Challenges and expands what our understanding of abstract expressionism is -Painting figuratively -People walking on street, reduced down to lines. -Color and gestural brushstroke - beginning to take over the painting. Excavates a larger abstract scene himself -Based on a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson -Unified natural world -Meditates on idea of a unified natural place, unified society for whites and blacks. -About large transcendent themes, spirituality, humans and their place in the natural world -By 1951, Lewis's abstractions from nature alluded to the seasons and plant forms. In Every Atom Glows (1951), however, the artist moved away from clearly natural forms. -In this painting, the background bleeds with blurred areas of black-and-white while in the foreground, the checkered patterning of elongated tendrils flickers with energy, possibly a reference to the devastating potential of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. =Like many others of his time, Lewis was struggling to make sense of the new advances in nuclear technology. Every Atom Glows referenced the Cold War threat of nuclear destruction -Also responded to the resurgence in the 1950s of two earlier philosophies: energism, the theory that self-realization is the highest good, and transcendentalism, which proposed that thought and spirituality are more real than ordinary human experience. -The title "every atom glows" is a line from Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Nature" (1844), in which the poet expounded his belief that the divine could be discovered through the study of nature. By treating the atom both as the basic element of life and as the force of its potential destruction, Lewis brought out the uncertainties of the atomic age.

Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VI, Expressionism (1905-1915)

-Colors in different ratios can evoke different emotions -He and a bunch of his friends, colleagues, his wife, believed color had spiritual powers -Pathway to an enlightenment experience -Paints abstractly - simplifying and distilling them down to their essence - art that does not have any naturalistic representation in it at all - no figures or objects that are readily identifiable with the world we inhabit and see - does not mean that it's not about something. -Pretty entirely abstract - can be about something but what it's about can be pretty up to interpretation - up to the viewer to look at it closely and decide what it's about -Lines and undulating curves the push the lines from the lower left to the upper right -Dark energy pushing down/crossed with another dynamic energy -Tension between violence and beauty expressed in a raw way -Tries to get us to tap into our emotions - wants us to have an emotional experience that might rise to a spiritual experience not confined by the natural world

JAD Ingres, The Apotheosis of Homer, Neoclassicism (1760-1820)

-Contemporary of Romantic painters but hates them - antithesis of Romanticism -Studies with David and is thoroughly schooled in Neoclassicism order, clarity, and high ideals -Breaks his mentorship with David because he doesn't think he's strict enough in his devotion to the classical models -Believes the truest interpretation of classical ideals is Greek art -Uses heavy outlines around figures, shallow sense of space. Shallowness inspired by the compositions of Greek vase paintings -This is an allegorical representation of the Illiad and the Odyssey. Includes people in it who represent great Greek tradition, including Raphael and Poussin. -Everyone appears stiff and uptight -Overdoes Neoclassicism - zaps it of all of its energy. Pushes it to its breaking point.

Edvard Munch, The Scream, Symbolism (1895-1910)

-Creates art full of flattened spaces and flattened people -Objectifying of subjective experience - symbolism -Takes fear, horror, and terror and captures it objectively onto the canvas -Swirls repeating lines into a place of almost abstraction -We all have a subjective expressionistic response to these -We don't know what it's fully about -Mother died from tubercolois when he was 5, and sister died shortly after

Gustave Courbet, The Stone Breakers, Realism (1840-1865)

-Depicting figures against dark hillside behind them - no escape, swallowed up by the hills -Captures a dismal scene with gray background/uneven lighting - enhances the gritty misery of the task -Work is not romanticized at all -Originally 8 ft long - almost life sized. 2 laborers toying away at this menial labor and makes them huge -Originally hung on the walls of the Salon in 1850 - everyone freaked out about painting, considered it socially destabilizing, why paint something so monumental and huge of such low class people. Why give peasants such a monumental treatment? -"An abstract object, invisible or nonexistent, does not belong to the domain of painting... Show me an angel and I'll paint one."

Thomas Jefferson, University of Virginia Campus (with the Rotunda), Charlottesville VA, Neoclassicism (1760-1820)

-Designs and builds the first university in the country -Idea to have an academic village where students and professors live in pursuit of academic knowledge -All living places were gathered around the library at center -Quotations of Corinthian columns

Gianlorenzo Bernini, Ecstasy of St. Theresa, Rome, Baroque (1580-1700)

-Despite being carved from several tons of marble it is full of emotion and seems almost weightless -Piece is made so viewers seem like they're in a theater -Piece is made up of two cross diagonals Interprets the pain as arrows piercing her heart -Family who donated funds for this piece (donors) are at sculpted at the sides in sort of boxes -Light shining down- a window was built in the back to echo the rays rendered -Theatrical/over the top -Rendered in spiritual/physical passion -Emotional/spiritual feelings -Acknowledgement of the viewer: we become part of the audience as we view the piece

Andy Warhol, Gold Marilyn Monroe, Pop Art (1960-1970)

-Early career was as a commercial artist -Replicates the images of basic consumer goods - unlike Lichstenstein who cropped and simplified his images, Warhol seems to simply mirror the commercial image that he comes across -Gives us a reflection of what we'd see in a magazine or on a store shelf -Makes art about mass produced products/images and wants to incorporate strategies of mass production into how he makes the art -1961-1962 profound changes in how he makes his works -Takes preexisting photograph and replicates it on the screen

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe's Lips, Pop Art (1960-1970)

-Eliminates artist's hand -Can create as many images as he likes Relies heavily on assistance in studios - his factory -does not want to touch his images at all. -Called his studio the factory - mass produces art about the world of mass production. Ruebens also did this -Claims a distance from his art -Is just a sum of her parts like a machine -Lips are replicated ad infinitum -Creeping imperfections that come into image - mechanically reproduced although there are mistakes that appear. Mistakes of machine are the only way we read individuality -Messages in the images he's choosing - Does Marilyn's images the Fall after she commits suicide, about her celebrity. Interested in topic - celebrity is the commercialization of the individual. -In Gold Marilyn he sets her up in a field of gold - refers to art history, early Renaissance Byzantine art where gold is the divine realm. Makes her divine - that's what we do to our celebrities, we turn them into divine beings. -She's been flattened - only her face. Nothing about the 3d individual, shallow rendering of human being. All we know is shallow fakeness. -Sympathizes with the life that caused her to be like this -Pop art has a refusal to tell us what it thinks - a coolness that forces us to think about our own relationship to the world of popular culture -These artists pointed out that mass culture saturates everything we live in

Kehinde Wiley, Mercury After Raphael, Contemporary Art (1990-present)

-Focus is black history + art history -Born in south central LA -Exposed to the masters at an early age -Meeting of the Poussinist tradition brought together with contemporary street dress -An intrepid observer of people on the street -The sitter chooses a scene from books of old paintings and that person adopts the pose in their street clothes, is photographed, develops his painting from the photographs -Highly mimetic rendering of the figure -Recycling of references -Points out how black ppl didn't have much of a part in this art history -Comment on street culture -What is the purpose of a portrait - do these function as portraits? -Doesn't reveal a person's psyche - more about how a person can be read

Baron George Haussmann

-French administrator responsible for the transformation of Paris from its ancient character to the one that it still largely preserves. -In this last office he embarked on an enormous program of public works, setting a precedent for urban planning in the 20th century.

Jackson Pollock, No. 1, 1948, Abstract Expressionism (1940-1960)

-In 1947 he pursues the idea of the immediate. Lives in the newness of paintings through his drip paintings -Conscious order and rationality is layered down -His subject matter - the internal, subconscious -Not about losing control - creating a new arena with different limits - a new set of possibilities - not control as we have typically understood it -Exhilaration -Consists of rhythmic drips, splatters, and dribbles of paint. -Pollock literally immersed himself in the painting during its creation -Pollock's reliance on improvisation and the subconscious has parallels in Surrealism and the work of Vassily Kandinsky -Pollock's "action paintings" emphasize the creative process. His mural sized canvases consist of rhythmic drips, splatters, and dribbles of paint that envelop viewers, drawing them into a lacy spider web. -Drip painting technique - no brushes touch the canvas, large buckets of paint poured onto canvas, lack of control

Jackson Pollock, Guardians of the Secret, Abstract Expressionism (1940-1960)

-Inspired by surrealism -In therapy with a follower of Jung. Jung is a disciple of Freud -Died in a car accident in 1950 -Central to his theories - everyone's self conscious is permeated by symbols/forms called archetypes and we all have these percolating throughout our subconscious -Isn't working from sketches -Numbers/symbols/subconcious -Art historians contend that Pollock was inspired by Indian sand painters who created temporary works of art as part of a religious ritual as well as the notion that art-making is a spiritual process. Believes that he turned to drip painting in a shamanistic attempt to heal himself; not coincidentally, Indian sand painting is often part of a healing ritual. -Pollock maintained that his debt to Indian art was subconscious, as he did not deliberately draw upon American Indian artistic process or subject matter. -Guardians of the Secret was the most startling entry in Jackson Pollock's first show, and it represents the most thoroughgoing synthesis of his themes and influences up to that time. -World mythology, Miro, African, American Indian, and prehistoric art were successfully synthesized with Picassoid elements to form a psychologically redolent whole. -Its composition once more features an abstracted male and female who now seem to face in toward a figured "canvas" displayed heraldically between them. -Often interpreted as a metaphor for the emergence of unconscious impulses into conscious thought, represents a synthesis of Pollock's sources.

Theodore Gericault, Raft of the Medusa, Romanticism (1810-1840)

-Invests canvas with high emotion. Emotion as a way of viewing the world. Appeals to us by eliciting our passions, fears, and desires. -Wanders around Louvre to learn how to be an artist. -Painting is larger than life. Viewers are confronted by the figures larger than themselves - heightens the emotionality of the piece. -Places two strong diagonals across the painting. This composition, coupled with the dramatic poses of the figures, creates a sense of movement in the scene. -Turns away from the sharp, clean lines of Neoclassicist painting. -Depicts a famous/controversial shipwreck - the moment the crew spots a ship in the distance. During it, the surviving passengers made a raft and resorted to cannibalism to survive. -Artist studied dead bodies at a morgue to better depict the rotting flesh. -History painting. -A catalyst for Romanticism

Paul Gauguin, Mahana No Atua: Day of the God, Post-Impressionism (1880-1990)

-Left his stock broking job in NY and moved to Tahiti, left his family -In two titles, one French and one in native Tahitian language -Took 2 lengthy trips to Tahiti in his lifetime -Statue is part Tahitian, part Buddhist -Women represent fertility and a connection to nature -Non-naturalistic colors -Bottom part is a representation of artistic freedom whereas the top is a freedom from Western society and ideas. Allows the artist to pursue something below where he is indebted to the visual world -Color is stylized but somewhat naturalistic in the background, but abstract and bold in the foreground -Gauguin uses color and form to explore a space of freedom - literally - from artistic rules, as in the water he is no longer following the objective visual world

Salvador Dali, Autumn Cannibalism, Surrealism (1925-1940)

-Liberation of the mind. Conjuring up the subconscious, dreamscapes -Immaculately painting. Extremely conservative, most academic painter but what he's painting is mind bending. Gives us bizzarely juxtaposed objects that morph into other things -Scale shifts, one thing next to another. -Uneasily and disturbingly pushed together. -About appetite - hungry appetite, sexual appetite - passions that drive human society - according to Freudian models of the subconscious

Claes Oldenberg, Floor Cake, Pop Art (1960-1970)

-Makes everything bigger to fit into gallery space -Different than what you encounter in material world bc it makes you laugh -Soft sculptures -Become weird surrogates for human body -Are these celebrations of American junk food culture or are these critical of them? -Not outright condemning this stuff - judging it but also having fun with it -Love for food but a critical sarcasm about America's love for food -In 1961 Claes Oldenburg opened a shop, The Store, in his workshop in New York's Lower East Side, from which he sold plaster re-creations of foodstuffs and merchandise. -In a subsequent incarnation of The Store at the Green Gallery in New York in 1962, Oldenburg developed an art of parody and humor by grossly enlarging the scale of familiar objects, and created such works as MoMA's Floor Cake and Floor Burger, which is in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario. -Oldenburg introduced sculpture to Pop art, beginning with a series inspired by Duchamp's "readymades" and the bluntly prosaic subjects chosen by Pop artists like Warhol and Lichtenstein. Floor Cone, Floor Burger, and Floor Cake (shown here) were among the monumental structures based on comfort food fashioned by the artist in the early 1960s. -A Surrealist element arises from the dramatic shift in scale. -Floor Cake, a giant squishy triangle five feet high and nine-feet long, reverses the familiar relationship between this object and the spectator (it looks like it might eat us). -More so than other Pop artists, Oldenburg drew inspiration from the process that comprised the items on which his art was based. Floor Cake, for instance, was assembled in layers, as one might make a cake, its soft medium and opaque, slightly splotchy paint mimics frosting, and finally, even though this element is invisible, empty ice cream cartons and foam rubber were used for the interior filling, giving metaphorical guts to the piece.

Marie-Guilhelmine Benoist, Portrait of Madeleine, Neoclassicism (1760-1820)

-Makes her into an aristocratic figure in elegant neoclassicist clothes -Sits on elaborate chair -Affirms the rights of free blacks in France -A moment right after slavery had been abolished -Equates her to the freedom of all black women -Exposed breast represents freedom -Wrapped headdress - similar to hat Liberty wears - represents French revolution? -To represent an individual woman and expose her is to eroticize her - plays into trope of seeing Africans as more sexualized -Is her hat a turban? Marks her as an erotic and exotic other?

Saint Matthew, from the Ebbo Gospels, Early Medieval (500-1000)

-May be an interpretation of an author -Portrait very similar to the one that the Coronation Gospels master used as a model -This illuminator replaced the classical calm and solidity of the Coronation Gospels evangelist with an energy approaching frenzy. -Matthew writes in frantic haste. -This painter translated a classical prototype into a new Carolingian style, merging classical illusionism and the northern linear tradition.

Henri Matisse, Woman With The Hat, Fauvism (1905-1910)

-Most important thing to him - pure expressionism of his art -When looking at a scene in nature, paints the colors he feels -The creation of one color against another is what he is pursuing -Takes his entire palette and tries to transform it on her face -Painting of his wife -Non-naturalistic color -Translates the colors and bounces them out to the rest of the canvas so it echoes her face -No part of this painting is secondary -"The chief function of color should be to serve expression as well as possible... the expressive aspect of colors imposes itself on me in a purely instinctive way. To paint an autumn landscape, I will not try to remember what colors suit this season, I will be inspired only be the sensation that the season arises in me."

Titian, Venus of Urbino, High Renaissance (1480-1580)

-No sign that alludes to her being Venus -It's about romance/lust, which is how she got her name. -She's inside vs. outside, like in Pastoral symphony (this makes it harder to dismiss the painting as an allegory since she's inside, making it more real). -Maids in background are retrieving her clothes -Seems more like a real person vs. a goddess -Her gaze- she's aware that we're looking at her. Appears flirtatious. She is an object of the male gaze- constructed by men for men. -Composed with a central figure, who looks directly at the viewer Uses linear perspective to show that the women in the background are further from the main figure -Idealized figure- she has no blemishes or faults -Rich colors (in fabric, curtains, maids' clothing, flower) make the painting feel more vibrant and alive

Willem De Kooning, Excavation, Abstract Expressionism (1940-1960)

-Obsessed with Picasso - taking apart the figure, struggle between the figure and ground -As if painter is digging through layers and layers, finding out what the painting is really about -Multiple paintings beneath the surface, scrambling to get out. Is in excavation process, trying to figure out what this work is about. -His major breakthrough -This was his largest painting up to that date, the work exemplifies his style, with its expressive brushwork and distinctive organization of space into sliding planes with open contours. -According to the artist, the point of departure for the painting was an image of women working in a rice field in Bitter Rice, a 1949 Neorealist film by Italian director Giuseppe de Santis. -The mobile structure of hooked calligraphic lines defines anatomical parts—bird and fish shapes, human noses, eyes, teeth, necks, and jaws—that seem to dance across the painted surface, revealing the particular tension between abstraction and figuration that is inherent in de Kooning's work. -The painting reflects de Kooning's technically masterful painting process: an intensive building up of the surface and scraping down of its paint layers, often for months, until the desired effect was achieved.

Edouard Manet, Olympia, Realism (1840-1865)

-Olympia was a common name for sex workers -By naming the painting Olympia, he references this -Critics found it vulgar, ugly -What is the problem with it? Is it how her body is rendered or because of her stare? -Influenced by Venus of Urbino

Edouard Manet, Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, Realism (1840-1865)

-Other major figure in the promotion of realism -Was a realist who painted the lives of the middle class in the city of Paris -Became a profound inspiration for a younger generation of painters who became the impressionists -Born in Paris and part of a comfortable middle class lifestyle -Interested in the urban middle class life - the Bourgeoisie -Not everyone seems to be having a good time. -Capturing the awkward moments you wish he wouldn't capture -Shares an interest with Courbet in what happens when paint hits the canvas -One of Manet's most scandalous paintings -Inspired by Giorgione's Pastoral Symphony -Lunch in a rural setting and accompanied by nude women -Compositionally is quoting the Raphael engraving -Still life in left corner -Paying its dues to the history of art, yet everyone was upset and shocked with this painting: If there were some naked figures, they had to be clear that those figures were allegories -Problem with model is that the model is far too naturalistic to be an allegory- doesn't read as an idealized abstraction of a woman. She's staring at us, her body has wrinkles in it. Allegorical picnic vs. a scene of dubious morality -As you're looking at it, you're bumping up against the artificiality of the painting. -Reminds us that all paintings are illusions, as realistic as they try to be.

Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun, Self-Portrait with her Daughter, Neoclassicism (1760-1820)

-Painter with her daughter -Expressing how she understands ideas about motherhood... moreso than Marie Antoinette (whom she painted portraits of) -Demonstrates her close engagement with daughter -Understands enlightenment theories -Shows her modernity -Wears a toga. A part of Neoclassicism's renewed interest in Classical culture/art -Member of French Royal academy in 1780s. One other woman in it. Took Marie Antoinette to advocate for her to get into into academy

Praxiteles, Hermes & Infant Dionysus, Late Classical Greece (4th century BCE)

-Pausing to tease the baby, dangling grapes in front of him -Vulnerable reality of human experience Hermes= Messenger god. -Relaxed, lounging pose. Contrapposto. -Hermes puts all his weight on his right food and is idly playing with baby Dionysus. -Doesn't contain strong athletic edges like other Greek sculptures -Example of the humanization of Gods in ancient Greece.

Portrait of a Married Couple, from Pompeii, Ancient Roman (200 BCE-400 CE)

-Portraits were often painted onto the walls of houses -The items they hold represent their levels of education -Scroll and stylus show that they're cultured and literate -Depicted as equals -Wall painting

Berthe Morisot, The Cradle, Impressionism (1865-1880)

-Raised in an upper-middle class home in Paris. -Her subject matter-the leisure activities of Parisians at resorts along the Seine or in Paris's great park called the Bois de Boulogne-typifies the interests of many of the Impressionists. -The people who inhabit her canvases are almost exclusively women or their children, always well dressed and thoughtful, never frivolous or objects of male desire. -Shows one of the artist's sisters, Edma, watching over her sleeping daughter, Blanche. It is the first image of motherhood—later one of her favourite subjects—to appear in Morisot's work. -The mother's gaze, her bent left arm, a mirror image of the child's arm, and the baby's closed eyes form a diagonal line which is further accentuated by the movement of the curtain in the background. -This diagonal links the mother to her child. Edma's gesture, drawing the net curtain of the cradle between the spectator and the baby, further reinforces the feeling of intimacy and protective love expressed in the painting. -Showed The Cradle at the Impressionist exhibition of 1874—the first woman to exhibit with the group. The painting was scarcely noticed although important critics commented on its grace and elegance.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Bal at the Moulin de la Galette, Impressionism (1865-1880)

-Renoir's painting of this popular Parisian dance hall, popular with ordinary working-class people, is dappled by sunlight and shade, artfully blurred into the figures to produce the effect of floating and fleeting light that many Impressionists cultivated. -Some crowd the tables and chatter, while others dance energetically. So lively is the atmosphere that the viewer can virtually hear the sounds of music, laughter, and tinkling glasses. -The painter dappled the whole scene with sunlight and shade, artfully blurred into the figures and the suggested continuity of space, spreading in all directions and only accidentally limited by the frame -Positions the viewer as a participant rather than as an outsider. -Whereas artists favored by the French Academy sought to express universal and timeless qualities, the Impressionists attempted to depict just the opposite - the incidental and the momentary.

Willem De Kooning, Woman 1, Abstract Expressionism (1940-1960)

-Resistance to what's popular - everyone else was painting abstract expressionism at the time. Reworking cubist challenges. -sweeping gestural brushstrokes and energetic application of pigment typical of gestural abstraction. -Out of the jumbled array of slashing lines and agitated patches of color appears a ferocious-looking woman with staring eyes and ponderous breasts. -Her toothy smile, inspired by an ad for Camel cigarettes, seems to devolve into a grimace. -Female models on advertising billboards partly inspired Woman I and de Kooning's other paintings of women, which he considered generic fertility goddesses or a satiric inversion of the traditional image of Venus, goddess of love. -Process was important to de Kooning, as it was for Pollock. Continually working on Woman I for almost two years, de Kooning painted an image and then scraped it away the next day and began anew. His wife, Elaine, also an accomplished painter, estimated that he painted approximately 200 scraped-away images of women on this canvas before settling on the final one.

Rococo

-Response to darker paintings of the 1600 -Fete galante (an outdoor entertainment or rural festival, especially as depicted in 18th-century French painting, leisure activities of French aristocrats) -Idyllic settings -Pastel color scheme -Color for decorative effect=Rubeniste -Light and airy -Delicate sophistication and rendering of objects/figures -Sensuality and sexuality -Small scale works -French for pebble

J.A.D. Ingres, Grande Odalisque, Neoclassicism (1760-1820)

-See things like heavy outlines around figures, shallow sense of space because to him, Greek vase painting was his inspiration -Shows his debt to Renaissance masters (Titian's Venus of Urbino) -See his neo-classicist obsession through the black lines around the edges of her body -Hyper clarity -Cool colors -Gives it an air of neo-classicism rationalism Highly exotic woman -Critics hated this painting- uses an austere cool crisp neoclassicist style but the content is all about sensuousness and exoticism -Overdoes neo-classicism, zaps it of all its energy, pushes it to its breaking point

J.M.W. Turner, The Slave Ship, Romanticism (1810-1840)

-Sense that raw landscape is a place of authenticity - where expression of emotions can be most honestly explored and where freedom can be talked about away from modern world -One of the greatest landscape painters -Makes comments on industrialized society and its relationship to the natural world -Creates raw, expressive laden experiences on canvas -Ship is brought from Africa carrying the cargo - people -Insurance won't cover the cost of people who die due to the ship - will only cover cost of cargo lost at sea -Throws all of them overboard instead so he can claim the loss -Broiling frenzy - ocean turning against blood red sky responding to what is happening here -Sense of hot emotion, fear, death with blackness in water and red in sky -Is nature experiencing the pain of the misery of these souls? -Anger and destruction everywhere - the strength of the natural world could destroy and banish this incident from the earth

En pleine air

-The act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. -The practice of painting outdoors often (but not always) with fellow painters. Impressionism.

Automatism

-The avoidance of conscious intention in producing works of art, especially by using mechanical techniques or subconscious associations. -Surrealist method of art making that relies on vacating the mind and letting forms come to the surface from the subconscious. Relies on methods of chance. Differs from Dali, who paints academically and creates clear depictions of surreal/dream imagery

Claude Monet, Impression: Sunrise, Impressionism (1865-1880)

-The outdoors sharpened Monet's focus on the roles that light and color play in the way nature appears to the eye -If complementary colors were used side by side over large enough areas, the colors would intensify each other. -Achieved brilliant effects with his short, choppy brushstrokes which catches the vibrating quality of light. -Criticism was mostly directed at his paintings lacking the polished surfaces and sharp contours of academic painting. -The forms take on clarity only when the eye fuses the brushstrokes at a certain distance. -Fascinated by reflected sunlight on water, -Monet broke with traditional studio practice and painted his impression en plein air, using short brushstrokes of pure color on canvas without any preliminary sketch.

Do-Ho Suh, Who Am We? (Multi), Contemporary Art (1990-present)

-Themes of the individual + collective identity that circulate through his work -Actually wallpaper -Taken from photos of his yearbook in South Korea -Asks how hard do we try and fit in - we try too hard to fit in -Millions of little faces buried into it -Who am I to not see the individual and to just see a pattern on the wall -Our role of judging others + participating in the group -Installation that literally served as the floor of several of his exhibitions in the year 2000 -Asks about our own willingness to join groups - to be seen as part of a group -Figures are about an inch high and all looking upward. Wall is covered in wallpaper art -Inch high figurines holding up this piece of glass - we are unwittingly standing on them -Struggling against glass ceiling -Resisting misery of being walked upon? Or somehow complicit in their faith? -Does being part of the group trap us or give us strength? -Forces us to become complicit in the stories

Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, Neoclassicism (1760-1820)

-Things are smooth, illusionistic, refined, and clear as possible -Story of an ancient Roman myth - when two cities are battling each other, a decision is made to settle combat with a battle consisting of 3 sons from Rome and 3 sons from Alba -All cousins - one of the sisters to the right is married to one of their cousins -Only one person survives - one Horatii brother -About sacrificing your family for the protection of your country. Explicit critique of the selfishness that occurs in France. -Men form a slightly off-center triangle. Their arms and legs form negative space in the middle. Artist divides the sections of people into thirds -No sense of the tragedy behind the corner except in the woman at the right -Men wear red (anger/violence), women wear drab, subdued colors - lamenting more -VIewer is distant - at another set of columns looking into the scene

Raphael, Madonna of the Meadow, High Renaissance (1480-1580)

-Tranquil landscape -Triangular composition -Her body encompasses all of them=stability -Interaction of her hands around the baby's body=gentle, tender, natural, and maternal -Private commission -Balance, beauty, and harmony

Francisco Goya, Third of May, 1808, Romanticism (1810-1840)

-Uprising occurs on 2nd of May, on the 3rd of May, Spainards who have risen up against their country are mercilessly executed -French imperialist invading force -Aware of horror that Spainards are going through balanced by French who are impersonal killing machines -Off center, makes our eyes bounce back and forth -Loose brushwork, in a few strokes of paint Goya can give us an idea of what's going on without illusionistic detail -Blood is rendered as viscous/raw/smeared on canvas -Emotions are how we understand the world - allows us to see into this highly emotional scene - privileging feeling and subjectivity -Depiction of what happens when human reason falls asleep - when human society cannot live up to its potential

Aaron Douglas, An Idyll of the Deep South: Study for Aspects of Negro Life, Harlem Renaissance (1915-1940)

-Uses African art to discern what it's like to be an African American -Flattens figures, renders faces as masks -Uses aesthetics and geometric angles of -African art to inspire the form of his paintings. -Aware of cubism and that a flat form can point to the flatness of a painting even as it conjures up a 3d space -Gathers around music in one section, one communicates labor and hardships of slavery -Left - figures gathered around tree with someone being hanged, mourning someone who is a victim of lynching -Flat, masklike figures, divided into three narratives. Layering. Statement on African American life. Paints history and stories of a community

Gustave Courbet, Burial at Ornans, Realism (1840-1865)

-Uses large scale and gives content to it that is extremely different -Rural community brought together for a funeral -Casket is coming in towards the left -Hole in the ground - at center of painting but you don't usually notice it -All of peasants circled around. -Not a convincing illusionistic sense of space. -Bodies are not really articulated at all -Resolutely plain scene - no grandeur -Sea of dark black - uses a palette knife most of the time, not a paint brush. -A painting that is difficult to read. Not illusionistic. Not mimetic at all -When he paints really roughly and blends these figures together - reminds us of everything we take for granted when we look at a painting. Is being very self conscious of how he puts paint onto a canvas. Reminds us of the labor we put into painting. Maybe was just a bad painter, maybe he can't paint more than this. -Draws attention to the fact that paintings lie to us/are illusions

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Cubism (1907-1920)

-What grows out of Cezanne is Picasso who establishes cubism as a style or way of painting in the 20th century. Picasso was inspired by Cezanne's innovative use of space. We see a similar interest between 2d and 3d. -Considered his breakthrough into cubism - completed right after he went to the Louvre and saw a major exhibit of Cezanne's paintings - he had just died -Spent hours meditating on Cezanne's paintings, went back to his studio and completed this painting -Combination of sculptural figures and the flat 2dimensionality of the canvas -Painting of 5 nude women - sex women in a brothel -Begins to question how a body looks in space -Takes apart the concept of line. Line helps us hold onto the figure, hold onto the space. When you take away line, the figures start to fall apart, then the space starts to fall apart -Figure on left only has one leg -We the viewer become the men looking at these figures -Uses the masks to construct an identity of a primal other - similar to Gaugain -Critics describe it as being angry or scary. -Women are forward and direct - we might be scared of how they're assessing us. The claustrophobic space contributes to an impending violence. It isn't clear if Picasso's trying to destroy these women or if they're trying to destroy us -As the body fractures, space fractures. Figure and background collapse. What cubism allows painters to do - embrace 2dimensionality of canvas

Jean-Francois Millet, The Gleaners, Realism (1840-1865)

-When less is going on in fields and more is going on in the factories -Labor in its lowest order -Back breaking work -Showing the laborers bent over -Literally swallowed up by their landscape -Horizon line is high up - the three women cannot get up to the air - dwarfed by the landscape -More sentimental than Courbet's -Figures are bathed in a golden sunlight -Sense that they are naturally a part of the environment - bales behind the echo the figures, exist in harmony with the surrounding landscape

Gothic

1200-1400

High Renaissance

1480-1580

Baroque

1580-1700

Rococo

1700-1750

Neoclassicism

1760-1820

Romanticism

1810-1840

Realism

1840-1865

Impressionism

1865-1880

Post-Impressionism

1880-1900

Symbolism

1895-1910

Fauvism

1905-1910

Expressionism

1905-1915

Cubism

1907-1920

Harlem Renaissance

1915-1940

Surrealism

1925-1940

Abstract Expressionism

1940-1960

Pop Art

1960-1970

Contemporary Art

1990-present

Ancient Roman

200 BCE-400 CE

Ancient Egyptian

3rd-1st millennium BCE

Late Classical Greece

4th century BCE

Early Medieval

500-1000

Surrealism

A 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images. Dreamscapes. The bizarre and uncanny (and conflicting) desires hidden in the subconscious of humanity

fin de siecle

A French term meaning end of century, a term which typically encompasses both the meaning of the similar English idiom turn of the century and also makes reference to the closing of one era and onset of another. The term is typically used to refer to the end of the 19th century.

Caravaggisti

A follower of Caravaggio

Genre scene

A genre of paintings that depicts everyday life

Tempera

A medium for binding paint pigments usually made out of egg that dries quickly and hsa a matte surface

Fauvism

A painting style developed by Henri Matisse in 1905 that formally lasted until 1908. The means "fierce animal." The style rejects Neo-Impressionism and expresses flat, bold, un-naturalistic color with impulsive brushwork; sometimes the blank canvas shows between brushstrokes.

Enlightenment

A philosophical movement which started in Europe in the 1700's and spread to the colonies. It emphasized reason and the scientific method. Writers of the enlightenment tended to focus on government, ethics, and science, rather than on imagination, emotions, or religion. Many members of the Enlightenment rejected traditional religious beliefs in favor of Deism, which holds that the world is run by natural laws without the direct intervention of God.

Claes Oldenberg, Pastry Case I, Pop Art (1960-1970)

A plate of frosted cookies, two sundaes, a cake, an oversized rack of ribs, and a half-eaten caramel apple vie for our attention inside a display case. Roughly to scale, these unappetizing models of classic American diner fare reach out to us, rather like embarrassing relatives. Like portraits, but without the human figure, the magic of Oldenburg's sculpture is the expressive element he imparts to it. The most emotional (and hilarious) of the Pop artists, his brilliance is in the balance he strikes between irony and earnestness in his references to American culture.

Screen printing

A printing technique whereby a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh apertures with ink, and a reverse stroke then causes the screen to touch the substrate momentarily along a line of contact. This causes the ink to wet the substrate and be pulled out of the mesh apertures as the screen springs back after the blade has passed. One color is printed at a time, so several screens can be used to produce a multicolored image or design.

Mannerism

A style of art where the figures are exaggerated and the sense of artifice is heightened

Action Painting

A technique and style of abstract painting in which paint is randomly splashed, thrown, or poured on the canvas. It was made famous by Jackson Pollock, and formed part of the more general movement of abstract expressionism. A very physical process that required moving the entire body. Extreme abstraction

Triptych

A work of art comprised of three separate panels of paintings

Poussinistes

Admirers and imitators of Poussin; thought his mastery of drawing composition and emotional restraint were superior

Rubenistes

Admirers and imitators of Rubens. This group found greater value in Rubens's use of color, rich textures, and highly charged emotions

Cubism

An Artistic movement that focused on geometric shapes, complex lines, and overlapping planes.

Disegno

An emphasis on drawing typically associated with Roman and Florentine Renaissance painting

Abstract Expressionism

An experimental style of mid-twentieth-century modern art exemplified by Jackson Pollock's spontaneous "action paintings," created by flinging paint on canvases stretched across the studio floor. Wants to show the artist's individual marks on the canvas. Focused on gesture and emotion. More abstract. Nontraditional method of art making. Challenged expectations of what art could be.

Pilaster

Architectural element that looks like a squared column attached to a wall

Abstraction

Art that does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality but instead use shapes, colors, forms and gestural marks to achieve its effect.

Harlem Renaissance

Black literary and artistic movement centered in Harlem that lasted from the 1920s into the early 1930s that both celebrated and lamented black life in America; Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston were two famous writers of this movement.