Art history quiz 1
What is an archetype, according to Carl Jung?
A "primordial unit" that manifests in myth around the world and, with other archetypes, makes up the collective unconscious whereby we understand the world and ourselves, for example, the Hero, the Villain, the Sage, the Trickster are all common archetypes
Guardians of the Secret
Abstract, action painting done by Pollock- cave paintings, petrogliphs, totems, and a coyote.
Number 1
Abstract, action painting done by pollock. Trace or index: mark of the artist's hand. You can follow what happened where and when.
What is all over composition?
An evenly dispersed composition with no focal point and forms or gestural marks covering the entire space of the canvas evenly
What is the meaning of Arshile Gorky's name?
Arshile - Achilles and Gorky- bitter. Means the Bitter Achilles
Greenberg's view on art
Art is a painting, purity, more selective
How does Kaprow see the influence of Pollock on the next generation of artists?
Artists will focus on the space and objects of their everyday lives and use those as the materials for the new art, which will transcend the boundaries between art forms
Mexican Muralists
At the end of the Revolution the government commissioned artists to create art that could educate the mostly illiterate masses about Mexican history. Often painted political statements that had social relevance
sublime
Awe inspiring- we are so small, nature is large. Vastness of nature, human's insignificance in comparison to nature. Small person compared to a vast ocean or to the grand canyon.
Pollock's view on art
Believed that everything can be a material for art, everything is art.
What similarities did Navarjo sand painters and pollock have?
Both of the artists used a style that had the floor painting.
European artists experience in the United States
European artists disappointed that New York does not have the same cafe scene that was found at home in Europe. The cafe scene was where the Europeans socialized and would talk about art with one another for hours
Young American artists of the New York School shared these influences and characteristics
Experimentation with the formal vocabulary of European modernism, The imperative of social relevance, An interest in the unconscious mind, A radically individual style and approach, An interest in indigenous symbolism, and Existentialism
Newman placed his zips on the canvases at random intervals, preferring the composition to be guided by chance similar to the Dadaists' philosophy
False
Why did Clement Greenberg criticize de Kooning?
Greenberg thought that de Kooning's refusal to reject subject matter and paint only abstractions made him old-fashioned and not avant-garde
What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event...A painting that is an act is inseparable from the biography of the artist
Harold Rosenberg
How did Arshile Gorky handle subject matter?
He began with an idea of what emotional and biographical subjects he wanted to paint and then disguised the figures and objects through techniques of automatism
How did Willem de Kooning approach painting?
He was legendary for his inability to "finish" a painting, and often worked and reworked canvases obsessively, creating multi-layered images
What was Diego Rivera's influence on Pollock and other young abstract artists?
His scale, multi-layered content, and desire to create an indigenously "American" art influenced young artists
Romanticism
Involves faith in progress and chaos. emphasis on the inspired individual in some special contact with nature or the cosmos.
What effect did Jungian analysis have on Pollock's art?
It encouraged his search for totemic or mythic images with universal, unconscious meanings
Which of the following does Fineberg claim about Barnett Newman's painting Onement 1
It is an abstract representation of the creation of Adam, the first man, from clay, The title is a reference to Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement, The painting is influenced by Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism, The symmetry stands for perfection in man's oneness with the all of God, It is an act of creation and division similar to the creation of the world from chaos
How does Greenberg see the evolution of painting?
It is getting more and more "purified" by losing all that it shared with other art forms such as sculpture or theater
What effect did the support and stipend paid by the WPA during the Depression have on young artists in the 1930s?
It offered artists dignity, a sense of value, and a place in American society
Pollock's legacy to subsequent artists is profound but often not readily visible...Pollock's radical reorientation of time in painting-his concentration on the instant at which the paint hit the canvas, purging references to past time or previous painting--was the central inspiration [that other artists took]
Jonathan Fineberg
He created some magnificent paintings. But he also destroyed painting.
Kaprow
In what way could New York School artists like Pollock and de Kooning be considered existentialist?
Like Sartre, they believed that action was the means of knowing themselves in relation to the world, and saw every aspect of constructing a painting as a meaningful gesture inseperable from the artist's biography
Surrealism
Looked to the unconscious mind as the source of Artistic subject matter. The real functioning of the mind
Automatism
New York school viewed it as a technique for generating form that did not impose style. It could express the creative force of what they believed was the unconscious in art. Automatism was the cornerstone of Surrealism.
Zip painting
Newman's style of painting where he would lay down a strip of masking tape, paint over the tape, and then peel off the tape.
Rothko Number 14
Not figurative at all, very abstract. When you stand up you see nothing but color. The color field is more important subject matter.
What is Gorky's art style?
Notorious for stealing other people's style. His style has lots of different interpretations and no one will ever know the true meaning
Woman 1
One of de Kooning's trend of "monstrous females" . The woman depicted in Woman I is wholly unlike anything seen in Western painting - she is highly aggressive, erotic and threatening. Her frightening teeth and fierce eyes are not those of a stereotypically submissive, Cold war-era housewife, and de Kooning created her in part as a response to the idealized women in art history. the work is an important step in de Kooning's lifelong exploration of the relationship between figure and ground
Battle of the fishes
Painted by Masson- he just drew/scribbled without control, then looked at what it looked like, and then he added detail. This painting is an example of surrealism.
What word could be used to describe the layered semi obscured approach de Kooning used?
Palimpsest
Guernica
Picasso addresses the current event, political theme of the Spanish civil war. It connected with younger painters because it combined a powerful political statement- social relevance. This picture represents the terror, fear, and injustice of the bombing of the city of Guernica. The leader betrayed the city by allowing the city to get bombed
What was different about Picasso's political paintings than of the political paintings of other artists?
Picasso's connection to political themes are less documented than other artists. His paintings are more cartoon-like, you don't know what is going on compared to the political themes of other artists. With other artists you know exactly what event is happening, you can even recognize the faces of those in the painting
How was Pollock's death symbolic for Allan Kaprow?
Pollock did not die at the top, but after a depressing decline, much like the state of the art world as Kaprow saw it
What was Arshile Gorky's early life like?
Short stretches of idyllic contentment in the midst of a terrible genocide and intense physical and emotional pain
Why did Rothko give up making paintings with figures or subject matter in the late 1940s
Subject matter creates specific or "finite" associations and Rothko wanted to approach universals
abstract expressionist
Term for Kandinsky and other Europeans who painted abstractly with expressionist brushwork. Emphatically American in spirit - monumental in scale, romantic in mood, and expressive of a rugged individual freedom.
What was the difference in the use of automatism between the Surrealists and the New York School?
The Surrealists used automatism to reveal content, while the New York School used it as a method of generating form, in effort to record the spontaneity of unconscious thought
What does Kaprow identify as the accomplishments and gifts Pollock left?
The act of painting, the new space, the personal mark that builds its own form and meaning, the endless tangle, the great scale, the new materials
Were the artists of the New York School all alike?
The only thing on which they could agree was that there was nothing on which they all could agree
What is the most important concept for understanding Barnett Newman's paintings?
The sublime
Why were the artists of the New York School also called Abstract Expressionists?
They painted abstract yet emotionally expressive works that seemed to be in the tradition of Kandinsky, an Expressionist from the previous generation
What effect did European artist émigres have on the American artists in New York?
They provided a compelling new model of what an artist was, in their belief that art and life were inseparable
Garden in Sochi
This painting done by Gorky is a blend of different influences- primarily with Miro. The garden represents the one by his dad's garden by his farm. depicted motifs, including women rubbing their breasts on rocks to see their wishes fulfilled, and the "Holy Tree" with torn bits of clothing from persons visiting the tree
Regonalism
This type of painting asks "What makes America, American?" or What defines American masculinity? The art of the west painting by Benton is an example of this painting
Art of the West
This was a regionalism painting done by Benton. This painting showed the masculinity of America
What kind of persona did Jackson Pollock seek to present?
Tough and macho, with solidarity to blue collar laborers and a frontier independence
Jackson Pollock's paintings were influenced by the Jungian psychoanalysis he was undergoing.
True
Excavation
de Kooning's most sophisticated work. the main goal of challenging the viewer's mind. No scale within the painting is used. Mental map of an interlocking chain of thoughts and experiences overtime
Abstract art
does not depict a person, place or thing in the natural world - even in an extremely distorted or exaggerated way. Therefore, the subject of the work is based on what you see: color, shapes, brushstrokes, size, scale and, in some cases, the process
modernism
embraces the industrial age. Centers on a faith on the ability of human beings to examine and reshape the world around them using scientific knowledge, technology, and the power of reason. Action painting is the chaos of modern life. Autonomous work of art is the signature of modernism - self criticism and self examination.
Gestural painting
emphasizes the process of making art, often through a variety of techniques that include dripping, dabbing, smearing, and even flinging paint on to the surface of the canvas. Also called action painting
Avant-garde
ideas not only differ from what the rest of the society believes, but that they are closer to the "truth" around the world. New and unusual or experimental ideas
New York School
informal group of American artists. After the European artists came to New York, the school became known for its "melting pot" of art ideas and concepts.
Cubism
modern art's most radical break with traditional models of representation. It abandoned perspective, which artists had used to order space since the Renaissance. And it turned away from the realistic modeling of figures and towards a system of representing bodies in space that employed small, tilted planes, set in a shallow space.
What aspects of painting were eliminated with the transition from the Renaissance to Pollock?
objects, narrative, shapes and forms.
Existentialism
reject the idea and term that you belong to any school of thought. Emphasizes the existence of the individual in relation to the world
What are the "norms" of painting according to Clement Greenberg? Select all that apply
the enclosing shape or frame, value and color contrast, paint texture, and flatness
