ART HISTORY TEST III

John Ruskin

19th c. English critic, social thinker, poet and artist who wrote on art and architecture during the Victorian and Edwardian eras; Supported work J.M.W Turner and his defense of naturalism in art. Also supported Pre-Raphaelite movement.

Julia Margaret Cameron

19th century blurred portraits.

Kinetic Art

A 20th c. type of art featuring parts that move or appear to move. For example artist, Alexander Calder made mobiles that had actual moving parts and stabiles that were still; sometimes combining them.

Fluxus

A Group of American, European and Japanese Artist of the 1960s who created performance art. The performances of Events often focused on single actions, such as a turning a light on and off or watching falling snow and were more theatrical than Happenings.

Caricature

A comic satirical and political drawing or print. Seen in the work of Dumier, whose work was published in daily French newspapers like Le Charivari, La and Caricature.

Joseph Nicephore Niepce

A french inventor, who worked with coated pewter plate in camera obscura and in 1826, recorded a fuzzy view out of his window. It took him 8 hours. Called it a Heliograph or "Sun Writing" He also collaborated with Louis-Jacques Mande.

Impressionism

A late 19th c. Art movement that sought to capture a fleeting moment, thereby conveying the elusiveness and impermanence of images and conditions. NOTE Subjects included modern city views and outdoors (Plein aire) paintings. Most painters used loose brushstrokes compared to previous painters.

Synthetic Cubism

A later phase of Cubism in which the painting and drawings were constructed form objects and shapes cut from paper and other materials to represent parts of a subject, in order to engage the viewer with the pictorial issues, such as a figuration, realism, and abstraction.

Modernism

A movement in western art that developed in the second half of the 19th c. and sought to capture images and sensibilities of the age. Modernist art goes beyond simply dealing with the present and involves critical examination of the premises of art itself.

Realism

A movement that emerged in the mid 19th c. France. Realist artist represented subject matter of everyday life (especially subjects that had previously been considered inappropriate for depiction) in a relatively naturalistic mode.

Minimalism

A predominantly sculptural American trend of the 1960s characterized by works featuring a severe reduction of form, often to singe, homogeneous units. Often used industrial materials and called their work objects.

Bauhaus

A school of architecture in Germany in the 1920s under the aegis of Walter Gropius, who emphasized the unity of art, architecture and design.

The international Style

A style of the 20th c. architecture associated with Le Corbusier, whose elegance of design came to influence the look of modern office buildings and skyscrapers. (Also a 14th/15th c. unrelated style, not relevant for this section.

Surrealism

A successor of Dada, Surrealism incorporated the improvisational nature of its predecessor into exploration of the ways to express in art the world of dreams and unconscious.

Pointillism (AKA Division-ism)

A system of paining devised by 19th c. painter Georges Seaurat. The artist Separates color into its component parts and then applies the component colors to the canvas in tiny dots (Points). The images becomes conprehensible only from a distance when the viewers eyes optically blend the pigment dots. sometimes referred to as divisionism.

Suprematism

A type of art formulated by Kazimir Malevich to convey his believe that the supreme reality in the world is pure feeling, which attaches to no object and thus call for new non-objective forms in art-shapes nor related to objects in the visible world. (know non-objective)

Hard- Edge paining

A variant of Post Painterly abstraction that rigidly excluded all reference to gesture and incorporated smooth knife-edging geometric forms to express the notion that painting should be reduced to visual components.

Degenerate Art

Adopted by the Nazi regime in Germany to describe virtually all modern art. Such art was banned on the grounds that it was un-German, Jewish, or communist in nature and those identified as degenerate artist were subjected to sanctions.

Post impressionism

After impressionism form the 1800s-1900s: two main trends developed from impressionism. 1. Cezanne and Seurat show interest in a strong formal structure. 2. Van Gogh and Gauguin show interest in emotional and subjective content. 3. Also see the influence of symbolist movement in may artists of the Fin de Siecle (End of the Century)

Gestrual abstraction

Also called action painting, in which there is an emphasis on creation process, the artists gesture in making art. EX: Jackson Pollock drip paintings . Post Painterly Abstraction.

Regionalism/ American scene

American artist of 1930s who rejected modernism in favor of developing independent styles. Regionalisms included Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, and John Steuart Curry.

Performance Art

An American avant-grande art trend of the 1960s that make time an integral element of art. It produced works in which moments, gestures, and sounds of persons communicating with an audience replace physical objects . Documentary photographs are generally the only evidence remaining after these events. In performance art the medium is the body.

Skeleton and Skin

An Architectural system where like a human body using strong material tor support (In skyscrapers, steel) and amp, lighter material to cover it. ( like glass or aluminum siding).

Constructivism

An Early 20th c. Russian art movement formulated by Naum Gabo, who built up his sculptures piece by piece in space instead of carving or modeling them. IN this was the sculptor worked with the volume of mass and the volume of space as different materials.

Precisionism

An american art movement of the 1920 and 1930s. The Precisionnist concentrated on portraying man-made environments in a clear and concise manner to express the beauty of perfect and precise machine forms.

Plein Aire

An approach to painting very popular among the impressionist in which an artist sketches outdoors to achieve a quick impression of light, air and color. The artist then takes the sketches to the studio for reworking into more finished works of art.

Futurism

An early 20th c. Italian art movement that championed war as a cleansing agent and that celebrated the speed and dynamism of modern technology. Major figure and spokesperson: Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.

Fauvism

An early 20th c. art movement led by Henry Matisse. For the Fauves, color became the formal element most responsible for pictorial coherence and the primary conveyor of meaning. From French word meaning "Wild beast; free from Salon; stepping stone to expressionism; liberated color.

DADA

An early 20th c. art movement prompted by revulsion against the horrors of WWI. DADA embraced the political anarchy, the irrational and the intuitive. A disdain for convention, often enlivened by humor whimsy and characteristic of Dada art.

Purism

An early 20th c. art movement that embraced the "Machine Aesthetic" and sought purity of form in the clean functional lines of industrial machinery.

John Cage

An important figure to Fluxus movement because of his belief that should engage in a work without having a conception of the eventual end. Believed the creative process took precedence over the finished product.

Art for Art's Sake

And Whistlers case against Ruskin for libel Ruskin wrote that Whistler threw a "pot of paint" in the public's face with his Nocturne in Black and Gold, 1875. Musical titles for paintings suggest artists concern was for beautiful arrangement of colors and forms and their atmospheric effect on it viewers-- not interested in capturing scene accurately or photographically. Art for Art's sake position was that art didn't have to serve a utilitarian purpose; it didn't have to picture something from nature. A daub of paint didn't have to be a tree-- it could be a daub of paint. Jury found in Whistler's favor but awarded him a token amount. Significance of trial: 1. To show aesthetic conflict. 2. to show the importance of the critic in supporting and condemning art and arbitrating taste. 3. to show difficulty of public understanding avant-grande (Advanced, cutting-edge) painting.4. to show artists trying to break from tradition of picturing something and artists working with pure forms (beyond representation.

Colonization

Another aspect of modernity. Industrialization required the use of various natural resources. Which led to the exploitation of foreign resources through colonization.

Avant Garde Response

Artist also responded in various ways to the upheavals of the early 20th c. Changes in the art world itself influenced artistic developments. The Avant-Garde, which continued to challenge traditional notions about art and its relation to society, became a major force.

Mexican Mural-ism movement

Began as government founded form of public art, in which large scale wall paintings in civic buildings were made in the wake of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) . Also an effort to help create an official history of Mexico that could be spread to a largely poor, illiterate populace. Los tres grandes (The Three Greats) were Jose Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros

Arts and Crafts Movement

Began in England; Advocated for John Ruskin and William Morris. Decried Mechanized industrialist society in favor of manual labor and the making of functional objects with aesthetic value, artisan-ship and a style that combined organic and geometric forms. Also promoted of guilds or guild-like artistic groups and was compatible with Socialism.

Henry Fox Talbot

British pioneer of photography who invented the Calotype: Kalos Greek for beautiful. Photographic print where positive image is made by shining light through a negative image onto a sheet of sensitized paper.

20th Century Spike in Scientific Activiy

Challenged Isaac Newton's version of the universe (machine consisting of time, space and matter) 2nd scientific/technological revolution" - Plank, Einstein, Rutherford, Bohr, shattered faith in objective reality and matter.

Timothy O'Sullivan

Civil War photographer. Left Brady Employ to go on geological expedition. Geographic exploration of American West.

Art Deco

Descended from Art Nouveau, this movement of the 1920s and 1930s sought to upgrade industrial design as a "Fine art" and to work new materials into decorative patterns that could be either machined of handcrafted. Characterized by streamlined, elongated and symmetrical design.

Non-Objective

Descriptive of art that does not represent or otherwise refer to the visible world outside itself.

WPA: Works Progress Administration

During the Great Depression, Roosevelt and the federal government supported a number of artist through programs like the WPA, which included the varied activities of the Federal Art Project

De Stijl

Dutch "the style." An Early 20th c. movement (and Magazine) founded by Piet Mondrian ad Theo van Doesburg, whose members promoted Utopian ideals and developed a simplified geometric style.

New Vision

Espoused by Bauhaus artist Moholy Nagy. Used term to describe a new relationship with the visible world through unexpected vantage points and playful paining techniques in photography.

Animal Locomotion (Eadweard Muybridge)

Exhaustive in Scope-Publication in which Muybridge used sequential photography (Almost like stop animation) to produce motion studies like that of a galloping horse. Important in development of motion pictures.

Fredrich Nietzche

Existentialist said western society was decadent and unable to be truly creative because of reliance on emotion and blamed Christianity.

Carl Jung

Expanded on Freud's theories of "Collective Unconscious" means collectively people share memories and associations, such as archetypes (Original models) and mental constructions. The he collective unconscious makes up myths, religions and philosophies.

Imperialist

Expansion by mostly European countries was driven largely by the need of advanced industrial societies for raw-material sources and manufacturing markets.

Rise of Totalitarianism

Failure to deal with issues from WWI Effectively led to Totalitarianism which lead to WWII. "Total states" Regimes in the 20s and 30s in European countries; Mussolini in Fascist Italy; Stalin, communist party control in 1929 and Hitler in Germany.

Japonisme

Fashion/taste for Japanese aesthetic due to japan ending isolationism and opening trade in 1853. Paris universal exposition of 1867. Many Japanese woodblock prints displayed. Stylistic influence of Japanese prints of the Edo Period (1600-1868) woodblocks of the Edo Period: Tokyo the urban center. Merchant class the patrons of art. Government attempted to censor certain imagery. Ukiyo-e school: "Floating World" Capture transience of material existence . Subjects include theater, dance, Entertainment, Erotica (Including high class courtesans), leisure, cityscapes and landscapes. These Subjects have affinities with French impressionism.

MoMA: The Museum of modern art, New York. The Museum of Modern art

Founded by 3 female patrons: Bliss, Sullivan, and Rockefeller in 1939 became influential museum of Modern art in the world. First to hold exhibitions of truly Avant-Garde and non-Western art on a big scale like: Cubism and abstract art. Fantastic art, dada and surrealism; american souces of Modern art (Aztec, Maya, Inca) (1933); African Negro Art (1930)

Sigmund Freud

Founder of psychoanalysis. Freud's interpretation of Dreams (1900) is profoundly influential in the 20th c. art especially to Dada Surrealism and later abstract expressionism. Freud says the unconscious drives us. We are unaware of it though. it is where our most basic instincts are store. Surrealism aimed to reveal the unconscious and make deal with it openly in out real lives.

Avant Garde

French "Advance Guard" (In a platoon). Late 19th and 20th c. artist who emphasized innovation and challenged establised convention in their work. Also used as an adjective.

Fin-de-Siecle

French for "end of the Century" a period in western cultural history form he end of the 19th c. until just before WWI, when decadence and indulgence masked anxiety about an uncertain future.

Art Nouveau

French for "new art" a 19th c. and early 20th c. whose proponents tried to synthesize all the arts in effort to create art based on natural forms that could be mass produced by technologies of the industrial age . The movement had other names in other countries. Jugenstil (Austria and Germany) Modernismo (Spain) Floreale (Italy)

Bourgeoisie

French term referring to the middle class that along with modernism. Often seen as materialistic and holding conventional attitudes. Also in Marxist contexts, the capitalist class who own most of Societies wealth and means of production.

New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit)

German Art movement that grew directly out of the WWI experience of a group of German artist who sought to show the horrors of war and its effects.

Shop Block

Gray 3-story rectangular Dessau Bauhaus building housing print shop, dye shop and other work areas. Reinforced concrete skeleton with glass skin. Simple, streamlined and thoroughly modern; interior featured open flex spaces meant to encourage collaborate work.

WWII(1939-1945)

Great Depression and the failure of postwar treaties and the League of Nations to keep the peace, led to the rise of totalitarian regimes in several European countries. The seizure of power by these regimes created conflicts that evolved into WWII. Besides territorial and nationalistic interest of the individual countries involved, Adolph Hitler's Nazis in Germany also wanted to built a racially exclusive Aryan state. Contributed to feelings of anxiety.

One type of German Expressionism "The Bridge" (or "Die Brucke")

Group Founded in Dresden 1905, conceptualized "Like a bridge" would link old and new and reject their bourgeoisie background. Used high key color and often appeared to be crude draftsmanship. EX: Kirchner and Nolde.

One type of German Expressionism "Blue Rider" (or "Der Blaue Rieter")

Group founded in Munich 1911 and sought to express spiritual truths in their art. Used Color shape and line to express "Soul." Also stressed emphasis on the senses. EX: Kandinsky and Marc.

Barbizon School

Group of landscape artist working in the are of the French town of Barbizon, South of Paris, who rejected Academic traditions, following ideas of French Realism.

Baron Haussman/Houssmanization

Haussman was a civic planner credited with the 19th c. urban renewal of paris. Overcrowded and unhealthy medieval neighborhoods were demolished and in their place, new housing, wide boulevards, waters and sewage updates, bridges, streetlights, public parks and fountains were built. Haussmanization can be considered to be a form of social control, as healthy citizens of an attractive city are less likely to revolt.

Rise of industrial Capitalism

Huge factories and industrial giants gained power- widened economic gap-fueled more interest in Marxism (Championed the worker). Assembly lines became major parts of mass production. New Consumer Economies.

Pre-Raphaelites:

In England a group of artists who used realist techniques to represent fictional, historical and fanciful subjects. (Rosetti, Millais)

Synesthesia

In art has historically referred to a wide variety of experiments that have explored the co-operation of the senses. Kandinsky interested in it. (Ex: see music, taste, color.)

Automatism

In painting, the Process of yielding oneself to instinctive motions of the hands after establishing a set of condition (Such as the size of the paper or medium) within which to work is to be created. (Surrealist used this method)

Realism in the U.S

Included Homer, Eakins, Sargent and Tanner.

Pictorialism

International photographic movement during the later 19th c. and Early 20th c. style and aesthetic characterized by special printing, toning and focusing filtering techniques in an effort to make photographic prints look more painterly (soft and often streaky)

Abstraction

Kandinsky was also a pioneer of abstraction. Abstract art purposefully distorts or simplifies forms form the visual world.

Technological Advancements

Knowledge of polymers, plastics, fertilizers, enzymes, viruses, vitamins, hormones, antibiotics and genetics; inventions in communication and transportation; chemical technology; mining metals, oil refining, textiles, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, foods, medicine- fighting diseases and famine.

Great Depresion

Largely due to the international scope of baking and industrial capitalism.

Prairie School

Late 19th and early 20th c style (Associated with Frank Lloyd Wright) used domestic architecture and most common to the Midwestern U.S. Featured and emphasis on horizontal lines, flat roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, integration with the landscape, solid construction, craftsmanship, and little ornament. Name comes form horizontal lines, which were thought to evoke and relate to the native prairie landscape.

Camera Obscura

Latin for "dark room" an ancestor of the modern camera in which a tiny pinhole in one side, acting as a lens, projects an inverted image on a screen, the wall of a room, or the ground-glass wall of a box; used by artist in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries as an aid in drawing nature

Social Darwinist

Looked to Darwin's theories to justify Western racism, imperialism, nationalism, and militarism. Social Darwinism supported the concept of racial and national hierarchies and justified the colonization of the less advanced peoples and cultures around the world by the major Western Economic and political powers.

WWI (1914-1918)

Nationalism and imperialism led to countries forming alliances to protect their individual interest form competitors. Two alliances conflicted leading to WWI. Millions Killed. Used Poison gas. The devastation of WWI brought widespread misery, social disruption and economic collapse.

Second Industrial Revolution.

Occurred int the third Quarter of the 19th c. in the fields of steel, electricity, chemicals and oil. It drove developments in plastics, machinery, building construction and automobile manufacturing. We also see the invention of the radio, electric light, telephone and electric streetcar. Cities grow as a result of this industrialization.

Kandinsky

Often gave paintings title associated with Music and he classified each as coming from a different inspiration.

Matthew Brady

Operated studios in New York and Washington DC. Sold Cartes de Visites. Also known for Civil Photography and photo Journalism. 20th Century Criticism questioned "Truthfulness" of his scenes.

Positivism and Empiricism

Positivism asserts that claims must be scientifically or mathematically proven. Empiricism says knowledge is derived from sense and experience. Both of these reject the metaphysical and the concept of God. Industrialization and technological advancement expanded upon what the enlightenment had started. The 19th century saw growing acceptance and belief in science. These Ideas can be seen in the movement of realism. and its depiction of observable subjects.

Straight Photography

Refers to photography that attempts to depict a scene as realistically and objectively as permitted by the medium, renouncing the use of manipulation. Championed by Stieglitz after he broke form Pictorialist mode of photography.

Armory Show

Refers to the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art that was organized by the Association of American Painters and sculptors, the first large exhibition of modern art in America. Exposed America to European Modernism. Highly Influential event (Nude Descending a Staircase, Duchamp)

The Academy

Refers to the historically powerful body of schools and critics. Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in France and Royal Academy of Arts in Britain were two academies that not only offered instruction, but also held exhibitions and had a lot of control over what was consid d annual exhibitions in France. Modernism, beginning with realism and impressionism reacts against these academies.

Ready-Made

Refers to works created by Marcel Duchamp during his Dada phase.

Charles Darwin

Responsible for the theory of natural selection which argues the survival of the fittest. His ideas, which contrasted sharply with the biblical narrative of Creation, contributed to a growing secular attitude . Social Darwinism developed when Darwin's principles were applied to the socioeconomic sphere. It was argued that only the most economically fit companies, enterprises and countries survived in a competitive world.

Woodblocks

Separate blocks for each color; a key block for outlines.

Utopian Ideals

Some Avant Garde artist believed in art's ability to improve of society and all humankind. Suprematism and constructivism in Russia, De Stijl in Holland, and the Bauhaus in Germany were among the art movements that promoted Utopian Ideals.

FSA

Stands for Farms Securities Administration and American government agency that commissioned photographs in the 1930s and early 1940s to document rural poverty and American Farmers as well as federal programs and who they served (Ex:Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans)

Symbolism

Starts as literacy movement that emphasizes internal psychological phenomena. Symbolit focus on the idea rather on nature (Opposed to realism and impressionism.) Symbolist poetry and literature engages with decadent macabre and erotic subjects of dreams, myth and fantasy. Believed in Art for Arts Sakes: Ex. Moreau, Redon, Rousseau and munch

Biomorphic Surrealist

Such as Joan Miro, produced largely abstract compositions. Naturalistic Surrealist like Salvador Dali, Presented recognizable scenes transformed into dream or nightmare image. Major Figure and spokesperson: Andre Breton.

Photomontage

Technique in which pieces of photographic material are assembled and combined to create a collage image, forcing viewer to make various visual and thematic connection. Dada artist liked the method. (Hannah Hoch)

Analytic Cubism

The first phase of Cubism, developed jointly by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, in which the artists analyzed form from every possible vantage point to combine the various views into a pictorial whole.

Primitivism

The incorporation in early 20th c. Western art of stylistic elements from the artifacts of Africa, Oceania and the native Peoples of the Americas.

Russian Revolution

Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in 1917 after workers revolted- Bolsheviks (Russian Democrats) led by Lenin would become communist. Result of dissatisfaction with the regime of Tsar Nicholas II. Russia was officially renamed the Soviet Union 1923

Imperialism

WWI and the Russian Revolution and imperialist expansion; Many western countries took over territories in Africa; French had Indochina; Russians had Central Asia and Siberia; Japan's Power grew; New Manufacturing markets- Sources of raw material- also religious missionary work.

Organic Architecture

Way to describe architect Frank Lloyd Wright's modern works like Fallingwater, which pay attention to environment and integration of inside and outside.

Organic Sculpture

Way to describe early 20th c. sculpture reacting against mechanization and technology in favor of forms from nature. EX: Brancusi, Moore. Think Curves instead of straight lines and hard geometry.

Improvisations

Were inspired by "events of the spiritual type"

Karl Marx

Wrote the "Communist Manifesto" with Friedrich Engels. He believed the history was dominated by the struggle between the ruling and the oppressed classes and that those who controlled the means of production (The Wealthy) exploited labor. He criticized capitalism and promoted a socialist state that would benefit labor classes. Many intellectuals and artists supported his ideas. As a Result we see trade unions and socialist groups begin to gain traction in the West society.

Daguerre

who invented Daguerrotype, a photograph made by an early method on a plate of chemically treated metal. No negative, therefore no successive prints.