Author: Alexandra Stange

We started this lecture by finishing our discussion of Surrealism with Frida Kahlo’s The Two Fridas (1939). Kahlo did not consider herself to be a surrealist, as her work was not depicting dreams but rather her reality. In this painting, she depicts herself as two different people, exemplifying her complex racial identity, as her mother was an indigenous Mexican and her father was a Hungarian jew. She is dressed in traditional Mexican clothing on the right and in a Victoria dress on the left. Kahlo’s work was likely inspired by retablos and ex-votos, two traditional types of Mexican art.

We then discussed Abstraction and De Stijl, starting with Piet Mondrian’s Composition en Rouge, Bleu et Jaune (1930). This painting is a key example of reduction, featuring only horizontal and vertical lines, three primary colors, and black and white. There is no shading, as color is applied in a completely flat way. De Stijl was founded in Amsterdam by Mondrian and other artists and architects. They believed that geometric abstraction was utopian, resulting in spiritual harmony and perfection. This new image of the world was based upon the underlying mathematical structure of the universe, and art was seen as the medium through which this harmony could be conveyed. We also examined Mondrian’s earlier paintings of trees from 1908-1912, revealing how his style developed through simplification of lines and abstract application of color. We then looked at several buildings, starting with Gerrit Rietveld’s Schröder House (1924) in Utrecht. Like the work of Mondrian, Rietveld’s architectural style uses primary colors and geometric harmony. We then looked at Walter Gropius’ Bauhaus (1925-26) in Dessau. Bauhaus was an art school founded in Weimar in 1919 as a “workshop-like school embracing modernity.” The utilitarian design of the building emphasizes the utopian ideals of the institution itself, coupled with the newfound love of technology in the Machine Age. It features a glass curtain and socle. Next we examined Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye (1928-29). This villa is mostly white and has a notable lack of decoration.

We then looked at three pieces: Paul Strand’s Wire Wheel (1917), Margaret Bourke-White’s Fort Peck Dam, Montana (1936), and Charles Demuth’s My Egypt (1927). All three of these pieces demonstrated an artistic celebration of American technology.

After this, we looked at postwar art, particularly examples of Abstract Expressionism. First was Arshile Gorky’s The Liver is the Cock’s Comb (1944). At this time, the Western art capital was shifting from Paris to New York. Gorky was born in Armenia, but moved to the U.S. as a child. He began work as a surrealist, which is still observable in the figurative aspects of his work, although, unlike surrealist art, this work is almost entirely abstract. It includes biomorphic forms, only a few of which are vaguely identifiable, including an egg and some sort of shrimp. Next we looked at Jackson Pollock’s Male and Female (1942), which portrays male and female archetypes. Pollock was a severe alcoholic who underwent Jungian therapy, which emphasizes archetypes like the ones expressed in this painting. We then looked at a more typical Pollock, Autumn Rhythm: Number 30 (1950). This painting was made using a drip technique, as Pollock placed the canvas on the floor and dripped paint from sticks. This provided him with extreme control, which can be observed in the manner that the loops of paint closely approach but do not cross the edge of the canvas. Then we examined Willem de Kooning’s Woman I (1950-52), part of a series of paintings of women. Most notable about this painting is the abolition of the distinction between figure and ground. The lecture ended with a discussion of several of Robert Rauschenberg’s Neo-Dadaist art, including Odalisk (1955-58), Erased de Kooning (1953), and Retroactive I (1963).

Today’s lecture began with finishing the Expressionist movement. We compared two similar works of Analytic Cubism, Picasso’s Ma Jolie (1911-12) and Braque’s The Portuguese (1911). Pablo Picasso and George Braque worked together in Paris at this time, so it is not surprising that they produced similar pieces. Notable features of Analytic Cubism include analysis of form, reduction of color (like Cézanne), lack of perceivable depth, and methodical brushstrokes. We also looked at Picasso’s Guitar, Sheet Music, and Glass (1912), which is an example of Synthetic Cubism. It was made using the technique of “papier collé,” or, glued paper collage.

We then began to discuss Futurism, which officially started with the publication of Fillippo Tommaso Marinetti’s Futurist manifesto in 1909. The Futurists held soirées with provocative performances, aiming to shock the bourgeoisie and defy the conventions of academic art. We examined Umberto Boccioni’s States of Mind I: Farewell (1911), which loosely depicts a train station in Milan. This painting represents the impact of industrialization in Italy. A similarly “moving” piece was his Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, a sculpture capturing the “displaced space” of a figure in motion.

We then talked about Dada, a movement capturing the experience of postwar dislocation and confusion and newfound mistrust in civilization. Given that WWI was the first industrial war, “progress” lost its perception as an inherently positive force, as logic and rationality were held responsible for war and suffering. Thus, the Dada movement was driven by the nonsensical. Hugo Ball began his performances in Switzerland, a neutral territory, at the Cabaret Voltaire. Also displayed at the Cabaret was Jean Arp’s The Entombment of the Birds and Butterflies (Head of Tzara) (1916-17). To design this sculpture, Arp cut out pieces of colored paper and dropped them, noting the arrangement in which they fell. This exemplifies the importance of randomness in Dadaist art.

Modernism was brought to America in 1917 with Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase (1912). This painting combined aspects of Cubism and Futurism, as well as combining space and time similarly to Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. Duchamp also produced Fountain as a “ready-made”; or, an object already made, reducing the intervention of the artist. This piece was simply a urinal turned and signed “R. Mutt”, likely referencing a popular cartoon. We looked at examples of photomontage and assemblage: Hannah Höch’s Cut with the Kitchen Knife Through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany (c. 1919) and Raoul Hausmann’s Mechanical Head (Spirit of the Age) (c. 1920), respectively.

We then segued into Surrealism with Max Ernst. Ernst was from Cologne and began his career as a Dadaist. The first piece we looked at was 1 Copper Plate 1 Zinc Plate 1 Rubber Cloth 2 Clippers 1 Drainpipe Telescope 1 Pipping Man (1920). This painting evokes a dreamlike, nightmarish quality, wherein figures are turned into machines. Ernst was interested in the work of Sigmund Freud, which prizes dreams as revelatory of the human unconscious. We also looked at Ernst’s Die Ganze Stadt (1935-36). For this piece, Ernst employed automatism in the forms of grattage and frottage, believing that the resulting images were capable of jolting the unconscious. We then examined Salvador Dalí’s iconic The Persistence of Memory (1931). Dalí applied paint traditionally, as he wanted his paintings to be “hand colored photographs of the unconscious.” He focused on the three cardinal images of life: blood, excrement, and putrefaction. Dalí’s depiction of irrationality with precision contrasts the techniques of Ernst, demonstrating that Surrealism was a movement rather than a defined artistic style. Lastly, we looked at two strange objects: Man Ray’s The Gift (1921) and Meret Oppenheim’s Object (Luncheon in Fur) 1936. The Gift is a flatiron with 13 tacks; an otherwise useable object rendered useless and somewhat threatening. Considerably, the title adds a great deal of significance to the piece. Luncheon in Fur evokes a similar disgust, as one imagines the experience of using a saucer, cup, and spoon covered in fur.

In this lecture we discussed the Post-Impressionist movement. We began talking about three important aspects of the movement: Form (Cézanne and Seurat), Personal Expression (van Gogh and Gaugin) and Color. Then we talked about Paul Cézanne, who was from Aix-en-Provence, which is in Southern France and the site of a Roman bath. We compared two of his very similar pieces, “Mont Sainte-Victoire” (1885-87) and “Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley” (1885-87). These two paintings depict both Cézanne’s house and a Roman aqueduct. The two paintings have differing depths of fields and slightly different light effects, although since the weather is pretty consistent in the South of France, the light is not very different, unlike Monet’s series. These paintings have no people, activity, or wind, giving them a sense of timelessness. Cézanne claimed that he had an aim to redo the work of Poussin through nature and to make Impressionism “something solid and durable, like the art of the museums.” We then looked at his painting “Scene from Bibemus Quarry” (1897-1900). This painting is very bright, flat, and abstract. The black outlines in the cliffs remind me of Cubism. Next, we looked at some of his still life paintings of apples on a table. Cézanne worked so slowly in producing these paintings that he had to begin working with fake fruit. In these paintings, there are distinct areas of warm and cold colors without transitions in between. The cool colors are in the background, whereas the warm ones are in the front.

We then moved on to examine the work of Seurat. We first looked at “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” (1884-86). The composition of this painting is stable, permanent, formal, and rigid, because of how the paint is applied. Seurat produced many sketches in drafting this painting using conté crayon.

After discussing Seurat, we looked at several paintings by Vincent van Gogh. The first was “The Potato Eaters” (1885), a dark and monotone painting made at the beginning of his career. We examined several of his other works, including “Japonaiserie” (1887), “Night Café” (1888), “Self-Portrait with a Bandaged Ear and Pipe” (1889), and finally, “Starry Night” (1889).

Today we began discussing Baroque art in Flanders and Holland. The first artist we learned about was Peter Paul Rubens, a highly educated man working in Antwerp. We looked at his triptych, The Elevation of the Cross. A particularly notable feature of this painting is its scale; it was originally over 35 feet high. We then looked at his painting of Marie de’ Medici. It seems like Rubens and Marie de’ Medici were quite close; she stayed with him in Flanders during her exile. We also examined the works of Anthony van Dyck, Frans Hals, and Rembrandt van Rijn.

On Tuesday we discussed the High Renaissance in northern Italy. We began by examining Agnolo Bronzino’s “Allegory with Venus and Cupid.” This is a mannerist painting, and some of the figures in the painting are open to interpretation. In the center, Venus and her son Cupid are posed incestuously. At the top of the painting is a figure often interpreted as father time, positioned next to an hourglass, holding up the blue cloth backdrop. A possible interpretation of the painting is that folly and pleasure blind a person to the jealousy and fraud of sensuous love, which is then revealed by time. No matter how one choses to interpret the work, it is meant to be a conversation piece.

We also discussed Albrecht Dürer’s “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” woodcut print. Woodcuts are carved in relief, which is incredibly challenging, and Dürer displays a clear talent for this medium in this work, as is evidenced by the delicate line hatching that he uses for shading. This print was produced approaching the turn of the century, a time in which there is often a resurgent fear in apocalyptic narratives.

In this lecture we finished learning about the High Renaissance and began to discuss Mannerism. We spent some time focusing on Michelangelo’s “Pietà,” a statue depicting a deceased Christ on the lap of an impossibly young Mary. I found the soft, emotional figures to be particularly moving.

We moved on to discuss Michelangelo’s later work, including the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. I thought it was very interesting to learn about how quickly the fresco began to fall apart and deteriorate from pollution –– I did not previously know that such a quintessential work had been close to destruction.

One aspect of this lecture that I found particularly interesting was the notion of “disguised symbolism” – particularly notable in Jan van Eyck’s “The Arnolfini Portrait.” I think that the very concept of having cultural symbolism deliberately embedded in art shows how important art is to gleaning human history. Additionally, it shows how a large breadth of information – including contemporary marriage customs, religious symbolism, and attire – can be contained within a single, relatively small painting.

We discussed ten different hidden symbols in the portrait, including the fruit on the windowsill, shoes on the floor, and the singular candle burning in the chandelier. I wonder if there is still more symbolism in the piece that we did not get a chance to discuss.