Author: Lucy Rayback (Page 1 of 3)

Continuing our discussion from the previous class, we finished looking at Andy Warhol’s pop art. His work ranged in subject theme, stretching from one extreme of car crashes to the other of dance steps. He used images from everyday life, like photos from tabloids or popular products, to comment on consumer culture and the effects of fame. His famous series on the Campbell Soup cans featured remarkably similar cans, just changing the soup flavor, emphasizing mass production and the standardization of society. Minimal art, like that of Donald Judd and Richard Sera, represented art that made the artist’s intervention as absent as possible.

Looking at the postmodern art era, attitudes towards artistic periods changed. There was less of a goal to advance from the art that came before and creating radical ideas; instead artists began to work in groups again, paint, and focused on expressing art in the way they wanted to. Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party created a table set with a places for powerful women left out of history books, playing on the saying “to be invited to the table.” A representation that wouldn’t be considered high art, and that was created by a team of over 400 female artists, used their work to raise societal awareness. Deconstruction art was also popular as it gave art the ability to be interpreted and change meanings with time, with no fixed intent from the artists. Basquiat began as a graffiti artist before switching to paintings, but kept the speed of street art in his works. Maya Lin’s Vietnam War Memorial shocked the nation with nonrepresentational and noncelebration. The sculpture cuts through the grass like a gruesome gash, accurately representing her feelings towards the war. Finally, various artists in postmodernism used art as a form of protest and to share political or societal messages. A new openness to the definition of art paved the way for a variety of pieces.

We began with finishing our look at Frida Kahlo and Surrealism. Even though she didn’t identify with Surrealist style because she was painting her reality instead of her dreams, her artwork was labeled Surrealist by other artists. Her work The Two Fridas represents both her indigenous and European heritages by painting herself as two separate women. The traditional Mexican clothing worn by one Frida contrasts with the stiff Victorian-era clothing of the other Frida. The painting represents her dual identity shown by her two connected hearts, as well has including symbols of her traumatic health with a surgical tool and her personal relationships with a small portrait of her husband Rivera.

We also looked at many styles that were popular in regions and had shorter spans of influence. Piet Mondrian is famous from his work within the Dutch De Stijl style, an abstraction that was also known as Neoplasticism. As with other 20th century art, reduction was the driving force. Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow is horizontal and vertical lines creating boxes, some of which are filled with primary colors. There is no shading or depth present, and no foreground or background. Architect Le Corbusier designed the house Villa Savoye that could fit into Purism with its plain white walls inside and out and simple geometric form. In terms of Post War Art, the art capital moved from a recovering Paris to the US. Abstract Expressionism took many forms: action painting, color fields, and hard edge abstraction. The emphasis continues to be less on subject and instead of evoking feeling and pushing the boundaries of art’s definition. Rothko’s No. 61 (Rust and Blue), paintings by Helen Frankenthaler, Kelly’s Red Blue Green, and Odalisk by Rauschenberg are all prime examples of the varying interpretations and styles of what is art.

Continuing our discussion of early 20th century art, we began class by looking at Pablo Picasso. Picasso freed himself from the representational functions and constructs of line, color, form, and voids to create his style of abstract art. Developing a style known as Analytical Cubism, which was an analysis of form, Picasso created Ma Jolie. The painting is a reduction for multiple aspects of art – color (brown earth tones), depth (all forms brought to same plane), brushstrokes (repetitive and consistent width), and lines (straight, diagonal, with a few curves). The abstraction of a woman utilizes multiple vantage points in one image to represent many views and create a more complete representation of the subject. Another branch of Cubism developed into Synthetic Cubism, bringing together multiple ideas or themes in one image. Popular for this style were “papier collé”, paper collages. This signaled real pieces of reality coming back into artwork. Around the same time, the avant-garde was working to shock to bourgeoise and resulted in the style of Futurism developing. Boccioni’s States of Mind 1: Farewells exhibited the style, focusing on capturing motion in a form of plastic art.

Post WWI, there was an emphasis on the nonsensical after the shocking death and destruction of the war. The Dada style developed during this time with an interest in returning to primitive, ignorant states and the abstract. The Entombment of the Birds and Butterflies (Head of Tzara) by Jean Arp was influenced by the carefree artistic style, created by randomly dropping paper on the ground to determine the sculpture’s composition. Marcel Duchamp was also a prominent Dadaist who created art through Ready-mades. Fountain represented a reduction in contemporary art by simply rotating a urinal and signing it R. Mutt. Other artists like Man Ray and Meret Oppenheim also used everyday objects to create art. Ray’s The Gift painted an everyday iron black and glued thumbtacks onto its flat side. Oppenheimer’s Object (Luncheon in Fur) covered a teacup, saucer, and spoon in fur, provoking a sensory disgust in viewers. These past two artistic creations can be categorized under Surrealism as they aimed to balance the reality of life with a strange, unexpected twist.

Our study of Post-Impressionism was continued in class today. Fauvism came from wild beast in French, as an artistic exhibit with a classical sculpture in the middle was described as being surrounded by wild beasts with paintings of the Post-Impressionist style on the walls. Henri Matisse is a well known artists from this period who was interested in nonwestern art, specially African, South American, and Japanese styles. His painting Mountains at Collioure depicted a real scene but was free with color choices. The abstract forms and colors evolve the sense of reality communicated. The abstraction doesn’t give off an anxiety, just an enjoyment of color.

German Expressionism was a development of Post-Impressionist style in Germany. Two groups, Die Brücke (the bridge) and Der Blaue Reiter, were the avant-garde revolutionaries pushing the forms of artistic expression. Ernst Kirchner painted Street, Dresden in 1908 depicting a real-life scene of people walking along. But the alien colors (greens, yellows, and red) create an uncomfortable scene. The disturbing representation makes an everyday image into an alien, otherworldly experience. His woodcut Tribulations of Love evokes similar uncomfortable emotions, stirring up chaos and pain in the mix of faces, symbols, and shadows. Kandinsky, in the Der Blaue Reiter group, was strongly influenced by the reverse glass painting style. His figures therefore has strong outlines and evolved with his style to become more and more abstract, making it difficult to discern what the forms represent. Self-labeled as “nonobjective expressionism,” Kandinsky’s work was mainly about expressing a feeling rather than a specific scene.

The Post-Impressionism style had two main focuses: form and personal expression. But constant through paintings was the emphasis of color driving all work. Paul Cézanne pioneered the use of form in his paintings, illustrated in Mont Sainte-Victoire. The colors focus on permanence and the harsh southern Italian lighting simplifies buildings and forms. An extensive landscape is depicted but has an overall flat composition as a result of the structured lines of the visible brushstrokes. The scene is an abstraction as you’re constantly reminded of that fact that the scene is a painting when viewing it. Cézanne’s Scene from Bibernus Quarry is another painting that is abstract in subject matter. The think black outlines (often in box shapes) contribute to giving the scene a flat quality, along with the regularly visible brushstrokes.

Vincent Van Gogh painted artwork with the personal expression themes of Post-Impressionism. His painting The Potato Eaters works to illustrate the importance of all classes of people. The continued theme of flat compositions and the earthy tones of the painting shine a light on a scene that is represented as everyday and overlooked. Night Café is an extremely personal painting as Van Gogh’s self expression influences the solitary and alienating mood. The view of the scene from above was influenced by Japanese prints, giving viewers a new vantage point. The use of color conveys Van Gogh’s feelings, with red walls closing in contrasting with the central green pool table pulling away. Finally, Starry Night was painted by Van Gogh in the year before his death while he was committed in an asylum. He was struggling with his mental health and painted a study of the stars above a sleeping town, which he wrote could be reached through death. The thick application of paint makes the stars appear to shimmer and is reached for by two objects – the church steeple (religion) and a Cyprus tree (nature). A painting that once seemed to emit a tranquility to me now has a more desperate feel as it reaches to the sky for freedom.

Class today finished with looking at photography and Realism. In the beginning stages of photography, it took multiple hours (8) to take an image. Parisians loved photos as the real-life version of still life paintings. The photo Harvest of Death showed the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg in America, illustrating for many people the documentary power of photos. It showed real people and real death, evoking emotions nationwide as the photo was exhibited.

Transitioning to Impressionism, Édouard Manet was known as the hinge between Realism and Impressionism. He painted images of intelligent businessmen strolling to take in contemporary life, the beginning of impression values. His painting Luncheon on the Grass was a statement supporting modern art as it depicted irregular brushwork and had no sense of depth and real proportions. A modern version of former paintings by Titian and Giorgione, the focus was on the foreground and the modern life of prostitutes, painted again in Olympia.

Claude Monet is one of the most famous artists of the Impressionist era. Embodying the ideals the light is fundamental and visible brushwork to capture the transiency of modern life, the name impression comes from his work. Impression, Sunrise was originally mocked by the public for its lack of form. But utilizing divided brushwork where each stroke corresponds to a different color, the eye blends the colors together to create the impression of a scene. His series of Haystacks was a study of a subject under different variables (time of day, season) to see how color changes as a function of light. The impression of scenes gives a mysterious but also calm and peaceful sentiment to each painting.

Today we discussed Realism. As the line marking shifts in artistic eras becomes more blurry, some artwork have multiple styles influencing them. This is the case with Francisco Goya’s The Third of May, 1808. Originally studied in the Romanticism period, it also has factual aspects that represent Realism. Realism overall is concerning with presenting the world in a precise, factual manner. Unlike Romanticism, there are often no emotions or appeals to the viewer involved. Form was prioritized, as color “only adds charm.”

Corot is a prime example of Realism, especially his painting View of Rome: The Bridge and Castel S. Angelo with the Cupola of St. Peter’s. The view of Rome, a bridge, and a castle is exactly as if a picture from the same bank of the river were taken. The building’s forms are very geometrical and solid in shape, and earthy, almost plain colors make up the palette. The goal is create a factual and realistic image of Rome was achieved without an emotional appeal.

Millet’s painting The Sower is an example of Realism when painting human subjects. The peasant farmer is a scene anyone could see and relate to as he performs a simple peasant duty. In part, the painting has a political message about the importance of peasants as the backbone of French society, especially as the sower’s face is hidden, allowing him to represent his class as a whole. Once again painted in dusky, earthy colors, Millet doesn’t glorify the job of a peasant. He paints the action in a realistic manner and avoids embellishment.

Lecture today was on the style of art known as Romanticism. Stepping away from the morals and stiffer ideals of Neoclassicism, Romanticism encapsulated the emotional, exotic, picturesque, and contemporary aspects of art. Baron Antoine Jean Gros’ Napoleon at Jaffa depicted the contemporary military figure and event of Napoleon conquering a middle eastern city. His location at the center of the composition glorifies Napoleon and works as French propaganda. The darkness around Napoleon appeals to the emotions, depicting his emergence from the death and suffering of the plague. Likening himself to a King with the powers of healing, it is a positive display of Napoleon’s military campaigns. The Raft of Medusa is another dramatic painting with dark colors and twisted dead bodies, meant to evoke powerful emotions. The depiction of the tragic contemporary event is dynamic with the bodies creating an x across the composition and the desperation felt through the paint.

Landscapes were also important during Romanticism, especially as society moved towards industrialism and left the countryside behind. Constable’s The Haywain has a nostalgic feel as people live and work in harmony with nature. It’s a picturesque representation of the simple joys of life and is calm, peaceful, and feels like a pause in a world of constant movement. Small white highlights in the painting, a technique that came to be known as “Constable snow,” give the scene a lightheartedness.

Today we discussed the neoclassicism period. Logic and morality were two aspects that received an emphasis and newfound importance throughout this period. Anton Raphael Mengs was a supporter of the neoclassical style and its implied greco-roman revival. His painting Parnassus represents noble simplicity and clam grandeur to a tee. A scene of Apollo and the muses, water flows peacefully around them and the natural mountain scene is peaceful. Similar to a painting by Raphael, it places Apollo compositionally central and uses a primary color scheme to give it an almost playful feel. The contrapposto pose of Apollo imitates ancient art and has an otherworldly air with the graceful movements of the muses. But as the distinctions between artistic periods is now more blurred, the focus on lines supports Poussinistes and the charming air is reminiscent of the Rococo era.

Thomas Gainsborough was a prominent English portraitist. His portrait Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan depicts a woman seemingly enveloped by the nature around her. She appears to sit naturally, at ease in an area that must be familiar to her. Her serene composition implies that it’s her land surrounding her. The brushwork of the neoclassical style blends her as one into the landscape, with her hair’s texture similar to that of the trees, and the wind blowing her dress with the brush around her. Her pure composure combined with the brushwork and colors makes the painting a good representation of the style.

Today, we analyzed the Rococo style in class. Emerging first in France after the death of Louis XIV, it started as a form of architecture and interior design. Many nobility returned to live in Parisian townhouses know as Hôtel Particuliers, which had plain exteriors. But on the inside, they were decorated lavishly but also delicately, with an emphasis on small design details and a lighter feel with white walls being popular. During this time, the ongoing debate between Poussinistes and Rúbenistes continued, with Rubenistes’ focus on color being synonymous with the Rococo age. Jean-Antoine Watteau was a follower of color. His painting Pilgrimage to Cythera is filled with pastel greens and pinks, and is bright and brushy in style. The line of couples filling the scene mimic the idea of a continuous narrative and direct the eye with the flow of movement. The painting overall is an escapist theme – idealizing a momentary escape from reality.

Boudoir paintings were also popular during this era. So called because they were meant for private viewing, paintings ranged from casual portraits to more erotic scenes. Boucher’s Portrait of Madame de Pompadour shows the mistress of Louis XV relaxed in her finery and in her private chambers, with books and personal letters strewn around her. Fragonard’s The Swing is more implying, with a woman playfully swinging while a baron hides below her looking up. The cupid statue in the garden gives the painting an air of secrecy and hidden delight. Consistent with the Rococo style, both paintings employ pastels and a light technique.