Author: Shayna Purow (Page 1 of 3)

We started our class discussion with Pop Art, which stands for “popular art”. The artist that we looked at was Andy Warhol. His art was made by using a silkscreen and was mostly of popular culture images. He used his art to make comments on society. For example, his Cambles Soup Cans was a series of prints that commented on mass production. The cans had different flavors but appeared very similar in the final print.

We then spoke about the Post Modern Era. We started with an example by Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party. This is a triangular arrangement of tables with places for specific people. Their specific table setting is meant to emulate their work, and there are even more names on the floor. All of the name are women.

Today’s class began by wrapping up our conversation of surrealism and Frida Kahlo. We spoke about how Frida did not consider her work surrealism as she was not painting her dreams, but instead painting her reality. The painting we looked at was titled “The Two Fridas” and depicted, on opposing sides, a Western Frida and the Mexican Frida. The Western Frida was painted with a lighter skin tone and less facial hair, while the Mexican Frida was dressed in a traditional, long skirt and had darker skin and features. We spoke about how her painting depicted her suffering after her tram accident and also alluded to her relationship with Diego Rivera.

Our conversation then shifted to a brief discussion of “De Stijl” or “the style” and neoplasticism. We spoke about the work of Piet Mondrian and the reduction found in his work. In his “Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow” there are only horizontal and vertical lines, as well as only the primary colors, black, and white. The painting is very flat and everything is on one plane. We also looked at a series of Mondrian’s tree painting to see his progression through reduction.

We also spent some time discussing post war art and abstract expressionism/action painting. These works are highly focused on the paint application and further reducing the figure/ground relationship. A little bit later, by 1950, there were two tendencies in abstract expressionism: the action painting, and color field or chromatic abstraction.

In today’s class we extended our discussion of 20th century art movements. We started by looking at the work of Pablo Picasso. He worked in Analytical Cubism, named after its analysis of form. Analytical cubism focuses on reduction of color, with simplified brushstrokes and shapes. Picasso’s “Ma Jolie” is a great example of this and is extremely similar to Georges Braque’s “The Portuguese.” Another thing to note about these paintings is the words included, which allow reality to start to sneak into an otherwise simplistic composition. We also discussed Synthetic Cubism, a style that merged many themes into one image. “Papier Colle’”, or paper collages, were really popular for synthetic cubism as they allowed multiple different materials to be introduced and combined. Futurism started developing at the same time, aiming to shock the bourgeoisie. The two examples of Futurisk we looked at really focused on capturing motion, almost similar to Baroque instantaneous motion.

We then turned our discussion to art post WWI, starting with Dada. After WWI, there was an increase in nonsensical art based on the nonsensical death and destruction of the war. We discussed readymades and Marcel Duchamp. His piece “Fountain” was simply a urinal in an altered angle and signed R. Mutt. I found this piece especially interesting because of the references R. Mutt could be referring to, as well as the idea that a urinal was not in fact a fountain. We then ended class by discussing surrealism, specifically the work of Salvador Dali. His paintings are rendered very flatly so the emphasis is not on how the paint is applied but the imagery. He aimed to create “hand colored photographs of the unconscious” through really dream-like scenes. Dali also stated he painted “the 3 cardinal images of life: blood, excrement, and putrefaction.” Overall, I really enjoyed this lecture as we looked at a wide variety of pieces and styles they were both visually and intellectually compelling. 

Today’s class started by wrapping up our discussion from the previous class with the work of Paul Gaugin. His works from his time spent in France relied heavily on color and simple geometric forms to create expressive and personal images that displayed Post-Impressionistic characteristics. For example, his “Jacob Wrestling the Angel” portrayed a group of women envisioning Jacob and the Angel on a red ground figure. We also looked at Gaugin’s later works painted during his time in Polynesia. 

We then shifted our discussion into the Fauves, who aimed to take the application of color to its logical end. We discussed a few works of Henri Matisse, who used color in a new way that completely overwhelmed the figures he was portraying. The paintings are experiments in color and completely ignore ideas of space and perspective that might be portrayed naturalistically.

Today’s class we continue our discussion on post-impressionism. I found today’s class particularly interesting because of the quotes from the artists we heard, which gave us an inside look about their artistic processWe discussed two different artists that focused on form in their work, Cezanne and Seurat, and two artists that focused on personal expression, Van Gogh and Gaugin. 

We first focused on the works of Cezanne and Seurat, who simplified the figures they were looking at into the most basic geometric forms and shapes. Cezanne attempted to “paint the cylinder, the sphere, and the cone.” Seurat used a method of pointillism that was developed after many highly specific drawing studies. This approach was highly methodical and attempted to create optical mixing, although it was not entirely successful and the shapes remained largely separated from one another. 

We then shifted our discussion to the works of Van Gogh and Gaugin, who preferred a more subjective exploration in their pieces. We spoke about Van Gogh’s “Night Cafe” and the strong contrast between the red and green. The green pool table in the foreground pushing backward fought with the red background pushing forward to create a tense, unpleasant space that was also ambiguous and one you could picture yourself in. This same color palette effect was seen in his self portrait, a reddish background contrasted with a greenish foreground. Gaugin also furthered this shift from realism in his vivid color palette and use of flat shapes.

Today’s lecture was recorded and we focused on several topics. We started the lecture by discussing early examples photography and its emergence as a medium. It was noted that photos were important for Realism artists to capture exactly what they saw when painting. In this section of the lecture we also discussed portrait photography and photojournalism.

We then began our discussion of Impressionism, starting with the work of Manet. Manet was well-read and sought to bring a modern art style in to capture the change and vitality of mid-1800’s Paris. Manet took themes from old masters but avoided their naturalism and balanced compositions. He was painterly and used thick brushstrokes and bright color palettes. Manet’s style was revolutionary and brought on a new period. Other impressionists include artists like Monet. They also captured the world they saw in a dreamy, new way. Monet specifically played a lot with light conditions and rendering the feeling/impression of landscapes/cityscapes. Monet painted outdoors, which was interesting yo me, and painted one color at a time. This allowed for optical mixing that provides a shimmering effect to many of his paintings.

Today’s class was focused on the period of realism. Realism art is defined by depicted what can be actually seen, naturalistically, not painting based on emotion. One work we discussed was Jean-Francois Millet’s “The Sawer”. Millet was one of 14 children in a peasant family, so his work really focused on bringing attention to these people and their work. This painting expresses sympathy for peasants through a political agenda. He argues that peasantry is the backbone of French society. The worker is backlit and working at dawn, showing the long hours. The facelessness is purposeful as Millet wanted the painting to be general and not one specific worker. The colors are also very earth toned to represent the worker being one with his environment.

We also talked about Gustave Courbet, one of the most influential painters during the realism movement. We spoke about his paitning “The Stone-Breakers” The idea behind this painting is that the working class was exploited, for example by completing back breaking work. In this painting, a father and son are both dressed in torn clothing, showing their poorness. This painting also focuses on the exploitation of children and them being forced to work at such a young age. The political messages behind the realism work we looked at was something that really struck me.

Today’s lecture was online, but still super informative. We began by wrapping up our discussion of neoclassicism and beginning our discussion of romanticism. This transition clearly marked a switch in the ideals of artists. This was reflected through differences in the artwork we looked at over the past two classes. Romanticism is classified by an embrace of emotion and feeling in painting. This felt super engaging to me as a viewer and brought up a more emotional reaction than some of the artwork we have looked at in the past.

Today our class was based on Neoclassicism. We started by discussing some of the historical context for neoclassicism like the ideas of the enlightenment and logic and morality. We started with discussing the work of artist Anton Raphael Mengs and comparing the work to Rococo. We also compared his work to that of Raphael and how the compositions were similar, in Mengs’ Apollo Belvedere painting specifically. The painting was also very linear and not painterly. 

Another work we covered in class today was Benjamin West’s The Death of General Wolfe. This was a depiction of a contemporary event where General Wolfe, the leader of British troops in the French and Indian War, perished in battle. Although he died, he led his troops to victory. We compared the depiction of General Wolfe to the death of Christ, and the many works surrounding The Lamentation that we’ve studied in class.

Today in class we looked at Baroque art in the Low Countries (Flanders and Holland.) We began in Antwerp, looking at Peter Paul Rubens. Peter Paul Rubens was highly influenced by Caravaggio and was very successful with a large studio of artists working for him. One of the pieces we looked at was his Elevation of the Cross. This altarpiece was very large and depicted the scene of Christ being raised with the cross. The raising of the cross is frozen mid-action, in line with the Baroque ideal of instantaneous motion. The painting also has many powerful diagonals and emphasizes the contrast between light and dark. Thus strong musculature of the figures is similar to those painted in the Sistine Chapel. We then discussed Anthony Van Dyck, who worked in Ruben’s studio as a portrait artist. His portrait Charles I of England Hunting seems casual, casual, but his position on a hill above the viewer and horse bowing his head still give him the feeling of authority over the viewer.