-
Period: to
Positivsim vs Expressionism
-belief in science, progress, facts (only one truth)
-belief still exists in ways, heights in 1900s
-Expressionism - rebel against the popular belief of
-E sect of negative response, does not want a total view of knowledge, accept mystery
-E also ties in with the return to primitism and the spiritual as a response -
Period: to
Modernism
-mass production, form follow function
-during 1800s, it was about ornamental, decadent change in 1900s caused modernization, science, technology (photography), urbanization (city instead of farms), move from religion and monarchy
-attempt to change social order - knowledge = power instead of bloodline
-term "avant-garde" not about ahead of its time but removing self from their time for revolution
-term contemporary - perceive the darkness of time in highlight, but may not fully understand -
The Joy of Life by Matisse
-Fauvism work = first to abandon local colour (no one truth)
-expression through disable of figure/ground relation (became a decor)
-wants viewers to be pleasured (almost a pattern/decor) vs. more political Picasso
-not reinventing subject matter but shift of focus to line, colour, and shape
-use of equal tonal value = down play perspective (use of whole canvas)
-idea of non-progressive sex
-Europe -
Self Portriat with Model by Kirchner
-broad brush strokes ties in with photography and role of artist
-Fauve work - ties in with true colour and one truth
-role of women vs male (producer by model, ownership)
-position of artist's paintbrush
-rug in background relate to colonialism, primitivism
-compare to Oppenheim (model used by artist yet also producer)
-Russia -
Still Life with Chair Canning by Picasso
-intellectual cubism (vs. analytical = trying to understand the new language which Braque continued while Picasso moved on to new material)
-1st collage intended as art
-use of newspaper (man of current time but a little behind)
-interest in slowing down viewer, work for answer
-keep viewer guessing, enough reference but still incomplete
-Europe -
Three Standard Stoppages by Duchamp
-standard = collective agreement
-process, use 1m string and drop from 1m high - repeated 3 times
-1=authority, 2=opposition to authority, 3 = endless new authorities
-influence by Stinner's "Eagle and his own" where he destroyed all notion of social and religion
-idea that rebellion creates a new standard
-reflects he does not fit in any standard neither (movement wise)
-America -
Period: to
World War 1
-lead to change of role for women as they had to take up jobs while man at war
-lead to change in attitude world wide due to distruction
-lead to extreme nationalism in Germany due to war retribution -
Black Square by Malevich
-Suprematism - idea that it is ultimately realistic (no illusion)
-new visual language so the lower non-literate class can understand
-not telling viewer what to think, project own idea, the new religion (exhibited in location of monarchy, religion)
-question why the lower class would have interest in class (artist's intent)
-exhibition call "0.10" start of something new (considered last Futurist exhibition)
-cracked over time - anarchy is back
-non-functional
-Russia -
Angular Counter-Relief by Tatlin
-Constructivism- relates to Malevich's idea but dislike non-function
-use of industrial material, more relatable to intended audience
-yet still non-function (a developing language)
-changes depending viewer's location (response to)
-view self as working class with product of art
-exhibitions look like laboratory
-Russia -
The Large Glass by Duchamp
-reflects the viewers and includes walker bys as part of work
-relate to educational reforms by Ferry, influence his drawing style
-play on instructions, how it effects the viewer
-a play on female and male relations
-argue whether it is picture or sculpture
-Duchamp's relation to painting - work from mind and not emotion
-released notes on piece in 50s but has no page numbers, up to viewer's interpretation
-America -
Period: to
Dadaism
-started in Switchzerland where the intellectual gathered from the war
-belief in the chance, random, nonscence in response to the WW1
-by 1924, melted into Surrealism -
Period: to
Russian Revolution
-large population of peasant, land and money owned by small high class
-accumulated momentum over the years (start 1905 Bloody Monday)
-lead to Russian Communism that lasted till the 1990s -
Period: to
Russian Communism
-return of state
-lead by Lenin, then Stalin
-return to classical art and censorship of Revolutioin art style but use it as symbolic support for the cummunist state -
Cut with the Kitchen Knife by Hoch
-create own view of the events of the world
-title suggests domesticity play on role of women vs. interest in politics
-photomontage, scrapbook feel
-use of medium, a observer using produced material but also doer, produced work
-include key figures in politics, conversation on Dada and Anti-dada
-Europe -
Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge by Lissitzky
-what became of Malevich's language (have words)
-used for advertising, used for spreading the word of return of state (communism ideas)
-poster = still not functional literally but is working class art
-Stalin censored many art styles, return to classical art (except in ads and pop culture)
-female artist = no class = equality between man and women
-Russia -
The Spirit of Our Time by Hausmann
-carefully composed but appears random/a mess (as appose to try to be random then compose it)
-play on intention vs. final product
-reflects condition of people of the time, soldiers came back disfigured, wounded but physically and mentally
-use of "dummy" - comment on war efforts or commenting on aftershock or both?
-Europe -
Composition in Red, Yellow, Blue and Black by Mondrian
-searched for spiritual essence in painting but settled on materialism (turning spirituality into reality)
-seek sense of balance in midst of chaos, tediously constructed compositions
-art for art sake, paint is paint no more, no less
-seek for no illusions; try to eliminate depth caused by colour values
-reflect Malevich's ideas
-named it Neoplasticism after maturity
-changed style after move to NY, artist speak/respond to environment
-Europe -
Gift, Replica by Ray
-gift that cause paint - play with the taboo (sadistic)
-domestic object changed into torture device (women cause for recipient?)
-role of photography - photography the art or the object in photo the art (artist claim to use photo as document)
-non-functional (use two functional object and made it useless)
-Ray comment on using it on dress and asked a "coloured" girl to wear it while dancing = bring out the taboo, the fantasy but also question how far one can take it in name of "art" -
Watt's Towers California by Rodia
-build out of garbage (recycle/reuse was frowned upon in age of consumerism)
-build right in the suburbs - objected, disliked
-structurally so sound that government could not object/tear it down
-lesson to all artist (want to rebel/make a statement, do it well and it will last)
-look of a cathedral, reaching to the sky (can be seen miles away) -
Stepanova Working on a Textile Design
-portrait of wife as producer
-masculine gesture of smoking and taken by male
-women working vs. tradition of non-working but still working textile
-speak of all art work became something for fashion in the end (Mondrian, Pollock)
-Rodchenko = believe painting is dead, use of photography, part of Constructivism
-Russia -
Revolution Surrealist by unknown
-cover of Surrealist journal = importance of journal to spread ideologies and new movements
-use of Stephenova's clothing design, with focus on male pants (emphasis the focus of the movement)
-idea of target market/who will pick up the journal (with the cover)
-where manifesto printed - interest in the automatic/ the unconscious
-in picture = the members of movement -
Over the mountains by Benton
-right before Depression - focus on working class - working as a heroic job
-abstraction of body - black salve stronger than white
-disliked by public - deals with civil rights and point to the slaves the one actually building country
-moral sized (inspired by Mexican moralist, political)
-sense of Surrealist feel - weird perspective -
Birth of the World by Miro
-artist biography - came from a region of Spain that feel does not exactly belong, echo in his work
-strive to create new language that is personal but not about self (reflect work)
-basic notion of birth - personal but not focus on one person
-idea of red spirm, a colour more referenced to female in reproduction
-repetition of his home (farm/barrel) throughout work
-use of natural background with staining, very organic but contrasts with the sharp shapes
-Surrealist -
The Big Toe by Boiffard
-interest in being historians, documenting the culture/politics
-enlarging/being too close to anything = reveals it's repulsion
-what grounds human beings is the idea of fetish (need it/take Surrealism further)
-painted toenails = women's toe (common male fetish but enlarged = distaste) -
The Betrayal of Images by Magritte
-idea of things it not what it seems
-caption = this is not a pipe (play on imagery)
-artist from an advertisement background
-yet it is a painting not done in a very realistic style
-different if done in photography of a "real" pipe
-Surrealist notion = role to question and contradict everything
-made multiple copies of painting (more than 5)
-echo Malevich's idea of not creating illusions - play on visual language -
Period: to
Great Depression
-worldwide depression caused by many factors such as high production and low consumption after ww1 (lead to consumerism after ww2)
-1920s was golden age, where people bought on credit etc.
-did not affect Russia as they had own government to sort out with the new communism government
-lasted till the mid 1945, also caused many countries to shut doors to global trade to protect own economy -
American Gothic by Woods
-return to Renaissance art = inviting/easy to understand (alternative to European art)
-reflect the Depression - stern subjects/protect their property
-house look like church, respectable, balanced, women behind men
-became very well liked - understandable to everyone
-relate to the "3 Options" (America seeking own voice) -
Henry Ford Hospital by Kahlo
-speak of artist's second miscarriage, knowledge of no longer able to carry child, in a forieng land with factories (not nice view)
-was scouted by Breton to become a Surrealist but believes nothing Surreal about her work (it is her life happenings)
-comment on Ford - known for using assembly line (connect to Chaplin), modernity, industry
-wife of Rivera -
Man at the Crossroads by Rivera
-well known Mexican moral artist
-commisioned work but never finished due including Lenin's portrait in work (Cold War) paid full amount but never shown and was destroyed
-ideal of working together for a better future (idea too communist for the capitalist) -
Period: to
Spanish Civil War
-war between the Republics and the Nationalist lead by General Francisci Franco who won and dictated Spain for the next 37 years
-Franco made pack with Hitler
-Turn Spain into a Facism state - totalitarian state (notion of extrem nationalism (effected many art movements)
-Facism fromed around WW1 -
In a Camp of Migratory Pea Pickers by Lange
-New Deal in 1932 = use of government money to create jobs (boost economy)
-included jobs for artist program (FAP) - hired photographers to document whatever they wished (store in archive = had national exposure)
-look of Madonna with child in the rough
-children taken care of (haircuts) - not happy but has not given up
-document to tell the truth (yet a little staged?) about the attempt to the truth -
Period: to
World War 2
-left Europe in chaos - brink of financial collapse
-worst war in history (20 million died)
-US offered money to rebuild Europe through Marshall Plan but Satlin rejected, resulting in Cold War
-shift center of world to New York, forced Europe to rebuild as a whole
-many skeptical about US's help - strings attached - open Europe to trade with US
-also started more widespread idea of consumerism (so Great Depression does not happen again) -
Guernica by Picasso
-respond to bombing in Guernica - a military testing ground used by Hitler with Franco's permission
-town occupied by mainly women and children since man at way - all died (said to be most peaceful region in Spain)
-black and white - notion that the information was received through newspaper
-idea of ordered chaos (word play)
-moral sized -public art
-for Spanish Pavilion in Paris Exposition 1937 - countries gather to show off but Spain looks like tribute to (government denies therefore allow) -
Automatic Writing by Breton
-self portrait (what he wants public to see him as)
-interest in unproductive sexuality as rebel against social notion of production/advancement
-is he locked in or lock the women out?
-look like being caught doing something bad (Surrealism deal with the taboo)
-leader of Surrealism (self proclaim) wanted political based but moved from his control later on
-formed the year Freud's book was translated in French (influence the artist)
-Europe -
Swing Landscape by Davis
-Matisse meets Picasso (two still prominent artists)
-happy looking, vibrant (rhythm of modernity)
-create what people wanted to see, factory = work, colour = hope and joy
-reaching/hoping for something
-out of the three options (not Renaissance, commercial, nor high art) -
Interior for Exterior by Smith
-play on words - almost idea of optical illusion but abstract
-hints of figures, a house shape?
-bronze sculpture - notion of abstract language not limited to painting
-different views = looks different (respond to viewer, takes time to understand, connect) -
Corps d'otage Nu by Fautrier
-like by Hitler (use to make "nice" paintings) therefore released from prison and allowed to paint whatever he wished?
-greatly affected by war, hidden in places within earshot of torture and slaughter
-show state of humanity - a lump of flesh colours deformity (faint handprint = identity)
-shown only after the war - deals with the Holocaust -
The She-Wolf by Pollock
-student of Benton - rebled against
-also part of government art program - encourage easel painters to do abstract
-idea that abstraction did not come from nowhere, explored before hand
-reference to cave painting, myths, back to roots of human kind (sand painting) -
Air, Fire
-optimistic
-Russia
-like own language of the alphebet (relate to Vasarely's work)
-pattern like, notion of textile
-elements of non-substance yet vital to life -
Vue de Paric by Dubuffet
-dadaism turns cacaism
-Dubeffet was wine maker but when German came around to note what people died, he said he was an artist
-started Art Brut - child-like/ raw art
-started school where "student's" did whatever they want
-collected child and mental patient art
-relation to Surrealist's unconscious but takes it a step further -
The Liver is the Cock's Comb by Gorky
-idea of finding own abstract language (connect with Greenburg, propaganda, Cold War)
-play on words, liver the organ and live-er and crown of a rooster/ genitals (idea of mind and body)
-use of bright colours but almost twisted, gory images
- silhouette of female figures dotted through
-war pictures released - affect many artists -
Period: to
Cold War
-resulted by Russia's rejection of Us's Marshall Plan
-created tension world wide - idea of hovering over a button, a single push can result to mass distruction through nuclear weapon
-lasted till the 1990s -
Volonte de puissance by Dubuffet
-show the state of Europe - shock, agape, deformed, amputated, naked, crazed
-background of bareness reflects the landscape of the war torn nation
-simple, bare, without hiding the truth = almost childlike confrontation/without side notion (reflect the style)
-asks the question "why" -
Abstract #2 by Krasner
-wife of Pollock - helped him in to develop own style
-5 steps ahead of Pollock to abstraction (he was still doing "She-Wolf")
-had to step about as husband took over art scene
-did not have time/intend to break the masculine art world (only man considered "geniuses"
-use of black and white - depth but still total abstract (Greenburg dislike depth, but it is still total abstraction) -
Red Interior: Still Life on a Blue Table by Matisse
-unity through colour (red = war?) and zigzag line through out
-represents what is worth protecting = the domestic/the family
-painted after war - colourful/joyful but sense of rawness (the joy is recently founded on dark circumstances) -
Le Grand Orgasme by Wols
-biologist = needed by Nazi's when they took over - decided to say he was an artist
-became photographer (went to France to do fashion but was imprisoned in France)
-created in prison
-scream "yes, yes, yes" not in sexual sense but of desperate release of something else
-use of complimentary colours - emphasize struggle of opposite forces
-reference to vomit (good summary of the war) -
On the Road by Keroac
-traveled across America in "used cars" (anti economy)
-backdrop of Jazz, bohemian, drugs
-notion of finding oneself outside of the "boxes"
-wrote on scrolls = spontaneous, pouring out of words (relate to Pollock's way on painting)
-scroll also has to do with limit of technology
-wrote on a lot of censored/illegal materials = not published till 1967 -
City Square by Giacometti
-notion of existentialism - everyone knew someone who dies in war, why do they get to live?
-figure solitary though they are on platform meant to be communicative
-sense of loneliness, echo the grief of war (Europe more first hand)
-figure stands tall but treatment of material makes it look frail, easily breakable -
Number One by Pollock
-idea of working back to beginning
-public art sized but not fixed to one location
-use of working class material (house paint), non brush
-visible hand print = keep out? large scale inviting but also looks like a veil
-interest in the unconscious, psychological (re-investment in Surrealism)
-relate to Senator Dondero = wrote speech about communist controlling US art (art after 1940s = poop)
-Barr (authority of modern art in US) defend = communist art = realism therefore AE = freedom/US -
Onement 1 by Newman
-figure = zip
-show the process, almost in process (tape till there)
-idea of beginning (relate to Number 1)
-idea of purging through painting (atonement) as artist is Jewish Intellectual
-painting as a doctrine - Spinoza (reconcile religion and everyday life/science)
-a higher knowledge
-reflect Giacometti's sculpture (standing figure, tall/straight but frail looking) -
Period: to
Civil Rights Movement
-worldwide movement
-lasted till the 1980s
-but in some ways, still should be and is going on today
-glimpes on comment of use of slaves, etc as early as "Olympia" by Manet, in this timeline, "Over the Mountains" by Beton in 1924 -
Period: to
Beat Generation/Suburban Life
-idea of Levittowns = low cost housing build extremly fast for returning solders, all the same
-comes with social abligation = rise of middle clss, cars, comformitty, "fitting in"
-rise of counter-culture called the Beat Generation (Beat = beaten down, left over but also uplifting,, rythmn in poem)
-became the hippie movement later on -
Constuction Workers by Leger
-alliance to working class - rebuild Europe after ww2
-idea of social realism - glorified working class
-almost inhuman - standing on roof, no shadow (also reflect the skeptical nature of Europe_
-comment on civil rights - black man in background - what builds the country
-use of primary colours, return to basics
-cubism like
-part of series on constuction workers -
Women 1 by Kooning
-abstraction is the height of art in 1950s therefore return to figure/women (the traditional)
-a performance/violent of the women in his life
-hated by Greenburg, sees it as step backwards
-buyers interested as it is an understandable battle
-represents struggle of Renassance art (women figure) and the abstract (high art), and pop culture (used magazine clips) -
Massacre in Korea by Picasso
-Picasso use to be part of Communist party but began to move away from the ideologies through paintings such as this and "Guernica"
-comment on US's intervention of Korean war
-echo's Goya's painting of "The Third of May" in the 1800s
-women all pregnant, soldiers have no penis/robot like = destroyer of life
-armour almost medieval like, comment on the backwardness of the slaughter
-face of the teen =look at viewer/pleading -
Man with Claws by Richter
-looks like burnt flesh - reminiscent of the victims of the war/holocaust
-beast like with claws
-female, slight protrusion of breast with smooth pelvis
-bars for support of stance, show technical limits
-bars also create a sense of puppeteer, echoing the war -
Hommage a la Morte by Mathieu
-self proclaimed fastest painter - paint like a performance
-relate to Surrealism? ideal of letting loose - fast
-relate to modernity? -
Mountains and Sea by Frankenthaler
-no real trace of artist (about the medium)
-diluted paint on un-primed canvas (poured)
-watercolour like but on moral scale
-Greenburg interested in her process, collapsing colour into canvas
-story of female artist - other artist took her process (adopt process) without giving much recognition
-about painting itself (thing unto itself) -
Atlantic Civilization by Fougeron
-moral sized - public art
-social criticism on the Cold War and the Americanisation of Europe (communist propaganda)
-reference to French colonial wars in Indo-China, comment on civil rights, immigration (a portrait of the chaotic time
-notion of modern historians - documenting the culture but more bias view
-backdrop of rebuilding of Europe/chaotic
-also a respond to modernity, change of culture and what true culture is (globalization)
-title = mythical land suppose to be advanced/utopia -
Tricky Cad, Case 1 by Jess
-educated as chemist = drafted in war and help develop nuclear/atomic weapons
-disagree with usage, broke off with family and enrolled in art scroll
-play on classic popular cartoon of time called "Dick Racey" (macho, American jawed detective)
-make his own popular culture, his own version
-homosexual -
August 6, 1956 by Soulage
-idea of working class high art (use very cheap brushes)
-organized many exhibits and shows
-influenced by architecture
-use of black - shadow/contrast
-solid yet floating -
Industrial Paintings by Guiseppe
-lower the idea of art - change it into mass goods
-idea of buy by the meter/yard
-use of bright colours almost cheerful (notion of wall paper) -
Orange and Yellow by Rothko
-Colour field painter
-experiment with paint (focus on medium)
-conversation between colours
-interest in non-secular religious paintings (art as a religious, bathing in it, envelope the viewer) -
Vega by Vasarely
-vegas = brightest shining star Lyra constellation
-idea of disturbed checkerboard/chessboard (disruption of rationality)
-more geometric shaped work influenced by Malevich
-optimistic about future (bright yellow) yet does optical illusion (things are not what it seems)
-interest in retinol art (tricking the eye, down to scientific) -
Party by Joans
-notion the party as an art itself
-lived in abandoned warehouse - hosted parties where anyone is invited (different races, sexuality, etc)
-Beats also acknowledged by mass culture - viewed them as barbaric, stereolize the movement -
Paris by Night by Jorn
-painted on commercially bought paintings
-sense of graffiti, almost in disrespect
-also comment on that peaceful, beautiful Paris - messed up by war -
Saraband by Louis
- translation of Frankenthaler's technique (was brought to her studio by Greenburg) -idea of veils -saraband = slow dance -interest in aesthetic but also letting paint be paint -tilted canvas to create shapes
-
The Americans by Frank
-Swiss photographer - document America's alternative community (idea of tourist)
-let camera capture things, no edit, a whole narrative
-look for a different perspective
-cover photo = trigger by bus incident where a black refuse to give her seat to a white person
-politics in everyday life (enlighten viewer instead of pointing finger
-bring in question on staging (as all photography does) -
Child by Connor
-explore the surreal
-interest in scandalous cases/the justice system in US
-mummified child, disturbing -
Pull My Daisy by Frank, Leslie, and Kerouac (Film)
-notion female as stumbling blocks, limits the exploration, wants structure, nuisance (suppose to just take care of children)
-interest in the holy, what is holy
-questioning the normal, the system, the religious
-montage - narrative that is constructed, in fragments
-conventional idea of macho man (thought the try to be non-conventional)
-metaphor of cockroaches =Beats (live off leftovers of society) -
Whirl by Noland
-circle paintings = targets
-notion of going in or out, un-sure
-envelope viewer, beyond field of vision
-shapes just a readymade for the colour experiments
-about conversation of colour (Rothko) -
Early One Morning by Caro
changes as one move around
-all shapes relate but function differently visually in 360 degree
-modern, industrial material
-require viewer to take time to look how each part if connected (vs. fast art = propaganda)
-Greenburg like - believe each art field (sculpture/photography/painting) has own logic
-formalist sculptures - all parts make up a sentence -
Back Seat Dodge '38 by Klenhloz
-idea of car - not only for economy (symbol of America)
-teenage movement (baby bloom after war grown up to teens)
-what happens in the backseat
-beer bottle - Olympia brand
-Surreal, criminal feel, dirty (relate to the Beats lifestyle?)
-no wheels, non functional
