Art
Class 5 notes:
Slide 2:
There is a significant shift in artistic expression and style during the turn of the century, transitioning into the 20th century. There was also rapid change in the rest of culture and society, which precipitated change in artistic endeavors; electricity, radios, cars, etc. all changed the landscape of communication and culture. There were also rapid political and global changes, with world wars, revolutions, and other seismic changes. All of this led to changes in the art world as well.
This is the time period in which modernism as a term began to be relevant. See definition on the slide of the term, though it is much more complex than a short definition. Modernism was a philosophical movement, a cultural movement, and an artistic and literary movement. As modern industrial societies developed, and cities grew, Modernism developed. This movement rejected the certainty of Enlightenment thinkers. It also often rejected strict religious beliefs. In general though, Modernism reacted against traditional forms of art and went in a new direction. In art, the idea of abstract or non-realistic forms arose. No longer were figures rendered realistically or idealistically; sometimes there weren’t figures at all. Cubism and abstract expressionism are two examples of some of the new styles that arose.
Image: Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907). An example of the vastly different forms and figures that were being used in Modernism.
Slide 4:
To discuss Modernism, we must discuss in detail two artists: Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse (Spanish and French, respectively). These painters really led the way for Modernist painting. While they began their careers when Impressionism and Post-Impressionism were popular, they quickly forged their own individual styles.
Picasso is well known for his “periods” of art, meaning he worked in distinctly different styles at different points in his artistic life. The first major period of Picasso’s work was the Blue Period. This period lasted for about 3 years, from 1901-1904. These paintings are, as the name suggests, primarily in shades of blue, and they represent a certain mood that is melancholy, moody, anguished, and even pessimistic. The use of monochromatic blue shades helps to reflect and create this mood.
It is known that Picasso was in a state of deep depression at this time, which undoubtedly affected his work. A close friend of his (Carlo Casagemas) had committed suicide, and it greatly affected him. These works are also important in the greater scheme of art history, though. He started to depict the outcasts of society in these paintings: the poor, the destitute, the fringes of society. The Blue Period also pushed forward a style that hadn’t been seen before, and at first these paintings were quite unpopular (as many new artistic styles are). This was the beginning of artists embracing Modernism and the new avenues of creativity that it could offer.
The image on the left is La Mort de Casagemas (The Death of Casagemas), 1901. It is the beginning of the Blue Period, and it depicts Picasso’s close friend who had committed suicide. The friend is laid in his coffin. Although the tonal quality is not all blue, this is the beginning of the period; the mood is somber, depressed, and anguished.
The image on the right (and Old Guitarist in your book) shows examples of the height of the Blue Period. This image is The Tragedy (1903), which depicts poor beggars on the street (as is typical of the Blue Period). The figures are hunched, huddled, and their body language clearly depicts their misery. The overall tone and mood of the painting is downcast, downtrodden, anguished.
Slide 5:
Following Picasso’s Blue Period was his Rose Period (1904-1906). The somber moods of the Blue Period were replaced by the Rose Period’s more pleasant themes of clowns, harlequins, and carnival performers, depicted in cheerful vivid hues of red, orange, pink and other earth tones. The Rose Period was Picasso’s early experiments with primitivism (influence from African and Oceanic art; see definition on slide 2). After the Rose Period was his African Period, which culminated in the pre-Cubist work Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (which, of course, led to his Cubist work that he is so well known for).
Image on left: Boy Leading a Horse, 1905-06
Image on right: 1904–05, Les Baladins (Mother and Child, Acrobats)
Slide 6:
Image: André Derain, La jetée à L'Estaque, 1906
Slide 7:
Fauvism (see last slide’s definition) was another important movement in Modern art. The word comes from les Fauves (French for “the wild beasts”). The Fauvists were a group of early twentieth-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. While Fauvism began around 1900 and continued to influence art beyond 1910, the movement as such (with specific artists and exhibitions) lasted only a few years, from 1904–1908.
Henri Matisse and, to a lesser extent, Andre Derain are known as the leaders of the movement. Many others were also involved, including Georges Braque (who was later involved in Cubism too). Fauvism was characterized by wild brushwork and bold colors, which is where the name came from. Subject matter, though, was simple, and this was the beginning of abstract style. It was a critic who gave them the name “fauves” (wild beasts).
The use of color is the primary characteristic of Fauvism, as you can see in the book’s examples (Madame Matisse and Woman with the Hat). In the examples on the slide, you can further see that wild use of color. Some critics described Fauvism as looking like the jungle, which you can see in the Landscape at Collioure example. This was really the beginning of the abstract; although there are still discernible figures in some of Matisse’s paintings, others are completely abstract, like the landscape example.
Image on left: Le Bonheur de Vivre, 1905–6
Image on right: Landscape at Collioure, 1905
Slide 8:
Matisse continued to produce work even after Fauvism fell out of fashion. While Fauvism was relatively short-lived, it provided a starting point, and inspiration for, everything that came after it. Matisse was not fully abstract, as he had figures in his works (see Dance I in your book). You can see another example of this on the slide: the image is The Dance, another variation of the one in your book, produced in 1910. This too has the dark outlined bodies and sense of rhythm and movement. The sense of color is also present in this example.
Slide 9:
Now we will talk about another Modernist artistic movement: Expressionism. A major characteristic of Expressionism is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist artists sought to express the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical reality. This movement emerged in writing and painting in early 20th century Germany. The style persisted until the beginning of World War I (1914). Such artists as Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Franz Marc, and Auguste Macke were part of this movement.
Image: Reiter (The Rider), Kandinsky, 1911
Slide 10:
Kandinsky was certainly a leader of the Expressionist movement. He was Russian, but was heavily involved with the Expressionist movement that began in Germany (he lived in Munich for a while). He was really one of the first artists to truly eliminate recognizable objects or figures from his paintings, making him a pioneer in abstract expressionism. Kandinsky’s style was completely new and different from anything else at the time. His work uses color, shapes, and lines to create an experience, not a discernible image or object. His work is wildly explosive, yet also organized, like a symphonic piece for orchestra might be. He was an artistic theorist too, and thought that art was intimately related to music, math, spirituality, and other parts of the natural and cultural world.
Image to right: Circles in a Circle, 1923
Image to left: Composition VI (1913)
Slide 11:
Image: Pablo Picasso, 1910, Girl with a Mandolin
Cubism is another distinctly modernist artistic movement, characterized by using geometric shapes to form an image. Cubism is one of the most influential early 20th century styles. The use of space, and approach of how to reflect space on flat surfaces, was really revolutionary. Cubism was the first truly non-Classical style/mode of representing figures and objects.
Picasso was a leader of this movement, and you can see the first inklings of Cubism in his masterful work Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. (See book or previous slides for image). The women in this painting are not represented naturalistically or realistically, or even idealistically; instead, they are formed by choppy geometrical shapes. The figures’ features are distorted, with eyes, noses, and mouths not quite in the right place. The two women on the right have faces full of features that don’t look at all realistic, with large noses and shapes taking up their faces. The figures are fragmented, with sharp edges and strange angles. This is a direct challenge and departure from Classical ideals of how the body should look. This was the prototype, so to speak, for Cubist painting.
Slide 12:
Picasso and Georges Braques are credited with developing the style of Analytic Cubism. They worked closely together for several years in this style, and have very similar styles in this period. Analytic Cubism is characterized by the use of neutral colors: browns, grays, dark greens, blacks. It is also characterized by its unique use of space. This phase of Cubism was relatively brief, but greatly impacted future artistic movements (and influenced later iterations of Cubism). You see the tendency of Cubist painting to rearrange and shift the natural positioning of facial features or parts of objects in order to force the viewer to pay attention to the natural world and the painting itself.
See examples on slide 13:
Image on left: Violin and Candlestick by Braque (1910)
Image on right: The Accordionist by Picasso (1911)
In these examples, you can see how similar their style was in this Analytic Cubism period. They are almost indistinguishable, save for the slightly more refined, delicate lines used by Picasso.
Slide 14:
Picasso was key in a further development of Cubism also, called Synthetic Cubism. This iteration of Cubism involved using collage (a piece of art made by sticking various different materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric onto a backing). This was the first use of collage in any kind of fine art. But, there were many paintings in this period as well. This style was developed in 1912. The use of color was not just neutral anymore.
The example on the left (Still-Life With Chair Caning by Picasso, 1912) is an example of the use of other objects within paintings. In this example Picasso used an actual oilcloth with a pattern that looked like bars of a chair. The whole work is bordered by a thick twine. Using other materials in painting was certainly revolutionary. The example on the right (The Guitar by Pablo Picasso, 1913) is an example of a paper collage: it includes newspaper, sheet music, fabric, cardboard, and even wallpaper. Like all Cubist works, Synthetic Cubism involved taking something apart and rearranging it to form a new image.
Slide 15:
Synthetic Cubism doesn’t just refer to collage; it also refers to the period of Cubist painting that used bright color. These paintings arranged different flat shapes into approximations of objects.
Image: Pablo Picasso, 1917, Arlequin (Harlequin)
Slide 16:
Futurism was another Modernist movement. It emphasized speed, technology, youth, and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane, and the industrial city. Although it was largely an Italian phenomenon, there were parallel movements in Russia, England, Belgium and elsewhere. Futurists created work in all mediums of art. Futurists wanted to completely break from the past and form a completely new artistic language.
Umberto Boccioni was a key figure in Futurism; see an example of his work on the slide. You can see the depiction of violent movement and industrial objects in the work.
Image:
Umberto Boccioni, 1913, Dynamism of a Cyclist