Levi Ottman - Exam 3 Notes PDF

Week 11 Exam questions ask about: Style: questions ask you to recognize the style of individual artists, as seen in artworks we've talked about in class, and the general style of a region or period (e.g. Italian Renaissance, French rococo, etc.). Style is a typical manner of doing something: ideali...

Week 11 Exam questions ask about: Style: questions ask you to recognize the style of individual artists, as seen in artworks we've talked about in class, and the general style of a region or period (e.g. Italian Renaissance, French rococo, etc.). Style is a typical manner of doing something: idealized or classicized human figures, stiff or in contrapposto, using light to model forms in three- dimensions or using light to emphasize surface textures, etc. Unknown slides give you a chance to demonstrate your recognition of various movements and stylistic differences. Context: questions ask you about the context of a work of art, or what its patron, audience, location, historical events, etc. contribute to its meaning or appearance. For example, that Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece was originally located in a hospital explains the presence of certain "plague saints" in it. Meaning: questions may ask you what is being depicted, and how does the way in which the artist presents the subject affect its meaning? Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Wedding is a portrait of a wealthy Italian couple, but the painting includes elements that make it also about the ceremony and duties of marriage. Media: questions ask what are the materials with which a particular work of art is crafted and what sorts of effects and limitations does a particular medium (e.g. oil paint) have? Terms and concepts: questions ask you to demonstrate a general understanding of the terms and concepts in videos and readings and be able to apply them to appropriate works of art. For example, grisaille refers to the technique of painting figures to look like sculptures and Jan van Eyck uses it in the Ghent Altarpiece to reinforce the architectural appearance of the exterior of the altarpiece. England: The Sublime - Sublime: Overwhelming response Claude Lorraine: French painter spent almost all of his career in Rome - Edmund Burke sees: o Beautiful: quality of regularity, calm, ideal, nature, balanced John Martin, The Destruction of Pompeii, 1821 - Style: o Redish tinge to the lava to make it seem scary o Tiny figures who are helpless - Context: o Destruction of a classical icon, Mt. Vesuvius  o Trying to evoke the response of the sublime. - Meaning: o Evokes the sublime by showing something super large, compared to the tiny people in the images - Media: - Terms and concepts: Meaning of sublime: For Burke: sublime expressed fears about the revolution. 19th century: fears shifted towards Napoleon, as an unstoppable force. England: Blake and Fuseli Henry Fuseli, Nightmare, 1781 - Style: focused on romanticism, also used gothic imagery to show horror and grotesque. o Fairly flat background o Womens body is organized in a flat plane, her body is a classical body with a thin gown. o neoclassicism - Meaning: - Media: Oil on Canvas - Context: First big success by Fuseli Bullet on subject context - William Blake, Nebuchadnezzar, 1795 o Importance of a contour line o Approach to sublime is different than Fuseli o Neo-classical body self destructing o Nebuchadnezzars body is turning into a grotesque monster England and landscape painting: Turner and Martin - Sublime changes from body to landscape - Humans are helpless still - J.M.W Turner, Snow-storm: Hannibal and His army crossing the alps, 1811 o Crosses the alps with his army o Fails to conquer Rome, but shows a rocky landscape with a blizzard. Leaves the men helpless and die. o Shows despair o Historical Context  - John Martin, Sadek in search of the waters of oblivion, 1812 o Example of Orientalism o Waters aren’t water of oblivion, but water of death in an imaginary story. Turner's Slave Ship - Turner, The Slave Ship (Slavers throwing overboard the dead and dying, typhoon coming on), 1840 o Tried to paint the effect of being caught in a storm o Changing atmosphere o Shows conflict between the two emotions, which gives it a sublime feeling o Sublime doesn’t express fear of Napoelon, but now slavery. England and landscape painting: Constable - Constable worked at the same time as turner and martin, but didn’t use sublime the same was as the two. o Paintings denied any sublime dangers - Constable, Golding Constable’s Kitchen Garden. 1815 o Shows small houses like his to show peacefulness o Scene of stability and productivity o Worker in the foreground raking in the garden. England and landscape painting: Constable part 2 - Worked from nature and painted outside o Used scientific names to identify clouds o Makes the clouds in his paitings more scientific and realistic - Constable, Flatford Mill from the Lock, 1811 o Painted outdoors at the scene o Painted quickly ▪ Clouds can move fast so he did it quickly ▪ Very bright painting ▪ Looseless feeling of the painting makes it attractable - Constable, Flatford Mill on the River Stour, 1816-17 o Thought it was important to paint a realistic countryside, and this meant showing industrial items. - Constable. Cirrus Clouds, 1822 - Constable, Cumulus Clouds, 1822 Week 12 Videos: Realism: Introduction - Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830 - Honore Daumier, Rue Transnonain, le 15 Avril, 1834 o Both examples of citizens battling government troops Realism versus realism - Realism: Style that dominated Europe and the US from 1830 to the middle of the century - Realist goal: truthful impartial representation of the real world o Constable used science to identify clouds to make it realist o Doesn’t shine a light on a hero, but shows everything how it is. England: Pre-Raphaelites France: Millet - Realism: Set in the country, not the city. Much stronger kind of realism - Millet, The Sower, 1850 o Inspiration for the Golden Sower France: Courbet - Courbet’s painting “Funeral at Ornans” challenges traditional art hierarchy by depicting everyday people without distinction or hierarchy o He does this by adding individualized figures to a formless crowd, Courbet creates a composition that emphasizes equality and realism. Realism and Falsism - Brenton’s painting depticed abundant harvests while Millet shows little crops - Falsism: Color and quality rather than realistic values Manet: Introduction - Courbet’s paintings challenge societal norms by depicting people as powerful figures - Manet’s paintings contrast with the style Courbet has by representing different social classes Notes for question about “Not” or False Week 13 Impressionism: Introduction Characteristics of a sketch: - Abbreviation o Done in shorthand, without much detail - Speed o Sketches are done once, not reworked - Spontaneity o No detailed plans Edgar Degas “sketch of the back of a man’s head” 1879 - Looks doodled, makes it seem like it was done super fast Claude Monet “Impression: Sunrise” 1872 - Doesn’t have much detail - Picturesque scene done on the spot, not planned out in advance - Capture a fleeting moment - Impressionism was emphatically an art of Modernity and modernism o Understand why impressionism looks the way it does o Modernity: Embrace of the modern Paris changed dramatically 1850-60’s - Georges-Eugene Hassumann was given the task of redesigning Paris by Napoleon - Rebuilt Paris basically - Redesign of the streets of Paris - Winding, narrow old streets --> large boulevards Artists believed they had to depict these new conditions and sites, but also HOW they were depiciting them. Conventional methods seemed innapropriate, so they criticized the practice of representation. This led to modernism Modernism: Critical examination of the premises of art itself. Edgar Degas “The tub” 1886 - Left side of painting is legible, lady crouching in a tub  - Right side seems to flatten out like it is a shelf or table - Goal isn’t to make an illusion, but calls attention to the flatness of the canvas. Claude Monet “Bed of Irises in Monet’s Garden” 1900 - Thick dabs of pigment, to acknowledge the reality of the artwork o Paint on a flat 2d artwork Impressionism: City Life - Most impressionists stayed in Paris sometime in their life during the changes in Paris - Things seemed to be constantly changing when they would go out into the cities - Camille Pissarro “Avenue de I’Opera, Place du Theatre Francais: Misty Weather” 1898 - Camille Pissarro “Avenue de I’Opera: Sunshine, Winter Morning” 1898 o Panoramic view that captures the energy of modern life - Claude Monet “Rue Montreuil, Paris: Festival of 30 June 1878 - Gustave Caillebotte “A Paris Street, Rain” 1877 o Depicted city scapes - Claude Monet “Gare St. Lazare” 1877 o Centrally located train station - Gustave Caillebotte “Le Pont d’Europe” 1876-77 o The railroads expanded significantly, brinigng people and goods into Paris o The impressionists expressed their fascination in their paintings - Café’s provided entertainment in Paris Impressionism: Country Life - Resort towns were a train ride away from Paris - Many impressionism paintings include boating - Lunch with friends and boating were common in painting - Quick loose brushstrokes evident in impressionism, looking at a painting, not through a window. - En plein air = “in open/full air” (to paint outdoors) o Edouard Manet “Claude Monet in His Studio Boat” 1874 ▪ Shows how Monet made a boat into a studio so he could pain en plein air o Very evident its impressionism due to the strokes of the brush. - Claude Money “Sailboats on the Seine, Argenteuil 1874  - Claude Monet “Haystacks in the Sun, Middle of the Day” 1890 - Claude Monet “Haystacks, End of Day, Autumn” 1890-91 - Claude Monet “Haystacks, End of Summer, Morning” 1891 - Claude Monet “Haystacks, End of Summer, Evening” 1891 o Each session could only last 7 minutes, because the sun would move so much that it wasn’t the same picture anymore ▪ Shows the “fleeting moment” or “decisive moment” o Difference between the four paintings based on the weather and other things o Monet tweaked them in the studios even though he painted en plein air o Careful observation of nature, but wanted to get it right Post-Impressionism: Van Gogh - Name deprived from developments based on Impressionism (duh) - Hard to define as a unified movement, since each artists went their own way unlike how the artists did with Impressionism - Best known for incident where he cut off his own ear - Van Gogh was unknown as an artist in his life time, but got famous after his death - Less than 10 years of production Post-Impressionism: Gaugin Post-Impressionism: Seurat Post-Impressionism: Cezanne Week 15 Notes Introduction: The Development of the Avant-Garde - Avant-Garde: still used today o More specific meaning back then - “front guard” in French/originally a military term o Coined to describe small bands of expert scouts for recon/raids o Appropriated for political use “visionary/ahead of the pack”  o World of Art: reference back to the military term 1) Continual emphasis on modernity and innovation – being a trailblazer 2) Interest in art as a self-enclosed, self-justifying activity, cut out from the rest of society 3) Cultivation of an antagonistic, hostile relationship to the public-at-large Fauvism - Moment developed in France during turn of the century. - Based on the emotional utilization of color to evoke feelings rather than for purely descriptive purposes. - Fauve = “wildcat or wild beast” - Short lived movement o Maybe lasted two years o 1905-1907 - Main character of Fauvism: Henri Matisse o Influenced by post-impressionism Cubism - Cubism represents a further development of Cezanne’s ideas of reduction and analysis of form. - Basic premise of cubism: all forms can be broken down into basic geometric units of two-dimensional planes, or into geometric forms: cubes, spheres, cones, cylinders. - Pablo Picasso: probably the most prolific artist of all time o Early life: Blue period ▪ Use of blue and sadness in his paintings ▪ Frailty and decay o Rose Period: 1904-1906 ▪ 1904: hope and energy, his paintings lightened o Les Demoiselles d’Avignon – 1907 ▪ First truly 20th-century painting ▪ Very revolutionary at the time Early 20th-Century Art: Introduction - WW1 and WW2 impacted individuals, such as artists - Felt obligated to use art to express their feelings about what they saw around them German Expressionism: Die Brucke German Expressionism: Der Blaue Reiter - German Expressionism: Der Blaue Reiter ("The Blue Rider") was an influential art movement within German Expressionism that emerged in the early 20th century Style - Abstract and Symbolic: Focused on spiritual and emotional expression rather than physical reality. Abstract forms, bold colors, and dynamic compositions were central. - Subjectivity: Emphasized the artist's inner feelings and experiences over realism. - Color as Emotion: Bright, often non-naturalistic colors were used to convey emotional and spiritual resonance. - Spirituality: Art was seen as a means to access a higher spiritual truth, often depicting mystical themes or dreamlike imagery. Context - Founding: Established in Munich in 1911 by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. Other members included Gabriele Münter, August Macke, and Paul Klee. - Historical Influences: o Reaction against the materialism of industrial society and the academic art traditions of the 19th century. o Inspired by earlier movements like Fauvism and Symbolism. o Interest in folk art, non-Western art, and the connection between art and spirituality. - Dissolution: The group disbanded in 1914 due to World War I, during which key members like Marc and Macke were killed. Meaning - The Name: "The Blue Rider" symbolized spiritual transcendence. Kandinsky admired the color blue for its spiritual quality, while Marc associated it with masculinity and energy. The "rider" motif suggested forward momentum and a journey. - Spirituality in Art: Members believed that art could help humanity reconnect with spiritual values lost in modern industrial society. - Unity of the Arts: Sought to unify painting, music, and other art forms as a holistic expression of human emotion and spirit. Media - Painting: Primary medium, characterized by oil paintings on canvas. - Printmaking: Experimentation with woodcuts and lithography, often using simplified forms and strong contrasts.  - Illustrated Almanac: Published the Der Blaue Reiter Almanac in 1912, which included essays, artworks, and musical scores, reflecting their interdisciplinary approach. Terms and Concepts - Abstraction: Moving away from realistic representation to focus on form, color, and composition. - Synesthesia: The blending of senses, particularly in combining visual art with music, was a key interest, especially for Kandinsky. - Primitivism: Inspired by folk art, medieval art, and non-European cultures, which they viewed as more spiritually pure. - Inner Necessity: Kandinsky’s term for creating art that arises from the artist’s inner emotional or spiritual need. - Cosmic Themes: Many works reflect an interest in cosmic, apocalyptic, or transcendental themes, aiming to address universal truths. Key Works and Artists - Wassily Kandinsky: Composition VII (1913) - A large, abstract work emphasizing chaos and renewal. - Franz Marc: The Large Blue Horses (1911) - Depicts animals in harmony with nature, using symbolic color. - Paul Klee: With the Eagle (1918) - Combines abstract, geometric forms with playful yet mystical imagery. Futurism - Italian Futurists welcomed war - Futurism was officially founded in 1908 by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti - Futurism was an early 20th-century avant-garde movement that originated in Italy and celebrated modernity, technology, and dynamism. It rejected traditional artistic values and sought to break from the past, emphasizing speed, movement, and industrial progress. Dada Surrealism Organic or biomorphic surrealism John miro is a good example Biomorphic (organisms) Shapes are abstract but can maybe pick out an image that suggests objects Naturalist surrealism artist uses images of the subconscious Recognizable scenes taken out of context and distorted such as in a dream or hallucination  Tanguy painted upside down so he wouldn’t be influenced or guided by his rational mind Be guided by his subconscious Titles referenced episodes or themes from the subconscious Example: Dali Nightmare images Titles are reference to the su bconscious, memories and dreams - Picasso's Guernica Abstract Expressionism - Gestural abstraction - Chromatic abstraction Thomas Carlyle, one of the men standing by the railing in Brown's work was an influential thinker critical of the “cash Nexus”for destroying the social bonds that held society together Courbet the woodcut as a source for the meeting because all of these reasons were why he used it Manet’s old musician features People uprooted from their place in the city