Early 20th Century

Question 1

Important Paintings

Answer 1

Matisse, Joy of Life, 1905
Cezanne, At the Water’s Edge, 1890
Picasso, Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907
Braque, Girl with a Cross, 1911
Picallo, Still Life with Bottle of Suze (collage), 1912
Duchamp, Fountain, 1917
Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931
Any painting by Mondrian

Question 2

Expressionism

Answer 2

raises feelings above objective observation

Question 3

formalism

Answer 3

most important aspect of work of art is its form – the way it is made and its purely visual aspects ( At the water’s edge painting)

Question 4

cubism

Answer 4

characterized by the use of geometric shapes, multiple viewpoints, and monochromatic, making the art seem flat.

Question 5

“ready-made”

Answer 5

everyday objects that could be bought and presented as art with little manipulation by the artist

Question 6

automatic drawing

Answer 6

the hand moves “randomly” across the paper

Question 7

What did the Expressionists value about Impressionist painting? And to what end did they use that technique, i.e. what did they see as something painting could do better than photography? (Matisse’s Joy of Life is a great example here.)

Answer 7

They valued the idea that paintings can show the moment, and then they took this to also mean emotion like in Joy of Life and its use of color. Photography cannot show emotion or the principle of fleetingness of the moment.

Question 8

Cezanne took something completely different from Impressionist painting than what the Expressionists were interested in. What did he take and to what end did he use that technique, i.e. what did he see as something painting could do better than photography? (How many things can he make you look at simultaneously?)

Answer 8

He saw that paintings are unique in that they are able to show two things, third-dimensional space, and two-dimensional surface. Photography can only show you what is in front of you and you know it is 3D, but with painting you can both of these elements

Question 9

What is the painting (Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon) about and what visual elements does Picasso use to convince you of that? Name three visual elements and what they do in this painting.

Answer 9

The painting is about the body and how the body in a sense is owned by many people.
Visual elements:
- Figures are made in sharp angles to appear dangerous
- face masks make them look scary (uses Iberia and African sculptures; colonized or body is owned by other, powerful like kings)
-the women dominate the painting by their scale

Question 10

Be able to discuss three ways in which the Braque painting, Girl with a Cross, is NOT realistic. (This is easier to do if you use your notes from my comparison with the Collier, Still Life, 1696.)

Answer 10

1. In comparison to Collier, Still Life, Girl with a Cross is made up of geometric shape that blend with everything else and makes it less distinct
2. Use of muted colors, monochromatic compared to Collier, Still Life
3. No perspective in the painting as it does not use a lot of light or dark tones (shadow and highlight) compared to Collier, Still Life

Question 11

Cubism is one of the big breakthroughs in 20th-century art because it expands the nature of painting as established by the Renaissance. What is Cubism trying to do? What stylistic choices does it make to serve that desired result?

Answer 11

Cubism is trying to show things as how they are, not to show what they look like. They use compressed series of observation from multiple viewpoints, simple geometric forms, parallel brushstrokes, monochromatic, collapsed space by merging figures and ground so that flatness is emphasized.

Question 12

How is a Cubist painting different from a Renaissance painting? How is it different from an Impressionist painting?

Answer 12

1. There is no using of idealized or realistic human body nor a focus on linear perspective
2. Not portraying emotions or modern life or “fleetingness of the moment” or the use of color. It is more blended as well

Question 13

Cubism is NOT mimetic (something that copies the natural world exactly), but it does force the viewer to see the painting exactly the same way the eye sees the real world. Can you explain that?

Answer 13

Cubist artists depicted objects from multiple viewpoints at once, creating a sense of space and depth that is similar to the way the eye perceives the world around us.

Question 14

What was the problem with Cubism after World War I? (i.e., what did many people think about this highly intellectualized style in the wake of the events of 1914-1919?)

Answer 14

People believed that Cubism was too intellectual and hard for people to understand or enjoy. It also was not an appropriate response after WWI.

Question 15

What is the goal of Dada?

Answer 15

The world is absurd so art is absurd as well (reject artistic and cultural authority)

Question 16

Why did Duchamp pick a toilet for his sculpture Fountain?

Answer 16

Forced questions about artistic creativity & the very definition of art and its purposes in society.

Question 17

What are some of the questions that Duchamp asks in exhibiting a toilet as a work of art?

Answer 17

What is art?
Who gets to decide what is and isn’t art?
How does our context affect our perception of an object?
What is the role of the artist in creating and defining art?

Question 18

What does Arp allow into his art that is new and expressive? How does it fit into the philosophy of Dada?

Answer 18

Employed notion of chance in his work in a world that overly relied on reason

Question 19

What are the goals of Surrealism? How was it different from Dada? What did it base its art in?

Answer 19

The world is absurd so the only place to go is inward. Based it in surreality, on the mental world such as hallucinations, dreams, and nightmares.

Question 20

What were some of the techniques the Surrealists used to tap into the subconscious and unconscious? How is this the opposite of the Renaissance?

Answer 20

Used automatic drawings and it was different because it was free from rational control and can reveal something of the subconscious

Question 21

Surrealism opted for two different visual approaches in making art. What were those two approaches?

Answer 21

Element of surprise and unexpected juxtaposition
Distorted perspective and shows undermine the convention of pictorial space and time.

Question 22

What do the Dada artists and the Surrealists have in common?

Answer 22

They both used disjointed imagery and challenged tradition. Both also believed in the absurdity of the world and how art can represent it.

Question 23

What is the goal of De Stijl?

Answer 23

The world is absurd but art can change it (what if we found ways to unite us? make art universal)

Question 24

How is a painting by the De Stijl artist Mondrian a manifesto of a new way of thinking? (i.e., how is the painting constructed? What are we supposed to learn from it?)

Answer 24

We are supposed to see that we are all united in some way, he represents this in his art by using vertical and horizontal lines and the use of primary colors and black and white. He made art universal by reducing it to its essentials form and color.

Question 25

What is the ideal environment for viewing De Stijl paintings?

Answer 25

clean, simple, and uncluttered.