Final Flashcards
1
Q
A
Sheeler, Classic Landscape, 1930’s
- part of a series based off the Ford plant
- ironic title, no nature, landscape all man made
- symbolizing america’s “new” landscape
- style mimics blue prints
- no emotion, reserved color and style
- playing of classicism, machinery has similar upright design as classic architecture
2
Q
A
Douglas, Aspects of Negro Life: Song of the Towers, 1930’s
- set in Harlem
- part of a larger mural that shows the cycle of a negro’s life throughout the years in panels
- insinuates negro as a primitice creature, happiest in African setting
- negro in America shown as oppressed and unnatural
- combines good and bad history
- ends with song of the towers
3
Q
A
Thomas, Extending the Frontier in Northwest Territory, 1930’s
- new deal treasury program piece
- put up in a post office
- reminder that we are a country that works hard
- harvest is a cycle, showing that hard times are just part of a cycle and not permanent
- positive image giving hope during the depression
- not representative of the poverty and population at the time
- nostalgic, idealized, plentifull land and sturdy figures
4
Q
A
Duchamp, Fountain, 1910’s
- supposed to mimic a fancy fountain
- urinal on its side, rendered useless
- submitted under a fake name, got immediately rejected from the independent artist show by other committee members besides Duchamp
- Duchamp revealed himself and then resigned because the show wasn’t as democratic as advertised
- French artist, comes to America because fascinated by american culture, but not the art
- appreciated the new technologies
5
Q
A
Sheeler, Crisscrossed Conveyers, 1920’s
- most popular shot from Ford River Rouge plant
- simplified design, no decoration
- designed for function and purpose
- untraditional/complex layout shows innovation
- no people, just machines
- Ford concerned with perfecting machines to create minimal human interaction
- uses these photos as inspiration for his paintings
6
Q
A
Shahn, Jersey Homesteads Mural, 1930’s
- goes against mural norms: space isn’t symmetric but overlapping and condensed
- subject matter isn’t timeless, it’s specific
- jewish immigrants (einstein) who were poor garment workers in the middle
- left wing artist, trying to tell the story of the people who lived there
- made space for the bad parts of history, wanted to confront the past
- sacco & vinzetti, killed for their political beliefs, shown in top left corner
- social realist style
7
Q
A
Marin, Woolworth Building: The Dance, 1910’s
- style of slashing diagonals responding to the modernization of NYC
- believed american subject matter had to be able to express the new culture
- the whole city is alive, buidings and people
- charged space of urban chaos with drama
- substituted natural for mechanical dynamism
8
Q
A
Rivera, Detroit Industry, 1930’s
- hired/sponsored by Ford for publicity
- Rivera saw his work as speaking to the normal person, a worker
- Ford trying to rebuil reputation after they layed off workers who then staged a hunger strike
- 27 panel mutal in 8 months at detroit museum
- pushes a connection between biology and technology
- saw mechanical energies as similiar to natural forces
- gives equal treatment to machines and people
- shows good and bad effects of science
- scene of vaccinnating children next to scene of creating poisonous gas to kill enemies
- birth scene
9
Q
A
Bourke-White, At the Time of the Kentucky Flood, 1930’s
- uses her background in commercial photography, figures lined up, repitition like products
- would work to make mass production aesthetically pleasing in her early career
- became more interested in real people working in those factories
- she shifted her interests and goals
10
Q
A
Dove, Nature Symbolized, 1910’s
- art nouveau
- invisible energies
- Dove avoided NYC, wanted to “live life out loud” by the sea shore and woods
- shapes appear larger than the dimensions of the paper itself
- expressed a growing reaction to mechanization
- expressed nature in rhythm
11
Q
A
Tyron and Perisphere, NY World’s Fair, 1939
12
Q
A
O’Keefe, Evening Star no. IV, 1910’s
- early abstraction, has poetic descriptions
- combined music, sound, and nature
- primarily organic shapes, not sharp lines
- style grounded in nature
- Stieglitz circle critics saw art as gender defined and saw many sexual references in her work
- she drew circles as wombs, based off her experience as a woman
13
Q
A
Rockwell, Freedom from Want, 1940’s
- paintings turned into war posters
- based off FDR’s speech highlighting American freedoms as reason to enter WWII
- features “Americanness” pride nostalgia freedom
14
Q
A
Sullivan, Schlesinger and Mayer Department Store, 1899
- 12 stories high
- steel frame structre encased in fire proof ceramic tiles
- Sullivan refused to disguise the underlying structural grid
- in Chicago
- used new materials like plate glass, allowing customers to see expansive displays from the street
- different from other surrounding buildings, not classical but more matter of fact
15
Q
A
Evans, Let us Now Praise Famous Men, 1930’s
- from a book of photos done with a partner
- sharecropper families hit extremely hard
- spent time getting to know the subjects, stayed in their homes
- photos don’t have titles by his partner wrote text that accompany the pictures
- confrontational attitudes
*
16
Q
A
Abbott, Murray Hill Hotel, 1930’s
- after working with a journalist, she begins to see photography as having a social effect instead of her old portrait and scenery business
- documents NY in the depression
- american flag symbolizing patriotism
17
Q
A
Van Alen, Chrysler Building, 1930’s
- the skyscraper became distictly american
- midtown manhattan, instantly recognizable
- tripartite in form
- base of 20 stories with a shaft that sets back before 27 more stories
- cascade of arches in sunburst formation
- stainless steel
- chevron windows
18
Q
A
Lange, Migrant Mother, 1930’s
- at a roadside camp for impoverished migrant farmers
- hired by the FSA to help them start a PR campaign to help these people relocate
- chosen out of many photos because of its close composition
- people can sympothize with the mother
- shows despair felt at the time
19
Q
A
Wood, American Gothic, 1930’s
- found a real house and imagined the people he thought would live there
- woman based off his sister, man a dentist
- exploration of Iowa
- simple and straightforward composition
- celebrates midwest people but also pokes fun at them as being conservative and humorless
- he wrote a book called “revolt againts the city”
- revolt to the countryside isolates people who are different as “unamerican”
20
Q
A
Demuth, I Saw the Figure Five in Gold, 1920’s
- a portrait of the poet william carlos williams
- not traditional face, but description through words and style
- same title as one of his poems, includes his name
- language of advertising and billboards
- poem about the city, red firetruck
- # 5 descending in size, showing motion
- geometrical representation of sound, doplar effect with sound
- are we ready to turn art over to commercialism?
- are we ready to define ourselves by corporate brands and defing the language we speak as advertising?
21
Q
A
Coburn, The Octopus, 1910’s
- americans differentiated themselves from europeans with skyscrapers
- view of madison square, taken from the Metropolitan Life building, whose shadow cuts directly across the frame
- from this high angle, the horizon dissappears
- moves beyond photographic illusion into abstract design
- isolating fragments of the city from their urban context
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22
Q
A
Bourke-White & Caldwell, Happy Hollow Georgia, You Have Seen their Faces, 1930’s
- usually used as a negative example and counterpoint to “Let us Now Praise Famous Men”
- wrote captions for people that were made up
- not authentic, doesn’t let you get to know them or imagine, you’re only left to feel bad for them
- presents southern sharecroppers as victims of a corrupt southern society, deprived of dignity and incapable of managing their lives
- uses dramatic angles and lighting to provoke
- interaction between photographer and subject obviously unnatural
- they violated public truths by altering the photos
