Final exam Flashcards
Cubism
1907-1920 had a huge influence on the 20th century revolutionized the way artists looked at the space of the canvas - multiple vantage points -geometric construction - sharp edges - angles
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
Pablo Picasso completely flat, multiple vantage points inspired by still life and Cézanne Draws on traditional art history-- two venues Things are simplified and distorted referring to prostitutes as demoiselles
Analytic cubism
muted palette
geometric exploration of space
Synthetic cubism
Idea of collage
newspaper to give texture, the symbol of words
More colour, less use of forms
interest in flat area of colour and collage
Futurism
1909-1944 based in Italy
interest in speed, technology, movement and modernity as linked to industry and machines
Glorified war in favour of fascism
uninterested in the past, always looking forward
don’t believe in libraries, museums any kind of academic tradition
apocalyptic language
Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
Umberto Boccioni Figure wearing a helmet A lot of movement in a forward direction assertive, very robbotic representation of what futurism is about
The City
Fernand Léger
Depicting a city, the chaos and dynamic of a city
very industrial
influence of synthetic cubism
Suprematism
1913-1919
Focused on basic geometric shapes (circle, square, line, rectangle)
refers to an abstract art based on pure artistic feeling as opposed to the visual depiction on objects
interested in depicting emotion
Composition with the Mona Lisa
Malevich,
Can see the influence from cubism
not interested in the past, look towards abstraction
about the feeling
Black Square
Malevich
represents pure feeling, the cosmos, void
Achieve a representation of the mystical with the use of pure forms which carry pure feeling
Neoplasticism/ De Stijl
1917-1931
Believe in pure abstraction and universality
Reduced painting to the essentials of form and colour
Simplified visual compositions to vertical and horizontal using only black, white, and primary colours
Composition in Red, Yellow, Blue and Black
Mondrian
he was a landscape painter and the realized
“Painting had to be honest to its medium”
meaning he had to focus on line and colour and move away from trying to imitate nature
for him this is purity and universality
Dada
1916-1920
Post WW1– feeling of loss and despair, pessimism
Dada artists don’t share a style necessarily but a common ideology
- anti war
-anti bourgeois
- anti art
- for nihilism or nothingness
interest in chance, spontaneity, flexibility
Bicycle wheel
Duchamp
readymade: objects that already exist
puts the readymade in an art environment like gallery or museum
more based om the idea than the object
When you take an object out of its usual context you look at it differently
life doesn’t make sense so why should art make sense
Fountain (urinal)
Duchamp
Simply put the urinal in a museum and called it art
Class debate is it art of not?
Surrealism
1924-1930
Interest in spontaneity, the unconscious, dreams, imagination
Interest in “pure psychic automatism by which it is intended to express the true function of thought.”
stream of consciousness
Place d’Italie
Giorgio de Chirico shows different time periods -renaissance architecture - Greek/roman statue - train= modernity eerie feeling, strange, mysterious sense of isolation
The Persistence of Memory
Salvador Dali Bunch of isolated objects dreamscape-- doesn't make sense reference to the passing of time Ants on the alarm clock represent death Shape in the middle = self portrait of Dali
The Two Fridas
Frida Kahlo
Very personal/ emotional approach
suffered a lot of physical and emotional pain
represents two parts of herself
- White Frida: ties to her European side
holding scissors and literally has a broken heart
- Colour Frida: ties to her Mexican origins
holding a picture of her husband.
Abstract Expressionism
1940-1960
nonfigurative and nonrepresentational
interest in the expressive qualities of painting
directly out of surrealism
put the US on the map in the art world
Many artists moved away from Europe because of the political situation (Nazis)
Study for the Homage to the Square
Joseph Albers
Series of paintings of this subject matter (the square)
smooth brush strokes
“Art should not represent but present”
Should not try to be something else
Not about copying nature but showing something new
Action Painting
1950
painting consisted of dripping, splashing, throwing, spaying the paint
not a controlled composition
ideas of Dada and Surrealism
White Light
Jackson Pollock When the public saw this, they were shocked but became very popular huge pieces no frame, continues on forever Pollock is the main name
Colour field painting
opposite approach from action painting
interested in applying paint more traditionally and exploring colour field
no interest in lines
calm, introspective, meditative, spiritual
Number 61 (Rust and Blue)
Mark Rothko very calm and spiritual Rothko was interested in Spirituality but in a was everyone could relate to About transcending the natural world about the colors
The Group of Seven
Founded in 1920 in Toronto until about 1933
Best known group of canadian painters
Dedicated to exploring the unique character of the Canadian landscape
About freedom, wilderness, loneliness
October evening
A.Y. Jackson had been studying in Europe was based in Montreal and then joined the group in Toronto Clear influence of the Impressionists - brushstrokes and use of colour
Pop Art
1950-1960
Pop art includes elements from pop culture:
- mass culture – comic books mass-produced and consumable objects
- media (advertisement, labels, logos)
Pop art is a move away from elitist art, and the subjectivity and unconscious act of abstract expressionism
returns to the figurative and generic
public liked it because they recognized things
Marilyn Diptych
Andy Warhol
Oil, acrylic and silk screen printing
called his studio the factory
started as a commercial painter
was obsessed with marilyn monroe – the celebrity status
Based on a publicity photo from the 50s
very eye catching, bright colours
On on side we have the manufactured fame, oversaturated
on the other side, it is blurry and fading away
Minimalism
1960s
simplicity can capture all representation that is necessary to a work of art
no reference to nature, meaning or content
moving away from abstract expressionism
interested in uniformity, repetition, neutral surfaces
not about anything else than what is there
interest in how people navigate space
Well
Carl Andre
Duchamp’s idea of the ready made
called it sculpture even though he is just placing things, not really building or molding anything
Titled Arc
Richard Serra
Huge arc made out of steal in a public square in New York
Site specific work– can’t really move in
Wanted to make people aware of how they used space
very busy square and some people liked it, and some hated it
was eventually removed
Conceptual Art
1960-1970
Based on the idea that the idea of the work is more important than the actual work itself
takes the ideas of minimalism even further
links to Duchamp and Dada
involves a lot of deconstruction - what makes art art?
Vertical Earth Kilometer
Walter de Maria
Brass Rod that is put in the Earth for 1 kilometer
many pieces screwed together
in Kassel Germany
Mostly exists in peoples minds because you can’t actually see it
Performance Art and Happenings
1960-1970
Group of people at a particular time and place form the work of art.
4 components
- time
-space
-performers body
- relationship between the performer and the viewer
The Artist is present
Marina Abramovic
This was at the MoMA from March to May
She would sit at the table and people were invited to sit in front of her
There was no talking.
Artists usually put themselves through a difficult thing.
Feminist Art Practices
1970
Linda Nochlin- “Why has there not been any great female artists?”
Social practices that exclude women like:
- education, art schools were closed to women
- nude drawing classes/workshops did not allow women
- patronage, exhibition, sales– for men
- women often signed the name of their art master
- women were expected to be housewives
Cut piece
Yoko Ono
performance
was sitting on a stage fully dressed with a pair of scissors and the audience could go and cut out pieces of her clothes
she was very interested in using her body in her pieces
African-American Critiques
1960-1970
Interested in the difference in opportunities between black and white people and racism
Revolutionary
Wadsworth Jarrel,
Portrait of activist Angela Davis
Story about being accused of providing weapons for an ambush
She was a very powerful and charismatic person
in her dress we can see a quote where she says “I have devoted my life to the struggle, if I have to lose it to the struggle that is the way it will be.”
The Gift
Norval Morriseau
Very politically charged
on the left is a missionary and on the left is a shaman and a child.
the missionary and shaman are talking and the child is very intrigued by the bag with the cross
the small dots could represent small pocks
American earthworks
1970s
were working in nature but the art was not about nature
feeling of revolt
- anti-commercial
- anti-institution
Believed art was influenced by art money
Found the wall of a museum/gallery limiting
Everything makes the art (conception to completion)
Double negative
Michael Heizer huge trench in Nevada About removing instead of creating About the space as opposed to the object approx. 200 000 tones of dirt were moved
Spiral Jetty
Robert Smithson
In Great Salt Lake, Utah
On a post-industrial site
6 650 tones of dirt were moved
Smithson was a great theorist– to humans come from nature so anything humans do is also part of nature
Believed in entropy– everything is headed towards destruction
