Modern Art 241 Exam 2

German Expressionism

began in 1905 with Die Brucke (The Bridge). They hoped to break the academic, traditional, and impressionistic modes and create art that was a creative impulse. They often published journals and exhibition catalogs using their own prints as illustrations.

Die Brucke

a movement of German expressionists formed in Dresden. Paintings were emotionally agitating - portrayed claustrophobic/crowded city streets, figures seem to be wearing masks. Express emotion through non-naturalistic, bright colors. Compared to Fauves.

Worpswede

a town in germany where german expressionists met up and lived

Der Blaue Reiter

a German group who believed in charging form and color with a purely spiritual meaning eliminating all resemblance to the physical world (Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc)

Primitivism

a belief in the value of what is simple and unsophisticated, expressed as a philosophy of life or through art or literature.

Lebensreform

bohemian social reform movement originating in mid-19th century (various waves of the movement); interest in "renewal" of the body (nude bathing, spas, free love, vegetarian diet, etc.); alternative to urbanization and industrialization; associated w/ long history of naturism (nudism) in Germany

Gemeinshaft and Gesellschaft

theory that distinguishes between 2 major types of groups: communities, which share beliefs, ancestry, or geography; and society, which work together toward a common goal

Synesthesia

describing one kind of sensation in terms of another ("a loud color", "a sweet sound")

Cubism

an early 20th-century style and movement in art, especially painting, in which perspective with a single viewpoint was abandoned and use was made of simple geometric shapes, interlocking planes, and, later, collage.

Conventions of Representation

established rules, styles, or methods for portraying something, common to a specific time, culture, or medium

Plentitude

having complete access to the full spectrum of experience; being fully immersed. The condition of being full or complete; nothing is mediated

Trompe l'oeil

visual illusion in art, especially as used to trick the eye into perceiving a painted detail as a three-dimensional object.

Semiotic Reading

interprets artworks as "signs" to understand how they communicate meaning within specific cultural contexts

Sign, signified, signifier

Sign = signifier/signified. Where signifier is the collection, like c, a, and t, and signified is the meaning. This means that for something to make sense, you have to put things together

Collage

artistic composition of materials pasted over a surface; an assemblage of diverse elements, the visuals on the cut pieces matter less than the shapes they make

Ferdinand de Saussure, Short Course in General Linguistics, 1916

a foundational text that shifted linguistics from historical to structural studies

Futurism

a movement in modern art that grew out of cubism. Artists used implied motion by shifting planes and having multiple viewpoints of the subject. They strived to show mechanical as well as natural motion and speed. The beginning of the machine age is what inspired these artists

Center/Periphery

relationship between colonized and colonizing nations. Capitalist globalization results in dependency theory with underdeveloped colonized nations

Serata

the theatrical, provocative, and often chaotic evening events staged by the Italian Futurists in the early 20th century

Abstract

existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence.

Non-objectivity

no subject at all, just an interplay of pure elements like line, shape, or color, and so on

Monochrome

having one color; a painting, design, photo, or outfit that is only one color or shades of one color

Readymade

an object made for another purpose, but displayed by an artist as art (bicycle wheel, urinal, hat rack)

Dada

artistic movement in which artists rejected tradition and produced works that often shocked their viewers

Photomontage

a technique of pasting parts from many pictures together into one image, in dada's case pasting machine parts in drawn art

Aura

cult value is the original, ritualistic significance of an artwork tied to its uniqueness and history, while exhibition value is the value that an artwork gains through mass reproduction and public display

World War 1

1914-1918

Carbaret Voltaire 1916

zurich, anti-war, artist and writers, cafe, hideout

Weimar Republic

german republic founded after the WWI and the downfall of the German Empire's monarchy. 1919

First International Dada Fair

1920