(SII-V) Art: The Art of the Jazz Age (ACADEC '25-'26)

What are all the terms applied to the period between the end of the First World War in 1918 and the stock market crash of October 1929?

The Jazz Age, the Roaring Twenties, and the Machine Age

What were the Roaring Twenties defined by?

Fashion was opulent and glamorous; music was fast; people were moving to cities; car and home ownership were on the rise.

What made the Roaring Twenties a dynamic era of innovation?

New roles for women, the growth of Black arts, and the energetic acceptance of rapid technological change

What were the negatives of the Roaring Twenties?

Labor conflicts, racial tensions, and violence

What did the art of the Roaring Twenties capture?

Through abstraction or forms of realist representation, this art captured the contradictions and tensions through diverse forms of production

What mode of training and exhibition were artists operating within at the turn of the 20th century?

The academy system

When did the academy system emerge?

The 1820s

What was the most powerful art organization at the turn of the 20th century?

The National Academy of Design

What did the National Academy of Design tend to do?

Reward narrative paintings and landscapes done in Impressionist styles

Who was access to exhibition opportunities in the National Academy of Design controlled by?

Juries

Who often headed juries?

An older generation of artists

What wasn’t encouraged in the National Academy of Design?

Taking risks with subject matter or style

By what period was America poised to become a dynamic site of modernist experimentation?

The end of the First World War

Who was the unofficial leader off the Ashcan School?

Robert Henri

Between what years did the Ashcan School operate?

1905-17

What did Ashcan School artists often paint?

Modern life in New York

What kind of style did Ashcan School artists often paint in?

A gritty style

What kind of artist was Robert Henri?

A portrait artist

Where did Robert Henri study?

Philadelphia and Paris

Where did Robert Henri move after studying in Philadelphia and Paris?

New York

What year did Robert Henri move to New York?

1901

What position did Robert Henri take up in New York?

A teaching position

What artists did Robert Henri mentor?

John Sloan, William Glackens, George Wesley Bellows, and George Benjamin Luksa group known as the Ashcan School.

Who were the artists that Robert Henri mentored known for?

Their representations of New York City

What images did artists that Robert Henri mentored often produce?

Images featuring the everyday lives of working-class people and the grittier side of life in poor neighborhoods

What did Ashcan School artists often rely on?

Thickly applied impasto brushwork

Who inspired the Ashcan School’s impasto brushwork?

European painters, including Diego Velazquez, Frans Hals, and Edouard Manet

What did Ashcan School artists do because they were frustrated by rejection from juries at more conservative artistic venues?

They took advantage of the growing number of small, independent art galleries in New York

Who painted “Tradition”?

Kenyon Cox

When was the painting “Tradition” created?

1916

What did Kenyon Cox’s artistic work celebrate?

Traditional art-making in Renaissance revival style, far removed from the abstract experiments going on in Europe

What museum was the painting “Tradition” sourced from?

Cleveland Museum of Art, gift of J.D. Cox

Who painted “Stag at Sharkey’s”?

George Wesley Bellows

When was the painting “Stag at Sharkey’s” created?

1909

What museum was “Stag at Sharkey’s” sourced from?

The Cleveland Museum of Art

What collection was “Stag at Sharkey’s” sourced from?

The Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection

Who painted “Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2”?

Marcel Duchamp

When was “Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2” created?

1912

What was “Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2” defined by?

Its angular representation of the human form in motion and its collapse of space and time

What show did “Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2” confound viewers?

The 1913 Armory Show

In what year was a group show at Macbeth Gallery in Manhattan?

1908

What artists were featured at the Macbeth Gallery in Manhattan?

Henri, Sloan, Glackens, Luks, Everett Shinn, Maurice Prendergast, Ernest Lawson, and Arthur B. Davies.

What did Henri, Sloan, Glackens, Luks, Everett Shinn, Maurice Prendergast, Ernest Lawson, and Arthur B. Davies call themselves?

The Eight

What was the Eight’s work seen as?

Bold and modern

How did the Eight gain the name the Ashcan School?

It was bestowed by an unfriendly critic

What did the Ashcan School often represent?

Immigrant neighborhoods and sites of working-class entertainment, such as bars and restaurants, music halls, and boxing clubs.

By what year did the Ashcan School largely disband?

1917

What did the Ashcan School bring into American painting?

A fresh perspective and focus on social issues

What did Ashcan artists’ work not contain?

The aggressive formal experimentation that characterized European avant-garde art movements

What did Ashcan artists retain a commitment to?

Naturalism, the representation of things as they appear to the eye

What kind of movements were present in Europe during the operation of the Ashcan School?

Cubism, Fauvism, and Expressionism

What was one of the key events that brought new styles to public awareness in the United States?

The International Exhibition of Modern Art

Where was the International Exhibition of Modern Art on view at?

The 69th Regiment Armory building in New York

When was the International Exhibition of Modern Art operating in New York City?

February and March 1913

Where did the International Exhibition of Modern Art travel?

Chicago and Boston

What was the International Exhibition of Modern Art nicknamed?

The Armory Show

Who organized the Armory Show?

Arthur B. Davies, Walt Kuhn, and Walter Pach

How many works did the Armory Show bring together?

More than 1300 works of modern and contemporary European and American art

What did most pieces chosen for the Armory Show represent?

The state of contemporary art in both Europe and the United States

How many people saw the Armory Show exhibition at its 3 venues?

Between 250,000 and 275,000 people

What art movement was Claude Monet a part of?

Impressionism

What Impressionist was included in the Armory Show?

Claude Monet

What were the unfamiliar movements included in the Armory Show?

Cubism, Expressionism, and Futurism

Who were unfamiliar artists included in the Armory Show?

Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp

Where was the “Five-Way Portrait of Marcel Duchamp” created?

Broadway Photo Shop, New York City

When was the “Five-Way Portrait of Marcel Duchamp” created?

1917

What is Futurism?

An Italian movement focusing on speed, technology, modern life, dynamism, and violence.

When was Futurism popular?

The early 20th-century

What did some critics of the Armory Show equate?

They equated radical forms of visual experimentation with unwelcome political developments

Who called modernist abstraction “Lawless Art” in the title of her review?

Leila Mechlen

What did another critic describe artworks of modernist abstraction as?

“The chatter of anarchistic monkeys”

Who was the president of the National Academy of Design?

Painter John White Alexander

Was John White Alexander supportive of modernist abstraction?

Yes

What did John White Alexander recognize about art in the National Academy of Design?

The need for change to shake up the American art world

Who did John White Alexander write in favor of?

The younger artists he called “rebels”

Who said: “Reactions against the academy’s sober and restrained methods are not only inevitable but necessary”?

John Alexander White

What did the Armory Show do for American art world just before the outbreak of the First World War?

Breath much-needed energy into the American art world

What did the Armory Show inspire American collectors to do?

It inspired them to start purchasing contemporary art

What did the Armory Show encourage?

It encouraged the development of a culture of independent galleries, salons, and artistic publications.

What were artistic publication’s function?

Like-minded modernists could discuss art, poetry, and politics

Where did Dada art begin?

Switzerland

When did Dada art begin?

1915

Why did several French artists relocate to New York during WWI?

Because war was raging in many areas of Western Europe

What are examples of French artists who relocated to New York?

Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia

When did Marcel Duchamp relocate to New York?

1915

Where did French artists who relocated to New York gather?

The home of Louise and Walter Arensburg

Who were Louise and Walter Arensburg?

Collectors and champions of modernism

What is a salon?

Intellectual gatherings convened by wealthy hosts

What are “little magazines”?

Short-lived independent periodicals

What bolstered artistic experimentation during WWI?

Salons and critics from “little magazines”

What were New York Dada artists especially interested in?

Conceptual art

What is conceptual art?

Artworks more concerned with the concept, or the idea behind the art, than with its fabrications, artistic technique, or forms of representation.

Instead of embracing aesthetics, what did NY Dada artists embrace?

Chance/randomness, nonsense, and refashioning of items of everyday life into artworks

What did NY Dada artists explore concepts of?

Authorship

What idea did NY Dada artists challenge?

That artistic quality was tied to skill and training

Who made “In Advance of the Broken Arm”?

Marcel Duchamp

When was “In Advance of the Broken Arm” created?

1915

What is “In Advance of the Broken Arm”?

A metal snow shovel

What are ready-mades?

Ordinary consumer products that were purchased, titled, and displayed in artistic spaces

Who commonly used ready-mades?

Marcel Duchamp