Intro Info- What is Modern Art?

from the into powerpoint lecture

Alfred Barr

founding director and curator of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, responsible for deciding what is modern art and the relationships between its movements during the 20th century

picture ex: Barr, Cubism and Abstract Art, 1936

What is Art History?

studying not only art’s formal qualities but also the history and context in which artists and art movements evolve over time

picture ex: Hank Willis Thomas, Colonialism and Abstract Art, 2019

Painting as a Window to the World

a way to catalogue images before photography, a way to tell stories, mean to reflect reality

The Renaissance as a Breaking Point

• going from flat and stylized medieval work to looking at a painting and it appearing realistic

• realism becomes the norm and gold standard for the next 500ish years

• changes= perspective, shading added, creation of space that the viewer can imagine walking through, form created by lines shifts over to using color and gradation to create volume

Break of Modernity

• around 1860’s

• photography becomes anxiety-inducing to artists because replication of the world in front of them becomes so easy

• return to flatness, recognition that a painting is comprised of physical materials

• focused on what object we are creating vs replication of a 3D world on a 2D plane

Shift Towards Abstraction

• shift towards non-representation, not a complete departure though

• more focus on the formal qualities of a work

• reach towards total and full abstraction around WWI

• total abstraction= completely removed from representation of reality, “orgiastic feast of color and line"- Prof. Helena, formal elements

• more artists rise to prominence outside of traditional education

• push back on what art is, what painting is

• ironically, looking at reality with a closer leads artists to abstraction

Categorical Expansion of Art As Object (painting or sculpture)

• around 1950s the art object (painting or sculpture) begins to collapse and expand at the same time

• intentionality, conceptualism, performance art ex: the physicality of Jackson Pollock moving around and painting on the floor = painting

• earthworks- taking sculpture out of the context of a museum, time as an element of sculpture comes int the conversation ex: the spiral jetty = sculpture

The Salon and the Birth of the Art Critic

the Salon:

• 1860s

• run by French govt bodies, govt appointed jury

• hung in public space

• salon-style display where paintings hang on top of one another all the way to the ceiling

• chaotic with no space for reflection on pieces

Art Critic Birth:

• comes from the overwhelming display of the Salon

• need for someone to tell public which pieces to pay attention to at the Salon each year

• decide on the 5 main genres of visual art

5 Main Types of Genre for Visual Art

• History Painting

• Landscape

• Portrait

• Still Life

• Genre Painting (scenes of everyday life)

*in traditional art world of Salon-time Paris, art critics placed most value on History Painting and Landscape,History Painting being the most important*