Modern Art History Quiz 1

James Van der Zee
Dancer
photograph, 1925

• Documenting Black life in Harlem

• Subject’s liked how James Van der Zee depicted them

• The photos are “better than life”

  • Retouched

  • Studio photography

  • Expensive, luxurious clothing

  • Stately pose

  • Creates a dream of “what life was like”

Aaron Douglas
Congo
1928

• Imaginging his life in Congo

• A “call and reponse” with Africa

  • He doesn’t know his African ancestry

  • This is an imagined version of it

  • References the importance of ancestors (singing and dancing calls to them)

    • Reverberation of sound (concentric circles)

Augusta Savage
Gamin
1929

• Depicts the reality of Black street life

  • Cap worn by newspaper boys + other working youth

  • Kids working for their keep

• Her nephew modelled for this

  • Moved to live w/ her in Harlem after a hurricane

Charles White
Folksinger (Voice of Jericho: Portrait of Harry Belafonte)
1957

• Artist involved in Black liberation

• Images of African power and dignity

• Dynamic strokes show movement + rhythmn

• Highlighting Black art + physical act of singing

Anita Malfatti
The Man of Seven Colors
1916

• Constructing an “ideal body” to represent Brazil

• Depicts Brazil’s natural resources

• Purpose: Constructing a “national identity” for Brazil

  • W/ bright and earthy colors (like the rainforest)

  • Using the “essence of Brazil” to create her work

• Ambigious body could suggest idealism for a multi-race society in Brazil

Tarsila do Amaral
Postcard
1929

• Modern art isn’t just about depicting humans / animals in an industrial setting

  • Believes this is important to being a modern painter in Brazil

    • Taking the Brazil terrain into account

• References to naivete in art

  • The simplified style doesn’t require you to understand European art.

  • Purpose: Makes it feel more original to Brazil

Candido Portinari
Coffee Farm Worker
1934

• Artist grew up on coffee plantation

  • Coffee is a big Brazilian export (important to Brazilian identity)

  • Never-ending fields emphsize importance

• Englarged extremities go against European art conventions

  • Brazil estab. it’s own style

• Artist part of the Neo-realism movement

  • Focuses on lower class (ex. plantation worker)

Roberto Montenegro
Maya Women
1926

• Geometric edges on the neck and chest line

• Very one dimensional

• Reminiscent of paintings found in Mayan ruins (esp. side profile + front facing bodies)

• Uses the houses as a pictogram

  • Doesn’t follow typical European are conventions of a landscape

    • (Brazil estab. style)

  • Similar to depict. of landscape in Mayan art

Diego Rivera
The Rural Teacher
1932

• People and teacher are indigenous

  • Nowhere else to teach → teach outside

• Man w/ rifle → show revolution is still present

  • “Education for all” is one of it’s achievements

Manuel Álvarez Bravo
Tumba reciente [Fresh Grave]
1933

• Quote placed w/ display → “As the generation of leaves, so is that of men.”

  • Reminder that death is the end of life cyle (like leaves in winter)

• But the Mexican people see it differently

  • As a perpetual cycle of renewal

  • Emphasized by the dandelion weed growing from the dry direct

    • Symbolizing resiliance of the human spirit

Rufino Tamayo
Woman with a Bird Cage
1941

• Interesting combination of influences

• Can see Cubist (Picasso) influence in the painting

  • Ex. Face (masklike) and chest (shelf-like)

• Masklike face references the artist’s indigenous past

  • Taking the past + programing it into the present using the language of cubism

Frida Kahlo
Carma II [Karma II]
1946

• Different from her usual style

  • Surrealist + abstract expressionist

• Interconnectedness of everything via Karma

  • Actions + previous lives determine fate

• Her body + important objects becoming nature

  • Unibrow = sun horizon

  • Plants growing from hands

  • Thorny trees turning into breathing tube

    • Feeling trapped by her surgery (bc it made her immobile for 2 months)