Art Flashcards

Impressionism, Postimpressionism, Fauvism, Cubism

characteristics of impressionism

* originated in france
* light and its reflection on various surfaces
* short brushstrokes
* separating color and letting the eye’s perception mix them

*Impressionism Sunrise* - Monet

* harbor in France in the early, misty morning
* “impression” of sun coming up in the morning
* most famous
* sun vanishes without color

*Luncheon on the Grass -* Manet

* disliked by “the salon”
* nude woman w. clothed men that don’t care
* woman staring at audience
* man on the right imitates Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam”
* criticized for being flat and one-dimensional
* commonly used model, incorrectly assumed to be prostitute

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*Paris Street; Rainy Day* - Caillebotte

* great painting of urban life (modernized city)
* “impression” of rain through lighting
* see all social classes, portrays the isolation of man
* balanced but not symmetrical

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*A Bar at the Folies Bergere* - Manet

* lots of still life
* the audience is supposed to be the man in the mirror
* lack of detail in faces behind bartender
* criticized for inaccurate reflections

*Luncheon of the Boating Party* - Renoir

* modern daily life, depicts artists friends (well to-do city people)
* still life, figures, and landscape common in impressionism
* very large and color, light shimmers throughout

*The Saint Lazare Train Station* - Monet

* modern life, urban landscapes
* Paris’s largest and busiest train terminals
* play of light through smoke of train, billowing clouds of steam, and the locomotives

*Rehearsal on Stage* - Degas

* glimpse of modern life (ballet was major part of Parisian culture)
* casual moment of rehearsal
* quickly drawn, naturally posed
* lightness of dancing ballerinas v. dancers on the left waiting to perform
* lack of color is aytpical for impressionism (critics see it as a drawing)

characteristics of post-impressionism

* want art to be more substantial
* seurat and cezzane: formal, near scientific design
* gauguin, van Gogh, lautrec: emotion through color and light
* cubism and surrealism grew out of this
* chromoluminarism (divisionism), pointilism, impasto

chromoluminarism/divisionism

separation of colors into individual dots or patches; social themes and christian symbolism

pointilism

use tiny dots of various pure colors that became blended in viewer’s eyes; developed by Georges Seurat for a greater degree of luminosity and brilliance of color

focuses on urban life and secular themes

impasto

laying on paint or pigment thickly so that it stands out from a surface

*Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grande Jatte -* Seurat

* criticized bc looked stiff and rigid
* “boredom and tedium of middle class life”
* parodied many times
* heavy use of pointilism and divisionism

*Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear* - van Gogh

* japanese woodblock print in the background (big fan of this art style)
* cut off his ear when his friend decided to stop collaborating with him
* asks prostitute to guard it → mental asylum

*Starry Night -* van Gogh

* dot to dot effect through spacing between stars and curving contours
* ensure fluidity and contours even tho less important for others
* surreal, stylized; used lines instead of silhouettes
* comfort and stability through light in dark village in contrast to swirling motifs

*At the Moulin Rouge* - Toulouse

* self portrait (short man next to tall man in the back), loved painting nightlife in Paris
* had very small legs because they broke and never healed properly
* tried capturing electric lamp lighting on dancer’s face

*The Scream* - Munch

* mount krakatoa erupted, colored skies all over the world
* attempt at expressing internal emotion or panic attack
* *synthesia*: a neural disorder where ur senses become tangled
* two copies, several pastel recreations
* genderless face
* ppl in background might be friends of artist

*Still Life with Apples and Oranges* - Cezanne

* still life painting dying out at this time (mainly to show off painting skills)
* not extremely realistic (no gravity, table legs, distorted)
* use of geometrical shapes influenced cubism

*Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?* - Gaugin

* failed stock broker in Tahiti
* painted in a month on cloth sack, he believed it was his best work
* tried to drink poison afterwards
* never explained meaning or symbolism in the piece
* infant and women may be discussing future (come from)
* man toiling next to them or person picking fruit (what/where we are)
* old woman about to die (where we are going)
* not proportional figures

*The Thinker* - Rodin

* restored artists reputation (ppl scorned by previous sculpture)
* originally, “The Poet” representing Dante
* for a museum that never opened
* thinking with every muscle fiber in his body

characteristics of Fauvism

* group of artists use harmonious colors
* heavy saturation of color
* use color for its own sake, not to look realistic

characteristics of cubism

* use of geometric shapes
* get emotion from unrealistic shapes
* flattened picture
* multiple perspectives
* monochromatic color palette

*Guernica* - Picasso

* monochromatic (convey starkness of war)
* bombing during Spanish Civil War, portrays violence
* bull (spanish symbol), horse, screaming women, dead baby, dismember soldiers and flames
* raised funds for Spanish war relief

*Open Window* - Matisse

*La Danse* - Matisse

*Blue Nude* - Matisse

*The Old Guitarist* - Picasso

*Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon* - Picasso

*Three Women* - Leger