Civ semester 2 final

Rococo Art (Early to Mid-1700s)

• Light, decorative, and playful style focusing on elegance and beauty.

• Depicted the leisure and luxury of the French aristocracy.

• Moved away from serious, classical art toward more personal and romantic scenes.

• Criticized by Enlightenment thinkers for being morally shallow.

• Symbolized class division; its extravagance contributed to the tensions leading to the French Revolution.

18th-Century English Art

• Focused on satire, especially in London-based story series.

• Criticized the excesses and corruption of the upper class.

• Artists used humor and exaggeration to reveal social problems.

• Often featured ordinary settings to highlight class inequalities.

• Helped shape early social commentary through art.

Neoclassical Art (Late 1700s–Early 1800s)

• Inspired by ancient Greek and Roman art and ideals.

• Focused on order, anatomy, clear lines, and moral virtue.

• Often tied to revolutionary movements in America, France, and Haiti.

• A direct reaction to the lightheartedness of Rococo.
  Promoted seriousness, patriotism, and heroic subjects.

Romanticism (Late 1700s–Mid 1800s)

• Emphasized emotion, imagination, and the power of nature.

• Rejected reason and logic from the Enlightenment era.

• Artists explored pain, mystery, and the sublime (awe + terror).

• Looked to the Middle Ages and fantasy for inspiration.

• Key themes included freedom, individualism, and inner experience.

Romantic Landscape Painting (19th Century)

• Used nature as a way to express personal emotions and ideas.
  Blended realistic scenery with symbolic or emotional content.
  Often showed dramatic weather, vast spaces, or ruins.

• Reflected a fascination with the sublime and human insignificance.

• Highlighted the beauty and unpredictability of the natural world.

Photography (Invented in 1839)

• New medium using silver-based processes like heliotype, calotype, and daguerreotype.

• Made art more accessible and allowed real-life events to be captured quickly.
  Considered an art form, not just a science or documentation tool.

• Tied to the Industrial Revolution and the rise of mass production.
  Helped democratize image-making and challenge traditional painting.

Realism (1848–1860s)

• Focused on everyday life, especially working-class people and rural laborers.
  Rejected idealized history, myth, and religion in favor of the observable world.

• Artists like Courbet and Millet portrayed ordinary people with dignity.

• Included social and political messages, sometimes controversial.

• Marked a major break from academic traditions and grand historical subjects.

Impressionism (1870s–1880s)

• Response to rapid changes happening in 19th century France, particularly in Paris (advancements in tech, urbanization, growing middle class, which all impacted artistic expression)

• Completed works looked more like sketches (fast/preliminary) → critics viewed it as absurd to sell these works

• Challenged the Academie’s hierarchy of subject matter:

• Questioned the use of “history paintings” + believed that landscapes/genre scenes were worthy/important of a large scale

• Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet or La Gare St Lazare by Claude Monet

Modernism (1848–1960)

• A broad cultural movement focused on breaking from past traditions.

• Reflects industrialization, urban life, and a shift away from religion.

• Artists turned to personal expression and experimentation.

• Embraced “avant-garde” risks and explored new subjects and forms.

• Influenced by social change, consumer culture, and global expansion.

Cubism (Early 1900s)

• Broke objects into geometric shapes and showed multiple viewpoints.

• Proto Cubism: depicting objects in geometric forms, often breaking down shapes and perspectives to reveal the underlying structure. 

• Analytic Cubism: muted colors, fragmented forms, like broken glass.

• Synthetic Cubism: added collage, brighter colors, still life themes.

• Curvilinear Cubism: softer, rounder shapes with more emotional energy.

• Rejected realistic perspective and traditional composition.

German Expressionism (Early 1900s)

• Prioritized emotional intensity over realistic detail.

• Die Brücke (The Bridge): raw, bold art showing urban anxiety and social issues.

• Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider): abstract, symbolic, and spiritual exploration.

• Used harsh colors and distorted figures to express inner feelings.

• Reflected the tensions and rapid changes of modern life.

Dada (1914–1920s)

• An anti-art movement reacting to World War I and traditional culture.

• Focused on absurdity, randomness, and rejecting logic and reason.

• Used “readymades”, ordinary objects turned into art.

• Centers like Zurich, Berlin, and New York produced performances, photomontages, and satire.

• Challenged the definition and purpose of art itself.

Surrealism (1920s–1940s)

• Inspired by Freud’s ideas about dreams and the unconscious mind.

• Mixed dream logic with reality to question how we see the world.

• Everyday objects were made strange to provoke new thinking.
  Aimed to free the mind from social rules and expectations.

• Artists wandered cities (“flâneurs”) looking for unexpected inspiration.

Harlem Renaissance (1920s–1930s)

• Celebrated Black culture, identity, and artistic expression in America.

• Addressed themes like racism, heritage, and pride.

• Combined music, literature, and visual arts to uplift Black voices.

• Created a strong cultural movement centered in Harlem, NYC.

• Marked a turning point for African American artists and thinkers.

Degenerate Art (1930s Nazi Germany)

• Modern art labeled as harmful and “un-German” by the Nazis.

• Art was censored, banned, or mocked in exhibitions like “Degenerate Art” (1937).

• Artists were shamed, fired, or forbidden to create.

• Contrasted with Nazi-approved art showing idealized, nationalistic themes.

• Reveals how authoritarian regimes use art to control society.

American modernism

• No single style; focused on breaking old traditions and exploring new ideas.

• Figures like Georgia O’Keeffe merged European modernism with American themes.

• Americans struggled to represent their rapidly changing society (b/c of urbanization, technology, economic hardship, and social transformation)

• → Bridged the gap between fine art and a socially diverse audience

• → Fundamental to foundation of American identity 

• POST WWI ISOLATION, DEPICTION OF MODERNISM

Abstract Expressionism (1940s–1950s)

• After WWII, artists try to express new emotions, response to atrocities of WWII and polarization of Cold War

• New York School(s): group of artists, critics and patrons, radically move toward the abstract in order to change social world. 

• Two main styles:

  • Action Painting (e.g. Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning): Emphasizes the physical act of painting, gestural brushwork, drips, and chaos.

  • Color Field Painting (e.g. Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler): Focuses on large areas of color to evoke emotion, calm, or contemplation.

Pop Art (mid-1950s–1960s)

• Reacted against the seriousness of Abstract Expressionism.

• Focused on mass culture, advertising, comic books, and celebrities.

• Used commercial techniques like silkscreen printing (e.g. Andy Warhol).

• Blurred the line between high art and consumer culture.

• Often ironic, critiquing the superficiality of modern life while embracing its imagery.

• Tied to American identity

• Focus on consumerism, popular culture, Hollywood, etc… which expanded during the cold war/post WW2. ESCAPISM?

Minimalism (late 1950s–1970s)

• Reaction against both Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art.

• Emphasized simplicity, repetition, and industrial materials.

• Focused on the object itself rather than any symbolic meaning or emotional content

• Aimed to remove the artist’s personal touch or emotion from the work entirely.

• “What you see is what you see” – no meaning, does art have to have one?

• DEPARTING/ESCAPING from overwhelming nature and chaos of post WW2 society / cold war. CONTINUITY (DADA): what is art?

Performance Art (1960s–now)

• Art made through live actions, often using the artist’s own body.

• Focused on direct experience and audience interaction.
  Challenged traditional art spaces (museums/galleries) and art as a commodity.

• Often politically or socially charged, dealing with identity, gender, trauma, or protest (e.g. Yoko Ono, Marina Abramović, Ana Mendieta).

• Exists through documentation rather than as a lasting object.

Conceptual Art (1960s–1970s)

• Emphasized the idea behind the artwork more than its physical form.

• Sometimes used text, instructions, or readymade objects.

• Aimed to strip art down to its intellectual core (e.g. Joseph Kosuth, Sol LeWitt).

• Often minimalist in appearance but complex in meaning.

Contemporary Art (1980s–now)

• Refers to art made by living artists today.

• Challenges traditional definitions of art through installations, digital media, social practice, and activism (e.g. Faith Ringgold, Kehinde Wiley, Michael Rakowitz).

• Subject stays the same, medium changes, or vice versa

• Colonialism (modern and historical), Slave Trade, MODERN issues (in our lifetime), Consumerism

• DEPARTURE/CONTINUITY

  • Mirrors culture and society of our time

  • Often responds to idea of art history

  • Building off of Protest Art, Pop-Art, Post-Modernism (installations, performances…)

Nocturne

• Piano virtuoso

• Slow + dreamy

• Chromatic harmony (hella notes)

• Strummed rhythms

Sonata

• Piano or solo instrument + piano

• Fast-slow-fast

String Quartet

• 4 movements unified by key

  • Fast-slow-minuet-fast

• Democratization of music 

  • Not just violin plays melody

• Salons / chamber music → small spaces

Serenade

• Bigger than string quartet, smaller than symphony

• Evening entertainment (outdoors)

• Light, Flirty

• 3 movements

  • Fast-slow fast

Symphony

• Full orchestra (sometimes chorus - Ode to Joy)

• 3-5 movements

• Rhythmically complex + high amplitude

  • Due to number of instruments

Dramatic Overture

• 1 movement intro to another work

Program Music

instrumental recreation of extra-musical source

Tone Poem

• 1 movement

• Gives tone/emotion of an event

Program Symphony

• 3-5 movements 

• Tells a story (Romeo & Juliet)

Absolute Music

 instrumental work without extra-musical references

• Listener able to interpret the music how they want to

Concerto

Conversation / competition: orchestra vs. soloist(s)

Solo concerto

1 soloist vs orchestra

Concerto grosso

Several soloists vs orchestra

Concertino

Small ensemble vs orchestra

Caprice

• Virtuoso

• Free-form no repetition

Art song (lied)

• German lyrics

• Piano + voice

• Derived from poetry

• Strophic form (usually)

Orchestral Lied

Solo voice + orchestra

Opera

• Democratization of music → championing middle class 

  • Change in subject of operas

Classical period

• 2-3 acts

• Full orchestra, staging, costumes, arias, recitatives, chorale

Singspiel

• German

• Spoken dialogue between arias

• Simple tunes

• Topical humor

German Opera

• From singspiel

• Based on German literature + nationalism

• In vernacular

Music Dramas

• Wagner’s name for his operas

• Through-composed

• Abandoned traditional music structures to fit german speech

• Less aria, more orchestra

  • Strong voices needed to keep up

Opera Buffa / Comedic Opera

• Mixed seriousness + comedy

• Promote social change

• Everyday people + events

Opera Seria

• Glorified aristocracy

• Heroes + kings

Italian Bel Canto Opera

• Focus on range + solo voice

• Voice over instrumental importance

• Prima Donna

  • Range + control 

  • Leading role of leading genre

Romantic Opera

• Golden Age of Opera

• Italy: interest in imagination + emotions 

  • middle class audience

• Outside Italy: interest in Middle Ages (philologists)

• Most popular art form in Europe

• Male lead → tenor (towards realism)

Realistic Opera / Verismo Opera

• Issues of everyday life + contemporary social issues

  • Escapism  

• For wider audiences:

  • Evening shows → after work

  • More relatable topics

• Industrialization → urbanization → issues more visible

• Rarely happy endings

Folk Spirituals

• Modified white hymnals

• Piano, choral, solosits

  • Call and response

• Double entendre, express humanity → safer to sing b/c Christian

Work songs / field hollers

• Reprieve from monotonous work / approach to life through music

• Lone voice

• Repeated melody, changed lyrics

Street / Vendor / Field Cries

• Southern urban areas

• Improvised lyrics

• Long voice + range

• Word play + humorS

Narration / Social Commentary

• Voice + banjo/violin/string

  • syncopated

• Ritornello (instrumental breaks between verses)

• Way to voice problems / assert their humanity

Anti-Slavery Song

• Focus on lyrics → use well known melody

  • Improvised

• Used by Underground Railroad

• Religious topics

  • communal singing (protestant)

Instrumental Dance Music

• Release pain / emotions to not drown in them

• Narrate dance steps

• Improvised lyrical verses

Ragtime

• Solo piano

• Syncopated, polyrhythmic

• Balance white/black preferences

• Audience: bars, brothels (later middle class parlors)

• Amateurs

Blues

• Emotional solo voice + guitar 

  • improvised

• Transculturation: work song + classical structures

  • Wailing + topic 

  • Predictable chord changes

• Blues scale

• AAB form → 2 lines repeated, 3 finished musical idea

• Venting pain, frustration, anger

Country Music

• Origin: rural south, spiritual folk songs

• Guitar + voice

• Storytelling → southern drawl

• No strong beat

• Simple harmony (repeated chords)

New Orleans Jazz

• Small ensemble: 6-7

  • Melody = clarinet + trumpet

  • Polyphony = trombone

  • Rhythm section = piano, drums, tuba/bass, banjo/guitar

• Everyone has improv solos

• Transculturative + dance music

• Dance music

Symphonic Jazz

• Mix classical music + jazz

  • Instrumentation + arrangement

  • Improv + composition

• Large ensemble / orchestra

Big Band Jazz

• Large jazz ensembles (10-25)

• Fully arranged / worked out b

Swing

• Usually by Big Band

• Dancing music

  • Drums = steady rhythm

• Fancier venue

• Mellow, polished vibe

Jazz poetry

• Subject: black people’s experience in the US (1920s-1960s)

• Influenced by Jazz rhythms + syncopation

• Free from traditional Western norms

Bebop

• Requires virtuosity 

• Small group (3-6)

• Faster, not danceable

• More underground

  • Young, avante garde audience

• Less acting (not mainstream)

Musical Impressionism

• Mood over storytelling/musical progression

• Emphasis on color

European Modernism

• Against tonality

  • Chromaticism

  • Octave displacement

• No simple rhythms + harmonies 

  • Polyrhythm, polymeter

  • Polychords + dissonance

• Percussive orchestra

American Modernism

• Consonant melody/harmony

• Less abstraction (more structured)

• Diverse ideas + genres

Protest Music

• Protest against political OR cultural norms that seem unfair

• Typical themes: racism, sexism, economic disparity, etc.

Protest music in the 1950s and 1960s

• Like continuation of what Strange fruit and Billie Holiday started

• Release of emotion and rallying together

• Shows American experience, and political movements (gov) or social movements (marginalized groups)

  • Anti-slavery, civil rights, feminist, environmental movements

• Furthered by technology: radio made popular/ accessible

• Focus on lyrics over genre (many different genres)

• Art or propaganda?

• Connectable (use of we),  authentic

R&B (Rhythm and Blues)

• From swing and post WWI

• Simple melody and singable, dance, solo over steady baseline and backbeat (emphasis on 2 and 4 beat)

• Breaks down racial barriers

• I Got a Woman (Ray Charles)

Rock n Roll

• Performance aspect, predictable

• Upbeat, electric guitar w/ distortive sound

• Comes from r&b and blues

• Voice and guitar equal

• Johnny be Goode (Chuck Berry), Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix)

Motown

• I want you back, ABC (Jackson 5)

• promotional/ transformative

• Business model (music bootcamp) from Berry Gordy, Edward Sullivan show and like commercial for music

Punk Rock

• Counter culture rock n roll, protest music influence

• Loud fast, guitar, drums, musical escapism

• I Wanna Be Sedated (Ramones)

Rap / Hip Hop

• Pillars of

  • Verbal → MC (master of ceremonies aka the rapper)

  • Auditory → producers / DJs

  • Physical → breakdancers

  • Visual → graffiti

  • Mental → knowledge of self (spiritual, political, historical, contemporary)

  • Rap genre

• House parties and DJ cool Herc (break dancing and break beats)

• Rap is sound hip hop is culture

• The Message (Grandmaster Flash and Furious 5)

Broadway

• Tonight (Westside story)

• More spoken but sing at high parts

• Like american opera

• Cxn to NY and uniquely American

“What is Enlightenment”

• William Kant

• Enlightenment means having the courage to think for yourself without depending on others’ authority or opinions

• Freedom is necessary for using reason in public debate, which drives societal progress and individual growth

• People must break free from “self-incurred tutelage” to challenge tradition and power

“The Philosophe”

• Denis Diderot (1750)

• A philosophe is someone who lives by reason, critical thinking, and observation to improve society and seek truth

• Rationality, honesty, and social harmony are key values

• champions evidence-based thinking over impulse or tradition

Prospectus for the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences (1750)

• Diderot’s encyclopedia aims to collect, explain, and connect all human knowledge to improve society

• It emphasizes organization, collaboration, and access to information for all people

• Science, learning, and shared progress are seen as the path forward

“What is the Third Estate”

• Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès - 1789

• Does all the work in France but has no power or privilege, unlike the idle nobility

• Sieyès calls for a revolution to destroy noble privileges and make society based on merit

• It’s a rallying cry for middle-class and working people to demand equality and representation

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789)

• Declares that all men are born equal with rights to liberty, property, and participation in government

• Authority comes from the people, not monarchs, and laws must be fair and transparent

• reflects Enlightenment values and calls for the end of privilege.

A Soldier’s Letters to his Mother

• Francois-Xavier Joliclerc - 1793

• A young soldier believes in liberty and equality but his rural family fears the changes of the Revolution

• criticizes materialism and loyalty to the monarchy while expressing deep love for the new republic

• Revolutionary nationalism replaces loyalty to the king with loyalty to the nation.

Justification of the Use of Terror

• 1794 - Maximillen Robespierre

• terror is needed to protect virtue and democracy during the Revolution

• Without terror, revolutionaries cannot defeat enemies of the Republic

• Sees it as a temporary but necessary tool, even if it conflicts with individual rights.

“Industrial Revolution”

• Frederich Engels (1844)

• Workers in industrial cities like Manchester live in filth and overcrowding, while the middle class lives in comfort and separation

• Blames rapid urban growth, capitalist greed, and lack of regulation for this suffering

• goal is to expose these injustices and push for social reform

“Self Help”

• Samuel Smiles (1859)

• Argues that personal effort and character are the keys to success, not government help or luck

• appeals to the middle class who see themselves as self-made and moral

• Engels would disagree, saying it ignores how capitalism traps the working poor.

“Communist Manifesto”

• 1848 - Karl Marx and Frederich Engels

• Marx and Engels call for workers (the proletariat) to unite and overthrow capitalist exploitation by the bourgeoisie

• Communism aims for a classless society where property is shared and everyone benefits equally

• revolutionary response to industrial inequality

“Secret Memorandum to Tsar Alexander I, 1820: Conservative Principles”

• Prince Klemens von Metternich

• fears liberalism, revolution, and the decline of tradition will destroy monarchy and social order

• believes religion, law, and custom must guide people, not individual opinions

• His ideas aim to suppress change and keep aristocratic control

Carlsbad Resolutions

• 1814

• These decrees censor the press and restrict schools to stop the spread of revolutionary ideas

• Student groups and liberal thinkers were surveilled and silenced

• They put Metternich’s conservative vision into action to protect monarchy and tradition

The Duties of Man

• 1875 - Giuseppe Mazzini

• Mazzini says nations are sacred and built on shared values, calling for unity, equality, and popular participation

• His “romantic nationalism” sees people as one family working for the common good

• He inspires the working class to see their role in building a just national future

“Blood and Iron” Speech

• 1862 - Otto von Bismarck

• Bismarck rejects liberal debate and says German unity will come through military force and power

• He believes real change comes from war, not words, reflecting his Realpolitik approach

• His nationalism is practical and state-driven, not idealistic

“Documents of Italian Unification”

• Count Cavour

• Cavour used diplomacy, alliances, and economic modernization to unify Italy under monarchy

• Unlike Mazzini’s emotional and revolutionary nationalism, Cavour was pragmatic and worked within existing power structures

• Realpolitik approach prioritized gradual progress and stability.

Liberalism and Social Darwinism

• 1802 - Herbert Spencer

• success is due to natural superiority, justifying wealth and opposing government help for the poor.

• This idea reassured the middle class that inequality is natural

• Critics say it encourages neglect of the vulnerable and justifies exploitation.

The Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871)

• Charles Darwin

• Darwin proposes that species evolve through natural selection over time, challenging traditional religious beliefs

• His ideas suggest that life, including humans, is shaped by nature, not divine creation

• Religious groups resisted this, fearing it undermined morality and human uniqueness.

“The White Man’s Burden”

• Richard Kipling - 1899

• frames imperialism as a noble duty to “civilize” non-Western peoples, even if unappreciated

• portrays colonized people as helpless and in need of Western guidance

• poem was used to justify colonial expansion as a moral obligation.

“The Black Man’s Burden”

• Edward Morel - 1903

• rejects Kipling’s view, arguing that imperialism harms, enslaves, and destroys African societies

• highlights the physical, emotional, and cultural toll of colonization

• message appealed to reformers and humanitarians who saw the cruelty of the empire.

Sigmund Freud

believed irrational impulses must be controlled for civilization to survive; id, ego, superego

Frederich Nietzsche

saw irrational impulse as a source of freedom and creativity

Pareto

elites use emotion to manipulate irrational masses.

Durkheim

society is a powerful force that shapes individuals and their actions - individuals are influenced by the social structures and norms they exist in

Le Bon

crowds are emotional and easily influenced, often leading to chaos (crowd psychology) His ideas helped explain / fuel authoritarian politics (Fascism and the Nazi party) and were echoed in German Expressionist art

“The Origins of World War I”

• Stromberg

• War as an unintended consequence of nationalism and lack of international order or organization