Modern Art: Post-Impressionism to Pittura Metafisica

2 main artists of Post-Impressionalism were…

Paul Cèzanne (1839-1906) and Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)

Mont Sainte-Victoire (1885-1887)

Paul Cèzanne

oil on canvas

Provence

1885-1887

• example of “synthesis period” of his work

• thinking about shapes and not realism

The Night Café (1888)

Vincent van Gogh

oil on canvas

1888

Arles

The Starry Night (1889)

Vincent van Gogh

1889

oil on canvas

Saint-Rémy

• painted view of his window from asylum

• shortly before committing suicide

• dimension of the paint

Portrait of Ambroise Vollard (1910)

Picasso

oil on canvas

1910

• cubism

• representing everything inside and out about the subject; best done through fragmentation

Cubism (and analytic cubism)

an early 20th century art movement that rejected naturalistic depictions, preferring compositions of shapes and forms abstracted from the conventionally perceived world

Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash (1912)

Balla

1912

oil on canvas

• same time as chromo-photographic gun

• very clear effect of motion on time and space

• derived from cubism’s multiple views seen simultaneously

Dynamism of a Soccer Player (1913)

Boccioni

oil on canvas

1913

• focus is on the motion and dynamism, not realism

Unique Forms of continuity in Space, 1913

Boccioni

Bronze

1913

• compare with Nike of Samothrace (BC 190)

• considered the peak of futurism

Pittura Metafisica

an early 20th century Italian art movement led by Giorgio de Chirico, whose work conveys an eerie mood and visionary quality; shows enigmatic, dreamlike imagery typically marked by unreal lighting, impossible linear perspective, and strange symbolist iconography

Melancholy and Mystery of a Street (1914)

Giorgio de Chirico

oil on canvas

1914

• impending danger

• perspective off (but not at first noticeable)

• light and dark

• innocence