KW Ch 29

Abstraction in Photography

Edward Weston

Abstraction

The simplifying of an observed reality so that the essence of an object is portrayed.

Analytic Cubism (Facet Cubism)

The breaking up of the object into planes which are small, precise angles like prisms. (Demoiselles d'Avignon, the Portuguese)

Anti-Semitism

Hatred and elimination of the Jewish race, which led to the Holocaust killing 2 out of 3 European Jews.

Armory Show

1913 exposed American public to 1600 art works of contemporary European and American artists. It was a significant catalyst in the disseminating knowledge of recent developments in art.

Art Deco

In response to popular need for ornamentation rejected by the International Style, it produced streamlined, elongated symmetrical design, which could be commercially produced.

Assemblage

Using 3-D items to create a 3-D work of art (sculpture) of combined 'found' objects.

Automatism

A form of Surrealism based on a dictation of thought without control of the mind.

Bauhaus

Walter Gropius- the goal was to train artists; architects and designers to accept and anticipate 20th Century needs and promote a unity of art, architecture and design.

Biomorphic

A form of Surrealism based on organisms and natural forms. (Jean Arp, Jean Miro)

Synthetic Cubism

Overlapping layers in which bits of flat objects like newspapers, cloth etc. are added to the picture so all the shapes seem to oscillate, pushing forward and dropping back into space like a collage. (Still Life with Chair-caning, Fruit Dish and Cards)

Constructivism

Named by Naum Gabo, a Russian sculptor because he built his sculptures piece by piece in space instead of carving or modeling them.

Cubism

The fragmentation of the form of depicted objects and the depiction of several views of the object simultaneously. (Picasso and Braque)

Dada

A nonsense word, which was used by a group, based on deliberate irrationality and the negation of traditional artistic values.

De Stijl

Founded by Piet Mondrian and some other young artists in Holland, which promoted utopian ideals and believed in the birth of a new age following WWI.

Degenerate Art

The label Nazis placed on the avant-garde art. Hitler persecuted many artist confiscated and placed them in a Degenerate Art Show and subjected them to ridicule.

Der Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider)

A German group who believed in charging form and color with a purely spiritual meaning eliminating all resemblance to the physical world.

Die Brucke (The Bridge)

A group of German artists who followed the inspiration of the Fauves. They lived together and practiced art.

Expressionism

Refers to art that is a result of the artist's inner or personal vision and flows from feeling.

Fauvism

Means wild beast. Because of the wild color, powerful, brutal brushwork, the term was derogatory.

Frottage

The technique of creating a design by rubbing (as with a pencil) over an object placed underneath the paper.

Futurism

An Italian movement begun shortly before and during WWI. It depicted dynamic movement and stressed the violence and speed of the Machine Age.

Harlem Renaissance

A flowering of art and literature in Harlem in the 1920's. It fostered African American culture.

Kinetic Sculpture

Moving sculpture (mobiles-Alexander Calder).

MoMA

Museum of Modern Art encourages the public to make modernist art a regular part of their lives.

New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit)

Grew out of the war experiences of a group of German artists.

Nihilism

The viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are senseless and useless.

Organic Architecture

Frank Lloyd Wright envisioned a nonsymmetrical design interacting spatially with its environment.

Organic Sculpture

Work composed of softly curving surfaces and ovoid forms.

Photomontage

The technique of creating a composition by pasting together images to create one image.

Planar

Two dimensional quality.

Precisionism

Developed in America in the 1920's out of a fascination with the machine's precision and importance in modern life.

Primitivism

Tribal objects and artifacts which came from non-Western areas which became available to Europeans as a result of colonialism.

Purism

Machinery's clean functional lines and the pure form of its parts should direct the artist's experiments in design.

Regionalism

American Scene Painters paid attention to rural life as America's cultural backbone.

Russian Revolution

The Tsar was overthrown after civil war and Communism ruled Russia.

Suprematism

The supreme reality in the world is pure feeling, which attaches to no object.

Surrealism

Used fantasy to produce incongruous imagery by engaging the unconscious forces of the human mind.

The Great War-WWI

Involved all of Europe and perpetrated enormous slaughter and devastation.

The International Style

Architect Le Corbusier applied himself to designing a functional living space, which he described as a 'machine for living.'

Totalitarianism

Fascist governments in Germany and Italy led by Hitler and Mussolini set up totalitarian regimes.

WPA

Paid artists, writers and theater people a regular wage in exchange for work in their professions during the Depression.