History Mythology

History/Mythology Allegory

  • Allegory:

    • Definition: The expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence.

  • History Painting:

    • Definition: Illustrates significant events from past history, religion, or literature.

  • Index:

    • Definition: Representation of the past with an artifact employing its symbols or signs.

  • Mythos:

    • Definition: A pattern of beliefs expressing the characteristic or prevalent attitudes in a group or culture.

  • Pastiche:

    • Definition: Eclectic, decontextualized appropriation of past images or styles.

  • Parody:

    • Definition: A literary or musical work in which the style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect.

  • Postmodernism:

    • Characteristics:

    • Skeptical of progress.

    • Anti-elitist.

    • Hybrid, eclectic, heterogeneous.

Notable Works and Artists

Paolo Ucello

  • The Battle of San Romano

    • Year: circa 1445

    • Description: An early experiment in two-point perspective.

Kicking Bear

  • Battle of the Little Bighorn

    • Year: 1896

    • Significance: Not in the European tradition, created 400 years later.

Nicolas Poussin

  • Blind Orion Searching for the Rising Sun

    • Year: 1658

    • Description: An allegory based upon Greek mythology.

Jacques-Louis David

  • Oath of the Horatii

    • Year: 1784

    • Description: Another compositional experiment using a Golden Section rectangle based on Roman myth.

  • The Death of Marat

    • Year: 1793

    • Context: Based on a famous assassination during the Terror of the French Revolution.

Théodore Géricault

  • The Raft of the Medusa

    • Year: 1819

    • Description: Documents a famous shipwreck (note the rescue ship on the horizon).

Eugène Delacroix

  • Liberty Leading the People

    • Year: 1830

    • Description: Celebrates the Greek civil war against Turkey, categorized as a history painting.

Contemporary Works

  • Description: What follows are contemporary works that either cite history/art history or create their own mythos.

Mark Tansey

  • Marriage to Frank Lloyd Wright

    • Year: 1984

  • Triumph of the New York School

    • Year: 1984

    • Description: Represents the "hand over" of world art dominance from Paris to New York after 1945.

    • Significant Figures: Europeans, including Picasso (at center) dressed in French military uniforms; Americans at right in WWII US uniforms.

Joseph Cornell to Mark Rothko

  • Listed Artists:

    • Cornell, Newman, Smith, Léger, Gorky, Duchamp, Pollock, Ad Reinhardt, Kooning, Derain, Rousseau, Dali, Gris, Apollinaire, Picasso, Matisse, Breton, Greenberg, Rosenberg, Motherwell.

More Works by Mark Tansey

  • Nature Ape

    • Year: 1984

    • Depicts characters like Jane, Tarzan, Boy, and Cheeta.

  • Cave Painters

    • Year: 1987

    • Reference to previous discussions about early art forms.

  • Mt Saint-Victoire

    • Year: 1987

    • Connection to Cezanne who painted Mont Saint-Victoire from many angles, seasons, and times of day; questions if it resembled Everest base camp.

  • Pastiche

    • References: Picasso and Braque, Wilbur and Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk, 1903.

  • The Enunciation

    • Year: 1992

    • Features Marcel Duchamp and his alter ego Rrose Sélavy in passing trains.

  • Spiral Jetty

    • Perspective: As seen by Sioux warriors.

Robert Smithson

  • Spiral Jetty

    • Year: 1970

  • Snowman

    • Year: 2004

  • The Secret of the Sphinx

    • Description: An ethnographer records the most silent of cultural symbols, classified as an index.

  • Constructing the Grand Canyon

    • Year: 1990

    • Based on subsequent images such as the construction of the Panama Canal (1903-1914).

Mark Tansey's Approach

  • Parody in Art:

    • Statement: It should be clear that Mark Tansey takes parody seriously.

Gregory Crewdson

  • Untitled (Sunday Roast)

  • From the Twilight Series

    • Year: 1998

    • Described as mythos.

  • Untitled (Dylan on the Floor)

    • Year: 2001

  • Untitled (Ophelia)

    • Year: 2001

    • Reference to J.E. Millais's Ophelia, painted in 1852 with Lizzy Siddal modeling in water for hours.

  • Untitled (House Fire)

    • Year: 2004

    • Described as a completely controlled burn.

  • From Beneath the Roses

    • Year: 2005

  • Brief Encounter

    • Year: 2006

    • Detailed description of the scene: “Tattoo, OSIN STOCK, Brief Encounter at 3:30 PM Restaurant.”

Artistic Techniques and Themes

  • Crewdson's Techniques:

    • Utilizes Hollywood-style directorial techniques to create elaborate otherworldly scenarios and psychic moments, which are then photographed.

  • Crisis/Discovery Moments:

    • Crewdson's images often depict the viewer at the decisive moment of crisis or discovery, amplifying the dramatic visual narrative.

  • Mr. Tansey's Works:

    • Action Painting II, Year: 1984.