AP Art History Review: 250 Works of Art

Global Prehistory (30,000 BCE - 2500 BCE)

  • Important Notes / Characteristics:
    • Cave painting as early visual expression
    • Fertility goddesses as symbolic figures
    • Megalithic structures indicating organized labor and ritual
  • Major Artists / Works of Art:
    • Lascaux Caves (France)
    • Apollo 11 stones (Namibia)
    • Venus of Willendorf (France)
    • Stonehenge (UK)
    • Horse & Sun Chariot (Denmark)

Ancient Near East (Mesopotamian and Sumerian Art) (3500 BCE - 539 BCE)

  • Important Notes / Characteristics:
    • Law and order represented in art
    • Warrior art; narration / story through imagery
    • Lamassu gateway figures prominent in life and art
  • Major Artists / Works of Art:
    • Standard of Ur
    • Gate of Ishtar
    • Stele of Hammurabi’s code
    • White Temple
    • Warka Head (Face of a Woman)
    • Uruk vase
    • Nanna Ziggurat
    • Human-headed Winged Lion (lamassu)
    • Assyrian Guardian Figure
    • Darius & Xerxes Receiving Tribute
    • Square Temple at Eshunna votive figures
    • Audience hall of Darius & Xerxes

Ancient Egypt (3100 BCE - 30 BCE)

  • Important Notes / Characteristics:
    • Symbolic representation of divine power; gods depicted as animal forms or natural elements
    • Hieroglyphs integrated into art
    • Figures rigid with one foot forward; hands by the side to convey permanence
    • Over time art expresses more emotion; elongated forms and rounded features appear
    • Canon of proportions: based on a grid with specific measurements (18 units to the hairline; 19 units to the top of the head)
  • Major Artists / Works of Art:
    • Funerary mask of Tutankhamun
    • Palette of King Narmer
    • Seated Scribe
    • Great Pyramids & Sphinx complex
    • Menkaure & Queen
    • Temple of Amun-Re and Hypostyle Hall at Karnak
    • Funerary Temple of Hatshepsut
    • Kneeling statue of Hatshepsut
    • Akhenaton and his family (relief)
    • Tutankhamun’s innermost coffin
    • Last Judgement of Hu-Nefer
    • Seated statue of Khafre
    • Ti Watching a Hippo Hunt
    • Blue Hippo
    • Bust of Nefertiti
    • Queen Tiy
    • Temple of Ramses II
    • Crowned with a variety of additional statues and temple reliefs
    • Proportional grid details: ext{cannon of proportions: hairline at }18 ext{ units; top of head at }19 ext{ units}
    • Head height relation: ext{head height} = rac{1}{8} ext{ of total body height}

Aegean Art (Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean) (3000 BCE - 1100 BCE)

  • Cycladic
    • Geometrically shaped statues; emphasis on geometry in pottery
  • Minoan
    • Fluid figures and dynamic movement
    • Delicate figures with recognizable gender cues (men darker; women lighter)
    • Overall mood is cheerful and nature-inspired
  • Mycenaean
    • Sturdy figures; realistic depictions; portraiture aimed to capture likeness
    • Massive and strong architecture
  • Major Works / Examples:
    • Two figures of women (Cyclades)
    • Seated harp player
    • Palace complex at Knossos
    • Kamares Ware jug
    • Pendant of Gold Bees
    • Spring Fresco
    • Woman or Goddess with Snakes
    • Bull Leaping
    • Harvester Vase
    • Octopus Vase
    • Bull’s-Head Rhyton
    • Vapheio Cup
    • Citadel at Mycenae
    • The Lion Gate at Mycenae
    • Golden Lion’s Head Rhyton
    • Mask of Agamemnon

Ancient Greece

  • Archaic (600 - 480 BCE)
    • Starts to break the mold; movement and early realism; reverence for human beauty
    • First hints of emotion; emphasis on life-like human forms
  • Classical (490-323 BCE)
    • Contrapposto developed; idealized human form per canon (head = 1/8th of total height)
    • Mathematics used to define perfection in architecture and art; beauty, symmetry, balance
  • Hellenistic (After 323 BCE)
    • Heightened emotion; dramatic representation; movement and contortion
    • Realism with use of negative space; sculpture in the round; environment shown via visual cues
  • Notable Sites / Works:
    • Athenian Agora
    • Anavysos Kouros
    • Peplos Kore (from the Acropolis)
    • Niobides Krater
    • Doryphoros (spear bearer)
    • Grave Stele of Hegeso
    • Winged Nike of Samothrace
    • Great Altar of Zeus and Athena at Pergamon
    • Parthenon
    • Temple of Athena Nike
    • Helios, horses and Dionysus (Heracles?)
    • Victory adjusting her sandal
    • Plaque of the Ergastines
    • Seated Boxer
    • Acropolis Art details (various sculptures and reliefs)

Etruscan & Ancient Rome

  • Etruscan (950-300 BCE)
    • Highly animated and fluid; sophisticated, wealth-oriented culture
  • Roman (753 BCE - 5th Century CE)
    • Architecture advanced: roads, aqueducts, arches, vaults, columns, civic buildings
    • Painting (Pompeii): mythological scenes, landscapes, city plazas
    • Use of linear perspective, vanishing points; foreshortening and atmospheric perspective
    • Sculpture: idealized figures following Greek canon; contrapposto; heroic subjects; iconic imagery
  • Major Works / Examples:
    • Etruscan: Sarcophagus of the Spouses; Temple of Minerva and Sculpture of Apollo; Tomb of Triclinium; House of the Vetti (Pompeii)
    • Roman: Alexander Mosaic (House of Faun, Pompeii); Head of a Roman Patrician; Augustus of Prima Porta; Colosseum; Forum of Trajan and Basilica Ulpia; Trajan’s Column; The Pantheon; Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus; Pont du Gard (Nimes); etc.

Byzantine, Medieval & Islamic (395 CE - 1050 CE)

  • Architecture: mosaics widely used; complex geometry; domes via pendentives and squinches; central plan churches
  • Art: formal, severe, abstract; figures floating; Christianity-focused imagery; elongated, stylized bodies; limited emotion; flattened space; heavy use of gold
  • Islamic Art: geometry, mosaics, tessellations; emphasis on iconography and illuminated manuscripts (calligraphy)
  • Notable Works / Examples:
    • Byzantine Architecture: Hagia Sophia (Turkey); S. Vitale (Ravenna); Monastery Churches in Greece; St. Mark’s Cathedral (Venice); Saint Basil’s Cathedral (Moscow)
    • Byzantine Painting/Mosaics: Virgin and Child with Saints and Angels (encaustic); Virgin of Vladimir (tempera on wood); The Transfiguration of Christ with Sant’apollinare (mosaic); Justinian and Attendants (mosaic, S. Vitale); Theodora and Attendants (mosaic, S. Vitale); Old Testament Trinity (tempera on panel); Archangel Michael (diptych panel); Harbaville Triptych
    • Islamic Architecture: Dome of the Rock (Jerusalem); Great Mosque of Kairouan; Great Mosque of Cordoba; Frieze from Mshatta; Palace of the Lions, Alhambra; Sinan, Mosque of Selim II; Taj Mahal (India; honorary note on broader Islamic-influenced monumental works)
    • Manuscripts: The Night Journey of Muhammad; Caliph-Harun Al-Rashid Visits Turkish Bath; The Portrait of Khusrau show to Shirin

Romanesque (1050-1200 CE)

  • Architecture: massive walls, rounded arches, groin vaults, large towers; bays and ambulatory chapels for pilgrims
  • Art: Byzantine iconographic models; illuminated manuscripts; biblical scenes in tympanums; limited depth; elongated figures; emphasis on drapery/hair
  • Sculpture: typology of Last Judgment; various portals and tympanums; West Façade decoration
  • Notable Works / Examples:
    • Architecture: Durham Cathedral; Pisa Cathedral; Saint-Étienne (Caen); Saint-Sernin (Toulouse); Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela; Nave of San Clemente (Rome)
    • Sculpture: Creation and Fall (Modena Cathedral); Last Judgment Tympanum (Autun); Porte Miegéville (St. Sernin); Virgin and Child in Majesty (Morgan Madonna)
    • Other: Hildegard von Bingen’s Vision (manuscript); Eadwine the Scribe (Eadwine Psalter); Bayeux Tapestry; Christ in Majesty (Mural, Tahull); Tower of Babel (Poitou); St. Matthew (Codex Colbertinus)

Gothic (1200-1400 CE)

  • Architecture: shift to lighter, airy spaces; flying buttresses reduce wall weight; rose windows introduced; continued basilica plan with ambulatory chapels
  • Art: 3-D sculpture; stained glass industry; illuminated manuscripts; more naturalistic faces; S-curve in figures; upright jamb sculptures; more narrative and interaction in scenes
  • Notable Works / Examples:
    • Architecture: Notre Dame (Paris); Saint-Denis (France); Chartres Cathedral; Amiens Cathedral; Siena Cathedral; Beauvais Cathedral; Sainte-Chapelle; Saint-Maclou; Salisbury Cathedral; King’s College Chapel (Cambridge)
    • Sculpture: Royal Portals (Chartres Cathedral); Annunciation and Visitation (Reims); Death of the Virgin (Strasbourg); Ekkehard & Uta (Naumburg); Rottgen Pieta; Virgin of Paris (Notre Dame)
    • Painting / Other: Blanche of Castile and Louis IX (manuscript); Psalm 1 (Beatus Vir, Windmill Psalter); Coppo di Marcovaldo (Crucifix); Beatus Manuscripts; St. Matthew (Codex Colbertinus)

Italian Renaissance (Early 1400-1500) / (High 1500-1520)

  • General: humanism, classicism, geometry, perspective; patrons (Florence Medici & Sforza; Pope Julius II); artists as scientists/engineers; rise of oil paint, canvas; artists as polymaths
  • Architecture: large dome without flying buttresses; use of roman arches, columns, pediments, vaults, coffered ceilings
  • Major Artists / Works:
    • Masaccio (Tribute Money; Trinity with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist and Donors)
    • Fra Angelico (Annunciation, North Corridor for Monastery of San Marco)
    • Piero della Francesca (Battista Sforza and Federico da Montefeltro)
    • Donatello (David in bronze; Mary Magdalen)
    • Botticelli (Birth of Venus; La Primavera)
    • Leonardo da Vinci (Last Supper; Mona Lisa)
    • Michelangelo (Sistine Chapel frescoes including The Last Judgment; David; The Pieta; St. Peter’s Cathedral; Capitoline Hill)
    • Raphael (School of Athens)
    • Perugino (Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter)
    • Ghiberti (Gates of Paradise, Baptistry doors, Florence)
    • Titian (Pesaro Madonna; Venus of Urbino; Pieta)
    • Bramante (Tempietto)
    • Brunelleschi (Dome of Florence Cathedral)
    • Palladio (Villa Rotonda)
    • Alberti (Façade of the Church of Sant’Andrea)
  • Key Concepts: geometry-driven composition; triangular organization; sfumato; chiaroscuro; 3/4 portrait views; oil painting gaining prominence; artists as engineers; perspective as a mathematical tool

Northern Renaissance & Spain (1420-1600)

  • Characteristics: secular works become prominent; printmaking enables mass production; late Gothic influence persists; landscape and genre scenes rise; tension between church patronage and artists
  • Architecture: flamboyant Gothic; living spaces above retail; Gothic details in arches/windows/towers; irregular plans
  • Art: mass-produced prints; oil painting diffusion; woodcuts, engravings, etching; triptychs/altarpieces; space sometimes appears “tipped” or squashed; genre scenes proliferate; luxury tapestries; patrons and artists in conflict; nature as a theme not common in Italian art
  • Major Artists / Works:
    • Jan van Eyck (Arnolfini Portrait)
    • Matthias Grünewald (Isenheim Altarpiece)
    • Hieronymus Bosch (Garden of Earthly Delights)
    • Bruegel (Return of the Hunters)
    • Hans Holbein the Younger (Henry VIII)
    • Albrecht Dürer (Self Portrait; Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse woodcut; Adam and Eve engraving; Four Apostles)
    • Caterina van Hemessen (Self Portrait)
    • El Greco (View of Toledo; Burial of Count Orgaz)
  • Mannerism (Late 1520-1600): complex, crowded compositions; tension between order and chaos; elongated forms; symbolic and ambiguous imagery
    • Notable works / artists:
    • Entombment by Jacopo da Pontormo
    • Assumption of the Virgin by Correggio
    • Madonna of the Long Neck by Parmigianino
    • Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time by Bronzino
    • The Last Supper by Jacopo Tintoretto
    • The Sisters of the Artist and their Governess by Sofonisba Anguissola
  • Sculpture:
    • Perseus with the Head of Medusa by Cellini
    • Abduction of the Sabine Women

Baroque (1600-1750)

  • Architecture: dynamic, movement; undulating forms; dramatic interplay of light; integration of architecture with sculpture; external and internal drama
  • Art: Counter-Reformation emphasis; viewer interaction; tenebrism; dramatic narratives; depth and motion; in the North, private daily life scenes; landscapes and genre scenes; incorporation of classical architecture in paintings
  • Notable Works / Artists:
    • Architecture: Colonnade and Facade of St. Peter’s Basilica; San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (Borromini); Sant’Agnese (Borromini); Chapel of the Holy Shroud in Turin; Versailles; Banqueting House (Inigo Jones); St. Paul’s (London); Blenheim Palace (Vanbrugh)
    • Art: Bernini (sculpture); Caravaggio (tenebrism); Loves of the Gods (Ceiling) by Carracci; Artemisia Gentileschi; Triumph of the Barberini by Pietro da Cortona; Diego Velázquez; Peter Paul Rubens; Anthony van Dyck; Rembrandt; Frans Hals; Judith Leyster; Vermeer; Rigaud

Rococo (1723-1774)

  • Characteristics: French for “pebble/shell”; playful, decorative, highly ornamental; flowing curves; pastel palette; integration of painting, architecture, sculpture; aristocratic subject matter; fete galante; satirical and sometimes sexualized
  • Architecture: Kaisersaal Residenz (Würzburg); Tiepolo frescoes; Church of the Vierzehnheiligen; Chiswick House
  • Painting: Watteau; Fragonard; Vigee-Le Brun
  • Sculpture / Other: Boucher; Hogarth; Gainsborough; Reynolds; etc.
  • Notable Artists / Works:
    • Jean-Antoine Watteau (Return from Cythera)
    • Francois Boucher; Jean-Honore Fragonard (The Meeting, The Swing)
    • Marie-Louise-Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun (self-portraits; Marie Antoinette)
    • Giambattista Tiepolo (Apoloypsis of the Pisani Family)
    • William Hogarth (Breakfast Scene from Marriage A-la-Mode)
    • Thomas Gainsborough (Blue Boy; Mrs. Siddons)
    • Joshua Reynolds (Sarah Siddons as Tragic Muse)

Neoclassical (1780-1820)

  • Replaces Rococo with Enlightenment ideals; inspired by Pompeian ruins; Industrial Revolution; rise of art academies; classical inspiration with modern technology
  • Architecture: quality of classical forms; iron used in arches; functional design
  • Major Artists / Works:
    • Jacques-Louis David (Death of Marat; Oath of the Horatii)
    • Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (La Grande Odalisque)
    • Benjamin West; Charles Wilson Peale; John Singleton Copley; Gilbert Stuart; Jean-Antoine Houdon
    • Architecture: Thomas Jefferson (Monticello)
  • Notable Concepts: fusion of classical ideals with contemporary scientific and industrial progress; emphasis on moral narrative and civic virtue

Romanticism (1800-1850)

  • Focus: spirituality, emotion, imagination; value of feeling over reason; sublime nature and extreme events; political subjects and social issues; early photography influence
  • Architecture: iron usage expands; dramatic, bold structures
  • Major Artists / Works:
    • John Henry Fuseli (The Nightmare)
    • William Blake (Elohim Creating the World)
    • Francisco de Goya (Family of Charles IV; The Third of May 1808)
    • J. M. W. Turner (various turbulent landscapes and scenes)
    • John Constable (The White Horse)
    • Theodore Gericault (The Raft of the Medusa)
    • Thomas Cole (The Oxbow)
    • Eugene Delacroix (Liberty Leading the People, July 28, 1830)
  • Photography: early practitioners like Daguerre and others begin to document reality; photography becomes a distinct medium

Realism (1800-1900)

  • Ideology: positivism; depiction of everyday life; focus on peasants and the lower class; rejection of sentimentality; emphasis on truth and accuracy
  • Key Figures: Gustave Courbet; Jean-Francois Millet; Honore Daumier; Edouard Manet; Winslow Homer; Rosa Bonheur; Thomas Eakins; Henry O. Tanner
  • Notable Photographers: Eadweard Muybridge
  • Landscape and social scenes feature prominently; mid- to late-19th century

Impressionism (1862-1886)

  • Core ideas: capturing light and its changing qualities; en plein air painting; flat areas of color; off-center compositions; Japanese influence; anti-academic stance
  • Major Artists / Works:
    • Claude Monet (Haystacks, Water Lilies, Rouen Cathedral, landscapes)
    • Pierre-Auguste Renoir
    • Edgar Degas (ballerinas; The Ballet)
    • Edouard Manet (Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe; A Bar at the Folies-Bergère)
    • Gustave Caillebotte
    • Berthe Morisot
    • Mary Cassatt (mother/child; japonisme influence)
    • James Whistler

Post-Impressionism / Symbolism (1880-1905)

  • Post-Impressionism: builds on color and light but seeks structure; moves toward abstraction while maintaining form; impasto in some works
  • Symbolism: depict unseen forces; dreamlike, mystical philosophy; diverse styles; inspiration over narrative cohesion
  • Major Figures:
    • Paul Cezanne (Bathers; Still-life; Mont Sainte-Victoire)
    • Georges Seurat (Pointillism)
    • Vincent van Gogh (Starry Night; impasto)
    • Paul Gauguin (Synthetism)
    • Toulouse-Lautrec (cabaret scenes etc.)
    • Edvard Munch (The Scream)
    • Henri Rousseau (Sleeping Gypsy; The Dream)
    • Gustave Moreau (The Apparition)
    • Odilon Redon (The Marsh Flower)
  • Sculpture:
    • Auguste Rodin (Burghers of Calais; The Thinker)
    • Camille Claudel (The Waltz)
    • Augustus Saint-Gaudens (Adams Memorial; Shaw Memorial)

Art Nouveau (1890-1914)

  • Unified artistic experience across painting, sculpture, and architecture; designers often controlled entire projects; natural, floral patterns; undulating surfaces; rejection of industrial monotony
  • Major Figures: Gustav Klimt (The Kiss); Victor Horta (Tassel House stair); Antoni Gaudi (Casa Mila; Serpentine Bench at Guell Park); Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec; Henry Hobson Richardson (Marshall Field Warehouse); Louis Sullivan (Carson Pirie Scott Building; The Guaranty Building); Gustave Eiffel (Eiffel Tower); Louis Tiffany (Grape Vine glass)

Fauvism (1904-1908) / Expressionism (c. 1900s-1930s)

  • Fauvism: wild, non-naturalistic color; bold contrasts; simplified forms; expression over realism
  • Major Fauvist Artists: Henri Matisse (Woman with a Hat; Le Bonheur de Vivre); Andre Derain; Maurice de Vlaminck; Georges Rouault
  • Expressionism: focus on emotion; German groups The Bridge and The Blue Rider; primitivism influence; dramatic use of color and form
  • The Bridge: Emil Nolde; Ernst Ludwig; Ernst Kirchner
  • The Blue Rider: Franz Marc; Vasily Kandinsky
  • Independent: Paula Modersohn-Becker; Egon Schiele; Paul Klee
  • Notable Sculptors: Auguste Rodin (already noted); but here focus is on Expressionist sculpture as well

Cubism (1908-1914) / Futurism (1909-1918) / Constructivism (1913-1932) / Precisionism (1915-1930)

  • Cubism
    • Pioneered by Picasso and Braques; breakdown form into geometric planes; multiple viewpoints in one painting
    • Phases: Analytical; Synthetic; Curvilinear
    • Key Works: Picasso – Les Demoiselles d’Avignon; Braque – Houses at L’Estaque; Violin and Palette; etc.
  • Futurism
    • Italian movement; celebrated modernity, technology, speed, machine age
    • Painting and sculpture; time-lapse/motion representations
    • Some members supported Fascism; notable works: Umberto Boccioni (States of Mind: The Farewells), Natalia Goncharova (Aeroplane over a Train), Kazimir Malevich (Eight Red Rectangles, Suprematism)
    • Sculpture: Umberto Boccioni (Unique Forms of Continuity in Space)
  • Constructivism
    • Russian origin; used “broken” shapes; abstract; symbolized fractured modern life; art to be constructed, not created; highly functional
    • Key Figures: Vladimir Tatlin (Model for the Monument for the Third International); Liubov Popova; Kasimir Malevich; El Lissitzky; Naum Gabo; Antoine Pevsner
  • Precisionism
    • American movement; break from past art; focus on abstraction and representation; bold color and machinery themes
    • Key Artists: Georgia O’Keeffe; Charles Demuth; Charles Sheeler

Dada / Surrealism (1916-1922; 1924-∞)

  • Dada
    • Reaction to WWI; anti-establishment; shocking, boundary-pushing, irrational; emphasized individual expression
    • Key Figures: Hugo Ball; Emmy Hennings; Jean Arp; Hannah Höch; John Heartfield; Marcel Duchamp (The Fountain – readymade; later connected to Surrealism)
  • Surrealism
    • Emerged from Freudian psychology; automatic drawing; dream analysis; exploration of subconscious; automatism
    • Key Figures: André Breton; Marcel Duchamp; Joan Miró; Max Ernst; Salvador Dalí; Meret Oppenheim; Marc Chagall; etc.

American Art Scene (Early 20th century) / Harlem Renaissance / Realism

  • Realism in America persisted alongside European movements; subject matter included daily life and industrial scenes; photography documented realities
  • Harlem Renaissance: flourishing of African American art; activism and social realism; notable artists: Aaron Douglas; Jacob Lawrence; Stuart Davis; Emily Carr (Canadian context sometimes discussed with North American art)
  • Other American artists: Thomas Benton; Charles Sheeler; Grant Wood; Edward Hopper; Dorothea Lange; Norman Rockwell; Alexander Calder; etc.

Abstract Expressionism (late 1940s - early 1950s)

  • Two strands: Figural Expressionism and Political Expressionism; emphasis on energy, action, improvisation; abstract expressionists sought to define art as process as much as product
  • Major Artists: Jackson Pollock (action painting); Lee Krasner; Willem de Kooning; Franz Kline; Hans Hofmann; Robert Motherwell; Mark Rothko (color field); Barnett Newman
  • Note: Some non-Abstract Expressionists exist in the era (e.g., Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Francis Bacon, Jean Dubuffet, Alberto Giacometti, David Smith, Louise Nevelson) who contributed to broader modern art discourse

Pop Art (early 1960s) / Op Art

  • Pop Art
    • Draws from popular culture (comics, celebrities, advertisements, mass media and goods)
    • Often satirical or critically engaged with consumer culture; uses varied media and large-scale forms
    • Notable Artists: Robert Rauschenberg (appropriations; Monogram, Canyon), Jasper Johns (Three Flags, Target with Four Faces), Richard Hamilton (Shop), Roy Lichtenstein (comic-style works), Claes Oldenburg (Scaling of consumer items), Andy Warhol (Campbell’s Soup Cans; Marilyn Diptych)
  • Op Art
    • Focus on optical effects; geometric and abstract patterns to create visual illusions
    • Notable Artists: Jack Bush; Bridget Riley

Minimalism (1960s-1970s)

  • Focus: hard-edged geometry; stripping art to essential form; removal of narrative, emotion, symbolism, and gesture to emphasize pure form
  • Notable Artists: Frank Stella; Donald Judd

Postmodernism & Contemporary (1990s - ) / Conceptual, Performance, Installation, Video Art

  • Focus: challenges to traditional ideas of art; experience and viewer reaction can be central; sometimes physical artwork is secondary to concept
  • Performance art: involves audience participation and body movement as essential to the piece
  • Installations: immersive, room-sized works; viewer becomes part of the work
  • New-media and photography gain prominence; American Craft Art emerges; photography widely accepted
  • Notable Artists: Joseph Kosuth (One and Three Chairs); Bruce Nauman (Self-Portrait as a Fountain); Joseph Beuys (Coyote: I Like America and America Likes Me); Robert Frank (photography); others like Harvey Littleton; Faith Ringgold; Ana Mendieta; Jeff Koons; Elizabeth Murray; Sherrie Levine; Wendell Castle; Albert Paley; Jeff Wall; and Earthworks artists like Robert Smithson (Spiral Jetty); Christo & Jeanne-Claude (Running Fence); Serpent Mound

Photography (1839 - )

  • Early technology: Daguerreotype; Camera Obscura origins; photography as art debated for long; used to document news, life, science; blurred lines between function of art and artist
  • Notable Figures: Louis Daguerre (Daguerreotype); Julia Margaret Cameron (early portraits); Nadar; Eadweard Muybridge; Robert Frank; Mapplethorpe; Ansel Adams

Modern Architecture / Bauhaus / International Style

  • The International Style = “machine aesthetic”; rejection of historical ornament; emphasis on function and mass production; exposed structure and iron/steel; glass boxes
  • Bauhaus: integrated design approach; unity of art, craft, and technology; mass production mindset
  • Mies van der Rohe: “Less is more”; straight lines; steel skeleton; Seagram Building (NY)
  • Le Corbusier: “a house as a machine for living”; boxy, linear forms with emphasis on concrete and function
  • Notable Architects: Julia Morgan; Frank Lloyd Wright

Notes on Specific Contents and Cross-References

  • Many entries include cross-era connections: the move from religious to secular subjects, the increasing role of geometry and mathematics in design, and the evolution of audience engagement with art (from viewer as passive to viewer as participant).
  • Thematic threads spanning periods include: use of perspective, the interaction between art and power/patronage, technological innovations (oil paint, photography, iron/steel architecture), and the tension between realism and abstraction across centuries.