Art History: Style, Rembrandt's Emotional Diary, Untrained Art, and Guild Systems

French Revolution, Terrorism, and the Concept of Style

  • Historical Context of Terrorism

    • Robert Spear was a French revolutionary leader and a lawyer by training.
    • He suffered from warpox, which left his face pockmarked.
    • In 1792, he voted for the execution of King Louis XVI.
    • This period during the French Revolution represents the original historical definition of a terrorist, which differs from modern definitions.

  • Definition and Nature of Style

    • Style is a consensus regarding aesthetic choices that exists for a limited period in a specific location or across multiple locations.
    • It functions as a temporal phenomenon that eventually fizzles out over time.
    • Style is distinct from iconography, as style refers specifically to the formal qualities of a work of art that can be tied to a particular region or timeframe and shared among different individual creators.

Art Deco Style and Historical Context

  • Key Representative Artists and Works

    • Tamara de Lempicka (D'Olympica)
    • Born in Poland, active in Paris, and eventually immigrated to the United States.
    • Work: Self-Portrait at the Wheel of a Race Car (1925).
    • Joseph Stella (Joseph Stellar)
    • American artist.
    • Work: Brooklyn Bridge (1939).

  • Formal Qualities of Art Deco

    • Strong, sharp, geometric outlines.
    • Heavy dominance of dark colors, particularly black.
    • Geometric simplification, which derived directly from the Cubist movements of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso established 15 to 20 years earlier.
    • Celebration of dynamism and the machine age.

  • Socio-Historical Context of Art Deco

    • The style suited the machine age, an era exemplified by figures like the 1920s comedian Charlie Chaplin, whose performances depicted struggles with steam engines and locomotives.
    • High prevalence of black lacquer furniture during this era.
    • Possible connection to World War I (1914–1918):
    • Millions died during the conflict.
    • Returning survivors were encouraged to move past the trauma and entertain themselves.
    • The prominent use of black throughout the Art Deco period may reflect the widespread loss and bloodshed of World War I.

Art Deco Architecture and Geographical Hubs

  • Prominent Locations of Art Deco
    • The primary leading countries for the Art Deco style were France and the United States, with additional notable examples found in Brazil.
    • Baton Rouge, Louisiana
    • Serves as a major location for studying and experiencing Art Deco architecture.
    • Features the New State Capitol, which is one of only two skyscraper capitols in the United States (modeled on the state capitol in Lincoln, Nebraska).
    • Characterized by clear-cut, serene geometric simplification dating from the same artistic period as the paintings of the 1920s and 1930s.
    • The Old State Capitol provides a historical contrast within the same city.

Rembrandt van Rijn and Psychological Introspection

  • Artistic and Psychological Context

    • Rembrandt operated in 17th-century Holland (The Netherlands).
    • Although he lived long before the development of psychoanalysis, his lifelong series of self-portraits functions as a psychological and emotional diary.
    • His self-portraits track his personal ups and downs with extreme openness, capturing youth, confidence, fear, anger, pain, and loss.

  • Chronological Progression of Rembrandt's Self-Portraits

    • Late Teens / Early Twenties
    • Executed on a small panel.
    • His face is partially hidden in shadows, demonstrating youthful shyness.
    • 1634 (Three Years Later)
    • Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, the largest town in The Netherlands.
    • Became a highly popular portrait painter, producing approximately 1 portrait per month to earn a comfortable living.
    • Met his future wife, Saskia von Ullendroth, who came from a prominent, high-class family.
    • Depicted wearing a fur coat; his face is out of the shadow, displaying financial success, modest wealth, and youthful self-confidence.
    • 1640
    • Saskia was pregnant with their third child.
    • Purchased a grand home for 13,000 guilders13{,}000\text{ guilders} on the prestigious street Bredestraat in Amsterdam.
    • Received the commission for his largest painting, The Night Watch.
    • Posed in a manner copied from Italian Renaissance art, wearing a fur-lined coat and a velvet cap.
    • 1655
    • Displays a stark transformation: appears disillusionment, sad, quiet, and impoverished (resembling a street person).
    • Experienced severe personal tragedies: his wife Saskia died (reflecting high mortality rates and limited medical knowledge of the era), and several children died in rapid succession.
    • Physical studio disruptions: nearby construction produced dust that settled on and ruined his paintings.
    • Began a relationship with his domestic worker, Henri Gustafus. The conservative Protestant congregation publicly accused her of prostitution, creating a major social scandal.
    • Sales declined rapidly while he lived beyond his financial means; he filed for bankruptcy and was forced to sell his art collection at auction, forcing him into poverty.
    • 1669
    • Final self-portrait before his death.
    • Most of his family had passed away, including his only surviving son, Titus.
    • Shows deteriorating health and a total loss of vanity or social pretensions.

André Breton, Surrealism, and Untrained Art

  • Reevaluation of Untrained Artists

    • Historically, formal artistic training was required to make a living, and the work of self-taught or untrained artists was marginalized.
    • The shift toward appreciating untrained art in the 20th century was largely initiated by André Breton.
    • André Breton founded the Surrealist movement in 1924 with the publication of the Surrealist Manifesto.
    • Breton launched a short trial against and subsequently expelled fellow Surrealist Salvador Dali from the group.
    • Breton valued creative expressions from individuals who lacked self-conscious awareness of their artistic process, leading to widespread institutional appreciation of untrained art by the 1960s.

  • Terminology for Untrained Art

    • Equivalent terms include folk art, outsider art, and naive art (though "naive" historically carried negative connotations).

  • Examples of Untrained Art

    • Watts Towers (Watts, Los Angeles, California)
    • Located in an area historically known for the Watts riots of the 1960s.
    • Built over a period of more than 30 years by an Italian immigrant tile worker.
    • Constructed on inexpensive land adjacent to railroad tracks without using welding techniques; steel members were clamped together, covered in concrete, and embedded with thousands of pieces of glass and tile.
    • Built entirely during the creator's spare time after work until he abandoned the site without returning.
    • Resisted city demolition efforts and is now preserved as a landmark managed by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
    • Madonna and Child
    • Created by the Arroyo Hondo carver, a 19th-century Native American artisan working outside formal academic traditions.

Historical Systems of Artistic Training

  • Medieval Guild System

    • Economic and artistic production in Medieval Europe was regulated by craft guilds structured as confraternal associations.
    • Guilds dictated prices, quality standards, and the formal apprenticeship training process.
    • Painters belonged to the Guild of Saint Luke (Saint Luke serving as the patron saint of painters).
    • Trainees began as teenagers under a specific master, working up to master status themselves.

  • Academic System

    • The concept of the academy originates from the Platonic Academy of ancient Greece (a legacy maintained by organizations like the American Academy of Arts and Sciences).
    • Early art academies originated in Renaissance Italy during the time of Michelangelo as informal artist clubs.
    • In 1648, the French Academy of Painting and Sculpture was established, creating a rigid, highly structured path of advancement initially restricted to artists and architects serving the king.
    • Modern art schools are descendants of this academic model, combined in the 20th century with the functionalist approach of the German Bauhaus school.

  • Anonymity versus Individual Recognition

    • Medieval Cathedral Builders (1200–1300)
    • Stone carvers and stained-glass creators worked collectively and anonymously without personal branding (e.g., jamb statues at Chartres Cathedral / Notre Dame De Chartres, 1145–1170).
    • Modern / Bourgeois Artists
    • Group portraits of painters from later centuries depict well-dressed, professional men asserting individual identity and name recognition, reflecting an emancipation process critical for commercial art careers.