Unit 4: Later Europe and Americas, 1750–1980 CE

Key Movements of Later Europe and Americas Art

The Enlightenment (1715 – 1789)

• During the Enlightenment, intellectuals and other thinkers began to see ancient concepts from a fresh viewpoint and advocated skepticism, the study of science, and reasoning over superstition.
• A greater emphasis was placed on individualism and religion (separate from religion). When painters were no longer limited to religious forms, the subject matter of artwork began to change.
• This age witnessed a growing appreciation for the natural world.
• This paved the way for the creation of numerous new artistic trends and genres.

French Revolution (1789-1799)

• People revolted at the unequal treatment of the Third Estate (commoners) by the government, persistent food shortages, and financial distress after fighting in the American Revolution.
• Symbolism in a number of paintings expressed political opinions and conveyed political messages about the current events.
• Romanticism, which concentrated on emotion and expressed the sublime, was one of the aesthetic trends that followed the French Revolution.

Publishing of the Communist Manifesto (1848)

• The Communist Manifesto was written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848.
• It was first published in German in London.
• This was commissioned by the Communist League, a political organization that sought to unite various socialist groups.
• The text outlines the principles of communism and critiques capitalism.
• The Manifesto argues that the history of society is a history of class struggle, and that the proletariat (working class) will eventually overthrow the bourgeoisie (capitalist class).
• The Manifesto had a significant impact on political and social movements around the world, and is considered one of the most influential political texts in history.

Revolutions of 1848

• The Revolutions of 1848 were a series of political uprisings across Europe.
• They were sparked by economic hardship, political repression, and demands for greater democracy and national unity.
• The revolutions began in France in February 1848 and quickly spread to other countries including Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary.
• Many of the revolutions were ultimately unsuccessful, with conservative forces reasserting control in most countries by the end of the year.
• The revolutions did lead to some important reforms, such as the abolition of serfdom in Austria-Hungary and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in France.

Perry Expedition and the Forced Opening of Japan (1853-1868)

• Perry Expedition occurred between 1853-1854
• Led by Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States Navy
• Goal was to establish diplomatic relations with Japan and open trade
• Japan had been isolated from the rest of the world for over 200 years
• Negotiations were difficult due to language and cultural barriers
• Treaty of Kanagawa was signed in 1854, allowing American ships to refuel and resupply in two Japanese ports
• This forced Japan to open up to the world and establish trade relations with other countries

World Wars I and II (1914-1945)

• Both World Wars I and II had a profound impact on global economy, populations, and the environment.
• Like to earlier wars in history, art from World War I and World War II contains messages about the political and social climate.
• In particular, World War I gave rise to artistic styles such as Surrealism (abstract form intended to perplex the observer) and Expressionism (work that conveyed the creators' inner sentiments).

The Harlem Renaissance (1920s-1930s)

• The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that took place in the 1920s and 1930s in Harlem, New York City.
• It was also known as the "New Negro Movement" and was characterized by a celebration of African American culture, art, music, and literature.
• The movement was fueled by the Great Migration, which brought thousands of African Americans from the South to the North in search of better opportunities.
• Prominent figures of the Harlem Renaissance include Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong.
• The movement had a significant impact on American culture and helped to break down racial barriers and stereotypes.

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Interactions Within and Across Cultures in Later European and American Art

• Influences of Non-Western Cultures
  • Non-Western cultures, such as African, Asian, and Native American, influenced later European and American art.
  • Artists were fascinated by the exoticism and spirituality of these cultures.
  • They incorporated non-Western motifs, patterns, and techniques into their works.
• Influences of Eastern Cultures
  • Eastern cultures, such as Japanese and Chinese, also influenced later European and American art.
  • Artists were attracted to the simplicity, elegance, and harmony of these cultures.
  • They adopted Eastern techniques, such as woodblock printing and calligraphy, and incorporated them into their works.
• Influences of Other Western Cultures
  • Western cultures also influenced later European and American art.
  • Artists were inspired by the art of their contemporaries and predecessors from other Western countries.
  • They borrowed styles, techniques, and themes from these artists.

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Artistic Movements of Later Europe and Americas Art

• Rococo (1700-1750 CE)
  • Rococo art, which emerged in Europe between 1700 and 1750 CE, was characterized by its ornate and decorative style.
  • Techniques and processes used in Rococo art included delicate brushwork, pastel colors, and asymmetrical compositions.
  • Audience was primarily the aristocracy and wealthy bourgeoisie, who commissioned works for their homes and palaces.
  • Interpretations vary, but it is often seen as a reflection of the hedonistic and pleasure-seeking culture of the time.
  • Purpose was to create a sense of luxury and opulence, and to showcase the wealth and status of the patrons who commissioned the works.
• Neoclassicism (1750-1830)
  • A revival of classical art and architecture, characterized by a focus on simplicity, order, and rationality.
  • Techniques included drawing, painting, and sculpture.
  • The audience was mainly the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie.
  • The purpose was to promote the values of reason, order, and patriotism.
• Romanticism (1780-1850)
  • An artistic and literary movement that emphasized emotion, imagination, and individualism.
  • Techniques included painting, literature, and music.
  • The audience was mainly the middle class.
  • The purpose was to express personal feelings and emotions, and to critique society.
• Realism (1848-1900)
  • An artistic movement that aimed to represent reality as it is, without idealization or exaggeration.
  • Techniques included painting, sculpture, and photography.
  • The audience was mainly the working class.
  • The purpose was to expose social and political issues, and to promote social change.
• Impressionism (1860-1890)
  • An artistic movement that aimed to capture the fleeting effects of light and color.
  • Techniques included painting and drawing.
  • The audience was mainly the middle class.
  • The purpose was to capture the beauty of everyday life, and to challenge traditional art forms.
• Post-Impressionism (1880s-1890s)
  • Emphasized the use of color and form to express emotions and ideas.
  • Artists used techniques such as pointillism and bold brushstrokes to create a sense of movement and energy in their works.
  • The purpose of Post-Impressionism was to move beyond the limitations of Impressionism and create a more personal and expressive form of art.
• Symbolism (1890s)
  • Focused on the use of symbols and metaphors to convey deeper meanings and emotions.
  • Artists used techniques such as exaggeration and distortion to create a dreamlike or mystical atmosphere in their works.
  • The purpose of Symbolism was to explore the inner world of the human psyche and express the mysteries of the universe.
• Art Nouveau (1890s-1914)
  • Emphasized the use of organic forms and decorative motifs inspired by nature.
  • Artists used techniques such as curvilinear lines and asymmetrical shapes to create a sense of fluidity and movement in their works.
  • The purpose of Art Nouveau was to create a new style that was both beautiful and functional, and to break away from the rigid forms of traditional art.
• The Prairie Style (1900-1930s)
  • Emphasized the use of simple, geometric forms and natural materials such as wood and stone.
  • Architects used techniques such as horizontal lines and open floor plans to create a sense of harmony and integration with the surrounding landscape.
  • The purpose of the Prairie Style was to create a new form of architecture that was both functional and aesthetically pleasing, and to reflect the values of the American Midwest.
• Fauvism (1905-1908)
  • Emphasized the use of bold, bright colors and simplified forms to create a sense of energy and emotion in their works.
  • Artists used techniques such as thick brushstrokes and simplified shapes to create a sense of spontaneity and immediacy in their works.
  • The purpose of Fauvism was to break away from the traditional forms of art and create a new form of expression that was both vibrant and emotional.
• Expressionism (1905-1925)
  • An artistic movement that aimed to express subjective emotions and experiences. Techniques included painting, literature, and theater.
  • The audience was mainly intellectuals and artists.
  • The purpose was to challenge traditional art forms, and to express the anxieties and fears of modern life.
• Cubism (1907-1930s)
  • Emphasized geometric shapes and multiple perspectives.
  • Its purpose was to break away from traditional art and create a new visual language.
  • The audience was primarily other artists and intellectuals.
• Constructivism (1914-1920s)
  • Focused on the use of industrial materials and emphasized the importance of function over form.
  • Its purpose was to create art that served a social purpose and could be used in everyday life.
  • The audience was the working class and the goal was to inspire social change.
• Dada (1915-1922)
  • Rejected traditional art and embraced absurdity and nonsense.
  • Its purpose was to challenge societal norms and values.
  • The audience was primarily other artists and intellectuals.
• DeStijl (1917-1930s)
  • Emphasized simplicity and abstraction, using only primary colors and straight lines.
  • Its purpose was to create a universal language of art that could be understood by all.
  • The audience was artists and designers.
• The International Style (1920s-1930s)
  • An architectural movement that emphasized functionality and minimalism.
  • Its purpose was to create buildings that were efficient and could be mass-produced.
  • The audience was architects and designers.
• The Harlem Renaissance (1920s-1930s)
  • A cultural movement that celebrated African American art, literature, and music.
  • Its purpose was to challenge racial stereotypes and promote African American culture.
  • The audience was primarily African Americans.
• Mexican Muralists (1920s-1930s)
  • Used large-scale murals to promote social and political messages.
  • Its purpose was to educate the public and inspire social change.
  • The audience was the general public.
• Surrealism (1920-1960)
  • An artistic movement that aimed to explore the subconscious mind and the irrational.
  • Techniques included painting, sculpture, and literature.
  • The audience was mainly intellectuals and artists.
  • The purpose was to challenge rationality and conventional morality, and to explore the mysteries of the human psyche.
• Abstract Expressionism/The New York School (1940s-1950s)
  • Used large canvases, gestural brushstrokes, and unconventional tools. The process of creating the artwork was as important as the final product.
  • Audience was primarily other artists, critics, and collectors. Interpretations varied, with some seeing it as a reaction against formalism and others as a reflection of post-World War II anxiety.
  • Purpose was to create a new form of art free from traditional constraints and express innermost emotions and ideas.
• Pop Art (1950-1980)
  • An artistic movement that celebrated popular culture and consumerism.
  • Techniques included painting, sculpture, and graphic design.
  • The audience was mainly the middle class.
  • The purpose was to critique mass media and consumer culture, and to blur the boundaries between high and low art.
• Color Field Painting (1960s)
  • Abstract painting style using large areas of flat color to create depth. Paint applied in multiple layers.
  • Primarily for art collectors and museums.
  • Reaction against gestural brushwork of Abstract Expressionism.
  • Goal was to create an immersive experience for the viewer.
• Happenings (1960s)
  • Performance art that was spontaneous and unscripted. Included music, dance, and multimedia elements.
  • Aimed at young, countercultural crowds.
  • Meant to break down boundaries between art and life.
  • Goal was to create a sense of community and shared experience.
• Site Art (1970s-1990s)
  • Art movement that created site-specific works.
  • Techniques included sculpture, installation, and environmental art.
  • Audience was often the general public in public spaces.
  • Goal was to engage with the environment and challenge traditional notions of art.
  • Aimed to create a sense of place and dialogue between art and the natural world.

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Later Europe and Americas Artworks

➼ Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

• Details

  • By Miguel Cabrera
  • 1750
  • Made oil on canvas
  • Found in Museo Nacional de Historia, Castillo de Chapultepec, Mexico

• Function

  • Many portraits survive, but all images derive from a now-lost self-portrait.
  • Painting was done for her admirers 55 years after Sor Juana Inés’s death.

• Content

  • Portrayed seated in her library surrounded by symbols of her faith and her learning.
  • She wears the habit of the religious order of the Hermits of Saint Jerome nuns of Mexico City; the habit includes the escudo—a framed vellum painting.
  • Painting may have been inspired by the image of Saint Jerome seated at a desk.
  • Escudo: a framed painting worn below the neck in a colonial Spanish painting

• Context

  • Sor Juana Inés (Sister Juana Agnes), a child prodigy (1651–1695).
  • She was a criollo woman who became a nun in 1669.
  • A feminist culture survived in Mexican convents, where privileged nuns could live in comfort with servants and households.
  • Sor Juana was a literary figure who wrote books that were widely read; she also wrote poetry and theatrical pieces, and maintained a great library.
  • Sor Juana was instrumental in giving girls an education in a male-­dominated world.

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➼ The Swing

• Details

  • By Jean-Honoré Fragonard
  • 1767
  • Made of oil on canva
  • Found in  Wallace Collection, London

• Form

  • Pastel palette; light brushwork.
  • Figures are small in a dominant garden-like setting.
  • Use of atmospheric perspective.
  • Puffy clouds; rich vegetation; abundant flowers; sinuous curves.
  • Symbolically a dreamlike setting.

• Patronage and Content

  • Commissioned by an unnamed “gentleman of the Court:” a painting of his young mistress on a swing; in an early version, a bishop is pushing the swing with the gentleman admiring his mistress’s legs from below.
  • In the finished painting, the older man is no longer a priest, a barking dog has been added, and Falconet’s sculpture of Menacing Love comments on the story.
  • The patron in the lower left looks up the skirt of a young lady who swings flirtatiously, boldly kicking off her shoe at a sculpture.
  • The dog in the lower right corner, generally seen as a symbol of fidelity, barks in disapproval at the scene before him.

• Context

  • Fragonard answers the libertine intentions of his patron by painting in the Rococo style.
  • Fragonard often used different styles at the same time, and he seems to have seen the Rococo as particularly appropriate for an erotic scene.
  • An intrigue painting; the patron hides in a bower; the garden sculpture of Menacing Love asks the lady to be discreet and may be a symbol for the secret hiding of the patron.

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➼ Still Life in Studio

• Details

  • By Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre
  • 1837
  • Daguerreotype
  • French Photographic Society, Paris

• Form

  • Photograph reproduces a variety of textures: fabric, wicker, plaster, framed print, etc.
  • Inspired by painted still lifes, such as vanitas paintings.

• Context

  • New art form proclaimed while referencing older art forms.
  • Daguerreotypes have a shiny surface and a sharp eye for detail.
  • No negative; therefore, copies could not be made.
  • Long exposure times required.
  • Produced on a metallic surface; photos have a glossy finish.

  

➼ Starry Night

• Details

  • By Vincent van Gogh
  • 1889
  • Oil on canvas
  • Found in Museum of Modern Art, New York

• Form

  • Thick, short brushstrokes.
  • Heavy application of paint called impasto.
  • Parts of the canvas can be seen through the brushwork; artist need not fill in every part of the surface.
  • Strong left-to-right wave-like impulse in the work broken only by the tree and the church steeple.
  • The tree looks like green flames reaching into a sky that is exploding with stars over a placid village.

• Context

  • The mountains in the distance are the ones that Van Gogh could see from his hospital room in Saint-Rémy; steepness exaggerated.
  • Combination of images: Dutch church, crescent moon, Mediterranean cypress tree.
  • Cypresses were often associated with cemeteries.
  • Landscape painting was popular in the late nineteenth century as a reaction to the industrialization of cities.

  

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➼ The Scream

• Details

  • By Edvard Munch
  • 1893
  • Tempera and pastels on cardboard
  • Found in National Gallery, Oslo

• Form and Content

  • The figure walks along a wharf; boats are at sea in the distance.
  • Long, thick brushstrokes swirl around the composition.
  • The figure cries out in a horrifying scream; the landscape echoes his ­emotions.
  • Discordant colors symbolize anguish.
  • Emaciated, twisting stick figure with skull-like head.

• Function: Painted as part of a series called The Frieze of Life; a semi autobiographical succession of paintings.

• Context

  • Said to have been inspired by an exhibit of a Peruvian mummy in Paris.
  • The work prefigures Expressionist art.
  • The work is influenced by Art Nouveau swirling patterns.

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➼ The Kiss

• Details

  • By Gustav Klimt
  • 1907–1908
  • Oil and gold leaf on canvas
  • Found in Austrian Gallery, Vienna

• Form

  • Little of the human form is actually seen: two heads four hands, two feet.
  • The bodies are suggested under a sea of richly designed patterning.
  • The work is spaced in an indeterminate location against a flattened background.

• Context

  • The male figure is composed of large rectangular boxes; the female figure is composed of circular forms.
  • The work suggests all-consuming love; passion; eroticism.
  • The use of gold leaf is reminiscent of Byzantine mosaics
  • The work is influenced by gold applied to medieval illuminated manuscripts.
  • Part of a movement called the Vienna Succession, which broke away from academic training in schools at that time.

  

➼ Louis Sullivan, Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building

• Details

  • 1899–1903
  • Iron, steel, glass, and terra cotta
  • Found in Chicago

• Form

  • Horizontal emphasis on the exterior mirrors the continuous flow of floor space on the interior.
  • The exterior is covered in decorative terra cotta tiles; original interior ornamentation elaborately arranged around lobby areas, hallways, elevator; interior ornamentation now lost.
  • The architect designed maximum window areas to admit light, but also to make displays visible from the street.
  • Nonsupportive role of exterior walls; held up by an interior framework.
  • Open ground plan allows for free movement of customers and goods.

• Function: A department store on a fashionable street in Chicago.

• Context

  • Some historical touches exist in the round entrance arches and the heavy ­cornice at the top of the building.
  • Cast iron decorative elements transformed the store into a beautiful place to buy beautiful things.
  • Shows the influence of Art Nouveau in decorative ironwork on the entrance.
  • Sullivan motto: “Form follows function.”

  

➼   Goldfish

• Details

  • By Henri Matisse
  • 1912
  • Oil on canvas
  • Formerly in Pushkin Museum of Art, Moscow, Russia

• Form

  • Strong contrasts of color.
  • Thinly applied colors; the white of the canvas shows through.
  • Energetic, painterly brushwork.
  • Broad patches of color anticipate color-field painting later in the century.

• Content

  • Still-life painting.
  • Compare to Ruysch, Fruits and Insects, and Daguerre, Still Life in Studio.

• Context

  • May have been in response to a trip in Morocco, where Matisse noted how the local population would daydream for hours, gazing into goldfish bowls. Form, color, and subject matter were inspired by this trip.
  • Admired the relaxed and contemplative lifestyle of the Moroccans, which symbolized a meditative state of mind and a sense of paradise lost to Europeans.
  • May have been influenced by the decorative quality of Asian art and diverse cultures from North Africa.

  

➼  Improvisation 28 (2nd Version)

• Details

  • By Vassily Kandinsky
  • 1912
  • Oil on canvas
  • Found in Guggenheim Museum, New York

• Form

  • Strongly articulated use of black lines.
  • Colors seem to shade around line forms.

• Content

  • Using schematic means, Kandinsky depicts cataclysmic events on the left (boat and waves—a deluge, a serpent, a cannon) and a sense of spiritual salvation on the right (a couple embrace, a candle, a church on a hill).

• Context

  • Kandinsky wanted the viewer to respond to a painting the way one would to an abstract musical composition: a concerto, a sonata, a symphony.
  • The artist felt that sound and color were linked; for example, it was possible to hear color.
  • He used words such as “composition” and “improvisation” in the titles of his works, words associated with musical composition.
  • Kandinsky’s works have a relationship to atonal music, which was evolving at this time.
  • Movement toward abstraction; representational objects suggested rather than depicted.

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➼   Self-Portrait as a Soldier

• Details

  • By Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
  • 1915
  • Oil on canvas
  • Found in Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio

• Form

  • Nightmarish quality.
  • Colors are nonrepresentational but symbolic, chosen to provide a jarring impact. Expressive quality of horrified facial features and grim surroundings.
  • Tilted perspective moves things closer to the picture plane.
  • Main figure has a drawn face, with a cigarette hanging loosely from his lips.
  • The eyes are unseeing and empty, without pupils; the iris reflects the blue of his uniform.
  • The bloody stump of a hand represents losses in war, loss of the artist’s ability to paint, his creativity, his artistic vision, and his inspiration.
  • Sharp angular lines reinforce a sense of violence and anxiety.

• Context

  • Kirchner became an “unwilling volunteer,” a driver in the artillery in World War I, to avoid being drafted into the infantry.
  • He is wearing the uniform of his field artillery regiment.
  • He was declared unfit for service; he had lung problems and weakness and suffered a mental breakdown—there is scholarly debate as to whether he faked these ailments to avoid service.
  • This self-portrait was painted during a recuperation period.
  • His life was plagued by drug abuse, alcoholism, and then paralysis.
  • The artist feared that war would destroy his creative powers.

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➼   Memorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht

• Details

  • By Käthe Kollwitz
  • 1919–1920
  • Woodcut
  • A Private Collection

• Form

  • Stark black and white of the woodcut used to magnify the grief.
  • Human grief dominates.

• Patronage: Family of Liebknecht asked Kollwitz to memorialize him.

• Technique

  • Wood-block print.
  • Kollwitz used this technique to reinforce the emotions depicted in the scene.
  • She liked the “primitive” quality that wood-block prints could render.

• Context

  • Liebknecht was among the founders of the Berlin Spartacus League, which became the German Communist Party.
  • In 1919, Liebknecht was shot to death during a Communist uprising in Berlin called the Spartacus Revolt (named for the slave who led a revolt against the Romans in 73 B.C.E.).
  • Liebknecht was held to be a martyr in the Communist cause.
  • There are no political references in the woodcut.
  • Themes of war and poverty dominate the artist’s oeuvre.
  • She often emphasized the theme of women grieving over dead children; her son died in World War I; the artist then became a socialist.

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➼   Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

• Details

  • By Pablo Picasso
  • 1907
  • Oil on canvas
  • Found in Museum of Modern Art, New York

• Content

  • Depicts five prostitutes in a bordello in Avignon Street in Barcelona, each posing for a customer.
  • Poses are not traditionally alluring but awkward, expressionless, and uninviting.

• Form

  • The three on the left are more conservatively painted; the two on right more radical; reflects a dichotomy in Picasso.
  • Multiple views are expressed at the same time.
  • Depth is limited, but ambiguous and ever shifting.
  • The painting has semitransparent passages.

• Context

  • This is the first cubist work, influenced by late Cézanne and perhaps African masks (faces on the right) and ancient Iberian sculpture (figure on the left).
  • Influenced by Gauguin’s so-called Primitivism.

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➼   The Portuguese

• Details

  • By Georges Braque
  • 1911
  • Oil on canvas
  • Art Museum, Basel, Switzerland

• Form

  • Braque rejected naturalistic and conventional painting.
  • Fractured forms; breaking down of objects into smaller forms.
  • Clear-edged surfaces at the front of the picture plane, not recessed in space.
  • Nearly monochrome.

• Context

  • Analytical Cubism; Braque worked in concert with Pablo Picasso to develop this style.
  • This is not a portrait of a Portuguese musician, but rather an exploration of shapes.
  • The only realistic elements are the stenciled letters and numbers; perhaps they suggest a dance hall poster behind the guitarist, a café-like atmosphere.

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➼   The Steerage

• Details

  • By Alfred Stieglitz
  • 1907
  • photogravure
  • A private collection

• Form

  • Interested in compositional possibilities of diagonals and lines acting as framing elements.
  • Diagonals and framing effects of ladders, sails, steam pipes, etc.
  • Stieglitz photographed the world as he saw it; he arranged little, and allowed people and events to make their own compositions.
  • Influenced by experimental European painting; compared with a Cubist drawing by Picasso, Cubist-like in arrangement of shapes and tonal values.

• Content

  • Steerage: the part of a ship reserved for passengers with the cheapest tickets.
  • Depicts the poorest passengers on a ship traveling from the United States to Europe in 1907; they were allowed out for air for a limited time.
  • Some may have been people turned away from entrance to the United States; more likely, they were artisans whose visas had expired and were returning home.

• Context

  • The work depicts social divisions in society.
  • Published in October 1911 in Camera Work.

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➼   Fountain

• Details
  • By Marcel Duchamp
  • Originally 1917; this version is 1950
  • readymade glazed sanitary china with black paint
  • Found in Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
• Form
  • Ready-made sculpture; actually a found object that Duchamp deemed to be a work of art.
  • Signed by the “artist,” R. Mutt, a pun on the Mutt and Jeff comic strip and Mott Iron Works.
  • Item purchased from a sanitary-ware supplier and submitted to the Society of Independent Artists, a group that Duchamp helped to found.
• Function and History
  • Entered in an unjuried show, the work was refused—narrowly voted out by the organizers.
  • Thought to be indecent, not fit to show women.
  • Duchamp resigned in protest.
  • It is not fully understood why Duchamp resigned; it may have come from his experience exhibiting an earlier work Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2 to the Salon des Indépendants in Paris; although the work was illustrated in the show’s catalog, Duchamp was asked to remove it a few days before the opening.
  • He removed the object but felt betrayed; said it was a turning point in his life.
  • Fountain can be seen as an experimental replay by Duchamp, testing the commitment of the new American Society to freedom of expression and tolerance of new conceptions about art.
• Context
  • The title is a pun: a fountain spouts liquid, a urinal collects it.
  • The placing of the urinal upside down is an added irony.
  • The rotation of Fountain may symbolize seeing something familiar from a new perspective.
  • The original is now lost; Duchamp oversaw the “remaking” of a few models in 1964.

➼   Object (Le Dejéuner en fourrure)

• Details

  • By Meret Oppenheim
  • 1936
  • fur-covered cup, saucer, and spoon
  • Found in Museum of Modern Art, New York

• Form: An assemblage.

• Context

  • Said to have been done in response to Picasso’s claim that anything looks good in fur; Oppenheim said to respond, “Even this cup and saucer?”
  • Erotic overtones.
  • Combination of unalike objects: fur-covered teacup, saucer, and spoon. The tea cup was purchased at a department store; the fur is the pelt of a Chinese gazelle.
  • A contrast of textures: fur delights the touch, not the taste; cups and spoons are meant to be put in the mouth.
  • Oppenheim did not title the work, but the Surrealist critic, Andre Breton, called the piece Le Déjeneur en fourrure, or Luncheon in Fur, a title that references Édouard Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass as well as the erotic novel by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch called Venus in Furs.
  • Chosen by visitors to a Surrealist show in New York as the quintessential Surrealist work of art.
  • Because fame came to Oppenheim so young (she was twenty-two when she produced this work), it inhibited her growth as an artist.

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➼   The Two Fridas

• Details

  • By Frida Kahlo
  • 1939
  • oil on canvas
  • Found in Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City

• Content

  • On the left: Kahlo is dressed as a Spanish lady in white lace, linking her to a European heritage.
  • On the right: Kahlo dressed as a Mexican peasant—the stiffness and provincial quality of Mexican folk art was a direct inspiration for the artist.
  • Behind is a barren landscape; two figures sit against a wildly active sky.

• Context

  • There is a juxtaposition to two self-portraits.
  • Kahlo’s two hearts are joined together by veins that are cut by scissors at one end and lead to a portrait of her husband, artist Diego Rivera, at the other; painted at the time of their divorce.
  • The vein acts as an umbilical cord; symbolism: Rivera as both husband and son.
  • Blood on her lap suggests many abortions and miscarriages; also, surgeries related to her health issues.
  • Kahlo rejected the label Surrealism for her artwork.

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➼   The Jungle

• Details

  • By Wifredo Lam
  • 1943
  • gouache on paper mounted on canvas
  • Found in Museum of Modern Art, New York

• Form

  • Crescent-shaped faces suggest African masks and the god Elegua.
  • Rounded backs, thin arms and legs, pronounced hands and feet.
  • Long vertical lines suggest sugarcane, which is grown in fields, not jungles.

• Context

  • Cuban-born artist whose career took him to Europe and the United States.
  • The artist was interested in Cuba’s mixture of Hispanic and African cultures.
  • This work was “intended to communicate a psychic state.”
  • The work addresses the history of slavery in colonial Cuba.
  • Influences include African sculpture; Cubist works; Surrealist paintings (Lam was a member of the Surrealist movement in Paris).
  • The painting contrasts a Cuban landscape with a tourist image of Cuba as a tropical paradise.

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➼  Illustration from The Results of the First Five-Year Plan

• Details

  • By Varvara Stepanova
  • 1932
  • photomontage
  • Found in Museum of the Revolution, Moscow, Russia

• Form and Function

  • Graphic art for political and propaganda purposes; a photomontage.
  • Red color dominates—the color of Communist Soviet Union.
  • A large portrait of Lenin dominates; although deceased, his image is used to stimulate patriotism.
  • Masses of people below illustrate the popularity of the Five-Year Plan.
  • CCCP (Союз Советских Социалистических Республи) is a Russian abbreviation for the Soviet Union.

• Context

  • Stepanova was one of the main figures in the Russian avant-garde movement.
  • Influenced by Cubism and Futurism.
  • Five-Year Plan:
  • Soviet practice of increasing agricultural and industrial output in five years.
  • Launched in 1928, considered complete in 1932.
  • Emphasis on growth of heavy industry rather than consumer goods.
  • Huge increases in electrical output (dominant industrial symbol in the work).
  • The failures of the five-year plan are overlooked in this representation (famine, extreme poverty, political oppression); instead it is a propaganda statement of the virtues of the Stalinist state.

  

➼   Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow

• Details

  • By Piet Mondrian
  • 1930
  • oil on canvas
  • Found in Kunsthaus,Zurich

• Form

  • Only primary colors used—red, yellow, and blue—plus the neutral colors, white and black.
  • Severe geometry of form; only right angles; grid-like forms.
  • No shading of colors.

• Context

  • The artist is interested in the material properties of paint, not naturalistic depictions.
  • The artist expresses ideas using abstract elements—that is, line and color.
  • Influenced by Cubism.

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➼   Fallingwater

• Details

  • By Frank Lloyd Wright
  • 1936–1939
  • reinforced ­concrete, sandstone, steel, and glass
  • Found in Bear Run, Pennsylvania

• Form

  • Cantilevered steel-supported porches extend over a waterfall.
  • The accent is on horizontal lines—as opposed to the verticality of much of twentieth-century architecture.
  • The architecture is in harmony with the site.
  • The living room contains a glass curtain wall around three of the four sides; the building embraces the woods around it.
  • The floor of the living room and the walls of building are made from the stone of the area.
  • The hearth (physically and symbolically) is the center of the house, an outcropping of natural stones surrounds it.
  • The interior shows a suppression of space devoted to hanging a painting; Wright wanted the architecture to dominate.
  • The ground plan and design is irregular and complex.
  • Only two colors used: light ochre for the concrete and Cherokee red for the steel.

• Context: Late expression of Prairie School ideas.

• Function and Patronage: Weekend retreat for the Kaufmann family, who owned a department store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

  

➼   Villa Savoye

• Details

  • By Le Corbusier
  • 1929
  • steel and reinforced concrete
  • Found in Poissy-sur-Seine, France

• Form

  • Boxlike horizontal quality; an abstraction of a house.
  • The main part of the house is lifted off the ground by narrow pilotis—thin freestanding posts.
  • The house appears to float on pilotis; allows air to circulate around the base of the house.
  • The turning circular carport on the bottom floor enables family members to enter the house directly from their car.
  • All space is utilized, including the roof, which acts as a patio.
  • The roof terraces bring the outdoors into the house.
  • Subtle colors: white on exterior symbolizes modern cleanliness and healthful living.
  • Open interior is free of many walls.
  • Some furniture is built into the walls.
  • Ribbon windows wind around the second floor.
  • Streamlined look.
  • Living spaces that are surrounded by glass face an open courtyard-type setting on the second floor.

• Function and Patronage

  • A three-bedroom country house with servants’ quarters on the ground floor.
  • Built in suburban Paris as a retreat for the wealthy.
  • Patrons: Pierre and Emilie Savoye.

  

➼   Seagram Building

• Details

  • By Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson
  • 1954–1958
  • steel frame with glass curtain wall and bronze
  • Found in New York

• Function: 38-story corporate headquarters of the Seagram Liquor Company.

• Form

  • Bronze veneer gives the skyscraper a monolithic look; bronze is maintained yearly to keep the same color.
  • Set back from Park Avenue on a wide plaza balanced by reflecting pools.
  • Interplay of vertical and horizontal accents.
  • Mullions stress the verticality of the internal frame.

• Context

  • Minimalist architecture.
  • Monolith style expresses corporate power.
  • Mies’s saying of “Less is more” can be seen in this building with its great simplicity, geometry of design, and elegance of construction.
  • Mies also said, “God is in the details;” truthful buildings express their structure, not hide it.
  • Steel and glass skyscrapers and curtain wall construction became the model after World War II.
  • A triumph of the International Style of architecture.

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➼   The Migration of the Negro, Panel no. 49

• Details

  • By Jacob Lawrence
  • 1940–1941
  • casein tempera on hardboard
  • Found in Museum of Modern Art, New York

• Form

  • The work illustrates the collective African-American experience; therefore, there is little individuality in the figures.
  • Forms hover in large spaces.
  • Angularity of forms.
  • Tilted tabletops show the surface of the table.
  • Flat, simple shapes.
  • Unmodulated colors.
  • Collective unity achieved by painting one color across many panels before going on to the next color; overall color unity in the series unites each painting.

• Content

  • This scene involves a public restaurant in the North; segregation emphasized by the yellow poles that zigzag down the center.
  • Whites appear haughty and self-engrossed.
  • African-Americans appear faceless; forms reveal their bodies and personalities.

• Context

  • One of a series of 60 paintings that depicts the migration of African-Americans from the rural South to the urban North after World War I.
  • Negroes escaping the economic privation of the South.
  • Narrative painting in an era of increasing abstraction.
  • Cinematic movement of views of panels: some horizontal and others vertical.
  • Influenced by the Italian masters of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; used tempera paint.
  • The Phillips Collections in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Modern Art in New York bought the collection and it was split.
  • The Phillips took the odd-numbered paintings; the Museum of Modern Art has the even-numbered ones.

  

➼   Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park

• Details

  • By Diego Rivera
  • 1947–1948
  • fresco
  • Found in Museo Mural Diego Rivera, Mexico City

• Form

  • 50-foot-long fresco, 13 feet high.
  • Horror vacui; didactic painting.
  • Colorful painting.
  • Revival of fresco painting, a Mexican specialty.

• Placement

  • Originally in the lobby of the Hotel del Prado.
  • After a 1985 earthquake destabilized the hotel, the fresco was placed in a museum adjacent to Alameda Park, Mexico City’s first city park—built on the grounds of an Aztec marketplace.

• Content

  • Three eras of Mexican history depicted from left to right:
  • Conquest and colonization of Mexico by the Spanish.
  • Porfirio Diaz dictatorship.
  • Revolution of 1910 and the modern world.
  • Depicts a who’s who of Mexican politics, culture, and leadership:
  • Sor Juana, in nun’s habit, at left center.
  • Benito Juárez, five-term president of Mexico, left at top.
  • General Santa Ana handing the keys of Mexico to General Winfield Scott.
  • Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota.
  • José Marti, father of Mexican independence (tipping his hat).
  • General Porfirio Díaz, with medals, asleep.
  • A police officer ordering a family out of an elitist park.
  • Francisco Madero, a martyred president.
  • José Posaro, artist and Rivera hero.
  • Rivera is in the center, at age ten, holding hands with Caterina (“Death”) and dreaming of a perfect love (Kahlo is behind him holding a yin/yang symbol—a symbol of Kahlo and Rivera’s relationship).

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➼   Woman I

• Details

  • By Willem de Kooning
  • 1950–1952
  • oil on canvas
  • Found in Museum of Modern Art, New York

• Form

  • Ferocious woman with great fierce teeth and huge eyes.
  • Large, bulbous breasts satirize women who appear in magazine advertising; smile said to be influenced by an ad of a woman selling Camel cigarettes.
  • Jagged lines create an overpowering image.
  • The smile is a cut out of a female smile from a magazine advertisement.
  • Blank stare; frozen grin.
  • Ambiguous environment: vagueness, insecurity.
  • Thick and thin black lines dominate.

• Context

  • Combination of stereotypes; ironic comment on the banal and artificial world of film and advertising.
  • Commentary on the female form in art history.
  • Is she aggressive? Or have aggressions been committed against her? Or both?
  • One of a series of six paintings on this theme.
  • Influenced by everything from paleolithic goddesses to pin-up girls

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➼   The Bay

• Details

  • By Helen Frankenthaler
  • 1963
  • acrylic on canvas
  • Found in Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan

• Form

  • Painted directly on an unprimed canvas; canvas absorbs the paint more directly.
  • Use of runny water-based acrylic paint.
  • Soak-stained technique.
  • Use of landscape as a starting point, a basis for imagery in the works.
  • The two-dimensionality of the canvas is accentuated.

• Context and Interpretation: Artist worked in the avant-garde New York School at mid-century.

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➼   Marilyn Diptych

• Details

  • By Andy Warhol
  • 1962
  • oil, acrylic, silkscreen enamel on canvas
  • Found in Tate Gallery, London

• Form and Content

  • Marilyn Monroe’s public face appears sequentially as if on a roll of film.
  • Fifty images from a film still from a movie, Niagara (1953).
  • Social characteristics magnified: brilliance of blonde hair, heavily applied lipstick, seductive expression.
  • Private persona of the individual submerged beneath the public face.
  • Marilyn’s public face appears highlighted by bold, artificial colors.
  • Left, in color, represents her in life; right, in black and white, represents her in death; work done four months after her tragic death.
  • Repetition of faces reflects the repetition of the number of times Marilyn appeared before the public; sometimes overexposed, sometimes underexposed.

• Materials and Technique

  • Silkscreen printing technique applies photographic images in rectangular shapes onto a canvas background.
  • Silkscreen diminishes the role of shading and emphasizes broad planes and unmodulated color.
  • Diptych format suggests almost a religious presence.

• Context

  • Cult of celebrity; Monroe was a famous movie star of the 1950s.
  • Private persona of Marilyn submerged beneath the public face(s).
  • Repeated imagery drains the image of Monroe of meaning.
  • Reproduction of many denies the concept of the unique work of art.

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➼   Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks

• Details

  • By Claes Oldenburg
  • 1969–1974
  • cor-ten steel, steel, aluminum, and cast resin, painted with polyurethane enamel
  • Found in Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

• Function

  • First installed, secretly, on Beinecke Plaza, New Haven, in 1969.
  • Intended as a platform for public speakers; rallying point for anti-Vietnam-era protests.

• Materials

  • Sculpture made of inexpensive and perishable materials (plywood tracks and an inflatable vinyl balloon tip).
  • Refurbished with steel and aluminum; reinstalled in 1974 in front of Morse College, at Yale—not its original location.

• Context

  • Tank-shaped platform base with lipstick ascending—antiwar symbolism.
  • Male and female forms unite: themes of death, power, desire, and sensuality.
  • First monumental sculpture by Oldenburg.

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➼   Narcissus Garden

• Details

  • By Yayoi Kusama
  • first seen in 1966
  • marble installations
  • Found in Venice

• Function and History

  • The artist originally featured the work as an uninvited participant in the 1966 Venice Biennale.
  • Fifteen hundred large, mirrored, plastic balls were placed on a lawn under a sign that said “Your Narcissism for Sale.”
  • The viewer is reflected seemingly into infinity in the mirrored surfaces.
  • The artist offered the balls for sale for 1,200 lire ($2 each) as a commentary on the commercialism and vanity of the current art world.
  • The installation later moved to water, where the floating balls reflect the natural environment—and the viewers—around the work; water placement makes a stronger connection to the ancient myth.
  • Balls move with the currents of the water and wind, reflecting organically made, ever-changing viewpoints.
  • The installation has been exhibited in many places around the world, both in water and in dry spaces

• Context

  • Narcissus Garden references the ancient myth of Narcissus, a young man who is so enraptured by his image in reflecting water that he stares at it indefinitely until he becomes a flower.

  • There is a deeper meaning today as Narcissus Garden references modern obsessions with selfies and uploaded images on social media.

  • Kusama is an internationally renowned Japanese-born artist:

  • Got her start showing large works of art featuring huge polka dots.

  • One of the foremost innovators of Happenings.

  • Works in a wide variety of media, including installations.

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➼   Spiral Jetty

• Details

  • By Robert Smithson
  • 1970
  • earthwork: mud, precipitated salt crystals, rocks, water coil
  • Found in Great Salt Lake, Utah

• Form

  • A coil of rock placed in a part of the Great Salt Lake that is in an extremely remote and inaccessible area.
  • The artist liked the site because of the blood-red color of the water, which is due to the presence of bacteria and algae that live in the high-salt content.

• Material: The artist used a tractor to move basalt from the adjacent hillside to create the jetty.

• Context

  • Upon walking on the jetty, the twisting and curling path changes the viewer’s view from every angle.
  • A jetty is usually a pier extending into the water; here it is transformed into a curl of rocks sitting silently in a vast, empty wilderness.
  • The coil is an image seen in North American earthworks—cf. Great Serpent Mound, Ohio—as well as in petroglyphs and Anasazi pottery.
  • The work reflects emerging views of the environmental movement; Earth Day was inaugurated in 1970.
  • Smithson wanted nature to have its effect on the jetty (sometimes it is submerged, sometimes it is visible).

  

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➼   House in New Castle County

• Details

  • By Robert Venturi, John Rauch, and Denise Scott Brown
  • 1978–1983
  • Made of wood frame and stucco
  • Found in Delaware

• Form

  • The façade contains an arch inside a pediment form.
  • A squat, bulging Doric colonnade is asymmetrically placed.
  • The columns are actually flat rather than the traditionally round forms.
  • The drainpipe at the left bisects the outermost column.
  • The flattened forms on the interior arches echo the exterior flat columns.
  • The interior forms reflect a craftsman’s hand in curved, cutting elements.

• Function

  • The house was designed for a family of three.
  • For the wife, a musician, a music room was created with two pianos, an organ, and a harpsichord.
  • For the husband, a bird-watcher, large windows were installed facing the woods.

• Context

  • Postmodern mix of historical styles.
  • Rural location in low hills, grassy fields of Delaware.
  • Venturi’s comment on the International style: “Less is a bore.”

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