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.

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.

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.

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.

   

➼ 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.

   

➼ 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.

   

➼ 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.

   

➼ 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.

   

➼   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.

   

➼   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.

   

➼   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.

   

➼   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.

   

➼   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.

   

➼   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.

   

➼   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.

   

➼   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.

   

➼  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.

   

➼   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.

   

➼   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).

   

➼   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

   

➼   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.

   

➼   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.

   

➼   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.

   

➼   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.

   

➼   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).

   

➼   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.”