Art History Notes

Introduction

This resource guide offers background on eighteen artworks produced in the United States (or by American artists abroad) during the 1920s and early 1930s. By focusing on this brief period, students can gain a richer understanding of the art forms and movements of the Jazz Age, and how these arts intersected with the political, cultural, and social issues of the time. It will also illuminate the diversity of artistic production after World War I.

Section I: Art History Fundamentals

Provides background on methods and terminology for studying art history. It includes a brief global history of art, including overviews of Western art, and summaries of key themes and works in Asian, African, Islamic, and Indigenous American arts. This section equips students with a vocabulary for visual analysis and an understanding of various media and techniques.

Section II: Art History Leading to the Roaring Twenties

Provides background on the history of art in the United States leading up to the "Roaring Twenties," describing artistic conditions that allowed new forms of modernism to emerge in painting and photography. This section discusses how American artists increasingly incorporated influences from European avant-garde movements to produce abstract artworks.

Section III: The New, Modern City

Explores changes that the era brought to urban space, architecture, entertainment, and popular culture, with a focus on how the arts represented the new, modern city. The selected works range from the Chrysler Building to photographs of Black city-dwellers and paintings of urban entertainment. It also introduces Prohibition and concerns about violence and organized crime.

Section IV: Diversification of American Arts

Specifically addresses the diversification of arts in the United States during the 1920s and early 1930s, as artists drew inspiration from outside the nation’s borders and from within Indigenous heritage. The incorporation of global influences into painting, architecture, sculpture, and the decorative arts had both political and aesthetic aims.

Section V: Social Conflicts

Discusses works of art that responded to social conflicts and helped shape responses to those conflicts. Photographic works frame questions about labor, reflecting that the "Roaring Twenties" was a period of prosperity as well as challenges and opportunities due to the expansion of industrial capitalism. It also discusses how art engaged with the emergent civil rights movement, as Black American artists and activists pushed back against racially motivated violence.

Art History as a Discipline

Art history is an academic field dedicated to reconstructing the social, cultural, and economic contexts in which artwork is created. Its goal is to achieve an understanding of art and its meaning within its historical moment. This considers formal qualities, function, artist/patron intentions, and audience perspectives. It relates to anthropology, history, and sociology, overlapping with aesthetics and art criticism.

Methods and Inquiries in Art History

Art historians broadly define “art” to include visual material created by people that holds special meaning and/or aesthetic value. This encompasses “fine art” (paintings, sculpture, architecture) and objects previously dismissed as “craft” (textiles, pottery, body art). It also includes mass-produced posters, advertisements, and ordinary household items. The significance of art can change over time and is perceived differently based on the viewer's perspective, social status, education, access, religion, race, and gender.

Example: How Michelangelo’s paintings in the Sistine Chapel would have been significant for:

1) The Pope: sophisticated theological knowledge and exclusive access.
2) A worker: cleaning the floors of the chapel whose level of literacy was probably quite low.

Two Modes of Art Analysis

Art historians analyze art through formal analysis and contextual analysis, which are distinct but interrelated:

1. Formal analysis: Focuses on visual qualities intrinsic to the artwork.
2. Contextual analysis: Examines the cultural, social, religious, and economic context in which the work was produced. Issues such as patronage, viewer access, physical location, cost, and subject matter are considered.

Art history often emphasizes chronological development, using comparative study to contrast artworks from different periods (e.g., Gothic vs. Renaissance) to understand features and stylistic changes related to historical context.

Sources, Documents, and Analysis

Art historians ideally analyze works of art directly to properly sense the scale, three-dimensionality, texture, and subtle color transitions. Due to practical constraints, art historians often rely on studying reproductions and earlier descriptions if works are damaged or lost over time. Analysis includes studying sketches, preparatory models, and other works by the artist and their contemporaries.

Written sources stored in archives or libraries provide contextual information. Archival sources include letters, commission documents, and contemporary art criticism. Written documentation includes materials used, cost, source, and artwork function. This situates the work in the context of literature, music, theater, and history.

Interviews with artists and consumers, oral histories, and participant observation are used to understand context, especially in cultures relying more on the oral/spoken language than documents/writing. An art historian studies masquerade traditions participating in a performance while documenting the event.

Development of Art History

Art history arose as an academic field in the mid-18th century. Ancient Roman historian Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) analyzed historical and contemporary art in Natural History. Author and artist Giorgio Vasari (1511–74) compiled biographies of Italian artists in The Lives of the Artists, providing insights into changing roles of artists and the artistic genius concept.

Modern art history was influenced by 18th-century Enlightenment philosophy. German scholar Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–68) shifted from biographical emphasis to rigorous study of stylistic development related to historical context. Over the centuries, art historians developed approaches that put emphasis on understanding the interrelationship between the formal qualities of a work of art and its context.

Art history is subject to biases. Revisionist art history, particularly by feminist historians, broadened its scope to be more inclusive, international, multicultural, and less focused on masterpieces. It now encompasses “visual culture,” including advertisement posters, film, photography, and television imagery.

Art Fundamentals