MG

Art Test Review

Futurism/Constructivism

Futurism

  • Milan, Italy
  • dynamism: lines of force, vibration and rhythm more important than form, exuberant, anarchic; human behavior as art
  • all abt movement
  • glorified violence, conflict, technology, and war (until WW1)

Constructivism

  • Moscow, Russia
  • 1913-1932
  • emerged as Bolsheviks came to power in October Revolution of 1917
  • borrowed from Cubism and Futurism

Funeral of the Anarchist Galli by Carra

  • heated confrontation between mourners and police at the funeral of Italian anarchist Galli
  • artist was there, feared that corpse fight fall out of the coffin bc of the chaos and be trampled by horses
  • captures chaos, movement, and violence of a conflict, shows movement with chronophotographic lines
  • contrasts btwn red casket and black clothing + flags of anarchists
  • places spectator at the center of the action

Dynamism of a Cyclist by Boccioni

  • depicts a man swiftly moving through time and space, depicted as bent over the handlebars
  • racing bicycle was considered a Futurist symbol of dynamic modern life
  • most accomplished studies of movement

Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash by Balla

  • depicts a woman (maybe widow in black) walking her dog
  • painted 15 feet/shoes, 8 dog tails and 4 leashes to show movement
  • extreme close up, considered comical
  • painted representation of chronophotography (captures movement in several frames)

Nude Descending on a Staircase No.2 by Duchamp

  • inspired by time-lapse photography
  • depicts a nude in 20-24 static positions
  • first of many scandalous pieces
  • displayed at The Armory Show exhibit in New York City in 1913

Tatlin’s Tower/Monument to the Third International

  • model for tower to celebrate 1917 Russian Revolution
  • unstable/unsound engineering because the artist is not an architect + shortage of materials → never went past planning stages
  • utilitarian, celebrates russian revolution, art of production, etc

Beat the White with the Red Wedge

  • geometric shapes creates a picture symbolic of the war
  • symbolic of Russia Civil War, emphasizes triumph of Red Army
  • utilitarian

De Stijl/Dada

De Stijl

  • “neo-plasticism”: emphasis on design and structure on a two-dimensional surface
  • The Netherlands
  • emphasized vertical and horizontal lines, primary colors, harmony, sobriety, the purest of abstract movements
  • visual, universal language

Dada

  • makes no sense, reaction to chaotic feelings after WW1
  • started in Zurich, spread to Berlin, New York, Paris, etc
  • cult of nonart → later, became overtly political
  • ordinary, mundane objects can be art, “original” doesn’t matter
  • readymade:
  • assisted ready made: taking an already made object and adding to it to create a work of art

Composition A by Mondrian

  • pure abstraction, does not attempt to reproduce anything in the natural world
  • horizontal and vertical lines + primary colors + “non-colors” (black, white, gray)
  • reaction to destruction of WW1
  • asymmetrical balance, create harmony through simple shapes and colors

Composition VII by van Doesburg

  • postimpressionist → fauvist → destijl when he met Mondrian
  • vertical and horizontal shapes (wanted to use diagonal lines), primary colors, and black
  • reaction to WW1, seeking equilibrium and harmony in basic formal elements of art

Red and Blue Chair by Rietveld

  • created with vertical and horizontal planes, painted in primary colors and black
  • wanted it to be mass produced (used standard sizes of lumber)
  • designed for the “well-being and comfort of the spirit”

L.H.O.O.Q by Duchamp

  • moustache and goatee on mass-produced postcard of Mona Lisa, painted later copies
  • first copy assisted readymade
  • became symbol for Dada movement because it rebelled against traditional art and he “defaced” a priceless work of art

Bicycle Wheel by Duchamp

  • Duchamp’s first assisted readymade
  • combines two mass produced objects
  • the original was lost

Mechanical Head (The Spirit of our Time) by Hausmann

  • assemblage of many tools and devices on a wooden “dummy” head
  • shows no feeling, has no memorable features
  • represents “typical” man bc lacks sophistication (metaphor for germans that had lost their human spirit and relied on materialism)

Surrealism

Qualities and Attributes

  • more positive than Dada
  • did not try to recreate reality
  • depicted the subconcious and objects that don’t appear in their normal function
  • inspired by Freud (interpreted dreams) and Carl Jung (studied subconcious)
  • meant to puzzle, challenge, and fascinate, not to be easily understood
  • psychic automatism: thought is recreated without reason, moral or aesthetic concerns (goes straight from the brain to the canvas)
  • versimilitude: the appearance of being real
  • anthropomorphic: giving human traits, emotions, or intentions to nonhuman entities

The Persistence of Memory by Dali

  • most famous surrealist painting
  • very small, “hand-painted dream photograph”
  • used psychic automatism to paint the “unrestricted rational mind”
  • real objects arranged very unrealistically
  • clocks and ants = anxiety about time
  • figure in the center resembles Dali’s profile
  • painted with versimilitude but don’t appear realistically

The Metamorphosis by Dali

  • depicts transformation of Narcissus according to Dali
  • the body of Narcissus mirrors the hand
  • rejected lovers can be seen weeping and naked in the background
  • ants appear on the hand (symbol of decay and decomposition)
  • dog eating bloody meat on the lower right corner

Son of Man by Magritte

  • realistic setting and objects with an apple obscuring the view of the face (versimilitude)
  • self-portrait
  • private collection, rarely on display
  • about desire to see what is hidden

Treachery of Images by Magritte

  • part of a series of word-image paintings
  • asking you to question whether the picture or the words are stronger?
  • art is a representation of reality, not reality (shows picture of pipe, not a pipe)
  • creates paradox

Ubu Imperator by Ernst

  • anthropomorphic top dances in a vast, empty landscape
  • recreates character Ubu (symbol of modern man, grotesque symbol of authority) as a mechanical spinning top with hands in a gesture of surprise
  • surprised that it is stopped (power is gone)
  • allegory for authority/power and how quickly it can topple

Abstract Expressionism

background

  • grew in NYC in 1940s and 1950s (many Europeans emigrated to US)
  • reaction to devastation of WW2
  • rebellion against tradition, dumped European traditions
  • considered avant-garde: employs new or experimental art techniques

characteristics

  • on large canvases
  • focus on process of artistic creation rather than end product
  • no need to suggest recognizable images
  • express inner life through art (psychic energy and presence)
  • gestural abstraction: energetically applied pigment; techniques include dripping, dabbing, smearing, and even flinging paint onto canvas
  • chromatic abstraction: focus on color’s emotional resonance through large fields of flat, solid color across the canvas

Number 1 (Lavender Mist) by Pollock

  • express feelings rather than illustrate them
  • first gestural abstraction painter
  • balance of chaos and control
  • squeezed paint out of side of tube onto the canvas
  • sometimes embedded keys, coins, hand prints, or other trash into the paint on the canvas

Woman I by de Kooning

  • gestural abstraction using brush and palette knife to slash and stroke visible lines of paint
  • known for depiction of women
  • beauty became childish and preferred the grotesque (ugly, distorted)
  • rejecting classical nude European traditions

Vir heroicus sublimis by Newman

  • chromatic abstraction
  • meant to be viewed 18 inches away from the painting
  • vertical lines called zips compete for your attention when you view the work
  • encourages meditation and reflection, zips represent how our surroundings overwhelm us

No. 14 by Rothko

  • chromatic abstraction
  • no images/distinct shapes → no narrative, politics, or even geometry
  • two bold colors leave the viewer thinking about the meaning and the artist’s intentions
  • abstract expression of basic human emotions
  • thin veils of color made the paintings luminous
  • no frames - they make it “unreal”, hung low and viewed 18 inches away
  • intended to be an immersion into the painting

Sleeping Figure by Bourgeois

  • wooden sculpture
  • represents family and friends the artist left behind in France when she moved to New York
  • “figure cannot face the world and is defensive”, may not appear as figures at all
  • created over 80 in approximately 5 years

Pop Art

Qualities and Attributes

  • 1950s-60s
  • glorifies commonplace using materials of everyday world and mass popular culture
  • no distinction between “high” art of mass-produced items
  • reaction against abstract expressionism → presents things and ppl again
  • could be seen as mocking materialism and consumerism
  • art may be borrowed from any source, no hierarchy of culture

Campbell’s Soup Can by Warhol

  • signature image, in variety of colors and flavors, each canvas corresponds to different flavor
  • resemble mass produced ads, but hand painted (not uniform)
  • mimics repetition and uniformity of advertising
  • displayed in rows like they would be on a grocery shelf

Marilyn Diptych by Warhol

  • work in two panels, usually applied to Christian art → invites viewer to worship the icon of Marily Monroe
  • spent 4 months after her death making more than 20 silkscreen paintings of her from Niagara
  • repetitions represents ubiquitous presence in the media
  • moved from vivd to black to represent her mortality
  • themes of death and cult of celebrity

Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks by Oldenburg

  • lipstick on tank-shaped base in front of WW1 memorial
  • known for creating large-scale replicas of everyday objects and installing them in public places
  • included male and female forms → offended and inspired
  • focal point for anti-war demonstrations during Vietnam War
  • originally, inflatable to attract attention
  • may connect to war and woman attending Yale for the first time or a phallic symbol

Retroactive I by Rauschenberg

  • break barrier between fine art and mass media
  • silkscreen painting so it could reproduced
  • reproductions of original photography, press photos, and other mass media
  • became homage to Kennedy after assasination
  • Cuban Missile Crisis + Nude Descending a Staircase + glass of water + oranges + NASA photo + construction site
  • wanted to capture what was outisde his window

Whaam! by Lichtenstein

  • very large, over 6 feet in width
  • diptych of two panels, interact with each other, blends mechanical reproduction and hand drawing
  • social activist statement in a cartoon-y way, accused of merely copying comic strips
  • fighter aircraft firing a rocket that blows up an enemy aircraft
  • many different interpretations (third hand violence, celebration of comics, comment on glorification of war, mechanized killing, or not serious at all)
  • includes small color dots to provide shading and color in a drawing (Ben-Day dots), provide shading with less ink
    • purple shading on the plane and blue sky