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130 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
De Stijl
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Strip nature of all it’s forms and you will have style left
Underlying laws of everything Inspired by theosophysought to uncover hidden Not an emotional connection to the machine relationships btwn natural forms Utilizing machine’s power to create a new collective order Primary colors/ RT angle contained within everything Practical application Product of WWI By surrounding someone in De Stijl they believed they could weed out aggression, desire for dominance Achieved utopian world, harmony, unity, final destination Architecture was central |
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Mondrian, Composition in Color A, 1917
Too much flatness, didn’t allow enough room for flexibility Impossible to reject totally the arbitrarity of composition |
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Mondrian, Painting No. 1, 1921
Grey hues Arrived at a solution he considered successful Colors are always on perimeter, they never touched each other Didn’t see it as flat white/grey parts are meant to be seen as pushing forward Unity/ final destination of all beings |
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Gerrit Rietveld, Schroeder House, Utrecht, 1924
Diagonals, no curves Positive/negative space in windows/walls Primary color accents Interlocking planes of rectangular slabs Appearance of a Constructivist sculpture Rooms have close relationship btwn interior spaces & exterior nature |
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DADA (Zurich, New York, Berlin)
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Can’t change human behavior
Utopian societies are unrealistic Logic is an illusion The world is irrational, absurd, no point to anything Many Dada artists were also poets Dada was a state of indifference Tzara’s idea (romanian poet) Challenged tradition in art Iconoclastic, “anti-art”, against standards of society & beauty Their works were a wake up call to society Science/technology led to chaos of capitalism Adopted language of advertising & business in order to criticize capitalism Dada was a state of mind, not a technique Everything was tongue in cheek Chance & accident Making & performing or art was more important than finished products Logic, reason, Western ideals of progress led to disaster of WWI Search for new vision and content Zurich Dadaists were rexamining traditions, rules, beauties of the past |
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Hugo Ball performing a sound poem at the Cabaret
Voltaire (Zurich), 1916 Tristan Tzara Dada artists did many performances |
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Marcel Janco, Mask, 1919, paper,
cardboard, string, gouache Dada theater wore masks Masks compelled the wearer to act unpredictably |
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Arp, Automatic Drawing, 1916, ink,
19 ¾ x 21” Intended to look like spontaneous forms Organic shapes Forms based from nature could relate more to humans than geometric (biomorphic) |
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Jean Arp, Collage Arranged According to the
Laws of Chance, 1916, torn and pasted paper Random pieces of paper glued to surface Completely by CHANCE represented how the world works Randomly dropped paper on the floor Liberation from rational thought processes depersonalization |
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Arp, Fleur Marteau (Flower Hammer), 1916,
o/wood, 24 3/8 x 19 5/8” Nonsense sculpture “constructed paintings” medium btwn painting & sculpture Organic forms evoke the bod & its processesbiomorphic Shapes has certain universal significances ex:egg shape symbol of metamorphosis Shape suggested an object gave the relief its name |
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Arp, Head with Three Annoying Objects, 1930, bronze
Concretion Represent organic/ natural processes of solidification of mass Mustache, mandolin, fly 3 objects Nonsense flavor Objects weren’t secured to the “head” intended to be moved around by the viewer Titles applied to his works after he made them intention of inspiring associations btwn images & ideas Meaning of hi work is open-ended “human concretion” although forms are not from nature, they are as concrete and sensual “as a leaf or stone” Concrete art specific connotation for his sculptures in the round |
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Duchamp, Passage from the Virgin to the Bride, 1912 (MoMA)
Sex, work makes fun of human drives Partly satirical Organic elements interested in medical/ bodily systems Sense of movement passage btwn 2 phases Mechanical elements Abandoned physicality of human body The organic becomes mechanized |
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Duchamp, The Chocolate Grinder (2), 1913, oil/wood and string
Engineering drawings wanted to make art that looks like it was produced by a machine Remove artistic skill/preference of artist’s hand Focus on the process Collage Looks like it was produced in real life Saw the machine in real life Mechanical drawing impersonality of the ruler |
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Duchamp, The Bottle Rack, 1914
Ready made taking an object from ordinary life, saying this was art Promoted the dignity of art through the choice of the artist Changed their context, their name Anything could be art Called this piece art, signed it Found object |
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Duchamp, The Bicycle Wheel, 1913
“READY-MADE” “assisted” ready-made: He assembled the wheel to the stool b/c ready made could be repeated forever, Duchamp only made a few yearly so original concept doesn’t lose impact It is in the nature of the readymade to lack uniqueness |
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R. Mutt, Fountain, 1917 (Duchamp)
Society for Independent Artists, N.Y. Photo by Alfred Stieglitz Urinal: deliberate act of provocation work was rejected from Society for independent artists “chosen” by R. Mutt, not him Reference to large Brooklyn water supply company Challenge ideas or originality, reproducibility. fundamentality |
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Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q., 1919
“Elle…” Added facial hair to color reproduction Anniversary of Da Vinci’s death “she has a hot ass”- French phonetic translation Mona Lisa had just been stolen in 1911 People though Da Vinci was gay This work plays on androgyny, gender issues |
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Duchamp, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her
Bachelors Even (The Large Glass), 1915-23, 9 x 6’ oil, lead wire, foil, dust and varnish on glass Used machines to satirize body systems Ideas more important than visual realization Sex A wedding of mental/visual elements Produced by chance Milky way 3 shapes/squares Shapes in bottom left based on clothes in Sears catalog Bride is stripping, getting bachelors excited Their secretions (love gasoline) power a machine looks like the chocolate grinder Love operation process of sex “ideal 4th dimension” Not a success b/c no secretion from bride Metaphor for masturbation, frustration Glued all the pieces of glass together Parody of human sexuality, science references to alchemy (turning stone into gold) stone if referred to as the “bride” Transparency captured the “chance environment” of its surroundings Elaborate mating ritual Bride on top half form taken from “the Passage from Virgin to Bride” “mechanistic and cynical interpretation of love” |
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The Green Box, 1914
Every idea/ note/ sketch about “the Bride Stripped” thrown into a box |
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Picabia, Portrait of a Young American Girl in a State of Nudity, 1915, ink
Satirizing naked body Machines Spark plug Drive/performance |
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Picabia, Portrait of Stieglitz, 1915, published in 291
Not sarcastic Shown as an actual camera photographer |
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Max Beckmann, Night, 1918-19
Weimar Republic (1918-1933) Berlin Dada: more serious, very political, less nonsensical “struggles on the side of the German proletariat” |
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John Heartfield and Rudolf
Schlichter, The Prussian Archangel, 1920 (2004 reconstruction) |
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Grosz: Germany’s Winter Tale, 1917
Poem about longing for Germany, he felt it was disappearing Greed, corruption Eating sausage, beer, thinking about sex Decadance Fractured chaos 3 pillars of German society at bottom Educator on right |
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Hannah Höch, Cut with the Kitchen
Knife, 1919-20, photomontage Portrait of her age Pictures cut from a newspaper Fractured chaos of modern Germany Machines, modernity, cultural figures, “new woman” Photomontage integration of images of modern life into works of art Photomontage relies on material taken from normal context and introduces it into a new, disjunctive context gives it new meaning Satire of Weinmar society Despised gov’t leaders in corner labeled Photos of gears/ wheels tribute to “anti-Dada” Technology & sense of dynamic movement |
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Grosz, Gray Day, 1921
Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) “New Objectivity”: Artists’ ideas were shifting toward disillusionment & cynicism Grosz, Dix Dada artist Subject: disabled war veteran & municipal officer wearing a pin worn by conservatives Black market businessmen peeking in back |
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Otto Dix, The Matchseller, 1920
Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) No arms nor legs Graffiti in paintings Wealthy Berliners rushing to get away, dog peeing on man Berlin was filled w/ war veterans cripples, facial disfigurements WWI |
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Dix, Skat Players, 1920, oil and collage
Extreme grotesque imagery Scat is a popular German card game Grotesque becomes part of everyday life Disfigurements, amputees Saw atrocities in war, served 3 years, was severely wounded True side of human nature, aimed to shock people |
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Dix, Big City Triptych, 1927-28,
Pleasure, decadence, suffering Transvestites War cripples on left Jazz music was popular Prostitutes doing the Charleston American culture “destroying” German tradition |
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Schwitters, Picture with Light Center,
1919, collage and oil on cardboard Dada - Hannover Collage Non-representational Found paper, garbage Uses paint to add color One of most flexible mediums “All values only exist in relationships to each other and that restriction to a single material is one-sided and small-minded” Merz sum of all art forms Collages made of garbage Element of beauty Berlin Dadaists didn’t find it edgy enough |
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Schwitters: Merzbau, 1920s Hannover,
Destroyed 1943 A niche for every artist that inspired him, filled those spaces with objects Art became life Destroyed by Nazis 1930attempt to make a TOTAL work of art Abstract sculpture w/ apertures dedicated to his Dadaist & Constructivist friends |
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Robert Rauschenberg, Bed, 1955, “Combine”
Painting over collage Influenced by Schwitters, Duchamp |
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De Chirico, The Soothsayer’s Recompense, 1913 (Ariadne)
Works were oddities Laid groundwork for surrealism Haunting, empty, evocative spaces Influenced by German symbolist painters Metaphysics: seeks to explain nature of reality beyond physical References to trains, stations, railroads references to his past Studied Schopenhauer, Nietzsche studied the unconscious On Spirit Seeing believed in the supernatural, hypnosis Interested in showing inner self in mankind Freud: primary influence of surrealists, influenced De Chirico past predetermines present, childhood, mankind in society Metaphysical School: retained forms of Renaissance reality, perspective, recognizable sculptural environment, figures Juxtapositions to produce surprise/shock-> atmosphere of strangeness Strongly influenced Surrealism’s exploration of the intuitive and irrational De Chirico: concept of a painting as a symbolic vision he read Nietzsche art expresses deep-seated motivations with human psyche Psychoanalysis, study of subconscious, symbolism of dreams Past in present: clocks, classical sculpture mourns the loss of Theseus Smoke of a train modern element Themes of loss, mourning melancholy of departure fills scene (shadow) Fear of death: part of mankind’s nature |
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De Chirico, Nostalgia of the Infinite, 1913-14
Shadows, perspective, tiny people, anxiety |
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De Chirico, The Melancholy and Mystery of The Street, 1914
Titles are essential component of work, add another dimension Portrays anxiety & fear Tiny people, fragility, SHADOWS Perspective vast distances white building extends to infinity SCALE Who is the other shadow, why are the doors open Though components are familiar, their arrangement & dramatic quality creates an ominous mood Suspense Matte finishes |
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De Chirico, Song of Love, 1914
Influenced many Surrealists in the future Classical head time passing Unlocked repressed associations/ emotions Objects have no rational relationship to one another De Chirico incorporated mannequins into his compositions as surrogates for the human figure Suggest the figures used in drawing studies, Renaissance |
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SURREALISM
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Emerged out of Dada
Breton: poet, dabbled in collage, some art treated WWI veterans w/ psychiatric help interpreted dreams Manifesto of Surrealism: 1924 literature movement, based on Freudian studies Breton grew disillusioned w/ Dada too academic Pure psychic automatism, purely of the mind Dictation of thought in the absence of moral preoccupation Composing without any preconceived subject or structure Beyond any aesthetic of moral preoccupation, absence of reason DADA influence Forms of association, combinations of objects that don’t go together 1927: first Surrealist gallery Magritte & Dali joined later Loved primitive art Art that revealed the unconscious, to undo preconceptions of order & reality 2 strands of surrealism: 1st: Miro, Masson biomorphic/abstract Surrealismautomatism “dictation of thought without control of the mind” Some degree of imagery is normally present 2nd: Tanguy, Dali, Magritte detailed scenes & objects taken out of normal context Distortion, dream-like Images of the subconscious **both differed from Dada in their privileging of the unconscious (rather than forms & rhythms of the machine) LIKE Dada: explored unconventional techniques Revolutionary political movement deppening political crisis, financial collapse, rise of fascism Provoked MORAL ANXIETY anarchism Russian revolution provided a channel for Surrealist protests |
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Exquisite Corpse, Man
Ray, Tanguy, Miro, and Morice Each artist added a bit to the picture Method was adopted for collective drawings Surrealist love of the unexpected element of chance, randomness Intended to express the true function of thought Breton: generally acknowledged leader of Surrealism |
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Max Ernst, Two Children Threatened by a Nightingale,
collage, 1924 Link btwn poetry & image Irrationality, general fear in a dream state Gate literally functioned as opening a threshold Girl running w/ a bloody knife Hooded man holding a baby automatism |
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Man Ray, The Enigma of Isodore Ducasse,
1920 Ducasse: French symbolist poet, loved by Surrealists Championed idea of combining unrelated objects-> the “uncanny” Umbrella & sewing machine wrapped in burlap |
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Oppenheim, Object: Luncheon in Fur, 1936
Freud, “Uncanny” (Unheimlich) 1919 Notion of the “uncanny” something from everyday life out of context Freudian idea Shock devices unlock repressed memory Combinations of fantasy & reality Everything meant to remain secret is becoming unhidden Repulsive, provocative |
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Miro, Tilled Field, 1923
Flat, planar background Objects attached together on surface Objects seen over & over personal language Biomorphic shapes Plowed field is now just wiggly lines EYE eye of the artist Lizard in dunce cap next to “jour” reference to disliking cubism too geometric |
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Miro, Catalan Landscape, The Hunter, 1923-24,
25 ½ x 39 ½” Every blob/line has a meaning or represents a figure Hunter is all lines except for his heart & his pipe, conical gun Giant creature on bottom is a sardine lives in water, not on land, eating a fly Daydream effect Highly abstract |
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Miro, Dog Barking at the Moon, 1926
Emptiness, very minimal empty spaces spoke to him Dark, nocturnal landscape foreboding, resembles a dream Inspired by children’s art, cartoons Meditation In early sketch, moon & dog talked Ladder appears in many paintings connect real & imaginary symbol of transcendence, bridge to another realm Flame necessary in every painting Surrealists were influenced by Easter Island, ideograms Fascinated by anthropology & archaeology, ancient civilizations |
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Miro, Birth of the World, 1924
6 x 8’ First using an automatist technique Subject was popular among surrealists Title added last Poured cans of paint on canvas, spread paint around, poured glaze over Person, shooting star, balloon Every image is sign for something Picture paints itself Very few ppl saw it, kept secret, known as “urban legend” |
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Miro, The Poetess (Constellation series),
1940, oil wash and gouache on paper, 18 x 15” One of 23 small gouache paintings Allover pattern and design intricate, lyrical Ideas of flight & transformation inspired by migration of birds, flow of constellations Rhythm of line & arabesque Horror vaccui Oil wash shimmers inspired by water reflections, visualizations of music Stars Creatures throughout |
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Miro, Harlequin’s Carnival, 1924-25
Interior, night, party, filled w/ people, sense of caprice, teeming w/ life Ladder, ear, eye appear in most of his work Even inanimate objects have sense of vitality Spread equally across surface of painting Used a grid in composition Whimsical quality |
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Masson, Automatic Drawing, 1924
Masson: most passionate revolutionary deeply spiritualy scarred by WWI experience Anarchist, regularly contributed automatic art to La Revolution Surrealiste 1st to SPECIALIZE in automatic drawing drawing free-handedly, done once you pick up your hand Expressed emotions, contained various images relating to sadism of human beings, brutality of all living things Very dense, agitated, stress Makes you uneasy,worry |
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Masson, Battle of the Fishes, 1927, sand, oil,
pencil, glue Squeezed pigment out of the tube Red suggests blood, violence sand painting suggested forms to artist “almost always irrational ones” Lines, some color formed a pictorial structure round the sand *allowed chance to determine composition |
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Masson, Figure, 1926-27, sand, oil, charcoal, glue
Applied glue irregularly, applied sand Organic, biomorphic figures Male legs Half animal/half man: minotaur visualization used a lot Flux, metamorphosis |
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Masson, Pasiphäe, 1943
Inspired by new surroundings Spent a few months in Caribbean, fell in love w/ a woman brown tones Conveys sense of violence, agitation, animalistic nature Image of the unconscious itself Mother of the minotaur slept w/ the bull bestiality, taboo When we are born, we experience primitive qualities of mankind Wanted to represent violent union of women & beast un a way that it is impossible to tell where one begins and the other ends |
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Ernst, Gramineous Bicycle, 1920-21, gouache, 29 ¼ x 39 ¼”
Botanical chart Looks like cells under a microscope Nonsense title Related to sex “woman” on a “bicycle seat” Biomorphic imagery |
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Ernst, Elephant of the Celebes, 1921
Inspired by Sudanese corn bins 19th century science magazines inspired by De Chirico’s work mannequin Fish in sky Specialized language Painting based on dirty limerick Woman: most compelling & alarming quality Headless state: rooted in their instincts, their conscious Appeals to subconscious perception Many disparate motifs informed by a collage aesthetic |
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Ernst, The Horde, 1927, 115 x 146 cm.
“Grattage” and “Frottage” Frottage over strings rubbing technique used to create texture Reorganized textures into new contexts technical basis for unorthodox drawings Brown paint, red crayon Applied blue paint after used it to define forms Monstrous creatures animalistic, manlike Darwin Suggest hordes, rampages frightening Protest Berlin Olympics against Nazis |
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Ernst, Europe After the Rain, 1940-42, 54 x 147.8 cm.
“decalcomania” Painted forests/jungles Depict anxiety through extreme states in nature Imprisoned in Paris for being an enemy alien, released by an American, moved to USA Metaphor for state of Europe during/after Nazi regime Metaphor for structure of Europe: calcified, scorched A “requiem for the war-ravaged continent” Decalcomania: gouache o paper, put another paper on top, remove, leaves interesting marks Opposition to evil of Nazi party |
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Ernst, Vox Angelika, 1943
Grid-like forms used as system of display Rational grid to display the irrational Retrospect of his career in the boxes Muster of both abstract & representational Surrealism |
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Tanguy, Mama, Papa is Wounded, 1927, 36 x 29”
No training as artist Mindscape: visualization of the unconscious Biomorphic forms flat on canvas Phallic image on left: castration anxiety Exhibited obsessions that haunted him for the rest of his career Infinite perspective depth graded color, sharp horizon line Vast emptiness, intimate enclosure Ambiguous shapes float in barren landscape |
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Magritte, Portrait, 1935
Magritte: explored how we “read” visual images as part of a code, system of signs Irony, uncanny invention, deadpan realism representational art Studied/lived in Brussels Visions of everyday world but skewed Real ordinary objects Discreet style, challenges normality Objects can always become something else Consciousness in external world |
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Magritte, The Menaced Assassin, 1926
Man at gramophone is assassin, detectives waiting outside Depiction of primal, animalistic modern man Influenced by commercial art Meant to defy bourgeois values Instinctual manner is most prominent in bourgeois Avoids detection by dressing/acting like everyone else Painting style is very discreet, also masks disturbing subject matter Idea of the criminal within all of us |
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Magritte, The Treachery of Images,
1929 Object isn’t attached to his name Representations of objects are always suitable to change If it’s a painting, it’s not real Relationship btwn words & images Not fixed identity, confronts pictorial reality Shows fascination w/ relationship of language to the painted image Undermines natural tendency to speak of images as though they were actually the things they represent |
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Magritte, False Mirror, 1928
Eye is a false mirror, not to be trusted, visual reality is not the whole story Eye: dual notion of vision & visionary |
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DALI
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DALI: no automatic techniques
Objects are source of mental fantasy Idea of the “uncanny” Spanish traditional still lifes Osmosis btwn reality & surreality Felt he always related to deceased older brother Felt photography was best for capturing surreality of objects A lot of iconography in his art comes from childhood/adolescent experiences & subconscious Landscapes marked by violence Studied Freud: his writings on dreams seemed to answer the torments & erotic fantasies he suffered since childhood Trompe l’oeil: aimed to make dream world more tangibly real than nature Primary images: blood, excrement From main object: Dali set up a chain of metamorphoses that dissolved and transformed the object into a nightmarish image |
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Dali, Accommodations of Desire, 1929
Excrement, blood, decay taboo body fluids Repetition of form suggests hallucination, montage Pet bat died when he was a child childhood memories Expression of heterosexual anxiety Lions represent male libido Rocks represent female libido, serve as backdrops to imagery Recurrent image army of ants disturbing Sought in his art to create a specific documentation of Freudian theories applied to his own inner world “spontaneous method of irrational knowledge based upon the interpretive-critical association of delirious phenomena” |
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Dali, Dismal Sport, (Lugubrious Game),1929
Oil and collage on wood Staircase represents sexual act Everything is a symbol for something else Phobia of grasshoppersit is on his face Anxiety Sculpture represents shame, giant head masturbation Head is exploding, imagery revealed within it |
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Dali, Illumined Pleasures, 1929, 9 3/8 x 13 ¾”
Castration anxiety Lion at top Rock figures to represent women 3 screens: images of unconscious: mental screens Materialize concrete irrationality |
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Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931,
9 ½ x 13” “Paranoic-Critical Method” Time associated w/ death & decay Combines textures Biomorphic profile of Dali, looks fetus-like Soft, melting cheese Dali was obsessed with morphology of hard & soft head without bones, droopy watches Paranoia: fear of persecution, seeing imaginary connections Paranoiac-critical method: seeing into things/forms that aren’t there recognizable objects presented in unusual context Denial of every 20h century experiment in abstract organization Infinite space Pictorial metamorphosis: matter is transformed from one state to another fundamental aspect of Surrealism |
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Dali, Metamorphosis of Narcissus, 1937
Fluidity, hybridization Body of narcissus looking down into reflection He becomes hand w/ flower in egg Everything stands for something else Never take what you see for granted |
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Bellmer, La Poupée, 1936
E.T.A. Hoffmann, “The Sandman” Georges Bataille led new direction of Surrealism Published new magazine in 1929: Documents Believed we encountered our true inner selves in dreams Into body parts/fluids taboo subjects Dressed up/ took apart doll Bondage, sadism, pedophilia Photographed in a certain environment Inspired by story featuring a man who falls for a doll, realized it is a fragment of his imagination Deviant desires |
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Giocometti, Woman with Her Throat Cut,
1932, 8 x 34 ½ x 25”, bronze Alludes to praying mantis Skeletal quality Morphic Sexual attack construction of a dismembered female corpse Spiked form suggests splayed & violated body of a woman Shown on the floor without a base |
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Giocometti, The Palace at 4 A.M.,
1933, wood, glass, wire and string, 25 x 28 x 15 ¾” Night terrors Wooden rods outline structure of a house Product of a period in artist’s life that haunted him Woman strolls the palace Seeing what can’t be seen metaphor for unconscious Bird-like, Darwinian form skeleton bird melancholy |
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Picasso, Seated Bather, 1930
Picasso never became a true Surrealist, but they worshipped he never showed interest in the subconscious/dreamworld paintings never expressed depths of the psyche & intense emotion Surrealists hated cubism rationality Loved demarcation of women in “Demoiselles D’ Avignon” Skeletal forms Part skeleton/part petrified woman Nonchalance of bather w/ predatory countenance of a praying mantis Mouth: man-trap praying mantis idea Big teeth Sexual castration, suffering |
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Picasso, Nude in a Red Armchair,
1929 Biomorphic forms Emphasized sexual parts Shriveled body parts, sagging flesh Same wallpaper pattern as in Matisse paintings Wailing head “convulsive beauty” Commentary on Picasso’s relationships w/ women |
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Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror, 1932
(Marie-Therese Walter) Revealing the unconscious Double-face “beauty will be convulsive or it will not be” |
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Picasso, Minotauromachy, scraped etching
and aquatint, 1935 1920s-30s Surrealists were members of Communist party Aspects of evil and victimization Goodness of little girl Minotaur is pure evil Woman represents classical art/beauty Horse represents Spain Figures reminiscent of artist’s life & Spanish past Inspired by Goya Ambiguous iconography of a bull |
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Picasso, Guernica, 1937, 11 x 25’
Spanish civil war Picasso was against the Fascists Depicts specific events also a general statement of anguish Mother & child dead, people fleeing, dead man on ground Triptych: more sacred Light illuminated human slaughter Human atrocities Screaming horse, weeping woman open mouth agonized figures Surrealist |
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International StyleBauhaus
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Glass box, reinforced concrete
Common theme: modernism applied to the service of social reform Search for a universal language of design International Style named during a show at MoMA in NY attempted to define the characteristics of the style Eliminated the loadbearing wall structural steel & ferroconcrete Curtain wall skin of glass, metal, or masonry enclosure rather than support Regular distribution of structural supports rectangular regularity of design Avoidance of decoration Elimination of strong color contrasts Free flow of interior space |
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Louis Sullivan, Guaranty Trust, 1894-96, Buffalo
(now the Prudential Building) One of earliest skyscrapers New buildings built after Chicago fire Interior steel structure, exterior façade is merely enclosure terra cotta decoratin Elevator was just invented Vertical, lofty, “proud and soaring,” recognizable for its tallness |
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Loos, Steiner House, 1910, garden facade
Reinforced concrete walls Viennese design meant to be made by machines |
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Peter Behrens, AEG
Turbine Factory, 1908-1909, Berlin Made generators, motors, lightbulbs Innovative, pioneering, new design Glass walls, exposed metal Interior steel frame |
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Walter Gropius, Fagus Shoe Factory,
1914-16 Open, light, floating effect Glass corners almost all glass exterior Floors reinforced w/ steel |
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Gropius, Bauhaus, Dessau, 1925-26
“International Style,” MoMA exh. 1932, Johnson and Hitchcock, curators; Alfred Barr International style common qualities btwn all buildings use of new materials replacement of walls by steel cage glass walls Regularity of design grids, function Uninterrupted interior spaces efficiently organized space combined functional organization & structure w/ a geometric, de-Stijl inspired design No applied decoration aesthetics came from proportion and scale Volume & transparency lightness Bauhaus: concept of learning by doing unification of the arts Developing basis of sound craft skills broke down barriers of fine art |
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Mies, Glass skyscaper model, 1919-21
Minimalist designfreeform plan of undulating curves All glass sheathing No real indication of structural system visionary architecture |
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Mies, German Pavilion at the Barcelona International Expo, 1929
Reflecting ponds in front & back Rich, expensive materials Mies office chairs now faous Open interior, space defined by walls “less is more” |
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Le Corbusier, Pavilion of L’Esprit Nouveau, for The International Exposition of Decorative and Industrial Art, 1925, Paris
Known for use of ferroconcrete Modular conception of architecture each building begins w/ same basic structure Houses on stilts added element of weightlessness 5 points of new architecture: 1 pillar free to rise, 2 independence of skeleton & wall (wall can be any material) 3 free flow of space in/outside, 4 free façade- any variable, 5 roof gardens |
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Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye, 1928-30
Le Courbusier: house as a “machine for living” Maximize inner/outer space plans had freedom & flexibility Upper living area suspended by pillars Screen- wall construction Ribbon windows All rooms on one central floor Ramp up to top floor roof garden Meant to look like steamship/ ocean liner sleek, modern Machine aesthetic based on notion of automobile as the ultimate machine “boxes on stilts” |
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Wright, Robie House, 1909
NOT INTERNATIONAL STYLE Proud of midwest Low overhanging roofs frame outdoor patio space Open interior space / flow structured around central fireplace/ chimney Designed all furniture inside Environmental/ organic sustainability garden Influenced by Japanese architecture |
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Wright, Falling Water,
Bears Run, Pa., 1935 Built on a hill over a waterfall designed as a vacation home evironmental architecture house designed to be a “natural feature of the environment” Made from local quarried stone Built on huge rock foundation effective integration of exterior natural world w/ interior Everything had to be exactly as he designed it Ferroconcrete for cantilevered terraces Sense of planar abstraction Wright hated the machine-inspired architecture of International Style |
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Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Light-Space Modulator, 1923-30,
aluminum, plastic, wood, glass, chrome, 59 1/2” Bauhaus: Gropius wanted to merge fine & applied arts student should learn skills application, theory Vorkurs preliminary course well-known feature of Bauhaus intro to basic forms, materials, etc. Stressed objectivity & scientific integration in the classroom Inspired by Russian artists Malevich, Lissitzky Light as dynamic body of element & space Explored light, space, motion transparent & malleable materials Pioneers the creation of light & motion machines built from reflecting materials & transparent plastics Powered by electricity Intersecting beams of light make shadow patterns embodies basic principles of Bauhaus & Constructivism Fluid structure of shadow forms |
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AMERICAN ART
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Took a backseat to European innovation until Abstract Expressionists
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Robert Henri, Laughing Child, 1907
“The Ash Can School”, “The Eight” Ash Can School: rejected from exhibit at National Academy of Design Village/back alley/ street life in lower Manhattan subject matter Common subjects, everyday urban life vitality of the city Early developments toward realism Drpression: inward-turning artists gave rise to naturalistic art “The Eight”: united by being against Academic art & rigid jury system Artists studied in Europe Henri loved Manet, Dutch art Known for forthwright expression & painterly freedom in portraits Favored immediacy of expression over academic finish Fresh enthusiasm Wanted to create “American” painting for “American” people |
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John Sloan, The Hairdresser’s Window,
1907 “The Ash Can School”, “The Eight” Day in everyday life Commercial themes Street life/ scene Painted from memory of seeing this event in person Artistic potential in commonplace subjects, including advertisements |
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Jacob Riis, Five Cents a Spot, 1889
Riis: photographed NYC tenement buildings, wretched conditions Used pictures to expose poverty & starvation both direct results of Industrial Revolution Life in lower east side Rent a bed for a nickel Tremendous gap btwn rich & poor social injustices Part of “How the Other Half Lives” Sought to improve living conditions for immigrants |
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Alfred Stieglitz, Steerage, 1907
291; Camera Work Stieglitz: held photography exhibitions later ones with paintings & drawings Closer in contact w/ current events– European art avant-garde leaders Art was less “American” Modernism “truth to materials” highly expressive images without darkroom “straight” photography exploits the intrinsic properties of the camera to make photographs LOOK like PHOTOGRAPHS taken on an ocean liner to Europe found lower-class passengers inspiring A straight document of the scene |
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Dove, Nature Symbolized No. 2, 1912,
Pastel, 45.8 x 55 cm. Abstract, organic quality Wanted to paint inner essence of nature |
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O’Keefe, Drawing No. XIII,
1915, charcoal Worked independently Abstract style Design sensibility came from Art Nouveau Dominant awareness for pattern, shape, color Followed Dow’s phases Started in B&W |
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O’Keefe, Blue Lines No. 10, 1916
watercolor Japanese brush |
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O’Keefe, Music: Pink and Blue, 1919
Texas landscape bigness, loneliness, windiness wonderful emptiness Sense of plastic form Sense of skin, hides, bones, organic shapes Inspired by Dow listened to music while painting Title suggests influence of Kandinsky’s equation of color with music & emotion Study in chromatic relationships & organic form |
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O’Keefe, Series I – From the Plains,
1919 Texas landscape bigness, loneliness, windiness wonderful emptiness Sense of plastic form Sense of skin, hides, bones, organic shapes |
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Sheeler, Upper Deck, 1929
Precisionism PRECISIONISM: smooth, sleek, crisp edges Based off of photograph of German ship Commissioned as an advertisement Glowing, white surface Makes machines look cleaner |
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Sheeler, American Landscape, 1930
Industry & technology was the path to prosperity “machine age” Factories as substitutes for religious expression No grime or filth parallels classical design Harmony, order, purity, beauty Belief in optimistic process |
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Charles Demuth, My Egypt, 1927,
24 x 60”, oil/composition board Precisionism America’s equivalent to the Pyramids Low viewpoint |
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Demuth, Buildings Lancaster, 1930
Precisionism Influenced by Cubism Commercialism, business, advertising interest in advertising as images with a certain abstract quality of their own Architectural “American” subject |
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Demuth, I Saw The Figure 5
In Gold, 1928 (William Carlos Williams) Precisionism: descriptive art, but guided by geometric simplification William Carlos Williams uniquely American poet work about objects, material culture Inspired by painting of fire truck, No. 5 on the side Velocity, speed modernity identified w/ America Strongly influenced later pop art |
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Davis, Lucky Strike, 1921
Wanted to paint what was unique of America material culture |
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Stuart Davis, Eggbeater No. 1, 1927
Influenced by cubists/ Armory show Object-based Wanted to paint what was unique of America material culture Plays w/ positive/negative space Perspectival line/space Painted subject over and over until it ceased to exist other than through color, shape, & line relations |
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Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936
WPA/FSA (Nipoma California) 1930s/ Depression Considered the 1st “documentary” photographer Sponsored by Federal Farm Security Admin. (FSA) aimed to educate population about drastic tolls that Depression had taken Migrant worker camp Asked to take photos of migrant farm workers to illustrate a report on their condition “Madonna of the Depression” empathy and respect for her subjects |
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Walker Evans, Miner’s House,
West Virginia, 1935 Hired by FSA Against salon photography straight photography Simple, direct statement in his images that ends up being almost infinitely complex Portrait tells volumes about inhabitants Cheerful Santa ad other cutouts are sadly incongruent in stark environment SE region of USA Cut-out advertisements lie clearly not available to them |
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Thomas Hart Benton, City Building, from the
mural series “America Today,” New School for Social Research, N.Y, 1930, distemper and egg tempera on gessoed linen with oil glaze, 7’8’ x 9’9” Regionalism 1930s: representational art is the norm More conservative/ reactionary after Depression represented in art Regionalism: Benton, Wood midwesterners anti-European, anti-Abstraction, anti-Stieglitz Middle-class, authentic American values, rejuvenation of the American spirit Hard work, community ethic made America great promise for future Industry rising, prosperity, optimism White & black man working together construction workers, NYC backdrop heroic Michelangelo & El Greco- inspired anatomies & poses of figures |
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Benton, “Politics and Farming,”
From the mural series “A Social History of the State of Missouri” Missouri State Capital, 1936 Stereotypes of gender women at home HE-Man masculine ethos Swirling forms |
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Wood, American Gothic, 1930
(Iowa) Regionalism Supported cultural naturalism, expression of American spirit Themes from American myths & legends wood- frame house gothic style Satirical intended to be respectful affection resilience of American spirit Composition based on portrait from Civil War Deliberately archaic style combined w/ homespun, Puritan content led to question of satire |
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Grant Wood, Young Corn, 1931, oil on
masonite board Optimistic image, swelling fields Curves suggest form of female body Harmonious vision of cultivated nature Keen sense of abstract composition and balance Based on childhood memories Modern technology & harsh realities of Depression have no place in the scene |
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Edward Hopper, Early
Sunday Morning, 1930 American Realist More realistic interpretation of American society urban, poor areas, sense of isolation Detested Regionalists Influenced by de Chirico shadows, sensitivity to light sense of something being slightly off Flat façade & dramatic lighting linked to his interest in stage design |
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Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942
Impending doom uncanny |
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Horace Pippin, Domino Players, 1943, oil on
composition board folk look reflects folk culture African-American style Tribute to African-American family Security, sanctuary from hostile world Grey tones Based on childhood memories artist at table w/ female relatives Domestic scene Stylized silhouettes, organized color |
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Jacob Lawrence, No 1, 12 x 18” from
The Migration of the Negro series, 1940-41, tempera on hardboard Harlem renaissance artist Scenes from African-American culture Migration from South to North after WWI Looking for work escaping Southern racism & violence Mosaic puzzle blocks of color Style has a “craft” orientation Visually unified panels through colors & bold silhouettes |
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Abstract Expressionism: Action Painting
and Color Field “The Myth Makers” |
Myth makers prominence of myth in their paintings
War sense of alienation, loss of faith in old forms of expression Artists explored new ideas of though Opposed to all forms of social realism Psychic automatism: less of means of tapping into unconscious than a new way to explore forms Gestural painters: had spontaneous & unique “touch of the artist” His/her own “handwriting,” emphatic texture of paint ( De Kooning, Pollock) Color Field Painters: concerned w/ an abstract statement in terms of a large, unified color shape or area |
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Gorky, The Liver is a Cock’s Comb, 1945,
93 x 105” Not abstract expressionist but influential to them Experienced Armenian genocide memories of his past 1940s art became more abstract planned out his pictures Biomorphic imagery came from nature studied Half inner vision/ half planned observation Feathers/claws woman bending picking up a flower Tried to “repossess” Armenia in his art Based on memories of past, horrors of his childhood Strange hybrid forms with rich, fluid color Veiled, but recognizable shapes combined with overtly sexual forms Erotically charged atmosphere w/ rich color Biomorphic imagery owed to Miro & Kandinsky |
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Gorky, Agony, 1947, 40 x 50”
Thicker pigment, texture in brushwork Content & mood are conveyed by formal elements Gestural markings Diagnosed w/ cancer wife & children left him, life becomes worse and worse, this painting was done a year before suicide |
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Orozco, Gods of the Modern World,
from series Modern Migration of the Spirit, Dartmouth College, 1932-34 (Pollock visited in 1937) Inspired Pollock larger than life, epic subject matter MYTH: series history of civilization Human violence & greed negative depiction Christ comes to earth, sees all modern violence Self-destruction of machine age Communist-Marxist |
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Siqueiros, Echo of a Scream, 1937,
Enamel on wood, 121 x 91 cm. Subject was from Sino-Japanese War new photograph of a crying baby Human wasteland Widespread use of industrial & metallic paints Variety of accidental effects |
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Pollock, Male and Female, 1942,
73 x 49” Carl Gustav Jung Increased interest in primitive art Mythological themes Figures taken from Picasso’s art |
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Pollock, Guardians of the Secret, 1943,
4 x 6’3” Guardian figures on side Covered with cryptographic symbols Alludes to a ritualCarl Jung’s themes in content of early work theories of the collective unconscious as a repository for ancient myths & universal archetypes |
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Gottlieb, Descent into Darkness,
1947 Dark, despair lived through WWII |
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Barnett Newman, Genesis-The Break,
1946, 24 x 27” Abstract symbols/ imagery Cryptographic forms are abstracted and shed their biological associations Division btwn heaven & earth Primal forms taking shape |
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Pollock, Pasiphäe, 1943
Bull & Pasiphae embracing in center Work begins to be more dense |
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Pollock, Cathedral, enamel, oil, and
aluminum paint, 1947, 71 ½ x 35” Automatic technique “confessional” handprints, things he allowed to fall accidentally into painting Source of painting is self-conscious Trance-like state He can literally be IN the painting Painting has a life of its own, it paints itself there can be no mistakes Fusion of opposite characteristics: delicate, very detailed, layered, huge pieces transcendent energy, force |
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Pollock, Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), , oil, enamel
and aluminum on canvas, 7’4” x 9’11” Automatic technique “confessional” handprints, things he allowed to fall accidentally into painting Source of painting is self-conscious Trance-like state He can literally be IN the painting Painting has a life of its own, it paints itself there can be no mistakes Fusion of opposite characteristics: delicate, very detailed, layered, huge pieces transcendent energy, force Drip painting Mix of oil colors w/ black enamel & aluminum paint Lines have no descriptive function Hazy, luminous whole Elements of intuition play a large, deliberate part Colors & mass create sense of continuous movement Inspiration came from Surrealism’s psychic automatism |
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Pollock, Portrait and a Dream, 1953, 11’ x 58”
Didn’t like abstract expressionism Painted from the unconscious painting is a state of being, a self-discovery Re-explored the figure Visual dialogue Dropped black paint in abstracted patterns vaguely suggest human anatomies Right: self-portrait overt figuration w/ brush-applied color, figure lies within the paint “when painting out of your unconscious, figures are bound to emerge” |
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Rothko, Untitled, 1949, 6’9” x 5’6 3/8”
Color Field painting: Favored simple expression of complex thought Large shapes have the impact of the unequivocal Reassertion of the picture plane flat forms destroy illusion and reveal truth Abstract art wasn’t “subjectless” No matter how reductive, it could still communicate the most profound subjects and elicit deep emotional response in viewer Spiritual faith in art Unprimed canvases, sponge paint Illuminated, modulated, flat areas Spaces refined & simplified to the point of being simply colored rectangles floating on a color ground Blurred edges to create luminous color Sensuousness of color areas & sense of indefinite outward expansion without a central focus Painting is designed to absorb & engulf the spectator Mesmerizing, haunting quality Expression of basic human emotions not only about color relationships |
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De Kooning, Woman I, 1950-52
Attacked for being a misogynist Inspired by advertisements Representational and abstracts elements of his work were not mutually exclusive Overpowering, hypnotic evocation of women as sex symbol/fertility goddess Dual nature of sexual identity derived partly from the feminine in himself |