Slides 2 Flashcards
(28 cards)
Yoshihara
A black circle on white ground
_______ may or may not have symbolic meanings
Forms
Circles inspired by “_____,” the enlightenment of Zen: pursuit of form for its own sake; no two circles by Yoshihara are alike
satori
Brancusi
Round face of a newly born baby, his mouth wide open, crying
Brancusi
Emphasis on recognizable reality, on meaning that is being conveyed
Associations of birth: renewal, circle of life, vitality, celebration of humanity
As opposed to _________, ______ refers to the formal qualities of a work of art that can typically be associated with a historical period and/or a specific geographical region, and which are shared across individual creators
iconography, style
Here: the _________ style characterized by angular shapes and dark colors; it celebrated the dynamism of the machine age and was prevalent during the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the U. S. and France
Art Déco
Since the Middle Ages, in Europe, artists were organized in __________, and went through an apprenticeship system for training under a recognized master
guilds (confraternities or craft associations),
In the 17th century an alternative model for artistic training, that of the _______, emerged; art schools today are all distant relatives of the academic model for artistic training
academy
Untrained (or folk, or outsider) artists were not exposed to any formal training (which inevitably imposes an acquired way of seeing and rendering the world); their art is frequently described as “________”; such naiveté may not be a negative quality at all; indeed, in certain contexts, especially during the 20th century, it is highly appreciated
naïve
Those who created the sculptures of Chartres Cathedral were ____________; the Cathedral builders of the Middle Ages did not think of themselves as artists in the modern sense
anonymous artisans
The French Academy of Painting and Sculpture (founded 1648) was influential in defining the modern identity of the artist as an ________________________; a development that only accelerates over the course of the 19th century (when the Academic system is already in decline; Rembrandt ahead of his time)
independent intellectual
Demise of the traditional ____________ in place since the Renaissance; during the 18th/19th centuries artists no longer produce for patrons, but for the market place (they no longer know their clients on a personal basis most of the time)
patronage system
Ancient (i.e. not new)
Classical (going back to classical history, i.e. Greece, Rome, their history & mythology; illusionism (“window in the wall”), Renaissance perspective, high degree of finish)
Pleasing and inoffensive (subject matter and execution)
Artistic dogmatism and orthodoxy (classical canon)
Tradition
Routine
Decadence
Characteristics of Modernism
Poussin
New
Cubist (neologism having to do with formal innovations: no perspective, no pictorial illusion intended, not “finished”)
Offensive both in terms of subject matter (contemporary prostitutes) and execution (lack of finish)
Freedom of expression
Originality
Novelty
Progress
Characteristics of Modernism
Picasso:
The term itself mentioned since the 12th century
Latin “modo”: recently, just now; Controvers
John of Salisbury reports saying by Bernard de Chartres: Moderns the dwarfs on the shoulders of giants (the ancients)
Controversy between the Ancients and the Moderns, 17th/early 18th-cent. France
Medieval View of Modernism
In this metaphor, the Moderns are unimportant in size; they cannot compare to the Ancients
They have one advantage, though: they can see further and they can build on the knowledge of the Ancients
In art, the presumed inferiority of the Moderns with respect to the Ancients was accepted more or less as a given until the late 19th century
This idea was perpetuated in particular by the institution of the Academy
Origins of Modernism
___________ as a doctrine derived from the French Academy of Painting and Sculpture, founded in 1648
Academicism
The French Academy defined who was to succeed as an artist in France from the 17th through the late 19th century; because of its prestige, it impacted the art world in Europe and U.S. for centuries; engrained conservatism
Art Academies promoted art that was inspired by themes of classical antiquity, and maintained the “hierarchy of genres”
History painting is on top of this hierarchy (i.e. scenes from classical antiquity); portraiture, landscape, and still-life painting is at the bottom of the hierarchy (all lower levels stress contemporary subject matter)
Genesis of Modernism
So, when did modernism starts? Multiple possibilities:
Renaissance: re-birth of classical antiquity,
Renewal of art and learning, scientific discoveries, humanism (world view centers on human, not divine, perspective)>early modern?
French Revolution of 1789: codified values of the Enlightenment (17th and 18th centuries); abolition of aristocratic privileges, all men and women are born with equal rights (declaration of human rights), Republicanism (res publica=common good), example: right to pursue happiness>political advent of modernism
Mass-transportation, railway system, consumer goods more accessible, leisure time, large metropolitan centers expand, Haussmannization in Paris, photography replaces painting: a new role for art, radical break with traditions, conventions of representation > modernism in art: Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, ultimately Cubism after 1907
1860s and 1870s
Emergence of the __________ (advance guard): art as an agent for change in society, Utopias, Socialism/Communism, art needs to be radical, needs to be ahead of its time
avant-garde
The civilizational aspect of the
modern experience, e.g. scientific discoveries,
technological advances, railroads, industrialization,
mechanization, urbanization, rationalization, etc.
Modernity
The cultural aspect of the modern
experience expressed mainly in art and literature,
e.g. individuality, alienation, psychological states,
dandyism, introspection, aesthetization of
everyday experience
Modernism
