Artistic Evolution in the 20th Century: From Symbolism to Pop Art

1. Content Area 4: Symbolism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Dada, Cubism, De Stijl, Regionalist Art, Pop Art, Environmental Art

2. Works • 122. Munch, The Scream (Expressionism) • 126. Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (Cubism) • 127. Stieglitz, The Steerage • 128. Klimt, The Kiss (Expressionism) • 129. Brancusi, The Kiss (Expressionism) • 130. Braque, The Portuguese (Cubism) • 131. Matisse, Goldfish (Fauvism) • 132. Kandinsky, Improvisation 28 (second version) (Expressionism) • 133. Kirchner, Self Portrait as a Soldier (Expressionism) • 134. Kollwitz, Memorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht (Expressionism) • 135. Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye • 136. Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow (De Stijl) • 137. Stepanova, illustration from The Results of the First Five-Year Plan • 138. Oppenheim, Objet (Surrealism) • 139. Wright, Fallingwater • 140. Kahlo, The Two Friedas (Symbolism) • 141. Lawrence, Migration of the Negro, (Depression-Era Art) • 142. Lam, Jungle • 143. Rivera, Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park • 144. Duchamp, The Fountain (Dada) • 145. de Koonig, Woman I • 146. Der Rohe & Johnson, Seagram Building • 147. Warhol, Marilyn Diptych • 148. Kusama, Narcissus Garden • 149. Frankenthaler, The Bay • 150. Oldenburg, Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks • 151. Smithson, Spiral Jetty • 152. Venturi, House in New Castle County

3. Timeline: 1800-1900, not including France • Central Europe • Seat of Romanticism, focusing on feeling over reason, mysticism, taste for fantastic and sublime • Landscape painting, popular political sentiment • Conflict between France and Germany, results in unified Germany • 1830s-Belgium achieves political independence from Netherlands • England, Scotland, Wales • Shaped by the Industrial Revolution • Social problems develop: child labor, prostitution, overpopulation, and poverty • Colonialism develops significant wealth for upper classes • Eastern Europe and Scandinavia • Napoleon’s military campaigns cause problems • Danes, who allied with French (who lost), lose Norway and given to Sweden (who was with Germany) • Russians resist French invasion • 1815-1848: growing prosperity and nationalist sentiment foster the arts • Russia continues to prosper, Russian authors and composers are well known (Tchiakovsky, Tolstoy, etc.

4. Timeline • World War I-1914-1917 • Russian Revolution-1917-1923 • USSR begins in 1923 • Great Depression-1930s • Unemployment rates: British-25%, German-40%, American-50% • Totalitarian regimes • Mussolini in Italy • Stalin in Russia • Hitler in Germany • World War II-1939-1945

5. Historical Framework • New awareness of space and time • Due to scientific discoveries/inventions • Wright Brothers (flight) • Einstein (theory of relativity) • Ford (automobile) • Mass communication increases • Ideas spread • Edison (motion picture, camera) • Marconi (radio) • New interest in the inner world of fantasy, dreams, sexuality, neurosis • Due to studies and writings of human psyche by Freud (psychoanalysis) • Jung (collective unconscious) • Non-European influences to European art/culture due to imperialism and colonialism • Pessimism and a sense of hopelessness due to war and conflict • Rising nationalism results in military build-up in central Europe • Creates rivalry between major powers • Nietzsche • New building technologies • Due to rapid industrialization • Reinforced concrete, steel, and the skyscraper

6. Two Approaches to Analyzing Early 20th Century Art Movements

7. Abstraction • Definition • The artist begins with exterior reality (world of objects) and changes that reality to some degree • I.e. very little in Cezanne’s Still lifes and very much in Picasso’s Cubist works • All painting is an “abstraction” and all painters change reality to some degree, yet up to Ingres the “project” of European painting has been largely verisimilitude (or as the Greeks philosophers stated memesis) • Exceptions: Bosch, El Greco, the Mannerists • Why Abstraction? • Desire for freedom from academic art institutions and traditional processes of art making • Redefining what reality is (a growing interest in psychological reality and imagined reality) • Increased interest in formal concerns (elements of art) as a primary structuring device of art • Fracturing of image and the process of various ways of abstraction • Challenging conventional ideas of what is “beautiful” • “The shock of the new”-innovation becomes one of the defining elements of art • Strategies of Abstraction • Selecting from reality, exaggeration, elimination, stylization, applying onto the image a contrived order or system determined by the artist

8. Two basic approaches to abstraction: Formalism • Formalism • Elements of art and “concept” or idea, are the main structuring components of working process and final work of art • Why? • Art that calls attention to the process of its making • Increase interest in formal concerns as a primary structuring device of art • Fracturing of image and process of various ways of abstraction • Experimentation and use of modern materials and technology for art making • The objectification of the art work, moving away from pictorial space • Expressionism • The artistic process and feeling-the act of creation is determined by the artist’s response to the subject and shapes work of art • Why? • New interest in the inner world of fantasy, dreams, sexuality, and neurosis (Freud-psychoanalysis, Jung (collective unconscious) • Interest in the exotic and in new sources of imagery which are often nonwestern • Directness and immediacy with the subject matter • Challenging conventional ideas of what is “beautiful”

9. Two ways of looking at non-representational art in the 20th century Abstraction • Changing reality to some degree, the art work is still connected to the world of objects or “visual reality” but has an applied structure (elimination, stylization, addition, geometry, etc.) to reality Non-objective • Art work which is not referenced to an exterior reality of objects or visible things but is generated by an “idea” (i.e. an internal “reality”), an emotion or feeling, or spiritual experience

10. Two basic approaches to abstraction: nonobjective art • Definition • Art that does not come from exterior world of physical or optical reality, but has its origins from “pure” idea or emotion • Why? • “When religion, science, and morality are shaken-when external supports threaten to collapse-the man’s gaze turns away from the outside world, towards himself.”-Kandinsky • Two basic approaches to nonobjective art • Formalism-elements of art and concept (idea) are the main structuring components of working process and final work of art • Example: Suprematism and Constructivism • Expressionism-artistic process and feeling-the act of creation is determined by the artist’s response to the subject and shapes work of art

11. Central Ideas/Roots of Expressionism • Subjective reading of reality • Degrees of abstraction to capture expressive content • Emotional and passionate relationship to subject • Looking at the world within • The world of emotion, alienation, disaffection • Artistic process evident in finished work • Act of creation shapes work of art • Intuitive or random ordering of images • Recording the world without “filters” • Romanticism-in their choice and approach to “hot” subjects • Van Gogh (and other Post-Impressionists Toulouse-Lautrec and Gaugin) • Personal interpretation of their subject • Dominance of style or subject • German wood block prints • From Northern Renaissance • Medium and technique • Painting techniques • Often raw, intense color, very subjective, not connected to reality • Loose brush strokes, “crude” drawing, abandoning of “classical” techniques • Flat space, limited spatial effects, surface of painting dominate

12. Early 20th Century (c. 1900-1918) Expressionist Movements • Vienna • Secessionists, 1898 • Klimt, Kokoschka, Schiele, Albrecht • France • Fauvism, 1905 (Paris) • Matisse, Derain, Roualt • “wild beasts” coined by critic as criticism of an exhibition of paintings by Matisse, Vlaminck, Derain in Paris in 1905 (lasting only 5 years or so) • The Fauves believed that the key to spiritual regeneration was to approach the world in a direct way (as a child would) bold, vibrant color used subjectively and independent of form and reality

13. Symbolism (late 1880s) • Impressionists and Post-Impressionists believed their emotions and sensations were important elements for interpreting nature, depiction of nature was primary • Symbolists rejected the optical world in favor of fantasy, from imagination, without reference to things conventionally seen • See through things to a significance and reality deeper than superficial appearance • In order to achieve insight, artists must become deranged, unhinge reason • Nothing utilitarian, art for art’s sake is a doctrine for life • Esoteric, exotic, dream-like, fantastic • Connected to Freud and Jung • Began as a literary movement, as a reaction against rationalism and materialism • Validity of pure subjectivity and expression of idea over depiction of the natural world • Rejected the conventions of naturalism • Art should reflect emotion, rather than objective, quasi-scientific manner of Realism and Impressionism • Creating emotional experiences like Romantics • Simplified, non-naturalistic • Wanted them to have spiritual value, sometimes populated with biblical, mythological, monstrous creatures • Themes: love, fear, anguish, death, sexual awakening, unrequited desire • Varied, like Post-impressionist, but unified in pessimism and weariness • Wanted to escape reality through personal dreams

14. Munch, The Scream, 1893, Symbolism, Norway, tempera and pastels on cardboard - Felt deeply the pain of human life -Humans were powerless before great forces of death and love and the emotions associated with them -Describe the conditions of modern psychic life -Should not focus on the tangible world -Man standing on a bridge or jetty, comes from real world -Evokes a visceral, emotional response from the viewer -Skeletal man emits a primal scream -Curvilinear lines in sky mimic the curves of the man’s body and face -Echo through the setting -Original title was “Despair”

15. Munch, The Scream, 1893, Symbolism, Norway, tempera and pastels on cardboard -One of the most iconic images in art; has been the target of thefts, and has sold to a private collector for $120,000,000, making it the second highest price achieved at that time by a painting at an auction -Part of Munch’s semi-autobiographical cycle “The Frieze of Life”, the composition appears in four forms First-oil, tempera, and pastel on cardboard Two pastel examples Final tempera painting Also created a lithographic version Experimentation in a variety of media Munch was interested in themes of death, life, relationships, and dread -Three main areas: bridge that forms a steep angle from the left; a landscape of a shoreline, and the sky activated with curving lines of red, blue, and black -Foreground and background blend into each other, linearity of figures in the background contrast with sky and figure in the foreground

16. Munch, The Scream, 1893, Symbolism, Norway, tempera and pastels on cardboard -“I was walking along the road with two friends—the sun went down—I felt a gust of melancholy—suddenly the sky turned a bloody red. I stopped, leaned against the railing, tired to death—as the flaming skies hung like blood and sword over the blue-black fjord and the city—My friends went on—I stood there trembling with anxiety—and I felt a vast infinite scream [tear] through nature.” -Munch, January 22, 1892 -Experience of synesthesia, union of the senses: taste a color, smell a musical note, etc. -Symbolist artists questioned the nature of subjectivity and its visual depiction

17. Art Nouveau • “New Art”, from 1880s to WWI • Took inspiration from unruly aspects of the natural world • Studies of botanical illustrations • Primary source of inspiration for artists seeking to break away from past styles • Grew out of design reform • Response to the industrialized, mass production • Emphasized a return to handicraft and traditional techniques • Art for art’s sake was seen in non-narrative paintings • Influenced by japonisme • Find the synthesis of art and craft • Creating spiritually uplifting total work of art • Influenced by Post-Impressionism and Symbolism

18. Arts and Crafts Movement • Emerged during the late Victorian period in England (late 1880s, early 1900s) • Reflected anxieties about industrial life and refocused on craftsmanship and precapitalist forms of government • Wanted to improve standards of decorative design and create environments of beautiful and fine workmanship • Did not have an aesthetic, but reform and critique of industrial labor, as modern machines replaced workers • Supported by Pugin (architect of the Houses of Parliament) • Led to formation of utopian and socialist communities in England and US • Interiors, jewelry, decoration, furniture • Technology and rise of urban centers ended the Arts and Crafts movement by 1920s.

19. Vienna Secessionists • Art movement formed in 1897 by a group who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists • Gustav Klimt was the first president • Displayed Impressionist work in Vienna • Vienna is changing as a city, becoming modern • Responding to changing modern world • Not united by one style, but were concerned with exploring possibilities of art outside the confines of academic tradition • Wanted to create a new style that owed nothing to historical influence

20. Klimt, The Kiss, 1907, Symbolism, Austria, oil on canvas -From Vienna -Fin de siecle-end of the century to describe the culture of the late 1800s, middle class attempted to live the life the aristocracy usually enjoyed -Preoccupation with sexual drives, powers, and perversions, exploration of the unconscious -Couple locked in an embrace, only part of the body is visible -Resolves into shimmering, flat pattern -Conflict between 2D and 3D space -Decadent, opulent, and sensuous images

21. Klimt, The Kiss, 1907, Symbolism, Austria, oil on canvas High point of his “Golden Period” painted many works in a similar style Canvas is a perfect square, oil paint with applied layers of gold leaf Depicts couple embracing, entwined in elaborate robes Refers to Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts movement Was living in Vienna at the time with mother and three unmarried sisters Fathered 3 illegitimate children Reflects his fascination with eroticism Overall very phallic Woman is depicted very tenderly

22. Brancusi, The Kiss, 1916, France, limestone Was one of few works made for specific commission, John Quinn, from New York This is the 4th stone version, original was given to another person in 1910 Most geometric, Brancusi did not want it displayed on a base, but should be by itself Tall block is vertically separated down the center, woman is indicated by rounded breast and hair falling down her back Forms are fused, arms and hands are part of the block itself Each is seen in profile Shows awareness of Cubist sculpture

23. Brancusi, The Kiss, 1916, France, limestone Directly carved onto the limestone block, making contours that delineate male and female forms Juxtaposition of smooth and rough surfaces paired with dramatic simplification of figures Shown from waist up, may show awareness of “primitive” African sculpture

24. Avant Garde • Political and economic disruptions of the early 20th century • Old social orders collapsed and new ones took their place • New forms of government and economic forms (communism, capitalism) • Artists searched for new definitions and uses for art • Fundamental questioning of the nature and goals of artistic production-avantgarde • “Front guard” derives from French military usage • Troops sent ahead to scout the enemy’s position and strength • Was used to refer to Realists, Impressionists, and Post-Impressionists • Artists who were ahead of their time and transgressed the limits of established art forms • Rejected the classical and the academic • Questioned premises and formal qualities of traditional Western painting, sculpture, and other media

25. Fauvism • First avantgarde movement of the early 20th century, began in France • Broke with Impressionism • Spontaneous and subjective response to nature • Loose grouping of artists, with no definitive program • “Wild beasts” coined by critic as criticism of an exhibition of paintings by Matisse, Vlaminck, and Derain in Paris in 1905 (lasting only 5 years or so) • Believed that the key to spiritual regeneration was to approach the world in a direct way (as a child would) • Bold, vibrant color used subjectively and independent of form and reality • Color, shape, and line • Predominate over form, space, and light • Bold color • Juxtaposition of pure color…color is the source of light within the painting • How the picture is organized, by rejecting three-dimensional space • Modeling of form with color • Not chiaroscuro • Decorative • Use of pattern and line (flattening space and form) • Floral motif-supercede real perspective • Oriental influence-exotic fabrics, odalisques • Many Fauvists later rejected the emotional movement and embraced Cubism

26. Derain, The Dance, 1906, Fauvism, France, oil on canvas -Color used to its fullest potential -Produce aesthetic and compositional coherence, to increase luminosity, and elicit emotional responses from the viewer -Nude and clothed figures frolic in the lush landscape -Study of Gaugin’s paintings -Color delineates space, indicated light and shadow by contrasts in hue -Does not describe the local tones but expresses the picture’s content

27. Matisse • Quotes • “I have not painted a woman- I have painted a painting.” • “I feel through color and so it is through color that may canvas will always be organized” • “I do not paint things but the relationships between them” • Influences on Matisse • Ingres-line, contour, and grace • Delacroix-expressiveness of color • Cezanne-themes of artist’s late work (the nude situated in landscape) color=light • Gaugin- pattern, love of the exotic (Matisse saw a retrospective in Paris in 1903) • Van Gogh- gestural brush stroke, thick application of paint (saw a retrospective in 1901) • Seurat-color experimentation, freeing up of Pointilism • Descriptive • “Luxurious materialist and pensive poet” • Paintings of a “world waiting” • Easy images disguise complicated feelings • “sealed universe” of his painting • Quiet luxury-mirrors and windows metaphors…the genius of omission

28. Matisse, Red Room (Harmony in Red), 1908, Fauvism, France, oil on canvas -Subject is the interior of a comfortable, prosperous household with a maid placing fruit and wine on the table -Objects in simplified and schematized fashion and flattened out the forms -Eliminated the front edge of the table, making the table and its identical pattern the same as the wall behind it -Window on the upper left could be a painting on the wall -Colors contrast richly and intently -At first was green, then blue, then red, in which he found “harmony”

29. 131. Henri Matisse, Goldfish, 1912, oil on canvas • Goldfish were introduced to Europe from East Asia in the 17th century • Recurring subject in the work of Matisse, from around 1912 • Series features them, this one focuses on them • Visited Morocco and he noted how the local population would day-dream for hours staring into fishbowls • Admired Moroccan lifestyle-relaxed and contemplative • Goldfish came to represent this • Goldfish attract the eye because of the color, bright orange contrasts with pinks and greens • Green and red are complementary and become brighter when placed next to each other

30. 131. Henri Matisse, Goldfish, 1912, oil on canvas • Symbolized a tranquil state of mind, and evocative of a time lost • Gold-fish-fish of a golden, lost age • Also interested in Islamic cultures and the meaning of gardens, water, and vegetation in Islamic art • Beauty of divine creation • Evocations of paradise • Painted this in his home near Paris, living outside of Paris to escape the city • Show his own plants, garden furniture, fish tank • Drawn to the tank’s cylindrical shape • Goldfish were located in his garden conservatory, also enclosed by glass

31. 131. Henri Matisse, Goldfish, 1912, oil on canvas • Invites the viewer to indulge in the pleasure of watching the graceful movement and bright colors • “Art that could be…a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair that provides relaxation from fatigue.” • Fish are seen from two different angles • Front-details of fins, eyes, and mouths are immediately recognizable • Above-they are colorful brushstrokes • Plants are also distorted through the transparent glass surface • Flowers and plants are decorateive • Background looks like wallpaper • Table-top is tilted up • Original juxtaposition and special ambiguity, taking inspiration from Cezanne • Color, not perspective, holds everything together

32. German Expressionism • Influences • Post-Impressionists, Munch, Gaugin, Van Gogh, Art Nouveau • Bold, colorful, inward-looking • Jarring, distorted, emotionally provocative • Historical context • Germany, Austria, and Hungary are marked by continual warfare and political instability • Hapsburg Empire grows in Austria and Hungary, but wanes in Germany • Wealthy noblemen are competing for power when not at war • Rifts between Catholics and Protestants continue, along with dynastic struggles • Movements with this period • Die Brucke (1905)- recognized as the birth of Expressionism; “bridge” reflecting their desire to cross into a new future • Der Blaue Reiter (1911)-interest in abstract forms and prismatic colors, had spiritual values that could counteract corruption and materialism; centered on animals and re-birth • Autonomous-artists who were not associated with any movement (Kollwitz)

33. Die Brucke • Founded in Dresden, Germany from 1905-1901 • Members were Ernst Kirchner, Emil Nolde, and Otto Mueller, among others • Wanted to be the “bridge” from academic style of the past to the new art of the present • Interest in primitive art, expressing emotion through high-keyed color that was not naturalistic • Not complete abstraction • Influenced by Durer, and Cranach the Elder • Interested in woodcuts (German heritage) • Content was shocking: nudes, people making love, urban subjects

34. 135. Ernest Ludwig Kirchner, Self Portrait as a Soldier, 1915, oil on canvas Part of the Die Brucke movement German expressionist group Kirchner created their manifesto “We call all young people together, and as young people, who carry the future in us, we want to wrest freedom for our actions and our lives from the older, comfortably established forces.” Believed they lived in an age of great change Admired Nietzsche “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” uses a bridge as a metaphor for the connection between the barbarism of the past and the modernity of the future Created art that looked to both the past and the present Also influenced by “primitive” art More honest and direct Folk art- arts and crafts among rural populations Germany was a colonial power in Africa during WWI Paintings were created outside, in nature, together with unidealized nudes Roughly sketched Disbanded in 1913, but Kirchner continued to work in this style

35. 135. Ernest Ludwig Kirchner, Self Portrait as a Soldier, 1915, oil on canvas Kirchner dressed in a uniform but not standing over a battlefield or another military context Standing in his studio with an amputated bloody arm and a nude model behind him Had volunteered as a driver in the military to avoid more serious service Was eventually declared unfit due to general health issues Never fought Expression of his personal fears Injury is metaphorical Different from other depictions of amputees, which were designed to shame politicians with a grotesque view of veterans who were no longer “useful” to society Self-amputation to his identity as an artist Stands with all the things he needs to make art, but cannot During the war he suffered from alcoholism and drug abuse Part of the time his hands and feet were paralyzed Hitler’s Degenerate Art exhibition in 1937 featured art that mocked the type of art the Nazis hated 32 of Kirchner’s works were featured 600 were removed from private collections Committed suicide in 1938

36. 134. Kathe Kollwitz, Memorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht, 1919-20, woodcut Many artists turned to printmaking instead of painting after WWI Ability to spread political statements easily Kollwitz almost exclusively used this medium and became well-known and celebrated for her prints depicting the plight of the working class Rarely depicted real people Used her talents to support causes she believed in Was created in response to the assassination of the Communist leader Karl Liebknecht during an uprising of 1919 Memorializes a man without advocating for his ideology Germany went through a period of political upheaval between the end of WWI and the founding of the Weimar republic (inter-war representative democratic government) Was led by a coalition of left-wing forces with Marxist sympathies SDP (Social Democratic Party) and the KPD (German Communist Party)

37. Both wanted to eliminate capitalism and establish communal control over the means of production Socialists-step by step within the capitalist structure Communists-complete and total social revolution that would put power in the hands of the workers KPD staged an uprising in 1919, was suppressed and its two leaders, Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, were captured and murdered while in custody Were celebrated as martyrs Kollwitz supported the socialists, but admired Liebknecht His family asked her to memorialize him Similar to a lamentation Liebknect is the Christ figure, would have been easily identifiable to the audience Focuses not on the man, but the followers who had faith in him Woodblock print Used , like other German expressionists, to capture the rough and vital energy of more “primitive” societies

38. Divided into three horizontal sections Top is densely packed with figures Faces are modeled and have depth Space is compressed Packed into every corner Shows many people coming to pay respects, but doesn’t compromise their individuality Middle part has fewer details which emphasizes the crowd at the top Draws attention to the specific mourner whose hand is placed on Liebknecht’s chest Hand connects to the bottom, the martyred revolutionary Woman holds a baby Very important in Kollwitz’s work Was the first woman to be admitted to the Prussian Academy Was not actually an expressionist, but used this technique as a protest against the horrors of war through the rough edges and harsh colors this provided

39. Cubism • “I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them”-Picasso • One of the most influential visual styles of the early 20th century • Created by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque • Linked to Primitvism and non-western sources • Rejected the inherited concept that art should copy nature, or adopt the traditional techniques of perspective, modeling, and foreshortening • Wanted to emphasize the two-dimensionality of the canvas, • Beginnings • A manifesto of modernism, redefining reality and painting • The end of the Renaissance tradition begun by Giotto and Masaccio of pictorial reality and the marriage of illusionary form and illusionary space • Early influences • Iberian (Spanish) stone sculpture • African masks and sculpture • Human figure in ancient Egyptian art • Gaugin’s interest in the exotic • Cezanne’s paintings (seen in the 1907 retrospective in Paris)

40. Cubism • Techniques • Faceting (fracturing the image into planes) record multiple viewpoints of the same object in one rendering, strive for complexity in presentation/organization • Monochromatic color scheme so as not to interfere with formal considerations • Melding of form, shape, light, and texture, no scientific perspective, traditional modeling, or unified light source • Dissolve contours and eliminate barriers between form and the space surrounding it • Flatten space within a picture • Rejection of natural light source in painting • Detachment from subject matter of painting from artist/viewer (non-emotional) • Selection of “neutral” subject matter (i.e. not religious or political) • Assert the primacy of the picture surface, using obvious brush strokes • Incorporating letters and print images-non traditional materials used • Analytical-beginning with the object, looking at it and then abstracting using faceting/fracturing • Synthetic-creating a composition on a flat surface based on a mental picture of a reality using the imagination rather than the act of looking/sight

41. Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907, Analytic Cubism, France, oil on canvas -Young Ladies of Avignon, original title was Philosophical Bordello, portraying two male clients intermingling with women in the reception room of a brothel -Ultimately eliminated the men, simplified the room’s detail, and created a schematic foreground -Not depicted as continuous volumes, but as fractured shapes interwoven with equally jagged planes, representing drapery and empty space -Space and bodies are illegible -Tension between 3D and 2D space -Figures are depicted inconsistently -Inspired by ancient Iberian statues on the left 3 women -Two women on left are influenced by his interest in African masks -Bodies are broken into ambiguous planes, suggesting a combination of views - “I paint forms as I think them, not as I see them.-Picasso

42. Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907, Analytic Cubism, France, oil on canvas Spanish artist working in Paris Refers to a street in Barcelona Nude, available to male and male gaze Connected to Titian, Manet Their view engages the viewer Foundation of cubism, radical break from conventions of Western representation of forms and space No linear perspective, no chiaroscuro Formal means to convey sexuality and female nude, and sexually transmitted diseases Women are seen from more scientific and artistic Artists do analyze and break down anatomy

43. Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907, Analytic Cubism, France, oil on canvas Original painting had medical student holding a skull Skull would have been a reminder of death Sailor/medical student is indulging in pleasures of life Faces are representations of African masks Left is ancient Iberian We know Picasso was looking at exhibitions of African art works in Paris at this time Relates to colonialism, because France had colonies in Africa Agglomeration of styles Represented otherness Figures are close, 3d and fractured planes, curtains are pressed up against them, no space behind them Some shadow and highlighting, only a few inches Deconstruction of 3d form, shattering of form, reorganizing them on a 2d surface Looking across and down at 2nd figure from left Unidealized, ugly women, questions what art is

44. Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907, Analytic Cubism, France, oil on canvas 20th century, true modern art Expressing the flatness, emphasizing the form and art-making, rather than an illusion Speaks to oppressiveness of earlier movements (Romanticism, Neoclassicism, Baroque) that weighed on modern artists who wanted to create a modern and new art and culture

45. Braque, The Portuguese, 1911, Analytic Cubism, France, oil on canvas** not in 250 -Derived from memories of a Portuguese musician seen years earlier at a bar in Marseilles -Dissecting the form and placing it in dynamic interaction with the space around it -Used subtle hues to concentrate on form, carried so far that the viewer must be diligent to decipher the subject -Large planes suggest man and guitar -Light and dark passages suggest chiaroscuro modeling and transparent planes that allow the viewer to see through one level to another -Stenciled letters and numbers, play with 3D space, but shapes play beneath -Ambiguity and doubt, numbers anchor in representation but there is tension

46. Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage, 1907, photogravure Was taken from the first class deck by Stieglitz on a transatlantic journey from New York to Paris on May 14, 1907 Was married a status-conscious woman Was uncomfortable with the upper class passengers and felt out of place Walked to the front of the ship to escape the nouveau riches and looked down to see the women and children of the lower classes Wanted to be with them, rather than above him When describing this in an essay he also says that it encapsulated his mission to elevate photography to the status of fine art, by engaging in the same dialogues about abstraction that European artists were engaged with Looked at the shapes and composition of the hats, the mast, the machinery

47. Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage, 1907, photogravure Photography is not only documentary but can also convey abstraction Not only about significant forms of shapes forms and textures, but also a message about its subject The immigrants who were rejected at Ellis Island and returning to their country Or returning to see relatives and encourage them to come back to the USA with them Stieglitz was familiar with the debates about immigration reform and the terrible conditions passengers in steerage were subjected to His father had immigrated from Germany between 1845 and 1855; exemplified the American dream However, he did not approve of admitting the uneducated and marginal to the US This was a statement about photography, not immigration

48. Abstraction • Definition • The artist begins with exterior reality (world of objects) and changes that reality to some degree • I.e. very little in Cezanne’s Still lifes and very much in Picasso’s Cubist works • All painting is an “abstraction” and all painters change reality to some degree, yet up to Ingres the “project” of European painting has been largely verisimilitude (or as the Greeks philosophers stated memesis) • Exceptions: Bosch, El Greco, the Mannerists • Why Abstraction? • Desire for freedom from academic art institutions and traditional processes of art making • Redefining what reality is (a growing interest in psychological reality and imagined reality) • Increased interest in formal concerns (elements of art) as a primary structuring device of art • Fracturing of image and the process of various ways of abstraction • Challenging conventional ideas of what is “beautiful” • “The shock of the new”-innovation becomes one of the defining elements of art • Strategies of Abstraction • Selecting from reality, exaggeration, elimination, stylization, applying onto the image a contrived order or system determined by the artist

49. Theosophy • Collection of mystical philosophies concerning, or seeking direct knowledge of, presumed mysteries of life, particularly the nature of divinity, and the origin or purpose of the universe • Part of Western esotericism-relate to philosophies and systems of thought that are distinct from Judeo-Christian theology and Enlightenment rationalism • Gnosticism, pagan, Kaballah, Freemasons, New Age • Three characteristics • Divine/Human/Nature Triangle: relationship of these three things, creative processes of the mind • Primacy of the Mythic: creative imagination, an external world of symbols, myths are all part of reality • Access to Supreme Worlds: ability to connect to the divine, special human ability

50. Der Blaue Reiter • Began in Munich, Germany in 1911-1914 • Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Paul Klee, among others • After Die Brucke • Founded by Russian emigrants and native German artists • Title was based on Kandinsky’s love of riders, Franz Marc’s love of horses, and both liked the color blue • Blue was the color of spirituality, darker the blue, more it awakens human desire for the eternal • Wanted to express spiritual truths • Promoted modern art, connect visual art and music, spiritual and symbolic associations of color