juan gris, harlequin with guitar, 1917
dear class:
there's plenty to talk about: gesamtkunstwerk, symbolism, bildroman, adolf loos, two different schools of expressionism (blaue reiter & die brücke), expressionism in cinema, two moments in cubism (analytic, synthetic), the importance of still life/nature mort/vanitas for art, and everything in between. pick any topic, spin it with a bit of research & keep it novel and original.
9 comments:
In last weeks class we discussed many things from topics such as symbolism and cubism to the importance of still life/nature mort/vanitas in the world of art. In class we also discussed my favorite artist, Pablo Picasso, and his unique fascination with still life. While researching Picassos still life for this write up I read something I found very profound: “Just as a portrait by the artist is never just a straightforward depiction of a sitter, so a still life is never solely a meaningless assortment of objects”. There is something beautiful about this quote to me that I can not yet pinpoint. While many artists paint there first still lifes in art class, pre-constructed by a professor, they are missing what I believe to be the most crucial part of the artistic process. Before an artist even touches a pen to paper the way in which the objects for a still life are chosen and displayed reveal much of the artist vulnerabilities and objectives of their work. Because a still life can reveal so much about a person I find Pablo Picassos particularly interesting. Unlike anyone before him as well as the reason his art continues to transcend generations to this day is explained when he says ‘I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them’. One painting I found particularly interesting is his still life titled La cafetière, 1943 which depicts a simple table setting completely overhauled by Picassos style. According to my research during the time of his life in which he created this piece he was involved in an affair with a younger women by the name of Marie-Thérèse Walter. Because Picasso was partaking in a relationship that needed to be kept a secret he expresses his emotions through the youthful colors and voluptuous curves of his youthful muse that are personified through the still life.
-Harry Reid
In last week’s lecture what stayed with me after class were the examples of expressionism in cinema. I had never thought before of bridging the gap between expressionism in “high level” art and art made to be enjoyed as a film. I was especially attached to the use of expressionism in the classic horror movie Psycho. The history of German expressionism in cinema is vast but it was its departure from Germany during World War I that brought its influence in the path of Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock used distinct lighting patterns in his films to show Expressionist influences. The high contrast and the eerie use of shadow figures all hark to the strange shapes and distorted sets of the old German Expressionist films. This technique helped create uncomfortable viewing experiences for the audience and helped to cement psycho as a terrifying masterpiece in the film industry. Another film genius that utilized expressionist influences was Tim Burton. His gothic styled films can also be compared to classic instances of German expressionism. Some may even say his animated or claymation movies have some expressionist influence. These techniques create movies that are weird and off putting, but in all cases these feelings make the films stick with the audience and create film classics.
Olivia Ginsberg
Expressionists like Edvard Munch and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner were less concerned with depicting a physical reality and more infatuated with expressing the human emotional experience. I like the idea behind expressionism with the artist seeking to express these emotional experiences rather than the actual reality of the physical world around us. Wikipedia describes it as a way, “to present the world from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas”. The world is what we perceive, how we personally perceive it and how those things make us feel. Our entire world is our own subjective experience; we may be seeing the same things but how we experience them and feel about them are subject to change for each human. When it comes to art, I think it is less about getting an audience approval and more about how you feel about it. If you see a landscape and paint a landscape, you’re just going to be looking at a landscape. But expressionists take it a step further by creating what you feel, not exactly what you are seeing. Art, in my opinion, is all about how something makes you feel; how a certain color or lighting choice or use of lines makes you feel in your chest, does it make you angry? Does it make you feel safe? Does it light a fire in your belly? At Die Brücke’s first exhibition, Kirchner said, “with faith in progress and in a new generation of creators and spectators we call together all youth. As youth, we carry the future and want to create for ourselves freedom of life and movement against the long established older forces.” Expressionists aren’t concerned with the world’s reality and what is set in stone, they branch away from that and dig deeper and push boundaries. Our reality is what we make it, and what's important is how we feel about it.
Meghan Morrison
It’s interesting that you noted that students in the past didn’t really like cubism, because I believe it’s almost the epitome of the graphic design style/trends that we see a lot of today (especially on social media). As someone in the class previously mentioned, the design style of the 2010’s are in a way a mixture of design trends popular in the 80’s and 90’s - a heavy focus on nostalgia and throwback appeal - with a modern twist. This can best be seen with the rise of vaporwave - 80’s inspired designs with an emphasis on the use of neon colors. Cubism feels more abstract than previous areas, but also feels like a combination (an innovation) of familiar colors and shapes. For example, the angular nature of cubism feels similar to the lettering and embroidery popular during the Middle Ages. The muted colors (especially with it adhering to a certain tone/color scheme) is also reminiscent of a simpler time. Thus, cubism combines elements from the past and adds a twist to it to make it more modern (relative to the time). Moreover, the piece feels very layered, with elements intersecting each other and colors being overlaid in varied ways. I see this collage style a lot recently, especially with the way the colors overlay certain elements and how elements aren’t just neatly aligned on the canvas - this relation to collage style pieces would also make me feel that people my age would be more apt to really enjoying this art style.
Student: Briera Crockett
Before having my first modern art history class, I never before knew how to appreciate or honestly liked pieces of art like cubist paintings.
When I learned about pieces like the ones by Picasso I became so amazed by the movement. Even though analytical cubist paintings are extremely flat, geometric, and sharp, their concept of combining viewpoints of the same scene, within this flatness, they achieve depth in all the planes they overlap. They create a vision no one sees unless they are stopped to think of, “the phase of Analytic Cubism initiated a way of thinking about art that went beyond the limits of fixed perspective compositions.” They took away the flesh of things, the limits of surfaces, and the monochromatic paintings created a whole new environment where all the components were merged togethers.
Cubism pushed me to think about perspectives, how not just a guitar has several viewpoints to be seen from, but also how everything has multiple perspectives, there is no single right view.
Julia Martins
https://www.theartstory.org/definition/analytic-cubism/
The first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word “collage" is a framed inspiration board in a teenage girl's room, thus why I would automatically categorize it as “low art”. But in reality, collage can live a double life and be both high and low art. The mixed media medium became famous in the era of cubism and was birthed from the works of Picasso and Braque in the early 1900s. Through the lens of cubism, we can see how collage was conceived. One of the practices of cubism is the breaking up and geometrizing figures. By taking and different pieces from different puzzles and putting them together to create a new way of viewing something that cannot be achieved just by painting alone. The Collage has also made its way into major art movements such as dada and surrealism, thus fully establishing its notoriety. Dadaists strayed from earlier cubists by using less still life and more iconography. Then the surrealist then took the copy and paste format from the dadaist, but then applied it in a way look liked crazy “surreal” dreams. The collage allows there to be a commentary on a subject by using familiar objects. An actual clipping from a particular newspaper or magazine is much more effective for the viewer to recognize and understand the message being conveyed compared to just a painting of the same thing. Even today in most contemporary and modern museums you will see collage. So in reality collage is really the art for the people, both high and low.
ThoughCO
Modern Art
-Sam Zeigler
Picasso is one of the most well-known artists. He transitioned the world of art from the Impressionist view of leisure to a turn-of-the century industrialized world. Picasso and Braque are credited with developing cubism. Most importantly, Picasso was able to look to the masters that preceded him and use specific techniques that he found appealing while creating new art forms that were more fitting to the twentieth-century viewer. Cubism actualized because Picasso appreciated the geometric forms in paintings by Cezanne, Van Gogh and Matisse. The obsession with tribal art and African masks provided an inspiration to create structural shapes that represented facial features. Picasso is known for his many periods of art. He is one of the only successful artists to change his aesthetic continuously while staying relevant. His ability to use each style interchangeably, and sometimes in one piece, allowed him to explore the innate definition of art. As Picasso practiced cubism, he wanted more depth and dimension. He solved this problem by creating collages. The idea of adding materials other than paint to a piece of art was revolutionary. In this manner, Picasso surpassed his peers in the search for avant-garde.
Emma Pitcairn
The Die Brucke movement was something that I remember particularly intrigued me when studying modern art. Die Brucke means “the bridge,” meaning that these artists saw themselves as the bridge between the art of the German past (during the Renaissance) and the future. Through their work, viewers would supposedly see the utopic, avant garde art of the future. Unlike most movements, which are named after they’ve ended, this was one of the few whose participating artists named themselves, therefore very blatantly describing themselves as ahead of their time. Something I find particularly ironic is Ernst Ludwig Kirschner’s very nationalistic view of Die Brucke, claiming that it had no French influence, when in fact it was very much influenced by the expressionists’ use of color in an emotionally driven way. This goes back to show inevitable outside influence is to any movement, because nothing is created in a vacuum. Kirschner’s contemporaries rejected this nationalist view of their movement, especially when his manifesto for the movement was written as if he spoke for all of them.
Alejandra Moros
Cinema brings a whole new medium to the art of storytelling. Starting with German expressionism, the love for cinema grew making it more than entertainment but something captivating and raw. Alfred Hitchcock was a pioneer in the art of cinema expressionism. His iconic films like The Birds, Rear Window, and Psycho give the audience a dynamic yet chilling visuals that feel as if they are mimicking a collection of portraits. The slow yet grasping films deliberately creep up on you until you find yourself too scared to take a shower. His careful use and timing of film scores add to the suspense and drama making the films have this lasting psychological effect on one’s mind. In the film Psycho, he puts the audience at the antagonist’s POV. adding the element of mystery and dismay. Hitchcock’s use of expressionism and visualization in his films make directors like Ari Aster, Tim Burton, Wes Anderson, Hayao Miyazaki, and Woody Allen the artist they are today.
Max Speziani
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