Early Modernism The Artist as Idea Maker Vol

Early Modernism “The Artist as Idea Maker” Vol. 1 -1904 -1920 s

• A series of “isms” • Local traditions in art have given way to international trends • Three “isms” are most important and have branched off throughout the 20 th century- Expressionism, Abstraction, and Fantasy • Expressionism- the human community • Abstraction- the structure of reality • Fantasy- the individual human mind • Realism continues as a trend along with other movements throughout the 20 th century • Modernism allowed artists to assert their freedom to create in a new style and provide them with a mission to define the meaning of their times • Influenced by- the beginning of the atomic age -existentialism (Nietzsche)- “God is Dead” -the invention of psychoanalysis Freud-inner drives control human behavior Jung-collective unconscious -The Russian Revolution -The Great War (humanity’s inhumanity) -The Great Global Depression -the rise of the “Avant Garde”

Expressionsim-release of the artist’s inner vision -evoke feelings from the viewer Fauvism- very short-lived • full of violent color and bold distortion, brutal brushstrokes • Shocking to the critics and the public • Called “Fauves”- wild beasts • Artists wore the label with pride • Sense of liberation and experimentation held the group together • Color’s structural, expressive, and aesthetic capabilities

Henri Matisse, The Joy of Life, 1905 -06 • Flat planes of color, bold outlines come from Gauguin-also humanity in a state of nature- pagan scene like a bacchanal • “genius of omission”- radical simplification • The act of painting was joyous for him and his paintings show this

• Believed that color was the formal element most responsible for pictorial coherence • Color was not meant to imitate nature, but to express inner emotions Matisse, The Red Studio, 1911

• Fauvism with political connotations • Reminiscent of stained glass because Roualt was an apprentice • A figure of merciless authority clutching flowers Roualt, The Old King, 1916 -37

German Expressionism“Die Brucke” (The Bridge) • Color is important, but equal to that of distortion of images and violent brushstrokes • Movement centered in Dresden, Germany and led by Ernst Kirschner • Thought of themselves as bridging the old age of art with the new • Influenced by medieval craft guilds- lived and worked together equally • Focused on the detrimental effects of industrialization Kirschner, Self Portrait, 1915

• Most of Emile Nolde’s paintings were religious like Roualt • Slashing, violent brushstrokes for nonangry subject matter Nolde, Wildly Dancing Children, 1912

• Austrian painter related to the group • Like Van Gogh- saw himself as an inner visionary, a witness to inner truth • Tortured psyche influenced by Freud’s work Kokoschka, Self Portrait, 1913

Kathe Kollwitz • Worked almost exclusively in printmaking and drawing • Themes of inhumanity and injustice • The plight of workers and war victims • Pacifist- son died in WWI Kollwitz, The Survivors, 1923

• Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider)- another German Expressionist movement • Produced feeling is visual form Kandinsky, Composition VII, 1913 • Complete abstraction- non-objective work-elimination of representation • Knew about music, literature, science (the atomic theory)- material objects have no structure or purpose • Orchestration of color, form, line, and space- blueprints for an enlightened and liberated society, emphasizing spirituality

• Armory Show of 1913 introduced America to Fauvism and German Expressionism • Started in NY and traveled to Chicago and Boston • Armory show contained over 1600 pieces of art- exposed American viewers and artists to work going on in Europe • Very controversial- NY Times called it “Pathological” • Alfred Steiglitz, a photographer, was pivotal in supporting American abstractionists • Marsden Hartley was an American living in Munich and was directly influenced by these European movements Hartley, Portrait of a German Officer, 1914

• Followed Matisse’s “genius of omission” • Disturbed the basic shape of the material as little as possible • Interested in primitive carvings and their formal simplicity and coherence Brancusi, Golden Bird, 1919

Moore, Reclining Figure, 1935 -36 • Henry Moore- simplicity of form continued • Also influenced by prehistoric- Monoliths • Classical motif that has been eroded

ABSTRACTION Picasso, Les Demoiselles D’Avignon, 1907 “I paint forms as I think them, not as I see them” • The process of analyzing and simplifying observed reality • First “rediscovered” by Cezanne • Picasso- staggering contributions to the history of art and the development of abstraction • Traditional artist in that he made careful studies of his work • Quest for innovation, insistence on challenging established views, constant experimentation • Found inspiration from African sculpture (due to widened colonialism) • Fractured shapes, jagged planes, illegible space-tension between 2 d and 3 d • Inconsistency of treatment of the women

Cubism • a radical turning point in the history of art • Dismissal of pictorial illusionism • Cezanne’s idea of the cylinder, sphere, and cone • New logic of design • Painting moved far beyond the depiction of reality- mirrored society’s fears of the uncertainty of a non-Newtonian world • Received its name after Matisse described a work by Braque as having been painted in “little cubes”

Analytical Cubism • Little contrast in color • Complex and systematic design • Faceted shapes, translucent divisions of space • Differing views of the same subject in the same work • Invented by Picasso and George Braque- at the same time, but not really in collaboration • Retains some sort of depth Picasso, Portrait of Vollard, 1910

Synthetic Cubism Braque, Gillet, 1914 New Space Concept- first since Masaccio • Invented by Braque and Picasso • Puts forms back together after breaking them apart • “Collage Cubism” after the French word for “paste -ups” • Foreign materials are pasted onto the designmakes the collage look like a real surface • Scraps are changed and painted on, giving them a double meaning • Both represent and present (be themselves) • Picture plane is in front of the surface

• Started to add color to Cubsim in the 1920 s • Renaissance perspective gone wrong • Jumble of flat shapes turn into a slight image • Dog beats to a rhythm Picasso, Three Musicians, 1921

• Cubism in sculpture • Fragmented, dissolved form • Split into many planes • Parallels with Braque and Picasso Lipchitz, Bather, 1917

Leger, The City, 1919 • Movement of Purism invented by architect Le Corbusier, the architect • Opposed Synthetic Cubism because it was out of touch with the machine age • Thought that design should come from the clean functional lines of machines • Ferdinand Leger- clean lines mixed with Cubist sensibility • Very precise and very large!! (7’X 9’)

Boccioni, Dynamism of a Cyclist, 1913 • FUTURISM • Cubism was adapted to stand for the dynamism of modern life- always moving and changing • Futurists rejected the past and exalted the beauty of the machine • Showed motion in a static image • 2 oth century energy • Many of the artists of the movement were killed in WWI- by the machines that they loved

DADA • Started as a reaction to the horrors of WWI and Nihilism • Began independently in Zurich and NY • French for “hobbyhorse” • Believed that reason and logic had been responsible for war • Only hope was anarchy, irrationality, and intuition • Pessimism and disgust of the artists helped them reject tradition • Arp pioneered the use of chance in artwork- releassed him from the role of artist • For Dadaists, the idea of chance comes from the unconsciousnessinfluenced by Freud Jean Arp, Collage Arranged According to the Laws of Chance, 1916 -17

• Duchamp was the central figure in NY Dada scene • Exhibited his first “readymade” sculptures- mass produced common products “selected” by the artist • Free from the opinions of the population- neither good or bad taste • Forces viewers to see the “artness” of objects Duchamp, Fountain, 1913

Surrealism • most Dada artists joined the Surrealist movement as well • Included many similar ideas -used Dada techniques to “release the unconscious” • Exploration of ways to express in art the world of dreams and the unconscious • Inspired by Freud and Jung- interested in the nature of dreams • In dreams, people moved beyond the constraints of society • To bring inner and outer reality together • Two forms of Surrealism; • Biomorphic (interested in life forms)- Miro • Naturalistic (recognizable scenes of nightmare or dream images)-Magritte, Dali

• Precursor to Surrealism • Disquieting sense of forboding and creepiness • As if another world exists beneath the one that is visible- influenced by Nietzsche who said “foreboding tha underneath this reality in which we live and have our being, another altogether different reality lies concealed” De Chirico, Melancholy and Mystery of a Street, 1914

• Interested in Collage and “decalcomania”- transferring oil paint from another surface • Used rubbings called “Frottage”joined fragmented images from newspapers and magazines to create a disjointed image Max Ernst, La Toilette de la Mariee, 1940

Salvidore Dali, Illuminated Pleasures, 1929 • The celebrity of the group • Dreamlike, disquieting combination of images- sexual in nature, convincingly real

• Joan Miro- organic forms that expand contract visually • Used automatism- planned accidents • Element of hallucination • Began paintings as collages so that he could move elements around at will • Combination of unconscious and conscious image-making Miro, Le Petit Rose, 1933

Klee, Golden Fish, 1922 • Used fantasy images to represent the non-visible world • Thought that humanity’s deeper nature could be found in primitive shapes and symbols • Studied nature and science, especially the processes of growth and change

Oppenheim, Luncheon in Fur, 1936 • Humor and eroticism of Surrealism translated into sculpture • Magical transformation of forms and textures to show the absurdness of everyday objects