How does this object and its claim to

How does this object and its claim to be art challenge or violate our ideas of what art is? What ARE the “rules” of art?

Modernism: The Beginnings

Raphael, School of Athens, fresco from the Stanza della Segnatura, 1510 -11 The picture as a “window to another world”

Modernity and Modernism • Modern Art time period is from around 18501960, movements from Realism to Abstract Expressionism • Markers of modernity: capitalism, industrial progress, democracy, technology, standard of living, urban culture, secularism, optimism, search for universals • Changes in the art market: major exhibitions (Academic Salon) and a huge market for prints, larger volume of anonymous purchases from the bourgeoisie (similar to Dutch Republic in the 17 th century)

The Academy: Two typical academic paintings by William Bouguereau, Nymphs and Satyr 1873, The Birth of Venus, 1879

Avant-Garde • French military term meaning “advance guard” sometimes you will see “vanguard” which means the same thing • First used in 1825 in the artistic sense by Olinde Rodrigues • Not a style of art but an orientation towards innovation • Young, middle-class, urban, with art training but chafing against the restrictions of academic art • Realism is first avant-garde movement Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907 (Cubism)

Louis Daguerre, Boulevard du Temple, 1838

Edouard Manet, Dejeuner sur l’Herbe, (Luncheon on the Grass) 1863

Renaissance versus modern subject matter Honore Daumier, The Third Class Carriage, 1862 -64

Claude Monet, Impressionism -Focus on the eye and perceptions, not interpretations -Interest in light and color, momentary atmospheric conditions -Quick, unfinished look -Image becomes abstract up close -No narrative or traditional subject matter -Modern life, ordinary life, nature, and the bourgeoisie are common subjects

Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893 Expressionism and Symbolism Artist explores interior, subjective world Emotions trump objective reality in representations of colors, brushstrokes, etc.

Henri Matisse, Le Bonheur de Vivre (the Joy of Life), 1905 -6 “Before a picture is a war horse, a female nude or some anecdote it is essentially a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order. (Maurice Denis, Art et Critique 1890)”

Wassily Kandinsky, Sketch I for Composition VII, 1913 Non-objective painting (AKA abstract or non-representational)—color and shape conveys all of the content: no subject matter