Abstraction
What was the name of one of the new spiritual movements artists were attracted to?
Theosophy or Anthroposophy
Communism, Anarchism, Socialism.
How did the Mexican Revolution inform Mexican Muralism?
Gave political weight to their art. New government, thanks to José Vasconcelos, commissioned murals to create a new public image/educational forum for spreading ideals of the new government and shaping the aims in line with the revolution.
What does the term utopia mean?
literally no place. But often implies an ideal society.
because it distorts and manipulates objects/space, but still references the visual world we know
What were some of the beliefs of the Dada artists in the wake of WWI?
•Embrace Absurdism and chance
Embraces a philosophical position that recognizes an inherent conflict between humankind’s constant need to search for meaning and purpose in life, and the lack of any such (knowable) meaning or purpose.
•Acceptance of the meaninglessness of life
•Seek no illusion to comfort people with a sense of purpose when there is none.
•Only gesture left is to tear down other people’s systems and illusions
•Embracing the notion that rationality, progress, and civilization are the poor defining features of society when it had led to the catastrophe of World War I. If civilized man was determined to exterminate his fellows, it was better to become uncultured, uncivilized, or ‘primitive’.
What are two reasons we see the rise of the Harlem Renaissance and the New Negro Movement in the 1920s?
1. Black Nationalist Philosophies and Politics
2. WWI
3. Great Migration
4. Racial Violence
What was the Harlem Renaissance?
A vibrant period of Black artistic creation in music, art, literature, etc., centered in Harlem. This cultural movemement celebrated Black history and challenged deep-rooted racism in the United States
What was the goal of Surrealism?
Using Freud’s theory of the subconscious to explore and circumvent social, sexual, psychological norms.
Bypass restrictions placed on one by society to create social change
Want you to think differently, imagine otherwise
be uncomfortable
Elevating one’s subconscious to a legitimate and profound way of knowing
What is one of the reasons Hilma af Klint has often been pushed out of the narrative of the emergence of Abstraction in modern art?
she claimed to have painted through the help of her spirit guides. Multiple creators. She didnt participate in networks of abstraction quite like other artists. ETC.
How did Constructivist artists like Popova and Stepanova try to circumvent capitalism in their textile works?
embrace the desire of capitalism but allow people to create themselves. Work with industry to create objects that they believed would help elevate a communist/socialist consciousness. Create the object as "collaborator" rather than fetish through working with industry to move beyond object of fetish.
Many artists of the early twentieth century believed artists, in particular, were special types of people who could create a new world. Name one of the people inspiring them in their thinking?
Nietzsche, Henri Bergson, Pytor Ouspensky, Rudolf Steinar
What does the term primitivism mean in modern art?
A stylistic influence of incorporating non-Western art into the Western development of abstraction. It went hand in hand with perceiving certain societies as outside of modernity, or in supposedly earlier stages of historical, psychological, or social development. These societies were both stigmatized for their “backwardness” while simultaneously revered for their ability to manifest a “simpler” way of life and to provide insight into a supposedly universal human nature not tainted by industrialization.
What are two reasons why Duchamp's The Fountain is often considered a pivotal artwork in twentieth century art?
Introduction of idea that artist gets to determine what is art, ending debate among artists on how to define art.
First readymade
First conceptual artwork
Why did artists in the Harlem Renaissance and Mexican Muralism push back against Abstraction?
They believed abstraction would not be as accessible to the viewer in broadcasting their political message.
What political ideology do scholars believe is represented in Matisse's Bonheur de Vivre (The Joy of Life)? Point out why - aka discuss what is represented in the artwork.
Anarchist paradise of Peter Kropotkin. People relaxing in a pastoral scene, perhaps representing Kropotkin's idea of the pastoral utopia of anarchism.
How did Surrealism differentiate itself from Dada?
they liked many of the ideas of Dada, but found it too not politically oriented. Oriented around the subconscious as a tool and strategy to achieve similar means as Dada- circumvent and disrupt
What is Dada pataphysics?
Why does Cubism have a limited color palette?
Impressionism already demonstrated the variability of objects in different light, Cubism builds on this and shows variability of objects in space
Searching for the most essential angles
Limited color palette allows one to focus on the form of the object. Search deeply into the object
What did Kandinsky believe abstraction could do that representational art could not?
lead the viewer to a spiritual mode of looking/existing.
What was the political message in Diego Rivera's Distribution of Arms or The Arsenal in the “Corrido of the Proletarian Revolution”?
Artists/artworks could be participants in the global communist revolution through both participating as fighters, but also creating art as a tool/weapon of the revolution.
What was the general position of Die Brücke artists on modern life? And how did they respond to the mood of modernity?
Generally found it displeasing feelings of isolation/lack of spiritual life/anxiety. Flight from modernity- looking to non-Western Art, Free Body Culture, Going "back to nature" to find something "authentic" and supposedly lost in modern industrialization to create a better future for Germany.
What is the difference between Synthetic and Analytic Cubism
Analytic Cubism seeks to express the total visual understanding of an object through simultaneaity and multiple perspectives. Synthetic Cubism seeks to do this as well, but with the added dimension of collage like elements to play with the tropes of naturalism in art history.
Why might we consider Tatlin's Tower (Monument to the Third International) an ironic monument to the Soviet Union and its governing body?
The monument symbolically claimed the aims of the new Soviet Union to be clear, transparent, and for the people. However, the USSR under Stalin tended to be more authoritarian and not meeting those loft goals. Also, it was an epic building that simply could not be built because of technological limitations and the USSR did not have the materials or $ to build it.