Enlightenment and Romanticism
Realism and Impressionism
Post Impressionism and Fauvism
Cubism and Abstraction
Misc
100
What was one role of this painting by Vigée le Brun:
a. convey a story from antiquity
b. a depiction of reality
c. propaganda
c. propaganda
100
How does impressionism differ from realism?
a. Impressionism shows and artist's emotional "impression" as opposed to reality.
b. Unlike realists, impressionist artists are revolutionary in their technique, not their politics.
c. Impressionist colors are not realistic.
b. Unlike realists, impressionist artists are revolutionary in their technique, not their politics.
Impressionists paint realistic momentary effects of light and atmosphere, interested in the instant/moment.
Less solid, dematerialized.
100
How do the paintings in Cézanne's Still Life With Plaster Cupid challenge representation?
a. they make us reflect on the distinction between illusion (art) and reality
b. the realistic perspective gives them a tangible sense of three-dimensionality
c. they allude to Cézanne's position as a famous artist
a. they make us reflect on the distinction between illusion (art) and reality
We have seen other depictions of art within paintings, they are almost always self-referential, commenting on the act of making art itself.
100
What innovation can we see in this 1912 work by Picasso:
a. the start of analytic cubism
b. the first work of pure abstraction
c. incorporation of pasted papers
c. incorporation of pasted papers (collage)
100
Identify this work:
Piet Mondrian, Still Life with Gingerpot II, 1911-12
200
How do we know this painting is neoclassical?
a. its bold, realistic colors and use of chiaroscuro
b. the display of emotional drama
c. its legible narrative with references to antiquity
c. its legible narrative with references to antiquity
200
Why is it important to the artist that this work be interpreted as a history painting?
Artist: Gustave Courbet
Verbal frame: The Painting of Human Figures, The History of a Burial at Ornans: A History Painting, 1849-50
-intentionally ordinary and dull, a "burial of romanticism"
-truthful, not illusion, draws attention to painting
*We look through academic paintings, at realist paintings
200
Which of the following did Seurat not want to keep from Cubism:
a. modern subject matter
b. preoccupation with the fleeting moment
c. generous use of color
b. preoccupation with the fleeting moment
Seurat's canvasses were highly planned and took years to execute (not leisurely!)
200
What does "Avignon" signify in the title "Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon"?
Avignon is a location in Spain associated with prostitution, suggesting we are looking at a brothel.
The gaze is confrontational and the viewer feels as if they are entering the scene.
200
How does technical art history contribute to contemporary readings of Van Gogh's Sunflowers?
Conservators have analyzed the pigments using X-ray absorption spectroscopy and cross-section microscopy to determine that colors have faded, and why.
300
Define the sublime:
a. something that overwhelms the mind
b. demonstrated power of reason
c. uplifting romance
a. something that overwhelms the mind
300
Where do we see emotion vs reason in this painting:
Emotion in the mother.
Reason in science, in Dr. Gross (emphasized with light).
He is the "hero" saving the patient, also relates to the artist as "hero of modern life" (scalpel/brush).
Pay attention to the hands!
300
Why do we use the term Primitivism in association with the work of Paul Gauguin?
a. Gauguin looked to African masks for their conceptual depictions of form.
b. Gauguin was a self-taught artist who deliberately worked outside of the Academy.
c. Gauguin associated the "primitive" with the pure and visually appropriated non-European subject matter.
c. Gauguin associated the "primitive" with the pure and visually appropriated non-European subject matter.
He looks especially to Tahiti (leaves his family to live there, marries three adolescent Tahitians...)
300
Which artist is responsible for the term "Quetschtechnik"? (and what does it mean?)
Kandinsky, squished brush hairs to create painterly effect.
300
What is the difference between laid and wove paper?
Laid paper is made with a metal grid that is marked into the paper and visible in the final product (horizontal laid lines and vertical chain lines). Wove paper was introduced in Europe in the 18th century and displays a flat, even surface.
400
What is the message Goya is trying to convey in Third of May 1808, 1815?
Anti-war
No winners in war
The martyr is dying in vain
Rigid machine of soldiers vs emotion of people
400
What do we mean by the "Haussmannization" of Paris?
Haussmann essentially rebuilt Paris from 1853-70. His work changed the look of the city dramatically and was met with opposition.
The impressionists built upon this new modern subject matter and new city, creating a new style to represent modernity.
Monet's Boulevard des Capucines depicts these new buildings:
400
How is this painting addressing us:
The break in hands is the entry point for the viewer, our implied participation.
Paintings are autonomous, unchanging, sealed off, but the viewer is implicated in some way.
Recall that this scene comes from The Joy of Life.
Think too about the role of color here (compared to the more "realistic" Dance (I)).
400
What is the role of the letters within this work:
Stenciled letters (almost machine-like)
Could signify posters or printed matter hung in the space.They also draw our attention to the flatness of the painting, and the act of reading a fractured phrase mirrors the act of "reading" the Cubist painting.
400
"A noble simplicity and quiet grandeur" is a quote by:
a. Turner in response to the sublime
b. Winckelmann in discussions of Neoclassical
b. Vauxcelles in critique of the Fauves
b. Winckelmann in discussions of Neoclassical
Johann Winckelmann, writes what is considered the first book on art history.
Reacting against baroque.Influence on Angelica Kauffmann
500
What is the narrative of the two sides of Thomas Cole's The Oxbow, 1836
Left is wild, untouched, wilderness in flux
Right shows the influence of people, bucolic, storm as passed, American land has been changed
Remember where the artist places himself - looking to the right but sitting on the left.
500
How does Mary Cassatt's The Boating Party move beyond impressionism?
a. the influence of the pictorial conventions of Japonism moves beyond depictions of reality
b. the artist is less interested in immediacy and deliberately constructs a composition of flat, vivid colors and shapes
c. the idealized woman conveys a moral narrative, not an impression of daily life
b. the artist is less interested in immediacy and deliberately constructs a composition of flat, vivid colors and shapes
Cassatt is influenced by Japonism, but more for its decorative and compositional style, not necessarily because it moves away from reality (Impressionists also made paintings in this style)
The painting can be read as a metaphor for family, with the mother depicted as a sort of Madonna. But while she is raised on a pedestal, she still appears passive.
500
Where do we get the term Fauvism?
Fauve = "wild beast"
Critic Louis Vauxcelles, in 1905, used the term in a deragotory way to describe the lack of technique that he saw in these paintings, as if painted by animals.
Fauvism is characterized by vibrant, acidic colors and fierce brushwork that do not describe and do not correspond to a system.
As opposed to photography and realism, Fauves wanted to react against anything resembling a snapshot from life, instead creating an expressive, emotional, and gestural response.
500
What is this a picture of?
Malevich, Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying, 1915
Not an airplane, but the sensation of mechanical flight using thirteen rectangles in black, yellow, red, and blue placed in dynamic relationships on a white ground.
500
Identify the movement:
Synthetic Cubism
(Juan Gris, Bottle of Rum and Newspaper, 1913-14)