Background 2/20/2018 12:03:00 AM

Modern art characteristics

o Must do more than reproduce what artists sees
o End of renaissance

Intro
o Jacques Louis David- flattens space and cuts off picture plane in “Death of
Marat” and “Oath of the Horatii”
o Goya/JMW Turner- Hazy ambiguous space
o Courbet- working class, Realism: real style and people
o Monet- no perspective
o Eugene Delacroix
o J.A.D. Ingres
o Jean Francois Millet
o Old subject of art changes- use everyday people

Avant Garde
o Theodore Gericault
o Courbet

Impressionism
o Eye is a camera
o Capture light
o Dappled light- interacts with people
o Optical mixture- the more the eye works the more the viewer gets out of
the painting

Photography
o Daguerreotype- silver coated copper plate- early photographs-
fashionable o get photo portrait with calling cards
Gaspard Felix Tournachon (Nadar)
o Wild West
o Photographed famous people
o Used flash powder- workman
o Arial views of Paris- influences impressionists- their first exhibition was in
Nadar’s apartment
New technology and photography influenced the development of art away
from realism and towards greater abstraction.
Post Impressionism 2/20/2018 12:03:00 AM

George Seurat
o 1859-1891
o Art and social change
o Attended Ecole des Beaux Art- worked with pupils of Ingres
o 1880- joined military; read about color theory
o Studied Delacroix’s use of color
o Doesn’t like haze of impressionists
o Scientific/methodic
o Interested in precise contours of models
o Bathers
 Interest in ordinary people
 Impressionist palette
 Updated old age themes (bathers) and used regular people
 Likes lightening of works and sunlight but dislikes impressionist
haziness- STRUCTURED
o Terms Associated with Seurat
 Pointillism/ Divisionism/ Chromo-luminarism- small dots of color that
eyes mix together
 Neo-impressionism- art movement of Seurat
 Optical Mixture- mixing color by juxtaposing pigments
o Simple figures like Piero Della Francesca
o Bathers
 Shows industrial Paris
 Socialist- labor reform
o Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte
 Middle class
 Stiff figures
 Peaceful figures like Pierre Puvis de Chavannes
o Studied Michael Eugene Chevreul- French chemist who worked with fabric
dye and developed the color wheel
o Color, composition, and mind convey feelings
o Can Can and Eiffel Tower
 Upwards motion
 Meant to alter state of mind
o Worked with Paul Signac (another Pointillist); both promoted socialism
o Sideshow
  Work is representational, bordering on abstract
o Summary:
 Scientific and carefully thought out application
 Simple figures
 Impressionist palette
 Socialist- show middle class in works

Paul Cezanne
o 1839- 1906
o Not interested in politics (unlike Seurat)
o Early work- Pastorale
 Troubled images of father
 Dark
 Nude women
o Began to lighten up palette in House of the Hanged
o Wants solid contours and forms
o Mt. St. Victoire Series
 Flattens out work
 Tree follows contour of mountain
 Wash/ impasto
 Composition colors- blue and orange (complementary)
 No haze/ perspective/ space
o Bay from L’estaque
 Not a window but a flat space
 Water is flat
 Representational- not realistic
 Slightly abstract
 Wants it to look like paint- photography can show exact
representation
o Gardanne and Bibemus Quarry
 Vertical landscapes
 Influenced Picasso
o Still Life with a Basket of Apples
 Not 3 dimensional
 Incorrect shadows
 Flat fabric
  Basket not in perspective
o Boy with Red Vest
 Everything is treated as an object
o Great Bathers
 Flat
 Becoming more abstract
 More interested in the paint itself
o Gradually becomes more abstract
o Wanted to bring order in impressionist paintings
o Summary:
 Flat painting
 Complementary colors
 Precise contours and forms
 Everything is an object

Paul Gauguin
o “I shut my eyes in order to see”
o Vision after the Sermon…
 Flat
 Inspired by:
 Ancient art forms such as stained glass
 Japanese prints- interesting point of view, flat, strong
diagonals
 Imagined
 Cloisonné- gold with powered glass- Gauguin’s work called
“cloisonism”
 Strong borders
o Yellow Christ
 Anecdote for ills of civilization
 Painting like children was their goal
 Hallucination
 Strong outlines
o Ceramics
 Hand built- more expressive
 Incan mugs
o Woodcarvings
  Roughly carved- spirit
 Paints what’s around him
o Spirit of the Dead Watching
 Flatness
 Emphasis on tropical print
 Areas of bright color- leave cut
 Color and line has power by itself
o Are You Jealous?
 Two women create form
 Everything else is flattened
 Intense feeling
o House of Joy
 Carved in wooden door frames
 Painted
o “Where do we come from?...
 Large scale
 Allegorical theme
 Ages of man
 Done after attempted suicide
 Some parts defined, some not
o Self Portraits
 Flat, contemplating sin (abstract)
o Summary:
 Inspired by Japanese prints
 Cloisonism- strong borders with color
 Visions- emotions

Vincent Van Gogh

o Dutch- born in Holland
o Family of art dealers
o Wanted to be a preacher- moved to Belgium
o Potato Eaters
 Dutch painting techniques- indoor light
 Wanted it hung on yellow wall- very aware of color
o Bridge at Asineres
 Learns of pointillism
  Lightens palette
o Inspired by Japanese prints
 Flattening
 Bold brushstrokes
o Moves to Arles to escape Paris
o Suffering from illness- probably schizophrenia
o Gauguin moves in with him briefly
o Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear
 Expressionism- more than pointillism
 Exited brushstrokes
 Japanese print in background
o Night Café
 Interior light
 No perspective
 Flat
 Strong outline
 Wanted to paint what was really there (opposite of Gauguin)
o Starry Night
 Feels like stars are moving and churning
 Frantic/ spontaneous brush strokes
 Forms effect viewer
o Crows Over Wheat Fields
 “To think, not to dream, is out duty”
 Last painting before he dies
o Gauguin wants to leave a legacy, whereas Van Gogh paints for his own
well being
o Summary:
 Impasto- expressionistic
 Japanese Prints
 Paint what’s really there

James Ensor
o The Entry of Christ Into Brussels
 People with “masks”- no morality
 No one would notice Christ’s entry in modern times
o Skeleton??
  Shows veritas- reminder of death
o Self Portrait with Masks
 Everyone is behind a “mask”
 Franz Halls
o Summary:
 “masks”

Edvard Munch
o Art school in Orso, Norway
o Went to Paris in 1889
o Worked in Germany from 1893-1896
o The Scream
 Representational but abstract
 Looks to Van Gogh- colors and forms evoke mood
 Continuous brushstrokes- rough
 Bridge- Japanese print
 Shows reverberation of Earth
 Synaesthesia- multiple senses
 Symbolism- colors and lines are symbolic
o Self- Portrait in Hell
 Expressionistic
o The Kiss
 Femme fatale
 Woodcut
 Sexual, yet dark
o Madonna
 Blood red halo
 Sperm around border
 Man is small compared to women
o The Dance of Life
 Cycle of life
 Youth in white
 Women in red
 Elderly women in black
 Brushstrokes convey frenzy
o Summary:
  Rough continuous brushstrokes
 Colors evoke mood

Symbolists
o Search for more spiritually powerful art
o Against realism
o Intuition, instinct, mystery, and myth
o Non-western and folk inspiration
o Wanted to alter peoples state of mind
British Pre-Raphaelites
o Response to industrialism
o Wanted to be like Pre- Renaissance artists
o Strong women
o Shown in Worlds Fair
o Femme Fatale
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
o Voluptuous models- Persephone
Edward Burne-Jones 

French Symbolism
o Odilon Redon
 Inspired by Van Gogh
 Odd themes
 “Head of Orpheus…”- strong women, strange subject matter
 “Cyclops”- sensual
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes 
Gustave Moreau
o Apparition
Fin de Siècle 2/20/2018 12:03:00 AM

o end of the 19th century/ decadence

Nabis
o “The prophets”
o followers of post-impressionists ( Gaugin)
o French
Edouard Vuillard 
Pierre Bonnard

o Four Panels for a Screen

 Undulating lines show Japanese influence
o Color Lithographs
 Stone with colored crayon
 Can make great shapes and colors
Paul Serusier
o Follower of Gaugin
o Talisman
 Almost totally abstract
 Non-objective

Painters
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
o Physically deformed- short with clubbed foot
o Doesn’t travel
o At the Moulin Rouge
 Flat, diagonal lines (Japanese influence)
 Mirror reflects room
 Caricatures
 Light- gas light; effects the look of people
o Jane Avril
 Sexual undertones
o Summary:
 Sexual
 Japanese influence
 Caricature faces
Suzanne Valadon
o first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts
Art Nouveau 2/20/2018 12:03:00 AM

Painters
o “Style moderne”
o Jugendstil- “youth style”- Germany
o Succession style- Vienna
o Symbolism in decorative arts and new technologies
o Undulating lines
James Abbot McNeill Whistler
o Peacock Room
 Japanese print
 Gold, dark green/blue
 Peacocks
 Portrait mimics geisha
Gustave Klimt
o Vienna succession group
 Founded 1897
 No undulating line but interest in surface decoration
 Vienna is hometown of Sigmund Freud
o Expressionistic Symbolism
 Color, line, and shape are important on their own, apart from
subject
 Color, line, and shape affect emotion without subject or story
o Jugendstijl
o The Kiss
 Simple contours- phallic
 Patterns- woman (circles), man (squares)
 Femme fatale
 Flat
o Tree of Life
 Wall mosaic
 Reoccurring themes
 Relates to ages of man
o Summary:
 Surface decoration
 Color, line, shape, and form effect emotions on their own

Illustration and Design

Aubrey Beardsley
o Illustrator of Oscar Wilde’s “Salome”
 Medusa-like
 Peacocks
 Powerful women- femme fatale
o India ink drawing on paper; later reproduced in block print
Henry van de Velde
o 1863-1957
o Belgium
o Wrote symbolist theory- environment should effect mood of everyday life
o Move towards abstract form is symbolic
o Followed Gauguin’s ideas of symbolism an decorative arts
o Designed Avant Garde dresses- no corset was risqué
Emile Galle
o Hand
 Hand of Venus being born- glass
o Butterfly bed
 Butterfly= orgasm
Rene Lalique
o Jewelry
o Stick glasses
Architecture 2/20/2018 12:03:00 AM

France
Charles Garnier
o Ecole des beaux arts- “Arts Academy” designed with Renaissance and
Baroque
o Paris opera building
 Grand but nothing new
Gustave Eiffel
o Eiffel Tower
 1889
 Iron
 Worlds fair
Hector Guimard
o Metro Entrance
 Darkness, night, underworld
 Insect/reptilian creatures
 Iron- like growing trees
 Lights like cat eyes

United States
o Chicago School
 Center for steel industry
H. H. Richardson
o Romanesque Revival**
o Marshall Field Warehouse
 No steel- bearing wall construction (masonry walls)
 Romanesque style used to open up wall space and increase interior
space
Louis Sullivan
o Wainwright Building
 Steel frame skyscraper
 Base, shaft, cap (cornice)
 Structural steel; noticeable uprights
 Functional ornament
 Function follows form**
o Carson Pirie Scott and CO. department store
 Frame up, “hang walls” (Curtain), more windows**
  Ornament expresses building

Frank Lloyd Wright

o 1869-1959
o Early Oak Period- homes; couldn’t afford anything else
o Worked with Sullivan
o Study family and design house around them
o Ward Willet’s house
 Inspired by Japanese prints
o Robie House
 Prairie style
 Local materials
 Mow profile- mimics road and side walk lines
 Hearth is center
 Designed everything inside house as well

Other
Josef Hoffman
o Civic planner, designed city plans for Paris in 1850’s
Victor Horta
o Tassel House
 Curving lines
 Organic
 Architecture changes mood
Antoni Gaudi
o Spain and Barcelona
o La Sagrada Familia
 Gothic revival
o Casa Mila
 Completely undulating
 Steel frame
 Organic- rock cliff
 Cell (bio) structure
Early Modern Sculpture 2/20/2018 12:03:00 AM

Auguste Rodin
o 1840-1917
o Didn’t have enough money for school- learned decorative arts (less
expensive)
o Man with a Broken Nose
 Beggar, battered, tattered
 Work rejected by the salon
 Expert modeling skills
o Age of Bronze
 Most conservative art
 Accused of casting from life
 Allegorical- bronze age and man
o Walking Man
 Unfinished surface
 No arms and legs like antiques
 Inflict emotion based on statue alone
o Experimented with arms and legs
o Thought ugliness was powerful
o Gates of Hell
 Made for Decorative Arts Museum
 Full size sculpture- experimented
 Dante’s inferno
o The Three Shades
 Form gates of hell
 Slouched head is characteristic of Rodin
o The Thinker
 Placed in front of Pantheon
 Working class man is THINKING
o The Kiss
 Relationship between man and woman
o The Burghers of Callais
 Government leaders offer themselves up in order to save town
 Shows emotions of individual people
 Rejected because figures were not heroic
 Stretched neck
o Monument to Balzac
Ambiguous and powerful figure
o Summary:
 Characteristic slouched neck
 Thought ugly was powerful
 Unfinished surface
Camille Claudel
o Worked for Rodin 1884-1892
o Could cut stone very well
o Model- figure on Rodin’s Gates of Hell
o Rodin made portrait of her called Thinker
o Caccuntala
o Gossipers
 Small work
 Paranoid over her delusions of Rodin
Constantin Brancusi
o Learned how to make decorative Romanian furniture
o Boy
 Uses bent neck of Rodin
 Loves faces of children
 No theme, little identity
 Repose, peace (unlike Rodin)
o Sleeping Muse
 Egg
 Representational but not realistic
 Simplistic
o Newborn
 Shows sound
 Simple form
 Liked to rid face
o The Kiss
 Kiss is mutual (unlike femme fatales)
 Abstract yet representational
o Bird in Space
 Reflected in bronze
 Friends with Duchamp
 Uses base
  Malastra- mythical Romanian bird
 Quiet peacefulness
o Adam and Eve
 Tribal art- ringed neck, jagged lines
 Figures used as base for the other
o Endless Column
 Completely abstract
o Kiss Gate
 Symbolic element
o Summary:
 Normally peaceful works
 Breaks down figure into simplest form
Jacob Epstein
o 1880-1959
o The Rock Drill
 Bent neck like Rodin
 Arm- gun
 Head- helmet
 Futuristic, menacing
 Drill is machine gun-like
 Response to cubism
Expressionism- Fauves 2/20/2018 12:03:00 AM

o French for “wild beats”

Henri Matisse
o 1869-1954
o Studied and began practicing law
o Began painting while sick
o Formalist- interested in color, design, pattern, and composition
o Influenced by Moreau and Cezanne
o Friends with Paul Signac (Seurat)- learned pointillism
o Time in Southern France brightened his palette
o Salon d’Automne- Matisse and friends (1905)
o Woman with a Hat
 Representational
 Bright colors
 Purchased by Leo Stein (Gertrude Stein’s brother)
o Woman with a Green Stripe
 Not interested in background/ color
 Shapes and colors
o Joie de Vivre
 Figures outlines
 Conventional subject matter
 Very abstract- never non objective
o Music and Dance
 Purchased by Russian collector Sergi Shchukin and brought to
Moscow
 For Matisse, expressionism is decoration etc…?
 Inspired by Islamic decoration- also reflected French imperialism
o Red Studio
 Decorative
 Monochromatic- want to get rid of original space
 Flattened space like Persian miniatures
o Summary:
 Began with law
 Moreau and Cezanne
 Bright colors
 Formalist- interested in color, design, pattern, and composition
 Islamic decoration, Persian miniatures (flattened space)
Andre Derain
o Westminister Bridge
German Expressionism 2/20/2018 12:03:00 AM

Die Brucke
o “The Bridge”
o influenced by Nietzsche
o looked back at Romanticized German medieval past
o liked tribal art (African)
o reacted to impoverished and strife-ridden nation (unified by Bismarck and
in Franco-Prussian War)
o the bridge- desire for unity
o lived and worked together in coffee shop
o younger than fauves
o founded in 1904, first exhibit it 1906
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
 Sculpture
 woodcuts
 Ethnography
 “primitive art”
 Female nude
 Part of bohemian lifestyle
 Japanese influences
 Large brushstrokes- bright color
o Street Scene
 Interested in ambiguity of the street
 Prostitutes
 African mask
o Self Portrait with Model”
 Sexual tension
 Bohemian life
o Street Scene, Berlin
 Hatching (shading for woodblock)
 Street walker
 Dark- sharp lines and shapes
o Nudes in the Forest
Forest- dark forces
o Summary:
 “primitive art”- African
 ambiguous streets, prostitutes
  bohemian lifestyle- sexual tensions
 large brushstrokes, bright colors, sharp/jagged
Otto Muller
o Forest landscape
 Lithograph
 Symbolic
 Sometimes no figures
Emil Nolde
o Older member- only stayed for a year
o The Last Supper
 Religious
 Likes Ensor- faces like masks
 Impasto
o The Prophet
 harshly/ violently cut- cracks wood
o Wildly Dancing Children
 Impasto
 Out of control feeling
Summary:
 High emotion
 Impasto
 Sometimes religious

Der Blaue Reiter

o The Blue Rider
o Founded in Munich, 1911
Vasily Kandinsky
o Professor of economics in Russia at age 30
o Went to Munich in 1896
o Traveled
o 19th century Russian embroidery, crafts
o Phalanx Group- Interested in middle ages
o Theosophy
 Madam Blavatsky
 “Plane of perfect reality”
o Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911)
  Writes first theoretical treatise on art (modern art’s first art theory
 Complete theory of nonobjective painting based upon analogy with
music
o “Landscape with Tower”
 Expressionistic
o Cover of the Blue Rider Almanac
 Medieval night
 Wasn’t concerned with coloring in lines- color is harmonic vibrations to
soul
 Abstraction
 Compare with invitation to First Bridge Exhibition
 Not as sharp
o Composition IV
 Possible figures but hard to tell
 First true nonobjective paintings
 Expressionistic, non representational, Synaesthesia
 Music- rhythms, notes
o Black Lines
 Totally non objective
 Relate to color, not subject
 Must understand his theory to understand painting- how colors make
you feel
o Sketch I for Composition VII
 More hectic- beginning of war

Franz Marc
o Blue Horses
 Loved to paint horses
 Shows influence of Kandinsky
o Fate of the Animals
 Stylized animas
 Incorporates cubism in his expressionism
 Wrote “And all being is flaming suffering” on back- analogy for state of
Europe and powerless people
 Vagner- world is being destroyed
o Killed in war
Independent
Kathe Kollwitz
o 1867-1943
o Known well by Chinese artists- became famous without trying
o Lived in Berlin 1891-1941
o Married doctor who catered to poor
o “Outbreak,” Peasant’s War Series
 1903, etching with pen and ink
 Series is about the poor revolting
 Black Anna- women who became leader in peasants war; strong
woman, not femme fatale
o Few self portraits
o Not a painter- prints didn’t want her work to be hung in wealthy patrons
home. Lowered prices.
o “The Widow I” War Cycle Series
 Rough woodcut
 Pregnant- husband killed in war
o “The Parents” War cycle series
 Parents who have lost child in war
o Last Resort
 Grim subjects
 Nothing to live for- hangs himself

Austrian Expressionism
Oskar Kokoschka
o 1886-?
o Self-Portrait
 Nervous, curvy brushstrokes
 Eyes staring
o The Bride of the Wind
 Self portrait with woman Anna Mahler (great beauty, always
attracting men) leaves him
 Staring out into space- destroyed by affair
 Shows what makes people go mad
 Symbolism- blue, swirling lines
www.alma-mahler
Analyitical Cubism 2/20/2018 12:03:00 AM

Analytical Cubism
o Drained paintings of color (to oppose the Fauves and to concentrate on
form)
o Broke down 3-D reality and reassembled it on a 2-d plane (on a shallow,
narrow space)
o Fragmented and faceted form and space
o Glance around the object (time/space)- “multiple points of view”
o Not just a “style” a method, and a “revolution” in art
o Reflected early 20th century fascination with time
o HG Wells the Time Machine
o Albert Einstein’s theory of Relativity- 1905
o Learned through Maurice Princet who was fascinated with the 4th
dimension
o Abstract, but not TOTALLY abstract
Pablo Picasso
o 1881Born October 25 1881-1973
o Father was painter teacher and curator- Picasso had access to studying
art at a young age
o Took name from mother’s side
o Parents taught at Prudential Fine Arts school- Picasso attended at 11
o Passed Barcelona test at 13- 1895
o First Communion (1895-96)
 Painted at 14
 Child protégée
Blue Period (symbolist period) 1901-1905
o Self Portrait
 Makes himself look as old as possible
 All black decadence attire
 Blue background
 Flat, moodiness
 Spent time in Madrid and studies Spanish artists
o Burial of Casagemas
 Emulating el Greco (Burial of Count Orgaz)
 Response to suicide of his friend
o Two Women in A Bar
 Painted people on the outskirts of society
  Absinthe drinkers
o Family of Saltimbanques
 Gypsies- outcasts
 Symbolic
 Tall man is possibly self portrait
o La Vie
 Stages of Life
 Mother/ daughter theme- his favorite sister died
 Compare to Gauguin’s allegory of life
 Tall man is Carlos Casagemas, the one who committed suicide
Rose/ Pink Period
o Became interested in photography
o Lived with other artists in the “Laundry Boat”
o Became interested in civilizations that left prehistoric sculpture
o Two Nudes
 Reflects faces of Iberian sculpture
o Influences:
 Major Ingres exhibition in 1905- compressed space
 Autumn Salon with fauve premiere 1905- competitors

Saw Joie de Vivre (Matisse) at Salon des Independants- uplifting,
happy colors, updating old historical theme
 Meets Gertrude Stein- bought modern art and had open house every
Saturday with artists, dealers, poets and writers
o Gertrude Stein
 Warm
 Pink period
 Face is influenced by Iberian sculpture
 Dressed her in a large robe to give her more presence
o Les Demoiselles D’Avignon
 Confrontational- subject of their gaze
 Prostitutes in Paris
 Iberian faces
 African tribal masks from Ivory Coast
 Gets rid of all sense of space
 Started out as scene in brothel- took out men so there was no story
  Compressed space, fractured form, folded curtains, “pieces of broken
glass”
 His interpretation of femme fatal
 NOT CUBISM
 Abstraction is distortion of reality
o Postcards of a Paris Brothel
 Cards bought secretively with nude women
o Bread and Fruit Dish on Table
 Close study of Cezanne
 Simplifying the still life
 Flatten work
 Jagged fabric like Avignon
o Spent summer at Horta de Ebro
 Town on a hill with reservoir
 Reflections in water
 Hill and buildings on hill become one
o Seated Woman
 Real figure is broken down into planes that fill the space
o The Accordionist, 1911
 Form merges with space
 Head, accordionist, fingers, bits and pieces of bodies
 Shallow space, as if pressed between planes
 Fractured space/time allows for depiction of movement- like playing
music
 Multiple points of view
 About the real word
 Compare with composition IV- totally non objective; ideal world
o Woman’s Head (Fernande Oliver) 1909
 Experimented with cubist techniques in sculpture
 Aware of Rodin
 Breaking down face into facets
o Summary:
 Exposed to art at a young age- protégée
 Interested in Iberian sculpture
 Flat space
George Braque
o Fauve that was interested in Cezanne
o Friends with Picasso, developed ANAYLITICAL cubism as a collaboration
and mutual project
o View of L’Estaque
 Shows interest in Cezanne
o Houses of L’Estaque
 Houses seem to become shapes losing color
o Woman with a Mandolin
 Dappled brushstrokes
 Pushing representational to total abstraction- always some
recognizable elements
o Le Portuguese 1911
 2 Levels of reality- man= pictorial reality and letters= another level of
reality
 military, sailor
 repetition of lines strumming a musical instrument