19 th century:birth of the “isms” western civilization was an age of upheaval church lost its...
TRANSCRIPT
19th century:Birth of the “Isms”
Western civilization was an age of upheaval
Church lost its grip
Monarchies topple and new democracies suffered growing pains
Art world of the 1800's seethed with factions each overreacting to the other
What had been eras became “isms” each representing a trend in art
Three major styles competed with one another Neo Classicism, Romanticism and Realism
Toward end of the century a blur of schools, Impressionism, Post Impressionism, Art Nouveau and Smbolism came and went in quick succession
World History Art History 1803 Louisiana Purchase
1807 Fulton invents the steamboat
1823 Beethoven completes 9th Symphony
1837 Queen Victoria crowned
1848 Gold discovered in California
1860 Steel Developed
1861 US Civil War breaks out
1876 Custer defeated at Little Big Horn,
Bell patents the telephone
1879 Edison invents electric light
1885 First motorcar built
1889 Hitler born
1898 Curies discover radium
1860 Snapshot phtography developed
1863 Salon des Refuses launches modern art
1873 First color photos appear
1874 Impressionsits hold first group show
1880 Van Gogh begins painting career
1885 First Chicago skyscraper built
1889 Eiffel tower built
1890 Monet's first haystacks series
1891 Gauguin goes to tahiti
1893 Art Nouveau spreads
Post Impressionism 1880-1905
Post Impresionists triumped over academic art instead off the “brown gravy” paintings done in feebly lit studios
They wanted to show a more substantial style not dedicated wholly to capturing a passing moment
Seurat the dot painter
His method was called “pointilism”which consisted of small unmixed dots of color over the entire canvas
He theorized that complementary colors set side by side would mix in the viewer's eye
The whole fused together like a mosiac from a distance
A Sunday on the La Grande Jatte 1884
The method was labor intensive and he only finished 7 large paintings in his decade long career
Seurat kept the bright unmixed colors of the Impressionistsbut he based design on geometirc shapes
Le Cirque 1881
This painting conveys a mood of frenetic activity
It is a simplified poster-like style
Seurat died at the age of 31, three days after exhibiting this painting in an unfinished state
Toulouse-Lautrec At the Moulin Rouge 1892
Subjects were people in contempory life in parisan theaters, dance halls and circuses
He portrayed movement and private moments with photographic type cropping
Moulin Rouge
Most of his paintings are figures in interior night scenes lit by artificial light
Lautrec's most original contribution was in the realm of the graphic arts through posters
Lautrec went every night to the music hall to paint and included himself (the short bearded figure at the rear)
Cezanne 1839-1906
Cezanne was a loner and did not join any group
The public scorned his painting as coarse, degenerate, incompetent
In the face of pervasive mockery, he retreated into research of his work
What made Cezanne's art so radical in his day and appreciated today was his new take on surface appearance
Instead of imitating reality as it appeared to the eye, Cezanne penetrated the underlying geometry
Reproduced in terms of the cylinder, sphere and cone
This innovative technique was applied to portraits, landscapes and still life
Self portrait
Cezanne had a reputation as an unapproachable hermit almost an ogre
He placed cool colors like blue to create depth
Warm colors like red seem to advance
His landscapes do not vary with the time of the day or the season
Gauguin 1848-1903
Gauguin was a prosperous stock-broker and father of five in Paris
He took up Sunday painting and by 1883, ditched his family and well-being and left for Tahiti
Often without money for materials, he spread thin paint on coarse sacking
He transformed colors and distorted shapes to convey an emotional response to the scene
“Life is color”
Gauguin gave the impression that he sacrificed everything to art though half knowing he would never profit from it
Gauin devised a new method of painting based not on reality but his conception of it
He refused to reproduce surface appearances, instead transformed colors and distorted shapes
Gauguin freed artists from the restraints which the idea of copying nature had placed upon painters
Vincent Van Gogh 1853-90
Born in holland Van Gogh was obsessed with religion and social service
He was a misfit who at the age of 27was determined to fulfill his mission to humanity through art
After seeing an Impressionist show decided to switch from dark to bright colors and do outdoor light drenched scenes
He adopted broken brushstrokes and bright complementary colors. He did not like academic painting and used unorthodox colors to suggest emotion
“These canvases will tell you what I cannot say in words”
Van Gogh was subject to overwhelming spells of loneliness, paint and emotional collapse
He produced 800 paintings and drawings in 10 years
He painted all day without stopping to eat. He stuck candles in his hat brim at night
He sold one painting in his lifetime. Today his paintings sell for millions of dollars
Iris Painting
Inspired by nature, he painted cypresses, fruit trees, flowers,and wheatfields
Art was van Gogh's only refuge in his bitterly unhappy life
Starry Night
Van Gogh was a patient in an asylum and painted this painting in “dumb fury” staying up three nights in a row to paint
The picture conveys surging movement through curving brushwork and the stars and moon explode with energy
The dark cypresses offset the bright moon in the opposite corner for a balanced effect
The overall effect is expressive unity rather than chaos
“ Every time I look at his painting I find something new”
Van gogh was despondent at his lack of prospects and dependance on his brother for financial support
After receiving a letter from his brother complaining of financial worries, and fearful of being a burden, Van Gogh ended his life with a gunshot wound
“He is more than a great painter, he's a philosopher” -----Dr. Gachet
In 1990 van Gogh's portrait of Dr Gachet sold at auction for $82.5 million, a record price for a work of art
Van Gogh had said,“ I would rather die of passion than boredom”
Edvard Munch:The Mind cracking
Born in Norway in 1863-1944
Munch was an outsider, brooding and sad, who called his painting his children
His neuroses sprang from a traumatic childhood: his mother and sister died of consumption when he was young leaving him to be raised by a fanatically religious father
The Scream
Munch portrayed extreme emotions like jealousy , sexual desire and lonliness
He said he wanted to paint pictures that will make people take off their hats in awe, the way they do in church
The Scream represents the fear of losing one's mind
Every line heaves with agitationand turbulant rhythms with no relief for the eye
Today the painting is a cliché for high anxiety, but when it was painted, it caused and uproar and the exhibit was closed
Munch was known for his emotionally charged subjects
Munch was a forerunner of Expressionism a style that portrayed emotions through distorting form and color
After a bout of nonstop work, heavy drinking, and a disastrous love affair, Munch suffered a nervous breakdown
SymbolismIt was an artistic and literary movement of the last
decade of the 19th century
Rousseau was born in 1844-1910 in France
He was an untrained hobby painter
Rousseau believed his fantastic childlike landscapes were realistic painting in the academic style
The Sleeping Gypsy 1897
Rousseau studied plants and animals in the Paris zoo as inspiration for his paintings
His paintings were stylized and no brushstokes were visible
The figures were flat and had skewed proportion,scale and perspective
His stiff jungle scenes have an air of mystery to them
Rousseau sang to keep his spirits up
Odilon Redon 1840-1916
Born in France he later inspired the Surrealists
He used iridescent color to evoke a magical world
After drawing a subject accurately, he said,”I am driven as in torment. I have to create something imaginary”
Redon's Fantastical Flowers
He was influenced by the poetry of Poe and Baudelaire
Albert Pinkham Ryder 1847-1917
He painted pictures from his imagination and used simple forms and yellowish light to create haunting works
He lived in New York in squalor
He looked to nature for inspiration observing sky and sea
Ryder was indifferent to his art materials using ill prepared paint onto wet undercoating. As a result, 150 of his canvases are severely cracked
Art Nouveau 1890-1920
It is an ornamental style opposed to the sterility of the Industrial Age recognized by its sinuous lines and tentril like curves
The trademark water lily shapes exerted an influence on arts such as wrought-iron work, jewelry, glass and typography
Art Nouveau
Louis Comfort Tiffany 1848-1933
glass menagerie
Art nouveau style uses blossoms, lotus flower, and clusters of grapes as a theme
Son of the founder of New York's Tiffany Jewelers, Tiffany studied painting then designed stained-glass windows for churches
He replaced martyrs and saints with poppies and peacock and his work became immensely popular
In floral, landscaped windows celebrating nature's profusion, Tffany created some of the most innovative glass-work ever
Birth of Modern Architecture
Neoclassical tradition dominated public buildings like bank, libraries and city halls
New materials and new technology changed the profession of architecture
Suspension bridges, grain elevators, train sheds, factories, warehouses and high-rise office buildings had never existed before the 19 th century
The invention of the elevator perfected in the 1880s made soaring skyscrapers possible
Cheap steel allowed builders to rely on a strong inner cage for support instead of masonry walls and stone columns
Architects were forced to break free of ancient Greek and Roman prototypes because the function of modern buildings was different
Jewel Box Bank in Owatonna, Mn
Louis Sullivan: Midwestern Architect1856-1924
Sullivan's saying “form follows function' meant that architecture was designed for its commercial purpose
The first new school of architecture was born in Chicago
Chicago was a city without a past, a city of new immigrants
Louis Sullivan virtually invented the skyscraper and put Chicago on the cultural map. The tall vertical towers demanded a new aesthetic.
Chicago's Carson-Prairie-Scott department store was Sullivan's revolutionary metropolitan image
Sullivan rejected antique styles and wanted surface decoration to be fresh and inventive
Carson- Pirie- Scott Department Store 1899-1904
The top ten stories of the building are sleek with bare terra-cotta sheathing and the bottome two floors at eye elvel are richly decorated with coiling cast iron ribbons in an Art Nouveau pattern
Like most visionaries, sullivan was not appreciated as much in his day as in ours. His structures were considered inferior to structures like the Pris Opera house
Frank Lloyd Wright was a pupil of Sullivans and took his master's ideas to fruition