moma beginning

Cameras…born of the 1840’s

Deguerrotype “Camera”

Twenty years later, in the 1860’s…

Glass Plate Negatives

Tintypes

Ambrotypes

Carte de Visite (CDV)

Etc.Etc.Etc.

For centuries, artists tried to replicate reality…

Albrecht DürerSelf Portrait1500

Leonardo da VinciMona Lisa1503

Johannes VermeerThe Milkmaid1658

Some say photography “killed” the medium of painting,

though a different perspective would be that it freed

painting to become something entirely new that the world

had never seen before.

PicassoWoman Before a Mirror1932

Marcel DuchampNude Descending a Staircase1912

This is where we get amazing and challenging works like we’ll be seeing at MoMA…

Pablo PicassoLes Demoiselles d’AvignonThe Young Women of Avignon

1907

Pablo PicassoLes Demoiselles d’AvignonThe Young Women of Avignon

1907

This piece is a radicalbreak from traditional methods of painting. It depicts five nude women with figures composed of flat, splintered planes and faces inspired by Iberiansculpture and Africanmasks. The figures are crammed into a tight space, and their bodies are almost a part of the environmentthat surrounds them. Their bodies jump forward in jagged shards, like the a fiercely pointed fruit at the bottom.

Pablo PicassoLes Demoiselles d’AvignonThe Young Women of Avignon

1907

This piece is regarded as the first “true” piece of 20th

century art, as it is a major departure from realism and a big step towards abstraction.

The subject matter of the painting takes place within a brothel, located in Barcelona, Spain.

Originally the artist painted two men at the sides of the canvas (some say a doctor and a sailor) but Picasso omitted them before exhibiting this, leaving only the young women of Avignon.

Some have called this a ‘tidal wave of female aggression…an onslaught”

Picasso was not the first to paint pictures of nude figures, or nude prostitutes for that matter (nor was he the last).

The placement of the fruit on the table is like an offering of an object, the viewer welcome to come and sample the taste of it. Much like the women surrounding it, in a way.

But this work raises certain questions about why Picasso chose to paint these five women that seem to gaze out at the viewer in a confrontational way.

Pablo PicassoLes Demoiselles d’AvignonThe Young Women of Avignon

1907

“This work is a raging, frontal attack, not against sexual ‘immorality’, but against life itself, as Picasso found it—the waste, the disease, the ugliness, and the ruthlessness of it…instead of criticizing modern life by comparing it, as much in sorrow as in anger, with a more primitive way of life, he now uses his sense of the primitive to violate and shock the civilized.He is not in the least concerned with formal problems. He is concerned with challenging civilization. The dislocations in this picture are the result of aggression, not aesthetics.”

Pablo PicassoLes Demoiselles d’AvignonThe Young Women of Avignon

1907

Pablo PicassoLes Demoiselles d’AvignonThe Young Women of Avignon

1907

FINAL THOUGHTS(no pun intended with this slide title/artwork)

There are many debates about what “message” is being portrayed in this painting.

Spend 1 minute talking with the people

next to you. What do you think?

FINAL THOUGHTS(no pun intended with this slide title/artwork)

Bought for 30,000 francs in 1924 by Jacques

Doucet…it’s monetary “value” was placed at

300,000 francs just 3 months later (quite an awesome

investment!)

Bought by MoMA in 1937 for $24,000 dollars

Item: Pablo Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and BustWinning Bid: $106.5 millionSold: 2010

Just for a bit of perspective….

Vasily KandinskyPanels for Edwin R. Campbell1914Style: Nonobjective Abstraction

VasilyKandinsky

Panels for Edwin R. Campbell

1914

This series of four canvases was commissioned by Edwin R. Campbell, founder of Chevrolet Motor Company, for the entrance foyer of his Park Avenue apartment. In 1913, Kandinsky coined the expression "nonobjective painting" to refer to painting that depicted no recognizable objects.

VasilyKandinsky

Panels for Edwin R. Campbell

1914

Although preliminary studies for one of these paintings suggest that Kandinsky had a landscape in mind when he conceived it, he ultimately envisioned these works as free of any descriptive devices. Kandinsky stressed the impact of color and its association with music, explaining that: "color is a means of exerting direct influence upon the soul. Color is a keyboard. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano, with its many strings."

Vasily KandinskyPanels for Edwin R. Campbell 11914

Vasily KandinskyPanels for Edwin R. Campbell 21914

Vasily KandinskyPanels for Edwin R. Campbell 31914

Vasily KandinskyPanels for Edwin R. Campbell 41914

But where is the meaning in this??

But it’s just color!

But it looks like a big mess.

Answer these questions from the haters who gonna hate:

VasilyKandinskyPanels for Edwin R. Campbell1914

One of the most common misconceptions about Kandinsky’s work is that it is all thrown together very quickly, and completely random.Kandinsky would spend months, in some cases yearsmaking sketches for his large canvas artwork. Sometimes there are parts that were improvised, but most of each composition is mapped out in advance.

"color is a means of exerting direct influence upon the soul.

Color is a keyboard.The eye is the hammer.

The soul is the piano, with its many strings."

In the 1913 Armory Show in NYC, all four panels were on sale for approximately $177 each (or about $4,000 in today’s dollars)

…so how much were all four valued in 1913?

How much do you think they’re “valued” today?

Henri Matisse Dance (I)1909 Style: Fauvist

What is the “value” in knowing the monetary value of these paintings?

Do you ask the “value” of other things?How are those different from artwork?

Are there objects or things in our lives that we do not ask the value of?

=

Henri Matisse Dance (I)1909 Style: Fauvist

Henri Matisse Dance (I)1909Style: Fauvist

The painting was highly regarded by the artist who once called it "the overpowering climax of luminosity (light)”

Kees van DongenWoman with Large Hat1906

“Fauvism” as a minor art movement in the early 1900’s that emphasized bold use of color in non-realistic ways or sometimes

“primitive” ways. The name comes from a group exhibition of these artists when a skeptical critic called them “fauves” or “wild beasts”

Common subject matter included women, self-portraits, and watery landscapes.

Henri MatisseWoman with a Hat1905

André Self-Portrait in the Studio1903

Henri Matisse Dance 1910Style: Fauvist

Henri Matisse Music1910Style: Fauvist

Dance (I) was a mere compositional study for a different final work (seen below) for a Russian businessman/art collector. Matisse made a diptych using similar imagery.

Henri Matisse Dance 1910Style: Fauvist

Henri Matisse Music1910Style: Fauvist

Fauves like Matisse would often say that humans reach a state of “completion” or “contentedness” during an act of creation (dance, music, art, etc.)

When do you think humans are most “completed?”

CezanneL’Estaque1879-83

CezanneL’Estaque1879-83

CezanneL’Estaque1879-83

DO NOW:FINAL COMMENTS/QUUUUEEEEESTIONS??

WRITE IT DOWN!

Cézanne first visited the fishing village of L'Estaque in the mid-1860s. He once said about this place: "It is like a playing card. Red roofs over the blue sea. . . . The sun is so terrific here that it seems to me as if the objects were silhouetted not only in black and white, but in blue, red, brown, and violet." Cézanne painted some twenty canvases of L'Estaque over the next decade, a dozen of them facing toward or across the gulf of Marseilles.

Why do you think someone would dedicate so much of their life to this place?

Is there a place (or places) of such raw and colorful beauty that you would create over 20 paintings of?

What is Trauma? A HAUNTING memory…when something

happens that you can’t “handle” mentally, emotionally…physical

trauma would be physical injury that stays with you.

If something traumatic were to happen to you, how would you handle it?

o Would you confront the issue?

We may ‘push away’ the negative things that happen to us. Depends on the incident/situation AND the type of person you

are.o Would you hide it away?

Someone may be “embarrassed” …someone who may feel an overwhelming amount of emotion and can’t speak about it.

o Would you trust in someone?

Someone you have a close bond with. Reciprocal relationship: mutual confinding

o Would you take some kind of action?Tell parents or other family members …take up a new

hobby…ask yourself: how can I make this better for MEEEE

Trauma: a specific moment in your life that haunts you.

A negative event that happened in your life that still has an effect on

you.

If something traumatic were to happen to you, how would you handle it?

o Would you confront the issue?

Confrontation sometimes helps with recovery and lead to you DEALING with the problem.

Confronting the issue makes it a bit easier to deal with.o Would you hide it away?

Easier to hide than it is to talk about it / feel feelings (though it depends on the issue)

o Would you trust in someone?

You won’t get better until you WANT to get better …depends on WHO you trust (friends, counselors) who you choose to put TRUST

in. o Would you take some kind of action?

…

And now for something completely different…

Claude Monet

Self Portrait with Beret

1886

Paul Cézanne

Self Portrait in

Straw Hat

1875

Vincent Van Gogh

Self Portrait with a

Straw Hat

1887

Vincent Van Gogh, Self Portrait with a Straw Hat, 1887

Vincent Van Gogh, Self Portrait with a Straw Hat, 1887