Art Historical Photography

Abstract Expressionism Cubism

Surrealism Expressionism

What is abstraction?Abstract art, like photography itself, is largely a twentieth century phenomenon. In fact, one of the reasons why artists began to experiment with abstraction is because they felt that photographs could do the job of representing the world much better than a painter.

This painting by Picasso is obviously a landscape. We can see the shapes of houses and walls. But Picasso has distorted reality. The perspective is strange, almost as if he had moved around and recorded different views of the same scene in one picture.

Cubism

“Le guitariste”, Pablo Picasso, 1910

Dates: 1907 - 1914

Notable Artists: Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris

Characteristics:

• objects are broken up and re-assembled in abstracted form

• multitude of viewpoints to represent subject in greater context

“Portrait of Picasso”, Juan Gris, 1912

instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context

“Woman with a Guitar”, Georges Braques, 1913

often the surfaces intersect at random angles, removing a sense of depth

nearly two-dimensional appearance; an inclusion of geometric angles, lines, and shapes

Cubist Photography

Surrealism

“The Persistence of Memory”, Salvador Dali, 1931

Dates: 1924 - 1966

Notable Artists: Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Rene Magritte

Characteristics:

• element of surprise and unexpected juxtapositions

• expose psychological truth by stripping ordinary objects of their normal significance

created compelling images that were beyond ordinary formal organization

“The Elephant Celebes”, Max Ernst, 1921

“Indefinite Divisibility”, Yves Tanguy, 1942

a combination of the depictive, the abstract, and the psychological

images were dream-like and unexpected

Expressionism

Dates: 1905-1925

Notable Artists: Georges Rouault, Oskar Kokoschka Egon Schiele, Franz Marc, Edvard Munch Marc Chagall

Characteristics:

artist attempts to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in him. He accomplishes his aim through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements

brushwork is typically free and paint application tends to be generous and highly textured

Expressionism is one of the main currents of art in the later 19th and the 20th centuries, and its qualities of highly subjective, personal, spontaneous self-expression are typical of a wide range of modern artists and art movements.

Abstract expressionism

Dates: Early to mid 19th c

Notable Artists: Jackson Pollack – De Kooning – Rothko - Still

Characteristics:

art that while abstract was also expressive or emotional in its effect. They were inspired by the Surrealist idea that art should come from the unconscious mind

Two broad groupings: The action painters worked in a spontaneous improvisatory manner often using large brushes to make sweeping gestural marks. Pollock famously placed his canvas on the ground and danced around it pouring paint direct from the can or trailing it from the brush or a stick. In this way they directly placed their inner impulses on the canvas. The colour field painters were deeply interested in religion and myth. They created simple compositions with large areas of a single colour intended to produce a contemplative or meditational response in the viewer.

http://www.photographydealers.com/htdocs/representedartists/asiskind/drawer/exhibitindex.html

Task

• You have been chosen to create an exhibition of photographs that link into one art historical movement

• You must find at least 3 photographs to display alongside 1 exempla painting for your chosen movement

• You must then write the exhibition blurb, explaining your choice and your movement