SHGC - History of Art - Part 1

The History of Art: Introductory Unit

What is Art?

Make a list of anything which you consider ‘Art’? Add to this list

Anything in this room, or in your own room at home, which could be termed

‘ Art’.

Art is any combination or design of – colours, lines, tones, patterns,

Shapes, textures

Fine Art compared with applied art

What is the difference between Fine art and applied art?

The purpose of Art

What is the purpose of Art

- Provide pleasure

- Decoration

- Describe emotions / attitudes

- record time, people, places, events (esp.

pre camera age)

What is History?

The study of things which happened in the past. Why do we learn about History?

- eg. Why do we learn about WW1/WW2

- Learn from our mistakes

- Learn how/why things happened

- Learn how past events/people have affected the

people/events which followed

- Gain an understanding of people, different times,

lifestyles, attitudes.

What is Art History?

- Looking at the art of the past and what that art tells us

about the past

The Purpose of Art History

All art – like music, clothes etc, is influenced by a style /styles which

came before it. Therefore by looking back in the history of art we can

see the origin of any art style. Eg. Heavy metal music (evolved from a

type of Blues played in the Southern part of America.

Art tells us about the past – in an even more direct and straightforward way than history at times, which is put into someone else’s words, translated etc (eg ‘a picture tells a thousand words’)

Art History teaches us about the techniques used to create a piece of art – and how these techniques have developed eg. A Christo site specific sculpture - using non traditional sculptural materials brought about by technological advances.

Christo’s Installations

After the project "Umbrellas" Christo and Jeanne-Claude concerned themselves with veiling the Reichstag in Berlin. With the support of the parliamentary speaker, Rita Süssmuth, the Christos worked to convince the Members of Parliament, going from office to office, writing explanatory letters to each of the 662 delegates and innumerable telephone calls and negotiations. On February 25, 1995 after lengthy discussions the Bundestag allowed the project to go ahead. More than 100,000 square meters of fireproof polypropylene fabric, covered by an aluminum layer, and 15 km of rope were needed. Veiling began on 17 June 1995 and was finished on 24 June. The spectacle was seen by five million visitors before the unveiling began on July 7.

Art History teaches us to ‘read’ and ‘analyse’ a painting and understand its content (what’s in it), it’s subject (what it is about), theme (message), technique (how it’s made).

Reading / Analysing a Painting

NZQA language for discussing a work of art.

Formal Properties of Art (Elements) Light/tone , line, movement, colour, space/depth, form, scale, texture, composition.

Methods of Making: Media/Materials, technique, process

Context: Social, political, economic, geographical, religious, artistic, historical, cultural.

The Judgement of Paris Peter Paul Rubens 1635-8

Student Guide for Analysing Artworks

Description

Formal Analysis (technical)

Interpretation (expressive qualities)

Style (individual, regional, period)

Context

Judgement

Description

A What is the name of the artist and his/her nationality

B What is the name of the work and the date it was completed

C What kind of media was used?

What can you see? Does it have recognisable subject matter? If it does not, can you describe the shapes, lines, spaces and forms you see?

What materials, techniques or processes were used? How was it made?

Formal Analysis

How has the composition of the work been organised? Consider size, shape, colour, texture, space, volume, links between parts and the relationship of elements.

Is there a focal point or central point ?

Is there an interesting use of line, outline, pattern, for example. How does this affect the overall work.

What is the use of tone in the work?

Are there any textures in the work? Is it real?

Is colour a feature of the work (lots or little)? Is there any reason for the choice or arrangements of certain colours? How would you describe colours?

Is there any space (illusion of depth) in this work? What perspective devices does the artist use?

What are the effects of positive and negative shapes in the work?

Interpretation

What are the effects of the formal qualities?

What is the artist exploring?

What feelings or reactions does this work evoke?

Style

What influences of the other artists can be seen in this work?

How does this work fit into the body of work produced by the artist?

Is the work in keeping with the group or period that the artist belongs to?

Context

What values, attitudes and beliefs are projected through this work?

What political, social, historical and religious influences are shown?

What is the relationship between its form and function?

Judgement

What do you think of the work?

What place has it in the context of art making?

How significant is it in the relation to other works (i) by the artist (ii) produced during the period (iii) produced in the course of art history?

These points are guidelines for an analysis. Not all of questions will be

Relevant to a specific work.

Subject

Classical portrait commemorative Still life

Non-political patriotic historical factual

contemporary

Abstracted totally abstract meaningless minimalist

Mass-media

Symbolic allegorical religious didactic

stoic moralising

Imaginative mythical romantic exotic voyeuristic

story-telling generalised hedonistic secular

sensual

Vocabulary

Figures and Poses

Solid monumental heroic strongly modelled

massive statuesque rigid formal

detached

Sensual graceful soft-looking emotional

expressive happy

Exaggerated dramatic elongated violent

contrived distorted

Idealised closely observed detailed convincingly natural

stereotyped

Moving dynamic playful clearly separated

intertwining youthful

Dramatic horrible depressing specific banal

Space

Atmospheric convincing enclosed contrived

Proportional logical diagonal diminution planes

Arial perspective linear perspective parallel recession

illusionistic vanishing point

Shallow compressed deep open ambiguous distorted

Composition

Design Golden section framing edge echoing shapes

Parallel to frame

Vertical horizontal stability semrits-esque circular

Diagonal rectangle triangular pyramidal

Geometric picture plane containing extending

Division emphasis relationship divided hierarchy

Eye movement

Eye level focal point foreground perspective receding scale

Colour and Texture

Smooth roughly surfaced soft-edged brushstroke textured

Highly finished trompe l’oeil

Tonal vibrant Cold broken dull

Sharp warm brilliant bright gaudy rich sparkling

Symbolic emotional naturalistic decorative juxtaposed

Simplified minimalist painterly non-naturalistic compositional

Strongly-contrasting hard-edged clearly defined precise

Crisp-edged local

Language for discussing a work of Art

Formal properties of Art

Elements of Art

Colour

Colours and feeling – some colours make people remember a particular feeling or thing. Red might make you think about blood, anger, passion or it might make you feel full of energy. Blue might remind you of water, sadness or stillness/peace. Yellow might make you think about the sun, brightness, happiness or movement. Red, yellow and orange make us feel hungry! Think about what colours are used for food packaging – McDonalds etc. There was a bridge in London that many people jumped off to commit suicide. It’s ironwork was painted black. When the bridge was repainted green there were fewer suicides.

Colours as symbols – Different colours mean different things in different cultures. Eg. Black is the symbol of death in many cultures while in China white is the traditional colour of mourning. Red, white and blue – patriotic symbolism. Red and green – Christmas. White – purity (worn by brides). Green – St Patrick’s day. Orange and black – Halloween.

Homework: Find an example of a painting where the artist has used colour in an interesting way. What does the use of colour evoke. Name of artist/painting and date should also be noted.

Line

Different lines create different feelings and movements. Horizontal lines are associated with lying down. They look still, peaceful and calm. They can create movement from side to side.

Vertical lines are associated with standing up. They look active, upright, alert, strong and formal. They can create movement up and down.

Diagonal lines are associated with movement. They are full of energy and action.

Free form lines – zigzag lines = lightning or anger – curving lines = water, they create a feeling of gentle movement.

Shape

Rounded shapes have curving lines and edges. Feeling of growth and flowing movement remind us of things in the natural world – sometimes called organic shapes.

Blocky shapes grow from squares and rectangles, they look strong and permanent. You can get a feeling of calm because they are solid and still. Squares and rectangles are associated with things man-made (inorganic).

Angular shapes grow from triangles. They look sharp and energetic and can make us feel angry, excited or tense.

Symbolic shapes – shape’s that can have certain meanings eg. The heart of the cross.

Shapes are flat and two-dimensional. They can be made from an outline or they can be made when a flat area of colour or tone is separated from the background by an edge Eg. Matisse’s ‘Dance’ II 1910

Tone

Tone is created by light. Little light = dark shadows or tones. Lots of light = light, bright tones. Tone can be used to make flat, 2D shapes look solid and 3D.

Tones suggest emotions. Dark = night, sombre, sad, depressing, mysterious, evil. Light = delicate, radiant, airy. Artists may use tone to emphasise important parts of a painting.

Form

Forms are 3D shapes – they take up space. 2D art can create an illusion of form (with line or tone)

Composition

When we talk about the way that the art elements are arranged in an artwork, we refer to the composition of the artwork. Several or all of the elements of art are used in every artwork.

Texture

Texture and feeling – smooth, polished textures look soothing, calm – spiky, prickly, rough textures look aggressive, dangerous, disturbing.

Texture can be used to shock (by using it in unusual/unexpected ways) eg. Meret Oppenheim’s teacup, saucer, spoon. 1936 .

Space

Space is an important part of the composition of every artwork. 2D art often creates an illusion of real space. Perspective, Size (scale), Overlapping.

Rhythm

Rhythm – visual rhythms are created by the repetition of the art elements. Rhythm is used to create movement / move our eyes around the composition of an artwork.

Focal point – created to draw our attention to a particular part of an artwork. It can be made by use of contrast – eg. Light/dark tones, colour (complementary), shape etc.

Size and placement – a large shape in the centre of a painting will stand out more than a small shape near the edge. We also tend to look at something when it has been placed apart from other things in the painting.

Lines and visual rhythms – can be used to move our attention towards a focal point – some artworks do not have a focal point, instead having a repetitive pattern that keeps our attention moving around the artwork eg. Warhol and Pollock.

Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol

METHODS OF MAKING – Media/materials, techniques, process

Pencil, charcoal – usually refer to as drawings

Paint (pigment and medium) - paintings (oil, acrylic, watercolour, etc)

Surfaces – ‘support’ eg. Paper, panel (board), canvas etc

Tools –brushes, knives, rags, bodies! Yves Klein)

Sculpture (3D art) construction, carving, modelling, casts and moulds

Collage – French for ‘to stick’. Made by sticking paper, fabric, photographs, newspaper cuttings etc. onto flat surface – often used in combination with drawing or painting.

Mixed media – artwork made from different materials and techniques.

Assemblage – a type of mixed media sculpture – usually made from ‘found’ objects.

Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol

Dada & Surrealism

Dada: Challenges to tradition

(Arp, Duchamp, Picabia, Man Ray, Schwitters)

Chance in Art: Automatism & Accident

(Arp, Duchamp, Masson, Lye)

Surrealist aims & Approaches: Representative & Biomorphic

(de Chirico, Margritte, Dali, Ernst, Miro, Tanguy)

Political Intentions in Dada and Surrealist Art: (Grosz, Dix, Hoch, Heartfield, Oppenheim)

Introduction

Dada – an international movement which sprang up during WW1 – the most active Dadaist centres were Zurich and New York (both places on the fringe of the conflict). Zurich in particular became a place of refuge for many artists from Northern Europe.

Began with the opening of Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, Switzerland – 1916

Founded by Hugo Ball (actor/artist) and Emmy Hennings (nightclub singer) (moved to neutral Switzerland when WW1 broke out)

Advert for opening invited ‘young artist to Zurich, whatever their orientation…to come along with suggestions and contributions of all kinds’.

The group needed a name – chose DADA

DADA =

German signifies baby talk

French means hobbyhorse

Russian “yes, yes”

Romanian “no, no”

Andre Breton & Hugo Ball

The name defied one single definition – ideal for an art movement which was contradictory and highly complex.

Another version – Huelsenbeck states he discovered the name by plunging a knife into a dictionary – idea of chance.

United by disgust with the bourgeois culture, Dada artists were in total protest against traditional social values that had made the First World War possible.

(Initially) engaged in activities primarily literary – nonsensical stage happenings, simultaneous poems, mock rituals – designed to shock the bourgeois . This again attracted more and more artists to them.

Arp “ Repelled by the slaughterhouses of the world war, we turned to art…we searched for an elementary art that would, we thought, save mankind from the furious madness of these times…we wanted an anonymous and collective art”

Dada was not a new art style or technique – “Dada was a state of mind” (Tristan Tzara)

1917 – Cabaret Voltaire disintegrated. Richard Hulsenbeck took the Dada ideas with him when he returned to Berlin, where the movement would have a strong political dimension.

Dada spread through Germany and arose independently in New York.

Although it was fairly short lived and confined to a few main centres, Dada was highly influential in its questioning and debunking of traditional concepts and methods, setting the agenda for much subsequent artistic experiment. Dada also provided the ‘birthing field’ for Surrealism, which began as a movement in 1924.

How did Dada challenge tradition?

They used the unexpected – new materials, new forms and new ideas to assault the standards and conventions of respectable art and bourgeois society.

The Dadaists used the satirical parody of ‘anti-art’ to undermine the concept of art itself. This was the essence of their challenge to tradition. They attacked by mockery and caricature a culture in crisis.

Especially important was the novel fusion of words and images to achieve subversive, multi-layered works with the chief characteristics of mystery, irony and humour.

Relatively new media such as collage, assemblage, ready-mades, photomontage, photography and film and were used as challenges to traditional artistic forms.

The term ‘anti-art’ came into use after World War II, but clearly refers to the revolutionary aspects of Dada, which were intended to challenge widely-held concepts of art. Dadaists were disillusioned by the barbarities of the First World War and the social values that had led to it. Traditional art was seen as bolstering that social order.

Hans Arp 1887-1966

Before my birth, 1914

Hans Arp

One of the few members of the Zurich group who made actual artworks.

Like all true Dadaists he reacted against the bourgeois standards of art but was not against art itself (like Duchamp) – against the background of WWI – he looked to art ‘to cure the madness of the age’.

1916-20 – was making painted wooden relief’s – rounded openings in flat pieces of wood superimposed on each other.

“ These relief’s were unpretentious and had nothing in common with the relief’s known to art history, on which we spat”

‘ Forest’ 1916

Forest

One if the first sculptures – 4 pieces of wood, cut onto shapes that suggest leaves and plants, then they are glued together.

Shows interest in natures forms – simplified and reduced specific forms eg. Branches, leaves, stones etc., until they became suggestive, rather than descriptive ie. Abstracted to extract the essential form/ ‘type’

Two other main sources/inspiration; childhood and chance procedures – uncontaminated by reason/rational thought.

‘ According to the laws of chance’ 1920

According to the laws of chance (1920)

Arp tore out scraps of paper (their edges “drew themselves”, without conscious intervention, by being torn) and let them drop on a sheet, fixing them where they fell – collages made wholly in accordance with the laws of chance.

Considered art gestures and a challenge to tradition for two reasons:

1 Use of collage to challenge traditional art forms

2 They were made from an uncontrolled process – random and spontaneous.

Birds in an aquarium, c 1920

Birds in an aquarium

Relief’s have the appearance of toys – colours are bold and vivid, the type that a child would be drawn to.

Forms from nature

Since Arp had been experimenting with what he called the laws of chance – he would throw a rope on the ground and allow the formation in which it fell to suggest shapes for his work – developed a way of finding ‘free forms’, not from nature directly, but analogus to nature.

Anti-art gesture – challenge to tradition – form of artwork is unconventional, also partially made from uncontrolled process (chance)

Made a series of collages – called Fatagaga – pure anti-art gestures.

BABELIA-ELPAIS

This was one of his experiments with ‘non-art’ materials – “Sophie and I had decided to renounce completely the use of oil colours in our compositions. We wanted to avoid any reminder of the paintings which seemed to us to be characteristic of a pretentious, self-satisfied world”

Arp wanted art to be collective (often worked together with his wife Sophie Taeuber Arp) – also anonymous (acknowledging role of chance in his work played down his own role as creator)

Both challenge traditional idea of artist creator as individual genius.

Dada Group posing for photo

Marcel Duchamp French born artist and theorist) 1887 - 1968 "If it's not shocking, it's not worth doing..." The Creative Act: "Let's consider two important factors, the two poles of the creation of art: the artist on one hand, and on the other, the spectator who later becomes the posterity." "...it's the posthumous spectator, because the contemporary spectator is worthless, in my opinion. His is of minimum value compared to that of posterity, which, for example, allows some things to stay in the Lourve."

Questioning identity. Marcel Duchamp had taken a mesmerizing photograph of himself, gathered around a table —a co-presence with his additional selves. This multiple-self-portrait represents five images of the artist, a mise-en-sc è ne of a brainstorming session with himself. We see a manifestation of introspection, a reflective moment of pause in a circular tango of thoughts. Marcel Duchamp said: "The individual, man as a man, man as a brain, if you like, interests me more than what he makes, because I've noticed that most artists only repeat themselves".

Marcel Duchamp

Early career in Paris – member of avant-guard – experimenting with Cubism – moved to New York city in 1915.

He moved partly out of disgust for what he called the European ‘art factory’ and also to escape the war.

Became part of a small group of French and US artists in New York city to produce similar work to European Dadaist’s – also adopted Dada label.

Duchamp became leading figure, also Picabia was there briefly, also Man Ray (who became Duchamps best friend and main collaborator)

They maintained art should appeal to the mind rather than the senses –

Duchamp was the intellectual of Dada

A note dated 1913 asks ‘Can one make works which are not works of Art”?

“ Ready-mades” A highly radical challenge to the idea of the work of art.

A banal manufactured object plucked from the surrounding environment and designed by the artist was a work of art.

Challenged the traditional temples of orthodox art, galleries and museums by placing everyday items in their hallowed halls.

They pose a very important question – How do we recognise a work of art as a work of art? Duchamp – only because we are already prepared in advance to do so, to accept that the thing presented to us belongs to a special category. (CONTEXT)

He was insistent that his choice of ready-mades “was never dictated by aesthetic delectation. The choice was based on a reaction of visual indifference with a total absence of good or bad taste…in fact a complete anesthesia”

Dechamp did more than anyone else to change the concept of art in the 20 th Century – tried (unsuccessfully?) to destroy the mystique of taste – cut the ground from under traditionally established criteria of aesthetic judgement.

In 1962 Duchamp said “When I discovered ready-mades I thought to discourage aesthetics…I threw the bottle rack and the urinal in their faces and now they admire them for their aesthetic beauty”

Bicycle Wheel 1913

( 1913) ready-made: bicycle wheel) – front wheel of a bicycle, mounted upstairs down, by it’s fork, on a kitchen stool so that a touch of the hand would set it spinning – initially acquired the wheel ‘as a pleasant gadget’

L.H.O.O.Q (1919)

Duchamp took a reproduction (postcard) of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous “Mona Lisa” – added with pencil a moustache and goatee and renamed it LHOOQ

Submitted to the Dada demonstration of 1920 in Paris.

Multi-layered in meaning (a Dada aim was to pack their works with ideas that confounded the expectation of a single clear meaning and sought to produce art whereby neither the final outcome nor it’s interpretation were controlled by the artist)

Satirical parody to undermine the concept of art itself – Title in French reads phonetically “She’s got a hot ass”. (considered obscene) – indicated the Mona Lisa has a sexual longing – to sexualise the asexual and to change the gender of the most famous female portrait ever (reference to Leonardo’s own homosexuality – then a forbidden subject) attacks standards and conventions of respectable society through mockery and caricature.

Use if anti-art strategy of defacing masterpieces to challenge traditional concepts of art such as the preciousness of the art object – grafitti desecrates the sacredness of great art – subversive and revolutionary

The concept of anti-art – a repudiation by parody and ridicule of the whole traditional concept of art and a substitution of something new in its place to take over the traditional museums and galleries.

As a member of the New York Dada group, Marcel Duchamp took aim at conventional notions of "high art," "culture" and commodities by presenting mass-produced objects such as a bottle rack or a snow shovel as sculpture. He coupled his visual assaults on "art" with verbal puns: he signed his Fountain , "R. Mutt," and named a Mona Lisa defaced by a drawn-on goatee beard and moustache L.H.O.O.Q., a coarse French pun: when the letters are pronounced in French they resemble the phrase "elle a chaud au cul", or "she is hot in the arse", an idiomatic reference to a tease.

Readymades

“ It is necessary to arrive at selecting an object with the idea of not being impressed by this object on the basis of enjoyment of any order, However, it is difficult to select an object that absolutely does not interest you, not only on the day on which you select it, and which does not have any chance of becoming attractive or beautiful and which is neither pleasant to look at nor particularly ugly”. (Marcel Duchamp)