1. Songs of the Day
“Shake Your Thang”
by Salt-N-Pepa
from 1988 album A Salt with a Deadly Pepa
“Take on Me”
by Ah- Ha
from the 1985 album Hunting High and Low

2. Songs of the Day
“We’re Not Gonna Take It”
by Twisted Sister
from 1984 album Stay Hungry and Still Hungry
“Ask”
by The Smiths
the 1986 single

3. Beginning the writing process /
Introduction and a Thesis Statement.
Group Activity – Pertaining to writing a
strong thesis statement
Review Major Ideas from 09.10
Introduce some concepts of Modern Art
Today’s Schedule

4. Writing about Art

5. thesis statement
a short statement, usually one sentence, that summarizes the main
point or claim of an essay, research paper, etc., and is developed,
supported, and explained in the text by means of examples and
evidence.
Writing about Art – Thesis statement

6. Thesis Statement – Place it at the end of your first paragraph
Examples of how you can word your thesis statement:
In this paper I will analyze Mariana Wells,’ “The End of Earth” using
formal and connotative description in order to explore the ways that
the artwork expresses ideas of destruction and decay.
Through analyzing Mariana Wells’ “The End of Earth,” this paper will
reveal how the formal qualities of this sculpture express ideas related
to the destruction and decay of the environment.
Through analyzing Mariana Wells’ “End of Earth,” this paper will
reveal how the use of color and texture in this sculpture express ideas
of environmental decay.
Tell me about the artist, the image, and the ideas /feelings being
expressed.
Writing about Art – Thesis statement

7. I should understand!
WHO – The artist – Mariana Wells
WHAT – The artwork - title
HOW – Analyzing using formal elements, connotation, etc.
WHY – To demonstrate the art work expresses something
Writing about Art – Thesis statement

8. Class Activity
!
Gregory!Crewdson,!un/tled!work!from!the!series!"Beneath!the!
Roses",!2003>2005!!
Analyze!this!image!and!come!up!with!a!working!thesis!statement.!

9. From c. 1450-1870, ideas and techniques developed during the
Renaissance dominated Western art.
Three important ones:
BEAUTY
ILLUSION
RELIGIOUS / SECULAR THEMES
Review from 09.10

10. Beauty in proportion
The Golden Mean or The Golden Ratio
Beauty

11. Beauty in aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with
the nature of art, beauty, and taste, with the
creation and appreciation of beauty.
Beauty

12. Beauty in aesthetics Beauty
Aesthetics change based on time and history
Renaissance aesthetics
Modern aesthetics
Postmodern Aesthetics

13. observed Reality as a kind of Truth
This was not always valued in art!
Illusion

14. observed Reality as a kind of Truth
This was not always valued in art!
Illusion
Atmospheric!Perspec/ve ! !Linear!Perspec/ve!

15. Religious & Secular Themes
Giovanni Bellini
San Zaccaria Altarpiece
1505
John Singer Sargent,
Beatrice Golet,
1890

16. Modernism
The Modern Era
What major technological/social event in the 19th
century changed the lifestyles of
most of the Western world?
Industrial Revolution!

17. Modernism
Modern Art / Artists
Reacting to Modern existence = the effects of the
Industrial Revolution
Reacting to Renaissance ideals

18. Five recurring themes in modernist art:
1. Seeing and perspective
2. Abstraction
3. Expression
4. Fantasy
5. Concept/idea
MEMORIZE THESE!

19. Claude Monet, Gare St-Lazare,,1877;
French, oil on canvas, 32 1/2" x 39 1/9 , Fogg
Museum, Harvard University; Boston, Mass.
Captures the experience of
modernity, of being in the station:
the smoke, the light, the sensations
Spontaneous sensations and
impressions of modernity
Impressionism
Accurate depiction of
reality – historical record
William Frith, Paddington Railway
Station, 1882, oil on canvas, 117
x 257 cm, Royal Holloway and
Bedford New College, Surrey,
England

20. Claude Monet, Waterlilies with Clouds, 1903, oil on canvas

21. Claude Monet, Waterlilies with
Clouds, 1903, oil on canvas
Compared with the Academic painting that
came before, it looked messy and unfinished.
Thomas Cole, Landscape,
1825, oil on canvas

22. Claude Monet,
Grainstacks in the
Sunlight, Morning Effect,
1890, oil on canvas
Haystacks were “neutral receptacles for light . . .
[with] Each haystack . . . meant to be seen as a
sample of something both commonplace and
endless”

23. Claude Monet, Haystacks
Different times of day result in different lighting and colors
Claude Monet, Haystacks, End of Summer
Claude Monet, Grainstacks in the
Sunlight, Morning Effect, 1890

24. Paul Cézanne, Le Cabanon de Jourdan,
1906, oil on canvas, 26” x 32”
Post-Impressionism
Interest in shapes
and angles in
addition to light
and color

25. Cezanne’s concept of “the equivalent”
• The painting is not a secondary thing – a shadow
or copy of the real thing
• The painting is a thing in itself, as real in the
experience of the spectator as the scene the
painter painted
• The painting should convey to the viewer an
experience
• The painting isn’t an illustration but offers an
equivalent sensation through its forms and colors

26. Paul Cézanne, Mont
Sainte-Victoire, 1895
In contrast to Monet, the titles of Cézanne's landscapes
do not indicate the time of day nor the season.
Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-
Victoire, 1904-1906
Notice the breaking
down of the picture
plane into planes
and areas of color
Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-
Victoire, 1904-1906
Color is laid down as
abstract shapes,
defined by the
horizontal, vertical, or
diagonal directions in
which it was laid down –
precursor to Cubism

27. 1. Seeing and Perspective
Impressionism
• Pleasure
• Light
• Color
• Spontaneity
Post-Impressionism
• Color
• Light
• Shape
• angles

28. Five recurring themes in modernist art:
1. Seeing and perspective
2. Abstraction
3. Expression
4. Fantasy
5. Concept/idea
MEMORIZE THESE!

29. 2. Abstraction
• Shapes are abstracted – simplified or reduced to
geometric forms
• Often nonrepresentational
• General; non-specific
• Not well defined (the opposite of concrete)
• Emphasis on formal qualities and relationships over
narrative or specific meaning

30. Georges Braque
La Roche-Guyon, 1909
Cubism
The next step beyond
Cezanne…
The Cubists compressed
all possible views of an
object - top, sides, back,
front – into one moment
for a synthesized view.
(new kind of seeing and
perspective)

31. Georges Braque, Chateau
at La Roche-Guyon, 1909
Abstracted to be an
arrangement of prisms
& triangles, cascading
down
Based on a real place
Cubism

32. Pablo Picasso, Glass of Absinthe, c. 1913
Shapes are broken down into cubes and other
geometric fragments

33. Pablo Picasso, The Guitar
Player, summer 1910, Oil on
canvas, 100 x 73 cm Musée
National d'Art Moderne, Centre
Georges Pompidou, Paris
Cubists were resistant to the
illusionism developed in the
Renaissance (linear
perspective, atmospheric
perspective)
Shows multiple sides/views of
an object simultaneously
A kinetic view - the eyes are
always in motion

34. Umberto Boccioni, The City Rises, 1910, oil
on canvas, 79 x 119”, The Museum of
Modern Art, New York
Futurism
Began as a rebellion of
young intellectuals
against bourgeois
society and the cultural
apathy into which Italy
had sunk in the 19th
century
Related to Cubism

35. “A roaring
motorcar
which looks
as though
running on
shrapnel, is
more beautiful
than the
Victory of
Samothrace!”
Futurism
The Futurist Manifesto was written by
poet and propagandist Filippo
Tommaso Marinetti and published in
the Paris newspaper Le Figaro on
February 20, 1909.
According to Marinetti, what needed
to be destroyed: libraries, museums,
academies, cities of the past (seen as
mausoleums).
He extolled the beauty of revolution,
war, speed, and modern technology.

36. A synthesis of labor, light
and movement
We see: violent action,
speed, and
disintegration of objects
by light
Note too the strong
diagonals of the
composition that
destabilize it and give it
a sense of dynamic
energy
Umberto Boccioni, The City Rises, 1910, oil
on canvas, 79 x 119”, The Museum of
Modern Art, New York
Futurism

37. Giacomo Balla, Dynamism of a Dog on a
Leash,I 1912, 35 x 45.5”, Buffalo Fine Arts
Academy, New York
Futurism
Multiplication of legs
shows simultaneity
This later became the
device for showing
movement in comic
strips and cartoons

38. 2. Abstraction
Cubism
• Shape and angle
• Multiple perspectives
Futurism
• Motion, speed, energy
• Dynamics of modern living

39. Five recurring themes in modernist art:
1. Seeing and perspective
2. Abstraction
3. Expression
4. Fantasy
5. Concept/idea
MEMORIZE THESE!

40. 3. Expression
The distortion (exaggeration or abstraction) of
reality for an emotional effect.
Form and composition are intended to express
intense emotion.
(the content/subject matter of the artwork might also be
emotional, but that is unrelated – Expressionism refers to
form only, not content)

41. Expressionism
According to art historians, Expressionism is
the opposite of Impressionism.
"An Expressionist wishes, above all, to express
himself....[An Expressionist rejects] immediate
perception and builds on more complex
psychic structures.
Czech art historian Antonín Mat j ek, 1910

42. According to art historians, Expressionism is the opposite of
Impressionism.
"An Expressionist wishes, above all, to express himself....[An
Expressionist rejects] immediate perception and builds on more
complex psychic structures.
Czech art historian Antonín Mat j ek, 1910

43. Henri Matisse, Red Studio, 1911, oil on canvas,
71 x 86”, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Expression
Les Fauves
Color as
expression of
emotion
“fauve” = “wild
beast” in French

44. Henri Matisse, Open
Window, Collioure, 1905,
oil on canvas, 22 x 18”
Paris & northern
Europe = drab and
gray
Southern France =
sunny, colorful and
delightful

45. Henri Matisse, Harmony in red (La chambre rouge: La desserte--
Harmonie rouge), 1908-1909, oil on canvas, 71 x 96”, The
Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia
Colors represent the feeling or experience of a
thing, not its actual appearance in the real world

46. André Derain, Charing Cross Bridge, London, 1906, National
Gallery of Art, Washington

47. “It was the era of photography. That may have
influenced us and contributed to our reaction against
anything that resembled a photographic plate taken
from life.”
- André Derain

48. Vincent van Gogh,
15 Sunflowers, 1888,
oil on canvas
Van Gogh was a
contemporary of
Cezanne, and worked
before the Cubists,
Futurists, and Fauves

49. “A sun, a light. . . How beautiful yellow is!”
Vincent van Gogh, The Sower, 1888, oil on canvas

50. Gabrielle Münter, View with Church,
1910-1911, oil on board, 33 x 45 cm
German Expressionism
Color is an
independent
expressive element
rather than a
representational
vehicle

51. Edvard Munch, The Scream,
1893, oil on cardboard
The self in internal
conflict
Nature as other
The city is equated
with internal anxiety

52. Käthe Kollwitz, Widows and Orphans, 1919
Social Expression
In Germany after WWI,
there was tremendous
hardship amongst the
working class, and
especially women and
children. Kollwitz’s
subjects are the visible
outgrowth of the war
and its senseless
destruction. !

53. Kathe Kollwitz, The
Widow I, 1922-23,
woodcut on paper,
15x9”, Ulrich
Museum of Art,
Wichita State
University
A frequent theme
was the impact
war had on
women and
children

54. Käthe Kollwitz,
Death and the
Mother
Munch grieved
for himself;
Kollwitz grieved
for humanity

55. Five recurring themes in modernist art:
1. Seeing and perspective
2. Abstraction
3. Expression
4. Fantasy
5. Concept/idea
MEMORIZE THESE!

56. 4. Fantasy
Interest in the irrational and fantastic
Use of dream-like images
Desire to help people achieve absolute freedom
Belief that art had the power and duty to
change life

57. Marc Chagall, Birthday, 1915, oil on cardboard,
32 x 39”, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Influenced by:
• Russian-Jewish
folk tales
• Fauves’ use of
color
• Cubist use of
space

58. Marc Chagall,
Paris Through
the Window,
1913, oil on
canvas, 52 x
55”,
Guggenheim
Museum, New
York

59. Salvador Dali, The Persistence of
Memory, 1931
Dali’s “paranoiac -
critical’ method: looking
at one thing and seeing
another
He defined his paintings
as "hand-done color
'photography' of
'concrete irrationality'
and the imaginary world
in general"

60. Rene Magritte,
The Listening
Room, 1952
George Melly on Magritte: “He is a secret agent; his object is to
bring into disrepute the whole apparatus of bourgeois reality. Like
all saboteurs, he avoids detection by dressing and behaving like
everybody else”

61. Rene Magritte, Threatening
Weather, 1929, 54 x 73 cm,
National Galleries of Scotland
Characteristics/Themes:
• Use of familiar objects
in an unexpected
manner
• Dream-like
• Unsettling and
uncanny
• Erotic
• Interrelatedness of
plant, animal, human,
and mechanical
worlds
• Fear & loss of
innocence

62. Dorothea Tanning, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1946

63. Five recurring themes in modernist art:
1. Seeing and perspective
2. Abstraction
3. Expression
4. Fantasy
5. Concept/idea
MEMORIZE THESE!

64. 5. Concept/Idea
• A work of art resides in the idea of the artist, not
the physical object that emerges from that idea
• Artist’s skill is irrelevant
• Often uses Readymades and objets trouves/
found objects
• Often incorporates humor and irony

65. Dada
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917
Dada artists were united
not by a common style,
but by a rejection of
conventions in art and
thought, seeking through
their unorthodox
techniques,
performances and
provocations to shock
society into self-
awareness

66. “I threw the urinal in their
faces and now they admire it
for its beauty . . . [this is a]
critical misunderstanding. The
choice of ready-mades was
not aesthetic, but one of
visual indifference and
absence of good taste.”
Marcel Duchamp

67. Marcel Duchamp, Bicycle
Wheel, 1913, Paris
,
bicycle fork and wheel
screwed
upside down onto stool
painted white,
no dimensions recorded
Readymade

68. Marcel Duchamp, Bottle
Rack
or
Bottle Dryer, 1914,Paris,
galvanized iron bottle rack
inscription,
no dimensions recorded,
original lost
"I just bought it
at the bazaar of
the town hall."

69. Marcel Duchamp, In
Advance of a Broken Arm,
Nov. 1915, New York, wood
and galvanized-iron
American snow shovel
(readymade),
no dimensions recorded,
original lost
Readymade

70. Marcel Duchamp,
L.H.O.O.Q., 1919, 7 3/4”
x 4 1/8”

71. Rene Magritte, The Treason of Images,
1928-1929, oil on canvas, 24 x 37”, LA County
Museum of Art
Magritte is reminding us
that a painting is not what
is depicted, but paint on
a canvas.

72. Joseph Kosuth
One and Three Chairs, 1965
Conceptual Art (1960s)
• Art resides in idea, not
object
• An object is only art when
placed in the context of art
• Self-referential
• Includes written statements,
spoken statements, artist
performances, numerical
repetitions in addition to
more familiar things like
images, sculptures, and
installations.

73. Five recurring themes in modernist art:
1. Seeing and perspective
2. Abstraction
3. Expression
4. Fantasy
5. Concept/idea
MEMORIZE THESE!