Why art matters module 3

Module 3
Art Is a Tool for
Cross-Cultural
Conversations

CROSS-CULTURAL ENGAGEMENTS have been documented
since ancient times, when different civilizations came in contact as
they engaged in the trade of goods. These trading activities brought
also significant cross-cultural exchanges, which consisted of
transferring ideas, traditions and belief systems.
Although cross-cultural exchanges were mostly the result of trade and
marriages, wars were additional sources. Things that we associate
with culture such as ritual, religion and art, originated around forty
thousand years ago. The establishment of agriculture about six to
twelve thousand years ago, enabled the development of trading.
Merchants would travel from one place to another bringing with them
new crops that the local people didn’t know about. These early traders
brought with them information regarding the people and places they
came from. Writing was one of the most important developments that
was adopted from the Sumerians by several cultures.

This pottery vase, found at Palaikastro was decorated in the
Minoan Marine-Style. The Minoan octopus filled the center,
swimming diagonally, with tentacles extended out to the full
perimeter. The era of Minoan Marine Style pottery coincided
with a period during which the Minoans traded across the
Mediterranean, from Crete to Cyprus, mainland Greece, and
Egypt.
Octopus vase from Palaikastro, c. 1500 B.C.E., 27 cm high
(Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, photo: Wolfgang Sauber
The style was imitated by potters on the Greek mainland as
well as the islands of Melos, and Aegina, but all lacked the
naturalistic representation of the Minoans which were
inspired by direct observations of the animal.
Heavily influenced by the preceding Minoan culture of Crete,
the city of Mycenae became the dominant power on the Greek
peninsula from 1400 - 1100 BCE.
Double handled octopus vase, Mycenaean. 1400-1300 BCE

Ando
Hiroshige,
Sudden
Shower over
Shin-Ōhashi
bridge and
Atake,1887
Vincent van
Gogh,
Bridge in the
rain after
Hiroshige, oil
on canvas, 73.3
cm x 53.8 cm
Van Gogh admired Japanese woodcuts for
their bright colors and distinctive
compositions. He based this painting of a
bridge in the rain on a print by the famous
artist Utagawa Hiroshige.
Van Gogh painted the scene in more intense
colors than in the original. He maintained
the proportions but used a larger size
canvas. He added a border, which he filled
with Japanese characters copied from other
prints.
These prints played a significant role in the
development of his mature style. Other
artists including Manet, Degas and Monet,,
began to collect the cheap colour wood-
block prints called ukiyo-e prints.

THE SUMERIANS
From its beginnings, as a collection of farming
villages around 5000 BCE, through its final
collapse around 2000 BCE, the Sumerians
developed a religion and a society which
influenced both their neighbors and their
conquerors. Traces and parallels of Sumerian
myth can be found in Genesis in Noah’s Flood.
Sumer was an ancient civilization known for its
innovations in language, governance,
architecture and more. Sumerians are
considered the creators of civilization as modern
humans understand it.
Standing female worshiper ca.
2600–2500 B.C. Sumerian .
Metropolitan Museum, NY.

Sumerian cuneiform, the earliest
written language, was borrowed
later by the Babylonians, who also
took many of their religious beliefs
from Sumerians.
Clay tablet with cuneiform writing from
Palace G, Elaba, c. 2400 B.C.

The Babylonian civilization, which lasted from the
18th to the 6th century BC, was, like the Sumerian
that preceded it, urban in character, although based
on agriculture rather than industry.
The country consisted of a dozen or so cities,
surrounded by villages and hamlets. At the head of
the political structure was the king, a more or less
absolute monarch who exercised legislative and
judicial as well as executive powers.
The Babylonians modified and transformed their
Sumerian heritage in accordance with their own
culture. The resulting way of life proved to be so
effective that it underwent relatively little change for
some 1200 years. It exerted influence on all the
neighboring countries, especially the kingdom of
Assyria, which adopted Babylonian culture almost in
its entirety. Fortunately, many written documents
from this period have been excavated.
Molded plaque: king or a
god carrying a mace ca.
2000–1700 B.C.
Metropolitan Museum, NY

One of the most important is the remarkable
collection of laws often designated as the Code of
Hammurabi provides a comprehensive picture of
Babylonian social structure and economic
organization.
The Code of Hammurabi is consisted a collection of
laws and edicts of the Babylonian King Hammurabi,
and the earliest legal code known in its entirety.
More copies were made at the time. The code was
engraved on a block of black basalt nearly eight feet
high..
The block, broken in three pieces, has been restored
and is now in the Louvre in Paris.
On the front there is a scene carved in relief and on
the rest of the stele the code is written (carved) in
Cuneiform.
Code de Hammurabi, King
of Babylon. 1792 - 1750
BCE. Diorite. Louvre

The Code of Hammurabi contains no laws having
to do with religion. The basis of criminal law is
that of equal retaliation, comparable to the
Semitic law of "an eye for an eye."
Hammurabi's laws governed all aspects of
Babylonian life, from commerce and property to
murder, theft, and inheritances
The law offers protection to all classes of
Babylonian society; it seeks to protect the weak
and the poor, including women, children, and
slaves, against injustice at the hands of the rich
and powerful.
This is the scene carved at the top of the stele. It
depicts God giving the laws to Hammurabi.
God is seated on a throne and Hammurabi stands.
Code ofHammurabi, King of
Babylon (detail). 1792 - 1750
BCE. Diorite.
Louvre Museum, Paris.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT
was born in 356 BCE, Macedonia and died in 323
BCE, in Babylon. He was king of Macedonia
between 336BCE and 323 BCE.
Although HE WAS king of ancient Macedonia for
less than 13 years, Alexander the Great had a
great impct on the course of history.
A great military general, he created a vast empire
that stretched from Macedonia to Egypt and from
Greece to part of India. This allowed for
Hellenistic culture to become widespread.
At just 32 years old, Alexander the Great died
from a sudden and mysterious illness.
Alexander the Great became a role model tomany
Roman generals and leaders.
A Roman mosaic of Alexander
the Great. CM Dixon/Print
Collector/Getty Images

Map of the Empire of Alexander the Great, 323 BC
At the time of his death,
the empire of Alexander
the Great covered around
2,000,000 square miles.
His legacy extended
beyond his military
conquests. His campaigns
greatly increased contacts
and trade between East
and West, and vast areas
to the east were
significantly exposed to
Greek civilization and
influence. Alexander
patronized both arts and
sciences.

Alexander the Great made a conscious effort to
Hellenize the cultures he came in contact with
and conquered. The process of Hellenization
also encouraged trade between the east and
west
He founded cities that became major cultural
centers. He also financed the building of
temples in the territories he took control of. His
plans can be seen in the great Hellenistic cities
of, Alexandria and Antioch.
The effects of Hellenization were felt as far as
India and Afghanistan which gave rise to a
Greco-Buddhist style in art.
The Buddha, in Greco-Buddhist style, 1st to
2nd century AD, Gandhara northern Pakistan.
Tokyo National Museum.

THE ROMAN INFLUENCE
The decline of the Greek civilization
brought a migratory wave from Greece
to southern Italy and to Rome.
As Rome began to assimilate Greek
thought, it molded it to its own sphere
of influence. Everything that was Greek
was accepted as superior be it in the
arts or philosophy.
The Greek gods have been asimilated
and adapted to a new culture. This new
chapter in the history, came to be
known as the Roman Empire.
Trade and transport at the height of the
Roman Empire
Rome’s population was one million and
this amount required many different
things which were brought back
through trading.

Trade cities were built to attract buyers
and merchants as well as craftsmen
and farmers.
People from different parts of the
world brought with them their culture
to share and often absorbing the new
cultures they were coming into contact
with.
An example of this blending of culture
and people is the Romans and people
they conquered. Roman soldiers and
administrators stationed in different
parts of the empire would marry locals
and adopt some of their traditions and
practices.
Trajan's Column is a Roman triumphal
column in Rome, Italy, that
commemorates Roman emperor
Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars.

Principal Roman trade routes (internal and external) in
180AD
Commerce was a
major sector of the
Roman economy.
All new cities were
laid out according to
an orthogonal grid
plan which facilitated
transportation and
commerce. The cities
were connected by
good roads and
navigable rivers were
extensively used.
Maintaining peace was
a major factor in the
expansion of trade.

Top: Roman Forum Ruins
Bottom: Model of the Forum as it looked at
the height of the empire. (Museum of
Roman Civilization)
The Roman Forum was the center of civic
life in the capital of the Roman empire.
It consisted of a rectangular forum (plaza)
surrounded by important ancient
government buildings at the center of the
city of Rome.
For centuries the Forum was the center of
day-to-day life in Rome: the site of
triumphal processions and elections; the
venue for public speeches, and the center
of commercial transactions.

Educated and wealthy Romans desired works of
art that evoked Greek culture. To meet this
demand, Greek and Roman artists created marble
and bronze copies of the famous Greek statues.
Art was a class of goods where culture and trade
converged. Greeks were selling art to the
Romans before being conquered by them.
“From early times the Romans had felt the artistic
influence of Greece. In 146 BC, when Greece was
conquered by Rome, Greek art became
inseparably interwoven with that of Rome. To a
large extent the art of the Romans was a
development of that of their predecessors in Italy,
the Etruscans, who, to be sure, had learned much
from the Greeks.” (Guisepi, 2010)
Asklepios, the Greek god of
medicine. Unknown artist.

The city of Rome was a culturally very diverse. The
Romans adopted artistic influences from the other
Mediterranean cultures . For this reason it is common to
see Greek, Etruscan and Egyptian influences throughout
Roman art.
Rome adapted much of Greece’s cultural and artistic
heritage, importing many of its most famous works,
despite being the conqueror.
One of the greatest legacies of the Roman Empire was
its Latin or Roman alphabet. No other writing system in
the world has ever had such an impact The alphabet
spread with the Roman Empire.
Doryphoros (Spear Bearer), Roman copy after an original
by the Greek sculptor Polykleitos from c. 450-440 B.C.E.,
marble, 6'6" (Archaeological Museum, Naples), photo:
Steven Zucker (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

THE RENAISANCE
In the sixteenth century, Rome was the
center of Western civilization. European
artists were attracted by masters like
Raphael and Michelangelo, and by
patronage from local aristocracy and the
Roman Catholic Church. Many artists lived
and worked in Rome for years others went
to study and absorb the Roman culture and
returned to their countries.
Michelangelo, Last Judgment, Sistine
Chapel, altar wall, fresco, 1534-1541 (Vatican
City, Rome) (photo: Ramon Stoppelenburg
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The Renaissance was very influential since the
Renaissance. Raphael’s Sistine Madonna
popularity is a very good example.
The painting was moved to Dresden since 1754
after it was purchased by Augustus III of
Poland. Ever since, it has been a major
influence on the German and Russian art.
After World War II, it was on loan to Moscow
for a decade before being returned to Germany.
The artwork influenced artists throughout the
world since it has been completed.
Raphael, Sistine Madonna. c. 1513-1514
Oil on canvas. 104 in × 77 in. Gemäldegalerie
Alte Meister, Dresden

LEONARDO DA VINCI was born in 1452, in
the village of Vinci, outside the city of Florence. His
father was the illegitimate child of a wealthy lawyer,
and a peasant woman, which carried a significant
social stigma at the time.
In 1481 da Vinci painted the Adoration of the Magi.
This work made him famous in Florence and beyond.
He was invited to Milan by its powerful Duke. Leonardo
impressed the Duke, and he presented himself as a
skilled engineer. Leonardo painted several outstanding
works in Milan, such as the Virgin of the Rocks.
At this time, he produced one of the most famous
works in all art history, the Last Supper. During his
time in Milan, he also began to study dead bodies and
worked as a military engineer.
Leonardo da Vinci: Self-
portrait, drawing by c.
1490/1515–16; in the
Royal Library, Turin, Italy.

In 1499, when the French invaded Italy, da Vinci
fled the city and stayed in Venice. In 1500, he
returned to Florence. Around this period, he
painted his most famous work, the Mona Lisa.
His work was revolutionary because it was
realistic and expressive. Leonardo used his
anatomical studies to understand the human
body better.
Da Vinci inspired many painters to adopt a more
naturalistic approach. He was a master of painting
techniques, including chiaroscuro. Leonardo did
not invent this this technique, but he perfected it.
Many subsequent painters followed his method.
Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa. c. 1503–1506. Oil
on poplar panel. 30 in × 21 in. Louvre Paris.

Da Vinci developed new ways of
representing perspective, and this gave
his painting more depth and made them
appear more realistic.
Perhaps his most significant contribution
to the painting was developing the
sfumato technique, a new way to blend
glazes. This technique made the figures in
a painting living and breathing subjects.
He used in some paitnings up to 30 layers
of varnish to a achieve very subtle
transitions in color.
Leonardo's techniques and styles were
revolutionary, and they, in particular,
influenced the other artists.
Experts suggested that da Vinci
created a sort of illusion around the
mouth area in some of his portraits
that make them appear that they
change their expression when seen
from different angles.

Da Vinci’s prototype ‘tank’, drawn in the
late 15th or early 16th century.
Da Vinci was employed for much of
his life as a military engineer,
inventing and designing weapons.
In circa 1485, he made sketches for a
prototype “tank” with armor plating
and the ability to fire in any
direction.
The covering was designed to be
made of wood and covered with
metal plates. The machine was
powered by two cranck operated by
four men.
He made sketches for this “tank”
while he was under the patronage of
Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan.

Leonardo da Vinci’s design for a
helicopter, late 15th or early 16th
century.
Most of de Vinci’s designs were never built
or tested. His imagination was way far
ahead of his time. It took four centuries
before his ideas such as the tank could
become reality.
Light and strong materials, such as steel
and aluminum, and the combustion
engines powered make his ideas a reality.
He would, most likely, recognize much of
the machinery of modern life that we take
for granted.

Jean Clouet, Francis I, c. 1535. Oil on panel.
Louvre Museum.
In 1515, the French King Francis I invited
Leonardo to the royal summer home,
Château du Clos Lucé, near Amboise.
Da Vinci died there in 1519.
King Francis I was a fervent patron of the
arts. He supported the emergent French
Renaissance by attracting many Italian artists
to work for him, including Leonardo da Vinci,
who brought the Mona Lisa with him.
Francis I, purchased the Mona Lisa from Salai
who inherited it after da Vinci’s death.

Da Vinci was in his 60s, when he
traveled from northern Italy to central
France, carrying with him sketchbooks
and unfinished artwork.
The young French king had hired the
Renaissance master as "The King's
First Painter, Engineer and Architect."
Leonardo lived in the rehabilitated
Medieval fortress from 1516 until his
death in 1519.
While living in France, da Vinci exerted
considerable influence on the art in
France as he interacted with artists.
Chateau du Clos Lucé, final home of
Leonardo Da Vinci, near Amboise in
France, 1515 - 1519.

Travel to Italy became a rite of
passage for young Dutch and
Flemish artists during the
Renaissance.
These artists drew on both the
recent innovations of Italian
painting and the local traditions of
their countries.
Far from the ruins of Rome, Dutch
and Flemish artists drew inspiration
from their own environments and
played an important role in
establishing landscape and genre
painting.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Landscape with the
Flight into Egypt, 1563, 14.6 × 21.9 in. The
Courtauld Institute of Art.

Peter Bruegel the Elder. The Blind Leading the
Blind. 1568. Distemper on linen canvas. 4 in
× 61 in. Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy
Italian Renaissance influences
started to show on
Netherlandish painting around
1500, but the older style was
remarkably persistent.
After 1550 the Flemish and
Dutch painters begin to
incorporate Renaissance
elements in their artworks, but
remain austere in their
approach.
The painting has a somber tone,
which may be related to the
suppression Protestantism.

PARIS: MODERNITY AND ART
Prior to 19th century, kings, popes, and the wealthy have
provided support to artists such as musicians, painters,
and sculptors. As an active consumer of art, the patron
often hired and dictated the form and content of
artworks. Princes and the church could retain artists on
a monthly allowance, offering them board and
provisions as court residents. Wealthy patrons would
employ gifted artists for years.
But this traditional artist-patron relationship began to
fundamentally change in the mid to late 19th century
with the emergence of capitalism. The French Académie
des Beaux-Arts dictated trends in European art, and
winning of annual competitions would secure
commissions for artists. But the Academy was
extremely traditional.
François Joseph Heim,
Charles V Distributing
Awards to the Artists at
the Close of the Salon of
1827,

Starting in the 1860s, a group of
artists, including Claude Monet and
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, rebelled
against the Academy.
After repeated rejections by the
Académie these artists founded their
own art show called the Salon des
Refusé, or the Salon of the Refused.
The works displayed at this
unorthodox show later became the
basis for Impressionism, the first
truly Modern Art movement.
The Salon des Refusés was ordered
by Emperor Napoleon III, to appease
the large number of artists who
joined protested the jury decisions.
The Palais de l'Industrie, where the Salon
des Refusé took place. Photo by Édouard
Baldus.

Claude Monet. Impression, Sunrise,
1872. Oil on canvas. 18.9 in × 24.8 in.
Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris
Throughout the years, Claude Monet’s
Impression, Sunrise has been
celebrated as the quintessential symbol
of the Impressionist Movement.
The imagery of this work of art presents
a focus on the calm feeling of a misty
maritime scene.
The painting is credited with inspiring
the name of the Impressionist
movement. It depicts the port of Le
Havre, the hometown of Monet.
In 1872 Monet visited Le Havre and
painted 6 canvases at different times
during the day and different angles.

Impressionism is a light, spontaneous
manner of painting. The hallmark of the
style is the attempt to capture the
subjective impression of light in a scene.
The style emerged in competition with
the newly invented technology of the
camera. The camera is compared with
the eye. The eye is just the lens. The
visual information is processed by the
brain. Consequently it is a more
complicated process. The
impressionists emphasized the colors in
the shadows.
They are very sensitive to technological
developments and the impact on
environment and humans.
Gustave Caillebotte. Paris Street; Rainy
Day, 1877. Oil on canvas.
83.5 in × 108.7 in. Art Institute of
Chicago, Charles H. and Mary F. S.
Worcester Collection, Chicago.

Edouard Manet, Déjeuner sur l’herbe, 1863. Oil on
canvas. Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Rejected by the Salon jury
of 1863, Manet used the
opportunity to exhibit
Déjeuner sur l’herbe and
two other paintings in the
1863 Salon des Refusés.
The painting sparked
public notoriety and stirred
up controversy and has
remained controversial.
This artwork became
influential in creating a
precedent for further
experimentations and
pushing boundaries.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Le Moulin de la Galette, 1876.
Oil on canvas. 4ft x 5ft 9”
Le Moulin de la Galette is
considered as one of
Renoir's most important
works of the mid 1870s.
The Moulin de la Galette
was an open-air dancehall
and café. The painting
captures the dappled
light. Its modernism
derives both from its
chosen theme - an
ordinary scene of working
class Parisians at leisure,
during a typical Sunday
afternoon and from its
loose Impressionist-style
brushwork.

In the 19th century and early 20th century,
Paris had a colony of artists established in
the city, and art schools that were
considered the best. The French
Revolution and political and social change
in France had a profound influence on art
in the capital. The vibrant pace of the city
translated in a different art being made.
Many painters moved towards using
vibrant colors and elements of fantasy in
their painting.
In the late 19th century and early 20th
century many artists worldwide went to
Paris to study or to exhibit their works in
exhibitions, such as the Salon d'Automne
and Salon des Indépendants, to establish
themselves.
Henri Rousseau. The Dream, 1910.
Oil on canvas. 80.5 in × 117.5 in.
Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Groups of painters also moved to
the city from abroad and formed
their schools and galleries in the
city, increasing its artistic
diversity.
These groups of like-minded
artists belonged to different art
movements. Since the late 19th
century, a quick succession of
radically experimental groups has
responded to rapidly changing
social, political, and cultural
climates—leading to the
formation of countless
movements
Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles D’Avignon,
1907. Oil on canvas. 8' x 7' 8“. Museum of
Modern Art, NY.

Modernism in Western culture is
characterized by a rejection of traditional
conventions and whose aim was to
revitalize the way modern civilization
viewed life, art, politics, and science.
This attitude that flourished between 1900
and 1930 reflected the rejection of
European culture which was considered
too corrupt and complacent.
This dissatisfaction with everything
European led modern philosophers,
writers, and artists to explore other
alternatives, especially primitive cultures.
Vasily Kandinsky,
Improvisation No. 30. Oil on canvas.
43” x 43”. Art Institute of Chicago

The Establishment was keenly
aware that the result would be
catastrophic; that the new
emerging culture would
undermine tradition and authority
aiming to transforming
contemporary society.
In a broader context, Modernism
is promoting the concept of
modernity that came into
existence in the seventeen
century. This view embraces the
idea of progress, rationalism, and
technology.
Hundreds of artists contributed
to a very robust exchange of
ideas which contributed to fast
progress.
Piet Mondrian. Evening; Red Tree, 1908 –
1910. Oil on canvas, 28 in × 39 in
Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague

Man Ray, Dada Group. Bruce
Silverstein Gallery
DADA was an art movement formed during
the First World War in Zurich as a reaction to
the horrors the war. Dada embraced nonsense,
irreverence, and the absurd. Its members
engaged in making “anti-art” as a reaction
against the bourgeois society that caused it.
The movement emerged in two locations
almost simultaneously during the war. In the
neutral city of Zürich, where foreign poets and
artists like Tristan Tzara and Hans Arp
escaped from their war-ravaged nations and
pursued this avant-garde rebellion.
The second location was New York, where
Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia were
showing in proto-Dada exhibitions beginning
in 1915

Influenced by other avant-garde movements that
preceded it, Dada was manifested in diverse art forms,
ranging from performance art to poetry, photography,
sculpture, painting, and collage.
Dada’s aesthetic is characterized by its mockery of
materialistic and nationalistic attitudes. Shortly after
its beginning, it spread, to Berlin, Hanover, Paris,
New York, and Cologne, all of which generated their
own groups.
The movement was replaced by Surrealism, but the
ideas it genrated have become the cornerstones of
various categories of modern and contemporary art.
Jean Arp incorporated chance into the creation of
works of art. This went against all norms of traditional
art production. The introduction of chance was a way
for Dadaists to challenge artistic norms.
Jean Arp, Collage
Arranged According to
The Laws of Chance,
1916-17

Max Ernst. Woman, Old Man and
Flower/Femme, viellard et fleur.
1923-24. Oil on canvas. 96.5 x 130.2
cm. The Museum of Modern
Arts, New York, NY, USA.
German-born Max Ernst was an innovative
artist who used dreamlike imagery that
mocked social conventions.
His serving in World War I, made Ernst
highly critical of western culture which fed
into his vision of the modern world as
irrational, an idea that informed his
artwork.
Ernst's artistic vision, along with his
humor were apparent in his Dada and
Surrealists works; he was a pioneer of
both movements.
His work with the unconscious, his social
commentary, and broad experimentation in
both subject and technique continue to be
influential.

Max Ernst. The Eye of Silence. 1943/44.
Oil on canvas. 108 x 141 cm. Washington University Art Gallery,
Saint Louis, MO,

Max Ernst, The Equivocal Woman
(also known as The Teetering
Woman). 1923. Oil on canvas.
1923. 50 x 38 in.
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-
Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany.

FLEEING THE
NAZI-OCCUPIED EUROPE
As the situation worsened in Europe in the late
1930s, many artists fled Nazi Germany or other
Nazi-occupied European countries and resettled in
New York.
They formed part of a mass emigration of artists
and art world professionals from Nazi-occupied
Europe. While some of the art artists who
emigrated were Jewish and left Europe to escape
anti-Semitic persecution, some came to the United
States because of the Nazi regime's opposition to
the modern art.
Marcel Duchamp, Nude
Descending a Staircase, NO
2, 1912. Oil on canvas.

Marcel Duchamp.
Bicycle Wheel. 1951 (third version, after
lost original of 1913).
Assemblage: metal wheel mounted on
painted wood stool, 50.5 x 25.5 x 16.5 in.
The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection. ©
2002 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New
York/ADAGP, Paris/Estate of Marcel
Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp,
Fountain, 1917.
2′ 0″ x 1′ 2″ x 1′ 7″
porcelain urinal signed "R. Mutt"
This artwork is Duchamp’s
statement that traditional values
of craftsmanship and aesthetic
experience are not essential to a
work of art.

American realism represented the new
direction for American visual artists at the
turn of the 20th century.
Ashcan school artists were displaced by
modernists arriving from Europe and
promoted by Alfred Stieglitz at his 291
Gallery in New York City.
John Marin, Marsden Hartley, and Georgia
O'Keeffe, were some important early
American modernist painters.
The photographer Alfred Stieglitz (1864–
1946) who led the Photo-Secession
movement, also created pathways for
photography as an emerging art form.
Alfred Stieglitz. The Steerage, 1907
Photogravure. Museum of Modern Art,
New York.

Photography underwent significant changes
in the early part of the twentieth century.
Alfred Stieglitz was a major force in the
development of modern art in America. His
was an art dealer, exhibition organizer,
publisher, editor, and a photographer.
He is credited with the rise of modern
photography in America in the early years of
the 20th century and with the inclusion of
photography among the fine arts.
He published the periodical Camera Work
(1903-17). He also ran a series of influential
galleries, starting with 291, which he used to
exhibit photography, to exhibit European
modernist painters and sculptors, and to
foster America's own modernist figures -
including his later wife, Georgia O'Keeffe.
Alfred Stieglitz
(1864 - 1946) American

Franz Kline. Untitled, 1956
oil on paper mounted to panel.
11 x 12.2 in.
NEW YORK: THE ART
WORLD’S FOCUS SHIFTS
WEST
Abstract expressionism is often
considered the first artistic movement
to shift the center of Western art from
Paris to New York.
Associated with a group of artists
working in New York in the 1940s,
abstract expressionism was
designated the true American and
modern art movement.

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
A painting movement in which artists typically applied paint rapidly,
and with force to their huge canvases in an effort to show feelings and
emotions, painting gesturally, non-geometrically, sometimes applying
paint with large brushes, sometimes dripping or even throwing it onto
canvas. The movement effectively shifted the art world's focus from
Europe (specifically Paris) to New York in the postwar years.
The work is characterized by a strong dependence on what appears to
be accident and chance, but which is actually highly planned.
Usually there was no effort to represent subject matter. Not all work
was abstract, nor was all work expressive, but it was generally
believed that the spontaneity of the artists' approach to their work
would draw from and release the creativity of their unconscious minds.
The expressive method of painting was often considered as important
as the painting itself.

Action painting is a form of abstract
expressionism. Jackson Pollock is the most
celebrated artist of this form.
What makes his style so unique is that he
placed a large canvas on the floor instead of
using the traditional easel. He painted with
forceful, rapid, impulsive brush strokes or by
splashing the paint directly onto the canvas.
He also used sticks, trowels, paint cans with
holes in the bottom, and knives to apply the
paint. His method of painting came from his
interest in primitive cultures and he was
especially fascinated with Native American
Navajo sand painters and their method of
working.
Jackson Pollock
1912-1956

The Native American Navajo’s works
were created on the ground with sand
of various colors let loose from the
hand. He described his abstraction as
an attempt to evoke the rhythmic
energy of nature
Pollack used his unorthodox technique
to gain spontaneous effects. On some
of his work, his footprints are visible,
where he literally stepped into the
painting. Rather than standing back
from the canvas and contemplating it
from a distance, he immersed himself
in the act of painting.
By creating these action paintings, he
felt he was actually a part of the
painting.
Pollock, Jackson. Number 1, 1950
Enamel and aluminum paint on canvas,
63 x 102 in. The Museum of Contemporary
Art, Los Angeles

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) cared
more about expressing his
emotions and feelings rather than
making a picture look real.

Today New York continues to be
a global center for the
international art market but in the
past few decades other centers
emerged.
The world seems to no longer
have an " Art Capital." That is
because interest in art has now
become globalized, and due to
developments in technology the
exchange of ideas has become
instantaneous.
New York

In studying other cultures, we
learn more about ourselves
and our relationship to all
things in this world.
- Eustace Conway

Why art matters module 3

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Why art matters module 3