World Famous Historical Arts - Assignment Example

Walter Gropius, Bauhaus Buildings, 1925 Walter Gropius’ Bauhaus building was a major exemplar of modern architectural style with its rectilinear andgrid motif, and in which its design has a “clear and carefully thought-out system of connecting wings” in accordance to how the Bauhaus movement and its school operates internally (Kultermann, 37-38). Its simple forms and dynamic space planning exhibit spaciousness and lightness of rectilinear rooms, which were a far cry from the numerous swirls and irregular forms of the previous style, the Art Nouveau. The Bauhaus buildings were a breakthrough in architectural styles because Gropius’ Bauhaus buildings replaced the use of timber rafters with machine-made materials, flat roofs, white walls, metal-framed windows and others (Sparke et al. 96). The simplistic style and rectilinear form also paved the way for the possibility of additional space in a form of an extra story or another wing (Gropius 25-30). Salvador Dali, Persistence of Memory, 1931 The surrealist depiction of melting pocket watches in Salvador Dali’s Persistence of Memory was a great example of the whimsical symbolisms which are prevalent in the Art Deco style. Dali’s painting was a common reference in popular culture and had generated many interpretation of the relevance of time in the painting (“Persistence of Memory,” MoMA). Fernand Léger, Three Women, 1921 The oil on canvas painting entitled Three Women was considered as the masterpiece of Fernand Léger’s mechanical period. As one of the major artist of the Cubism style, the painting showcased his experimentation with contrasting curvilinear forms against a rectilinear grid (“The Bulfinch Guide”). Léger’s painting depicted nudity in a stylized manner with feminine and rounded yet buffed curves and dislocated forms. The mechanical way the painting was executed is a reflection of the Machine Age and an insight to Léger’s belief that “art and the machine age would together reverse the chaos unleashed by World War II” (“Three Women,” MoMA). Meret Oppenheim, Fur-covered cup, saucer, and spoon, 1936 Meret Oppenheims Object, commonly known as the fur-covered cup, saucer and spoon, can be considered as the single most infamous Surrealist art piece due to the contrasting idea it portrayed. The art piece plays with the imagination and captured the contrast between the sensuousness and eroticism associated with a fur-covered object, and the refined and formal image of the tea set in association with good behavior and etiquette (“Object,” MoMA). Otto Dix, Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden, 1926 As one of the important figures in Avant Garde art or New Objectivity style, most of Otto Dix’s paintings were representations of the void caused by World War 1. The Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden was a good example of superficiality taking a backseat from the natural forms with all its imperfections. The female figure is not beautified to conform to the perfect portrayal of the female figure as seen in past styles; rather it portrays the female figure in all her imperfections. The portrait represented the new woman of “a generation concerned not with the outward beauty of a woman but her psychological condition” (“Portrait of… Harden,” MoMA). Kurt Schwitters, Horse Fat, 1919 Kurt Schwitters’ Horse Fat is an assemblage and oil on wood. The assemblage was an example from the Dada art movement in which due to its deviation from traditional art is viewed as ugly and weird (Dan, “The Dada Art Movement”). Horse Fat was a reflection of the beliefs of Schwitters’ and other Dada artists whom rebel against traditional art and create art as a form of protest against war. René Magritte, The Treachery of Images, 1929  The Treachery of Images is a series of paintings by Surrealist painter René Magritte in which the paintings showed not just an image but inscriptions were incorporated into the painting. The most famous painting from the series showed an image of a pipe with an text in cursive style that says: “Ceci nest pas une pipe” or “This is not a pipe.” Magritte played with semantics between the image and the text in his painting. He tickled the mind of the viewers that the image in the painting is not the pipe itself but just a representation of the pipe. René Magritte himself said: “What one must paint is the image of resemblance – if thought is to become visible in the world” (Dillon, “Images of Resemblance”). Constantin Brancusi, Princess X, 1915-16  The sculpture Princess X by Romanian artist Constantin Brancusi had undergone an evolution of highly stylized sketches leading from the natural form of the model believed to be Princess Marie Bonaparte (Danto 182-184) towards a more abstract form that curiously resembled a phallus. Abstract art sometimes exhibits ambiguity between perception and interpretation, thus with the phallic form the sculpture was associated with, created a scandal when it was first displayed at the Paris Salon that forced Brancusi to remove the sculpture from the exhibit grounds because it led to an improper interpretation ("Princess X," Britannica). Charles Sheeler American Landscape, 1931  The oil on canvas Precision art painting entitled American Landscape by Charles Sheeler depicted an American landscape littered with the evidence of industrialization. It was a far cry from the connotation of peaceful and serene views of nature one imagines upon learning of the title of the painting. There is a no nonsense approach of the subject matter as showcased in the sharply-defined shapes and large geometric forms of the buildings and surrounding areas. Such style reflects “Precisionism,” a term coined by Sheeler himself (National Endowment for the Humanities 66-67). Georgia O’Keeffe, Black Iris, 1926  Georgia O’Keeffe’s oil on canvas painting entitled Black Iris is an example of the American Abstraction art movement. The representational form of the flower in the painting morphed in a non-representational form which suggests growth and regeneration. Such depiction of forms is at once both representational and abstract (Kleinfelder, AH 438). O’Keeffe’s painting revealed a new point of view of a natural object making something extraordinary out of something ordinary (“Georgia OKeeffe” MetMuseum). The floral non-representation was not based from illusions of the object but rather it is based on the abstracted view of the inner construction of an iris (Kleinfelder, AH 438). Like Brancusi’s Princess X, critics saw sexuality and eroticism on O’Keeffe’s work (“Georgia OKeeffe” MetMuseum). Diego Rivera, Detroit Industry, 1932-33  Diego Rivera, one of the leaders of the Mexican muralist movement, created a series of twenty-seven fresco panels entitled Detroit Industry on the walls of an inner court at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The fresco panels, which depicted the development of industrialization through representations of workers in various fields of sciences and the automotive industry specifically the workers of Ford Motor Company, had encountered controversies due to a conflict between Riveras Marxist philosophy and Detroit’s stand as a developing industrial center at the time (“American Art.” DIA). Rivera’s Detroit Industry remains intact in spite of the controversies and is a good example of American Art during the industrialization period. Henry Moore, Recumbent Figure, 1938  Henry Moore’s Recumbent Figures was a sculpture of the Contemporary art style. The reclining nudes are in an abstract form but its human forms remain recognizable. With the main location in mind during its creation, the sculpture’s irregular curves and abstracted shape gave off the impression of continuity from the rolling landscapes and served as a transition piece towards the ultra-modern abode. It also quite resembles the human forms depicted in ancient sculptures (“Recumbent Figure.” Tate). Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936  Migrant Mother is one of a series of photographs Dorothea Lange made of Florence Owens Thompson and her children. The black and white photograph is the photographer’s subjective interpretation of how the Great Depression has affected American families (Nordeman, “Dorothea Lange”). Migrant Mother initially served as a powerful and effective documentary photograph but with the classical triangular composition, and the emotional and symbolic character exhibited in the photograph, it became a contemporary work of art (National Endowment for the Humanities 80-81). Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937  Guernica, a Surrealist painting which captured the terror of Guernica bombing during the Spanish Civil War, was created by renowned Cubist artist Pablo Picasso. With the absence of color, Picasso captured the darkness and the horror of war (“Simon Schama’s Power of Art”). Arshile Gorky, The Liver is the Cock’s Comb, 1944  A total opposite to Picasso’s absence of color in Guernica, Arshile Gorky’s 1944 Surrealist painting entitled The Liver is the Cock’s Comb has splashes of color in a war-devastated world. His painting embodies the Surrealist’s idea that art is the expression of the artist’s unconscious ("The Liver Is the Cock’s Comb," Britannica). Gorky’s work exhibited a “synthesis of Surrealism and abstraction that unlocked voluptuous new possibilities for painting and opened the way to Abstract Expressionism” (Lacayo “The Shape Shifter”). Aaron Douglas, Building More Stately Mansions, 1944 Harlem Renaissance pioneer Aaron Douglas’ painting entitled Building More Stately Mansions incorporated various symbols of past architectural achievements with people’s hope of the future in a civilization just ravaged by World War II. Incorporated also in the painting are influences of the Harlem Renaissance or the New Negro Movement with representations of the cultural contributions of African Americans in the fields of agriculture, construction, science, and industry (“Aaron Douglas,” CHICO). Touches of modernism are also evident in the painting with the forms in the painting “reduced to their basic shapes, then fragmented into shades of brown and violet by radiating concentric circles” (Frist 35-36). Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-43 Broadway Boogie Woogie shows Piet Mondrian’s aesthetic doctrine of Neo-Plasticism as exhibited with the usage of the basic lines and the primary triad of colors and yet he deviated from his normal style by omitting his usual black lines thus breaking his usual uniform bars of colors into multicolored segments. Mondrian translated his love for American jazz particularly the boogie woogie in his painting, giving emphasis on intuition and spirituality rather than the empirical and material aspect of the music, thus, exhibiting the philosophies of the Transcendentalism style which is under the genre of Abstraction (“Broadway Boogie Woogie” MoMA). Works Cited “Aaron Douglas.” Cultural Heritage Initiative for Community Outreach. University of Michigan School of Information. 1997-2001. Web. 03 Dec. 2009. “American Art.” Detroit Institute of Arts. 2003, Web. 04 Dec. 2009. “Black Iris.” The Museum of Modern Art. The Collection, 2009. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. “Broadway Boogie Woogie.” The Museum of Modern Art. The Collection, 2009. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. “Clocking in with Salvador Dali: Salvador Dalí’s Melting Watches” Salvador Dali Museum Online, 2005-. Web. 05 Dec. 2009. Dan. “The Dada Art Movement (Or Anti-Art Movement if you Prefer).” Emptyeasel Online Art Magazine, 2006-2009. Web. 03 Dec. 2009. Danto, Arthur Coleman. The Madonna of the future: essays in a pluralistic art world. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2001. Print. Dillon, George L. “Images of Resemblance: Magrittes semiotic explorations.” UW Technology. 2008, Web. 02 Dec. 2009. “Dorothea Langes Migrant Mother Photographs in the Farm Security Administration Collection: An Overview.” In Prints and Photographs Reading Room. D.C.: The Library of Congress, 2009. Web. 03 Dec. 2009. *Note: I’m not sure if this is your book since you didn’t provide me of the author and title, so kindly edit it out. Thanks* Foster, Hal, et al.. Art Since 1900. UK: Thames & Hudson, 2005. Print Frist Center for the Visual Arts Art of Tennessee The Teachers’ Guide. Tennessee: Frist Center for the Visual Arts, 2003. Print. "Georgia OKeeffe: Black Iris (69.278.1)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. Gropius, Walter. The New Architecture and the Bauhaus. London/NYC: Faber and Faber/the Museum of Modern Art, 1936. Print. Haber, John. “The Great Beyond.” Haberarts, 2009. Web. 03 Dec. 2009. Kleinfelder, Karen. “Art History 438 Final.” 1998, California State University Long Beach Online. 03 Dec. 2009. Kultermann, Udo. Architecture in the 20th Century. Germany: Van Nostrand Reinhold., 1993. Print. Lacayo, Richard. “The Shape Shifter.” Time Magazine. Nov 9, 2009. Web. 03 Dec. 2009. “Murals: An Analysis of Diego Riveras Exhibitions in the United States.” University of Michigan. 2009. Web. 04 Dec. 2009. National Endowment for the Humanities. “Charles Sheeler, American Landscape. 1930.” Picturing America The Teachers Resource Book. Maryland: Schmitz Press. 2008. Print. National Endowment for the Humanities. “Dorothea Lange. Migrant Mother. 1936.” Picturing America The Teachers Resource Book. Maryland: Schmitz Press. 2008. Print. Nordeman, Landon. “Dorothea Lange.” Walker Evans Revolutionizes Documentary Photography. 1997-2007. American Studies at the University of Virginia Online. 03 Dec. 2009. “Object.” The Museum of Modern Art. The Collection, 2009. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. Otto Dix. 2009. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. “Persistence of Memory.” The Museum of Modern Art. The Collection, 2009. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. “Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden.” Indianapolis Museum of Art. Art Babble. 2009. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. "Princess X." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 03 Dec. 2009 “Recumbent Figure.” Tate Online. 2007. Web. 03 Dec. 2009. “Salvador Dalí: The Persistence of Memory.” The Museum of Modern Art. The Collection, 2009. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. “Simon Schama’s Power of Art.” UK: BBC, 2009. Web. 03 Dec. 2009. Sparke, P, Felice Hodges, Anne Stone and Emma Dent Coad. Design Source Book: A Visual Reference to Design from 1850 to the Present Day. New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1986. Print. The Bulfinch Guide to Art History: A Comprehensive Survey and Dictionary of Western Art and Architecture. Bulfinch Pr, 1996. Print. "The Liver Is the Cock’s Comb." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 03 Dec. 2009. "Three Women." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 03 Dec. 2009.  “Three Women.” The Museum of Modern Art. The Collection, 2009. Web. 02 Dec. 2009. Read More