Analysis of Art at the Beginning of the 20th Century - Assignment Example

Analysis of Art at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century ART SUMMARY At the beginning of the twentieth century, art took on so many new directions that it was difficult to keep up with all the styles and movements. Some artists were rigorous in defining and proclaiming the validity of their particular style and others were just content to ride the wave of artistic representation. Robert Delaunay, The Windows Series, 1911-13 and Sonia Delaunay-Terk, Blanket, 1911, were working in France and heading in the idea of using colour and light as the main elements of painting. In the window series the vividness of pure color is the subject of the works rather than any representative elements. Even shape becomes secondary to Delauney’s exploration of the impressionist techniques to their Zenith. The Orphists took the spiritual and artistic qualities of colour as far as they could. Olga Rozanova’s Pub, 1913 was a forerunner to the abstraction and functional-seeming graphic art that defined Russian style until the 1920’s. The analytical deconstruction of form began by the artists at the end of the 19th –most notably the cubists century was taken further and forms were explodes or simplified. Artists were searching for a truth beyond a mere visual representation of a scene. Wassily Kandinsky had painted among the German Expressionists and pushed his work to an extreme that could be seen as no longer representational He came back to Russia IN 1914 when the second world war broke out, and later returned to Germany and the Bauhaus when the tension in Russia became too much. In his six year period, he had a profound influence on Russian modernism, where a certain clean and pared down style came to the fore-a fresh and individual voice encompassed by artists such as Kasimir Malevich and Rodchenko. Form became so minimal that the canvas itself and the negative space took on importance. There was a distinct flattening of form, a move away from texture and simplification. Malevitch had created a movement called Suprematism, in which the elements within a work became the most important aspects of the painting. He was clear and logical-his work has the purity of a mathematical equation. His works, Morning in the Village after a Snowstorm1912 and Black Square 1913 show firstly his links to the Russian countryside and his move towards absolute abstraction. The Russian revolution of 1917 meant that Russia was reborn in a sense and was ready to throw off the Rococo finery of the tsars and develop an artistic identity that was representative of the proletariat. This was one point of view apparent in Russia. Aleksandr Rodchenko was developing in a different direction-namely a Constructavist point of view-celebrating human development and new technology. In his Advertising Poster, 1925, we are able to see this in the flat style and almost diagrammatic view point. His Model for a Worker’s Club, is also indicative of his support for communism in the early stages and the development of his ideas: art that had a purpose. Vavara Stepanova in her Design for Sportswear and created along the same functional lines art that was immersed in design-the style is graphic and simple. Rodchenko along with Vladimir Tatlin in works such as Monument to the Third International, 1920 and other Constructavist artists sought to create art that stood not just as a static piece, but had a function or represented an idea of functionality. The artists working within this explosive environment were at first celebrated as an original and modern voice, but as Stalin seized power there seemed to be a reaction against any idea or group that had the taint of the west. These artists were subsequently viewed as capitalist and bourgeois-definitely not representative of the pure hardliner communist policies that were beginning to take hold the public and the government found their ideas awns aesthetic too esoteric and hardly fitting for the hardliner communist policies that were coming into play. So ironically there artists who had returned to Russia to represent the new order were no longer welcome and they took their new ideas back to Europe. The move towards abstraction: fed by artistic, scientific and technological developments found a home in Germany. Frank Kupka, Disks of Newton, 1912 , was a for runner of the development towards Abstraction-using art to represent scientific theories to the minimalism inspired by spiritualism that was encapsulated by Piet Mondrian in his Composition in Red, Blue, Yellow, 1930, which sought o illustrate the very essence of life in primary colours and horizontals and verticals. This style developed as a reaction to decorative design styles that were popular at the time. This was a style that sought to discover the very bones, the pure underlying structure of form-without embellishment or unnecessary elements. It culminated in a school that encompassed design and fine art, a school that sough to teach the philosophy of its vision as a way of life. This was Bauhaus- a school that attracted some of the great modernists as teachers and inspired an architectural style that has reached into the 21st century. Walter Gropius was an architect who designed the second Bauhaus building. And elements of the first: Director's Room in the Weimar Bauhaus, 1924 and The Bauhaus buildings, Dessau were designed along clean and simple lines. It flourished in the time between the two world wars and it was only when the structure of Germany began to be threatened by Hitler’s policies that the school disbanded and many artist fled to America. Marcel Breuer’s Wassily Chair is a beautiful example of form fitting to function-the underlying philosophy of Bauhaus. In Switzerland, there was a movement afoot that took its name from a nonsense word. Dada was an anti art movement, which sought to add humor to the staid academic traditions and exclusivity of much art. From Hugo Balls recitations of random poetry to Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel, simply a bicycle wheel mounted and labeled as sculpture and Fountain, a urinal exhibited in the same manner, artists celebrated the mundane by using found objects and poked fun at those celebrating high art. Dadaism is one of the movements from the mid-century that has maintained its popularity even in today’s art world-where much conceptual art is aimed at questioning the very idea of art and its validity in our society. There were underlying political critiques in much of the work- the absurd constructions questioned absurd politics-Hannah Hoch's Cutting with a kitchen knife through the Weimar Beer Belly The Surrealists combined some of these subversive elements and began to interpret the dream world and the subconscious in art, often with disconcerting or humorous effect. Arp’s squares arranged according to chance took into consideration the random events that are out of our control and how chance is a primary determiner of out future. In this work he dropped pieces of paper onto a canvas and adhered them where they fell. Max Ernst combined mechanical end human elements in slightly comic paintings of sculptures which had the menacing aspects of monsters from a dream-inspired by the machines and gas masks of the First World War. I fact this war had forced many people to question the actions of their leaders and the horrors of conflict. Magritte used a smooth naturalism to illustrate the paradoxes of life in The Treachery of Images 1928-29 Other artists such as Matisse and Picasso retained very distinct and original artistic voices through this period, both developing their styles affiliated to the thinkers and writers of the time but apart. Pablo Picasso, Three Woman at the Spring, 1921 is distinctive in its move toward exploring the underlying relationships between form and colour and Henri Matisse’s, Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Background, furthers his own theories. As form becomes simplified to a few beautiful curved lines and the background and foreground are merged into one decorative surface. These artists were declaring the truth of painting by drawing the viewer to the fact of the canvas as a surface and onto a window or an illusion. Artists working in America were exploring different avenues. American Regionalism/ the American Scene was a naturalistic view of America, particularly everyday scenes. The economic crisis of the 30’s and subsequent Great depression made artists form their own American identity –before European modernism had been one of the major stylistic influences. Benton combined naturalism with an American mythology in works such as The Ballad of the Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley, 1934. His figures are sensual and there are strong narrative elements as his figures romp loll across the countryside. The economic reform measures taken by Roosevelt in the years leading up to the war included funding for the arts. Artist’s could now develop and become recognized by the American public. Grant Wood’s American Gothic, painted in 1930 draws on the iconography of the mid-west as well as elements from the German and Scandinavian heritage of many American farmers. These elements are combined to represent a new American reality-the couple pictured represents the farmers who were one of the hardest hit groups during the depression as stoic and civilized in the face of hardship. The realism of the picture is in the style, the features, clothing and background are carefully painted to represent a very certain type and locale. Wood, like Edward Hopper and James Whistler were entranced by their country and sought to elevate the reality of its people and its scenery. The Social Realism of Lawrence, The Migrations series, 1940-41, conveyed the more desperate side of the homeless and unemployed. His work is grittier and represents the feelings of hopelessness of the poverty stricken working classes most affected by Hoover's hardliner economic policies. These artists were the artists who were still exploring the ideas of abstraction that occupied many of their European contemporaries. We can trace major developments between the world wars and then another upheaval shook things up and changed the geographical locus of development. Artist fled the fascist and constraints of Europe as the Second World War broke out-their ideas were seen as degenerate and many artists were Jewish ands persecuted in Artists inspired by their transformation of German politics and moved to question the philosophies of the emerging Nazi party became politicised. The Neue Sachlichheid (New Objectivity) was a reaction to expressionism and artists such as Georg Grosz and Otto Dix were instrumental in this movement. They developed a new type of realism that sought to distort and exaggerate the certain features to add to reality of their work. There are elements of caricature in Grosz’s Republican Automatons and Dix’s Dr Mayer Hermann, which point out the useless middle class that was in cahoots with the weak and ineffective Weimar republic and the Nazi party that was fast becoming popular. When Hitler took over in his 1933 coup, Heartfield used montage to promote the new menace that faced the German population and created art to further their cause such as The poster for Degenerate Art-an advertisement for the exhibition that tried to vilify the Modern art produced in Germany and create enemies out of the many artists living and working there. The idealised and propaganda-style Farmer’s Family by Wissel Kalenberg was a further example of pro-Nazi art produced in the 30’s. America, neutral at the beginning of the war was a haven for these exiles and thus begun a resurgence in American art that was to finally develop as an n artistic voice to be reckoned with- the realists began to give way to a style different form anything before. Abstract expressionism combined the movement away from identifiable subject matter with emotions and spirituality. The combination was powerful and different to anything produced before. Mark Rothko produced huge works that were made purely from different shades of the same color such as Ochre and Red on Red 1954. The static quality of the work was offset by the texture and size which made it different from the smooth surfaces that had defined the pure abstraction of artists like Malevich. His works seem to vibrate and induce emotion in the viewer. Jackson Pollock, also a major artist in this movement changed from the naturalistic approach of his teacher Benton to produce action paintings that drew on the art making processes of earlier times such as Aborigine art in Australia and ceremonial art of Africa. In Lavender Mist swirls of enamel paint cover a massive canvas in a design that ultimately takes on a life of its own. Rothko, Newman’s, Onement I, 1948 and Vir Heroicus Sublimus, 1950 are further explorations of pure colour abstractions on a huge scale, while David Smith explores the use of black contour line to abstract a familiar view in Hudson River Landscape as does Ibram Lassaw in Clouds of Magellan: where sculpture and kinetic lines are the dynamic elements combined to represent natural phenomenon. The Neo-Dadaists spanned the divide between these artists and the pop artists. Rauschenberg began to use materials not usually considered as art materials to produce works that questioned the art making process as well as the meaning of art. The Second World War was over and once again America emerged as an economic leader, having been able to maintain neutrality for as long as possible. They now had the intelligentsia of Europe to enhance their wealth and an increasingly global and dynamic society was developing: a society that knew firsthand the implications of violence and disorder. Josef Albers from The Bauhaus School was Rauschenberg’s painting instructor. In his work Bed, 1955 a quilt dipped in red paint was stretched across the canvas: an article that represented provincial and old style America was thus re-made and represented something completely different: some interpreted it as a metaphor for murder and rape. Erased by de Kooning, used similar techniques of combination sculpture and paint. Jasper Johns, a contemporary, uses similar techniques of found materials overlaid with paint to create works such as Flag and Target with Plaster Casts, 1955. He two uses and distorts elements of American Nationalism to question the social order. As American society, spurred on by wealth and a middle class far wealthier and consumer driven than ever before, there was a subtler shift in art. Film and television had swept across the world and America became the country to emulate. In order to promote a sell all the new consumer goods that packed the shelves, sophisticated printing techniques and beautiful graphic design became a major industry. Artist seized these techniques to create art that was at once attractive and a contemporary comment on society of the emerging world leaders: America and Britain. Andy Warhol created series of prints of the beautiful celebrities that flocked to his studio and nightclub. Using photography and silk-screens he reduced portraits to few colours and graphic lines as seen in his prints of Marilyn Monroe, 1962. Oldenburg produced huge soft sculptures like Floor Cake that elevated the everyday to high art in a tongue in cheek manner. In fact Pop Art was ultimately a humorous take of art and society. Further seen in Lichtenstein’s huge enlargements of comic strip imagery, using the Bender printing technique, in Big Painting No.6, 1965. The limited palette and graphic qualities of pop were extended by Smith, Judd, and Serra in Die, Untitled , 37 pieces of Work, Fall and One Ton Prop, respectively where art is stripped to its basic features. These artists used bright colours and shape but with the smooth look that was a move away from the abstraction of before. Painting then seemed to have been taken as far as it would go and artists explored the aspects of art that had not been seen before. Earth Art was an exciting development where art moved from the gallery space to the real world. Christo and Jeanne Claude experimented with wrapping well know features in the landscape to alter their definitions such as Running Fence a fence wrapped in billowing silk. Another dramatic statement was made by Smithson who used nature’s own spiral and enlarged it as a Spiral Jetty. These artists looked at the earth as their canvas. To further involve a public, cut off before from seeing art. Tinguelys, Homage to New York, 1960 did in fact take place in a gallery where a huge sculpture self destructed with much noise. It was an attempt to portray the essence of modern living with all its noise and of course the ultimate truth of creation and destruction: life and dearth And finally the movement which informs much of our art today: where the idea is as important as the piece. This is beautifully illustrated by Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965 like the Surrealists and Dadaists, Kosuth combines the real with representations of the same idea-thus questioning our definition of reality. A real chair is shown alongside a photograph of the chair and a dictionary definition of a chair. A chair is something we take for granted, the viewer is forced to re-examine existence. This is in a sense why art is important to humanity. Read More