Modern Art History - Assignment Example

Part Analytical Cubism Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973). Still Life with Compote and Glass, 1914-15. Oil on canvas.25 1/4 x 31 1/2 in. (64.1 x 80 cm). Gift of Ferdinand Howald. Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio. a) The cubists view the space not as empty but as a generative algebra which creates openness with the ambition of opening up a three dimensional representation and space. The cubist’sargues that it is wrong to place the black square next to monochromes of artists such as Rodchenko and Klein. Although Malevich’s composition of a white square on top of a white square resembles a monochrome but it certainly opens up space. b) Some of the characteristics of cubism include openness which involves creating 3 dimensional objects into a 2 dimensional surface. A cubist therefore has to show more than one view at a time. The paintings are not based on precise art but use angles and shapes especially circles and rectangles. Cubism is broken into two spheres which include analytical and synthetic cubism. Analytical cubism involves breaking ofnatural forms and transforming them into little cubes or geometrical form. Synthetic cubism involves creating objects and focussing on the object together. Use of mixed medium is also one characteristic used by cubist as it mixes different mediums to create a composition of one surface. The artists use little cubes to depict a person or object from different views. Part 2 Suprematism According to Kazimir Malevich Suprematism is represented by the black icon which is found in almost all his drawings. The square presents suprematism symbol and the circle is a shape originating from the black box. The black box is an icon of suprematism according to Malevich (Malevich). The black box is also referred to as a symbol creating the 3D dimension. Malevich emphasizes that the black box should not be viewed as monochrome but should be viewed as an infinite symbol of space creating openness into space. The paintings by Malevich and his disciples depicts constellations of algebra and has opened a greatfield of study in arithmetic and mathematics. Question 3 part1 According to Clement Greenberg (Jeanne), abstract expressionism includes art that depict collective consciousness and is greater than any one nation. The abstract expressionist had difficult time putting their art into view as the world was under war. The artist had the role to turn their spirituality and express it into fine art. The artists had to ask themselves several questions including what and why they should paint a piece of art before starting any artistic piece of art. The abstract artists had to undergo a reformation from the ancient type of art such as modernism and break through to modern type of art. Artistic work from artists such as Marko Rothko shunned the dream of content surrealism hence shifting illustrative art into abstract art. This concept was picked and used by artist such as Rosenberg who depicts existentialism in his painting of ‘American action painters of 1952’. Greenberg further expresses that abstract expressionism redefined the purpose of art from social consciousness to social consciousness. The paintings and pieces of art contained meanings and messages to the society and that the meanings were to be expressed and not directly spoken or explained. The artists had to bring formal innovation and elements into their pieces of art. The use of series of colours was embraced as seen in the case of Malevich and this led to expansion field of painting by use of space line and colour. With this kind of work, abstract expressionist replaced the cult and figurative expression into universal truth as the artists expressed their personality. With the past era discriminating the women into artistic work, the abstract expressionism era embraced women and encouraged them into the artistic field. Greenberg considers Immanuel Kant as the first modernist according to his critique article (Greenberg). Kant was able to criticize different characteristics of artist through real elements in the artistic work. The goal of criticism develops from philosophical enlightment and the self spirit of criticism. Greenberg suggests that painting themselves must discover their purposeful inherency. Greenberg criticizes entertaining artist by stating that art can be irreducible and unique if it incorporates artistic work that cannot be found from other sources and that purity in art is very important as it guarantees the quality of the artistic work. Greenberg further suggests that illusions, narratives and realism should be excluded from paintings. Abstract artist depicts in their paintings hidden meanings in their paintings such as the great works of Manet. According to Clement, the spectator should first see the painting before noting many hidden meanings of the painting. As a painter with experience Greenberg attributes that flatness in the paintings is extremely unique. With modernism, art becomes abstract detaching itself from narratives, illusions, figurations, content and subject matter. The art then becomes unique more pure and reductive as it tries to describe itself. Modernism resists sculpture and 3D. Greenberg argues that poetry is literary and should not be brought into a painting since it will lose its meaning. Kant a modernist emphasizes that the spectator’s attitude was very important in artistic work and therefore modern artists had to detach themselves from expressing their attitudes on their pieces of painting. The modernist are also seen as progressive painters as they seem to divert from ancient type of artistic work to more unique kind of work by the inclusion of extrinsic properties aiming at purity and quality. Modernist work is intelligent and does not stop becoming intelligible in terms of continuity. Part 4 Limerick This is Limericks courtesy of Edward Lear (Lear) There was an Old Man in a tree, Who was horribly bored by a Bee; When they said, 'Does it buzz?' He replied, 'Yes, it does!' 'It's a regular brute of a Bee!' Part 5 conversations about art By the time Duchamp was creating the urinal many toilets as per that time did not possess such kind of structures and a porcelain toilet was a further step into social status. While he was presenting his work in an exhibition in 1917 Duchamp faced opposition as the committee rejected his piece of art even after paying the exhibition fee (Duchamp) . Duchamp joined an art movement known as ‘Dada’ meaning ‘if any’. The movement was aimed at revolutionizing the field of art. It is also believed that Duchamp assigned the name ‘R. Mutt’ which is separated possesses initial ‘R’ and ‘M’ meaning ‘readymade’. As a Dadaist, Duchamp got involved in controversies with the nature of art he created leading to the loss of the ‘Fountain’ after its initial exhibition. It is believed that the great sculpture was thrown away as rubbish. Even after the loss of the Fountain original photographs were still present and have been used to reproduce an image of original Fountain. Duchamp authorised production of the similar images in 1950, 1953 and 1963. In December 2004 The Fountain was voted the best and most influential piece of work of the 20th century (Henshner). One of the eight 1964 replicas has increased in price as the lowest bidder clocking $ 1.7 million. Several artists have risen into shame by trying to contribute into the sculptor in any way or the other mainly through urinating on it. Marcel Duchamp was an artist from France; his works was mostly related with Dadaist and surreal arrangements. He was well-thought-out by many as to be one of the great important artists to have lived in the twenty first century. Some of his accomplishments include the fact that he was inclined to the developments that took place in the Western hemisphere by his creativity. He individually contributed to art by influencing, advising and guiding other artists such as Peggy Guggenheim. Duchamp confronted conservative thought about imaginative developments and art marketing, not so much through the process of writing, but by the process of dissident engagements. He famously called a urinal art and termed it the fountain, however in a 1917 message to his sister Duchamp specifies that a female acquaintance considered the urinal as carving and referred it to him under the alias Richard Mutt. Duchamp fashioned comparatively uncommon artworks. Duchamp's early art works bring into line with Post-Impressionist elegances. He tested with orthodoxmethods and topics, as well as with Cubism and Fauvism. When he was later asked about what had influenced him at the time, Duchamp quoted the effort of Symbolist artist Odilon Redon, whose line to art was not externally in relation to academics, but silentlydiscrete. He schooled art at the Academia Julian from the years 1904 to 1905, but ideally played billiards as compared toappearing in for classes. Throughout this time Duchamp sketched and traded cartoons which reproduced his rudesense of humor. Most of hisdrawings usedgraphic and/or oralwitticisms such as through playing with words and symbols involved his mind for the rest of his life. In 1905, he instigated his obligatory military service, working for an artist who was a painter in Rouen. There he learned typesettingand production processes – expertise which he would use in his later works. Due to his oldest brother association in the prestigious Academiaroyal de pictureet de sculpture Duchamp's effort was shown in the 1908 Salon d'Automne. During the oncoming year his work was included in the Salon des Independents. Of Duchamp's parts in the display, detractor Guillaume Apollinaire--who was to be anacquaintance—assessed what he called "Duchamp's very ugly nudes." Duchamp likewise developed into lifelong friends with enthusiastic artist Francis Picabia after meeting him at the 1911 Salon d' Automne. Duchamp was fascinated with change and transition and like many artists of his time he wanted to show or rather portray a fourth dimension in his art. In those times, uniqueness was a virtue that was embraced worldwide and competition among artists was largely accepted. Some of the popular works during his era included his first "machine" painting, Coffee Mill (Moulin a cafe) (1911) which he later on handed down to his brother Raymond Duchamp-Villon. In the year 1911, Portrait of Chess Players (Portrait de joueurs d'echecs) there is the Cubist coincidingmounts and numerousviewpoints of both his brothers occupy themselves withchess, but to that Duchamp includedfeaturesassigning the hiddenpsychological activity of the players. The New York Dada had a smaller amountof serious tone than that of the European Dadaism, and was not a predominantlyprearrangedproject. Duchamp's friend Picabia linked with the Dada cluster in Zurich, taking to New York the Dadaist philosophies of ridiculousness and anti-art. Duchamp and Picabia first came across each other in September 1911 in Paris, where the both of them weredemonstrating. Duchamp presented a superiorvariety of his Young Man and Girl in spring, a work that had an Endemic theme and finelyoblique sexuality also found in Picabia'ssimultaneousAdam and Eve. According to Duchamp, 'their friendship began right there. The most protuberant instance of Duchamp's relationship with Dada was his suggestion of the fountain which is a urinal, which was presented to the Society of Independent Artists exhibit in the year 1917. Creationsin the Independent Artists displays were not nominated by the jury, and all fragments submitted were exhibited. However, the members of the show committee contended that the fountain was not an art, and banned it from the show. This caused uproaramong the Dadaists; this led Duchamp to quit from the panel of the Independent Artists. Few artists can take pride in having changed the sequence of art history ways that Marcel Duchamp di by assimilating the teachings of cubism and futurism whose combinedinspiration may be sensed in some of his early paintings. He led the American dada crusadeorganized with his associates and coworkers. By thought-provoking the very idea of what art were his first readymade directed tremor waves across the art domain that can still be felt today. Duchamp continuingobsession with the mechanism of yearning and human sexuality as well as his liking for word play bring into line his exertion with that of his surrealists though he persistently declined to be associated with any particular movements per se. In his persistence that art should be determined by philosophies above all Duchamp is commonly well-thought-out to be the father of conceptual art. His denial to follow unadventurous artistic path corresponding only by a dismay of duplication which accounts for the comparatively small quantity of works Duchamp fashioned in his short career. Work cited Duchamp, marcel. The fountain. Society of independent artists. Fountain. New York, 1917. Greenberg, Clement. The modernism of mordenist painting. 13 February 2012. 2012 . Henshner, Philip. The loo that shook the world. London, 01 December 2004. Jeanne, Dr. Art History Unstuffed. 02 December 2011. 2012 . Lear, Edward. Book of Nonesense. London: Punch publishers, 1846. Malevich, K. “The suprematist Mirror.” From suprematism to monochrome (2004): 131. Read More