Weeks 6 & 7: Post-Impressionism, Cubism, and Abstraction: The Modernist Impulse
Post-Impressionism
(*denotes
an image for which you are responsible on exams)
Met Timeline: Post-Impressionsim;
The
Nabis and Decorative Painting; Henri
Matisse; Georges
Seurat and Neo-Impressionism; African
Influences on Modern Art; Japonisme
A Modern Olympia c. 1873-74
*The Card Players 1890-92
Apples, Peaches, Pears, Grapes 1879-80
*Still Life with Plate of Cherries 1885-87
*Still Life with Apples on a Sideboard, 1900-1906, is in the Reves Collection at the DMA; click on "art objects" and then on the thumbnail.
The Mont Sainte-Victoire and Bibemus saga is a WebMuseum page that chronicles Cézanne's landscapes in the area near his home, and which (because of the "little cube" brush strokes) influenced the development of Cubism.
Bathers At Rest 1875-76
*The Large Bathers 1898-1905
*Le Mont Sainte-Victoire 1904-06
*Vision After the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling the Angel) 1888
Tahitian Women on the Beach 1891
*Manau tu papau (The Spirit of the Dead Watching) 1892
Emile Bernard
*The Potato Eaters 1885
*The Night Café 1888
Street in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, 1888. The drawing is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibit, Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings; the painting and a review of the exhibit can be seen on this artnet site. A catalogue with images is also available at vggallery.
Starry Night Over the Rhone 1888
*Starry Night 1889
*Bedroom at Arles 1888 (another version of this painting was created in 1889)
*Wheat Field Under Threatening Skies 1890
*Sheaves of Wheat 1890 (Dallas Museum of Art. Click on "art objects"; the image is second from the left on the bottom row)
Neo-impressionism
Forest at Pontaubert 1881
*Une Baignade, Asnières (Bathers at Asnières) 1883-84; retouched 1887
*Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte 1884-86. On the page linked (to the Art Institute of Chicago, which owns it) you can use a QuickTime feature to zoom in on parts of the picture. The page itself is part of a larger online exhibition on Impressionism and Post-impressionism.
*The Models 1887-88
Part V: Japanese influences on nineteenth-century art and design
One of the most important influences on late nineteenth-century art was Japanese woodblock printing, and this page on Viewing Japanese Prints has a large number by a large number of artists--including Hiroshige, whose prints were collected by numerous Western artists, like Monet and Cezanne.
The Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute features a long, highly informative article that you may find useful: Visions of People: The Influences of Japanese Prints—Ukiyo-e Upon Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century French Art by Patricia Flynn.
*James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain, 1863-64 (CGFA)
*Mary Cassatt, The Letter (1891) and The Bath (1891-92). (CGFA)
Since the Van Gogh Museum has redesigned its website, the best information on some of the following is more difficult to obtain. Click on "permanent collection" and go from there. I've linked alternative sources where possible.
Vincent Van Gogh, The Bridge in the Rain, 1887. Images are from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; Ando Hiroshige, Rainstorm on Ohashi Bridge. c. 1857, from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.
The Courtesan, 1887; Cover of Paris Illustré, 1886 featuring Keisei Eisen's original woodcut image. This page from the van Gogh Museum includes the painting and some details, as well as a thumbnail of the original (A page on "Van Gogh's Japonisme" is in Dutch, but all the Japanese prints I showed are included. Another page on Japonisme in Western art can be found at the same site.)
Utagawa Kuniyoshi Picking Cherry Blossoms. c. 1848 (one of the prints in Van Gogh's collection)
Sprig of Flowering Almond in a Glass (Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass). 1888
Flowering Plum Tree after Hiroshige. 1887. Hiroshige's print, Kameido Ume (Japanese apricot) Garden, 1857, also from the One Hundred Famous Views of Edo series.
*Claude Monet, La Japonaise, 1876.
Part VI: Cubism
Several excellent articles are available to help you negotiate the concepts and principles involved in the development of Cubism. Begin with the Met's Timeline of Art History article. See also this helpful Timeline of Cubism from Cubistro, Mark Harden's article in the Artchive, and the Webmuseum summary of Cubism. Highly recommended: the Pompidou Centre's page on Cubism.
*Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Begun May, reworked July 1907. Study for Les Demoiselles D'Avignon, early 1907 (one of many preliminary drawings), and another related work (Head of a Medical Student) from June of 1907.
*George Braque, Large Nude, 1907-08
*Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, Girl with a Mandolin (Fanny Tellier) 1910
*George Braque, Violin and Palette 1909-10
*Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, Ma Jolie (Woman with a Guitar or Zither) 1911
*Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, Guitar and Violin c. 1912
Still Life with Bowl and Fruit 1912
*Guitar 1913
*Georges Braques, Bottle, Newspaper, Pipe, and Glass 1913
Fernand Léger, Still Life with Beer Mug, 1921
Students are often confused by abstraction in art, and see it primarily as a reflection of an artist's inability to produce more representational work. In order to disabuse you of this idea, I have put together a set of paintings by the Dutch artist, Piet Mondrian to continue our essay into Modernism. Mondrian's most famous works consist of quite abstract lines and blocks of color. His earlier works, however, reflect a considerable talent for more naturalistic painting, and indicate his contributions to the dialogues among both Post-impressionists and Cubists.
The following slides provide some indication of Mondrian's progress toward abstraction--a continuous quest for simpler, purer lines and forms. We can also observe this process in the works of other artists, particularly Wassily Kandinsky, who was associated with the Bauhaus and other movements, and the Czech painter František Kupka (there's a book on him in the Kelley Library). The Webmuseum article, Towards Abstraction, should also help. The Museum of Modern Art's Provence Research Project contains works by all of these folks--conveniently located on the same page (because of their placement in the alphabet). While you will not be responsible for individual works (except for those discussed in subsequent lectures), you may be asked to describe the process through which artists move from strict representation through various stages of abstraction.
Wassily Kandinsky (CGFA): unfortunately this page is a shadow of its former self because of copyright problems, but some of the works I showed in class are available here:
An article on Kupka by Ray Zone, with a couple of images; another article (in Spanish) on Kupka by Milko Garcia Torres, from a larger work on Great Painters of the Twentieth Century; it features one of the paintings I showed (Newtonian Disks), plus others.
The Guggenheim Collection page on Kupka, with links to a biography and suggested readings.
Artcyclopedia's Kupka page (sources of images in museums and galleries)
Red Tree (1908)
Dunes and Sea (1909-10)
Still Life With Gingerpot, I (1911)
Pier and Ocean (Sea and Starry Sky; 1915) is no longer available from MoMA, but for a similar work, see The Sea from the Guggenheim, and Composition 10 in Black and White (Pier and Ocean), 1915, from ArtNet.
For the following, see the Mondrian: The Transatlantic Paintings for examples of works similar to those I showed but for which I couldn't find links.
Place de la Concorde (1938-1943) the DMA link to this image is broken, but it's #16 of 17 on the Transatlantic Paintings--or you can see it on Carol Gerten-Jackson's site.
Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942-43)
There is also a page called Abstraction Examples: Mondrian's Trees--which can give you an idea of how he uses trees to work through his transitions it's from a page developed by Sheelagh Carpendale at the University of Calgary, with several more studies of abstraction (including one on Picasso's bulls).
De Stijl (I won't be covering this movement until week 9 in the segment on "Art Between the Wars." But because Mondrian was a member, the material noted below is helpful.)
If you're at all interested in the philosophical ground that underlies Mondrian's work, take a look at this article by Hilton Kramer in New Criterion Online: "Mondrian & mysticism: 'My long search is over.'" Robert Hughes also wrote a useful article for Time magazine on Mondrian, "Purifying Nature."
Gerrit Rietveld, Red and Blue Chair (for grins you might want to take a look at the results for my search for the chair on Google). When Mondrian's "Translatlantic" paintings were exhibited at the DMA, there was an example of the chair in the Museum of Europe--and it was ok to sit on it (surprisingly comfortable, actually).
Gerrit Rietveld, Shroeder House (there's now a very nice 30-minute film on the Shroeder House in the Kelley Library)
Part VIII: The Bauhaus
The primary source of information and material for this segment of the class is the film, Bauhaus: Face of the Twentieth Century, and the Bauhaus Links page. Be sure you can identify at least five members of the Bauhaus and their works, and understand the impact of the Bauhaus on modern design.
Additional Resources |
See
the episode on A Fresh View, an hour-long video
(also available in the Kelley Library); the second half hour deals
with Post-impressionism and Neo-impressionism. Into the
Twentieth Century considers movements from the Vienna Secession
through Cubism. I can't recommend these films highly enough, especially
to those having difficulty making sense of an aesthetically dense
period of history (from about 1880 to 1930). French Painting of the 19th Century at the National Gallery of Art. Featuring small exhibits of NGA holdings of works we're studying this quarter, including Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne. Scroll down on the home page for the complete list. Also at the NGA: A QuickTime tour of "Van Gogh's Van Goghs" and a .PDF file of an educational booklet, Picturing France 1880-1900. New at the Met: Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde: be sure to take a look at what's on line for this exhibit. For works related to week 4's lecture, see Americans In Paris, another exhibit that's just opened. The online gallery tour makes all of the paintings available, with commentary. Pierre Bonnard: The Late Interiors Bonnard's interiors reflect the growing interest in domestic life as a subject of painting after the beginning of Realism. This is a new exhibit at the Met, and the page contains a large number of images. An especially helpful website is available through the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, called Making Sense of Modern Art. It features lectures, videos, information on typography, and offers a way of "getting into" modern art for those who are still scratching their heads after last week's lecture. You'll need Flash/Shockwaver, but this site is well worth some time. Postimpressionism & after Gauguin in New York Collections: The Lure of the Exotic (Met) Neo-Impressionism: The Circle of Paul Signac The Met's current show, Cezanne to Picasso shows how post-impressionism influenced the development of Cubism. The
Bloomsbury Group and the Omega Workshops Tate Archive Journeys: Bloomsbury from the Tate Modern in London. There's a timeline, bibliographies of the members, plus more. Tate Archive on the Bloomsbury group. Bloomsbury in Sussex is a page on the various homes and haunts of the Bloomsbury group. A review of the Tate exhibit by Roger Rosenblum in Art Forum: The Art of Bloomsbury The Bloomsbury Group: Artists, Writers, & Thinkers Bloomsbury: Books, Art, and Design, an exhibit at Victoria University Library, Tornonto Wandering Stars and Paper Darts: Love at the Heart of Bloomsbury, by Jude Rawlins. An essay on the influence of the group. Asian Influences James McNeill Whistler, Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room, 1876-77, and a detail from the Southwest corner. The Chicago tribune article on the purchase of the room shows Art Nouveau influence. These images are located on a virtual exhibit page from the Smithsonian. See also links to the side bars and images from weeks 2 and 3. African Influences: (I'm still working on these. My two main sources have disappeared. If you run into anything promising, please let me know.) The National Gallery of Art includes a number of Fauve Paintings in its permanent collection. Fauvism (WebMuseum) At
the Met: Matisse,
The Fabric of Dreams--His Art and His Textiles. ArtLex's definition of Analytic Cubism, with examples (though not all of the links work). Check the Online Picasso project mentioned above for works representing the appropriate years in Picasso's career that illustrate the differences. Here is a short lecture, by someone (or something) named Skuzzy, which offers a tidy overview of Cubism. (After doing a bit of research, I discovered that Skuzzy is actually a cat. Here's her biography and some photos. Her owners are web designers who seem to have taught their cats a thing or two about art.) From Rice University, here's a summary of similarities/differences between Cubism and Futurism. Under the category of Fun with Cubism, consider playing around in the Mondrimat. I found this attached to an interesting page called Cubistro (from the Institute of Applied Cubism)--which is only loosely attached to Cubism. It also linked me to this very useful and well-designed site (which uses Shockwave): Cubism Image Bank.
Picasso Artcyclopedia's Picasso page provides an extensive linked list of works at museums around the world, as well as links to image banks with multiple works. Mark Harden's Picasso section in his Artchive divides Picasso's work into the appropriate periods. See especially the sections on The Beginnings of Cubism and on Analytical and Synthetic Cubism. The University of Michigan's image library contains several Picasso works. Orazio Centaro's Art Images on the Web (OCAIW) provides a HUGE list of image links. Time magazine picked Picasso as one of the most influential artists of the ast century; here is the article by Robert Hughes, my all-time favorite art critic. Braque Mark Harden's Braque page at the Artchive. The Artcyclopedia's Braque list Before Braque became associated with Cubism, he was considered a Fauve ("wild beast") painter. This page feature's a number of Braque's Fauve paintings. The University of Michigan Library's Braque collection. Others to look at Paul Cézanne (WebMuseum) Juan Gris (WebMuseum) Fernand Leger (Artchive) Mondrian The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth recently featured an exhibit on Mondrian's journey from representation to abstraction: Mondrian 1892-1914: The Path to Abstraction. If you're at all interested in the philosophical ground that underlies Mondrian's work, take a look at this article by Hilton Kramer in New Criterion Online: "Mondrian & mysticism: 'My long search is over.'" Robert Hughes also wrote a useful article for Time magazine on Mondrian, "Purifying Nature." (Note: Time has removed the article, but I have a copy somewhere if you'd like to read it. You can probably also locate a copy through one of the Library's databases; it's worth it.) The Mondrian exhibit Transatlantic Paintings has recently been on view at the Dallas Museum of Art (this page is from Harvard). More: Mondrian
Chronos: a variety of paintings in chronological order, with
brief commentaries |