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Participation:
Workshops |
| Participation points for this class are earned primarily through workshops that require class attendance and hands-on performance or independent research. These workshops are designed to enhance the slide lectures and discussion and to demonstrate important principles; missing classes, therefore, severely limits your ability to get the most out of the course. In addition, significant questions on exams will be drawn from material derived from these workshops. These assignments are worth up to 5 points each. Perfect attendance earns an additional 5 participation points. Week 1: Printing Technologies and Popular Culture I: Engravings and Lithographs With the popularization of planographic printing (lithography and chromolithography) in the early nineteenth century, printing became an increasingly influential medium for both artists and propagandists. Artists also experimented with earlier printing techniques such as relief (including woodcuts) and intaglio (engravings and etchings, drypoint, aquatint). A useful timeline and brief primer on printing media and other resources on printing are available in .pdf format from Washington State University This workshop is designed to familiarize students with the growing use of printing as a means of popularizing the works of emerging art movements. With the rise of republican and democratic (little r, little d) governments, and the growing economic power of the middle class, new markets for art began to open up. Prints, which faithfully reproduced works by "famous" artists, were fairly cheap to obtain and made the works of these artists even better known. Just as the invention of the printing press had revolutionized literacy, mechanical image-printing techniques made works of art affordable to an increasingly larger popular audience. The graphic arts benefited from the Industrial Revolution as much as the tourist industry did with the introduction of the railroad. For the first two workshops, your task is to familiarize yourself with the impact of graphic printing techniques on the visual arts during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Week 1's workshop requires that you locate examples of lithographic prints made of works by two or more of the artists represented by this week's slide list. I've already provided you with examples of artists whose works were reproduced in popular formats (by Fuseli, Turner, and Goya). To fulfill the requirements of the workshop, complete the following tasks. The results must be submitted week 2, and then included in your workbook:
Further resources: Met Timeline essays on Printing Techniques in the West, Lithography in the Nineteenth Century, and The Print in the Nineteenth Century, A final point: I urge you to interpret and record the information you gather, rather than simply copying and pasting stuff you've snitched from Wikipedia or even the Met. This is, in part, a critical thinking exercise, and you must be able to analyze and digest information and use your sources appropriately. Part of your grade on this workshop requires that you follow instructions carefully. Before you begin, make a list of what is required for each part of the workshop, and then proceed to complete it. Weeks 2-4: Printing Technologies and Popular Culture II: Chromolithography and the Poster The invention of chromolithography to produce color prints revolutionized popular culture by introducing colorful posters and other graphic images, such as book illustrations and cover art. This week's workshop involves locating examples of how nineteenth-century artists took advantage of the new technology to further their careers and create interest in their "serious" works. The use of color in prints extends to older forms, both relief and intaglio, as well. For this workshop, locate artists from the slide list whose work encompasses printing in some form---the more, the better.
Use the links from the previous workshop, as well as appropriate sites listed on the sidebars for weeks two through four. Please also adhere to the provisions about thinking critically and following directions from the previous workshop. Week 6: Synthetic Cubism: Collage and Papier Collé After viewing the film about Picasso and Braque, we will experiment with the practice of synthetic Cubism as described in the video. I will provide materials for a still life arrangement similar to those designed by later Cubists, and materials to design and sketch the basic elements of a collage. Students will then complete the work at home, using further appropriate materials. Before completing the assignment, and preferably before coming to class week 6, read Clement Greenberg's essay, Collage. Please note that the term collage does not refer (in the sense we're using in class) the rather precious multi-media pieces produced in popular craft magazines, nor does a collage consist of bits of crap randomly strewn about a page. The purpose of this exercise is to help you learn to distinguish between analytical and synthetic Cubism--concepts my students are finding it increasingly difficult to understand. Once again, a successful product will exhibit evidence of careful thinking and reading and your ability to interpret information presented in the lecture and the video. Be able to explain what you have created to your classmates, providing reasons for why your work looks the way it does and what you were trying to accomplish Week 7: Photography and Modernism This workshop will focus on the relationship between painting and photography, and offer a twist on those aspects of this relationship discussed in class. As the basis for the exercise, I will provide the makings of a still life based on a realist painting. Following the lecture and discussion, either in groups or individually, photograph the still life and then proceed to manipulate the resulting image into an approximation of a painterly form, using the techniques of one of the Impressionists discussed in class.
Once you have completed this exercise you should better understand connections between Realism and Impressionism, and between Impressionism and photography. We will discuss the results of this exercise Week 4, after the Dallas Museum of Art visit. Week 8: Project Development and Research Part of the class for week 8 will be conducted in the Library, time permitting, and is devoted to conducting research toward the completion of your final design project. The workshop is worth five points, which can only be earned upon submission of the completed work sheet distributed in class. You must attend class for the entire time in order to earn credit for this workshop, and consult with the instructor about your project. By the end of the class period you should have located the minimum number of resources for a preliminary bibliography, and have developed a suitable concept within the guidelines described on the Final Design Problem Requirements page. Week 9: Matisse's Cut Paper Creations As if to mark his “second life,” Henri Matisse began to develop a new technique after surgery for cancer in 1941. His gouaches découpés, or cut-paper works made from painted paper, emerged from a creative spirit unhampered by his being bound to a wheel chair. He created works that found themselves in books such as Jazz, that stood alone as individual pieces, or that served as cartoons for stained glass windows, tiles, and other media. Matisse saw his new technique as “a logical development on the road to abstraction” (Berggruen and Hollein 26). The process of cutting into paper and attaching it to a surface offers a three-dimensional way to explore sculptural forms and the ability to use design to express responses to phenomena such as nature or poetry. The technique is grounded in the Cubist idea of papier collé and collage, but visually it more closely resembles the late synthetic Cubist paintings made to look like collage, using bright colors and simple shapes. This workshop is meant to engage students in a simplified version of Matisse’s process, using pre-colored paper, scissors, and glue to create an 8.5 x 11 inch experiment in gouache découpé. Follow the procedure outlined below and submit the finished product at the end of class. This isn't true gouaches découpés, because we're not actually painting the paper, but we can pretend we painted it ourselves.
As you work, focus on the connections between synthetic Cubism and gouaches découpé, and consider the relationship between art and design that these techniques reflect. At the end of the workshop we will exhibit and discuss the results. I'll have on hand the book by Olivier Berggruen and Max Hollein, Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors, Masterpieces from the Late Years. (Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2006--it's available for under $15 at Half Price Books). It would also be a good idea to consult the links above before you come to class. Here are a couple of YouTube videos to inspire you: Henri Matisse Jazz, featuring Miles Davis, Mixing of Mattise's Art Work with music from Eels, Novocaine for the Soul. This workshop will serve as a review of the material we've covered in class over the quarter. The class will divide up into teams which will then produce a "map" of movements, artists, and how they were connected. All materials will be provided. |
Locate
two artists (other than Fuseli, Turner,
and Goya) whose works were reproduced as lithographs,
and include both a copy of the original painting and a copy of the
lithographic reproduction. If possible, find out why the artist chose
to print the copy. If the artist used other means of reproducing works
(such as engraving), include an example of each (again illustrated
with copies of the original and the print).