The Revolutionary Period

20th Century Modernism, Part I:

Art Prior to World War I

Colonial Empires About 1900

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Sigmund Freud
-Ego, Id, Superego; Plato- reason, appetites, honor
-Repression
-Sublimation
-Projection
-Civilization and Psychology
-ways to make sense of the modern world
-Freud the mechanist?

Nietzsche
two competing moralities
-"God is dead" and human responsibility
-psychology of morality; psychology of history
-overview of reading:

Dealing with our world

The decline of moral responsibility? -the opposite of
Nietzsches wish may be coming true: too many choices
lead to the decline in values, our trust in them, our trust in
moral certitude
Lost in the Pluralism?
-representing the modern condition

Picasso-a leader of 20th century style

Les Demoiselles dAvignon (1907)

The table is considered the starting point ofCubism and as one of the most important paintings of the history
of painting because of the conceptual and stylistic break it offers

African influence (Peoples

Republic of Congo)

The region was dominated by Bantuspeaking tribes, who built trade links
leading into the Congo River basin.
Congo was formerly part of the French
colony of Equatorial Africa

-Colors of
postimpressionists
-Cubist ancestory
Post Impressionism was not a
formal movement or style. The Post
Impressionists
were
a
few
independent artists at the end of
the 19th century who rebelled
against
the
limitations
of
Impressionism. They developed a
range of personal styles that
focused
on
the
emotional,
structural, symbolic and spiritual
elements that they felt were
missing from Impressionism

Distinguishing between expressionism and

abstraction
> Emotions and Reasons
~ Fleming:

> Expressionism

~ 1900 Freuds Interpretation of Dreams is published

>
> 1) Expressionism vs. Impressionism

~ expressionism favors psychological states rather than fleeting light and

shadow of impressionism
~ Freud, Nietzsche

> 2) Expressionism vs. realism

~ expressionists were fully conscious of the idea of art as imitation, but

pursued explorations of the mind, spirit, and imagination.

Edvard Munch
"prophet of
expressionism

The Scream (1895)

Neoprimitivism, African Art

> Influenced expressionists
> Why? Geometric distortions; freedom from Western
stereotypes, academics

Queen Mother Head

In the Benin kingdom,
the iyoba, or mother of
the oba(king), occupies an
important
and
historically
significant place within Benin's
political hierarchy. The title was
first conferred upon Idia, the
mother of king Esigie, who used
her
political
skill
and
supernatural abilities to save
her son's kingdom from
dissolution in the late fifteenth
century.

Leopard
Pantherapardus, is a member
of the Felidae familyand the
smallest of the four "big cats" in
the genus Panthera, the other
three being the tiger, lion, and
jaguar. The leopard was once
distributed across eastern and
southern Asia and Africa,

Couple
Two items of a type.Two
members of an
intimate relationship.

Sculpture
Amedeo Modigliani
Head
This head, carved from
stone, shows instantly
Modigliani's fascination
with the classical African
and Etruscan sculptures.
The classical caryatids with
their balanced direct lining
and their modest beauty
inspired him.

Constantin Brancusi
Bird in Space (1925)

-Brancusi: worked with

medium, rather than to
form it into something
different from its
essence; motion

Henry Moore
Reclining Figure (1939)

Purchased from Leicester Galleries by the Victoria and Albert Museum 1940 (Circ.17-1940); transferred to the
Tate Gallery 1983

Eiffel Tower
nickname La dame de fer,
the iron lady) is a wrought
iron lattice tower located on
the Champ de Mars in Paris.
Built in 1889 as the entrance
arch to the 1889 World's
Fair, it has become both a
global cultural
icon of France and one of
the most recognizable
structures in the world.

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Music
Stravinsky
Schoenberg
Bessie Smith
Varese

> French and German Expressionism

> Fauvism: "Wild beast ism
> -influences: stained glass windows, Romanesque sculpture,
emotionalism of van Gogh, colors of Gaugin

Henri Matisse

-relatively calm for a wild

beast; arrangement is his
expression

Henri Matisse
31 December 1869
(November 1954) was a French
artist, known for his use of
colour and his fluid and original
draughtsmanship. He was
a draughtsman, printmaker,
and sculptor, but is known
primarily as a painter
.

Franz Marc

was a German painter and printmaker, one of the key figures of the German Expressionist movement. He was
a founding member of DerBlaueReiter (The Blue Rider)

Wasily Kandinsky

was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first purely abstract works.
Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa.

Cubism- first worked out in painting

Pablo Picasso
-Three Musicians (1921)

Hand painted oil painting reproduction on canvas of Musicians with masks 1921 1 by artist Picasso

Georges Braque
was a major 20th
century French
painter and sculptor who,
along with Pablo Picasso,
developed the art style
known as Cubism.

Cubism in Sculpture
-Woman's Head (1909)

In this frame of mind, and

recently exposed to
African tribal art whilst in
Spain, he began
painting LesDemoiselles
D'Avignon (1907, MoMA,
New York), his groundbreaking masterpiece

Jacques Lipchitz
Man with Mandolin
-sought release from the
shackles of the past.

Futurism
-sought release from the
shackles of the past

Nietzsche
History is the process of the dead burying the living

Modernism
> Modernists allied themselves with trends of
contemporary life
> Embraced the swift pace of the present
~ Art responded to the present

> Modernist works shock and surprise

> Fast-passing trends
> Materials and methods presented new artistic
possibilities
~ Urban planning, sculpting

> Modern unity of form and function

Expressionism
> Inner emotional and psychological focus
~ Freudian subconscious
~ Edvard Munch, The Scream
~ Revelations of neurotic, psychical, psychotic states

> Art is not representative of nature

~ Distorted outlines, strong colors, exaggerated forms
~ Altered images according to intensity of feeling
~ Subjective reactions and the supremacy of human imagination

Western Primitivism
> Conscious adaptations of authentic art of non-Western
cultures
> Assumption of African art: timeless spirituality and
emotional openness
> James Frazer: The Golden Bough
~ Resource for artists
~ Foundations of modern anthropology

> Truth to material

The Jazz Age

> Jazz = African slave rhythms + Western harmonic style
> Improvisational, spontaneous
~ Scott Joplin, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith

> Igor Stravinsky

~ Repetitive rhythms, syncopated accents
~ Reminiscent of American jazz sounds

French
Expressionism
> Fauve painters
~ Henri Matisse:
- Wild use of brilliant color for its own sake
- Balance, purity, serenity, devoid of depressing subject matter
- Entire formal management of picture encapsulates the expression

~ Andr Derain: Deliberate disharmonies

German
Expressionism
> Der Blaue Reiter (1912)
> Wassily Kandinsky
~ Art as deep emotional truth, painting as replica of inner
emotion
~ On the Spiritual in Art
~ Improvisation No. 30 (Cannons)
~ Sketchy references to natural, human, animal figures
~ Universal language of color and shape
~ Used musical terms for his art

Musical Counterparts
to Expressionism
> Richard Strauss
~ Salome
- Realm of abnormal psychology
- Simultaneous attraction and repulsion

~ Elektra
- Emotional climaxes, lurid orchestral sounds

> Arnold Schoenberg

~ Pierrot Lunaire
- Freudian motivations
- Commedia dellarte
- Sprechstimme

Abstraction
> Art free from representation
> Focus on pictorial mechanics, arrangement of patterns,
shapes, textures, colors
> Picture is own self-defining referent
> Rejection of absolute time (relativity)
> Variety of developments:
~ Cubism, Non-objective art, Futurism, 12-tone method of music
composition, International Style of architecture

Cubism
> Art=imposition upon nature
~ Geometric forms derived from the human mind
~ Play of angles on a flat surface
~ Czannes cylinders, spheres, cones

> Cubist design=angular, rectilinear

> Engaged fragmentary, discontinuous worldview
~ Objects perceived hastily in parts

> Movement inside, outside, above, below, around object

> Interlocking surfaces and planes in pictorial space

Cubism:
Pablo Picasso
> Co-inventor of Cubism with Georges Braque
> Les Demoiselles dAvignon
~ Series of overlapping planes and geometric contours
~ Influence of African art
~ Borders on avant-garde with its color and dynamism

> Womans Head

~ Cubist principles in sculpture
~ Geometric imposition of facial features, planes
~ Analysis and reduction

Cubism in Music:
the Twelve-Tone System
> Developed by Schoenberg
> Strict form of tonal organization
~ 12 chromatic pitches with the octave

> Rhythmic, harmonic, melodic, tone color rows for each

composition
~ Endless manipulation

> Tonality is relative, not absolute

~ No single tonal center

Futurism:
Believe in the Machine
> Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
~ History is the process where the dead bury the living

> Futurists wanted to destroy museums, libraries,

academies, universities
~ A roaring motorcar that runs like a machine gun
~ Projected an art for a fast-moving, machine-propelled world

> Machines promised to alleviate hardships of labor,

create an equitable society
~ Automation would free humanity from its dependence on
nature

Music of the Future

> Stravinsky
~ tude for Pianola

> Honegger
~ Pacific 231
- Evokes the sounds of the railroad

> Antheil
~ Score for Ballet Mechanique
~ Pianos, doorbells, airplane propeller

> Edgard Varse

~ Music to embrace realities of industrial world

Questions
for Discussion
> What role does primitivism play in Expressionist art? Explain its
stylistic function as well as its inherent commentary on the
worldview of the early 20th century.
> Consider issues of fragmentation during this period. What does this
artistic approach suggest about the culture? How is this
fragmentary approach similar to or different from that of the
Symbolists? In what ways is this approach maintained in
contemporary culture, particularly in the media? Explain.
> What was the appeal of geometric configuration for artists during
this period? What is suggested by the incorporation of these
precise shapes on otherwise natural subject matter?
> In what ways did modern art demonstrate a response to the
technological and mechanical advancements of the period?
Explain, citing specific examples.