Alex James Bedford

--- ALEX JAMES BEDFORD --- This blog is a collation of information for research about various movements in Art and Design for Unit 5 of a BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Art and Design (Graphic Design). Information sourced from various websites, such as the Tate, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the New York Met.

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500 Word Essay: Exploring the Dominant & Influential Art Movements in the 1920s.

The 1920s was quite a prosperous time for Art and Design, and the world in general, as many countries experienced an economic boom, following the end of the First World War. The era had a large social, artistic, and cultural impact,  and is commonly known as the ‘Golden Age Twenties’ or ‘Roaring Twenties’.

In Art and Design specifically, many movements began, and were very popular in the 1920s. The largest and most influential movements include; Art Deco, Bauhaus, De Stijl, Dada, Constructivism, and Surrealism.

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Art Deco was the dominant style of design in the 1920s, as it began flourishing internationally. Short for ‘Arts Décoratifs’, Art Deco got its name from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts), which was held in Paris in 1925. Art Deco was essentially a reaction to its predecessor, Art Nouveau, which had its curved shapes replaced with more fragmented, geometric shapes, influenced by cubism and precisionism. It also drew from the architectural style of the Bauhaus.

It had imagery of machine age and craft motifs, replacing Art Nouveau’s organic imagery. Art Deco embraced the new rapid industrialisation and technology. It was described by historian Bevis Hiller as “an assertively modern style [that] ran to symmetry rather than asymmetry, and to the rectilinear rather than the curvilinear; it responded to the demands of the machine and of new material [and] the requirements of mass production".

The Art Deco was a globally popular design style, and affected many areas, such as; architecture, interior design, cinema, and consumer products such as furniture, vehicles, and electronic items. Some of the most iconic Art Deco architecture can be seen in New York City’s Empire State Building, and Chrysler Building skyscrapers, and it was also a notable style of architecture for cinemas and hotels. Art Deco represented luxury, glamour, and faith in the progress of technology. It was very popular from the 1920s until the Second World War, where it was seen as too inappropriately luxurious in the austerity of war.

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Bauhaus was a revolutionary style, that later became one of the most influential in modern design. The ‘Staatliches Bauhaus’ was an art school in Germany, that the majority of the time it was operating, was during the 1920s. It had a revolutionary teaching style, where the pupil and teacher relationship was replaced by a community of artists working together. It aimed to create a “total work of art”, where all arts would be given as much importance as each other.

Bauhaus taught the principles of simple design, for mass production and practical uses and advantages of well-designed environments. Bauhaus is also known as the ‘International Style’, and was known for function and design working together. It used simple grid methods using perpendicular lines, and flat colours, which is similar to the Dutch ‘De Stijl’, also known as Neo-Plasticism.

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In conclusion, I have found I like both Art Deco, and Bauhaus styles. The Art Deco style has a lot of decorative parts which can be a nice touch, though sometimes they can be a bit over the top. A lot of work I personally do looks similar to Bauhaus, though it can sometimes look simple and empty.

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Websites referenced:

https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/textbooks/boundless-u-s-history-textbook/the-roaring-twenties-24/a-culture-of-change-187/art-movements-of-the-1920s-1032-1996/

http://www.1920-30.com/art/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920s

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/art-deco

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Deco

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/modern-art-movements.htm

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/b/bauhaus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus

http://www.theartstory.org/section_movements_timeline.htm

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A1 Poster based on Art Movements in the 1920s Decade. This is the same decade and art movements that I focused on in my essay, Art Deco and Bauhaus. These were two of the most influential styles in that period. I also like both styles a lot, I like the organised functionality of Bauhaus, but also I like Art Deco because of the very stylised decorative parts. The two styles are very different, one is very ornamental, and the other focuses on practical use, though I like and appreciate the detail that goes into both of them in different ways.

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OUTSIDER ART

Artist - Alfred Wallis 1855–1942

Title - Voyage to Labrador

Date - c.1935-6

Medium - Oil paint on wood

Dimensions - Support: 368 x 387 mm frame: 490 x 513 x 40 mm

Collection - No information available

Reference - T00220

A recollection of the artist's seafaring days on transatlantic windjammers and steamers.

Outsider art is used to describe art that has a naïve quality, often produced by people who have not trained as artists or worked within the conventional structures of art production

The artist Ben Nicholson discovered the naïve painter Alfred Wallis in St Ives in the 1920s. A retired fisherman, Wallis painted pictures of ships and the town harbour on pieces of driftwood and cardboard.

Sources:

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wallis-voyage-to-labrador-t00220      

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/o/outsider-art           

I think that outsider and naïve art are much more relatable for most people, as it is created by people who haven’t had formal training. Outsider art seem to be more separate to the rest of the art world, which can seem to be quite elitist. It shows the creativity that non-trained people can still produce if they are passionate.

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INSTALLATION ART

Artist - Cornelia Parker born 1956

Title - Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View

Date - 1991

Medium - Wood, metal, plastic, ceramic, paper, textile and wire

Dimensions - Unconfirmed: 4000 x 5000 x 5000 mm

Collection - No information available

Reference - T06949

CORNELIA PARKER This piece came out of a series of works I was doing about cartoon deaths - things like, things falling off cliffs, things being run over by a steam roller, things being blown up, shot full of bullets, like Roadrunner or Tom and Jerry. The garden shed came about because I was trying to find something universal and archetypal and that we all identified with and that was familiar to us. It's not the house but it's this kind of attic-y private place at the bottom of the garden which we put all our left-over stuff in. And so it seemed like a depository rather than the place that you live. We took it out to the Banbury Army School of Ammunition, to their demolition grounds where they do all these experiments with explosives and they were really keen to blow it up. I actually pressed the button that detonated it. The whole point of suspending it is to rob it of its pathos. After it was blown up and all the objects were lying on the floor, all very distressed, they had a pathos and somehow putting it back in the air where they were a little while before, it sort of re-animates them. The title of the piece is called 'Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View'. It's a two-part title really. The 'cold dark matter' I really like because obviously explosions have all kinds of connotations, dark ones being the most prominent. Also, 'cold dark matter' sounds like a psychological state - a mood or an atmosphere or a depression - I like the sound of that. It's a scientific term: it was coined to describe all the stuff in the universe you can't quantify, all the stuff they know is there but you can't see, which seemed a perfect description. And then 'an exploded view' is the kind of diagram you get in technical manuals to describe how a car works or a bike or a lawnmower, a very pragmatic laying out of stuff. And so that's what I was trying to do, to organise something tat was totally beyond our control and emotional control.

The term installation art is used to describe mixed-media constructions or assemblages usually designed for a specific place and for a temporary period of time

Installation artworks (also sometimes described as ‘environments’) often occupy an entire room or gallery space that the spectator invariably has to walk through in order to engage fully with the work of art. Some installations, however, are designed simply to be walked around and contemplated, or are so fragile that they can only be viewed from a doorway, or one end of a room. What makes installation art different from sculpture or other traditional art forms is that it is a complete unified experience, rather than a display of separate, individual artworks. The focus on how the viewer experiences the work and the desire to provide an intense experience for them is a dominant theme in installation art.

Sources:

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/parker-cold-dark-matter-an-exploded-view-t06949

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/installation-art

I think installation art would seem more interactive than paintings on a wall. You would be able to walk around a small environment to feel like you are within the artwork itself. It would allow you to see a different perspective of the art depending on where you are, which allows for a lot of possibilities.

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PERFORMANCE ART

Artist - Gilbert & George born 1943, born 1942

Title - Gordon's Makes Us Drunk

Date - 1972

Medium - Video, monitor, black and white and sound (mono)

Dimensions - Duration: 12 min.

Collection - No information available

Reference - T01703

Gin and tonic became Gilbert and George's drink of choice in 1971. They picked Gordon's because it was 'the best gin'. For this film, they have added their names to the bottle's label, on either side of the Royal crest. The artists are shown seated at a table, getting drunk to a soundtrack of Elgar and Grieg. Their deadpan expressions and repeated declaration that 'Gordon's makes us very drunk' creates an absurd scene that ironically questions identity, nationality and 'good behaviour'.

Performance art is art for which the artist uses their own body as the medium and performs an action or series of actions which become the artwork

Performance art is sometimes carefully planned and scripted but can also be spontaneous and random. Although it often takes place in front of an audience and may involve audience participation – or the orchestration of other participants by the artist – it can also be an action performed privately by the artist.

Performance art has origins in futurism and dada, but became a major phenomenon in the 1960s and 1970s and can be seen as a branch of conceptual art.

Sources:

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gilbert-george-gordons-makes-us-drunk-t01703

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/performance-art

Performance art is a lot different from the rest of traditional art. Instead of being just a static 2D painting or 3D sculpture or installation which is the same all the time, the performance art can be moving. It could be much more interactive, if it is in front of a live audience, and the experience can last for much longer and be more memorable.

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POST-MODERNISM

The term postmodernism is used to describe the changes that took place in Western society and culture from the 1960s onwards that arose from challenges made to established structures and belief systems. In art, postmodernism was specifically a reaction against modernism which had dominated art theory and practice since the beginning of the twentieth century.

The term postmodernism, was first used in around 1970. As an art movement postmodernism to some extent defies definition – as there is no one postmodern style or theory on which it is hinged. It embraces many different approaches to art making; and a host of art groups and movements from the 1960s onwards can be described as postmodernist. It is therefore perhaps easiest to define postmodernism by looking at its main characteristics. Anti-authoritarian by nature, it refuses to recognise the authority of any single style or definition of what art should be. It collapses the distinction between high culture and mass or popular culture and it tends to get rid of the boundary between art and everyday life. Resultantly, postmodern art can be characterised by its self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, and an eclectic mixing of different artistic and popular styles and media.

Pop artists broke down the separation between fine art and popular culture in their work: Lichtenstein borrows the language of comics for his painting Whaam.

Conceptual artists reacted against the modernist emphasis on the importance of the art object. Instead they emphasised the idea or concept behind the work…in doing so they championed the postmodern approach of interpretation and experience over universal truths.

Performance allowed artists to create work that eliminated the need for process and technique and also offered a way of making art more accessible to the masses. In this performance Gilbert & George’s deadpan expressions and repeated declaration that 'Gordon's makes us very drunk' creates an absurd scene that ironically questions identity, nationality and 'good behaviour'.  

Feminist Art - In the 1970s women artists began to make art in response to the developments in feminist theory. They used their personal experiences of being women to inform their work.

Neo-expressionism saw painters returning to mythical and historical subjects (in reaction to the negation of the subject by modernist painters). It was anti-intellectual and individualistic and referenced earlier painting styles.

Neo-Geo - Another postmodernist art movement with a ‘neo’ prefix…not surprising as postmodernism borrowed styles from various earlier movements without adopting their principles: Neo-geo art was influenced by the style of minimalism, conceptual art and op art.

Young British Artists - The YBAs stormed the art world in the 1980s and became known for their openness to materials and processes, shock tactics and entrepreneurial approach. In true postmodern spirit, no one style is evident in their work, though certain shared approaches can be seen such as the use of appropriated objects and images.

Source:

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/postmodernism

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MODERNISM

Modernism refers to the broad movement in Western arts and literature that gathered pace from around 1850, and is characterised by a deliberate rejection of the styles of the past; emphasising instead innovation and experimentation in forms, materials and techniques in order to create artworks that better reflected modern society

Although many different styles are encompassed by the term, there are certain underlying principles that define modernist art: A rejection of history and conservative values (such as realistic depiction of subjects); innovation and experimentation with form (the shapes, colours and lines that make up the work) with a tendency to abstraction; and an emphasis on materials, techniques and processes. Modernism has also been driven by various social and political agendas. These were often utopian, and modernism was in general associated with ideal visions of human life and society and a belief in progress.

Courbet and realism: This painting by Alphonse Legros reflects the influence of Gustave Courbet who, in the mid-nineteenth century, challenged convention by rejecting the historical and mythological subjects that had dominated art for centuries. Instead he painted scenes of daily life. The paintings, on the large scale previously reserved for history painting and in a realist style, shocked the art world.

Impressionism: Like Courbet, the impressionists chose to paint scenes of everyday modern life. They also wanted to capture the movement and effects of light that they saw in nature and rejected established styles, using instead rapid brush marks and bright colours. Their radical technique and creation of paintings which can appear quite abstract, place them as important innovators in the early history of modern art.

Post-impressionism: In the late 1880s a group of painters explored ways of expressing emotions in their work, by using simplified colours and definitive forms – rather than simply painting what they saw. Although their work did not look similar and they did not see themselves as part of a movement, artists Gauguin, Seurat, van Gogh and Cézanne are referred to as the post-impressionists.

Fauvism: The Fauve painters were the first to break with traditional methods of perception. Their spontaneous, often subjective response to nature was expressed in bold brushstrokes and high-keyed, vibrant colours used directly from the paint tube.

Cubism: Cubism was a revolutionary new approach to representing reality invented in around 1907 by artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque who aimed to bring different views of subjects together in the same picture, resulting in paintings that appear fragmented and abstracted. Cubism opened up almost infinite new possibilities for the treatment of visual reality and was the starting point for many later abstract styles.

Malevich’s black square: Kazimir Malevich painted his first Black Square in 1915. It is one of the seminal works of modern art, and of Western art generally, marking as it does the break between representational painting and abstract painting. Malevich declared the square a work of Suprematism, a movement which he proclaimed but which is associated almost exclusively with his own work.

Constructivism: Constructivism was a particularly austere branch of abstract art building on the experiments in abstraction undertaken by the cubists. It was founded by Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko in Russia around 1915. It rejected the idea of art as separate from other aspects of life and was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes.

De Stijl: Meaning ‘style’ in Dutch, De Stijl was a circle of Dutch abstract artists who promoted a style of art based on a strict geometry of horizontals and verticals. It was founded in in 1917 by Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg, and had a profound influence on the development both of abstract art and modern architecture and design.

Dada: Formed in Zurich as a response to the horrors of the First World War, the aim of the Dada artists was to destroy traditional values in art and to create a new art that could reflect the modern world. The art, poetry and performance produced by dada artists is often satirical and nonsensical in nature. In addition to being anti-war, dada was also anti-bourgeois and had political affinities with the radical left.

Surrealism: Surrealism was a movement which began in the 1920s of writers and artists (including Salvador Dalí and René Magritte). Strongly influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis the aim of surrealism was to reveal the unconscious and reconcile it with rational life.

Abstract expressionism: In the 1940s and 1950s American painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning developed a new approach to painting characterised by gestural mark-making, and the impression of spontaneity. They were supported by probably the most influential art critic in the twentieth century Clement Greenberg, who emphasised the importance of the formal properties of art – such as colour, line and space – over subject or meaning.

Minimalism: Developed in the USA in the 1960s, and typified by artworks composed of simple geometric shapes, minimalism extended the idea that art should have its own reality and not be an imitation of some other thing. The medium, (or material) from which it is made, and the form of the work is the reality. Minimalist painter Frank Stella famously said about his paintings ‘What you see is what you see’.

Sources:

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/legros-le-repas-des-pauvres-n02898

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/modernism

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ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM

Artist - Lee Krasner 1908–1984

Title - Gothic Landscape

Date - 1961

Medium - Oil paint on canvas

Dimensions - Support: 1768 x 2378 mm frame: 1784 x 2391 x 52 mm

Collection - No information available

Reference - T03291

Although this is an abstract painting, the thick vertical lines that dominate its centre can be seen as trees, with thick knotted roots at their base. It was probably this that led Krasner to call the painting Gothic Landscape, several years after completing it. Krasner was married to the artist Jackson Pollock and, during their life together, her work was eclipsed by his rise to fame. Gothic Landscape was made in the years following his death from a car crash in 1956. It belongs to a series of large canvases whose violent and expressive gestural brushstrokes reflected her feelings of grief.

Abstract expressionism is the term applied to new forms of abstract art developed by American painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning in the 1940s and 1950s, often characterized by gestural brush-strokes or mark-making, and the impression of spontaneity.

Within abstract expressionism were two broad groupings: the action painters (who attached their canvases with expressive brush strokes); and the painters who filled their canvases with abstract forms and fields of colour.

The action painters were led by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, who worked in a spontaneous improvisatory manner often using large brushes to make sweeping gestural marks. Pollock famously placed his canvas on the ground and danced around it pouring paint from the can or trailing it from the brush or a stick. In this way, the action painters directly placed their inner impulses onto the canvas.

The second grouping included Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Clyfford Still.  They were deeply interested in religion and myth and created simple compositions with large areas of a single colour intended to produce a contemplative or meditational response in the viewer. In an essay written in 1948 Barnett Newmann said: ‘Instead of making cathedrals out of Christ, man, or ‘’life’’, we are making it out of ourselves, out of our own feelings’. (This approach to painting developed from around 1960 into what became known as colour field painting, characterised by artists using large areas of more or less a single flat colour).

Sources:

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/abstract-expressionism

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/krasner-gothic-landscape-t03291

I like the way that action painters in abstract expressionism emphasise the action of actually painting as important for their work. It can make it feel more like you are more connected to the artwork you make. Also I think abstract expressionism is quite interesting as it is more spontaneous and random than everything else in art. I like how it can create appealing patterns that can be enjoyed even though they don’t show a traditional painting of objects or landscapes.

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SOCIAL REALISM

Artist - William Holman Hunt 1827–1910

Title - The Awakening Conscience

Date - 1853

Medium - Oil paint on canvas

Dimensions - Support: 762 x 559 mm frame: 1060 x 857 x 97 mm

Collection - No information available

Reference - T02075

The Awakening Conscience was conceived as the material counterpart to Hunt's The Light of the World (1851-3, Warden and Fellows of Keble College, Oxford). Its inspiration was a verse from Proverbs: 'As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart'. With his typical thoroughness, Hunt hired a room at Woodbine Villa, 7 Alpha Place, St John's Wood, a 'maison de convenance', to use as the setting. A gentleman has installed his mistress (known to be such because of her absence of a wedding ring) in a house for their meetings. As they play and sing to Thomas Moore's Oft in the Stilly Night, she has a sudden spiritual revelation. Rising from her lover's lap, she gazes into the sunlit garden beyond, which is reflected in the mirror behind her. The mirror image represents the woman's lost innocence, but redemption, indicated by the ray of light in the foreground, is still possible. Intended to be 'read', the painting is full of such symbolic elements. The cat toying with the broken-winged bird under the table symbolises the woman's plight. A man's discarded glove warns that the likely fate of a cast-off mistress was prostitution. A tangled skein of yarn on the floor symbolises the web in which the girl is entrapped. Indeed, as Ruskin wrote to the Times on 25 May 1854, 'the very hem of the poor girl's dress, at which the painter has laboured so closely, thread by thread, has story in it, if we think how soon its pure whiteness may be soiled with dust and rain, her outcast feet failing in the street'. The frame, designed by Hunt, also contains various symbolic emblems; the bells and marigolds stand for warning and sorrow, the star is a sign of spiritual revelation.

Refers to any realist painting that also carries a clearly discernible social or political comment. In Britain examples of social realism can be found in the eighteenth century, for example in the work of William Hogarth, but it became particularly widespread in the nineteenth century. Important contributions to social realism were made by the Pre-Raphaelites, and by the more serious-minded genre painters such as Augustus Egg, William Powell Frith, Luke Fildes and Frank Holl.

Social realism should not be confused with socialist realism.

Sources:

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/social-realism#

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hunt-the-awakening-conscience-t02075

The detail in the realist style is very impressive. There are also a lot of symbolism which can be quite meaningful for the people who understand it beyond just the way it looks. I like that it focused on real every day events and menial tasks of normal people, which would make it seem more relatable to a larger audience.

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ART DECO

Artist - Constantin Brancusi 1876–1957

Title - Danaïde

Date - c.1918

Medium - Bronze on limestone base

Dimensions - Object: 279 x 171 x 210 mm, 10kg

Collection - No information available

Reference - T00296

This is a stylised portrait of Margit Pogany, a Hungarian art student Brancusi met in Paris in 1910. He made a marble head of her from memory, then invited her to his studio. He was delighted when she recognised it. This is one of several bronzes based on the marble. Photographs show that Miss Pogany had a round face with large eyes and strong eyebrows, and wore her hair in a smooth chignon. Brancusi has refined her features down to the very purest form. The abstract curves of this piece, and of the other 'Danaïdes', can be seen as anticipating by some years, aspects of the classicising Art Deco style of the 1920s.

Named after the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925, art deco can be seen as successor to and a reaction against art nouveau. Seen in furniture, pottery, textiles, jewellery, glass etc. it was also a notable style of cinema and hotel architecture.

Its chief difference from art nouveau is the influence of cubism which gives art deco design generally a more fragmented, geometric character. However, imagery based on plant forms, and sinuous curves remained in some art deco design, for example that of Clarice Cliff in Britain. Art deco washighly varied in its influences, taking inspiration from ancient Egyptian art, Aztec and other ancient Central American art, as well as from the design of modern ships, trains and motor cars. It also drew on the modern architecture and design of the Bauhaus, and of architects such as Le Corbusier and Mies van de Rohe.

Sources:

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/art-deco#

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/brancusi-danaide-t00296

During my research, I have found that I like the Art Deco style a lot, I think it is possibly my favourite style that I have researched. I like the detail and extra touches in the decorative ornamentation. I also very much like the art Deco style in posters, I really like the illustration which sometimes looks slightly fragmented. This combined with the rich colours and unique typography, makes it look very impressive.

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BAUHAUS

Artist - Josef Albers 1888–1976

Title - Homeward (Nach Hause)

Date - 1933

Medium - Woodcut on cream wove paper

Dimensions - Image: 221 x 262 mm support: 323 x 502 mm

Collection - No information available

Reference - P13006 

Bauhaus was a revolutionary school of art, architecture and design established by the pioneer modern architect Walter Gropius at Weimar in Germany in 1919, includes artists Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky

The Bauhaus teaching method replaced the traditional pupil-teacher relationship with the idea of a community of artists working together. Its aim was to bring art back into contact with everyday life, and design was therefore given as much weight as fine art. The name is a combination of the German words for building (bau) and house (haus) and may have been intended to evoke the idea of a guild or fraternity working to build a new society. Teachers included Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee,László Moholy-Nagy and Josef Albers.

The Bauhaus moved from Weimar to Dessau in 1925–6 where Gropius created a new building for the school. In 1932 it moved to Berlin where it was closed in 1933 by the Nazis.

Its influence was immense, especially in the USA where Moholy-Nagy opened the New Bauhaus in Chicago in 1937. In 1933 Albers took its methods to Black Mountain College in North Carolina and in 1950 to Yale University.

Sources:

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/b/bauhaus#

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/albers-homeward-p13006

I also quite like the Bauhaus style, even though it is quite different to the Art Deco. I like how it always seems clean precise. I like the principle that they work with, “form follows function”, which means that the design for a building or product should always be appropriate for its intended use.

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SURREALISM

Artist - Salvador Dalí 1904–1989

Title - Metamorphosis of Narcissus (Métamorphose de Narcisse)

Date - 1937

Medium - Oil paint on canvas

Dimensions - Support: 511 x 781 mm frame: 820 x 1092 x 85 mm

Collection - No information available

Reference - T02343

This painting is Dalí's interpretation of the Greek myth of Narcissus. Narcissus was a youth of great beauty who loved only himself and broke the hearts of many lovers. The gods punished him by letting him see his own reflection in a pool. He fell in love with it, but discovered he could not embrace it and died of frustration. Relenting, the gods immortalised him as the narcissus (daffodil) flower. For this picture Dalí used a meticulous technique which he described as 'hand-painted colour photography' to depict with hallucinatory effect the transformation of Narcissus, kneeling in the pool, into the hand holding the egg and flower. Narcissus as he was before his transformation is seen posing in the background. The play with 'double images' sprang from Dalí's fascination with hallucination and delusion.

This was Dalí's first painting to be made entirely in accordance with the paranoiac critical method, which the artist described as a 'Spontaneous method of irrational knowledge, based on the critical-interpretative association of the phenomena of delirium' (The Conquest of the Irrational, published in The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, New York 1942). Robert Descharnes noted that this painting meant a great deal to Dalí, as it was the first Surrealist work to offer a consistent interpretation of an irrational subject.

Surrealism was a movement which began in the 1920s of writers and artists (including Salvador Dalí and René Magritte), who experimented with ways of unleashing the subconscious imagination. 

They were strongly influenced by Sigmund Freud (the founder of psychoanalysis) and his theories about the unconscious. The aim of surrealism was to reveal the unconscious and reconcile it with rational life. Two broad types of surrealism can be seen: the oneiric (dream-like imagery) and automatism (a process of making which unleashed the unconscious by drawing or writing without conscious thought).

Sources:

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/surrealism

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dali-metamorphosis-of-narcissus-t02343

I think that Surrealism can be quite fascinating. The ‘oneiric’ style of surrealism has so much symbolism within it about dreams and and the unconscious to do with Freud. They give so much unusual imagery by combining things that don’t usually go together, and by playing with perspective. I don’t think I like the automatism style as much, as without conscious thought, the work just looks like random lines that don’t come together cohesively. However, it can be interesting to then look for images that the mind can notice within it, similar to Rorschach tests.

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FUTURISM

Artist - Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson 1889–1946

Title - Bursting Shell

Date - 1915

Medium - Oil paint on canvas

Dimensions - Support: 760 x 560 mm frame: 930 x 724 x 75 mm

Collection - No information available

Reference - T03676

One of the most apocalyptic of Nevinson's paintings, Bursting Shell uses the strong lines and swirling movement of Futurist and Vorticist compositions to recreate the effect of an explosion. The dark shapes, which could be shards of debris or shadows, fracture what appear to be the bricks and timber of buildings and roads. The strong focal point of the vortex - with its bright light and dizzying spiral - simulates the disorientating sensory experience of an explosion.

Futurism was an Italian art movement of the early twentieth century that aimed to capture in art the dynamism and energy of the modern world

Futurism was launched by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909. On 20 February he published his Manifesto ofFuturism on the front page of the Paris newspaper Le Figaro.

Among modernist movements futurism was exceptionally vehement in its denunciation of the past. This was because in Italy the weight of past culture was felt as particularly oppressive. In the Manifesto, Marinetti asserted that ‘we will free Italy from her innumerable museums which cover her like countless cemeteries’. What the futurists proposed instead was an art that celebrated the modern world of industry and technology.

Futurist painting used elements of neo-impressionism and cubism to create compositions  that expressed the idea of the dynamism, the energy and movement, of modern life.

Chief artists associated with futurism were Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Gino Severini.

Sources:

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/futurism

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/nevinson-bursting-shell-t03676

I like that in futurist art, it seems to convey movement and energy well, with interesting shapes and bright colours. It has a disjointed style similar to cubism, though this can sometimes make it more difficult to recognise what the art is meant to be showing.

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CUBISM

Artist - Georges Braque 1882–1963

Title - Bottle and Fishes Bouteille et poissons

Date - c.1910-2

Medium - Oil paint on canvas

Dimensions - Support: 619 x 749 x 20 mm frame: 856 x 984 x 67 mm

Collection - No information available

Reference - T00445

Ordinary objects – a bottle and fishes on a plate, laid on a table with a drawer – have been dramatically fragmented to form a grid-like structure of interpenetrating planes. The traditional domestic subject matter and sober colours in this work can be seen as a reaction against the luminous hues and free expression of Braque’s earlier fauvist paintings.

Cubism was a revolutionary new approach to representing reality invented in around 1907/08 by artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque who aimed to bring different views of subjects (usually objects or figures) together in the same picture, resulting in paintings that appear fragmented and abstracted.

Cubism was one of the most influential styles of the twentieth century. It is generally agreed to have begun around 1907 with Picasso’s celebrated painting Demoiselles D’Avignon which included elements of cubist style. The name ‘cubism’ seems to have derived from a comment made by the critic Louis Vauxcelles who, on seeing some of Georges Braque’s paintings exhibited in Paris in 1908, described them as reducing everything to ‘geometric outlines, to cubes’.

Sources:

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cubism#

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/braque-bottle-and-fishes-t00445

The cubism style is quite iconic, as Picasso is one of the most well known artists in the world. The different perspectives of the same image put together, along with colour and shading gradients, make for a very unique and unusual looking painting.

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FAUVISM

Artist - André Derain 1880–1954

Title - Henri Matisse

Date - 1905

Medium - Oil paint on canvas

Dimensions - Support: 460 x 349 mm frame: 710 x 595 x 112 mm

Collection - Tate

Acquisition - Purchased 1958

Reference - T00165

This work was made during a holiday at the fishing port of Collioure in the south of France in 1905, when Matisse and Derain painted portraits of each other. Under Matisse’s influence, Derain had begun to use strong, non-naturalistic colours, applied in small separate brushstrokes, to convey the sensations of light and shade. Their radical use of colour led critics described them and their associates as ‘Fauves’ or wild beasts, and ‘Fauvism’ became an important parallel to the rise of Expressionism in Germany.

Fauvism is the name applied to the work produced by a group of artists (which included Henri Matisse and André Derain) from around 1905 to 1910, which is characterised by strong colours and fierce brushwork.

The name les fauves (‘the wild beasts’) was coined by the critic Louis Vauxcelles when he saw the work of Henri Matisse and André Derain in an exhibition, the salon d’automne in Paris, in 1905. The paintings Derain and Matisse exhibited were the result of a summer spent working together in Collioure in the South of France and were made using bold, non-naturalistic colours (often applied directly from the tube), and wild loose dabs of paint. The forms of the subjects were also simplified making their work appear quite abstract.

Other like-minded artists associated with the fauvism included Georges Braque, Raoul Dufy, Georges Rouault, and Maurice de Vlaminck.

The fauvists were interested in the scientific colour theories developed in the nineteenth century – particularly those relating to complementary colours. Complementary colours are pairs of colours appear opposite each other on scientific models such as the colour wheel, and when used side-by-side in a painting make each other look brighter

Sources:

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/fauvism

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/derain-henri-matisse-t00165

I like the colour schemes of Fauvism, which are bright which makes the art look very vibrant. The colours are not always accurate to how the subject or environment would be in real life, as they are using so many different colours, which makes it more stylised, and this is all made with expressive brushwork.

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ART NOUVEAU

Koloman Moser (1868 - 1918)

'Frau Nolda' (left) Textile design Austria 1901 Colour lithograph Museum no. E.73-1978

'Scylla' (right) Textile design Austria 1901 Colour lithograph Museum no. E.74-1978.

These printed patterns form part of a series called Die Quelle (The Source). The 'source', Moser's inspiration, was nature. The two patterns shown here are derived from plant forms, but they can hardly be called lifelike.

Moser has used the forms of nature as the basis for a precise, almost mathematical pattern. The designs predict the geometric fantasies of M.C. Escher in the 1940s in the way they use recognisable images to create a repetitive pattern.

'Scylla' and 'Frau Nolda' are designed for printing onto textiles for use as wall hangings. A network of lines printed beneath the design cleverly suggests the texture of the material. The richly inventive lettering panels show a similar attention to detail. This level of dedication is striking. It shows that Moser must have thought of these designs as a major piece of work.

For Moser, design of this sort was not just a way to earn money. It was a skilled art form that deserved as much respect as painting or architecture. Moser was one of the most versatile and prolific designers of his age. He made work of equally high quality in many different forms, designing everything from posters to postage stamps and from interiors to cutlery.

Art Nouveau was a movement in the visual arts popular from the early 1890s up to the First World War. It is viewed by some as the first self-conscious attempt to create a modern style. Its influence can be found in painting, sculpture, jewellery, metalwork, glass and ceramics.The drawings of Aubrey Beardsley, the architecture of Victor Horta and Paul Hankar and the poster designs of Alphonse Mucha are some of the most familiar examples of the Art Nouveau style.

Sources:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/study-room-resource-art-nouveau/

I like that Art Nouveau is based on natural forms such as plants and animals. There is an enormous amount of detail in the illustrations, which are always very intricate. There are always a lot of decorative floral effects and a pastel style colour palette.

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ARTS & CRAFTS MOVEMENT

Detail from a season ticket for The Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society, by Walter Crane, England, UK, 1890. Museum no. E.4164-1915. © Victoria & Albert Museum, London

The Arts and Crafts Movement was one of the most influential, profound and far-reaching design movements of modern times. It began in Britain around 1880 and quickly spread across America and Europe before emerging finally as the Mingei (Folk Crafts) movement in Japan.

It was a movement born of ideals. It grew out of a concern for the effects of industrialisation: on design, on traditional skills and on the lives of ordinary people. In response, it established a new set of principles for living and working. It advocated the reform of art at every level and across a broad social spectrum, and it turned the home into a work of art.

In Britain the disastrous effects of industrial manufacture and unregulated trade had been recognised since about 1840, but it was not until the 1860s and 1870s that architects, designers and artists began to pioneer new approaches to design and the decorative arts. These, in turn, led to the foundation of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

The two most influential figures were the theorist and critic John Ruskin and the designer, writer and activist William Morris. Ruskin examined the relationship between art, society and labour. Morris put Ruskin's philosophies into practice, placing great value on work, the joy of craftsmanship and the natural beauty of materials.

By the 1880s Morris had become an internationally renowned and commercially successful designer and manufacturer. New guilds and societies began to take up his ideas, presenting for the first time a unified approach among architects, painters, sculptors and designers. In doing so, they brought Arts and Crafts ideals to a wider public.

Sources:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/the-arts-and-crafts-movement/

The arts and craft movement hs a similar look to Art Nouveau, with the curved lines and floral decoration. I like the way the movement tried to make everyday objects hand crafted and more aesthetically pleasing.