BEAUTY VS YOU (DADA COLLAGE)

Early 20th Century

1. DESCRIBE A DADA ARTWORK?

"MONA LISA"

                         -LEONARDO DA VINCI                            

                                                          "L.H.O.O.Q" -

                                    MARCEL DUCHAMP

During the early 20th century, after World War 1, a strong movement started to happen. This huge event started to changed millions of peoples lives, including artist and their views on politics. This started the Dada movement.  Dada artists both embraced and critiqued modernity. This included critiques about our new technologies, films, newspapers, even advertisements. Dadaist's believed in subversive and revolutionary ideals. According to Art Factory, " Dada or dadaism was also a form of artistic anarchy born out of disgust for the social, political, and cultural values of the time. It embraced elements of art, music, poetry, theater, dance, and politics" Dada was more of protest movement that was happening during this era. A perfect example would be this art piece called" L.H.O.O.Q" which is a work of art by Marcel Duchamp. Now this piece is known to be " Mona Lisa" which was originally created by Leonardo da Vinci. However Duchamp creates his own version of it. As you can see Duchamp drew a mustache and a goatee. This is actually one of the well known act of degrading a famous work of art. Actually if you pronounce the title in French, it spells out " She has a hot bum" very odd right? Duchamp's goal was to lead his contemporaries to challenge the usual standards set out for artwork in the public eye. Referencing to this piece, he wanted to continuously challenge what the public perceived as art. He expressed his notion by creating this piece to show that art does not always have to be beautiful. Duchamp took this piece of beauty and transformed it into something unconventional. Not only did Duchamp create a piece that shocked viewers visually, he created something that forced his audience to think about what they were seeing. Just like this piece! What do you think it truly means? 

2.WHAT WERE THE INFLUENCES OF JACOB LAWRENCE?

Jacob Lawrence is known be one of the most important artist of the 20th century. His influences came from the African American history. He is known for depicting important moments in African American History by using narrative paintings. He as well created such a unique American vision that affirms the place of ANY individuals in our society and honors the struggle for true independence. Jacob Lawrence was known to be a " Expressionist". This work by Lawrence is called Builders Number #1. We see a male sitting on a workbench surrounded by so many tools and fasteners.  He is alone and reflective, weighing the projects ahead.  If we look closely at his expression we can really picture his emotions. In this piece Lawrence really captures the labor lifestyle and the social struggle. Overall Jacob Lawrence did call his work dynamic cubism, meaning he was interested in simple shapes, bold colors, and patterns. And we can actually see a bit of these qualities in this piece. 

Impressionism & Post Impressionism

IMPRESSION

During the 19th century, a art movement started happening. Artist during this time created a new visuality, a new way of seeing the world. Started to see about the nature of fugitive light falling on surfaces. Artist started to convey the passage of time, changes in weather, and other shifts in the atmosphere in their canvases.  And these type of artists were happened to called  "Impressionists" and their paintings became known as "Impressionism." Impressionism is about modernity: its faster pace and various improvements in the quality of daily life. It's about the little middle class activites. Such as shopping, vacationing, strolling, waiting, or even walking your dog. Impressionism is about life lived in bursts of brief encounters in the city. It's about faster speeds, quickly moving clouds, the nature of fugitive light, daytime/ night time settings. And impressionist George Seurat shows a perfect example by this painting called A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. If we take a look here we can see really the nature of fugitive light just by the shadows he's painted. As well as we can see a  real day-to-day activity in our everyday lives. We can see a patch of beautiful vibrant colors and scattered sunlight oozing from this painting. We really see a change of art and how artist such as impressionist started to break from the normal traditional european paintings. By re-analyzing tone and color, capturing the ever-changing effects of light on the canvas.

POST IMPRESSIONISM 

During the late 19th century, impressionism started to pave it's way for post-impressionism. Now post impressionist painters started to explore different directions and approaches to painting without concern about the appearance of their subjects. It started to pave it's way for the development of modern art!  Compared to impressionist painters,  post-impressionist painters were not concerned with the objective appearance of their subject matter or how it looked at a different time of the day. Post impressionist painters started to largely concentrate on the personal emotions and concepts of the individual artist. It was a slower process and more of an involved methodical process. Post impressionism started to use geometric forms to portray its subjects while impressionism used small thin brushstrokes that gave the painting softer edges. This painting is " Portrait of Doctor Gatchet" painted by one of the most brilliant artist Vincent Van Gogh. If we look at his eyes they're drooped with sadness. As well as his skin tone appears to be kinda abnormal and shallow. We as well see lines of colors swimming around and through the doctor which was also a unique a technique Van Gogh had. 

Assignment #4

RENAISSANCE ART 

Renaissance art was the first to use perspective in their work. Throughout the 15th century, artists studied the natural world in order to perfect their understanding of such subjects as anatomy and perspective such as artist Fillippino Lippi. This painting is labeled "Madonna and Child"  which was painted by Lippi during 1457-1504. The idea of "Madonna and Child" was actually a very common theme during this time. However some qualities we can get from this painting would first be the perspective. We see a sense of horizontal perspective. Even with the baby, we see more humanistic features. As well as the form we see a balance between vertical and horizontal. We witness a very simple, yet flat background, nothing too dynamic. As for the clarity comparing to Pre-Renassiance, we visualize more vibrant sharp colors. The Renaissance era allowed art to develop and mature far beyond the traditional and conventional religious subject matter to replicate human emotion and realism in art. As well as praise of the human figure and nature, realistic linear perspective and the association of light and shadow.

BAROQUE ART

During the 17th century Baroque artist made a whole new different style of art. Baroque artist started to create more intense and dramatic artworks that sought to draw the viewer into the image such as one of the most brilliant artist Michelangelo Merisi Carvaggio. Although he is usually known as the best, he really is one of my favorite artist that really intrigues me the most. This painting is labeled The Denial of Saint Peter which was painted by Carvaggio during 1610 ca.  From analyzing this painting some of the qualities of Baroque art was their dynamics.  progression, and apprehension. The technique of powerfully using distinction of light and shadow and a never-ending quantity of space. This painting is a perfect example. Carvaggio perfectly captures a beautiful stillness here.  Baroque art qualities consisted to be more dramatic and emotional. Artists were famous for showing an individual's personalities, passion, emotions and thought merely through their facial expressions. We can get a sense of a story going on here through peter's gesture with his hands. We can really visualize how intense the situation is by his facial expression, if you look closely, even his tears.  Baroque art I believe was a form of exaggerated Renaissance style art.

Renaissance & Baroque Art

1) WHAT IS HUMANISM ?  

One of the big changes in the Renaissance was in the basic way people thought about things. As you can see above this painting is Venus and the Lute Player by artist Titian and Workshop. 1565–70 Figures became more life like, scenes from common life were more often portrayed, and the themes portrayed became more liberal, a bit more humanistic. Artist Titian reveals the true nature of humanism.here. Actually during this time, men desired more heavy women. The bigger you were meant the richer you were. From this painting we can get a visual sense of humanism from the way her body was painted. 

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2) WHAT ARE SOME QUALITIES OF JAN VAN EYCK PAINTINGS?
 

     Jan Van Eyck is known to be one of the most significant Northern Renaissance artist of the 15th century and I can see why! Nevertheless this portrait "Jan de Leeuw" painted by Eyck during 1436 reveals some of the amazing qualities that he had. Van Eyck exploited the qualities of oil as never before and completely took it to another level. By looking at this portrait, we can see a sense of pure glazed colors which in some ways it feels kinda modern in a way. It's very detailed and it's super realism. His beautiful form of light and shadows create a really extraordinary atmosphere and  exudes their presence in a holy and earthly environment. Van Eyck really  allows us  to really get absorbed into the individual personality. 

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3) DESCRIBE THE QUALITIES OF BAROQUE ART IN AN ARTWORK OF YOUR CHOICE!

          Renaissance painters and sculptors were among the first to use perspective in their work. This allowed them to give more realism to their creations. However, this focus on adding depth to their work has made paintings and sculptures seem to lack emotions and failed to capture the emotions that it should depict. That wasn't until the 17th hundreds Baroque artist such as Caravaggio took art to a whole new level. This painting is "Medusa" which was painted by Caravaggio 1598. What's unique about this is he painted it on canvas that was applied to a wooden shield. Now you can definitely see a major difference on the dynamics compared to the qualities of Renaissance art. For example Caravaggio heightens this combination of life and death through Medusa’s intense expression. We see her wide-open mouth exudes a silent but dramatic scream and her shocked eyes which makes one really visualize, see more of an perspective. Caravaggio's Medusa comes across as very human, which is very interesting. From this painting we can get a sense of how Baroque art is compared to  Renaissance art was more dynamic, dark, and dramatic. More humanistic.