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Chapter 31

Chapter 31 is about continuity, innovation, and globalization. To be honest first reading the just title, I do not know what any of these words mean that well. So I took to google for a little help before reading the rest of this chapter. Continuity means, “the unbroken and consistent existence or operation of something over a period of time.” Innovation, means pretty much a new method or idea. And globalization means, “the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.” Now that I had a better understanding of what the chapter was going to be about, I was ready to start.

The first painter this chapter mentions is Chuck Close, he would use grids to transform them into paintings, he was actually the very first artist to make, “a large body of art consisting of portraits of artist, including himself.”(pg 550). I found that interesting because you see these different types of artwork and never really know who very first started them. Realism was a big thing in the middle to late 1900’s it seemed, many of these painters revolved their work around it. Duane Hanson, actually made sculptures to look like real people, and I actually love this artwork, I recently went to Las Vegas, and went to a Wax museum filled with famous people. I didn’t think of this as artwork, my mistake. They are extremely life like sculptures.

Chapter 31 is a very long chapter, so going through this chapter and my notes, im choosing to only write about my favorite, or most interesting parts. The next part that really caught my attention was Environmental Art. Robert Smithson was known for his earthwork, he was inspired by the earth, and ecology. Next, urban environment was mentioned, including graffiti. Graffiti is a very popular form of art, and it has been for awhile now. If you just go downtown Dubuque, you will see on many of the building is insanely great paintings and graffiti. Of course, this is sometimes a frowned upon type of art, if not appropriate, or placed on a building that wants it.

A type of art I did not know was a thing is feminist art. Judy Chicago is known for her piece, the dinner party. It is supposed to be a feminist version of the Last Supper by leonardo; it is a triangular looking table that is meant for thirty nine women. Within feminist art, there is body art. These are “life like” sculptures of a naked lady, which is not very different looking than some of the sculptures you'll see of guys from the past. Race and Gender begin playing a big role in art in the new century. Artwork that reflects political developments in the society.  “The theme of innovation and continuity is expressed in some of the artwork of Cindy sherman.”(pg 578). She was her own model, and had a wide variety of art. She took inspiration from other genres, such as the renaissance work, and creates her own version.

Adams, Laurie. A History of Western Art. 5th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2011

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Chapters 29 and 30

Chapter 29 is all about Mid-Century American Abstraction. Before even reading this chapter, I was excited because I really enjoy abstract art. Paris was the center of the art world around 1940, but then fell to the Nazis and later New York became the center of the art world. Which, when you think about art even today, 78 years later, New York still revolves around art! On page 521, Action Painting is shown, and I have actually myself done a painting just like that, I did not know it was called action painting. It's pretty much when you take paint of a brush and flick it onto your canvas, or whatever you are painting on. Jackson Pollock called this the Drip Technique, using his whole body to help him paint. Though we watched the video about “I could do this” last week, this week also goes along with that video. Abstract paintings look like they can be easily done, but in reality no painting will ever look exactly the same. On page 525, you see the painting from Williem De Kooning, called Woman and Bicycle. All I could see at first was the face, but if you think about  it you can see the bicycle. There are also Sculptures that show abstract art.

Chapter 30 goes into Pop Art, Op Art, Minimalism and Conceptualism. Pop art was included and grew larger with everyday life and mass media. The artwork on page 534, by Richard Hamilton, called “Just what is it makes today homes so different, so appealing?” Before reading anything about it, I thought it looked like something that was made by a lot of us when we were younger, at least me anyways. It looks like how you would cut something out of a magazine and tap it onto something else, to make your own collage. This art piece actually inspired the term “Pop”, which I never knew. Artwork in the late 1950 took a lot of your tradition art inspiration and put it together with everyday objects. On page 536, there is a print called Retroactive I by Robert Rauschenberg. This print reflects pop art and has so much to do with what was happening at that time. It shows JFK, an astronaut and other current events. Andy Warhol created american icons, including Coca-Cola bottles, Heinz boxes, comic books, stamps, dollar bills and much more. So when you look at everything that has a label, you can actually see artwork in some way. Designing products is still around today, you see it a lot on soda bottles. Recently Dr. Pepper has been putting artwork on each different bottle. Art from history influences art today as seen on page 538, in the painting Great American Nude by Tom Wesselmann. It is a connection to Sleeping Venus but Giorgione; the one from history is more realistic, and you can see the ladies face, but the one from more recently, is abstract showing only the woman's lips on her face. There is a lot more in this chapter that I could write about, such as Op Art. But throughout these chapters you mainly just focus on abstract art in today's culture, and how it can connect to history.

Adams, Laurie. A History of Western Art. 5th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2011

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chapters 27 & 28

Chapter 27 is all about Cubism, Futurism, and Related Twentieth-Century Styles. Cubism had great influence on artists in this century; it was mainly how an artist used space. When you first start this chapter, it is mainly focused on unrealistic artwork. And then further into the chapter, we start to see a lot of architecture, especially houses as artwork. But let's get back to the start of the chapter, Picasso took inspiration from traditional artwork, and created it into something of his own. You see on page 480, a picture of 5 nude ladies, but they are not your traditional nude lady. The poses are similar, but this painting is very abstract, unlike some of our previous artists. Picasso’s artwork is very different from others i’ve seen, he uses so much color and really creates something new. Another form of work that influenced him was Surrealism, this term means ��above realism”, picasso did not want his art too look real, I think he wanted you to interpret it in your own way.

The chapter then goes into Futurism; which was contemporary art. This chapter really doesn't focus on futurism that much. It mainly just gives you an overview of this history.. If you read the paragraphs after the definition, they still have a lot to do with Cubism. My favorite part of this chapter is the architecture. I think I mentioned before I am becoming a realtor, and I really want to flip houses. Houses are a type of artwork that you can seriously do anything to. Frank Lloyd Wright was an early example of someone who took art, and built it into something; he used different shapes, rectangular for Cubist and Flat walls for prairie Style are mentioned.

Chapter 28 is about Dada, Surrealism, Social Realism, Regionalism, and Abstraction. World War I had great impact on everyone, even artists during this period of time. “The term dada refers to an international artiastic and literary movement that began during WWI in the relative safety of neutral switzerland.” (pg 500). Dada was not a type of artwork that you could psychically see, it was more idea for creative artwork. On page 501 you see the mona Lisa with a beard. Now people obviously thought she was “defaced” but in reality Duchamp wanted to touch her up as he said. I don't know if I agree with him on this, I don't think you should touch another's artwork and try to call it your own. Surrealism was made to from what I think, was to get away from traditional art work, and challenge into something new. On page 210, we see the famous picture American Gothic. I have seen this painting many times, but did not know the history of it until reading this. Grant wood painted this to “reflect regionalists interest in provincial america and their isolation from the european avant-garde.” (pg 510) This picture is very captive of a traditional american midwest couple, with a farmhouse and pitchfork. These two chapters were very interesting to read, and I learned things I did not know before.

Adams, Laurie. A History of Western Art. 5th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2011

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Chp 25 & 26

Chapter 25 is about Post Impressionism and the Late nineteenth century.

As discussed in the last chapter we found out was Impressionism is. We found out that they are focused on colorful paintings, landscaping and cityscape. Impressionism was influenced from japanese paintings. Post impressionism was bright, or formal and structural values, of emotional. There were many different trends. Throughout this chapter we see many different types of paintings. These paintings vary from realistic, to very abstract. On page 458, we see the painting of Vincent Van Gogh most popular painting The Starry Night. It is an oil painting that is the night sky over the city. The book tells us that each color stands for something different in Van Gogh’s head. Van Gogh had two self portrait paintings as well, one of them on page 459 looks a lot like starry night. The brush strokes and colors remind me of each other, he definitely had a certain type of art he liked to paint. Another popular painting, on page 464, of The Scream, by Edvard Munch. I have always seen this painting but never knew much about it. It is interesting because apparently Munch was depressed and the red in the painting is actually supposed to represent blood. He said, he heard a scream, so he painted this picture.

Chapter 26 is about The Early Twentieth century: Picasso, fauvism, expressionism, and matisse. The only painters name I recognize is Picasso, so reading this chapter excited me at first. Throughout this century, technology became a lot bigger, as well as electric lights, radios, computers, and Tv’s. Cars became bigger, the wright brothers flew the first airplane, the first man landed on the moon, medicine became more advanced, and it also mentions Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. Not only was the century changing in those aspects, politics also was changing. Throughout this chapter, just from looking at the pages, I see very bright colors and a lot of abstract paintings. The first painting to really catch my eye was Several Circles, on page 473, painted by Vassily Kandinsky. It really brings geometric art to life, and has deeper meaning then just shapes on a canvas. Some circles touch, others are floating on their own. Some circles are more translucent, while others are bold in color. I find it interesting. Vassily was a russian artist, he was a law student as well as studying painting. I wish I knew what was going through Henri Matisse's mind when he painted Dance 1 on page 477. It is such an interesting painting. 5 nude people all holding hands in a circle. Matisse used flat color as the background of his pictures, in Dance 1 he uses blue and green. It is very different than Van Goghs.

Adams, Laurie. A History of Western Art. 5th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2011

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Chapter 23 &24

Chapter 23 is about about the nineteenth century realism. The nineteenth century is really when America really started to grow. Factories became bigger, bringing more people to the big cities. Realism was an art period, Realism, also known as Naturalism, “in the arts is generally the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, or implausible, exotic, and supernatural elements”, according to Wikipedia. This chapter shows us many different paintings to show us how realism affected painters. Chapter 23 tells us about Lithography, as a way of art, it is used with grease crayon, a brush, and a stone (limestone.) I found the picture interesting, it is something I didn't not know before.

The painting Manet’s Olympia, really caught my attention. It is an oil painting of a naked white women laying down on a bed, with a black women giving her flowers; there is also a black cat at the end of the bed. The black cat apparently is a symbol of sex, which is something else I did not know. “The cathouse is commonly used for a brothel.” (page 428). Chapter 23 also mentions the Eiffel Tower, which I found interesting to read about, because I did not know it was meant to be a form of art. Something I also did not know was the Eiffel Tower got its name from the designer, Gustave Eiffel.  

Chapter 24 is about the Nineteenth century impressionism. Impressionism was less about politics and was influenced by japanese culture. My favorite picture in this chapter is on page 439; It is a picture of a sunset, painted by Claude Monet. I like how the picture looks random and like the painter really just painted without knowing what he wanted to paint, if that makes sense. Claude Monet had many really good paintings, there is another on page 440, which is an oil painting of a lily pond, and another one of three people looking over at the water.

Page 444 and 445 are all about the Japanese Woodblock prints. Three separate pictures which are are equally good in their own ways. The first on is of a japanese women wearing a blue kimono. The next one is of the great wave, and lastly there is another of many people in what looks like a small village. I like japanese art, something not pictured is japanese art of tigers. I think that tigers, fish and flowers are absolutely beautiful paintings. Lastly the painting that also stuck out to me is on age 449, is of four young girls standing/playing in a house. At first glance it looks kind of creepy. They all have a blank stare on their face and the painting is dark.

Adams, Laurie. A History of Western Art. 5th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2011

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Chapter 19 and 20

Chapter 19 is written about The Baroque Style in Western Europe. This chapter first goes into religion, politics and science within the seventeenth century. “Perhaps the greatest threat to establish theology came from the astronomers.” (page 333) I never knew that science had an impact on art the way it did. It was interesting to reread about things such as the law of gravity and the system of blood circulation, because I have not learned about those things in along time. Science bought fear upon people, which lead to witch hunts, which was touched upon in the last chapter. Baroque Style is a type of art, the boks says “The term Baroque is applied to diverse styles, a fact that highlights the approximate character of art- historical categories” (page 333).

Chapter 19 we learn about different Architecture in Italy, France and England. Artitecture was and still is very elegant, and geometric. There was a french academy ( page 340), “Artists were trained according to the principle that traitin and convention had to be studied and understood. Artists were trained to make sure there work was “Ideal” (page 340). I wonder if the academy was anything like how school is today. I do not know much about schooling in the past. I wonder how much students paid, and how they were accepted into this art school. Page 349 confused me kind of, it brings up girls in art saying, “in the last forty years”, does that mean now or in that century? Anyways women became a bigger part of the art movement.

Chapter 20 is about Rococo, the eighteenth century, and revival styles. “Rococo style is above all an expression of wit and frivolity, although at its best it has more somber, satirical undercurrents.” (page 367). The eighteenth century according to the book was called the age of enlightenment. “This concept derives from philosophical ideas that were translated into political movements.” (page 368). This chapter goes into the painting in england. It told us about Thomas Gainsborough and William Hogarth. Gainsborough, painted nature and portraiture, “which predominated in french rococo were also an important aspect of the style is england.” (page 374). He painted a picture of a girl, wearing a pink dress, surrounded by nature and flowers. Hogarth, had a different take on art. It was more realistic, and not focused on nature.

There are also artists in american culture obviously. Two artists named were john Copley and Benjamin West. These artists were inspired by european styles. It seemed as those Copley portrayed realism into his art. He had a painting of Paul Revere, and it looks almost like a real picture. The painting from West that we see is focused on death within a battle.

Adams, Laurie. A History of Western Art. 5th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2011.

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CHAPTER 17 & 18

Chapter 17 is all about Mannerism and the Later Sixteenth Century in Italy. “The sixteenth century was a period of intense political and military turmoil from which no Italian artist could remain completely insulated.”(page 306). The term mannerism has different meanings. “Among the several derivations that have been proposed for Mannerism are the Latin word manus.” The book tells us that the main subject of Mannerism is, “the human body, which is often elongated, exaggerated, elegant, and arranged in complete twisted poses.” (PAGE 306) Jacopo da Pontormo had qualities of Mannerism in his work.

Of course all of the artists had different painting styles. First the book tells us about Jacopo da Pontormo, and it says that he used pink and blue palette, and “the stony rather than fleshy forms create an entirely different effect.” (page 307). Next to book will go into Parmigianio, he puts nature into his paintings and paints with gold shades. Parmigianino eventually stopped painting. Next is Bronzino, he painted people in the nude, and it looks like majority of the time people are touching each other.

There were also different Sculptures. First we go into Cellini, who was originally a goldsmith. He was also a sculptor and author as the book states. The book tells us, “This artist was continually trouble with the law, he was charged with two murders in Rome in 1529, and had a reputation for violence.” (page 308)  This reminds me of some of today's artists, in the form of Music Artists. A lot of current musical artists are very talented and also get in trouble with the law.

Chapter 18 goes into the sixteenth century painting and printmaking in northern Europe. “The most important Northern artists were the painters of Germany and the Netherlands several of whom traveled to Italy and were influenced by Humanism. Nethertheless, the north was always less comfortable with Classism form than was Italy.” (page 318) The north had many humanists. “Humanism, as well as protestantism clashing with the inquisition and religious strife continues to intensify from the late fifteenth century.” Then the book tells us that they had an opposition to witchcraft. “Northern tradition of depicting bourgeois genre scenes (scenes of everyday life.)” (page 318)

In chapter 18 I learned about Printmaking. “Printmaking is the generic term for a number of processes, of which engraving and woodcut are two prime examples. Prints are made by pressing a sheet of paper against an image-bearing surface (the print matrix) to which ink has been applied. When the paper is removed, the image adheres to it, but in reverse. Engraving, which grew out of the goldsmiths art, originated in Germany in the middle of the fifteenth century. It is an intaglio process, (from the italian word intagliare, meaning to carve.) The image is incised into highly polished metal plate, usually of copper, with a cutting instrument, or burin. The artist then inks the plate and wipes it clean so that some of the ink remains the incised grooves. An impression is made on damp paper in a printing press, with sufficient pressure being applied so that the paper picks up th ink.” I took this quote from page 326). Under the Media and Technique section in yellow. I found this interesting, it is a process that I did not know about.

Adams, Laurie. A History of Western Art. 5th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2011.