Dada, Surrealism & other Modern Art

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Dada, Surrealism other Modern Art
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Effects of WWI on Europe

• Lots a LOT of men from one generation due to
  warfare
• Men returning suffered shell shock
  (post-tramatic stress)
• This generation is known as the lost generation
  because of almost 10 million men who died
• Disillusioned of humanity because of what
  transpired during WWI
• The progressive spirit turns to cynicism

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DADA

• Dada artists believed that traditional society
  supports (law, faith, culture, economy, etc)
  failed to prevent WWI
• So, they declared a war on tradition and
  criticized formal institutions and conventional
  art
• Instead they expressed ABSURDITY, SPONTANEITY,
  and FREE WILLnot just to shock but for
  imagination
• Dada random selection from a dictionarymeans
  rocking horse in Frenchfounded in Zurich,
  Switzerland
• Would use the word in their art pieces
• Used new methods, materials, and technologies
• COLLAGE, PHOTOMONTAGE, and ASSEMBLAGE
• Influenced Romare Bearden (collagist), Robert
  Rauschenberg, and Louise Nevelson

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JEAN (HANS) ARP, Collage Arranged According to
the Laws of Chance, 19161917. Torn and pasted
paper, 1 7 1/8 x 1 1 5/8. Museum of Modern
Art, New York.--worked with his wife to create
collages that looked like her abstract
textiles--Interested in the subconscious (this
will also be part of Surrealism)--Using chance
is avant-garde!
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MARCEL DUCHAMP, Fountain, (second version), 1950
(original version produced 1917). Readymade
glazed sanitary china with black paint, 1 high.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
--Considered a ready made (found art)
--Signature a play on words with the French
plumbing company, R. Mott --It was rejected from
an avant-garde exhibit (he resigned from the
group)
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MARCEL DUCHAMP, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her
Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), 1915-23. Oil,
lead, wire, foil, dust, and varnish on glass, 9
1 1/2 x 5 9 1/8. Philadelphia Museum of Art,
Philadelphia --examines humans as
machines--top a motor fueled by love
gasolineIn 1927, it was being transported and
the glass shattered. Duchamp then declared it
finished!
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HANNAH HÖCH, Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada
through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch
of Germany, 19191920. Photomontage, 3 9 x 2
11 1/2. Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen
zu Berlin, Berlin.--FOUND images--political
Dada--Deliberately random--Dadaists, Marx,
Lenin, and herself
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KURT SCHWITTERS, Merz 19, 1920. Paper collage, 7
1/4 x 5 7/8. Yale University Art Gallery, New
Haven--Inspired by Cubists--scavenged trash
bins (elevating trash into art!)
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MAN RAY, Cadeau (Gift), ca. 1958 (replica of 1921
original). Painted flatiron with row of 13 tacks
with heads glued to the bottom, 6 1/8 x 3 5/8 x
4 1/2. Museum of Modern Art, New York--Humor
in art!
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America, 1900 to 1930
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JOHN SLOAN, Sixth Avenue and Thirtieth Street,
New York City, 1907, 1909. Oil on canvas, 2 1/4
x 2 8. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
--a realistic, unvarnished look at life --bleak
and seedy aspects of the city, Sloan and seven
others are known as The Ash Can School
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The Armory Show

• Feb. March of 1913Turning point for Modern art
  in USA
• 1,600 artworks by American and European artists
• Received TERRIBLE reviews
• The most critiqued was Duchamps Nude Descending
  a Staircase
• Highly influential and the show then traveled to
  Chicago and Boston
• Some artists included Matisse, Derain, Picasso,
  Braque, Kandinsky, and Kirchner

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Installation photo of the Armory Show, New York
National Guards 69th Regiment, New York, 1913.
Museum of Modern Art, New York.
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MARCEL DUCHAMP, Nude Descending a Staircase, No.
2, 1912. Oil on canvas, 4 10 x 2 11.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia--Has
more in common with Cubism and Futurism than with
Dada--Monochromatic is like that of Analytic
Cubism
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EDWARD WESTON, Nude, 1925. Platinum print, 7
1/2 x9 1/2. Center for Creative Photography,
University of Arizona, Tucson.
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ALFRED STIEGLITZ, The Flat Iron Building, 1907
(print 1915). Photogravure (on tissue), 1 3/8
x 10 1/8. Courtesy of Amon Carter Museum, Fort
Worth. Photogravure form of printmaking
where the photographic image is etched onto a
plate by a machine
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Alfred Stieglitz

• Strong supporter of European art in the US and
  also American modernist art
• Photographer as a fine art
• Gallery 291on 5th Ave. in NYC
• Married to Georgia OKeefe

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GEORGIA OKEEFFE, City Night, 1929. Oil on
canvas, 48 x 30. Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
--known for close up images of flowers --Skyscrape
rs critics saw this is a glorification to
progress but OKeefe saw them as claustrophobic,
menacing --She moves to New Mexico for wide open
spaces
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MARSDEN HARTLEY, Portrait of a German Officer,
1914. Oil on canvas, 5' 8 1/4 x 3' 5 3/8.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York--Also
exhibited at Stieglitzs gallery--Homosexual--Th
is painting is based on a German lieutenant
Hartley fell in love with in Berlin who died in
1914 during WWI--Symbolic rather than literal
portrait
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CHARLES DEMUTH, My Egypt, 1927. Oil on
composition board, 2 11 3/4 x 2 6. Collection
of Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
(purchased with funds from Gertrude Vanderbilt
Whitney). --PRECISIONISMNot an organized
movement but they all had common love for
machines and influenced by synth. Cubism
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ART MATRONAGE

• Before the 20th C., women artists were restricted
  to training (nude figure drawing) and most of the
  art they created wasnt seen as fine art
• Another concept in the 20th C. is the abundance
  of female art patrons Gertrude Vanderbuilt
  Whitney (founded The Whitney), Lillie P. Bliss,
  Isabella Stewart Gardner, Peggy Guggenheim and
  Jane Stanford

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THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

• An art and literary movement in Harlem, New York
  to promote cultural accomplishments, cultivate
  pride, and racial tolerance
• Some artists include Langston Hughes, Zora Neale
  Hurston, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, James
  Van Der Zee (photographer), Augusta Savage
  (sculptor) and Aaron Douglas (painter)

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AARON DOUGLAS, Noahs Ark, ca. 1927. Oil on
masonite, 4 x 3. Fisk University Galleries,
University of Tennessee, Nashville.--Influenced
by Synthetic Cubism and African sculpture--FLAT,
angular planes--
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Augusta Savage, The Harp (Lift Every Voice and
Sing), 1939 --Originally made of plaster for
the NY Worlds Fair in 1939 --Did not have funds
to cast it (Great Depression) into bronze and it
was destroyed at the end of the fair --Based on
African American hymn
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Europe, 1920 to 1945
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Surrealism

• Focused on the world of the subconscious mind
• Influenced by Hieronymous Bosch, Symbolists
  emphasis on inner fantasy world, Dadas sense of
  the absurd, Freuds Interpretation of Dreams,
  and Georgio De Chricos paintings
• Andre Bretons Manifesto of Surrealism discusses
  the need for new techniques to construct a
  picture
• Surrealism style giving the unconscious visual
  forms, juxtaposing familiar with unfamiliar,
  irrational or bizarre scenes
• Popular from the 1920s to the 1930s

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GIORGIO DE CHIRICO, Melancholy and Mystery of a
Street, 1914. Oil on canvas, 2 10 1/4 x 2 4
1/2. Private collection. --Precursor to
Surrealism--He called his style, Metaphysical
(alternate reality) empty, Italian
architecture--multiple vanishing points, firm
outlines, feeling of uneasiness
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MAX ERNST, Two Children Are Threatened by a
Nightingale, 1924. Oil on wood with wood
construction, 2 3 1/2 x 1 10 1/2 x 4 1/2.
Museum of Modern Art, New York.--Originally a
Dadaist--odd juxtaposition of objects--objects
added to painting cause illusion of depth
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SALVADOR DALÍ, The Persistence of Memory, 1931.
Oil on canvas, 9 1/2 x 1 1. Museum of Modern
Art, New York.
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RENÉ MAGRITTE, The Treachery of Images,
19281929. Oil on canvas, 1 11 5/8 x 3 1.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
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JOAN MIRÓ, Painting, 1933. 5 8 x 6 5. Museum
of Modern Art, New York
--Biomorphic shapes! (organic, lacking definite
shape) --represents his own unconscious world
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MERET OPPENHEIM, Object (Le Déjeuner en
fourrure), 1936. Fur-covered cup, 4 3/8
diameter saucer, 9 3/8 diameter spoon, 8
long. Museum of Modern Art, New York.
--One of the few women OFFICIALLY associated with
Surrealism
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Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas, 1939. oil on
canvas 58.5 x 58.5, Mexico City --NOT a
member of the surrealists (she disavowed them!)
but they do have similarities --European vs.
Zapotec --Reflects her own life experiences and
her own imagination
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PAUL KLEE, Twittering Machine, 1922. Watercolor
and pen and ink, on oil transfer drawing on
paper, mounted on cardboard, 2 1 x 1 7.
Museum of Modern Art, New York.--Not a part of
a set movement!--Influenced by Expressionism,
Cubism, and Surrealism--Friends with Kandinsky
(influenced by music)--Child-like and sometimes
humorous
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Marc Chagall, The Birthday, 1915 oil on canvas

• Jewish, Modernist painter who was influenced by
  Cubism, Symbolism, Fauvism, and Surrealism
• Is also not a part of a set movement
• Active in all aspects of media painting, glass,
  ceramic, murals, etc.