Title: Art and Revolution American Regionalism
1 Art and Revolution American Regionalism
William V. Ganis, PhD additional imagery from
Marsha Russell
2 NEW ART FOR A NEW SOCIETY-UTOPIAN IDEALS Some
avant-garde artists believed in art's ability to
improve of society and all humankind. Suprematism
and Constructivism in Russia, De Stijl in
Holland, and the Bauhaus in Germany were among
the art movements that promoted utopian ideals.
3Suprematism is an art movement focused on
fundamental geometric forms (in particular the
square and circle) which formed in Russia in
1915-1916. It wasn't until later that suprematism
received conventional museum preparations
4 When Kasimir Malevich originated Suprematism in
1915 he was an established painter having
exhibited in the Donkey's Tail and the Der Blaue
Reiter (The Blue Rider) exhibitions of 1912 with
cubo-futurist works. The proliferation of new
artistic forms in painting, poetry and theatre as
well as a revival of interest in the traditional
folk art of Russia were a rich environment in
which a Modernist culture was being born. In
his book The Non-Objective World, which was
published abroad as a Bauhaus Book in 1927,
Malevich described the inspiration which brought
about the powerful image of the black square on a
white ground I felt only night within me and it
was then that I conceived the new art, which I
called Suprematism. Malevich wanted "to free
art from the burden of the object." He tried to
make his shapes and colors as pure as musical
notes, without reference to any recognizable
object." "Under Suprematism I understand the
supremacy of pure feeling in creative art. To
the Suprematist, the visual phenomena of the
objective world are, in themselves, meaningless
the significant thing is feeling, as such, quite
apart from the environment in which it is called
forth."
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6Suprematism The supremacy of pure feeling
The Russian painter Kasimir Malevich developed a
nonobjective abstract style to convey his belief
that the supreme reality in the world is pure
feeling. His Suprematist Composition Aeroplane
Flying shows brightly colored shapes within a
white space.
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8Malevich, White on White, 1918
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10Kasimir Malevich Tea Service 1923 porcelain
11Constructivism
12Tatlin originated a geometric art in 1914 that he
called 'Constructivism" because its aim was to
"construct"art, not create it. The style
prescribed using industrial materials like glass,
metal, and plastic in three-dimensional works.
13 Constructivism was an artistic and architectural
movement that originated in Russia from 1919
onward which rejected the idea of "art for art's
sake" in favor of art as a practice directed
towards social purposes. Constructivism as an
active force lasted until around 1934, having a
great deal of effect on developments in the art
of the Weimar Republic and elsewhere, before
being replaced by Socialist Realism. Its motifs
have sporadically recurred in other art movements
since.
14 Constructivism as theory and practice derived
itself from a series of debates at INKhUK
(Institute of Artistic Culture) in Moscow, from
1920-22. After deposing its first chairman,
Wassily Kandinsky for his 'mysticism', The First
Working Group of Constructivists (including
Liubov Popova, Alexander Vesnin, Rodchenko,
Varvara Stepanova, and the theorists Alexei Gan,
Boris Arvatov and Osip Brik) would arrive at a
definition of Constructivism as the combination
of faktura the particular material properties of
the object, and tektonika, its spatial presence.
Initially the Constructivists worked on
three-dimensional constructions as a first step
to participation in industry the OBMOKhU
(Society of Young Artists) exhibition showed
these three dimensional compositions, by
Rodchenko, Stepanova, Karl Ioganson and the
Stenberg Brothers. Later the definition would be
extended to designs for two-dimensional works
such as books or posters, with montage and
factography becoming important concepts.
15First Constructivist Exhibition
16Naum Gabo, Column
17Space-Time sculptures The Constructivist
sculptor Naum Gabo explored the relationship of
mass and space to suggest the nature of
space/time. In Column, he opened up the column's
circular mass so that viewers can experience the
volume of space it occupies. Many of Gabo's
sculptures first appeared as tiny models. They
were often projects for monumental public
schemes, rarely achieved, in which sculpture and
architecture came together
18 "Space and time are the only forms on which life
is built and hence art must be constructed.The
realization of our perceptions of the world in
the forms of space and time is the only aim of
our pictorial and plastic art. . . . We
renounce the thousand-year-old delusion in art
that held the static rhythms as the only
elements of the plastic and pictorial arts. We
affirm in these arts a new element, the kinetic
rhythms, as the basic forms of our perception of
real time."
19Alexander Rodchenko Vladimir Tatlin 1915 gelatin-s
ilver print
20Vladimir Tatlin Counter Relief 1915 wood, metal,
paint
21Tatlin was also regarded as a progenitor of
Russian post-Revolutionary Constructivist art
with his pre-Revolutionary counter-reliefs
structures made of wood and iron for hanging in
wall corners. He conceived these sculptures in
order to question the traditional idea of
painting, though he did not regard himself as a
Constructivist and objected to many of the
movement's ideas. Later prominent constructivists
included Varvara Stepanova, Alexander Rodchenko,
Manuel Rendón Seminario, JoaquÃn Torres GarcÃa,
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo.
22Vladimir Tatlin Corner-Counter Reliefs 1915 wood,
metal, paint
23Vladimir Tatlin Monument to the 3rd
International 1919-20 wood, iron and glass
24 Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who
designed the huge Monument to the Third
International, also known as Tatlin's Tower.
Planned in 1920, the monument, was to be a tall
tower in iron, glass and steel which would have
dwarfed the Eiffel Tower in Paris (the Monument
to the Third International was a third taller at
1,300 feet high). It was to be a monument to
celebrate the Bolshevik revolution. Inside the
iron-and-steel structure of twin spirals, the
design envisaged three building blocks, covered
with glass windows, which would rotate at
different speeds (the first one, a cube, once a
year the second one, a pyramid, once a month
the third one, a cylinder, once a day). High
prices prevented Tatlin from executing the plan,
and no building such as this was erected in his
day. The "Culture of Materials" Art for
Society Vladimir Tatlin's design for Monument to
the Third International called for a huge
glass-and-iron building with three geometrically
shaped rotating chambers.
25El Lissitsky The Constructor (Self-Portrait) 1924
gelatin-silver print 4 1/2 x 4 7/8 in.
26El Lissitsky Prouenraum (Proun Room) 1923 wood,
metal, paint
27El Lissitsky
He was an important figure of the Russian avant
garde, helping develop suprematism with his
mentor, Kazimir Malevich, and designing numerous
exhibition displays and propaganda works for the
former Soviet Union. His work greatly influenced
the Bauhaus and constructivist movements, and he
experimented with production techniques and
stylistic devices that would go on to dominate
20th-century graphic design.1
28El Lissitsky Beat the Whites with the Red
Wedge 1919 oil on canvas
29El Lissitsky Book Design and Typography for
Mayakovkys For the Voice 1923 ink on paper
30 Rodchenko was one of the most versatile
Constructivist and Productivist artists to emerge
after the Russian Revolution. He worked as a
painter and graphic designer before turning to
photomontage and photography. His photography was
socially engaged, formally innovative, and
opposed to a painterly aesthetic. Concerned with
the need for analytical-documentary photo series,
he often shot his subjects from odd
anglesusually high above or belowto shock the
viewer and to postpone recognition. He wrote
"One has to take several different shots of a
subject, from different points of view and in
different situations, as if one examined it in
the round rather than looked through the same
key-hole again and again."
31Alexander Rodchenko Spatial Construction
12 1920 wood
32Alexander Rodchenko Design for Kiosk 1919 ink on
paper
33Alexander Rodchenko Lili Brik 1924 gelatin-silver
print
34Alexander Rodchenko Poster for Leningrad
Publishing House 1924 gouache and photomontage on
paper27 1/2 x 33 7/8
35Alexander Rodchenko Poster for Leningrad
Publishing House 1924 ink on paper
36Alexander Rodchenko Poster for Battleship
Potemkin 1925 ink on paper
37Alexander Rodchenko Workers Club 1925
38Alexander Rodchenko Vladimir Mayakovsky 1924 gelat
in-silver print
39Alexander Rodchenko Osip Brik for LEF
Magazine 1924
40Alexander Rodchenko Assembling for a
Demonstration 1928 gelatin-silver print19 1/2 x
13 7/8 in.
41Alexander Rodchenko Pioneer Girl 1930 gelatin-silv
er print
42Alexander Rodchenko Marching Column of the Dynamo
Sporting Club 1935 gelatin-silver print
43The Bauhaus
44 The Bauhaus school was founded by Walter Gropius
in Weimar. In spite of its name, and the fact
that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus
did not have an architecture department during
the first years of its existence. Nonetheless it
was founded with the idea of creating a 'total'
work of art in which all arts, including
architecture would eventually be brought
together. The Bauhaus style became one of the
most influential currents in Modernist
architecture and modern design. The Bauhaus had
a profound influence upon subsequent developments
in art, architecture, graphic design, interior
design, industrial design, and typography.
45Walter Gropius Bauhaus Dessau, Germany 1925-26
46 The building Gropius designed for the Bauhaus in
Dessau expressed the school's stated goals. It
is the Bauhaus's architectural manifesto. It
consisted of workshi and class areas, a dining
room, a theater, a gymnasium, a wing with
studio apartments and an enclosed two-story
bridge housing administrative offices. Of the
three wings, the Shop Block housed a printing
shop and dye works facility, in addition to other
work areas. The builders constructed the
skeleton of reinforced concrete but the supports
are set back so that the building seems to be
sheathed in glass.
47Walter Gropius's Bauhaus Goals A decidedly
positive attitude to the living environment of
vehicles and machines The organic shaping of
things in accordance with their own current laws,
avoiding all romantic embellishment and
whimsy Restriction of basic forms and colors to
what is typical and universally intelligible Simp
licity in complexity, economy in the use of
space, materials time, and money
48Walter Gropius Bauhaus Dessau, Germany 1925-26
49Walter Gropius Bauhaus Dessau, Germany 1925-26
50Walter Gropius Bauhaus Workshop Wing Dessau,
Germany 1925-26
51Walter Gropius ca. 1920
52Walter Gropius and Adolph Meyer Fagus Shoe
Factory Alfeld, Germany 1911-25
53Walter Gropius and Adolph Meyer Model Factory at
the Werkbund Exhibition Germany 1914
54Walter Gropius and Adolph Meyer Design for
Chicago Tribune Tower 1922
55Walter Gropius with Chicago Tribune Design ca.
1922
56Luwig Mies Van Der Rohe German Pavilion,
Barcelona 1929
57 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, along with Walter
Gropius and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as
one of the pioneering masters of Modern
architecture. Mies, like many of his post World
War I contemporaries, sought to establish a new
architectural style that could represent modern
times just as Classical and Gothic did for their
own eras. He created an influential 20th century
architectural style, stated with extreme clarity
and simplicity. His mature buildings made use of
modern materials such as industrial steel and
plate glass to define interior spaces. He strived
towards an architecture with a minimal framework
of structural order balanced against the implied
freedom of free-flowing open space. He called his
buildings "skin and bones" architecture. He
sought a rational approach that would guide the
creative process of architectural design, and is
known for his use of the aphorisms "less is more"
and "God is in the details".
58Luwig Mies Van Der Rohe German Pavilion,
Barcelona 1929
59Luwig Mies Van Der Rohe German Pavilion,
Barcelona 1929
60Luwig Mies Van Der Rohe German Pavilion,
Barcelona 1929
61Luwig Mies Van Der Rohe German Pavilion,
Barcelona 1929
62Luwig Mies Van Der Rohe model for a glass
skyscraper, Berlin, Germany1922
63 This design for a skyscraper was exhibited at a
Bauhaus exhibition in Three irregularly shaped
towers flow outward from a central court designed
to hold a lobby, a porter's room, and a community
center. Two cylindrical entrance shafts rise at
the ends of the court each containing elevators,
stairways, and toilets. Wholly transparent, the
perimeter walls reveal the regular horizontal
patterning of the cantilevered floor planes and
their thin vertical supporting elements. The bold
use of glass sheathing and inset supports was, at
the time, technically and aesthetically
adventurous.
64Marcel Breuer Armchair, Model B3 1927chrome-plate
d tubular steel with canvas slings28 1/8 x 30
1/4 x 27 3/4 in.
65The Bauhaus advocated a comprehensive approach to
architecture, which included furniture design.
Breuer's chair has a simple geometric look in
keeping with Bauhaus aesthetics. These chairs
could also be mass produced and thus further
epitomized the goals of the Bauhaus. Closing
the Bauhaus was one of Hitler's first acts after
coming to power. In 14 years only 500 students
graduated, yet the school had one of the
most enduring effects on Modern design.
66Marcel Breuer Chairs 1920s
67Heinrich Loeffelhardt Teapot for Jaener
Company 1931blown glass
68Josef Hartwig Chess Set 1924wood
69Herbert Bayer Bayer Universel 1925typeface
70Willie Baumeister Invitation Card-example of
reading order 1924
71Jan Tschischold Examples from The New
Typography 1928
72Jan Tschischold Ad-Example for The New
Typography 1928
73László Moholy-Nagy Untitled ca. 1940photogram,
silver-bromide print20 x 16 in.
74László Moholy-Nagy Untitled (looking down from
the Radio Tower, Berlin) ca. 1928gelatin-silver
print14 1/4 x 10 in.
75László Moholy-Nagy Light-Space Modulator 1922-30k
inetic sculpture with steel, plastic, wood,
electric motor59 1/2 x 27 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.
76László Moholy-Nagy Light-Space Modulator 1922-30k
inetic sculpture with steel, plastic, wood,
electric motor59 1/2 x 27 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.
77Theo Ballmer Photoexperiment (assignment given by
Walter Peterhans) ca. 1929gelatin-silver prints
mounted on board
78Kurt Kranz Eye Series 1930-3116 Gelatin-silver
prints mounted on board13 7/8 x 19 3/4 in.
overall
79Paul Klee In the Current Six Thresholds 1929oil
and tempera on canvas17 1/8 x 17 1/8 in.
80Paul Klee Ad Parnassum 1932oil and casein on
canvas39 3/8 x 49 5/8 in.
81Vasily Kandinsky Composition VIII 1923oil on
canvas55 1/8 x 79 1/8 in.
82Vasily Kandinsky Several Circles, No.
323 1926oil on canvas55 1/8 x 55 1/8 in.
83Gunta Stölzl Gobelin Tapestry 1926-1927linen and
cotton
84Anni Albers Blanket WE 493 1926wool
85Josef Albers Homage to the SquareAscending 1953
oil on composition board3 ft. 7 1/2 in. x 3 ft.
7 1/2 in.
86Walter Gropius Gropius House Lincoln,
Massachusetts 1938
87Walter Gropius Gropius House Lincoln,
Massachusetts 1938
88Walter Gropius Gropius House Lincoln,
Massachusetts 1938
89De Stijl
90De Stijl The De Stijl (The Style) movement,
which promoted utopian ideals and the integration
of art and life, was co-founded in Holland by
Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg.
91Piet Mondrian Mill in Sunlight 1908 oil on
canvas 44 7/8 x 30 1/4 in.
92Piet Mondrian Red Tree 1908 oil on canvas 27 1/2
x 39 in.
93Piet Mondrian Apple Tree (Pointillist
Version) ca. 1908 oil on composition board 22 3/8
x 29 1/2 in.
94Piet Mondrian Gray Tree 1911 oil on canvas 30 7/8
x 42 3/8 in.
95Piet Mondrian Ocean 5 1915 charcoal and gouache
on paper 34 1/2 x 47 3/8 in.
96Piet Mondrian Composition No. 2 Composition in
Line and Color 1913 oil on canvas 34 5/8 x 45 1/4
in.
97Piet Mondrian Composition with Gray Light
Brown 1918 oil on canvas 31 9/16 x 19 5/8 in.
98Piet Mondrian Composition A 1920 oil on canvas 36
x 36 1/4 in.
99Piet Mondrian Lozenge Composition with Red,
Black, Blue and Yellow 1925 oil on canvas 30 3/8
x 30 3/8 in.
100Piet Mondrian Composition with Red, Blue and
Yellow 1930oil on canvas20 1/8 x 20 1/8 in.
101A "Pure Plastic Art" Mondrian sought to reveal
the underlying eternal structure of existence
through the manipulation of the three primary
colors (red, blue, and yellow), the three primary
values (black, white, and gray), and the two
primary directions (horizontal and vertical). His
Composition (Blue, Red, and Yellow) is a grid of
lines and color planes arranged to create an
internal cohesion and harmony.
102Piet Mondrian Rhythm of Black Lines ca. 1935 oil
on canvas 72.2 x 69.5 cm
103Piet Mondrian New York City 1941-42 oil on
canvas 46 7/8 x 44 7/8 in.
104Piet Mondrian Broadway Boogie Woogie 1943 oil on
canvas 50 x 50 in.
105Theo van Doesburg Composition IX (Card
Players) 1917 oil on canvas45 5/8 x 41 3/4
106Theo van Doesburg Composition XXII 1920 oil on
canvas
107Theo van Doesburg Simultaneous Counter
Composition 1929 oil on canvas
108Theo van Doesburg Design 1932 ink and gouache on
paper
109Theo van Doesburg Café lAubette Strasbourg 1926-2
8 (destroyed 1940)
110Gerrit Reitveld Schroeder House Utrecht, the
Netherlands1924
111Gerrit Reitveld Schroeder House Utrecht, the
Netherlands1924
112Gerrit Reitveld Schroeder House Utrecht, the
Netherlands1924
113Gerrit Reitveld Schroeder House Utrecht, the
Netherlands1924
114J.J.P.Oud Café de Unie Rotterdam1925
115J.J.P.Oud Café de Unie Rotterdam1925
116International Style
117Architecture to-day is no longer conscious of
its own beginnings. Architects work in styles
or discuss questions of structure in and out of
season their clients, the public, still think in
terms of conventional appearance, and reason on
the foundations of an insufficient education. Our
external world has been enormously transformed in
its outward appearance and in the use made of
it, by reason of the machine. We have gained a
new perspective and a new social life, but we
have not yet adapted the house thereto. Le
Cobusier
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121Art Deco
122A race for the tallest building For Walter P.
Chrysler, from the car manufacturer, building the
tallest building in the world was a status
symbol. The Chrysler building was in a race with
the Bank of Manhattan (now 40 Wall Street) for
obtaining the title of tallest building in the
world. It looked like the Bank of Manhattan would
win the race, with an expected height of 282
meter (927ft) against around 230 meter for the
Chrysler building. But the spire of the Chrysler
building was constructed in secret inside the
tower.
123William van Alen
124Natural Architecture
125 Robie House 5757 Woodlawn Avenue Chicago,
Illinois Frank Lloyd Wright 1909 Wright built
this extraordinary residential home for wealthy
bicycle and motorcycle manufacturer Frederick C.
Robie in the first decade of the twentieth
century. To understand the extraordinary leap
from the Victorian to the Modern that Wright
takes with this work, take a good look at the
contemporaneous house to the right of the Robie
House. The Robie House gracefully recedes from
the street in a series of horizontal overlapping
planes this exterior spatial overlap is
complemented by an interior that is open to the
outside, yet sheltered
126This delicate balance of private and exposed
space (requested by Robie himself, to shield his
family from outsiders, but a constant theme in
Wrights domestic architecture) is remarkable, as
is the suitability of the house for modern
living. Note also the huge drop in ceiling
heights--the guides at the Robie House assert
that the low ceilings were not only modeled for
bodies of Wrights height or less (about 5 7"),
but that they expressed his committment to
"democracy."
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172Rodin, Monument to Balzac, 1897-98
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174Ernst Barlach, War Monument Unlike traditional
war memorials, this haunting symbolic
figure speaks to the experience of all caught in
the conflictsuggestive of a dying soul at the
moment of awakening to everlasting life.
Original melted down for ammo by the Nazis.
175Wilhelm Lehmbruck German working between the two
wars. Elongated figures, slumped, imparting a
sense of anguish
176Organic Sculpture
177Brancusi, The Kiss, 1907
178Brancusi, Bird in Space, 1923 and 1928
179Brancusi, Torso of a Young Man, 1924
Brancusi, Mademoiselle Pogany, ND
180Giacometti, Man Crossing the Street, 1949
Giacometti, Walking Man, 1960
181Giacometti, La Place (City Square), 1948
182Moore, Two Forms, 1936
Knife Edge Mirror Two Piece, 1976-1978
183Moore, Recumbent Figure, 1938
184Moore, Reclining Figure, 1939
185Moore, Madonna Child, St Pauls, London,ND
186Moore, Large 4-piece Reclining Figure, Harvard,
1972-73
187Hepworth, Three Forms, 1935
188Hepworth, Two Figures, 1947-48
189Hepworth, Westminster Abbey Hepworth sculpture,
ND
190Calder, Standing Mobile, 1935
Calder, Acrobat, 1929
191Calder, Lobster Trap and Fish Tail, 1939
192Calder, Mobile in Red and Black, 1930s
193Calder, Spiny stabile, 1942
194Picasso's response to the Nazi bombing of the
Basque town of Guernica on behalf of Francisco
Franco in 1937. Exhibited at the Spanish
pavilion at the Paris International Exposition of
1937.
195Vera Mukhina, The Worker and the Collective Farm
Worker. Glorification of the communal labor of
the Soviet People.
196The Depression and Its Legacy
197 Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930
198Wood, photo of models for American Gothic
199Wood, Grant, Stone City, Iowa, 1930
200Wood, Fall Plowing, 1931
201Wood, Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, 1931
202Wood, Parson Weems' Fable, 1939
203Benton, The Lord is My Shepherd, 1926
204Benton, Bootleggers, 1927
205Benton, City Activities, from America Today
murals, 1930
206Benton, Steel, from America Today murals, 1930
207Benton, Cradling Wheat, 1938
208Benton, Exterminate! from The Year of Peril, 1942
209 John Steuart Curry, Baptism in Kansas, 1928
210Curry, John Brown, from The Tragic Prelude,
1937-40
211Alexandre Hogue, Drougth Stricken Area, 1934
212 Jacob Lawrence, No 36, During the truce,
Toussaint is deceived, 1937-38
213Lawrence, The Migration of the Negro, 1940-41
214Lawrence, Harriet Tubman series No , 1939-40
215Lawrence, Forward, 1967
216Shahn, The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti, 1931-32
217Shahn, Sing Sorrow, 1946
Shahn, Miners' Wives, 1948
218Hopper, Drug Store, 1927
219Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942
220Hopper, Automat, 1927
221Hopper, Automat, 1927
222Hopper, New York Movie, 1939
223Hopper, Gas, 1940
224Rivera, Zapatista Landscape--The Guerrilla, 1915
225Rivera, Night of the Rich, Ministry of Education
Bldg, Mexico City mural, 1923-28
226Rivera, Flower Day, 1925
227Rivera, The Tortilla Maker, 1926
228Rivera, The Liberation of the Peon, 1931
229Rivera, Day of the Dead, ND
230Orozco, Epic of American Civilization,
Hispano-America, 1932-34
231Siqueiros, Echo of a Scream, 1937
232http//www.diego-rivera.org/rockefellercontroversy
.html
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