Modern art

Modern art

1860 1970
1860 1970

Modern artists experimented with new ways of seeing and with fresh ideas about the nature of materials and functions of art. A tendency toward abstraction is characteristic of much modern art. More recent artistic production is often called Contemporary art or Postmodern art.

IMPRESSIONISM
The impressionist art movement originated in France in the last quarter of the 19th century as a reaction against traditional art and its strict rules. A group of painters who became known as the Impressionists decided to gain independence from the standards prescribed by the French Academy of Fine Arts and France's annual official art exhibition called The Salon. Impressionism covers approximately two decades, from the late 1860s through the 1880s.

CLAUDE MONET. PIERRE AUGUSTE RENOIR.

Impression, sunrise Claude MONET, 1873 Muse Marmottan, Paris

La Grenouillre Auguste RENOIR, 1869 Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

By the sea Auguste RENOIR, 1883 Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

La grenouillre Claude MONET, 1869 Metropolitan Museum of Art New York

Luncheon on the grass Edouard MANET, 1863 Muse d'Orsay, Paris

The term impressionist was first used by French art critic Louis Leroy in 1874 based on Monet's painting Impression, Sunrise. Leroy found the term fitting to describe the loose, undefined and "unfinished" style that Monet and several other artists applied to their paintings. What is Impressionism? Impressionist painters strove to break away from the traditional rules of subject matter, technique, and composition in painting, and created their own, unique style. Subjects of Impressionist Paintings Scenes from Everyday Life Unlike conservative painters who focused on portraying dramatic, often historical scenes of idealized beauty and moral or religious meaning, the Impressionists chose ordinary scenes from everyday life as the subject matter of their work. They put emphasis on capturing reality and depicting what they saw at a given moment.

Nature Nature was elevated to become the subject of the painting, rather than a backdrop for another scene, as was the case in traditional art. In painting landscapes, the Impressionists tried to put on canvas what they saw in front of them, without idealization. They often made a seemingly ordinary part of nature (a riverside path, a field of haystacks) the focal point of their work.

People Impressionist artists were interested in portraying people in everyday, informal situations: the middle class during leisure time activities in gardens, parks, or at the seaside, and workmen or rural people at work. One novelty of people portraits was the introduction of nudes who, "at the time, ... were an acceptable subject in allegorical or historical paintings, but not in scenes of everyday life."

 Paris With the 19th century Industrial Revolution and the reconstruction of Paris into a modern city, the city scene became one of the Impressionists' favorite subjects: "women wearing the latest fashions, the airy new streets and suburbs of Paris, modern modes of transportation ..., and the riverside and seacoast resorts where Parisians spent their leisure time."

Still Life Painting still life allowed the Impressionists to experiment with the depiction of changing light and to study the effects of light and shadow on the look of ordinary objects.

Impressionist Technique
Color The Impressionists distanced themselves from the somber tones of earlier paintings. They generally avoided the use of black and earth colors and instead used light, vibrant colors to give their paintings luminosity and to capture the changing effect of sunlight on the scenes they painted. Bright, contrasting colors were put onto the canvas one next to or on top of each other, often without prior mixing or subsequent blending. Brush Work In order to convey the movement and changing nature of a passing moment, the Impressionists used quick, broken brushstrokes that were left without any further smoothing. This method allows the viewer to clearly see the traces of the brush and gives impressionist paintings an unfinished appearance. The Impressionists worked quickly, sometimes in one sitting, in order to capture the fleeting moment and to give their work a spontaneous feel. Locale Impressionist painters often worked outdoors, not in a studio, to be in close touch with nature and to be able to directly observe the effects of changing sunlight, weather and movement.

Composition The Impressionists broke the traditional rules of composition and opened their style to experimenting. In their attempts to capture a given moment, they omitted detail in favor of the overall effect of the painting. They looked at their subjects from unusual angles and often cropped or framed their work in a way that was new to painting. A scene is often captured as if in passing or through the lens of a camera (a new invention at the time that enabled the Impressionists to study movement and gesture in real-life situations). Edgar Degas: Blue Dancers

FEATURES OF IMPRESSIONISM Blues & violets were used in place of grays ,browns and blacks were used even for the shadows. Smooth, Slick surfaces were replaced by rich, textured surfaces made up of short brush strokes. Hard , precise outlines are replaced by blurred edges. There is no emphasis or center of interest to which your eye is guided by perspective lines. The subject matter used comes from the contemporary world. They were more concerned with the technique rather than the subject . They replaced perspective by fading away or blurring of distant.

CLAUDE MONET The most important skillful & daring of the impressionist whose painting impression, sunrise gave the movement its name. His works: Impression, sunrise. Waterloo bridge. Haystack at sunset near Giveray. Lily ponds. His style: He painted chiefly landscapes with water providing movement. He tried to represent light, mist , wind and cold. Light was the main character of his paintings. He concentrated more on the reflection and shimmer of light on water. He used cheerful colors.

Title: Haystack, sunset 1891

Grainstacks in the Sunlight, Morning Effect, 1890.

Haystacks, (Midday), 189091

Wheatstacks, Snow Effect, Morning,

Haystacks on a Foggy Morning,

Haystack, Morning Snow Effect

Wheatstacks (Sunset, Snow Effect)

Wheatstack (Snow Effect, Overcast day

Wheatstack (Thaw, Sunset),

Wheatstack (Sun in the Mist),

Four Poplars on the Banks of the Epte River near Giverny

The three Trees in Summer Claude MONET 1891

Three Trees in Autumn Claude MONET 1891

PIERRE AUGUSTE RENOIR His paintings are happy paintings. Renoir avoided painting night or winter scenes. Sources of inspiration Japanese print Photography. Works: A girl with a water can. The Boating Party Lunch.

POST IMPRESSIONISM

Artists: Paul Cezanne Vincent Van Gogh. Paul Gauguin.

PAUL CEZANNE
Early in his career , he was associated with impressionists. His strong affection to old masters made him believe that impressionist lacked in form, solidity and structure. He was the great influence for the cubist. He was a transition artist between the 19thc. Realism and the abstraction of the early 20th C.

FEATURES :
He never reduced the natural forms to geometric abstractions but represent them in their simplest dimensions. He preferred to paint familiar landscapes, common objects and portrait of the humble. To suggest depth he used overlapping planes as in Chinese and Japanese art. He guides the eye to move around by providing /making roads disappear behind or some other way. Instead of fading the distant edges ,he accentuated their color ad height. He used or painted objects In one hue only. He used short , rectangular chisel like strokes.

Works Still life with peppermint bottle. Pines and rocks.

VINCENT VAN GOGH He was influenced by impressionists and Japanese prints. His work shows fine balance and arrangement, distinct contours, almost dazzling color and light without shadow. His work influenced expressionists and fauves. Themes : Portraits, landscapes, interiors, & night scenes. Works The potato eaters. Starry night.

The potato eaters.

Starry night.

PAUL GAUGUIN
In his early days he passed through a impressive period before moving into another period. He opted for simple ad primitive subjects. He derived his technique from the advanced Egyptian , Persian and Cambodian culture. Principles He tried to make his subjects represent his personal emotions and ideas. He used unusual and daring colors to fill the objects and the background soft. He used different textures and slight shading and modeled the figures as low relief. WORKS

Spirit of the dead watching. Struggle between Jacob and angel.

Spirit of the dead watching.

Struggle between Jacob and angel.

Fauvism
The word fauves means wild beast. The use of non-naturalist color was the common characteristic of the group. Influenced by Van Gogh. Artists Henri Matisse.

Applied small dots of pure color On the canvas instead of mixing colors on the canvas to achieve greater luminosity in their works.

Open window

joy of life 1906

red studio

Expressionism
This was a style that grew out of the work of Van Gogh ad flourished among German artists of the World war I Expressionists were interested in representing deep emotional feelings in their work rather than painting outward appearance. They used expressive color, distortion and exaggeration to express highly personal feelings of fear , anxiety, anger and love. Intensive Expressionism. Extensive Expressionism. The expressionists had no interest In style and form and opposed the formalism of Czanne. Expressionism was a revolt against the dehumanization of industrialization and mechanism and also the loneliness of urbanization and modern social conditions and romanticism.

The artists aimed at powerful rather than graceful expression and often neglected design.
They laid the colors thickly with furious brush strokes and broad vigorous lines.

Influences
Van Gogh Edward Munch

Expressionists group :
Bridge Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

Blue rider
Kandinsky. Non-objective art. Kathe Kollwitz.

He tried to show the world as viewed through the eyes of people in anguish. Thus the color and shape of familiar object change. Eg. Trees,hills,houses and people are pulled out of shape and were color unexpectedly. Edward Munch - the scream

ernst ludwig kirchner - street berlin

Works of Kandinsky.

Non-objective art

CUBISM
This style is built on Cezannes ideas about the use

of cubes of color to show form and volume. Cubists try to show or present objects as though viewed from several angles at the same time. This often resulted in a complex arrangement of geometric shapes. They tried to show all sides of three-dimensional objects on a flat canvas. Intellectual approach. Artists broke down the reality and re-arranged them according to their own fancy. Artists PABLO PICCASO GEORGES BRAQUE.

Picasso - Guernica

Georges Braque

still life with harp and violin.

Blue guitar.

FUTURISM
Aimed of revolutionizing the foundations of art.

Artists GINO SEVERINI GIACOMO BALLA

GINO SEVERINI Red Cross train.

Giacomo Balla - Dynamism of a dog on a leash

DADAISM
Dada was founded by a group of rebel artists in Europe during World War I who were dissatisfied about art, the war, and the world in general.

Dada art was intended to be ugly, weird, and in every possible way the opposite of traditional artin other words, anti-art.

ARTISTS

Marcel Duchamp
Kurt Schwitters Raoul Hausmann

The most famous and controversial Dada artwork of all was Marcel Duchamps Fountain. It consisted only of a urinal set on its back

Duchamp called it a readymade piece. . .

Some Dada artists used trash or refuse to make a statement, other simply used it because they could.

Dada sculptures

Three-dimensional collage piecein that he used a basic sculpted head and then attached various found objects to it.

Surrealism
Surrealism began in the 1920s as an offshoot or extension of the Dada movement Like Dada, Surrealism rejected the necessity for rational thought and behavior , but it had well defined aims and purposes. Surrealists were fascinated by the world of dreams as a gateway to the subconscious and portrayed dream fantasies in paint.

Artists
Joan Miro. Max Ernst. G Chirico. Salvador Dali.
Salvador Dali is probably the most famous of those Surrealist painters. Hes known for his strange, eye-twisting landscapes often full of symbolic creatures and objects. He combines the unreal with the real. In order to make the unreal appear more real he painted in the precisely detailed manner. He made the buildings and foliage in many of his landscapes take on the shape of faces or heads. He used pseudo-scientific expressions.