2. The Protestant Reformation
At this point in history there is only one church in the West -- the Catholic Church --
under the leadership of the Pope in Rome. The Church had been for some time a
notoriously corrupt institution plagued by internal power struggles.
Martin Luther began the Reformation in 1517 by posting his "95 Theses" on the door
of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.
At first, the Church ignored Martin Luther, thinking that he would just go away. When
that didn't work, they excommunicated him. Luther's ideas quickly spread throughout
Europe. The Church's response to the threat from Luther and others during this
period is called the Counter-Reformation.
In 1545 the Church called the Council of Trent to deal with the issues raised by Luther.
Luther's Reformation is the first real challenge to the Church's authority in Europe and
represents the end of its grip on power.
3. The Baroque
Baroque art is the style of the late 1500s and 1600s. The important thing to keep in
mind now is that the Baroque style in Italy is the direct result of the Counter-
Reformation. The Church needs a powerful style of art to use in the fight against
Martin Luther.
Caravaggio is probably the quintessential Baroque artist. His works embody all of the
aspects important to the power of images to affect emotion.
Drama: usually, there is a very dark background with little to no detail. The figures are
lit dramatically, as if from a spotlight, to heighten the dramatic tension.
Space: one of the main characteristics of Baroque art is the breakdown of the barrier
between our space and the space of the painting, so we feel like we're really part of it.
Realism: not only do the figures look "regular," but the artist is giving us a very real
sense of this moment. The body of Christ looks truly dead, the figures struggle to hold
the dead weight of his body and ease him down gently into his tomb. They are all very
ordinary looking and not idealized at all.
Baroque art wants to get to you in your body—so you really feel it, and relate to it.
When you know something in your mind it is one thing, but when you experience it
with your body it is really different. Baroque art wants you to have an experience
that's located in your body—unlike the High Renaissance, which appealed to the
mind.
4. The Enlightenment
The thinkers of the Enlightenment, influenced by the scientific revolutions of the
previous century, believed in shedding the light of science and reason on the world,
and in order to question traditional ideas and ways of doing things. The scientific
revolution gave the impression that the universe behaved according to universal and
unchanging laws. This provided a model for looking rationally on human institutions
as well as nature. The Enlightenment was a period of profound optimism, a sense that
with science and reason human society would improve.
The Enlightenment encouraged criticism of the corruption of the monarchy (at this
point Louis XVI), and the aristocracy. They condemned Rococo art for being immoral
and indecent and called for a new kind of art.
In 1789 the French Revolution began. The Neo-classicists, such as Jacques-Louis
David, preferred the well-delineated form—clear drawing and modeling. The Neo-
classical surface had to look perfectly smooth—no evidence of brush-strokes should
be discernable to the naked eye. The Neo-classicists wanted to express rationality and
sobriety that was fitting for their times. David supported the rebels through an art that
asked for clear-headed thinking, self-sacrifice to the State and an austerity
reminiscent of Republican Rome.
5. David became closely aligned with the republican government and his work was
increasingly used as propaganda with the Death of Marat proving his most
controversial work. David sought to transfer the sacred qualities long associated with
the monarchy and the Catholic Church to the new French Republic. He painted Marat,
martyr of the Revolution, in a style reminiscent of a Christian martyr, with the face and
body bathed in a soft, glowing light.
The Revolution was extreme in its excesses and soon gave way to The Terror, of
which both David and Marat played a pivotal role. The painting was used heavily as a
strong piece of pro-revolutionary propaganda but waned in influence as the revolution
waned.
By the time Napolean declares himself emperor of France, David has escaped
execution for his role in The Terror and is appointed first painter for Napolean,
glorifying him in much the same way as Louis the XVI.
6. Romanticism
The modernist thinking which emerged in the Renaissance began to take shape as a
larger pattern of thought in the 18th century. Mention may be made first of the so-
called ‘Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns’, a literary and artistic dispute that
dominated European intellectual life at the end of the 17th century and the beginning
of the 18th century. The crux was the issue of whether Moderns (i.e. contemporary
writers and artists) were now morally and artistically superior to the Ancients (i.e.
writers and artists of ancient Greece and Rome).
As the 19th century progressed, the practice of artistic freedom became fundamental
to progressive modernism. Artists began to seek freedom not just from the rules of
the Academy, but from the expectations of the public. It was claimed that art
possessed its own intrinsic value and should not have to be made to satisfy any
edifying, utilitarian, or moral function.
The Romantics saw this freedom in the wild abandon of nature. They believed that the
path to intellectual awakening lay in the ability to be awed by the power of nature, its
spectacle and grandeur. This concept, The Sublime, was a fundamental aspect of the
Romantic period in art.
The real turning point came with the invention of photography in the mid 19 th century.
The ability to capture 'reality' allowed artists to concentrate on more individualized
perceptions of nature and existence.
7. Early Modernism
Characteristics of Impressionist paintings include relatively small, thin, yet visible
brush strokes; open composition ; emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its
changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time); common,
ordinary subject matter; the inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human
perception and experience; and unusual visual angles.
The impressionists are interested in new advances in science and ways of seeing.
They took a strong interest in how reality is perceived through different types of light.
Other variants of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism focus on other aspects of
visual perception:
Pointilism and Fauvism focus on the uses of color and the way the eye mixes color in
the mind.
Expressionism focuses on emotion and feeling rather than scientific analysis.
Many of these artists are rejected by the French academy, either for their techniques
or their subject matter. Eduard Manet sets up his own exhibition of rejected works and
begins a tradition of Modernism opposing the status quo and establishment ideas.
8. Cubism and Futurism
By the beginning of the 20th century, the industrial revolution has given way to a full
scale explosion in mass-production and technological advancement. Moving pictures,
radio transmissions, skyscrapers, trains, automobiles all allow for a new perspective
of the world and there is a great faith that industry will allow for a progression
towards a utopian ideal.
With this perception, there is also an embrace of the picture plane as a space for
artistic experimentation in capturing the spirit of the age, one of speed, progress, and
advancement.
Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque invent Cubism in Paris. It is an attempt to depict
multiple views of an object or scene in a single picture. It also draws on the simplified
abstraction of indigenous art from Africa. These experiments also lead to the
invention of collage, in which elements from the real world are introduced into the
pictorial space.
Futurism is an Italian art movement that obsessed over the promise of mechanization
and saw beauty only in speed and movement. They saw the future of humanity in the
machine and saw the current age as decadent and inept. The only answer, they said,
was to use mechanical warfare as a way to cleanse humanity and rebuild a new
technological utopia.
9. WWI and Culture
WWI begins in 1914 and consumes all of Europe, eventually drawing in the United
States and ending in 1918. It represents a number of major changes in the world,
socio-economically and culturally.
Primarily, it ends the love affair between art and technological progress. Once the full
power of the machine is put to use in warfare, it becomes clear that industry held the
potential to not only progress humanity but also to destroy it.
WWI also marked the final end of the Age of Empires in Europe. Following the war,
representative democracy takes hold across the continent.
The war also provides grounds for cynicism in the arts. Many thousands of
intellectuals died in the war, and the few who returned no longer had the same
enthusiasm for war. Rather than a path to glory, it was only a mindless slaughter,
orchestrated by wealthy elites.
Dadaism is first invented in Zurich in 1916 but spreads after the war to Berlin and on
to the US. These artists were all horrified by the war, which they blamed on Western
civilization itself. To express their revolt, they organized "anti-art" events. These
events were principally directed against Western art, which the Dadaists saw as the
highest expression of the culture they abhorred.
10. Between the Wars
Berlin and Paris become cultural capitals in the years between the wars.
The Weimar Republic in Germany allows for a broad freedom of expression but soon
leads to corruption and decadence. Berlin is a hotbed of political activism as well as a
promiscuous nightlife. The New Objectivists are interested in capturing this world
with all its imperfections. Otto Dix and George Grosz depict this side of Berlin:
prostitutes, cabarets, disfigured war veterans, as well as mocking the bureaucracy
and financial elites.
The Surrealist movement was founded in Paris 1924 by a small group of writers and
artists who sought to channel the unconscious as a means to unlock the power of the
imagination. Disdaining rationalism and literary realism, and powerfully influenced by
Freud, the Surrealists believed the conscious mind repressed the power of the
imagination, weighting it down with taboos. Influenced also by Marx, they hoped that
the psyche had the power to reveal the contradictions in the everyday world and spur
on revolution. Their emphasis on the power of the imagination puts them in the
tradition of Romanticism, but unlike their forbears, they believed that revelations
could be found on the street and in everyday life.
11. New York
The Armory Show in 1913 is America's first introduction to European Modernism. It is
not taken seriously at first. Alfred Stieglitz is an early champion and shows many of
the moderns at his 291 gallery.
America has a strong artistic tradition based on a social realism. The Great
Depression sees many artists commissioned by the government to depict themes of
hard work, perseverance, and the spirit of the people. Regionalism is the label applied
to artists working in different areas of the Midwest and focused on mythologizing the
American Experience.
The Ashcan School in NYC takes the immigrant experience of the city as its
inspiration. John Sloan and Robert Henri depict the vibrancy of life in the tenements
while Edward Hopper captures the alienation of the individual among the teeming
masses.
The Harlem Renaissance is a strong cultural force for African Americans in the city.
Jacob Lawrence and Stuart Davis take more influence from the European modernists
in their depiction of life in the black community.
By the end of the 1930s, the influx of intellectuals escaping Europe cements NY as the
new capital of the art world.
12. Abstract Expressionism
During and following WWII, artists in New York begin making work in a new style:
large, athletic, aggressive and masculine. They are influenced by the European
modernists living among them, especially the Surrealists and their focus on the
subconscious as a means for expression. However, they also embrace an
existentialist view, in which the artist alone creates his perception of an absurd and
chaotic universe. Ab-Ex would be the last big movement of High Modernism.
Jackson Pollock used hardened brushes, sticks, and even basting syringes as paint
applicators. Pollock's technique of pouring and dripping paint is thought to be one of
the origins of the term action painting. With this technique, Pollock was able to
achieve a more immediate means of creating art, the paint now literally flowing from
his chosen tool onto the canvas. By defying the convention of painting on an upright
surface, he added a new dimension by being able to view and apply paint to his
canvases from all directions.
The hallmark of de Kooning's style was an emphasis on complex figure ground
ambiguity. Background figures would overlap other figures causing them to appear in
the foreground, which in turn might be overlapped by dripping lines of paint thus
positioning the area into the background. During this period he also created other
paintings of women. Aggressive brushwork and strategically placed high-key colors in
these paintings merged with images of toothy snarls, overripe, pendulous breasts,
enlarged eyes and blasted extremities to reveal a woman seemingly congruent with
some of modern man's most widely held sexual fears.
13. Movements After 1945
Pop Art rejected the intellectualism of High Modernism in favor of a celebration of
“Low Culture”: cartoons, comic books, television, celebrity and advertising. They saw
no need to create new ideas and imagery but rather felt free to appropriate the culture
they saw around them. Andy Warhol was obsessed with creating art that looked like it
had been mass-produced while Roy Lichtenstein copied panels from comic books,
enlarging them and placing them in a new context.
Minimalismwas shaped by a reaction against Abstract Expressionism. Minimalists
wanted to remove suggestions of self-expressionism from the art work, as well as
evocations of illusion or transcendence - or, indeed, metaphors of any kind, though as
some critics have pointed out, that proved difficult. Unhappy with the modernist
emphasis on medium-specificity, the Minimalists also sought to erase distinctions
between paintings and sculptures, and to make instead, as Donald Judd said:
"specific objects."
Land Art sought to eliminate the effect of market forces on art. They created art
outside the gallery and museum, in nature, often in massive scale. They wanted the art
to be experienced and to affect the senses rather than be collected and sold. This
movement also coincided with a broader interest in ecology and the environment.
Installation art was a movement that tried to overwhelm the viewer's senses. It created
environments that completely surrounded the viewer and forced them to move
through spaces and experience the art in a temporal sense.
14. In creating entire environments for the viewer, artists also became interested in new
technologies to engage the senses. Sound art and video art offered new possibilities
for disrupting normal perceptions of the world. It borrowed from many previous
movements but also embraced the most current recording and playback technology.
This allowed it to take the form of many versions of popular culture and therefore
successfully subvert them in order to examine and challenge their structures.
Street Art is the most recent of the art movements we've discussed. It incorporates
many aspects of modernism: challenges to the status quo, cynicism of authority,
radical politics and new ways of depicting images. It also operates in the public space,
allowing for a dialog between it and other imagery we see on a daily basis.
