Mr. Wright's Art Class: Living with Art, Chapter 21 - The Modern World, Part 2
William Wright・38 minutes read
Artistic movements from Romanticism to Realism to Impressionism shaped American art, highlighting themes of manifest destiny and westward expansion, leading to avant-garde expressions like Expressionism and Fauvism. Artists like Picasso and Brock innovated with Cubism, while Surrealism explored dreamlike imagery, and Diego Rivera's murals in Mexico reflected political beliefs and geometric abstraction principles.
Insights
- American artists like Bingham, Eakins, and Cassatt incorporated Romanticism, Realism, and Impressionism in their works, depicting scenes of the American West and everyday life, showcasing a diverse range of artistic influences and themes.
- The avant-garde movement challenged traditional art, leading to the emergence of Expressionism, Fauvism, German Expressionism, and Cubism, each exploring innovative ways to convey emotions, perspectives, and forms through bold colors, abstract shapes, and unique compositions, revolutionizing the art world with their distinct styles and philosophies.
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Recent questions
What art movements influenced American artists in the 19th century?
Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism
What was the focus of American Romanticism in art?
Westward expansion and manifest destiny
How did avant-garde artists challenge traditional art?
Through Expressionism and bold color usage
What artistic movement did Picasso develop?
Cubism
How did Surrealism evolve from Dadaism?
Emphasizing dreamlike imagery and fantasies
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Summary
00:00
American Art: Romanticism to Cubism
- Professor William Wright discusses Chapter 21 of "Living with Art" by Mark Getlein, focusing on the transition from Romanticism to Realism to Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.
- American art in the 19th century was influenced by Neoclassicism, with Monticello and the Capitol reflecting Roman and Greek architecture.
- American artists like Bingham, Eakins, and Cassatt incorporated Romanticism, Realism, and Impressionism in their works, depicting scenes of the American West and everyday life.
- American Romanticism emerged, emphasizing westward expansion and manifest destiny, showcasing the beauty and grandeur of America through artists like Bierstadt and the Hudson River School.
- The avant-garde movement challenged traditional art, with Expressionism emerging as artists aimed to express psychological and emotional states through bold color and form distortion.
- Fauvism, a French expressionist movement, featured artists like Matisse and Derain using bold, arbitrary colors to convey emotional expression.
- German Expressionism included groups like the Bridge in Dresden and the Blue Riders in Munich, with artists like Kandinsky creating non-objective, abstract works focusing on color, line, and shape.
- Picasso's innovative approach to art led to Cubism, a movement he developed with Brock, abstracting forms from multiple viewpoints and constructing images with their own internal logic.
- Cubism emphasized the equal importance of figure and background, simplifying forms into geometric facets and exploring the relationship between ancient and tribal art forms.
13:44
Innovative Art Movements: From Expressionism to Surrealism
- Artists are exploring expressionism, drawing inspiration from ancient tribal cultures and contemporary art to create sophisticated and beautiful abstract art.
- Picasso and other European artists are redefining art by incorporating elements from ancient tribal cultures and contemporary art into their work, leading to a new form of expressionism.
- Picasso and Brock collaborate to develop cubism, focusing on analytical geometric breakdown of shapes and objects from different angles.
- Futurism emerges as a movement emphasizing speed, movement, and modern technology, with artists like Severini, Bala, and Boccioni leading the way.
- Dadaism arises as a response to the chaos of World War I, creating anti-art that is absurd, shocking, and provocative, aiming to disrupt public complacency.
- Marcel Duchamp's ready-made art, like "Fountain," challenges traditional notions of art by presenting everyday objects in a new context.
- Surrealism evolves from Dadaism, emphasizing dreamlike imagery and fantasies, with artists like Dali and Oppenheim creating disconcerting and bizarre objects and paintings.
- Surrealists explore automatism, writing or drawing from the subconscious, and poetic objects that juxtapose incongruous elements to provoke a sense of strangeness.
- Surrealism incorporates optical illusions, naturalistic yet absurd imagery, and symbolism, with artists like Miro, Kahlo, and Rivera contributing to the movement.
- Diego Rivera, influenced by constructivism, creates monumental fresco murals in Mexico, reflecting his political beliefs and incorporating geometric abstraction principles.
27:30
Modern Art Movements and Influential Artists
- Diego Rivera's murals in public spaces depict Mexican history and politics, aiming to communicate with all audiences.
- Vladimir Tatlin's constructivist model for the Third International featured geometric forms like a cube, pyramid, cone, and sphere, rotating at different speeds.
- Kazimir Malevich, a constructivist artist, faced backlash in Russia for his non-objective geometric art, leading to his imprisonment.
- Mondrian's De Stijl movement focused on rational beauty with vertical and horizontal lines, primary colors, aiming for world peace through simplicity.
- The Bauhaus movement, led by Gropius, merged art, craft, and design, emphasizing modern materials for mass production and unifying art education.
- The geometric art of Fernand Léger reflected the machine aesthetic and organized, polished nature of the modern world.
- The Armory Show of 1913 in New York introduced American audiences to modern European artists like Kandinsky, Picasso, Brancusi, and Duchamp.
- The Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s celebrated African-American culture through visual arts, music, and literature, centered in New York's Harlem neighborhood.
- Aaron Douglas, an artist of the Harlem Renaissance, used geometric symbolism to depict the African-American experience, blending elements of Bauhaus and constructivism.
