Jenna Aiello - Cubism, Surrealism, Impressionism Movie Reviews

THE MYSTIC NORTH: SPANISH ART FROM THE 19TH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT

The story of modern Spain is crucial to the history of modern art. It’s a journey that leads to the darkest and most fascinating elements of history. Goya reframed the way in which we see the world. He spent his youth painting decorative pictures for the Spanish court. His art metamorphosed into something dark and strange. He is known as one of the fathers of modern art because of this work. In 1792, an illness left him deaf. His style became very dark and very pessimistic. The Spanish response to Napoleon’s invasion was a new kind of guerilla warfare. Goya’s response was a series of 85 collections known as a series of war. He took a traditional portrait and gave a growing atrocity, saying how bad can it get? The images immediately evoke religion. This was his way of saying there’s just darkness. His new art was tied to a new age of doubt. He painted an expression of his despair, known as the Black Paintings, on the walls of his house right outside of Madrid. This took art into new unchartered territory. Nobody knows what these paintings mean of why they were painted. Soon after the Black paintings, his sight deteriorated. The painters that came after him didn’t follow his lead. At the start of the 20th century, Spain became one of the powerhouses of modern art. It was to take a very particular course in Spain. The city was under going an economic boom. Barcelona’s spirit of exuberance was animated by Gaudi. He was the first great artist to emerge in Spain since Goya and was pretty much his opposite. His work consisted of carnival spirit and organic sexy shapes. It was inspired by God’s natural world. He clung to the certainties of Spain’s catholic past. He saw himself as God’s architect; he looked to him for inspiration. New ideas began to undermine the ancient traditions of the Catholic church. Funds couldn’t help to pay for the cathedral, so work was terminated in it. The stone quarry inspires a sense of awe missing from the uncompleted cathedral. He reinvented the entire language of 20th century sculpture. The buildings he designed were so abstract and organic; the movement towards the primitive can be seen in his work. The same tension between spirituality and sexuality would drive the work among Pablo Picasso. He moved to Barcelona when he was 14 years old. The Picasso Museum in Barcelona was shaped by him and many of his works are shown here. He set out to show Spain that he himself always felt spanish to the core. The theme of his young life is his respect for his Catholic beliefs. Cubism is said to be the coldest phase of Picasso’s art. Even his most famous painting is soaked in memories of catholic art. We need to understand that he remains wedded to the superstitious powers of art. He combined ancient art and ancient catholic art with new art of his time. Spanish modern art is so rich. Work has to have a sense of the mysterious to keep you interested. Dali called his pictures hand painted dream photographs. His endless clowning around is revealing. The tension between genius and self parody lies at the heart of his birthplace. He claimed that his museum was the world’s largest surrealist objects; it’s more like a giant amusement gallery. He had become a controversial thinker. He was kicked out of the surrealists for having fascist thoughts. Guernica portrayed one of the most tragic moments in Spanish history. He believed that his beloved Spain would one day be saved.  

A SUNDAY ON LA GRANDE JATTE, 1884

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte was one of the most scrutinized pictures. It was an experiment and an expression. It was worked on for two years, created with the smallest possible brush strokes. The closer you look at the painting, the more mysterious it becomes. It has a totality about it, as it was meant to be from the beginning. It has kept us guessing for years, about what it truly means and its context. It features 48 people, 8 boats, 3 dogs, and one monkey. People are enjoying a sunny afternoon along a lake. It is more than just a pleasant scene. We wonder who these people are and why they are there. Seurat was 24 years old when starting the painting. He was discrete and very reserved. Historians say there is something inhuman in him and it is reflected in his work. He decided early on to become an artist and enrolled in school for art at 18. His studies were interrupted by his military service and he never went back to them but continued to sketch. His subjects were solitary figures caught in a half light. He distilled the forms of the types into an effective and mysterious set of figures. The subjects were commonplace, landscapes and workers. After this came his first work. The actual island used to be very well known to Parisians because it was easily accessible and many would come on a sunday. Seurat was drawn to this land on the path of the city. It contained the industrial elements in the background; it was a place where classes mixed and environments mixed. Middle class people might stroll but it was a place where prostitution was said to have taken place. It was said that there were so many people making love along the island. In the painting, unaccompanied women of many ages appear. The woman with a fishing rod in her hand may have been a prostitute, loitering in public. Fishing could have been a way of sustaining her practice but keeping the police away. She may have been a potential sinner. Was Seurat was alluding to it or not? For audiences, there is one detail, the monkey, which captures everyone’s eyes. It appealed to Seurat. There was a monkey house at the zoo where Seurat was living in Paris. An X-ray of the painting shows that all the key figures were there except for the monkey, which means that it was added at a later time. The monkey was also an intention to represent a sexual desire. The woman at the right of the painting is a high class woman, not a prostitute. There is a great array of bourgeois characters in the painting. The picture is composed of single dots, all forming the picture. This technique is known as pointillism. He would go everyday in the morning for 6 months straight, observing the light and people coming and going from the park. He would paint the figures, almost as if he were observing the cast. The work was of constant change. He spent 10 months on the canvas. He went away to Normandy for the summer, leaving his work at home. It was then when he began to develop a new style. He recognized that light is a constant and dynamic element in how we see and view things. He cant to believe that colors next to each other and at the right distance would appeal to the eye and create a complexity. Every single dot and brush stroke is extremely rich. He worked to simulate the brightness of a summers day in his work. The incomplete mixture of color produces a lively scene. You get a silvery effect when looking at the picture. In the dead center of the picture is a little girl in white. She is the only one looking out at us and she is the only one who isn’t colored in dots. White was at the center of the color wheels. Sunday’s were when everyone dressed in nice clothing for their days off. He was fascinated by the lines of fashion and fashion was at its most extreme when the painting was painted in the 1880’s. He gets the essence of clothing and pairs it down to its essentials. The stiffness of the work is striking. He wants to say something about self presentation. There is also an influence from the ancient world. The stiffness in the ancient Egyptian people can be seen in La Grande Jatte. The woman in the center of the picture is in the same position of an ancient sculpture. He combined the ancient and the modern. His vision is to say what a summer was like in a part of the world in 1884 and represents that in the same way the ancient rituals were presented. It was ignored by critics who reviewed a show it was going to be in, except from one critic. They said what’s important about this painting is its revolutionary technique. In 1958, the painting left Chicago for the first time in years and traveled to New York. However, after a fire at the MoMa, it was the first and last time it would leave Chicago. 

EXPRESSIONISM

Edward Munch: Ashes - he created a kind of imagery of pictorial style. Ashes deals with one of his themes; sexuality, and the problematic relationship between man and woman. The woman reveals a bodes glowing red and tells of innocence being lost. Symbolic colors, black white and red symbolize passion. This shows a modern Adam and Eve. They find themselves in a barren landscape. All forms are simplified and the contours emphasized. Paint is applied thinly, at times running down the canvas. “I don’t paint what I see, but what I saw.” - Munch. His portrayed emotion called offense. He translated his work into other media. In later works, the woman is portrayed as Medusa. He exuded sexuality, driven by desire. Despair expressed in an earlier painting is gone and a pleasure seeking character is seen. The man and woman are frozen in Ashes; time and space are no longer relevant. He also painted many portraits. In Anxiety, he returned to the depiction of pure emotion. Forms were simplified, places were lifelike. In Madonna, his ambiguity to women can be seen again. He revealed the emotions that lied below the surface. His images were like reoccurring nightmares. Ecstasy, despair and anxiety can be seen. Most of his works can be loosely related to each other, representing a pessimistic and drastic way of life. THe issues he addresses were of universal significance. 

Franz Marc: The Tiger - animals are the hallmark of Marc. Artistically, his eyes were turned to Paris and exotic colors. He used these colors for emotional effect. His shapes are simplified and defined by colors that fit together. None of the forms are inscribed in terms of limbs. All irrelevant details are excluded. Cubism is used as a heightening means. He is depicted as a tyrant of the jungle. 

Ernest Ludwig Kirchner: Five Women in the Street - 5 women are along the pavement, to the left a car rushes past, on the other side is a show window. The window has been created with a few rapid brush strokes. There clothes and fashionable getup gives the figures a grotesque heir. Individuality lies behind the furs and hats. The ladies peck aimlessly, nothing catches their attention. The shapes are jagged and pointed. The visual language is more linear and tense. The women seem to contain premonitions of the upcoming disaster. All we see is complete chaos. 

Max Beckmann: The Actors - at the center is a king on a state appearing he’s about to kill himself yet he seems to act with  determination. Next to him a singer in a dress takes no notice of what’s going on. The man in black behind him seems to be following or singing along. He doesn’t seem to be moved by the kings attempt at suicide. A third can be seen emerging; a woman with her hands laid out and her hands and eyes wide open. On the floor is a script, but what is she doing when singing along? On the left an old man and an old woman can be seen. And on the right, two other figures can be seen. It’s hard to say what it doing in underneath the stage. Every part contains some sort of action and the more we look the more we notice. Three tough looking men getting props ready can be seen. The left appears completely separate from the others. Several figures are pushed together in the foreground. Between stands a woman in black showing anxiety and concern. We can’t tell if we’re watching a play or if it is a real occurrence. The subject on the right depicts a single person looking at herself in a mirror with a body staring at her. There is a figure on the steps who acts as a linking element and there is also a scene under the stage. These figures easily remind us of puppets; they are unaware of the roles they play. The play on the stage is a metaphor for Beckmanns own experience. 

George Baselitz: The Great Friends - 6 large figures all upside down. He is often related to images that are unusual. His subjects have a glamour about them. Their faces have a sense of loss and bewilderment. Their bodies are massive yet lifeless, they look stiff and bloated. The emotion seems compromised by their unresponsive bodies. In the face on the left, we can see a sense of hope but we can also see that hope is all that’s left. The hands suggest an acceptance for a need to sacrifice. The ground shifts and crumbles beneath the feet. They seem to be standing in no-mans mans. They’re isolated and exhausted. The things on the ground are abstract but some seem more lifelike yet they’re lost in the setting. One object, the flag on the pole, occupies the same spaces as the figures. Yellow smoke rises on the other side of the picture. We can see a certain beauty in the scene. The flag still flaps vigorously but lies beneath the figures. The way these figures is significant, representing a victory. Gestures represent the human and artistic. The joyful title itself is a gesture. Deformity can be seen in this picture. The figure on the right has a dislocated arm. But we still recognize the presence of the human being. 

Anselm Keifer: Interior - all his work alludes darkness and monuments associated with the Nazi regime. Colors are earthy. Sand roughens the surface. Strong patterns represent the texture and feel of the surface. The dark space becomes a presence in the center of a gloomy hall. The glass roof, columns, a huge room can be seen. 

THE IMPACT OF CUBISM

Juan Gris: The Breakfast Table - gradually we can make out the shape of objects, although seeming very abstract. The picture still doesn’t express the atmosphere of a breakfast table. It’s still life, a pattern replacing chaotic reality. The contrast of light and shadow, lines are in themselves exciting. But added excitement is given from the event itself. One diagonal is balanced by another.

Juan Gris: The Violin - the further associations of the object is important. He is able to allude to techniques of musical composition. 

Marcel Duchamp: Sad Young Man on a Train - the picture was painted in 1911, we can hardly see the man in the work. He claimed the picture was a self portrait. What interests us is the experimental approach. The figure looks as if it has been taken apart and reassembled both in mind and on the picture. He embraces the notion of the figure evolving in space and time. The young man has a mechanical heir about him. Nude on a Staircase is another work by Duchamp however the figure appears in motion. 

Robert Delaunay: Champ de Mars - this work was built for the Paris world fair in 1889. He returned to the subject, adding to it. It shows the Eiffel Tower. Each painting combine several viewpoints. He combined the view from street, apartment block and the imagines view from above. He broke through traditional view of perspective. The apartment blocks through which the tower seems to burst can be seen. We look at the tower a if we were pedestrians and also seem to be looking down towards the base. Then we see details that are normally close to the body. He focused more on the abstract pattern of the work. The affect is confusing but its part of his intention. The image springs into life as out attention shift. The arches of the house can be seen at the base. At the base of the tower are more houses and more details of houses. Circular forms is another work by Delunay. He wants us to look at what is shown but attentively and sympathetically. He took his first steps towards abstraction. Color is used to guide our attention and perspective. 

Kasimir Malevich: An Englishmen in Moscow - CUbism became the international style. Looking closely, it seems as if a story is being told or that we’re on a journey. We can see a red arrow plunging slavishly. Looking back, it seems like a sash. We can see a spoon by his head and torn newspaper lines. We can also see a white fish by his face. The advertisement is for a horse race. We can also see syllables for a solar eclipse. The englishmen seems lost in Moscow. The style is cubist, not the content. 

Umberto Boccioni: Farewells - he tries to convey the uncontrollable emotions people feel when parting from each other. There are crowded streets and railway stations as well as cityscapes. He conveys the confusion of the crowd in the modern city. He was intrigued by effects of atmosphere and bold colors. He uses elements techniques of the Neoimpressionists, colors of expressionism and effects of cubism. Our experience of the present is really simple and direct. The scene is very complex because of the different points of view on the arriving train. It shows many moods to match its synthesis of many moments.