This course introduces the history of art from the early Renaissance in Europe to the present in Europe and the U.S. It surveys the artists, architects, and art movements that constitute the canon of Western art since the Renaissance with an eye to examining how society influences artistic production. The role of patronage, individual artistic personalities, religion, war and peace, and attitudes about gender are explored throughout and compared across geographic boundaries. This course provides comparative global examples to understand Western movements in context. The basic principles of visual analysis are taught and utilized; students are also introduced to fundamental methods of art history such as iconography, formalism, and social art history.
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Important Note
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to let you know that I replaced the automatic drawing by Andre Masson with the works that we studied in class today (12/10) by Rene Magrite and Yves Tanguy. We spent far more time on these two works and I think you will be better prepared to compare them, especially as they have their roots in the exquisite corpse and automatic drawing respectively. Please let me know if you have any questions. This is in effect for Test 3.
Best,
CMS
Terminology for this Unit
Dada:
Dada: A set of ideas more than a coherent movement, Dada has been referred to as an “anti-art” movement due to its iconoclastic nature and its tendency to critique and question the very principles underlying the commissioning, creation, and dissemination of art. Begun in Zürich in 1916by a group of pacifist artists, the spirit of Dada quickly took root in Paris, New York, Berlin, and Tokyo. It is exemplified by the readymades of Marcel Duchamp and photomontage of Hannah Höch.
Tristan Tzara
“Proclamation without Pretension"
8 April 1919
Art is going to sleep for a new world to be born
“ART”—parrot word—replaced by DADA
PLESIOSAURUS, or handkerchief
The talent THAT CAN BE LEARNED makes the
poet a druggist TODAY the criticism
of balances no longer challenges with resemblances
Hypertrophic painters hyperaestheticized and hypnotized by the hyacinths of the hypocritical-looking muezzins
CONSOLIDATE THE HARVEST OF EXACT CALCULATIONS
Hypodrome of immortal guarantees:there is no such thing as importance there is no transparence or appearance…
MUSICIANS SMASH YOUR INSTRUMENTS
BLIND MEN take the stage
THE SYRINGE is only for my understanding. I write because it is natural exactly the way I piss the way I’m sick
ART NEEDS AN OPERATION
Art is a PRETENSION warmed by the TIMIDITY of the urinary basin, the hysteria born in THE STUDIO
We are in search of
the force that is direct pure sober
UNIQUE we are in search of NOTHING
we affirm the VITALITY of every INSTANT
The anti-philosophy of spontaneous acrobatics
At this moment I hate the man who whispers
before the intermission—eau de cologne—sour theater. THE JOYOUS WIND.
If each man says the opposite it because he is right
Get ready for the action of the geyser of our blood—submarine formation of transchromatic aeroplanes, cellular metals numbered in the flight of images
above the rules of the
and its control
BEAUTIFUL
It is now for the sawed-off imps
who still worship their navel
Marcel Duchamp
Fountain
(French) working in New York, 1917
Readymade
Dada
Marcel Duchamp submitted Fountain to The Society of Independent Artists in order to...
Marcel Duchamp believed that art was about _________.
Hugo Ball
Karawane
Zurich, Switzerland, 1916
Sound poem (performance)
Dada
Hannah Höch
Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany
Berlin, Germany, 1919-1920
Photomontage
Dada
How does Hannah Höch's Cut with the Kitchen Knife differ from work by other Dada artists?
Surrealism:
Surrealism: a movement in interwar France that sought to render a “higher” reality accessible by the unleashing of the Freudian notion of Unconscious or, often, the analysis of dreams. Often seen as an offshoot of Dada, it emerged in response to the horrors of WWI (where an estimated 16million lost their life). They sought in their lives what Andre Breton dubbed surreality, where one’s internal reality merged with the external reality we all share. Such experiences, which could be represented by a painting, photograph,or sculpture, are the true core of Surrealism.
Yves Tanguy
Storm
1927
Oil on canvas
France
René Magritte
The Central Story
1928
Oil on canvas
France
Salvador Dalí
The Persistence of Memory
1931
Oil on canvas
Spain