The artist, Edouard Manet created his piece The Railway in 1873. Manet used many different contrasting features in his work of art. We can see that Manet clearly was intrigued by feminine fashion (which, as Baudelaire had pointed out, was the opposite kind of beauty from the classical and eternalhence it was a modern beauty and Manet was the beginner of modern painting. Looking at spare canvases of Manets paintings, one may meditate on the relation of Manets still lives to the cultural norms of his time. In a sense, they constitute a powerful visual critique of the clutter, conspicuous consumption and ostentation of Second Empire decor and its nouveau riche ideas of sumptuousness. Manets debut as a painter met with a critical resistance that did not abate until near the end of his career.
Although the success of his memorial exhibition and the eventual critical acceptance of the Impressionistswith whom he was loosely affiliatedraised his profile by the end of the 19th century, it was not until the 20th century that his reputation was secured by art historians and critics. Manets disregard for traditional modeling and perspective made a critical break with academic paintings historical emphasis on illusionism. Manet in his paintings showed totally new approach. Manet can be considered the founder of modern painting. Manets flaunting of tradition and the official art establishment paved the way for the revolutionary work of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. The artist also influenced the path of much 19th- and 20th-century art through his choice of subject matter.
The Term Paper on Art in the Modern World
Modern art refers to artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era.[1] The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of experimentation.[2] Modern artists experimented with new ways of seeing and with fresh ideas about ...
His focus on modern, urban subjects (The Railroad is a perfect example)which he presented in a straightforward, almost detached mannerdistinguished him still more from the standards of the Salon, which generally favored narrative and avoided the gritty realities of everyday life. Manets daring, unflinching approach to his painting and to the art world assured both him and his work a pivotal place in the history of modern art. In recent years modern artist Jackson Pollock, also known ad Jack the Dipper for his revolutionary technique that freed many from academic strictures, has become more and more famous. In Lavender Mist Jackson Pollock is wrestling with an angel. The initial struggle is gentler and quicker to surrender its tensions into delicate, smoky veils of muted color. All of the great drip paintings of 1950 have this duality. Pollock is wrestles with his own demons, merges with them and is finally transformed into light, air and energy.
Lavender Mist is 10 ft. long and is of a heroic scale. The painting is alive with colored scribble, spattered lines moving this way and that, now thickening, now trailing off to a slender skein. The eye of a viewer is kept continually eager, not allowed to rest on any particular area of the picture, just like in the painting The Railroad by Manet. Pollock has put his hands into paint and placed them at the top rightan instinctive gesture eerily reminiscent of cave painters including Manet who did the same. The overall tone of a picture is pale lavender, made airy and active. Pollocks turbulent outbursts and his drip paintings earned him a reputation that would later become the stereotypical idea of the modern artist.
Reconciling the unconscious with the creative act of painting was the impetus behind the paintings of abstract expressionist artist Pollock. His gestural works and technique of flinging and dripping paint over canvas had its inspiration in an exploration of the painting process and stemmed from his association with surrealist artists. In Jackson Pollocks drip paintings as in nature, certain patterns are repeated again and again at various levels of magnification. Some fractal patterns exist only in mathematical theory, but others provide useful models for the irregular yet patterned shapes found in nature. Pollocks action paintings became the cornerstone of the abstract expressionist art movement. Before Pollock began applying the action painting technique, his work in the early 1940s related to the automatic gestural painting practiced by many surrealists and the influence of Wassily Kandinsky and Pablo Picasso.
The Essay on Degenerate Art German Artists Modern
In July of 1937, Hitler's Nazi party mounted an exhibition of confiscated art, called Entartete Kunst meaning Degenerate Art. Especially hard hit was the modern art division of the Berlin National Gallery, which lost 136 paintings, 28 sculptures, and 324 drawings. It showcased and made a mockery of the work of contemporary artists such as Max Beckman, Emil Nolde, Otto Dix, Oskar Kokoschka, and ...
This technique, an all-over approach that redefined pictorial space by doing away with any differentiation between the foreground and the background. The movement and layers of the paint intermingled, flattening the plane and often seeming to continue beyond the edges of the canvas. Large scale work such as Lavender Mist (1950) and was the culmination of this style and became one of Pollocks best known and most successful pieces. Pollock claimed every drip and line was deliberate; he refuted the idea of chance or accident as part of his creative process. A return to figurative imagery in Pollocks work after 1950, seen in works such as #27 (1951) and Easter and the Totem (1953), still incorporated the philosophy of applying paint purely for its expressive qualities. Yet, Pollock did not have as much success with these later images as he did with his earlier non-figurative paintings.
During his short life, Pollock was a prolific and original artist. His works of art had a profound impact on an art community that was ready for reinvention. Pollock and the New York School revitalized the American art scene while filling New York City with a raw, artistic excitement–the discovery of a new way of producing and thinking about art. Pollock and his action paintings were pivotal to the art movement abstract expressionism. Often parodied, Pollock is a legendary figure representing modernity in art in the twentieth century and his paintings represent the end of modern painting. Sources: A World of Art by Sayre.
Third Edition, Prentice Hall, 2000. Karmel, Pepe. Jackson Pollock. New York, 2000..
The Essay on Art – Painting Movements
For each art movement listed, discuss how it was a product of a certain history and culture. List the most important formal art elements of each movement. Choose a painting from the movement on the museum website. Point out the important formal qualities of the painting (how is it an example of the movement?) There is a grid for each movement on the pages below. Neoclassicism, Impressionism, and ...
