Leftover from last session:
Examining the exam…
Q 1: How does Lewis Hine’s photograph,
Steamfitter, 1920 represent social
attitudes to progress?
Note: This is an example of a “Question 1”
from a past HSC Paper. You would have 10
minutes to answer it, and it would be worth
5 marks.
Lewis Hine, 1874 –1940, USA, Steamfitter, 1920. Gelatin silver print, 24.2 cm ×17.8 cm.
Tom Roberts (Australian, 1856 – 1931)Shearing the Rams,
1899-90, oil on canvas On composition board, 122 x
183cm
THE BODY IV – CUBES & COLLAGES
Artists have always been influenced by other artists. Using our Conceptual Framework,
we could say that the ‘world’ of an artist includes work by other artists, because
artists are always looking at art. In this course we have seen artists referring to
earlier art.
<< Eduard Manet,
Olympia, 1863
>>> Titian, Venus
of Urbino, 1538
<<Courbet, Burial
at Ornans, 184950
>>>example of a
frieze from a
Classical Roman
building
Likewise, the art of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in France between 190714 was very influential. They started the Movement called Cubism. Picasso and
Braque were themselves influenced by the art of ‘primitive’ cultures that the
French had colonised, such as Africa.
Georges Braque (French, 1882 –
1963) Big Nude, 1907-8, oil on
canvas, 140 x 101cm
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973)
Les Demoiselles D’Avignon (The
Young Ladies of Avignon) 1907, oil
on canvas, 244 x 234 cm
Why this fragmentation? It was inspired by other
artists, other cultures, and also the Modern city, with
bits of structures visible all around us: bright colours;
signage; sky scrapers; photographs of scenes taken
from aircraft, which was a new thing early in the 20th
century.
An influence on the Cubists: Paul Cezanne,
Portrait of a Farmer, 1901-6, oil on canvas,
64 x 54cm
Fernand Léger (French, 1881–1955)
The Bargeman, 1918, oil on canvas,
49 x 54 cm)
Marcel Duchamp (France 1887 –
1968) Nude descending a staircase
No. 2, 1912, oil on canvas, 147 x
89cm
Duchamp’s work was influenced by Cubist ideas.
He was also inspired by the work of Eadweard
Muybridge, who did many studies of humans and
animals in motion in the late 19th cent (before the
invention of the movie camera.) Each image is
from a still camera, a whole bunch of them firing
in sequence. These images allowed people to see
clearly for the first time how we move in space. It
also proved for the first time that a horse at full
gallop actually has all 4 feet off the ground at
some stage.
Apart from their Cubism, Picasso and Braque broke
new ground with another artmaking technique which
is now totally common and widespread: collage.
Collage (literally, “glueing”) was a radical step. It
involved using some other medium – here, scraps of
newspaper – and gluing them onto the support (that
is, the material that the artwork was created upon.)
What effect does this have – this sticking different stuff
on to the surface of an artwork?
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973) Man with a Hat and a
Violin, 1912, newspaper, charcoal, on two joined sheets of
paper 125 x 48 cm
Collage involves gluing paper, textiles,
wallpapers, bus tickets or even objects
onto the 2-D surface of an artwork.
Cubism AND collage both had the effect of
flattening the depth of the painting, so
that the surface of the work becomes
more apparent. Cubism and collage
worked in together.
Juan Gris, (Spanish, 1887 – 1927) Breakfast, 1914,
collage, crayon and oil on canvas, 80 x 59cm.
Picasso, Still life with chair caning, 1912.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=286FiUvOeFs&list=PL2D885F5
ED630353D&index=9&feature=plpp_video
Items used in collage (e.g. newspaper) and collages of photographic items (called
photomontage) were themselves copies of things. Collage raised questions
about reality; illusions; originality. Collages also questioned the traditional skills
involved with artmaking, as there was no technical skill involved with cutting and
glueing things down. Also, things that were collaged (and similarly, Cubist works)
didn’t necessarily ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE the subject. They represented the object
in a more abstract sense ( just as text represents a word.) This was happening for
the first time and was shocking and confusing to many.
Examples of figuration influenced by Primitivism and Cubism.
Amedeo Modigliani (Italian, 1884–
1920) Woman’s Head, 1912,
limestone, 69 x 24 x 25 cm)
Constantin Brancusi (Romania 1876 – 1957)
The Kiss, 1916, limestone, 58 x 34 x 25 cm)