Modern Art 109 Midterm Study Guide
(Note: I have modified the exam description on the course syllabus. See below.)
10% Midterm Exam: October 23: A one-hour cumulative exam consisting of three identification
questions (see format description below) and one essay question drawn from lectures and readings.
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Identification question format: Identify 1) full name and nationality of artist, 2) title of artwork,
and 3) date within 5 years, 4) medium, and 5) historically significant points about the artwork
from lectures, class discussions, and readings. what is “modern” about the artwork 6) The
intentions of the artist (or the movement, like Symbolism, Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism,
Constructivism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism) that you read in Theories of Modern
Art.
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Your grade is based on how much mastery of the facts and ideas is demonstrated.
List of Artworks:
Vincent van Gogh:
The Potato Eaters, 1885
Bedroom at Arles, 1888
The Night Café, 1888
Paul Gauguin:
Vision after the Sermon: Jacob Wrestling with
the Angel, 1888
Where Do We Come From? What Are We?
Where Are We Going? 1897
Paul Serusier
The Talisman, 1888
James Ensor
Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889, 1888
Edvard Munch
The Dance of Life, 1899-1900
The Scream, 1893
Henri Matisse
Joy of Life, 1905-6
Blue Nude: Souvenir of Biskra, 1907
Wassily Kandinsky
The Blue Mountain, 1908
Study for Composition 2, 1909-10
Pablo Picasso
Portrait of Gertrude Stein, 1906
Les Demoiselles D’Avignon, 1907
Ma Jolie, 1911-1912
Maquette for Guitar, 1912
Still Life with Chair Canning, 1912
Georges Braque
The Portuguese, 1911-12
Filippo Marinetti
After the Marne, Joffre Visits the Front
Umberto Boccioni
States of Mind: The Farewells, Those Who Go,
Those Who Stay, 1911
Dynamism of a Soccer Player, 1913
Luigi Russolo
Dynamism of an Automobile, 1912-13
Vladimir Tatlin
Model for the Monument to the Third
International, 1919-20
Naum Gabo
Kinetic Construction (Standing Wave), 1919-20
Lyubov Popova
Stage design for The Magnanimous Cuckold,
1922
El Lissitzky
Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, 19191920 (lithograph)
Hugo Ball performing “karawane” on stage at
the Café Voltaire, June 23, 1916
Marcel Duchamp
Nude Descending a Staircase No.2, 1912
Fountain, 1917
The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even
(The Large Glass), 1915-23
Meret Oppenheim
Object (Luncheon in Fur) 1936
Hannah Hoch
Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Last
Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany,
1919
Jean Arp
Collage Arranged According to the Laws of
Chance, 1916-17
René Magritte
The Treachery of Images, 1928-29
Francis Picabia
Love Parade, 1917
NOTE: I will tell you at the end of class on
Tuesday which artworks from Tuesday’s lecture
might be on the midterm.
Essay question: Come to class prepared to write your response without notes.
Take Marshall Berman’s dialectics of modernity><modern art as your thesis and choose two artworks by
two different artists and movements to use as evidence to support the argument that avant-garde
modern art is the art of modernity (modern experience, life and times).
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Fully identify each artwork – full name and nationality of the artist, title, date, medium,
movement. Of course you may use artworks from the list above.
Explain the intentions of each artist as described by that artist or by another spokesman (e.g.
Aurier, Kahnweiler, Breton…) of the movement. This you get from Chipp readings.
Explain why each artwork is avant-garde modern in its relation to the artist’s times (modernity).
Was the artist’s attitude towards his or her times pro-modernity or anti-modernity?
Explain how each artwork was influenced (pro or con) by artwork that preceded it or coincided
with it? How was each artwork influenced by academic or avant-garde art that preceded it?