OPERATION URGENT FURY II - PowerPoint Presentation

OPERATION URGENT FURY II

Tuesday 4/19/16 The Kiss – Klimt Carson, Pirie, Scott, and Company – Louis Sullivan The Burghers of Calais – Rodin Goldfish – Matisse Improvisation 28 (second version) – Kandinsky Self-Portrait as a Soldier - Kirchner

FIN-DE-SIECLE Fin-de- siecle means “end of the century”, but also refers to a certain sensibilityAt the end of the 19th century people were determined to live “the good life” which evolved into a culture of decadence & indulgence -> but beneath this there was also anxiety over the political situation & an uncertain futureIn 1897 Klimt, along with 18 other artists formed the Vienna Secession in opposition to the established conservative artists in ViennaThey were younger & wanted a more open & experimental approach to artKlimt’s The Kiss is a visual manifestation of the fin-de-siècle spirit -> decadence conveyed by opulent and sensuous images

(#128) THE KISS GUSTAV KLIMT, The Kiss, 1907–1908. Oil on canvas, 5’ 10 3/4” x 5’ 10 3/4” Little of the human form is seen -> two heads, four hands, two feet The bodies are suggested under a sea of richly designed patterning Male figure has rectanglular boxes; female has circular formsSuggests all consuming love; eroticismSpaced in an indeterminate location against a flattened backgroundGold leaf reminiscent of Byzantine mosics

(#129) THE KISS Constantin Brancusi, The Kiss, 1907-1908, limestone Symbolic, almost Cubist, rendering of the male and female bodies Two eyes become one, almost Cyclops-like Interlocked forms Bracusi worked in Rodin’s studio; cf. Rodin’s The KisssSecond version (a plaster cast) exhibited at the Armory Show

AMERICAN SKYSCRAPERS: The Chicago School of Architecture Designers developed cast iron architecture combined with masonry to create strong, somewhat fire resistant buildings -- the skyscraper was born In the history of architecture, the Chicago School was a school of architects active in Chicago at the turn of the 20th centuryLed by Richard Henry Hobson and his foremost student Louis Sullivan, they were among the first to promote the new technologies of steel-frame construction in commercial buildings, and developed a spatial aesthetic which co-evolved with, and then came to influence, parallel developments in European Modernism

LOUIS SULLIVAN Louis Sullivan is seen as the first truly modern architect. In buildings like the Guaranty (Prudential) Building, on the right, he expressed the interior’s subdivision on the exterior, as well as the skeletal nature of the supporting structure -- “form follows function.”

(#124-1) CARSON, PIRIE, SCOTT, AND COMPANY BUILDING Louis Sullivan, Carson Pirie Scott and Company Buidling , 1899-1904, iron, steel, glass, and terra-cotta, Chicago Skeletal architecture -> building held up by interior framework called a skeleton Exterior wall is just a curtain of glass or steelEmphasis on the vertical -> expensive urban property pricesOpen and wide window spaces -> let in light, display merchandise

(# 124-2) CARSON, PIRIE, SCOTT, AND COMPANY BUILDING - DETAIL Cast iron decorative elements transformed the store into a beautiful place to buy beautiful things Influence of Art Nouveau 1890-1914Vegetal and floral patternsComplexity of design and undulating surfaces and curvilinear linesElaborately conceived wrought iron-work

(#124-3) CARSON, PIRIE, SCOTT, AND COMPANY BUILDING - PLAN Horizontal emphasis symbolizes continuous flow of floor space Sullivan’s motto = “form follows function” Single most important development in the history of early modern architecture is the invention of the elevator by Elisha Otis -> buildings of indefinite height become a reality

SCULPTURE Sculpture in the Later 19 th Century Because of its tangible, solid nature, sculpture was ill suited to conveying the transitory and served predominantly as an expression of supposedly timeless idealsAuguste Rodin was a French sculptor who is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculptureCompare with Brancusi’s sculpture also called The Kiss

LATE 19 TH CENTURY SCUPLTURE: RODIN – the hand of the sculptor is present like the visible brushstroke in Impressionism

(#119) THE BURGHERS OF CALAIS AUGUSTE RODIN, Burghers of Calais, 1884–1889, cast ca. 1953–1959. Bronze, 6’ 10 1/2” high, 7’ 11” long, 6’ 6” deep Six burghers offer their lives to the English king in return for saving the besieged city during the Hundred Years’ War English king insisted burgher wear sackcloths and carry the key to the cityParallels between Paris besieged in Franco-Prussian War 1870 and Calais besieged in 1347Figures suffer from privation ->weak and emaciatedMeant to be placed at ground level so people could see it up closeRejected by the town council of Calais -> inglorious/not heroic

EUROPE, 1900-1920 Artists deeply felt the effects of the political and economic disruptions of the early 20 th century AVANT-GARDE = artists who were ahead of their time and transgressed the limits of established art formsThe Avant-garde rejected the classical, academic, and traditionalEXPRESSIONISM = the general movement of art in the early 1900’s that is the result of the artist’s unique inner or personal vision

FAUVISM The Fauves movement, which appeared in 1905, pursued an art that was direct and anti-theoretical and also used intense, emotionally charged color juxtapositions The Fauves wished to liberate color from its descriptive function and to use it for both expressive and structural ends An early twentieth century art movement and style of painting in France -> inspired by the legacy of van Gogh and GauguinThe name Fauves, French for "Wild Beasts," was given to artists adhering to this style because it was felt that they used intense colors in a violent, uncontrolled wayThe leader of the Fauves was Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954)

HENRI MATISSE Henri Matisse - Woman with the Hat, Paris – 1904 The dominant figure of the Fauvist movement was MatisseConventional compositionViolent and startling contrasts of colorsEnergetic painterly brushworkExhibited at the 1905 Salon d’Automne in ParisMatisse’s wife* FAUVISM There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted. – Henri Matisse

(#131) THE GOLDFISH Matisse, Goldfish, 1912, oil on canvas Fauvism = “wild beasts” Inspired by Post-Impressionist painters like Gauguin and Van Gogh Still life painting Violent contrasts of colorEnergetic painterly brushworkFigure modeling and color harmonies suppressed so that expressive effects could be maximized

Vassily Kandinsky, Yellow, Red, Blue, 1925; Oil on canvas A second major German Expressionist group was called DER BLAUE REITER (The Blue Rider) formed in 1911 The two founding members were Vassily Kandinsky and Franz MarcKandinsky was one of the first creators of pure abstraction in modern paintingElimination of representational elementsInfluence by the new scientific ideas of the early 20 th century -> material objects had no real substance* DER BLAUE REITER

(#132) IMPROVISATION #28 (second version ) GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM ABSTRACT ART DER BLEU REITER = THE BLUE RIDER

GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM – VASSILY KANDINKSY VASSILY KANDINSKY, Improvisation 28 (2nd version) 1912 GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM -> DER BLAUE REITER Complete abstraction -> representational objects suggested rather than depicted Orchestration of color, form, line, and space * DER BLAUE REITER

(#133) SELF-PORTRAIT AS A SOLDIER Ernest Kirchner, Self-Portrait as a Soldier, 1915, oil on canvas Kirchner was one of the founders of German Expressionism -> he formed “Die Bruke ” = the Bridge -> saw themselves as a bridge from traditional to modern painting He was “unwilling volunteer” in World War I Lung problems, weakness, mental breakdown -> faked to get out of war?Lost hand indicates his feeling that he has an inability to paintNude model represents what he used to paint, but no longer canNightmarish qualityHorrified facial features and grim backgroundTitled perspective