100

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ART of the Ancients

Art is exalted above religion and race. Not a single solitary soul these days believes in the religion of the Assyrians, the Egyptians, or the Greeks. . . . Only their art, whenever it was beautiful, stands proud and exalted, rising above all time.
–Emil Nolde
Classification of Dates
• BC/AD are Catholic designations for dates “Before Christ” and Anno Domini, or “in the year of our Lord”.
• BCE/CE are modern designations for the same periods. Before Common Era and Common Era… removing the reference to Christianity.

World Regions, 1900 A.D.–present

The Art of the Ancients
• Prehistoric Art (Stone Age)
• Art of the Ancient Near East
• Egyptian Art
• Aegean Art

Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age
Prehistoric Art
• Early humans created art
• Links between religion and art were forged as early as the Stone Age
• Early cave art and sculpture
Phases of Prehistoric Art
Early stone age - Paleolithic Period (35,000-10,000 B.C.)
Middle Stone Age Mesolithic Period in Europe (7,000-4,000 B.C.)
New Stone Age Neolithic Period in Europe (4,000-1,500 B.C.)
Neolithic Period in Near East (6,000-3,500 B.C.)

Lith = stone… remember Lithography in printmaking

Paleolithic Art (35,000-10,000 B.C.)
• The period of the last Ice Age in North America and Europe
• Great cave paintings
• Naturalism and foreshortening in cave art
• “Venus” sculptures and small figurines- Upper Paleolithic Art Cormorant or Duck (c. 33,000 – 30,000 BCE) 1” long
- Mesolithic Art (7,000-4,000 B.C)
• The Middle Stone Age began with the final retreat of the glaciers
• Wall paintings and stone sculptures that were more abstract and highly stylized
• Mesolithic artists concentrated more on the human figure
- Neolithic Art (6,000-1,500 B.C.)
• Plants and animals were domesticated and life became more stable Late Neolithic: writing appeared
• Numerous metal implements were fashioned
• Huge architectural monuments were erected
Stonehenge: Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England (c. 1800 – 1400 BCE)
Stonehenge
• Megaliths- Large Stones
• Post and Lintle construction
• Calendar- Sun and Moon Movements
• The Ancient Near East:
Historic Societies
“The Fertile Crescent”
- Sumer - Akkad - Babylonia - Assyria - Persia
Art of the Ancient Near East
• Historic societies are marked by written language, advanced social organization, and develop-
ments in government, science, and art
• The development of agriculture
(Historic vs. Prehistoric)
Fertile Crescent (Syria and Iraq)
- Sumer (Sumerians)
Country in southeastern Mesopotamia, and birthplace for the first civilization in world history.
• The area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
• The ziggurat (a form of temple), shrines, and gods
• The artistry of Sumerian temple votive statuettes
• Sumerian artistic objects and lapis lazuli inlays
Supernatural beings were typically shown with multiple wings throughout the ancient Near East.
The god Ninurta has four wings (shown here in a stone relief found in the temple of Ninurta at Nimrud, Iraq).
“stele”- stone plaque- sign with relief sculpture

Victory Stele of Naram Sin (c. 2300 – 2200 BCE) 6’6”

- Assyria
• The Assyrian empire developed along the upper Tigris river
• They were influenced by the Babylonian art, culture, and religion
• Carved stone reliefs were the most common art form in Assyria
• Popular scenes of war and hunting Ziggurat (a form of temple), shrines, and gods- Tower of Babel
- Persia
• The Persian empire developed east of Mesopotamia (around modern-day Iran)
• Persian art consists of sprawling palaces and a sculpture that is nearly abstract in simple designs
• Favorite subjects were animal forms, such as birds and ibexes
• Decorative columns (volutes)
• Egyptian Art “The Fertile Ribbon”
- Predynastic
- Old Kingdom 2680-2258 BCE
- Middle Kingdom 2000-1786 BCE
- New Kingdom 1570-1342 BCE
Egyptian Art
• Much of Egyptian art was very religious, and the Nile river was revered as a god
• Egyptian art and life are linked to their religion, to death.
• There are very few variations in their art throughout the periods
Old Kingdom Egypt
• Religion bound to the afterlife
• Tombs and pyramids carried scenes of every-day objects and common earthly activities
• Sculptures of the deceased were placed in the tombs with lifelike sculptures of family and friends
• Flat figures with specific rules for parts of the body and profiles
Sculpture (relief)
Narmer Palette Old Kingdom (c. 3200 BCE) 25” high Cosmetic Palette: A palette for mixing cosmetics, such as eye makeup, with water.
Sculpture(free standing) Statue of Khafre Old Kingdom Egypt (c. 2500 BCE)
- Egypt - New Kingdom
• Asiatic tribe Hyskos conquered Egypt and introduced Bronze Age weapons and horses.
• Hyskos were overthrown and the result was a stable period of creativity
The Reign of Akhenaton and Nefertiti
• Revolution in 14th century BCE
• Revolutionized religion (monotheism) and the arts-
• Worship Aton (the Sun)
• Naturalistic art of curving lines and full-bodied forms
King Tut: The Face that Launched a Thousand High-Res Images
The brief life of Pharaoh Akhenaton’s son died at 18
Howard Carter’s discovery of his tomb 1922
U.S. tours in 1976 and 2006
Cat Scan analysis leading to reconstructed face
After the unusual rule of Pharaoh Akhenaton and the brief rule of Tutankhamen, Egypt returned to its regular religious worship and the tenets of its artistic traditions for another 1,000 years.
Aegean Art
Aegean Sea Civilizations (Modern Greece)
• The arts of the trading maritime
powers of the Aegean region, including Egypt and Asia Minor
Crete
• The Minoan civilization- Myths and the Minotaur of King Minos,
Linear A: writing in pictographic form and early script writing
Colonnade:A series of columns placed side by side to support a roof or a series of arches
- Mycenae
• The Mycenaeans were a Greek- speaking people who were expert in forging weapons
• Citadel cities at Mycenae and Tiryns, frescoes and sculptures
• Tholos tombs and shaft graves
• Much gold work: hammered death masks, inlaid daggers, and gold vessels
In the second millennium BC Mycenae was one of the major centers of Greek civilization, a military stronghold which dominated much of southern Greece. The period of Greek history from about 1600 BC to about 1100 BC is called Mycenaean in reference to Mycenae.
Lion Gate at Mycenae (c. 1300 BCE).
Mycenaean Architecture: Tholos tomb (beehive tomb
Funerary mask, from Grave Circle A, Mycenae, Greece (c. 1600–1500 BCE). Beaten gold.
End Chapter 12 Ancients
SUNY Oswego ART 100 Paul Pearce

Classical Art: Greece & Rome
• Greece – Hellenistic culture
• RomeThe Roman Empire
“Nothing moves in the world which is not Greek in origin.”

Science - Math – Law – Politics – Art
Greek architectural influences are seen all over the world
Greece:
Artistic Periods
Geometric 900-700BCE
Archaic 660-480BCE
More human figures
Greek Archaic kouros and kore (masculine and feminine) statue figurines
Greece:
Artistic Periods Early Classical
Greek Architecture: Much of what we know about the Greeks involves their magnificent monuments
• Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders for capitals
• Weight-bearing columns
• Major elements of Greek architecture
Greek Architecture Columns
Early Classical bSculpture
• Sculpture emerged as a principal art form
• Sculptural artworks appeared on buildings
Sculpture
• Implied movement was the greatest advancement in the arts of the Early Classical period
• Also, artists were more keenly aware of nature
• The most copied subject was of the discuss thrower
• Myron was one of the favored sculptors of the period
Architecture
• After destruction by the Persians, the Greeks mounted a massive building campaign under Pericles
• The first major work was a fitting monument in architecture to the goddess Athena – at Athen’s Acropolis (acropolis means the highest part of the city)
The Parthenon: The buildings constructed on the Acropolis
Construction dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena
The Parthenon sculptures for the friezes and the pediment
Free-Standing Sculpture
Idealized athletic figure.
Weight-shift principle
Vase Painting
• Vase painting in this period sees a shift in weight and movement
• The introduction of red-figure vase painting
Late Classical Art Sculpture
More humanistic and naturalistic
An emphasis on emotion
Bodies became more sensual and graceful with a shift in weight
ROME:
Artistic Periods
Roman Empire- 44BCE
Rome
• Eventually Rome would control Greece, western Europe, northern Africa, and part of the Near East
• Roman art combined native talents, and styles with other sources, especially Greek
• It was fashionable to own copies of Greek art
• This is the Greco-Roman period
- The Republican Period
• The Roman Republic stretches from c. 500 BCE – 44 BCE
• The patricians and the plebeian class
• The Roman senate and its influence in creating the Roman empire
• Why the empire was doomed to crumble
Sculpture
Much of Roman art is derived from that of Greece
However, Roman portrait sculpture was wholly Italian
Wax death mask were made and often converted to bronze or terra-cotta sculptures
This led Roman sculpture to become more realistic, detailed
Architecture
Rome’s greatest contributions were in architecture and engineering
Architecture in the Republican period is linked to that of Greece
Painting
Walls of Roman domestic dwellings were decorated with frescoes and mosaics, and some have survived
This gives us a link to Greek painting that has not survived
The Early Roman Empire
• Belief that art should be created in the service of the state
• The desire to glorify Rome’s power through magnificent buildings and civic monuments
• Roman expansion, death and destruction and the creation of cities and services
Architecture
• The Roman arch and concrete, which allowed for domed and vaulted structures
• The system design of aqueducts – some in use today
• Amphitheaters around the empire and the design of the Rome’s Colosseum
• The Pantheon’s engineering, housing sculptures of the gods
The Pantheon interior
Sculpture
• Pure realism of the Republican period joined with classical Greek idealism in the Early Empire
• Classical poses with changing heads and idealized bodies
• New relief monuments that reflect Rome’s power, glory, and influence
• Equestrian portraits
- The Late Empire
• The declining years of the Empire
• The Empire was ultimately divided into two sections, with separate rulers
• Constantine moves the capital to Constantinople
• Rome and the western empire left vulnerable to barbarians
The Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine.
Basilicas were large meeting halls that were constructed in most Roman towns and cities.

Sculpture
As a result of growing religious beliefs, sculpture began to reflect the new spiritualism
The Head of Constantine (from a far larger statue) seems almost archaic
The statue’s “other-worldliness” stare and artistic meaning during this period
END Classical Art: Greece & Rome

end Christian Art:

The fundamental principle will be that all steps of learning should be sought from Nature; the means of perfecting our art will be found in diligence, study, and application.
–Leone Battista Alberti

Renaissance- 14th-16th C
• Columbus, Michelangelo, and Shakespeare …1492 and 1564
• Classical rebirth
• Cultural center: France (Gothic)to Italy
• Feudalism gone, Italy now has a government based on city-states
• The plague, a more secular life, humanism, and scientific observations
The Renaissance
• Period roughly spans from the 14th to the 16th centuries
• Some historians consider it the beginning of modern history
• It is a revival of Classical themes in art and literature
• There is a keen observation of the natural world
• Greek philosophy is revitalized: human dignity, capabilities, ideas
15th-Century Northern Painting
• The International Style in the north
• The unification of this style across northern Europe
• The changes in manuscript illumination in painting
• The changes in media
Flemish Art
present day Belgium, France, and the Netherlands
• Growing naturalism in northern manuscript illuminations
• Artwork began to grow on the page and take over the page
• Northern artists gradually changed to painting on wood panels in tempera
Flanders
• The region of Flanders
present day Belgium, France, and the Netherlands
• The rich merchant class and art- not just the church
• The artists:
- The Limbourg Brothers
- Robert Campin
(The Master of Flémalle)
- Jan van Eyck
LIMBOURG BROTHERS. “May” from Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (1416). Illumination.
ROBERT CAMPIN. Merode Altarpiece:
JAN VAN EYCK. Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride
- German Art
• German painting during this time
- emotionally striking
- art has less detail and less symbolism than Flemish art
• The artists:
- Matthias Grünewald
- Albrecht Dürer
MATTHIAS GRÜNEWALD. The Crucifixion,
ALBRECHT DÜRER. Adam and Eve (1504).
• The Proto-Renaissance
• Some of the early changes in art from the 13th to the 14th centuries can be seen in the works of two Florentine artists
• The artists:
- Cimabue (Late Gothic)
- Giotto (Proto-Renaissance)
• The similarities and differences in their Madonna and Child Enthroned paintings
CIMABUE. Madonna Enthroned— GIOTTO. Madonna Enthroned
The Early Renaissance
• The competition held for the door design of the Baptistery of the Florence Cathedral in quatrefoil format
• The subject: The Sacrifice of Isaac by his father, Abraham
• The artists:
- Brunelleschi - Ghiberti
The competition held for the door design of the Baptistery of the Florence
- Early Renaissance Artists: Filippo Brunelleschi - Donatello -Massacio- Andrea del Verrocchio
Depictions of DAVID
Renaissance Art- Using the Laws of Perspective
Renaissance – Midcentury and Beyond
• The artists: - Piero Della Francesca - Sandro Botticelli - Leon Battista Alberti
PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA. Resurrection
SANDRO BOTTICELLI. The Birth of Venus (c. 1486).
French performance artist Orlan- Surgeries
LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI. Palazzo Rucellai, Florence (1446–1451).
LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI. Exterior of Tempio Malatestiana Rimini Italy
The High Renaissance
• The artist as “genius”
• The elevation of the artist’s social status
• The artists: - Leonardo da Vinci - Michelangelo Buonarotti- Raphael
LEONARDO DA VINCI. The Last Supper (1495–1498). Fresco (oil and tempera on plaster).
LEONARDO DA VINCI. Madonna of the Rocks— LEONARDO DA VINCI Mona Lisa 1503
RAPHAEL. The School of Athens (1510–1511). Fresco.
MICHELANGELO. The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, Rome (1508–1512).
MICHELANGELO. David (1501–1504
High and Late-Renaissance in Venice
- Titian - Tintoretto
TITIAN. Venus of Urbino (1538).
TINTORETTO. The Last Supper (1592–1594).
The High- and Late- Renaissance:
Outside of Italy
El Greco Spain – 1541-1614
Pieter Bruegel the Elder Netherlands- 1520-69
Mysticism and Realism
Expressionistic Style
— EL GRECO. The Burial of Count Orgaz (1586).
PIETER BRUEGHEL THE ELDER. The Peasant Wedding (1568).
JAN VAN EYCK.
Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride (1434).
Mannerism
• The mannerist style: a brief expressionistic art period following the Renaissance
• The artists:
- Jacopo Pontormo
- Bronzino
The changes that will lead to the Age of Baroque
Mannerism
Artists abandoned copying from nature and copied from other art.
Space became flattened figures were distorted.
BRONZINO. Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time (The Exposure of Luxury) (c. 1546).
SUNY Oswego ART 100
Paul Pearce
End Renaissance Art

The baroque style started around 1600 in Rome, Italy and spread to most of Europe.
The Baroque Period 1600 – 1750
The Baroque Period
The plight of the Pilgrims in America –
moving to the New World – in 1620
Baroque Art
• A continuation of Classicism and naturalism of the Renaissance
• A more colorful, ornate, painterly, and dynamic style
• Motion and space are concerns for artists and architects
• Additional concerns are with the concept of time, the dramatic use of light, and theatricality
The Baroque Period in Italy
• The Baroque era originated in Rome, perhaps in reaction to the Protestant Reformation but also in reaction to Mannerism
• The Baroque period is also referred to as the Age of Expansion, especially in the arts
- Architecture
- Baroque Painting
• The theatrical Baroque sculpture had its counterpart in painting
• Dramatic movement, emotionally charged subjects, and figures caught in time
• The artists:
- Caravaggio
- Artemisia Gentileschi
- Jacopo Tintoretto (Fig. 16-11)
CARAVAGGIO. The Conversion of St. Paul (1600–1601
Judith and Holofernes by Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi
• Both Baroque paintings are roughly contemporary
• An Italian male artist and an Italian female artist; artists’ differing lifestyles
• The subtle messages offered to us by Gentileschi
CARAVAGGIO. Judith and Holofernes (c. 1598). Oil on canvas. Approx. 56 3/4” x 76 3/4”.

ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI. Judith Decapitating Holofernes (c. 1620). Oil on canvas. 72 1/2” x 55 3/4”.
Susannah and the Elders by Tintoretto and Gentileschi
The story of Susannah from the Old Testament Book of Daniel
JACOPO TINTORETTO. Susannah and the Elders (1555–1556). Oil on canvas.

ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI. Susannah and the Elders (1610). Oil on canvas. 66 7/8” x 46 7/8”.

Ceiling Decoration
• Baroque art of combining architecture, sculpture, and painting on the ceilings of naves and domes of churches and cathedrals
• The creation of illusion and the trompe l’oeil effect
• Compare Baroque ceiling decoration to the Sistine Chapel ceiling

• The Baroque Period Outside of Italy
• Italian Baroque ideas were used by artists throughout Europe
• Spain and Flanders adopted the Venetian use of color and created energetic motion with brushwork
• The Dutch specialized in paintings of everyday life and activities
- Spain
• Spain was one of the wealthiest countries in Europe at this time
• The influx of riches from the New World
• The court was lavish in its support of foreign artists, but especially its native talent
• The artists: - Diego Velásquez / - Francisco de Zurbarán
Spain
DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ. Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor) (1656). Oil on canvas. 10’5” x 9’ 3/4”.

- Flanders
• Flanders (Southern section- Catholic)
• Predominantly Catholic, Flanders continued the Italian and Spanish traditions of painting religious and mythological themes
• Holland (Northern Section- Protestant)
• Dutch artists (Holland) Painted secular scenes of daily life.
• Rich merchant class had a means and desire for artworks
Flemish Artists
RUBENS Greek mythology-mortal women seized by sons of Zeus
- Holland
• Artists of the Low Countries turned to secular artistic themes
• The Protestant mandate that humans not create “false idols” in any form of art
• Landscapes, still lifes, and genre paintings were desired by all
• The artists: - Rembrandt van Rijn - Jan Vermeer
Dutch Artists
Rembrandt
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN. Syndics of the Drapers’ Guild (1661–1662). Oil on canvas. 72 7/8” x 107 1/8”.
Dutch Artist VERMEER Also Girl with a Pearl Earring

- England
• English Baroque painting and architecture, influenced by Italian and Flemish Baroque arts
• The artists:
- Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish)
- Anthony van Dyck (Flemish)
- Christopher Wren
- Inigo Jones
END - Baroque ART

SUNY Oswego ART 100

JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID. The Oath of the Horatii (1784).
JEAN-AUGUSTE-DOMINIQUE INGRES. Grande Odalisque
EUGÈNE DELACROIX. Odalisque (1845–1850).
PAUL CÉZANNE. A Modern Olympia
- Romanticism:
• Art characterized by extremes of emotion enhanced by virtuoso brushwork and a brilliant palette
• The artists: - Eugène Delacroix - Francisco Goya
EUGÈNE DELACROIX. The Death of Sardanapalus
FRANCISCO GOYA. The Third of May, 1808 (1814–1815).
GOYA VIDEO
- The Academy - Academic Art:
• Academic Art is characterized by artistic conventions set by the members of the French Academy
• The artists: Adolphe William Bouguereau
- Realism:
Its Art and Artists
• The Realist artists chose to represent subjects evident in everyday life with pigments that were highlighted
• The artists: - Honoré Daumier, - Gustav Courbet, - Édouard Manet, - Rosa Bonheur
HONORÉ DAUMIER. The Third-Class Carriage (c. 1862).
GUSTAVE COURBET. The Stone-Breakers (1849).
ÉDOUARD MANET. Le Déjeuner sur L’Herbe (Luncheon on the Grass) (1863).
MARCANTONIO RAIMONDI. Engraving after Raphael’s The Judgment of Paris (c. 1520).
MANET VIDEO
The Salon des Réfusés
• Manet submitted Le Déjeuner sur L’Herbe to the Academy’s annual Salon, but it was refused along with 2,800 other paintings
• The artists rebelled so strongly that Napoleon III stepped in and suggested an alternate exhibition known as the Salon de Réfusés
• The century’s most important gathering of avant-garde artists
• Impressionism
• Impressionism rejected many styles of art that preceded them
• Through investigation, they arrived at an awareness of certain visual phenomena (with light)
• Technical discoveries were made from these revelations; they produced atmospheric paintings
Impressionism:
Its Art and Artists: - Claude Monet- Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Berthe Morisot - Edgar Degas
- Mary Cassatt (one of the American expatriates)
CLAUDE MONET. Impression: Sunrise (1872).
CLAUDE MONET. Rouen Cathedral (1894).
Renoir VIDEO
BERTHE MORISOT. Young Girl by the Window (1878).
EDGAR DEGAS. The Rehearsal (Adagio) (1877).
• Postimpressionism
• Postimpressionism rejected Impressionism
• Some believed in a more systematic approach to compositional structure, brush-work, and color
• Some used symbolism and emotion with line and color
Postimpressionism:
Its Art and Artists
• The Postimpressionists’ styles differed greatly in their technique
• The artists: - Georges Seurat - Paul Cézanne - Vincent van Gogh - Paul Gauguin, - Henri Toulouse-Lautrec
GEORGES SEURAT. A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884–1886).
Pointilism
GEORGES SEURAT. A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884–1886).
PAUL CÉZANNE. Still Life with Basket of Apples (c. 1895).
VINCENT VAN GOGH. Starry Night (1889).
PAUL GAUGUIN. Vision after the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel) (1888).
Van Gogh – Gauguin VIDEO
PAUL GAUGUIN. Vision after the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel) (1888).
• Expressionism
Expressionism sought to be more emotional, expressive, and laden with symbolism
Color and line were used to express the artists’ inner feelings
They employed vibrant palettes and bravura brushwork
Expressionism:
Its Art and Artists
• The Expressionists used line and color expressively and emotionally
• The artists: - Edvard Munch, - Käthe Kollwitz
Expressionism:
Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1893) - Madonna 1893-94
2004- Edvard Munch’s paintings were burgled from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, paintings, The Scream and Madonna are now back on display
Expressionism: Käthe Kollwitz
The American Expatriates
• In the United States, art was still very provincial in the 19th century
• During the 18th and 19th centuries, striving artists went abroad on extended pilgrimages for training, to see the masters, and to mingle with the avant- garde
• Some of these artists left the United States permanently
• What unifies these artists is not their style of art nor their choice of subject matter but simply that they immigrated to Europe permanently
- Mary Cassatt
- James Abbott McNeill Whistler
MARY CASSATT. The Boating Party (1893–1894).
JAMES ABBOTT MCNEILL WHISTLER. Arrangement in Black and Gray:
The Artist’s Mother
• Americans in America
• While many artists went abroad on pilgrimages or permanently, there were a few who stayed and painted in the realist tradition
• This realism exhibits itself best in figure and landscape painting
• Their art had a Romantic touch and includes artists of the Hudson River School, artists of the American West, and Winslow Homer
THOMAS EAKINS. The Gross Clinic (1875).
THOMAS COLE. The Oxbow (Connecticut River near Northampton) (1836).
Modern Sculpture:
August Rodin’s
The Thinker (1879–1889)
Modern Sculpture:
Its Art and Artists
Auguste Rodin’s The Burgers of Calais (1884–1895)
• Rodin’s dedication to sculpture
• his expressive impressions of the human figure
END MODERN ART

The WPA supported artists in New York during the Great Depression
The inspiration for American artists no longer was in Europe
After World War II, the center of the art world shifted to New York following its long tenure in Paris
A wave of artist-immigrants – escaping the Nazis – then, largely settled in New York

WPA- Works Project Administration: Poster ART, Murals, Photography
• Contemporary Painting
• Abstract Expressionism arose from this melting pot of ideas
• The critics did not initially welcome this art, as reported by the New Yorker
Characteristics of Abstract Expressionism
• Spontaneous execution
• Large gestural brushstrokes
• Abstract imagery
• Fields of intense color
- Toward Abstract Expressionism
• These two mid-20th century artists showed the most influence of earlier trends
• Their art heralded in Abstract Expressionism
• The artists: - Arshile Gorky - Gorky The Liver Is the Cock’s Comb(1944)
Hans Hofmann The Golden Wall (1961)
Abstract Expressionism - Focus on Gesture
• For some Abstract Expressionists, the gestural (the process) application of paint is the most important aspect of their work
• For others, the color field seems to predominate
• The artists: - Jackson Pollock, - Lee Krasner, - Willem de Kooning
Jackson Pollock at work in his Long Island studio (1950)
Jackson Pollock One (Number 31, 1950)
Lee Krasner’s Easter Lilies (1956)
Willem De Kooning’s Two Women(1953)
Focus on the Color Field
• For a number of artists, the color field was more important than gestural style
• These large canvases envelop the viewer with color combinations, and themes The artists:
- Mark Rothko
Combined Gesture and Color-Field Robert Motherwell
• The New York School: The Second Generation
• During the mid-1950s, a second wave of painters began to build on the earlier painterly ideas
• Out of this new crop of artists arose strict color-field painters and hard-edge painters
• Some of the hard-edge painters also pioneered a new direction with the shaped canvas
- Color-Field Painting
• These artists had a commonality with the second wave of Abstract painters, but they also differed in other ways
• The artists: - Helen Frankenthaler - Morris Louis - Kenneth Noland
- Minimal Art
• Minimalism, during the 1960’s
• Artists during this era wanted to purify art from gesture and color
• These artists wanted to devote their compositions to intellectual theories and mathematical ideas
• The artist: - Agnes Martin
• Figurative Painting
• A number of artists since World War II in America have remained committed to nature and reality as a point of departure
• These artists used the figure in compositions of extreme varity and surrealist juxtaposition
• The artists: - Alice Neel - Francis Bacon
Pop Art
• This movement’s epithet refers to images of the “popular culture”
• Pop Art challenges commonplace conceptions about the meaning of art, and it is often matter-of-fact
• Pop Art intentionally depicts the mundane, instead of the beautiful
Pop Art
Jasper Johns Painted Bronze (Ale Cans) (1960) Real Cans- bronzed - with painted labels

Pop Art: Robert Rauschenberg The Bed (1955)Oil and pencil on pillow, quilt, and sheet on wood supports. 75 ¼” X 31½” X 6½”
• Photorealism (SUNY Faculty Kate Timm)
• Photorealism is firmly rooted in the long, realistic traditions
• From the 1970s, it also owes some of its impetus to Pop Art
• It is the rendering of subjects with sharp, almost photographic precision
• Photorealism permits artists to do something very new while they are doing something very old
Photorealism:Audrey Flack’s World War II (Vanitas) (1976–1977)
• Op Art (Optical Painting)
• In Op Art, the artist manipulates light, or color fields, or repeats patterns of lines for visual effect
• Some of these illusions can be disorienting to the viewer’s eyes
• The artists:- Victor Vasarely - Richard Ankuszkiewicz - Bridget Riley
Richard Anuszkiewicz Intrinsic-Harmony 1965
• New Image Painting
• New Image Painting uses everyday objects, divorced from their backgrounds, in an overtly simplified manner
• The Whitney Museum of American Art held the first exhibition, and it is credited for kept painting alive
• The artists: - Jennifer Bartlett - Susan Rothenberg
New Image Painting: Jennifer Bartlett Spiral: An Ordinary Evening in New Haven (1989)
• New Image Painting Susan Rothenberg Diagonal (1975)
• Pattern Painting
• Decorative arts became the actual subject matter of Pattern Painting
• MacConnel’s process: patterned strips silkscreened onto fabric and then stitched together
• Note the almost architectural quality to the placement of fabric
• The artists: - Kim MacConnel - Robert Kushner
• Pattern Painting Kim MacConnel Tri-Rotating
• The Shaped Canvas
• In the 1960s and 1970s, it was thought that “painting was dead,” but the 1980s proved this wrong
• Who said a painting always had to be a square or rectangle? These artists proved that incorrect
• The artists: - Elizabeth Murray - Frank Stella- Judy Pfaff
Shaped Canvas Elizabeth Murray Sail Baby (1983) 126”X135”
• Neo-Expressionism
• In the 1980s, a group of non-American artists, born during the Abstract Expressionist era, experimented with gesture, but with added dimension
• Post-war; an emotional art form
• These artists who looked back to Abstract Expressionism and the process of painting without losing the narrative that was so important to them in their art
Neo-Expressionist
Anselm Kiefer Dein Goldenes Haar, Margarrthe (1981)
Sculpture: Two major directions: - figurative - abstract
Contemporary Figurative Sculpture
• Following World War II, figurative sculpture intrigues sculptors as well as painters
• Some figurative works are uncannily realistic
• Other figurative works are more abstract
• This art form asserts that the human form is still interesting
Marisol Women and Dog (1964)
Duane Hanson Tourists (1970)
Contemporary Abstract Sculpture
David Smith Cubi Series (1963 and 1964)
Jackie Ferrara Recall (1980) 77” x 38” x 38”  Redwood
• Feminist Art
• Women have worked in the arts since ancient times, but little has been recorded
• In 1970, Judy Chicago initiated a college feminist art course
• In the late 1970s, art historian Linda Nochlin began to uncover women’s actual influence in art
The Evolution of Feminist Art
• The 19th-century prelude to feminist art history
• The artists: - Eugène Delacroix - Käthe Kollwitz - Elizabeth Catlett - Goya
• Feminist Art and the movement in the mid-1970s
• The artists: - Judy Chicago (Fig. 1-10) - Miriam Schapiro, et al. - Ana Mendieta - Barbara Kruger (Fig. 4-13) - Joan Snyder- - Laurie Simmons (Fig. 1-20) - Mary Beth Edelson
The Doll House by Miriam Schapiro with Sherry Brody (1972)
Judy Chicago “Dinner Party” 1974-1979
Guerrilla Girl Warfare: Guerrilla Girls Poster (c. 1987)
• Deconstructivist Architecture
• Deconstructivist Architecture: “the whole is less important than the parts”
• “form should follow function” is no longer true
• Pure geometric forms contemporary materials, colors
enhanced design aided by computer technology
A Portfolio of Art in the New Millennium
• Thousands of years of the history of art and architecture have led us to the present art scene.
• It is too early to label the trends in this new millennium
Jacques-Louis David on a Brooklyn Tennis Court
• Works from the masters, David, Poussin, and Velásquez are being revisited by a new wave of artists
• Instead of canvases and paint in hand, they’re yelling “lights … camera … smoke machine”

Homer visits a museum - You should Too!