Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Third Edition, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, and M. Kathryn Shields

PART 3

HISTORY AND CONTEXT

Chapter 3.9 Late Modern and Early Contemporary Art in the Twentieth Century

The Dada and The Bauhaus▪ Radically changed world after World War I

▪ The brutality of mechanized war sent shock

waves around the world – disillusionment,

prosperity, the Jazz Age, more freedom

socially

▪ Global expansion in commerce, politics,

cultural traditions, communications, and

travel

▪ Two different art movements that supported

radically opposing reactions and ideas about

modern society

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Third Edition, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, and M. Kathryn Shields

PART 3

HISTORY AND CONTEXT

Chapter 3.9 Late Modern and Early Contemporary Art in the Twentieth Century

Dada▪ Anti-art art

▪ Reaction against “rational” and

the material -thought that led to

devastation of WWI

▪ Name “Dada” is a nonsense word

▪ Focused on individuality,

irrationality, chance, and

imagination, nonsense and not

making “things”

Marcel

Duchamp

1917

FountainDada Art

Founder

Readymade &

Conceptual

Art

Dada – The anti-art artists!stressed nonsensical. Born from the destruction of the war machines and technology of World War I, the idea of not “making” anything.Saw meaninglessness in the modern world and celebrated meaninglessness. Unapologetically rebellious against all societal constraints

Conceptual art- Duchamp thought of this as art, and the viewer’s reactions and thought about the work were the art. So, his thoughts and ours are the art, not the actual object.

PART 2

MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Chapter 2.7 Alternative Media and Processes

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

Conceptual Art▪ Promotes ideas as artworks in and of themselves

◆ Downplays artworks as products

▪ Influenced by the Dada movement, which began in 1916

◆ Marcel Duchamp’s readymades

◆ Opened up possibilities

for artmaking

Including everyday objects

popular imagery, even

just ideas

Duchamp Readymades

Bottle Rack 1914 &

In Advance

of the

Broken Arm 1915

Max Ernst

Switzerland.

Birthplace of Dada

1920

Hans Arp

According to the

Laws

of Chance 1933

He threw these

shapes and

where they

landed is where

they “stayed”.

Part of his

exploration of

randomnesss

and chance in art.

Pablo Picasso,

Bull’s Head, 1942.

Assemblage of

bicycle seat and

handlebars, 13¼

x 17⅛ x 7½”.

Musée Picasso,

Paris, France

PART 2

MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Chapter 2.9 Sculpture

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

Pablo Picasso, Bull’s Head

▪ Picasso once took the handlebars

and the seat of a bicycle and

combined them

▪ The artist’s intent was both a

serious and a humorous attempt to

redefine art

▪ A readymade-

Louis Sullivan, Wainwright

Building, 1890–91, St. Louis,

Missouri

Sullivan obeys his famous phrase

“form follows function” by

providing versatile interior space

Because the steel frame supports the

building, and because it is mostly

located at its outer edges, the space

of the interior can easily be

reconfigured to meet the specific

needs of the user

The Wainwright Building reflects

the elements of a column (base,

shaft, capital) in the organization of

the exterior

Walter Gropius 1925

Black Shop, the Bauhaus

Strong design, simple color use,

craftsmanship, modern materials

and modern technology to create

the work. Art and craft boundaries

were blended, one not more

important than the other. A marriage

of art and industry.

The machine aesthetic, or “beauty

of the machine” was celebrated,

therefore geometric shapes and

forms, simple color use and clean,

simple design are the visual links to

the mathematical geometry of

machines.

The “less is more” of Mies van der

Rhoe.

New modern materials and artforms

were explored as well

The Bauhaus “Manifesto”

Mies van der Rohe, Neue Nationalgalerie, 1968, Berlin, Germany

PART 2

MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Chapter 2.10 Architecture

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFSe2WBtcyE

Villa Savoye Tour

Frank Lloyd Wright,

Falling Water,

1939

Bear Run, Pa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuZ0x5QkgzgFalling water video

PART 2

MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

Chapter 2.10 Architecture

Contrasting Ideas

in Modern Architecture:

Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoyeand Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater

▪ Two buildings constructed about the same time, yet are

based on radically different ideas about architecture

▪ Le Corbusier’s architectural designs were part of the

International Style that was promoted as a universal

aesthetic form that could be built in any geographical or

cultural environment relatively inexpensively

◆ Saw architecture as a “machine for living”

▪ Wright did not think that a house should be a machine

◆ He believed the design of a house should respond organically

to its location

PART 2

MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Chapter 2.9 Sculpture

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

Light and Kinetic Sculpture

▪ Sculptors who work with movement and light express their

ideas in ways that would not have been possible

just a century or two before

▪ These moving and lighted sculptural works, like those

of the Constructivists, rely on mechanical engineering

as well as the creative input of the artist

The Bauhaus, a group of artists and designers

who celebrated the MACHINE AESTHETIC

(beauty of the machine and technology), where

Moholy had worked until 1928, was a hotbed of

innovation in stage design, advertising, furniture

design and costume design. There was a lot of

interest in abstract plays, in electrical lighting

devices, in rotating stages. It’s a very rich

history of experimentation, and Moholy is at the

center of it, and the Light Prop is a key example

of that commitment.

The piece was meant to produce an

“architecture of light” and was part of the

experimental theater experience.

It was not meant to be viewed this way, it literally

was meant used as a character in a movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVnF9A3azSA

The light prop if seen today…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0x730uP2yI

The actual movie, and how it was meant to be

viewed…László Moholy-Nagy, Light Prop for an Electric Stage, 1929–30.

Exhibition replica, constructed 2006, through the courtesy of Hattula

Moholy-Nagy. Metal, plastics, glass, paint, and wood, with electric

motor, 59½ x 27⅝ x 27⅝”. Harvard Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger

Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts

PART 2

MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Chapter 2.9 Sculpture

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

László Moholy-Nagy, Light Prop for an Electric Stage

▪ Created as a stage lighting device, Light Prop eventually became

the main character in a film by Moholy-Nagy

▪ The work has a motor that moves a series of perforated discs so

that they cross in front of the lighting unit

▪ This creates a constantly changing sculptural object, and the

changes in lighting influences the environment

▪ Is it art, toy, device-what are your thoughts?

▪ The Bauhaus, where Moholy had worked until 1928, was a hotbed of

innovation in stage design and costume design. There was a lot of

interest in abstract plays, in electrical lighting devices, in rotating

stages. It’s a very rich history of experimentation, and Moholy is at

the center of it, and the Light Prop is a key example of that

commitment.

▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVnF9A3azSA

▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0x730uP2yI