First Union An Office Without WallsMeg Rabb was a self-made wo.docx

First Union: An Office Without Walls*
Meg Rabb was a self-made woman. Having started her full-time
career at 18, she was at the pinnacle of her career as vice
president of training for First Union Federal, a large (fictitious
name) savings and loan association located in the eastern United
States. Meg's division was responsible for both employee
training and management development, and the services that her
staff provided were very visible in the organization. Her unit
was known as a "staff" one in the organization; that is, the
training and development division served the needs of other
units that were directly tied to serving consumers. These later
"line" divisions were closer to final customers and, therefore,
enjoyed high status in the organization. Having recently
survived several years of financial crisis and regulatory
scrutiny, First Union was embarking on a new customer focus
that it took very seriously. Significant amounts of financial
resources were directed to employee training. All branch
delivery mechanisms and systems were aimed at the
achievement of a single service target: meeting consumers'
changing financial needs. New approaches to service focused on
customers' convenience needs and on the delivery of
consistently high-quality personal service. At the same time,
attention to cost containment was necessary to avoid further
financial crisis and to please the board of directors; the
organization spent resources available for internal programs
very carefully. In sum, then, the fact that the training and
development division was getting a big slice of the available
resources gave it some stature in the organization as well as the
clout that went with it, even though the division was still a staff
function and not involved in direct customer interactions or
service delivery.
Meg's achievements were financially rewarding and personally
satisfying. She was very good at both the design and
implementation phases of the training process, and the 12

trainers and management development specialists under her
charge were highly qualified and respectful of her
developmental and caring leadership style. Vice president titles
at First Union Federal were hard to get, and Meg had only
recently been promoted to the position of vice president. Five
years ago, when she had been hired at the level of assistant vice
president, not a single woman enjoyed the VP rank and title and
only a handful of men were VPs, out of a total work force of
1,700 employees. After five years of hard work and measurable
success in her job, Meg was promoted to the level of vice
president. One week after the announcement of her promotion,
her boss, Dan Cummings, told her that she would receive a new
office and that new furniture would be available to her should
she be interested in replacing her existing desk and other
fixtures, lamps, and equipment.
The Office as an Incentive
Being a VP at First Union brought certain perquisites, or
nonfinancial rewards. An office, a travel allowance, a larger
share of human and other departmental financial resources, and
a parking space in the corporate lotall of these traditionally
accompanied an assistant vice president in the trip up the
corporate ladder to vice president. Meg looked forward to the
privacy that her new office would afford. That, above all other
nonfinancial perquisites, was to be cherished in her very busy
office. The office was characteristically noisy, with lots of
people shuffling in and out of the office area all day long to
attend training sessions or to schedule programs.
The physical office layout in her department was
uncomplicated. Each employee, in a total staff of 12, had his or
her own section, a partitioned area walled off with movable
screens. Employees had variable quality office furniture within
their areas, depending on their level in the organizational
hierarchy. All areas had desks; however, the lowest-level
employees received cheaper-quality furniture of the hand-
medown variety, a desk chair, and possibly a guest chair.
Lower-level employees typically had just enough room to move

around in their space and often had to share space within
screened-off areas with other employees. Meg herself had been
seated within a screened-off area located in the corner of the
work area; this space had two floor-to-ceiling glass walls that
overlooked the expansive city, 10 stories below. Her plan was
to make this same space her office.
The Walls Came Down :
The construction of the office was completed quickly, within
three weeks of her promotion. The office was simply decorated,
with grey carpet and sparse decorations that included some
tasteful (but inexpensive) modern prints, a desk lamp of modern
design (selected from an office supply catalog), and utilitarian
desk accessories of simple design. Meg planned on using her
existing office furniture in order to economize. The old
furniture suited the decor of the new office, and she felt good
about saving money for First Union. Her own preference was
for modern decor-a stark contrast to the other executives'
offices, which were decorated in conservative colonial decor.
She occupied her new office space comfortably for one day.
Upon arriving at work the following morning, she was
summoned into her boss's office. Dan Cummings was the senior
vice president of human resources. He was well liked and was
very accurately "tuned in" to the political rules of the game; his
influence in the organization seemed to blossom after he
organized the first annual "Dan Cummings Golf Invitational,"
now in its fourth year of operation. Golfers from the old guard
at First Union, those VPs and assistant VPs close to the senior
management group, always felt honored by their invitations.
Invitations denoted status in the organization. Meg had taken
golf lessons this past summer in hopes of being included in next
year's tournament, despite the fact that no female employees
had ever received an invitation to the tournament. Even though
her boss knew about her golf lessons, she had not been invited
that year, and she'd never voiced her disappointment over not
being included to anyone.
Upon entering Dan's office, Meg was perfunctorily informed

that the president of First Union had expressed concern over the
size of Meg's office. A close friend of the building manager, the
president had strolled down to the construction site two days
ago to meet the manager for lunch. The bottom line was this:
the president had ruled that the office was too large. Meg was
told that the existing office would have to be modified to
conform to new building regulations set in place just that week.
The plan was to tear down her office walls and to rebuild them
using the proper 10 feet by 10 feet specifications detailed in the
new regulations. Her office, unfortunately, had been built using
12 feet by 12 feet specifications deemed by the building
manager to be appropriate.
Meg's immediate reaction to this troubling news was one of
anger. She masked her true feelings behind a demeanor of
cooperative resistance. She was very concerned about what this
decision would mean to her employees how they would take the
news and how she could present it to them to mitigate damage
to her department's normally healthy morale. She had other
concerns, too. She worried that this event would cause her to
lose power and esteem among her peers. Meg questioned the
building manager later that morning to try to get a handle on
how and why such an expensive mistake had been made. He told
her that the 12 feet by 12 feet specifications that had been used
for her office were set in place by him personally to take
advantage of the view and to make the best use of the
surrounding building structure. Other contacts told her that the
former building regulations that were more lax than the current
ones, yet were similar to the existing ones, had been frequently
ignored to suit individual employees' tastes. She couldn't help
but feel sorry for the building manager. He had used his skills
in office design to try to match form with function, and his
friendship with the president had apparently not been enough to
shield him from personal repercussions. The tone of his voice
and his eagerness to end their telephone conversation suggested
that he was annoyed about the entire affair. Her empathy for
him was joined with confusion. Had he not taken risks in the

past by deviating from strict adherence to the regulations? Had
he not already considered these risks? And, why was she the
first person to fall victim to strict adherence to this regulation?
The Culture and Power Base at First Union
The overall culture of the bank was marked by conservatism. As
one might expect when money is involved, cautiousness and
conservatism were valued, as was care in retaining tight
financial control over depositors' money. Power and influence at
First Union were clustered primarily in the line units and at the
executive levels of the organization. The mortgage division was
particularly powerful. First Union had only recently remodeled
the floor on which the mortgage division was located. As the
"bread and butter" arm of the organization, the mortgage
division enjoyed substantial power because of the revenues it
generated and its contribution to the bottom line. Visitors to the
newly remodeled offices never failed to remark on the beauty of
the mortgage offices and on their distinctiveness from the rest
of the bank. Rumor had it that the president of the bank was
disturbed about the cost of the renovations but failed to act on
the matter due to the high share of profits that the division
generated.
In terms of power distribution across genders, First Union had
no ranking female executives at or above the level of vice
president prior to Meg's promotion. This fact prompted
intervention from the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission, which encouraged First Union to seek out
qualified female managers for promotion to executive status.
The EEOC's scrutiny was public information, and Meg often felt
awkward about being the first female to pave the way. Meg did
not have a mentor at a higher rank than she was in the
organization. Her philosophy had always been that hard work
pays off, and she was not particularly sensitive to social and
political cues in the environment. Her male counterparts were
very active and visible across the political terrain at First
Union, as her boss's golf tournament activities attested.
Friendships mattered a lot in the organization, and many of her

male counterparts in other divisions were socially connected
with their superiors outside of work.
Some of the artwork at First Union seemed to be very telling of
values held to be near and dear to the organization. One
lithograph was particularly indicative of the gender values in
the organization. It featured a series of free-floating female
breasts arranged in a decorative manner. The print was located
in the president's conference room and was visible to board
members, outside clients, and internal staff members who
attended regular meetings in the room. One lower-level female
manager who visited the room perhaps 15 times had never
deciphered the objects in the lithograph. A higher-ranking male
colleague proudly pointed out the identity of the shapes to her,
laughing as he said, "Hey, did you see what this print is made
up of?" She was embarrassed by his remark but joined in his
laughter to get past the moment.
What Should She Do?
Meg sat down and made notes about how she would proceed.
One thing was sure: If she was going to survive at First Union,
she would have to learn how to play ball. As a VP in a staff
unit, she had to do what she could to elevate her political status
in the organization. Her worst fear was that she might lose her
job; her very survival might depend on developing more
political savvy. She had no one to turn to in the organization for
advice and felt that she couldn't afford to make even a single
mistake. Meg resolved to supplement her golf lessons with a
crash course in organizational politics.
Colonial Empires About 1900
This map is really important in understanding how non-Western
cultures would have a profound impact on art of the early 20th
century. Africa, in particular, was divided among many nations

with France taking a huge chunk. Many items would be
imported into Europe and would inspire artists like Picasso and
Matisse, as you will see.
HENRI MATISSE, Luxe, calme et volupté, 1904-5
Fauvism:
Bold colors of Van Gogh, but used them as complete artistic
expression; figure was secondary to color, form, and line;
combination of subjective expression and pure optical sensation
Called the fauves by critics who thought the artists like Matisse
painted like wild beasts
Combination of Impressionism’s love of nature with Post-
Impressionism’s love of expressive color; influenced by African
art
Impression upon other coming of age avant-garde artists who
were trying to take what Cézanne started even further
Not an entirely cohesive movement as the artists all had their
own personal agendas
Henri Matisse first studied law, but in 1891 enrolled in art
school and studied under Bouguereau (whose idea later rejected)
then studied with Moreau in 1892 who encouraged him to
follow his own direction. Later he would experiment with non-
descriptive color. He met Andre Derain and Maurice de
Vlaminck in 1900 who would also work in the fauvist style.
I’m showing you other works by Matisse so that you get a sense
of how much he experimented during the first decade of the

20th century. This piece is a radical reinterpretation of French
pastoral landscape painting. We have nudes who don’t have a
care in the world, an idyllic female world. There are staccato
brushstrokes and color straight from the paint tube applied in a
rainbow of colors.
HENRI MATISSE, Blue Nude: Memory of Biskra, 1907
Influences of African art can be seen in the exaggeration of the
female body, especially in the breasts and buttocks, and in the
mask-like face. The extreme position of the body makes it look
like the figure is composed of different people. The color is
inherently Fauve in that it isn’t descriptive of nature. This is
part of the odalisque tradition, but his painting isn’t seductive
and erotic because Matisse believed that he was creating a
picture, not a woman.
Figure 24-3 HENRI MATISSE, Red Room (Harmony in Red),
1908–1909. Oil on canvas, approx.
5’ 11” x 8’ 1”. State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.
This painting is more abstract. The use of color is very
unconventional and gives the painting a sense of flatness. It is
more decorative in surface patterning; a new pictorial space is
defined by color and line. Matisse is doing something important
here: he’s tell you that you’re looking at a painting, not an
actual view of the world. By emphasizing the flatness of the
surface, he’s emphasizing that it is a thing in and of itself.
Figure 24-6 ERNST LUDWIG KIRCHNER, Street, Dresden,

1908 (dated 1907). Oil on canvas, 4’ 11 1/4” x 6’ 6 7/8”.
Museum of Modern Art, New York.
German Expressionism: Like the Fauves, the German
Expressionists liked to use color in non-traditional, sometimes
jarring ways; however, they used color to convey emotional
expression
The first group is Die Brücke (The Bridge):
Saw themselves as a link between the past and future forms of
art
They were very nationalistic and used a traditional German art
form, the woodcut
They were also inspired by African and Oceanic arts
Jarring colors, slashing lines and distortion of natural form is
characteristic of this group
Against academic art and Impressionism
Van Gogh and Munch were inspirations
They exhibited together and produced manifestoes
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was often referred to as the spiritual
leader of the group. He created sculptures as well as paintings
and prints. He was affected by Seurat’s color theories and by
German Renaissance printmaker, Albrecht Dürer. Like most of
Die Brücke, he liked and chose contemporary life for subject
matter.
This painting portrays city life in Germany prior to WWI.
There’s a sense of unease. People are missing eyes. The
composition is tilted and severe. It is physically close, yet
psychologically distant.
EMIL NOLDE, The Last Supper, 1909

Born in a rural community, Nolde had strong ties the land and
its people. He studied woodcarving and created fantastical
creatures in the German tradition. Nolde studied in Munich and
Paris, and was affected by Manet, Daumier, and Impressionists.
He often made use of violent and brilliant color.
Nolde was invited to join Die Brücke in 1906, but left a year
later to devote himself to a personal form of Expressionist
religious paintings and prints. Eventually he became a Nazi –
felt that Nordic people were superior. Ironicallly, his work was
eventually banned, confiscated and destroyed by the party he
supported.
I choose this work instead of the one in your book because you
have seen several Last Supper paintings already. What kinds of
things do you notice about this painting that are different than
the other ones? How does Nolde depict Jesus and his disciples?
VASSILY KANDINSKY, Sketch for Composition II, 1909-10
The second group of German Expressionists is Der Blaue Reiter
(The Blue Rider):
Founded in Munich by Wassily Kandinsky (a Russian
immigrant), Gabriele Münter, and Franz Marc in the winter of
1911-1912
No stylistic similarities, but they shared common ideas and
theories on how painting should be done
Produced art, but also published the Blue Rider Almanac which
featured the group’s theories on art and aesthetics
Vassily Kandinsky was the most influential of the group as he

gave non-representational abstract expression theoretical
validity. He believed in the relationship between color and
spirituality and felt that color could attain a universal truth He
wrote Concerning the Spiritual in Art in 1911 and believed that
art should be connected more to the spiritual world than the
material world.
All of this work, including this one, is often compared to music,
hence the musical quality of his abstract works. Kandinsky was
the first to work in complete abstraction, but you can still see
figures, animals and other subjects in this work – hasn’t become
completely non-representational.
Figure 24-7 VASSILY KANDINSKY, Improvisation 28 (second
version), 1912. Oil on canvas, 3’ 7 7/8” x 5’ 3 7/8”. Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Still some recognizable subject matter, but more abstract than
the last piece. He is focusing on pure color, line, shape and
form.
VASSILY KANDINSKY, Composition VII, 1913
Kandinsky reached full non-representational abstraction at this
point. The beauty of non-representational abstraction is that it
doesn’t have to have meaning. For Kandinsky, this was his
personal vision of spirituality. How does one paint the spiritual
world? It’s going to be really individualistic since spirituality is
a personal thing. Unlike so much of the work you’ve seen, this
can just be appreciated for its color, line, and form.

STOP! Before you go any further, who do you think painted
this? Why?
…
Go to the next slide…
PABLO PICASSO, La Vie, 1903
You didn’t guess Picasso did you? So many people think they
“know” Picasso. And they don’t!
Whether you like Picasso’s art or not, he is the most successful
artist in the history of art. He was extremely prolific creating
art in virtually every medium: small-scale prints, sculptures,
murals, paintings and could work in different styles
simultaneously. His father was a painter/art teacher, and Picasso
could draw like Raphael by the age of 8, so he’s definitely not
going to want to create art the same way his entire life. Picasso
entered Barcelona’s School of Fine Arts at the age of fourteen
and was allowed to take advanced courses. He also went to
school in Madrid where he suffered from poverty and was
anxious to get to Paris after a brief stay in Barcelona.
He had very tumultuous personal life that often impacted the
subject matter of his works. While he never liked talking about
what his artworks were about or what they meant, we can glean
meaning about them from understanding what was going on in
his life at the time.
This work is from the Blue Period (1901-4) which happened

after the suicide of his close friend Carles Casagemas. Picasso
went into a more somber mood. Casagemas killed himself over a
failed relationship – Picasso ended up having an affair with the
woman Casagemas loved. Some think that this painting is a
justification made by Picasso for being with his friend’s former
lover.
PABLO PICASSO, Acrobat with a Ball, 1905
This painting is from the Rose Period (1905-6) when Picasso
was preoccupied with acrobatic performers; his visits to the
Cirque Médrano inspired him. These performers were the
equivalent of modern artists who also existed on the margins of
society and barely got by on their creative talents – this is the
complete opposite of successful, bourgeois Academic artist of
the 19th century. Picasso was a very poor artist, a true
bohemian at this time.
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Figure 24-11 PABLO PICASSO, Gertrude Stein, 1906–1907.
Oil on canvas, 3’ 3 3/8” x 2’ 8”. Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York.
This is a portrait of the American writer and art collector who
was one of Picasso’s biggest supporters. She introduced Picasso
to Matisse. Stein sat 90 times for Picasso while he painted her
portrait.
It is here that you can start to see the style that Picasso was
developing. He was deeply influenced by African art (see the
section in your book about Picasso and his African art
collection) and figurines that were being excavated in

southeastern Spain from the 6th-5th centuries BCE. Those
figurines had almond eyes and angular features. We can see that
influence in Stein’s eyes.
‹#›
Figure 24-1 PABLO PICASSO, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,
June–July 1907. Oil on canvas, 8’ x 7’ 8”. Museum of Modern
Art, New York.
Often called the most significant painting in the 20th century,
and like the previous example, it was inspired by sculpture from
6th-5th century BCE Iberia (southeastern Spain) and from
Africa. Picasso was also affected by Gauguin’s work of Tahitian
subjects. There are five prostitutes from Avignon street in
Barcelona (Picasso knew the area well) posed here. Picasso
worked on this painting for six months redoing it, never sure as
to how it should be. When he showed it to people, they thought
it was ugly and even his close friends thought he was nuts.
Georges Braque thought it was revolutionary. Picasso didn’t
show it to the public until 13 years later and by that time
Cubism had changed avant-garde art.
Please watch: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-
1010/early-abstraction/cubism/v/picasso-les-demoiselles-d-
avignon-1907
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GEORGES BRAQUE, Houses at L’Estaque, 1908
Braque grew up in Le Havre (famous Impressionist site) as the
son and grandson of amateur painters. He went to the École des
Beaux-Arts in Le Havre, then followed in his family’s footsteps

and became a house painter and decorator. Braque settled in
Paris in 1900 and was influenced by Egyptian and archaic
sculpture, but especially by the art of Cézanne. His work is
much more reduced to geometric shapes. Matisse referred to this
work as Braque’s “little cubes”, thus this had become the
standard account for the birth of the term “Cubism.”
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Figure 24-13 GEORGES BRAQUE, The Portuguese, 1911. Oil
on canvas, 3’ 10 1/8” x 2’ 8”. Öffentliche Kunstsammlung
Basel, Kunstmuseum, Basel.
Beginning in 1908, the relationship between Picasso and Braque
was the most significant in the history of art. It is very much an
anomaly for Picasso to work in a collaborative environment and
it set the precedent for intense collaboration as they were in
contact with each other almost daily. Their working relationship
ended in 1914 when Braque was called into military service.
They worked so closely that it is very difficult for even the
most trained eye to tell the difference between Picasso and
Braque’s work. There are subtle clues as to what we are looking
at here. Both Braque and Picasso would often incorporate letters
in their works to form fragments of words or entire phrases.
This is a portrait of a Portuguese man in a shipyard. If you look
closely, you can see a rope tied to a post, letters on the side of a
ship, and illusion of water. They never abandon material subject
matter, even though it becomes more and more fragmented; it’s
called Analytic Cubism.
Analytic Cubism: The first phase of Cubism, developed jointly
by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, in which the artists
analyzed form from every possible vantage point to combine the
various views into one pictorial whole.

Figure 24-14 PABLO PICASSO, Still Life with Chair-Caning,
1912. Oil and oilcloth on canvas, 10 5/8” x 1’ 1 3/4”. Musée
Picasso, Paris.
Still-life was often the subject for Cubist works by both artists,
sometimes encoded with information about themselves. There
was a move towards Synthetic Cubism with collage as a means
for experiment and expression. The letters “JOU” refer to
“journal” (French for newspaper), but also a pun as “jouer" is
the French verb “to play” meaning this is all just a game.
Picasso used oilcloth mechanically printed with the chair caning
pattern in the composition – something that looks like it is real
but is not and uses rope to frame the composition.
‹#›
GEORGES BRAQUE, Fruit Dish and Glass, 1912
This is Braque’s first papiers collé or pasted paper composition.
He was spending time with Picasso when he came up with the
idea and decided to wait until Picasso was gone to actually
create it – Picasso was notorious for forging ahead with other
people’s ideas. After he showed it to Picasso, Picasso did
experiment with this technique. 1912 ends Analytic Cubism.
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PABLO PICASSO, Guitar, Sheet Music, and Wine Glass, 1912

Much more colorful and playful in his experiments with papiers
collé, Picasso uses wallpaper for the background. The guitar is
incomplete, but Picasso gives us enough clues for decoding the
shapes presented in the composition. He used sheet music as
part of the composition as well as a charcoal drawing of a wine
glass. The newspaper clipping used in the composition may be
in reference to the “battle” between Braque and Picasso in this
new medium. The headline reads, “The battle has begun.”
‹#›
Figure 24-17 PABLO PICASSO, Maquette for Guitar, 1912.
Cardboard, string, and wire (restored), 25 1/4” x 13” x 7 1/2”.
Cubist sculpture:
Traditional sculpture is usually noticed because it is a solid
mass surrounded by space. In Cubism, forms are constructed out
of unusual materials and contain space, rather than being solid
surrounded by space. A great example of this concept is this
constructed sculpture, or maquette (mock-up), for a sculpture to
be made out of sheet metal (a highly unorthodox material for
sculpture). It is an open construction, not a solid mass. Once
again, Picasso was inspired greatly by African masks. This
sculpture is also a reference of reality, not an exact replica of it.
By 1912, the experiments in Cubism done by Braque and
Picasso had reached the larger art world in Paris and beyond.
Books were being written, exhibitions were held, and artists
were taking the principles of Cubism and adapting them to their
own styles and subject matter.

Figure 24-16 PABLO PICASSO, Guernica, 1937. Oil on
canvas, 11’ 5 1/2” x 25’ 5 3/4”. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte
Reina Sofia, Madrid.
When people ask me what my favorite work of art is of all time,
this is it. While the subject is grim - this depicts the bombing of
the town of Guernica - it is one of the most brilliant political
paintings of the 20th century. It was made for the Spanish
Republican Pavilion of the Paris World’s Fair, It took only two
months to create, and many preparatory drawings were done
prior to this.
Please read: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-
1010/early-abstraction/cubism/a/picasso-guernica
Figure 24-22 GIACOMO BALLA, Dynamism of a Dog on a
Leash, 1912. Oil on canvas, 2’ 11 3/8” x 3’ 7 1/4”. Albright-
Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York.
Futurism:
Born as a literary movement by the poet and propagandist,
Filippo Marinetti in 1908; he announced his ideas in a series of
manifestoes in 1909 and 1910
The writers and artists of the movement reacted against the
prevailing traditions of Italian art, namely classical Renaissance
ideas; Italy had not moved much more forward in art since the
16th and 17th centuries; called for the destruction of libraries,
museums, academies and cities of the past
Extolled the virtue of war, revolution, speed and mechanized

technology: “a roaring motorcar, which looks as though running
on shrapnel, is much more beautiful than the Victory of
Samothrace”; celebrated progress, energy and change
Balla was the oldest of the group, he taught Umberto Boccioni
and Gino Severini. He was also affected by motion studies, and
was preoccupied in how to render motion through simultaneous
views of objects. The legs turn into wheels, motion is blurred.
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Figure 24-23 UMBERTO BOCCIONI, Unique Forms of
Continuity in Space, 1913 (cast 1931). Bronze, 3’ 7 7/8” high x
2’ 10 7/8” x 1’ 3 3/4”. Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Boccioni was the best known and best liked of all the visual
artists in the movement. He adapted the visual language of
Futurism into sculpture very well. This sculpture has an armor-
like anatomy, it’s aggressive and warlike. There is motion and
mechanization. There is no human face which completely broke
off from the grand Italian tradition of Classical sculpture.
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Figure 24-24 GINO SEVERINI, Armored Train, 1915. Oil on
canvas, 3’ 10” x 2’ 10 1/8”. Collection of Richard S. Zeisler,
New York.
Severini was more closely associated with the growth of Cubism
than other Futurists – a link between France and Italy. This is
an image showing guns and war. The Futurists sided with the
Fascists love of war and violence. The artists were also very
nationalistic and didn’t like anyone who wasn’t Italian and male
– very chauvinistic.

‹#›
Figure 24-30 KAZIMIR MALEVICH, Suprematist
Composition: Airplane Flying, 1915 (dated 1914). Oil on
canvas, 1’ 10 7/8” x 1’ 7”. Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Russian Suprematism and Constructivism:
19th century was a very creative century for the Russians: they
excelled in music, dance and theater; modern art was brought to
Russia via people who could afford to travel to Europe and by a
publication called the World of Art; this publication would have
a profound impact on artists and collectors alike (this is
probably why the Russians have such an extensive and
wonderful collection of early modern art)
Russian Revolution 1917 – the Soviets take over and look to the
avant-garde artists to create images of the revolution, images
that were very abstract and severed ties with Russia’s past
traditions
The new Bolshevik government got rid of the middle class and
everyone was to work together for the glory of the State;
technology was the ultimate organizing principle in all areas of
life
Malevich created pure abstractions after taking Cubism to its
furthest limits. He broke Cubism down to its most basic
geometry and primary colors. He, like many others in Russia,
also designed sets for the stage.
Suprematism: A type of art formulated by Kazimir Malevich to
convey his belief that the supreme reality in the world is pure
feeling, which attaches to no object and thus calls for new,
nonobjective forms in art - shapes not related to objects in the
visible world.

KAZIMIR MALEVICH, Black Square, 1914-15
Malevich stated, “In the year 1913, in my desperate attempt to
free art from the burden of the object, I took refuge in the
square form and exhibited a picture which consisted of nothing
more than a black square on a white field.”
He had a habit of dating things earlier than when they were
created – it wasn’t until 1915 that he unveiled these
nonrepresentational paintings.
Suprematism was spiritual in that feeling took precedence over
fact. He felt that this kind of work corresponded to the social
transformation taking place in the years before the Russian
Revolution.
Important point: this kind of nonrepresentational abstract art
was founded by two Russians, Kandinsky and Malevich, both of
whom felt that the art was spiritual and connected with the
traditions of Old Russia.
KAZIMIR MALEVICH, Suprematist Composition: White
Square on White, 1918
With basic shapes and absence of color, Malevich announced
the end of Suprematism after this work.
Figure 24-32 VLADIMIR TATLIN, Monument to the Third

International, 1919–1920. Reconstruction of the lost model,
1992-1993. Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf.
Constructivism was a utilitarian art movement that sought to
reinforce the Revolution’s ideas and principles. It was also
influenced by Cubism.
It took Tatlin 18 months to perfect the design of a spiral
structure that would rise 1300 feet into the sky above Moscow;
three glass buildings would be housed inside the structure: the
top, a sphere that would rotate once an hour and broadcast
radio, telegraph, and loudspeaker messages as well as project
giant images onto the clouds; the middle building, a cube
housing office space rotating one a month; the bottom building
a cone rotating once a year and would house assemblies and
congresses. It was never built but the model symbolized the
aspirations of the Soviet government.
MARCEL DUCHAMP, In Advance of a Broken Arm, 1915
Dada:
Founded in 1916 by artists and writers living in Zurich,
Switzerland - they escaped WWI to a neutral country
Meetings were held at the Cabaret Voltaire
Through their performances, poetry and visual forms of art they
professed their utter horror of what WWI had done to Europe
They believed that logic and reason were responsible for the
war and its end result and they also questioned art and
aesthetics of the middle-class; they felt that bourgeois art didn’t
have a place in the world as it was
The artists created anti-art with no stylistic similarities

whatsoever
Dada means child’s rocking horse or hobby horse and was
supposedly chosen at random by flipping through a dictionary
Marcel Duchamp is the most well-known Dada artist, he called
his anti-art “readymades”: found objects that were placed in a
gallery setting were suddenly art. The concept of what makes
art “Art” overshadowed the uniqueness of the art object as art.
Did you think this was a spatula? That’s how I know you’re
Californian. This is an ordinary snow shovel that he hung in a
gallery. His title is clever as shoveling snow can lead to
breaking one’s arm. He’s challenging the notion of what we
consider to be art in his works. Why not a shovel as art?
From France, but he lived in New York and his ideas were
supported by the photographer Alfred Stieglitz who helped to
get avant-garde works to America (this will be discussed later
in the chapter).
Assemblage: An artwork constructed from already existing
objects.
Figure 24-26 MARCEL DUCHAMP, Fountain, (second
version), 1950 (original version produced 1917). Ready-made
glazed sanitary china with black paint, 12” high. Philadelphia
Museum of Art, Philadelphia.

This is a urinal turned on its side. He signed it “R. Mutt” and
dated it “1917.” When it was displayed in an art exhibition,
people were offended. The original is lost, but he’s reproduced
it a few times.
One of the most problematic things about this work is that it
may not have been his idea. Please read:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-
entertainment/art/features/was-marcel-duchamps-fountain-
actually-created-by-a-long-forgotten-pioneering-feminist-
10491953.html
and
http://old.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Did-Marcel-Duchamp-
steal-Elsas-urinal/36155
Figure 24-27 MARCEL DUCHAMP, The Bride Stripped Bare
by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), 1915-23. Oil, lead,
wire, foil, dust, and varnish on glass, 9’ 1 1/2” x 5’ 9 1/8”.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
The glass’s transparency captures the chance environment of its
surroundings. What it is showing is a mating ritual of the
machine-like bride in the upper half and below are the
uniformed bachelors who are not emitting semen or “love
gasoline” as Duchamp called it, that the chocolate machine
constantly grinds up (that propeller looking device is an old-
fashioned chocolate grinder). What this is meant to represent is
an exercise in pointless erotic activity symbolized by
machinery.
Duchamp allowed dust to settle all over it when he kept it under
his bed. Man Ray photographed it and called it “Dust

Breeding.” When it broke in transit, Duchamp commented that
it was complete.
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Figure 24-26A MARCEL DUCHAMP, L.H.O.O.Q., 1919
Look who shows up again in the 20th century! This is a cheap
print that Duchamp purchased. He bought 35 and this is number
15/35. He added a goatee and the letters “L.H.O.O.Q.” When
you pronounce them in French, they seem to sound like a French
phrase that gets translated to in English, “She has a hot ass.”
One of my favorite things about Duchamp is his wonderful
sense of humor.
‹#›
Figure 24-28 HANNAH HÖCH, Cut with the Kitchen Knife
Dada through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of
Germany, 1919–1920. Photomontage, 3’ 9” x 2’ 11 1/2”. Neue
Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.
Dada traveled to many different places, especially within
Germany, the aggressors and hardest hit country in the war.
When Dada went to Berlin, the members made it very political;
many members were Communist.
Höch was a Berlin Dada member who pioneered photomontage.
Through this technique, Höch severed the photographs ties to
being an accepted document of fact as she used cut up images to
propel her own ideas and ideological concerns.

1010/wwi-dada/dada1/v/hannah-h-ch-cut-with-the-kitchen-
knife-1919-20
Photomontage: A composition made by pasting together pictures
or parts of pictures, especially photographs; a form of collage.
‹#›
Figure 24-47A GEORGE GROSZ, Fit for Active Service, 1916–
1917. Pen and brush and ink on paper, 1’ 8” x 1’ 2 3/8”.
After enduring service in WWI, Grosz offers an insiders view of
autocracy and corruption. He joined with John Heartfield in
publications (the magazine AIZ)of their political views. It was
full of scathing political satire, which got them thrown into
prison occasionally. In this cartoon, a fat military doctor is
pronouncing this desiccated cadaver as fit for duty in the army,
which is ridiculous. There is no doubt in Grosz’s experience he
had seen people sent to fight the war who were in no condition
to do so.
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JOHN HEARTFIELD, Adolf the Superman Swallows Gold,
Spouts Junk, 1930s
Even though Heartfield is not mentioned in the textbook, I feel
his work is of the utmost importance during this time period. I

also think we can learn what powerful political art can look
like. We are certain to see more in the coming months and
years.
John Heartfield was born Helmut Herzfelde of socialist-minded
parents and abandoned as a child. He studied painting in
Munich and Berlin. When war broke out, he worked with the
emerging peace movement and changed his Germanic name,
Helmut Herzfelde, to the Anglicized John Heartfield in response
to the growing anti-British sentiment in Germany; a common
greeting in Germany was “Death to the English.” He was a close
friend of George Grosz and together they became Communists
who used their art to fight growing Fascism.
As a photomonteur, Heartfield's works did not hide their
meaning. Instead his work takes the ideology of Fascism and
shows it for what it truly is. Heartfield gives us the x-ray vision
into seeing what makes Hitler tick: it is the power that money
reinforces; a culture of fear will finance the fürher’s party.
‹#›
JOHN HEARTFIELD, Hurrah the Butter Is All Gone!, 1929
Reich official Hermann Goering stated: “Iron always makes a
country strong, butter and lard only make people fat.”
Heartfield plays on this quotation and shows a German family
under the Nazi …
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This map
shows us the industrialization of Europe. More and more people
were moving to cities for the opportunities to work, especially
in places like factories. The Industrial Revolution was fully
engaged in 1850. Because cities like Paris, London, and New
York ended up with such large populations, everything that goes
with a population boom and jobs, like consumerism and
entertainment, increased as well. Artists were interested in
capturing this new reality and they did in many different ways
as you will see in this chapter.
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Impressionism
: In 1874 there was an exhibition at Nadar’s
studio of 30 artists who called themselves the Independents;
they were referred to as the Impressionists after Monet’s work,
Impression: Sunrise; was meant to be derogatory as if the works
were somehow not finished Monet is the
best known artist of the Impressionist group, but there are many
others that we will cover today Monet was
to have studied law, but moved to Paris in 1859 to study art
He admired and learned much from Manet and depended on him
financially often Left the museums behind
(that differs from Manet) and went outside to paint in the open
air: he started and finished works entirely outside, not in the

studio This painting is often referred to as
the “outdoor Manet” in the way that it is painted. Monet (try not
to get confused between Edouard Manet and Claude Monet)
hadn’t perfected the technique that he would be best known for
yet, but we can see the beginnings of it.
This is the
work that created the term Impressionism. It was painted
in Le Havre upon Monet’s return to France. He had moved to
London during 1870-71 to escape military service during the
Franco-Prussian war. Everything dissolves into the single
element of light, and is based on how the eye actually sees, not
mechanically like the camera. The public and the critics thought
Monet could not draw, and certainly saw a work like this as
unfinished and just a sketch. What Monet
was attempting to do was to capture a brief momentary time of
when the sunlight was hitting the water through the fog of early
morning. One of the most wonderful things to do with a Monet
in person is to get as close as you can to it so you can see all
the wonderful texture and brushstrokes, then slowly back away.
The image comes into focus as you do so revealing the subject
matter. It’s really genius. Impressionism is
another movement that reacts to the invention of the camera, but
instead of trying to imitate the exactitude of the camera’s
mechanical eye, artists become more painterly. The camera can
reproduce the world as it was, these artist’s wanted to explore
new perspectives.

Monet believed
that color was the basic content of human perception and called
it instantaneity – objective sensations received by the eye
from nature. When he painted out of doors, Monet applied
colors to the canvas in small separate brushstrokes so that the
eye would assemble them together to form a whole, the way we
would see nature. Monet also loved the
constructed, man-made parts of city life like the Saint-Lazare
Train Station. He liked how the steam and smoke from the
engines seemed to produce their own atmosphere in which the
light would filter through. He would paint places like this train
station multiple times and each painting would look different
from the next as light and color change throughout the day.
Think of it this way: light in the morning is washed out and
bright (if it’s sunny) and warm and mellow at the end of the
day. Objects seem to appear different because of how the light
is hitting them during different times of day and season.
By the 1890s,
Monet achieved financial and critical success with the public.
He started painting the sensation of perception itself.
This artwork is part of a series of 15 paintings that explore the
changing conditions of light. There is an emphasis on flatness
and it’s all about the light and color.

See how the
light changes when we take a different look at sunset?
This artwork is
part of a series of almost 40 paintings of Rouen’s façade. Monet
uses thick strokes of paint that look like a kind of tactile screen.
At high noon, the facade is washed out. We seen tones of cream
and yellow with periwinkle shadows.
In this slide,
we see the church’s facade in the early morning. Does the stone
actually change color from blue to yellow? Of course not, but
the light and shadow make it seems as thought it does. The next
time you’re out and about, look at something you see every day
and make note of how it looks at different times of day.
There was scientific proof that the eye sees interacting colors,
not only relative but ever changing Monet
had a very long career and finished his life at his estate in
Giverny. His large canvases encompass the entire viewer’s field
of vision and became environments that rivaled nature itself.
His famed water lilies are part of this period in his life.

The sister-in-
law of Manet, early in her career Morisot appeared in the Salon,
but then foreswore the Salon for the cause of the Impressionist
group. She continued to paint in the Impressionist vein long
after some of the group’s members like Renoir had abandoned
it. Morisot was able to combine a marriage, motherhood, and a
career, which was unusual at the time. Her upper-class status
afforded her that opportunity. The beauty of her work is the
emphasis on femininity, but is not to say that her figures are
weak or just there to be beautiful.
I like the way a
story can be told about this piece; the figure in this work looks
at us directly which signals she is a strong woman. The frenzied
brushwork parallels the frenzy one feels trying to prepare a
meal with a small dog underfoot. I know I can relate to this!
Renoir liked to
capture goodness and good times. A festive atmosphere, this
was an inexpensive dancehall and restaurant in Montmartre
(turned into a less savory spot after Renoir painted it).
Notice how this image is composed like a candid photograph.
People aren’t posed and figures are cut off at the edges. Renoir
uses the same kind of brushwork as Monet and pays attention to
the light filtering through the trees.

Another image
detailing good times. This party is on a boat and, once again,
features people in candid positions. As you look from person to
person, note the things they are doing. Renoir is telling us a
story about each person in the work of art.
This is one of
Manet’s last works. The woman behind the bar is kind of blank
in her expression, like she’s seen it all before. The most
interesting thing about this work is the reflection of the bar
maid in the mirror – it is skewed, not a perfect reflection so that
we may see she is dealing with a customer (who also happens to
be us). The brushstrokes are much more loose, but Manet was
NOT an Impressionist, though. While he supported the efforts
of the Impressionist group, he never exhibited any of his works
with them. Manet was determined to make his art and that of his
contemporaries part of the academic system. It would never
happen.
Degas also had
a family who wanted him to go into law, but he was from a
family of aristocrats. The artist was very intellectual and is best
known for capturing images with a kind of detachment, but also
with the kind of intimacy that was characteristic of some of the
other Impressionists. Let’s look at this

composition: Is it balanced? What elements of the painting draw
you in or seem to capture your attention? Ultimately, what does
this painting look like? Like Renoir, Degas
uses a kind of photographic composition. It is candid and the
figures are cut off on the edges. He places a spiral staircase to
obstruct our view, making us detached observers like a fly on
the wall.
Japanese print
inspired in the way he handles the angle, above looking down. It
is descriptive, and he doe not use accurate perspective. Like
most of Degas’s works, it is an intimate, yet detached, portrayal
of a woman taking a bath. Also, please note that this is a pastel
drawing. Pastel is a colored chalk that was used by
Impressionists since the technique of using it on rough drawing
paper produced a soft, blurry line, much like what the artists
were accomplishing in their paintings.
I love that this
work follows Degas’s The Bath . Cassatt was an American
who went to Paris to study painting and was close friend of
Degas. She had her own distinct style and was influenced by
Japanese prints. Mothers and children were favorite subjects of
the artist as she was never a mother. Notice the multiple
patterns and the angle in which she portrays her subjects. The
influence of Japanese prints and Degas can particularly be seen
here, especially in comparison with Degas’s work.
Please watch:

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-
modern/avant-garde-france/impressionism/v/mary-cassatt-the-
child-s-bath-1893
Japanese
influences can be seen in the contrasting patterns on the wall
and chair and in the woman’s dress. There is also a strong use
of the diagonal and a skewing of perspective as we can see the
scene from a couple of differing angles simultaneously (another
thing Japanese woodcut artists would do). Cassatt was a master
printmaker as well as painter.
Definitely
Whistler’s most famous work, notice how it isn’t titled
“Whistler’s Mother,” but Arrangement in Gray and Black No.
1. Whistler was from America and went to Paris for a brief
period before settling in London. Some of his landscapes are
reminiscent of J.M.W. Turner (see next slide). Whistler was
vocal about paintings being just paintings and that artists
shouldn’t be mere imitators, but innovators. This kind of
attitude aligns him with the later abstract artists.
The Pre-
Raphaelite critic, John Ruskin, criticized this painting and

accused Whistler of “flinging a pot of paint into the public’s
face.” Whistler sued Ruskin for libel, won his case, but went
virtually bankrupt doing it and he doesn’t fully recover from
this setback. Whistler’s goal as an artist was,
like the Impressionists, to paint transience itself. The colors and
light he captures are fleeting, just like this supposed explosion
over water.
Toulouse-
Lautrec reflected and influenced Art Nouveau with his
expressive and descriptive use of line. He was a transitional
figure between 19th century avant-garde and 20th century
artists like Munch, Picasso, and Matisse. Toulouse-Lautrec was
interested in Goya and Ingres, but was a disciple of Degas in the
way he composed his works and in how he was a detached
observer. Disfigured by weak bones, he was
only 4 1/2 feet tall. The artist was from an aristocratic family
who did not want him to become an artist. He is best known for
his color lithographs, but was a painter in the decade prior to
poster making. There is an overt use of garish colors set the
tone for this painting. It’s casual, yet seedy. I call this the
“absinthe” painting because of the green.
Brightly
colored and stylized, everyone knew the artist at these dance
halls. Jane Avril was a popular dancer and this poster is an
advertisement for her. The linear quality and silhouetted shapes
are part of the Art Nouveau aesthetic. Toulouse-Lautrec’s

posters inspired other graphic designers throughout the West.
Post-
Impressionism : 1886 was the year of
the last Impressionist exhibition and the movement spurred a
wide range in approaches to art Take their
art beyond the sensations of the optical world; to perceive
reality through ideas, feelings, symbols and dreams
George Seurat was affected by scientific theories and tried to
apply them to his art: his artistic objective was to control the
spectators response in a scientifically predictable way. The dot:
a mathematical point of color – supports the perfectly controlled
structure of his painting. This work is over 6 feet tall and 10
feet long. Seurat put in over 1 year of labor, making over 50
preparatory sketches. It was exhibited at the last Impressionist
exhibition – was stunning and controversial. Divisionism
: broke down color into primary and secondary groups. Seurat
would put yellow and blue dots next to each other letting the
viewers eye mix the two to make green, There is a luminous
representation of light, it is spatially well organized, and
mathematically precise. Seurat’s work is exemplary of the
nineteenth century optimism that every aspect of culture could
be reformed and reinterpreted by science. People believed
human emotional responses could be predicted mathematically.

Here you can
see the blue and yellow dots next teach other. There’s no doubt
that he uses some green as well, but when you are looking at the
painting, those dots are no longer decipherable to the human
eye.
Another work
by Seurat that uses the same principles and techniques as the
previous painting. His works are so precise and organized.
Notice how the angles of the legs match the angle of the bass
neck, the conductor’s baton, the way people are looking up.
Hands down,
one of my favorite people, not just a favorite artist, Vincent van
Gogh contributed much during his short ten-year career as an
artist. Please read:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gogh/hd_gogh.htm
This painting is part of his first period as an artist, the Holland
period which lasted from 1880-1886. A failed attempt at
becoming a minister, Van Gogh wanted to help those less
fortunate in his own way. He chose people who were humble
and poor. This is an example of his sincerity and genuine love
of humanity and concern for the poor. He was largely self-
taught, thus his figures look cartoon-like. During this period he
paints with very drab, neutral colors to emphasize the

humbleness of his subjects.
One of three
self-portraits I’ve included for lecture. I want you to look at all
three portraits and think about the things that have remained the
same and those that have changed from period to period. Think
about how Van Gogh presents himself in each image. This
portrait was painted when he was still in Holland.
Van Gogh’s
second period was in Paris from 1886-1888. He moved to Paris
on his brother Theo’s invitation. Theo was an art dealer who
financially supported Vincent. It was in Paris where Vincent
learned about the avant-garde and Impressionism - pretty easy
to see that in this painting! Because of limited technology,
images from the avant-garde had not left Paris – it was very
insular at this point.
Van Gogh
moved to Arles in southern France and lived there from 1888
until his death in 1890. It was the most productive part of van
Gogh’s career: over 200 paintings in 2 years. His work is the
most vibrant from this time. Van Gogh
invited Paul Gauguin to live in Arles with him, but their

personalities clashed and van Gogh started having seizures in
December of 1888. This is the self-portrait he painted for
Gauguin. Please watch:
modern/avant-garde-france/post-impressionism/v/vincent-van-
gogh-self-portrait-dedicated-to-paul-gauguin-1888
Always
communicative about his art and feelings, Vincent wrote
hundreds of letters to his brother Theo; that’s how we best know
about van Gogh’s thoughts and moods. He painted how he felt
about people and places. How do you think he felt about this
place?
After a
psychotic episode, Van Gogh checked himself into St. Remy, a
mental hospital in May 1889. He was suffering from epilepsy
and most modern doctors believe that Vincent was also bipolar,
may have been on the autism spectrum, and dealt with ADHD.
This is his most famous work of art and was one of the first
pieces of art purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in New
York when it opened in 1929. Modern scientists have looked to
this work as proof that Van Gogh understood the difficult
theory of turbulence. Please watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMerSm2ToFY
Van Gogh left St. Remy after little improvement and was under
the care of Dr. Paul Gachet. To no avail, van Gogh’s condition
worsened and the conventional story is that he killed himself by

shooting himself in the stomach in July of 1890, but there is a
theory that he was shot by someone else. He didn’t die
immediately, but days after; it was an agonizing death.
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Gauguin
didn’t like other artists, including Monet and Seurat. He was
from an affluent family, lived in Peru as a child, and traveled
around the world. He was a successful stockbroker who
supported six children very well. He exhibited with the
Impressionists and even had a painting accepted into the Salon
of 1876 as a hobbyist. Rejected his family
and lifestyle in 1886 to settle in a town in rural Brittany with a
group of painters who wanted to learn how to paint like
children. Gauguin exemplifies the avant-garde’s acceptance of
mental events as the subject of painting; he said, “I close my
eyes to see better.” (My favorite quote of all time)
This is the image for SmartHistory HW #10.
There are
prominent symbols in this painting. What do you see? What is
the significance of the halo, apples, and snake? How does
Gauguin view himself? Gauguin is a man
divided within himself. He has a mischievous and arrogant
expression. Flat shapes that make up his torso are yellow and
the background is red, it has a feeling of a playing card which
symbolizes risk taking: a central aspect of his character.
Gauguin explored a style similar to van Gogh’s. He used flat
shapes, bold colors, and heavy outlining. There is an influence
of Japanese prints. Gauguin also used symbolism to project the
ideas that originate in the “mysterious centers of thought.”

Gauguin left
France for Tahiti in 1891; an escape to beauty and simplicity.
La Orana Maria means “we greet thee, Mary.” He uses
muted earth tones and pastels and a simplified drawing style to
depict a world where epiphanies and the natural world merge.
This painting describes his desire for faith and simplicity.
He went back to Paris in 1893 and was welcomed back by the
avant-garde who called him “Gauguin the savage.” An
exhibition of his works was held to raise money for his return to
Tahiti. Upon his return, his work made a deeper connection to
the myths and traditions of the people he lived with in the South
Pacific. Gauguin believed that art had the power to change the
way an artist perceived reality and thus changing the artist’s
self.
Continuing
with his idea of art as religion, this painting is one of his largest
at 4 1/2 feet by 12 feet and was done after the news of his
favorite daughter’s death. As he felt despair at this news, he
attempted suicide by drinking arsenic. He painted this after he
recovered. It asks profound questions about the human
condition and features people throughout the human lifecycle.
His painting continued to portray the dream rather than the
reality of his life in Tahiti. Gauguin was productive until his
death in 1903. When he died, the natives mourned him in a
traditional manner as they saw him as one of their own. His
influence is profound on other artists in the 20th century.

Cézanne was
an informal exhibiting member of Impressionist group in the
1870s and 1880s, but broke with the Impressionists because he
believed their art lacked structure (late 1880s). There is a
connection to Impressionism with his new style. There are the
familiar brushstrokes of Monet and parallel layers of color, but
there is a strong sense of structural surface. Color, for Cézanne,
was perspective. He was financially
independent - had an inheritance - and became a recluse on his
estate in the south of France. Cézanne took impressionism apart
and reconstructed it. His work became the basis for the avant-
garde of the 20th century.
Cézanne’s
work is not part of a formula and reflects the introspective
character that Cézanne was. He received very little recognition
by the public, but before he died in 1906 he received attention
from the most important group: the avant-garde. This work
reflects the influence he had on the Cubists.
Please read:
modern/avant-garde-france/post-impressionism/a/czanne-mont-
sainte-victoire
Cézanne uses
color to create structure. He affirms the surface of the canvas
and the visual language used to create the image. It seems to
absorb light, the geometry is off, and there is no perspective.

Warm colors to make forms appear close and cool colors to
make forms recede. Cézanne shared Manet’s observation that
objects painted in flat, but bright colors, seem to achieve
fullness of form without shading. Please
read: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-
modern/avant-garde-france/post-impressionism/a/czanne-the-
basket-of-apples
There was a
spirit of end the century melancholy or soul sickness and
morbid subject matter was popular. This is depicting the
biblical story of Salomé, a young princess who danced for her
stepfather King Herod, demanding in return the execution of
John the Baptist (remember Donatello’s Feast of Herod
?). Moreau’s draftsmanship is exquisite. This is also an
introduction of the femme fatale: a seductress, castrating
female. She plays the central role in many writers’ work and the
work of such artists as Redon, Munch, Klimt, and Picasso.
Henri
Rousseau was a tax collector who retired at 42 and devoted
himself to creating art. He was self-taught, but attempted to

imitate the fine detail of Academic painting and photography,
yet his work retains an innocence not found in other artists’
works. This painting has the luminous
clarity of a dream and has the aspect of a child’s artwork, but
done through the experience of an adult living in contemporary
Paris.
This painting
was cultivated from Rousseau’s visits to the botanical gardens
in Paris and postcards of tropical places. There is a real
illustrative style to his work that is endearing and modern at the
same time. Picasso would become one of his friends and
Rousseau’s work would inspire the Surrealists.
Edvard
Munch (pronounced Moonck) was a Norwegian artist. Most
painters in Scandinavia were trained in Germany and were
influenced by realist schools, especially in landscape. Munch
had a profound impact on the German Expressionists and was
part of a radical group of bohemians who worked in a naturalist
mode. He spent some time in Paris in 1889 and 1892, probably
influenced by Post-Impressionism, then was invited to exhibit
with the Society of Berlin Artists in 1892. His work created a
backlash of criticism, so they closed the exhibition after less
than a week. This lead to the forming of the Berlin Secession
and Munch settled in Germany until 1908. His
work comes out of his literary and mystical Scandinavian
approach, and intensified by his tortured psyche; most of his

family died before 1895, so sickness and death pervades his
work. What does this work and self-portrayal tell you about who
he is as a person?
His most
famous work of art, but there are three versions of this (I
actually saw all three in a matter of a few months last year!).
It’s a symbol of modern anxiety and alienation. Munch painted
after he “felt a great, infinite scream pass through nature.” It
definitely relates to the kind of “soul sickness” that people were
experiencing at the turn of the century (like what the Symbolists
were describing in their work). Please
read: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-
modern/symbolism/a/munch-the-scream
Munch’s
paintings of women coincide with Freud’s theories on sex and
sexual identity. He was obsessed with women because he had a
very troubled past with love and rejection.
Beardsley
was an English artist. This poster is admired for its beauty and
condemned for sexual content. It is based on Oscar Wilde’s
1894 poem Salome, the same subject matter as Moreau’s The

Apparition : the femme fatale. Imitations of his style can be
found in book illustrations and posters in Europe and in
America from this time.
Klimt was a
successful decorative painter and fashionable high-society
portraitist. He was familiar with other Art Nouveau artists, but
also studied Byzantine mosaics. Klimt lead the 1897 Vienna
Secession – a group of artists opposed to the intolerance by the
Academy. The version of Art Nouveau that was practiced by the
Viennese and Germans was called Jügendstil which translates to
the Young Style. Klimt ad a passion for erotic
themes and developed a painting style that integrated nude
figures with brilliantly colored decorative patterns.
Horta was
inspired by Rococo concepts of linear movement in space. He
studied plant growth and French architect and theorist, Eugene
Viollet-le-Duc’s theories on design. The iron provides strength,
but looks delicate in the linear way it was designed. Horta
viewed modern architecture as being derived from the
environment.

Tiffany is one
of the best known designers to work in the Art Nouveau style.
He specialized in the decorative arts, especially table lamps.
They look handmade, but were industrially manufactured (a
hallmark of Art Nouveau). Tiffany not only was in touch with
the European movements, but had an impact on them as well,
which was almost unheard of in the early 20th century.
The greatest
sculptor of the 19th century and who can stand with the array of
painters of the century is Auguste Rodin. He was an admired
and respected public figure. Rodin rejected sentimental
idealistic notions and was also rejected from the official Salons
like many of his contemporaries, yet he had patrons - which is
of the utmost importance as sculpture is a much more expensive
art practice. He studied Michelangelo’s sculpture
and felt liberated by the experience. This work is based on a
historical account of the Hundred Years’ War in the 14th
century to gain control over the city of Calais from the English.
Five men (burghers are like city council members) offered
themselves as hostages. There is a great
psychological complexity among the figures in their dramatic
gestures, rough faces, large hands and feet, and informal
composition. They are presented on a low rectangular platform
inviting the viewer to approach the figures directly.
The city of Calais commissioned Rodin for this sculpture and it
wasn’t what they wanted. They wanted a more Neoclassical kind

of work that displayed the men as heroic. Here we have ordinary
people struggling with the choice they’ve made. It ended up in a
less visible place for display in the city. If you
went to the Norton Simon, you saw this on your way into the
museum on the righthand side of the walkway.
This is a
portal for the proposed Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris,
based on Dante’s Inferno and the Florence Baptistry
(Ghiberti’s “Gates of Paradise”). They really are equalled to the
Sistine Ceiling as sculpture, but was never carried beyond the
stage of preliminary studies and a few completed figures during
Rodin’s lifetime. The doors were assembled posthumously. You
will notice that many of his free standing sculptures are
included in the composition including the famous Thinker
near the top. Today, there are three of these sets of
doors. I saw one set at the Minneapolis Institute of Art when I
was about 7. I grew up Lutheran and thought hell was a very
real place. These doors are enormous and towered over me. It
was a very scary experience and most students find it amusing
that I’m an art historian today. Ha!
Rodin shared
the Impressionists’ fascination with the revealing gesture, the
unposed expressive posture of a person caught unaware. I also
like showing students that he worked in marble as well.

Claudel was a
student of Rodin’s, but she became his lover and fell prey to the
trap of being under a male artist’s wing. The relationship ended
badly and she had a nervous breakdown. Her family
institutionalized her and this hospitalization was controlled by
her brother. She never left and died in the hospital after being
there for over 25 years. This is a portrait
of Rodin and you can see the similarities between her work and
his.
This is the
kind of work Claudel would do. Her work was very passionate,
and people (mainly male critics) had a difficult time labeling
her work as feminine: “She’s a woman, of course she should be
producing feminine art!” That was the attitude of the time. This
work was shocking because of its depiction of male nudity and
we know that women weren’t allowed to work from the live
nude model.
A real shame
this is not in your textbook as it’s the crowning achievement of
this architect’s work. Gaudí was nfluenced by the art of the
Middle Ages. He is a symbol of nationalism for Catalonia. This
church is a study of natural forms as a spiritual basis for
architecture (much like Frank Lloyd Wright’s philosophy on

architecture and naturalism). Gaudí was nfluenced by architect
and theorist Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc who restored
medieval buildings and analyzed Gothic structures in light of
modern advances. Gaudi’s early architecture was part of the
Gothic Revival movement, but he employed the use of unusual
materials, especially in textural and coloristic arrangement. He
has a very personal style in ornamental ironwork and was a
pioneer in experimental architecture: no on would even come
close to the designs he created until the mid-20th century.
This was his first major commission: a church already begun by
another architect in the Gothic Revival style. He worked on it
intermittently until his death, never completely finishing it and
it’s still being built today! There is no real historic style – one
that is of Gaudi’s imagination only. There is biological
ornamentation and abstract decoration. He uses brightly colored
mosaic embellishment on the spires. This is all part of his
structural principles informed by his spiritual beliefs.
Please watch:
modern/symbolism/v/gaud-church-of-the-sagrada-fam-lia-1882-
consecrated-2010-still-under-construction
And: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcDmloG3tXU
I love using
this as an example of something similar to Gaudí’s work, AND
it’s found in our backyard here in Los Angeles! If you’ve never
visited the Watts Towers, you should. Many of the same
techniques of using rebar and concrete with embedded mosaic
materials found at the Sagrada Familia can be found in this
outsider artwork. Rodia was an Italian blue-collar immigrant to
Southern California and he decided to build this large scale
sculpture on his property in Watts. The sculpture itself is a ship

and the towers are the masts. He collected soda bottles,
seashells, and tile fragments for the decoration. He was unaware
of Gaudí’s work in Barcelona which makes it even more
amazing. Check out:
http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/watts-towers
This is an
apartment house constructed around open courtyards. It is a
whole continuous movement of sculptural volumes that seems to
have no beginning and no end. Many students say his
architecture reminds them of something coming out of a Dr.
Seuss book. Check this out for a virtual
tour! https://www.lapedrera.com/Tours/Tour_Pedrera-
eng/flash/Tour_Pedrera-eng.html
This was the
984-foot tower for the World’s Fair in Paris in 1889. A
competition was held and Eiffel was chosen as the designer for
the centerpiece of the 1889 World’s Fair. Eiffel was an engineer
and architect who is best known for designing exhibition halls,
bridges, and the interior armature for the Statue of Liberty.
Construction started in 1887 and was finished 26 months later.
There are two visibly distinct parts: a base and a tower. Three
different colors of paint are used to give the tower a uniform
look: a lighter color on the bottom to contrast against the darker
ground and a darker color to contrast the lighter sky.
Not everyone was for the tower and a petition of 300 names was
presented to the city government in protest of its construction.

It was only supposed to be up for 20 years, but it became very
popular with tourists and important as a radio antenna for the
military and for commercial purposes.
This large,
entire block covering department store building is more like
Romanesque and Renaissance palaces in Italy. There is a three
part or tripartite elevation and rounded arches with ratios of
1:1, 2:1 and 4:2. It emphasizes the solidity of form. Richardson
influenced the Chicago School along with Louis Sullivan and
Frank Lloyd Wright. This is the beginning of the modern city
skyscraper.
Piers separate
windows and end in an arch at the top. Each horizontal band
under the windows is ornamented. The building has a base, piers
and an attic, much like a temple. One could argue this is a
temple to modern ways of doing business. The oval windows at
the top echo the curve of the cornice. With this building, we can
truly see the beginnings of the modern urban office building.
The structure is a steel skeleton sheathed with terracotta (a form
of clay). Louis Sullivan coined the term “form follows
function” and in this case it certainly does. The ground floor
was reserved as commercial space for customers to come in and
conduct business with insurance salespeople, while the rest of
the floors are dedicated office space for the rest of the
employees of the insurance company.

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Fantasy and
Surrealism : Surrealism was founded
by poet Andre Breton in 1924; it started as a literary movement
as Breton writing the bulk of the theory in manifestoes
Based the movement on the psychoanalytical theories of
Sigmund Freud, especially those on dreams and sexuality
Believed that Surrealism was an escape from bourgeois life to a
more real state that combined reality and dreams
Thought art should come straight from the subconscious mind:
called automatism ; also liked art created by chance and
liked to play games: one in particular called the “Exquisite
Corpse”: a group of people either writing a poem or drawing a
picture, but each person can’t see what the other person wrote
or draw resulting in unusual combination of images or words
There is no unifying style within Surrealism; artists worked in
their own ways as each person’s subconscious was different
from another’s Giorgio de Chirico was not
a Surrealist, but part of the Italian Metaphysical School who
had an influence on the Surrealists. Painters like de Chirico
retained the sense of Renaissance space, but used various
juxtapositions to produce surprise and shock, fear and
strangeness. This search for new, unexplored content would

have a profound impact on Surrealism’s search of the irrational
and the intuitive. De Chirico was influenced by Arnold Böcklin
( Island of the Dead ) and by Nietzsche’s concept that art
expresses deep-seated motivations within the human psyche.
Spiritual ideals and psychoanalysis of dreams would lead de
Chirico into the style for which he is best known (he would
later reject this style). The use of deep perspective gives this
work a sense of loneliness and a nightmarish quality of a dream
that won’t end. It has an ominous feeling about it.
This is Dada
assemblage combined with painting. Dana segued into
Surrealism quite easily. Max Ernst participated in both
movements. This work shows two girls who are frightened by a
tiny bird. It has has a dream-like quality to it and you can see
the influence of that deep perspective of De Chirico. As was
often the case for Ernst, the title came before the work, but not
an attempt to illustrate the title.
By far the
best known Surrealist, Dalí painted his dreams in perfect
perspective. There is a very real quality to his images, yet we

can tell that they are dreams because do we ever see melted
watches in real life? This work is only 9
by 13 inches, and Dalí referred to his work as “hand-colored
photographs,” but, again, melting clocks and soft self-portraits
are not part of reality. The landscape of this work
resembles his childhood home of Cadaqués, Spain. Dalí said
this idea came to him after meditating on a plate of camembert
cheese.
After the
major Surrealist exhibition in Paris in 1938, Breton expelled
Dalí from the Surrealist group as he felt that Dali was too
egotistical and Dalí’s politics didn’t match up with the rest of
the group’s. This kind of work signals the
mature style that Dalí settles into. It is contains double images.
Magritte was
loosely associated with the Surrealist group. He was Belgian
painter who always dressed in bourgeois attire: bowler hat and
suit. His works were also done in a naturalistic way, but he
exposes contradictions of images and words. This painting says,
“This is not a pipe.” What is it? This is a gem at
LACMA!

Magritte also
has a wicked sense of humor. This is meant to be the 1949
version of a woman Jacques-Louis David painted in 1800 (see
next slide). Funny, isn’t it?!
The Neo-
Classical portrait painted by David in 1800.
One of the
more famous works by Magritte. The apple is a symbol for
Adam. This work illustrates we are all sons of Adam. It also
demonstrates the “everyman” type Magritte was enamored by.
An artist who
worked with Marcel Duchamp in America, Man Ray started out
making paintings inspired by the Dada machine aesthetic and
constructions from found objects. Man Ray was disappointed
that Dada did not inspire a revolution in art in New York, so he
moved to Paris in 1921. By attaching tacks, the iron takes on a
menacing and unfamiliar role. It was made for French
composer, hence its title

Oppenheim
was a female artist who was introduced to the Surrealist group
through Alberto Giacometti. Much like the previous slide, this
is about bringing together of opposites. The story goes that she
was having a conversation with Picasso and he stated,
“Everything can be covered in fur!” Not what you expect in a
teacup, saucer and spoon - just think about drinking from it! It’s
read as a challenge to traditional domesticity.
Miro was
another Surrelist artist who used biomorphic shapes in his work.
This one depicts a party in a room, but is full of fantastical
creatures. Unlike Dalí and Magritte, there is no
autobiographical symbolism.
De Stijl (The
Style) was developed to be a scientifically based, universal
language of the senses that would transcend the political
divisions in war-torn Europe. Called “the Style” for artists
working in Holland during and after WWI. Theo van Doesburg
and Piet Mondrian were the key figures in this group. It led to
the creation of the journal also called De Stijl, devoted to the
art and theory of the group published from 1917-1928. De Stijl
professes clarity, certainty and order by using the straight line,
rectangle and cube and by limiting the color palette to primary
colors and black and white. Mondrian

trained in Amsterdam as a landscape painter until 1904. He
discovered Symbolism and for a brief time painted in that
manner. By 1908, he discovered the modernist tendencies of the
Fauves and Neo-Impressionists as well as the Cubists. His work
became more linear and geometric in the years following 1912.
This is the
most complete statement of De Stijl architecture. It was a
commission from Mrs. Truus Schröder-Schräder. She
collaborated with Rietveld in the design and lived in the house
for sixty years. She initiated the Rietveld Schröder House
Foundation which renovated the structure between 1974 and
1987. Based on an open plan, there are
interlocking planes of rectangular slabs joined by unadorned
piping – like a Constructivist sculpture. There is also lots of
light, but protection from the sun by cantilevered roofs.
Brancusi was
one of the most influential sculptors of the early 20th century.
He was born in Romania, apprenticed to a cabinet maker, went
to Germany and Switzerland, and arrived in Paris in 1904.
Brancusi studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, assisted Rodin,
but didn’t stay long. His sculpture is
universal, yet has a isolated feeling to it. He conceived of this
as a solution of how to convey a bird in flight; more about the
way a bird flies that what a bird looks like. He also made his
own bases for his sculpture that he believed were integral parts
of his sculpture.

Hepworth and
Henry Moore (next slide) had a close professional relationship
and his influence can be seen in her early work. She had an
admiration for Egyptian, Cycladic and Archaic Greek art.
Hepworth was a leader in the English abstract group, Unit One,
and the group was invited to join the Paris Abstraction-Création
group. Her contact with Jean Arp and Brancusi would have a
profound impact on her work as well.
Unlike any of
the artist we have discussed, Moore did not work in a
Constructivist manner. He is more of a traditionalist in that he
carved and modeled work out of stone, plaster and wood.
Moore’s work is always grounded in nature, more specifically,
in the human form. He studied at the Royal College of Art in
London from 1921-25 and was influenced by Classical, pre-
Classical, African and Pre-Columbian art.
He began sculpting the recurrent Reclining Figure in
1929. These works were inspired by a chacmool , a pre-
Columbian stone sculpture of a reclining warrior holding an
offering dish. Moore’s theory on the truth of materials is one
that stone should look like stone, or in this case, wood should
look like wood, not flesh. It is six feet in length and more
abstracted than some of his figures with the incorporation of
void space.

Influenced by
Mondrian in 1930, Calder an American son and grandson of
sculptors. He studied engineering and went on to study painting
at the New York Art Student’s League. His early works are of
circus and sports subjects. By 1926, Calder was making
sculptures out of wire and wood. In Paris, he garnered the
attention of avant-garde artists (especially the Surrealists) with
his Circus, an activated environment made up of tiny
animals and performers that Calder made from wire and found
materials. He introduced hand cranks and motors to make his
sculpture move, then his sculptures were calibrated to move by
air currents. He is literally the person
who invented the mobile, much like what you find above a
baby’s crib today.
Stieglitz lived
in Berlin before coming to America and believed that
photography was a fine art. He promoted Pictorialism, an
aesthetic movement in which photographers did not like or use
the sharp focus of documentary photography. Stieglitz was a
forerunner of straight photography (basically meaning he did
not resort to the darkroom to alter his photographs). He
established the Photo-Secession group in 1902 to further his
goals and found this work to be a “study in mathematical lines
in a patter of light and shade” rather than merely a documentary
photograph. One of the most important
contributions Stieglitz makes is by supporting other early
modern American artists in his influential 291 Gallery. He was
the first to promote modern art in America. His journal,

Camera Work, was dedicated to the cause of modernism
and his gallery became the central meeting place for the New
York City modernists.
This is one of
the ways that Americans were introduced to avant-garde art.
The International Exhibition of Modern Art was organized to
expose the public to the exciting new movements in modern art.
It opened on February 17th, 1913 with 1,300 works shown. Of
the 300 artists shown, 100 were Europeans and many of the
artists we are looking at in this section of the chapter exhibited
works in this show. 70,000 people saw the show in New York.
Before
Duchamp became the father of Dada art, he was a painter. This
work was show in the Armory Show and one critic lamented
that it looked like a shingle factory had exploded. We can
clearly see the impact that Cubism, Futurism, and motion
studies had on Duchamp in this piece.
Hartley was
born in Maine, then moved to Cleveland where he studied art.
He moved to New York City, then to Europe in 1912. He was
most influenced by the German Expressionists. This particular

piece captures the militarism and nationalism that seized
Germany in the years before WWI. Hartley moved back to New
York in 1916.
A generation
younger than some of the other early American modernists,
Davis was born in Philadelphia. The Armory Show impacted his
work as it acquainted him with van Gogh, Gauguin and Matisse.
He experimented with abstraction and this particular work is
reminiscent of synthetic Cubism in its collage-like quality.
Georgia
O’Keeffe was an artist and arts educator who was introduced to
Stieglitz through correspondence. He loved her work, and
eventually loved her. Most people know O’Keeffe for her
closeup paintings of flowers, but she also painted works of
cityscapes like this, which positions her with the Precisionist
movement of that decade. We can see the geometric and angular
way she works with a subject like New York at night.
Edward
Weston was part of the San Francisco photographers group
known as f64 (a small lens opening that gives a sharply focused,
finely detailed image along with a greater depth of field) along

with Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham. Their group was
the most influential photography society in the country in the
1930s. Weston also had a photography studio in Glendale (!) in
the 1920s. Weston liked photographing
his subject matter from a close angle, often turning the subject
into something very abstract. In this case we are looking at a
woman’s torso, but the way he positions and photographs her
body makes it seem more like landscape or an abstract object.
Born and
raised in Iowa, Wood went to school at the School of the
Chicago Art Institute. He also went to Europe and was exposed
to modernism, but it didn’t affect his art in the same way it had
other early American modernists. Wood had socialist views that
didn’t sit well with some people, but others really liked the fact
that his art didn’t have any of the European abstraction present
– they felt that it was purely American.
This painting features the artist’s sister and dentist as the
archetypal image of middle America where a strong work ethic
and sense of religion played large roles in people’s lives. It’s
probably the most iconic work of 20th century American art.

Hopper
studied at the New York School of Art and was fascinated by
the urban scene. He supported himself by doing commercial art.
Hopper’s art is characterized by isolation and loneliness of the
modern condition in that his works are eerily silent and vacant
even when there are people in them, like this one. Look at the
people in the restaurant. They remind me of the people in Van
Gogh’s Night Café.
Lawrence was
an African-American painter who studied the life of black
people in America as his subject matter. He took classes at the
Harlem Art Workshop and is best known for his series done on
Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. Lawrence was familiar
with Cubism and expressionist techniques, but forged his own
brand of abstraction in images of expressionist power. He
received a Rosenwald Foundation Fellowship which allowed
him to paint this series, The Migration of the Negro North
. Here he uses basic shapes and flatted color and space to
illustrate segregation of blacks and whites. He was also
influenced by the artists Ben Shahn, Diego Rivera, and José
Clemente Orozco.
Benton was
also a Regionalist, but best known for his murals. He was the
grandson of a U.S. Senator from Missouri. Benton went to
school in Chicago, but also traveled to Paris and was influenced
by Cubism. However, the biggest influence on his work were

the elongated figures of the late works of Michelangelo, El
Greco, and Tintoretto. He settled in New York, but was most
interested in painting scenes of Midwestern history, legend and
daily life in a most monumental scale.
Mural painting, like this, was sponsored by Roosevelt’s Works
Progress Administration and the Federal Arts Project that
sought to have artists depict American themes of the time or
from history in murals for government buildings – there were
hundreds of commissions for these works. This particular work
showcases this history of Missouri, including the fictional take
of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer (above the door).
Orozco
received his training in Mexico City and was strongly
influenced by Mexican Indian traditions. He had many
important commissions in the U.S. and in California.
The works in New Hampshire’s Dartmouth College were the
most important commissions in Orozco’s career in the U.S. He
created a panorama of the history of the Americas, beginning
with the story of Quetzalcoatl, continuing with the coming of
the Spaniards, the Catholic Church, and concluding with the
self-destruction of the machine age. What do you think his
views are of people of European descent in comparison to those
who are native Mexicans?
Rivera
studied and lived in Europe between 1909 and 1921 and was
associated with Cubism. When he returned to Mexico, he

received important commissions for monumental frescoes from
the Mexican government, especially at the National Palace. He
created a national Mexican style reflecting both the history of
Mexico and the Socialist spirit of the Mexican revolution.
Rivera’s work has a folkloric character to it which made him a
true hero of Mexican culture. He created a
series of fresco murals for the Detroit Institute of art depicting
industrial scenes, automobile manufacture, medical research and
transportation, industries that were flourishing at the time in
Detroit. Beyond this particular mural, he also completed work
in New York (since destroyed) and in San Francisco. Frida
Kahlo, his wife, accompanied him on those trips.
Frida Kahlo
suffered greatly in her life after sustaining injuries in a bus
accident when she was 18. The accident shattered her pelvis
rendering her unable to have children. She lived with chronic
pain her entire life until she died at the age of 47. Because she
spent a lot of time recuperating, painting was a respite for her.
Despite the near constant pain she lived in, she was able to live
a full life. Most of her works depict her as the subject.
This painting was done after she had received divorce papers
from Diego Rivera. In this work the two sides of herself mourn
the loss of Rivera – two hearts joined bleeding. One wears a
Tehuana blouse and skirt and holds a childhood portrait of
Rivera symbolizing the memory of her ex-husband. The other
Frida in European dress (her father was German and her mother
Mexican) tries to stop the bleeding. Usually identified as a
Surrealist by others, she defiantly stated that she was not and
that she painted her own reality.

The Farm
Security Administration (FSA) was established in 1935 to aid
farmers who were displaced by the Depression to get back to
their homesteads on their farms. Photographers were hired to
showcase the agency’s work and rural life. A FSA documentary
style was adopted and this way of dramatizing the subject was
to make the viewer of the images identify with the people in
them, thus garnering support for Roosevelt’s social programs.
This is one of the most famous photographers of the FSA and
this is one of the most famous images, ever. Lange was
documenting the conditions of migrant farm camps when she
came upon a pea-pickers camp: the Dust Bowl in the Midwest
and prairie states like Kansas and Oklahoma drove many
farmers away from their land in search of work. Many ended up
in the San Joaquin Valley (CA’s central valley) Lange initially
drove by the camp, then made a U-turn 20 miles down the road
and captured this image. This woman had four children and they
were subsisting on birds they could shoot down and frozen peas
from the fields they were working. We can see the worry and
desperation in the mother’s eyes and the children look away
from the camera in shame. Photographs like this did actually
make a difference in many people’s lives in that it helped
displaced farmers either settle where they ended up or gave
them the ability to set up a farm somewhere else.
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…

Contemporary Chat Image.
Please compare to:
Figure 24-26 MARCEL
DUCHAMP, Fountain, (second
version), 1950 (original version
produced 1917). Ready-made
glazed sanitary china with black
paint, 12” high. Philadelphia
Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
SHERRIE LEVINE, After Van Gogh,
1992. Gelatin silver print.
BANKSY, This Is a Pipe, 2010
Contemporary Chat Image. Please compare to: Figure 24-56
RENÉ MAGRITTE, The Treachery (or
Perfidy) of Images, 1928–1929. Oil on canvas, 1’ 11 5/8” x 3’
1”. Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
Los Angeles.

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