Modern Art: Lecture 5 (1/24/2012)Opposition to culture of the time and monumental works1874- young painters showed work in opposition to any juried public Salon: Impressionists’ Exhibition. Called themselves “anonymous society/corporation”QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.^^Claude Monet Impression, Sunrise, 1872^^Term Impression: describe aims and practice of their art; term of derisionYoung painter*Start with the sketch- begins with utter challenge to skills og paintingForm- new and originalBreak with the past- deskilling of paintingConscious rejection- they’d been classically trainedShift from history painting to landscapeMonet knows he isn’t a figure painter- landscape/seascapeGives up the figuration of the body itself and along with it, storytellingSpace of nature- acts of perceptionVisible brush stroke, painted on-site outsideEmbrace the unfinished, paint a sketchAct of a subject seeing and inscribing the vision itselfQuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.^^Monet Women in a Garden, 1867^^Figures in space of natureTransition point- reformation of how landscape painting works/is createdMonumental sizeOutdoors- breaking from the studio tradition; in the real, not imaginative conditionCourbet laughed at Monet’s painting method (trench)Transcribing the manner of seeing and how that operatesStaring at same person painted as each figure- his wife Camille posed in multiple positions, 4 times spread across the paintingBreakdown of narrative storytellingBrushstrokes give up clear delineation of line- painterly paintingNature dense and chokes out the illusion of deep spaceGive up cariscuro (modeling- use of black), light/dark. Originally had been painting with dark background, light subject in front. Monet uses no black contour lines, shadows portrayed as colors (blue), started his paintings with light colorsQuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.^^Monet Terrace at Sainte-Adresse, 1867^^En plein aire- painting in open airRevolutionary gesture- against the pastRejection of finish itself- act of painting left visible- no illusionPetals as marks of brush- pure colors sometimes- mimic how light bounces offthe plant in real lifePrioritize the brushstroke- impasto, thick painting method Figures- close to him, family membersHis home townPainting about looking- act of vision in the painting itselfHorizon line very high above centerSmokestacks of industrial ships- this scene isn’t supposed to be prettyWall of water flattens out the canvas and divides it into zonesFrench national flag- symbolic; flat, not illusionisticReject illusion and literary/narrative effects- torn down and questioned- self-criticalityPainting more like a flag than an infinite spaceQuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Monet Boulevard des Capucines, 1872Painted from studio of Nadar (friend/photographer), also where 1st Impressionist Exhibition was locatedNew forms: new set of subjectsNew boulevard- transport, trade, opened up the city of ParisPortrait of modern form of the cityVery small easel painting- painting became portable, to paint outdoors, like trade of the day and industryWetness of atmosphereObliques skew vision- away from classicalRise up above the scenePink paint globbing up- can’t make out what it’s supposed to beBruegel Hunters in the Snow, 1565Monet leans on thisN Europe- landscape artHigh horizon line- recession of distance into spaceForm of aerial perspective- viewer floats about a sort of panoramaBruegel Children’s Games, 1560Children running the world- turned upside downVanishing point at very top right cornerFloating viewer up like godsQuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Degas Place de la Coneorde, 1875Flâneur- wanderer of the streets, filled with masses of peopleCentral square in ParisHorizon line rises upAristocrat with 2 daughtersSliced off at sidesYellow ground, more like a wall than something one can walk through- no illusion Accidental, seemingly disorderedDegas Young Spartans Exercising, 1860Degas’ originBodies twisted against the classicalSomething very wrong with the bodiesQuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.^^Gustave Caillebotte Paris Street, Rainy Day, 1877^^Central axis- new modern lighting of lamppost Wet- luminosity, transienceJust looking, observing- no grand storyQuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Caillebotte Le Pont de l’Europe, 1876-77Modern, metal bridgeSmoke, train in backgroundPainting of a figure looking at modern ParisAn ‘X’ blocks out the spaceBaudelaire: love at last sight; speaks to modern women in the streets of ParisDiscussion Section: Week 3Manet Reviewno clear narrative- fragmentation, citation of old mastersconcept of lookingrecognizable at one instantscenes from everyday lifeurbanism and its effects- some scenes of bourgeois leisureno event, no pregnant momentidea of uncertaintyrepresentations from past but makes it unclear as to what we are seeing- makes language of painting uncertaintransient, fleeting momentBaudelaire- modernity characterized by the transientOlympiaFemme honnête: woman one would marryCourtesan: elegant, role-playing, illusion of intimacy, inaccessible, desirous, “classless”NUDEProstitute: body as commodity, accessible, not elegant, working class, NAKEDThe nude was a pictorial convention, no basis to social reality. Nakedness is more baseness with context in reality.The nude body is your own because you own your fantasy.Nakedness: you see a body, no sense of fantasy; forces understanding of what your body is because you’re a part of the larger social class system.In Olympia, the way its presented to us shows the viewer as the male buyer.Class transgression is possible- varied clients.Copy of Titian, but brought in social reality.Clark, p. 131: Olympia is both nude and naked- new and uncertain. Can read this in manyways as a nude woman, or a naked commodityMethodology:Greenberg- formalist (form and function)Read art without historical contextBecoming more flat, more self-awareClark- more material, formalist but also a Social Marxist art historianSees everything through social/economic relationsAll events of history seen through this