Exploring Art Movements: Surrealism, Realism, Impressionism, Abstractionism

1. WHAT IS ART?WHAT SHOULD ART CONVEY?

2. ART IS: • the presentation or expression ofwhat is beautiful, appealing or of more than ordinary significance • layered, complex, susceptible to many different interpretations • the source of questions and ruminations, not tidy solutions

3. SURREALISM: • is the imagination of the unconscious • is a positive expression • is an unification of the conscious / unconscious • is where dreams and fantasy are joined to the rational, everyday world in an absolute reality = surreality

4. SURREALITY: • is surprising, spontaneous, unexpected, irrational • Andre Breton, Paris art critic, coined the name “Manifesto of Surrealism” in the 1920’s • Breton admired Sigmund Freud • Breton trained in medicine and psychiatry • disdained traditional art forms

5. EXAMPLES OF SURREALISTS: • Salvador Dali • Maxwell Ernst • Rene Magritte • Joan Miró • Picasso • Jackson Pollock(an abstractionist who greatly admired the surrealists)

6. The Persistence of MemorySalvador Dali, 1931 6

7. The Tilled FieldJoan Miró, 1923-24

8. SURREALISM AUTHORS: • authors considered surrealist • Jean CocteauE.E. CummingsGarcia LorcaHenry MillerAnais NinDylan ThomasWilliam Carlos Williams

9. REALISM: • is an art movement from France inthe 1850’s • is an objective reality – true to life • honesty / accuracy • subjects in art appear as they do in everyday life • no embellishment

10. REALISM: • the realists rejected romanticism and neoclassicism from the late 1700’s / early 1800’s • painters who painted from the world around them • examples of realists: • John Singleton CopleyGustave CourbetHonore DaumierThomas EakinsJean-François MilletWilliam Sidney Mount

11. The Death of Major PiersonJohn Singleton Copley - 1784

12. The GleanersJean-François Millet, 1857 12

13. REALISM AUTHORS: • authors considered realists • William DefoeHenry FieldingHamlin GarlandWilliam Dean HowellsHenry JamesSarah Orne JewettUpton SinclairMark TwainEdith WhartonWalt Whitman

14. IMPRESSIONISM: • began in the 1860’s after the Paris World’s Fair • accurately, objectively recording of visual reality in terms of transient effects of color and light • the term comes from Monet’s painting “Impression, Sunrise”

15. FEATURES OF IMPRESSIONISM: • visible brush strokes • unusual angles • light and changing light • considered radical in its time • very open composition, movement • unmixed color not smoothly blended • how the eye views the subject /not a re-creation of the subject

16. examples of impressionists • Mary CassatPaul CezanneEdgar DegasEdouard ManetClaude MonetBerthe MorisotCamille PissarroPierre Auguste RenoirJohn Singer SargentAlfred Sisley

17. Impression, SunriseClaude Monet, 1873

18. The Boating PartyMary Cassat, 1893-94

19. IMPRESSIONISM AUTHORS: • the Romantic writers • William BlakeEmily BronteWilkie CollinsMary ShelleyWilliam WordsworthandJoseph ConradArthur RimbaudVirginia Woolf

20. ABSTRACTIONISM: • no concrete objects –at least no recognizable ones • morally loaded themes(rebellion, a disgust with society) • emphasis is on individual, spontaneity, mood, feelings, & revolt(without being an actual representation) • uses form / color / line to create composition existing independently of visual references to the world

21. WHY ABSTRACTIONISM? • at the end of the 19th century, artists felt they needed a new kind of art to encompass changes in Science / Technology / Philosophy • it reflects diversity / turmoil of Western society • artists include: • Theo van DoesburgWassily KandinskyPieter Cornelius “Piet” MondrianJackson Pollock

22. Composition XWassily Kandinsky, 1939

23. 23 23 Composition with Yellow, Blue, and RedPiet Mondrian, 1937-42 23

24. ASSIGNMENT • form groups of FOUR students • choose from ONE of the four genres: • birthday partycafeteriasporting eventwedding • illustrate your choice in each of the FOUR genres: • surrealismrealismimpressionismabstractionism • your group will have FOUR total illustrations