Art: the Visual World

Expressionism
 “Study for Composition No. 2” by Kandinski
Expressionism is an attitude or a philosophy of art rather than
a particular style.
Kandinsky is credited with painting the first compete
nonobjective painting in about 1910.
Nonobjective art is art that has no recognizable subject.
The shapes in “Study for Composition No. 2” are already quite
abstract, but many forms are still recognizable. Gradually, he
simplified and abstracted these features until only shape, color
and line were left. The subject matter was not recognizable.
The titled these paintings with musical terminology.
Certain kinds of lines and various colors had personal meaning
to Kandinsky.
 “Study for Composition No. 2” by Kandinski
He developed his own personal language of color and shape
to express his feelings.
His influence became very strong in the Abstract Expressionist
movement following World War II. Often, the colors seem
dissonant and slashing, as sounds clash in the musical
compositions of his friend Igor Stravinsky.
Pablo Picasso

“Les
Demoiselles
d’ Avignon”
Cubism was begun by Pablo Picasso.
He used Cezanne’s ideas and his way of building up the surface with
small squarish brushstrokes to launch a new way of seeing and paint
to the world.

Cubism is primarily concerned with surface design, not emotion and

personal feelings.

Cubism set the minds of artists on fire with ideas and possibilities
undreamed of several years before.

Picasso had been strongly impressed by his introduction to

geometrical African masks.

These masks introduced sharp angles.

This interplay of geometric shapes led to Cubism.

Although not considered a Cubist painting, Demoiselles is the

painting that began the Cubist movement.
 Picasso

“Daniel-Henry
Kahnweiler”
Cubism

In Picasso’s painting of the art dealer “Daniel-Henry

Kahnweiler”, the features are broken apart and
reassembled in a new and unique way.

Facial features, hands and still-life objects can be

seen, but they also seem to dissolve in a shattering
pattern of translucent, geometric shapes.
Chapter 14 p. 476
Salvador Dali
The work of Dali was called Surrealism because he was getting “beneath the realistic surface of life”
or into a dream world of unreality. Dali never tells the viewer what his paintings mean.

Chapter 14 p. 476-477
Salvador Dali became the most famous
Surrealist. Salvador Dali
“The persistence of Memory” is a small “The persistence of Memory”
painting of soft objects that represent things
that are usually metallic and solid.
The limp watches, gigantic ants and a partial
face on a pain of immense depth are all
startling objects, even today.
The images are placed in a natural setting
with the rocky cliffs of Spain in the
background.
Dali used exacting realism in every part of
his paintings because he claimed to
“hate simplicity in all its forms,” thus
rejecting abstraction and any other simplified
form of art.
Ch16 twentieth-Century Architecture p.527

Frank Lloyd Wright’s primary concern was to develop a

compatible relationship between the structure and its
location so that the building would seem to grow out of
its environment.

In 1936, Wright designed and build one of the most

original living spaces – “The Kaufmann House.” AKA
“Falling Water”

Cantilevered terraces stretch out over a stream and

waterfall. These terraces echo the form and color of the
natural rock terraces below.

Stone, wood, color, shape, form and line are sued by

Wright in a perfect marriage of structure and site.

Frank Lloyd Wright

“The Kaufmann House.”
AKA “Falling Water House”
 Ch 17 p.552

Jackson Pollock began a series of drip paintings.

His new working technique completely feed him
from the use of traditional brushes and opened he
door to Abstract Expressionism. Laying his canvas
on the floor of the studio so he could walk on it, he
literally put himself into his work.

With a can of paint in his hand, he moved about the

canvas, freely dripping, spilling and throwing the
color with apparent abandon.

He was the force behind the paint’s movement.

While he could not control the paint, he completely

engaged himself in releasing both his own creativity
and the possibilities within the paint. The final work
can thus be viewed as an interchange between the
“will” of the paint and the inner forces of the artist.

Jackson Pollock working in his studio

 Ch17 p. 552

Jackson Pollock
“Lavender Mist”

Jackson Pollock’s “Lavender Mist” is a complex interweaving of color and line that produces an overall web
of fascinating texture.

The unanticipated depth and rhythm suggest the ways in which Pollock’s subconscious interacted with the
flow of paint.
 Duchamp

“Nude Descending
the Stair Case”
Ch14 p469

Duchamp created what was probably the most controversial

Cubist painting.

America’s Public was used to seeing realistic representation

there for they were outraged.

Duchamp had fractured the movement of a figure as it

descended the stairs.

Duchamp presented not one image, but an entire series of

movements, stopped in successive stages of action. The
rstult is similar to stop-action or strobe-light photography.

Duchamp was painting MOTION.