Contextual Studies 6Subject Matter & Content

Fauvism & CubismExpressionism(New Objectivity) &

Surrealism

Monet, Poplars at Giverny, 1888 Seurat, study for Bec du Hoc, 1885

Matisse, The Red Studio, 1911 Matisse, The Pink Studio, 1911

Matisse, The Green Stripe, 1905 Matisse, Femme a la Violette, 1927

Matisse, Sculpture with Goldfish, 1913

Andre Derain, Portrait of Henri Matisse, 1906

Derain, The Mountains at Collioure, 1905

Derain, The Bridge at Charing Cross, 1906

Maurice de Vlaminck, River Seine at Chatou, 1906

Vlaminck, Still Life, 1910

1. What is Matisse’s attitude to subject matter?

2. Why is composition so important?

3. What is art about, and why?

4. What is his attitude to nature?

Henri Matisse, ‘Notes of a Painter’ (1908) in Art in Theory, pp69-75

‘What interests me most is… the human figure. It is that which best permits me to express my almost religious awe towards life. I do not insist upon all the details of the face…’ p.73/26-8

‘I will condense the meaning of the body by seeking its essential lines.’p.71/17-18

‘What I am after above all, is expression… The place occupied by the figures or objects, the empty space around them, the proportions, everything plays a part… Everything that is not useful in the picture is harmful.’ p.70/23-37

‘A work of art must carry within itself its complete significance and impose that upon the viewer even before he recognises the subject matter. When I see the Giotto frescoes at Padua I do not trouble myself to recognise which scene of the life of Christ I have before me, but I immediately understand the sentiment which emerges from it, for it is in the lines, the composition, the colour.’p.73/33-6

Giotto, The Lamentation, c. 1306-12

‘What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of any troubling subject matter, an art which could be for every mental worker, for the businessman as well as the man of letters …a soothing, calming influence on the mind…’ p.73/38-41

Ruskin, Gneiss Rock, 1853

Matisse, Landscape at Collioure, 1905

‘I cannot copy nature in a servile way… I am forced to interpret nature and submit it to the spirit of the picture. When I have found the relationship of all the tones, the result must be a living harmony of tones, a harmony not unlike that of a musical composition.’p.72/33-6

Braque, Clarinet and a bottle of rumon a Mantelpiece, 1911

Picasso, Le Torero, 1912

Juan Gris, Portrait of Picasso, 1912

Braque, Violin and Jug, 1910

Picasso, Les Desmoiselles d’Avignon, 1907

Picasso in his studio c.1905

Paul Cezanne, Mont Ste. Victoire, 1904/5

Cezanne, Mont Ste. Victoire, 1906

Braque,Viaduct at l’Estaque, 1909

Picasso, The Factory at Horta de Ebro, 1909

Extracts from Georges Braque ‘Thoughts on Painting’,1917 in Art in Theory, p214-5

3. The charm and the force of children’s paintings often stem from the limited means employed…4. New means, new subjects.5. The subject is not the object; it is the new unity, the lyricism which stems entirely from the means employed.6. The painter thinks in forms and colours.7. The aim is not to reconstitute an anecdotal fact but to constitute a pictorial fact.9. One must not imitate what one wishes to create.10.One does not imitate the appearance; the appearance is the result.11.To be pure imitation painting must make an abstraction of appearances.12.To work from nature is to improvise.14.The senses deform, the mind forms.

Braque, Violin and SheetMusic on a Table, 1913

Braque, Musical Forms, 1913

Juan Gris, Violin and Playing Cards, 1913

Picasso, Still Life with Mandolin and Guitar, 1924

Pablo Picasso, Still Life with Chair Caning, 1912

New ObjectivityGeorge Grosz & Otto Dix

George Grosz, Grey Day, 1921

Grosz, Café, 1928

Grosz, At Five in the Morning, 1921

Grosz, John, The Sex Murderer, 1919

Grosz, The Burial, 1919

Grosz, Berlin Street Scene, c.1922

Grosz, The City, 1916/17

Otto Dix, Cardplaying War Invalids, 1920

Dix, Wounded Soldier, 1924

Dix, The Match Seller, 1921

According to the text by Grosz:

1. What is the role of the artist?

2. What style of art is he arguing for?

George Grosz, ‘My New Pictures’, 1921 in Art In Theory pp 272&3

You can’t be indifferent in this trade, about your attitude toward the problem of the masses… (p272 l.3&4)

All this painted nonsense certainly can’t stand up to reality. Life is much too strong for it. (p273 l.21&22)

I am again trying to give an absolutely realistic picture of the world. I want every man to understand me. (p273 l.30&31)

I am suppressing colour. Lines are used in an impersonal, photographic way to construct volumes. (p273 l.43&44)

John Heartfield (formerly Herzfelde), Adolf the Superman Swallows Gold and Spouts Junk, 1932

Surrealism

Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1932

Dali, Soft Construction with Boiled Beans:Premonition of Civil War, 1936

Rene Magritte, The Human Condition, 1933

Magritte, The Red Model, 1931

Paul Delvaux, Phases of the Moon, 1939

Extracts from ‘The First Manifesto of Surrealism’ (1924), by Andre Breton, in Art in Theory pp 447-453

Under the pretense of civilization and progress, we have managed to banish from the mind everything that may rightly or wrongly be termed superstition, or fancy… (p448 l.23-25)

…we must give thanks to the discoveries of Sigmund Freud. On the basis of these discoveries…the human explorer will be able to carry his investigations much further… The imagination is perhaps on the point of reasserting itself, of reclaiming its rights. (p448 l.29-34)

Jean Arp, Automatic Drawing

Paul Masson, Figure, 1926-27

Breton, Tzara et al, Exquisite Corpse, 1933

Breton, Tanguy et al., Exquisite Corpse, c.1926

Reading for 10/11:

Clive Bell, ‘The Aesthetic Hypothesis’ (1914) in Art in Theory, pp107-110, p107 -108/l.21 and p109/l.4-11

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