L EADING UP TO A BSTRACTION

19 TH C ENTURY PUSH FOR MODERNISM Avante-garde Post-impressionists Cézanne, Seurat, Van Gogh & Gauguin Rejected the past and trangressed boundaries of conventional artistic practice. Realism- painting of modern life Impressionism & Haussmanization of Paris Abstract Art Expressive patterns of line, shape, and pure color

G USTAVE C OURBET Leading figure of Realism Confusion about what “realism” is Only things of one’s own time are “real” Focus on experiences & sights of everyday life Disapprove of traditional & fictional subjects because they were not of the present world Realists were able to focus on the world around them. Subject matter that had been deemed unworthy of depiction until then

C OURBET - REALISM To be able to translate the customs, ideas, and appearances of my time as I see them – in a word, to create a living art – this has been my aim … The art of painting can consist only in the representation of objects visible and tangible to the painter…, who must apply his personal faculties to the ideas and the things of the period in which he lives …

C OURBET - REALISM I hold also that painting is an essentially concrete art, and can consist only of the representation of things both real and existing … An abstract object, invisible or nonexistent, does not belong to the domain of painting … Show me an angel, and I’ll paint one.

R EALISM A RT – COURBET & MILLET

R UE T RANSNONAIN - D AUMIER

T HE T HIRD -C LASS C ARRIAGE - D AUMIER

M ANET (1863) VS P ICASSO (1907)

H AUSSMANIZATION Transformation of medieval Paris into the present modern city (began in 1852) New: Street lights Water & sewer systems Residential & commercial buildings Avenues Paris

I MPRESSIONISM Modernity is the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent -- Charles Baudelaire An attempt to capture a fleeting moment, through conveying the elusiveness and impermanence of images and conditions.

I MPRESSION : SUNRISE -- MONET

V AN GOGH

I NFLUENTIAL A RTISTS OF A BSTRACTION Gauguin Turns traditional & Impressionable paintings into abstract primitivism Paul Cézanne Geometric shapes Kandinsky & Malevich Abstract paintings

P AUL G AUGUIN Experiment to transform (use of color) Search for provocative subjects Moves to Tahiti Fascination with primitive life and brilliant color

G AUGUIN

P AUL C ÉZANNE - P ROPHET OF A BSTRACTION Precursor of Cubism Rejected Impressionism Thought its depiction of nature lacked substance and weight Sought a new way to portray nature and reveal its underlying solidity & order Concluded nature was composed of geometric shapes Opened up a new way of painting

C ÉZANNE – GEOMETRIC SHAPES

K ANDINSKY VS M ALEVICH Kandinsky Experimental artist-imprecise visual goals, trial & error, innovations appear gradually Woe to the artist whose reason interferes with his “inner dictates” while he is working. Malevich Conceptual innovator-use art to express ideas & emotions, planned paintings, appear as sudden innovators The new complexity in the modern development of art, the necessity for the conscious use of scientific geometric methods become clear in the creation of a system of movement for new classical structures.

K ANDINSKY VS M ALEVICH Kandinsky Dreamed of abstract art that would originate in nature “Woe betide him who relies on mathematics - on reason.” Compared to Cézanne Malevich Dreamed of abstract art that rejected nature, instead through mathematics as a systematic approach “Nowhere in the world of painting does anything grow without a system.” Compared to Picasso Founder of Suprematism

K ANDINSKY VS M ALEVICH