English 2850: Great Works of World Literature II

Interior with a young girl

Henri Matisse

Paris 1905-6

Henri Matisse 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954 was a French artist, known for his use of color and his fluid and skilled worker. He was a printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is commonly compared with Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, as one of the three artists. Who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture. Although he was initially labeled a “Fauve” by the 1920s he established a pillar of the classical tradition in French painting. Matisse began to show his work in large group exhibitions in Paris in the mid-1890s, including the traditional Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and his work received some favorable attention. He traveled to London and to Corsica, and in 1898 he married Amélie Parayre, with whom he would have three children. His mastery of the expressive language of color and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art(Wiki).

Henri Matisse’s “Interior with a young girl” was created in 1905-6 in Paris. This intimate scene of his daughter, Marguerite, reading into an of color—her hair is painted in nearly as many colors as the fruit in the front. she sits quietly, absorbed in a book pictured with bold marks and colorful, planes of opposing and often matching colors. The surrounding room and furniture need as much attention as do the sitting and objects in the front.

He selected a palette of bright colors, including many areas of white filled with color, creating an overall pretty effect and a flattened space, although one hamming with tension. To further flatten the scene, he has flipped the table, sloping it forward. This painting reminds the old brushwork with strong color. It drew my attention in a very basic way. I never dealt with paintings but this painting has a strong representation of realistic impression. In this painting, a young girl sitting at a table and reading a book. Beside the table, there is a bowl of fruits and she is reading very deeply. This is an activity of daily life. Henri used this painting as a strong message from our social life.

Pablo Picasso

Spanish 1881-1973

Nude With Joined Hands 1906 Oil On Canvas

The William S. Paley Collection

Picasso was inspired to make nude with joined hands by his mistress Fernande Olivier while the two were on holiday in Gosol, Spain. The Flesh Tones and the background possess a shimmering, almost watercolor-like transparency, and the refinement of the facial features reflects the artist’s interest in classical art.

I choose this image because I found out that Picasso was the painter. I did encounter him in my early education, I meet him with the quote “Good artists copy, great artists steal”. From what I was able to obtain, I discovered that Picasso made this painting refers to the Neoclassicism, with means ” New of the highest rank” which was a classical antiquity for the time.

The picture has some Roman qualities, with Picasso had obtained while studying Iberian sculpture. Picasso in the picture was trying to show something more than a naked body but the mirrors of humanity, reflecting us the mind, body, and soul.

The picture has different definition view from the period, We are able to see a movement from the old culture to the classical culture. While other painters were focused on showing the misfortune of the people and tragedies, Picasso focused more on the inner and outer part of the body. Showing the viewer a new perspective of looking a human body. I saw other Arts made by Picasso and most of them are nudes and erotic. I wonder myself if Pablo Picasso was really trying to satisfy its audiences giving them a prohibited taste, or he was an old dirty man.

–Why does the narrator address his listener as “my son”?

–The narrator tells us that “every new generation finds the doum tree as though it had been born at the time of their birth and would grow up with them.” What do you make of this?

–What seems to be the story’s perspective on the government in newly independent Sudan? What’s the relationship between the government and the villagers?

–Explain the shift in narratorial perspective in the final passages of the story? How does it change our own view of the text

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Street, Berlin
1913 (Early 20th century)

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was born on May 6, 1880 in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, and studied architecture in 1901. Kirchner is well known for being part of the artist group Die Brucke, which translates to “The Bridge”. The start of this artist group was the beginning of German Expressionism which this painting Street, Berlin is part of. What this painting depicts is a night in the city of Berlin in the early 20th century. There are 2 ladies in the foreground of the painting that appears to be somewhat seductive, and men in black suits in the background.

I believe this painting connects to modernism because the painting depicts the big city of Berlin, and Modernism was the start of putting light on Urbanism. Another reason why this painting connects to Modernism is because there is uncertainty in this painting. As you look at the painting, you’re not exactly sure what is going on in the painting, and I’m sure people living in the city of Berlin were unsure of what they were doing too, since they were experimenting.

What drew me to this piece is actually because I recognized and remembered it from an Art History class I took 2 semesters ago. Of course there were many paintings at the MOMA that I’ve recognized through my Art History class; although this one in particular stood out because a semester before I took my Art History class, I took German a a class for my language requirement. Therefore, this German painting struck me quickly due to my small interest in the culture of Germany and hope to visit and explore Germany in the near future. I’ve always been intrigued by the culture and the language of Germany.

Since recognizing the painting from my Art History class, I decided to pull up my old notes and found more in depth facts about the painting. First of all, the ladies in the foreground are actually prostitutes. Kirchner actually painted the prostitutes because as an Artist, he identified with the prostitutes because he felts as if he has to sell himself for money. The painting also illustrates anxiety and alienation in the city with the sharp and angular forms. I feel like the anxiety that is brought from the painting also relates back to modernism again. I believe it relates back to modernism because being in the city, the new start of Urbanism, experimenting new things can involve anxiety for people, because it’s something that you’re not used to, something you’re not comfortable with. Lastly from my notes, the painting was created after Kirchner’s group Die Brucke breaks up, which was a sad moment that could have contributed to the anxiety in the painting.

Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes was a French artist and he also was a writer. He was born in Montpellier and died in Saint-Jeannet. He was very enthusiastic about Dada events which is an art movement that seeks to discover the true reality by abolishing traditional forms of culture and aesthetics. The artists expressed their despair for bourgeois values and World War I through anti-aesthetic works and protests. Georges is one of them and he contributed a lot in modernism art.

The art that I present is called Silence. As you can see it is a machine picture created in 1915. During this period, World War was happening and most of the countries have begun to invest a lot of industrial production. This piece is obviously about what was happening in 1915. The first impression that I have is modern and it interested me due to its color. It consists of a very nice contrasting balance between the blues, orange and yellow. There is painted gears, shafts, wires, springs, chainsaws on the picture. Those all kinds of machines were painted in different colors. Although the colors are very bright, it is still suggesting that the forces of production have run amok.

During the World war, countries are committed to the development of industry.  Suddenly, a lot of factories were built up so people were forced to work for a long time. Under this movement, I can imagine that the Social atmosphere was boring, depressed and silence. People who work in an industry feel numb because they used to do same thing again and again. This piece shows us how the state of society looks like at that time and the dissatisfaction with excessive industrial development.

Not only the color attracts me, the shape in the art are also very diverse and organized. As you can see, this painting was characterized by strong geometric lines and shapes. There is triangle, circle, rectangular and different lines of various angles in the picture. The subject in the picture looks like they under arrangement so that It makes me feel neat and methodical. I think the author did this for purpose so he could create such an organized picture.

As I see, the color and shapes are making this picture become such a beautiful art. Every artwork has its value. We need to spend a little time to understand them. The tour of the museum has let me see many beautiful things and I really enjoy watching them.

The work I chose is Charing Cross Bridge, 1905-1906. This work is an oil on canvas by the French painter and sculptor, Andre Derain. He was one of the pioneers of revolutionary painting in the early twentieth Century. He used bold colors to depict concise painting boldly and was called “Fauvist” with Henry Mathis. Derain first discovered the art of black and realized the rich and imaginative of folk art; he studied the art creation of the ancient people, set foot on the way they walked and created the modern art by tradition.

His early works used segmented color blocks, fast curves, and dull colors. His techniques were not crude, the lines were elegant, and colors were harmonious. For instance, Charing Cross Bridge was his early works that used segmented color blocks. According to my understanding in the MoMA, Charing Cross Bridge was that he developed the bright Fauvist palette while painting alongside his elder peer Henri Matisse in Collioure, France in the summer of 1905. There they were imaginative and creative paintings.

However, when these works were exhibited in Paris, the public and critics found the palette startling and ridiculed their efforts. As Derain said, “Fauvism was our ordeal by fire… It was the era of photography. This may have influenced us, and played a part in our reaction against anything resembling a snapshot of life. No matter how far we moved away from things … it was never far enough. Colors became charges of dynamite.” I interpreted this sentence as even if the camera can record more realistic scenes, pictures cannot convey art. The picture is inflexible, and the art is souled. Here he assimilates a branch of oil paints to dynamite.  Also, he once explained. “The great merit of this method was to free the picture from all imitative and conventional contact.”

The reason why this work attracts me is its brilliant color. In this picture, the author has rendered the sky a colorful scene, depicting the city and the meadows around the bridge in green and blue, which is different from what we have seen before. For me, although this work is called Charing Cross Bridge, my favorite is the coloring of the sky in this work, which makes me delightful and impresses me deeply. I have ever seen on the Internet that Monet also painted charing cross bridge series in 1899-1904. Monet is different from Derain. His charing cross bridge depicted the unique landscape formed by fog in London. I wonder why Derain used segmented color blocks to draw the sky.

— What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?

–This story can be described as a kind of “initiation story” for the narrator.  How is he changed or transformed by the events of the narrative?

–A tall, grey-haired woman who has just arrived on the “transport” whispers, “My poor boy,” to our narrator.  What does she mean?

–“Are we good people?” asks our narrator.  What is this exchange about? What do you think?

–Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.”  What seems strange about it?

Frida Kahlo was an artist born in Mexico in 1907. In 1925, she was seriously injured in a bus collision where a steel handrail went into her hip and came out the other side. Her raw self portraits often depicted a hurting Kahlo. However, her painting tilted My Grandparents, My Parents, and I, on display at the Museum of Modern Art, does not.

This painting features a young Kahlo holding a red ribbon that encompasses, as the title suggests, her father and mother, as well as their own parents. Young Kahlo is standing in her family home, the “Blue House,” among water, mountains, and cacti in the desert. Her paternal grandparents’ portraits lie over the ocean, presumably because her father was born in Germany. Her maternal grandparents’ sit atop mountains in the Mexican landscape. The setting for My Grandparents represents home, far and away, for Kahlo.

Symbols of birth lay on the maternal side of the painting. For example, a fetus lays over her mother’s stomach. Underneath this, fertilization is about to occur as the sperm reaches the egg. Similarly, the flower next to the egg seems to be ejecting pollen, as little cacti lay behind it. I believe Kahlo is depicting herself as a fetus in her mother’s womb, while also remembering her ancestors.

One can easily point out the genetic similarities between Kahlo and her ancestors. Quite obviously, you see Kahlo’s distinctive unibrow that seems to have come from her paternal grandmother. It is also worth noting that her mother and father are dressed in wedding clothes. The colors in this painting are very earthy in the landscape, while Kahlo ensured to maintain the bright color of the house and her mother’s wedding dress. The red ribbon also stands out from the landscape colors.

The focus on childhood in this piece is reminiscent of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory that helped shape the Modernism era. Essentially, the treatment Frida received from her parents shaped who she became as an adult. Accordingly, the people her parents became were shaped by those that raised them, and so on. This consciousness of the self is vital in modernism and can be evidently seen in Kahlo’s painting.

Frida Kahlo was an important female artist at a time when the work of her artist husband, Diego Rivera, overshadowed much of her own work. Her many self-portraits are so fraught with hurt that it is hard not to imagine the physical pain she endured for much of her life. Yet, the perseverance she embodied by continuing her artwork is an inspiration. I have seen this painting once before, so when I found out the MoMA had a work of Kahlo’s, I set out to find it. It took me two tries around the fifth floor galleries to find this small painting. Set next to Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory, Kahlo’s work remains a beautiful rendition of her family tree that fully encapsulates the beginning of her life.

                                                                        Pablo Picasso                                                                                                                                 Les Demoiselles d’Avignon                                                                                                                         Paris, June-July 1907

            Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, and died on April 8, 1973. He was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer and member of the French Communist Party. He is the founder of modern art and the main representative of Western modernist painting. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore.                                                                                                                             Picasso’s artistic career spans almost his entire life. The style of his works is rich and varied. “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” ( The young Ladies of Avignon) is a large oil painting created in 1907 by Pablo Picasso. The painting is based on the image of prostitutes in Avignon Street, Barcelona. The street is famous because of prostitution. It depicts five naked women with figures composed of flat, splintered planes. It looks like he breaks down five people’s bodies into simple geometric forms and flexible, distinct color blocks, and then recombines them on the canvas to form things to be expressed in the human body, space, and background. Just like use many broken bricks to make a building. The painters in the past saw people or things from one angle. Cubism shows things in a new way. They observe from several angles that cannot be seen on the front, and show the sides that are not possible to be seen in a parallel or overlapping way. “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” was the first work to be considered Cubist and was a landmark masterpiece. It is not only a major turning point in Picasso’s personal artistic history, but also a revolutionary breakthrough in the history of western modern art, led to the birth of Cubism movement.                                                                                                                                             When I first saw this painting, I thought it was very special. It shows a single planarity, without a sense of stereoscopic perspective. All the backgrounds and figures are accomplished through the exaggeration and grotesque of the use of color. it gives me a strong visual impact. Also, the art elements of African mysticism that used in the painting attracted me. such as the two extremely twisted faces on the painting, the distorted parts, the red, black, and white color contrast, which looked ferocious and scary. I want to know what Inspired Picasso Use Cubism to draw the painting.

In visiting the Museum of Modern Art, I came across a variety of different sculptures, images, and other pieces of art. Many of these pieces of art had qualities of modernist art,. One in particular that struck me most was Mark Chagall’s “I and the Village”. This work, titled “I and the Village”  was done by Mark Chagall in 1911. Mark Chagall was an early modernist. He was associated with many different artistic formats, including painting, and ceramics along with many others. Chagall was looked at as “the last survivor of the first generation of European Modernists” (Wikipedia). Some of his greatest accomplishments include producing windows for the UN, and the Jerusalem Windows in Israel. Now that we have discussed briefly Chagall’s life and accomplishments  let us get to this piece, “I and the Village. This art embodies Modernism in many different ways. The first aspect of it that fits the title as modernist is its rejection of the idea of narrative. The painting has a unicorn, a sheep, people, among other things, all of these different things resemble a void of narrative. Many times when we look at art, we see or notice one thing in particular. The unique aspect about this work of art is that it is void of narrative and allows the person looking at the piece of art to analyze it any way they see fit. The next aspect of modernism that this painting has is that this painting embraces uncertainty. To go along with the previous point of a void of narrative, this painting embraces uncertainty by not giving a certain direction to the painting. Is this a painting about animals, is it a painting about people, is it both, these are the questions that we are left with when looking at this painting. Another aspect that this painting has of modernism is that it flaunts difficulty. This painting is hard to examine due to its multi facetiousness. The last aspect of this painting that resembles Modernist Art is that it shines a spotlight on a certain feeling. Through the paintings bright colors, it exudes a positive and happy feeling when looking at it. It gives somewhat of a feeling that one feels when looking at a rainbow. In closing, due to the uncertainty exude by this painting, as well as its bright colors, among other things, it makes this painting a clear example of Modernist Art.