LEADING UP TO ABSTRACTION

19TH CENTURY 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

GUSTAVE COURBET

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

COURBET- 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 …

COURBET - 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.

REALISM ART – COURBET & MILLET

RUE TRANSNONAIN -DAUMIER

THE THIRD-CLASS CARRIAGE - DAUMIER

MANET (1863) VSPICASSO (1907)

HAUSSMANIZATION

Transformation of medieval Paris into the present modern city (began in 1852)

New: Street lights Water & sewer systems Residential & commercial buildings Avenues Paris

IMPRESSIONISM

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.

IMPRESSION: SUNRISE -- MONET

VAN GOGH

INFLUENTIAL ARTISTS OF ABSTRACTION

Gauguin Turns traditional & Impressionable paintings into

abstract primitivism

Paul Cézanne Geometric shapes

Kandinsky & Malevich Abstract paintings

PAUL GAUGUIN

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

color

GAUGUIN

PAUL CÉZANNE - PROPHET OF ABSTRACTION

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

CÉZANNE – GEOMETRIC SHAPES

KANDINSKY VS MALEVICH

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.

KANDINSKY VS MALEVICH

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

KANDINSKY VS MALEVICH