Monday Morning Museum: Realism

Realism – The mid-Nineteenth Century

Realism in the arts may be generally defined as the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, implausible, exotic and supernatural elements. The term originated in the 19th century, and was used to describe the work of Gustave Courbet and a group of painters who rejected idealization, focusing instead on everyday life. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Henry Ossawa Tanner (see art example below), other Realists are Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jean-François Millet and Thomas Eakins

The Banjo Lesson, 1893, by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937)

In 1893 on a short return visit to the United States, Tanner painted his most famous work, The Banjo Lesson, while in Philadelphia. The painting shows an elderly black man teaching a boy, assumed to be his grandson, how to play the banjo. This deceptively simple-looking work explores several important themes. Blacks had long been stereotyped as entertainers in American culture, and the image of a black man playing the banjo appears throughout American art of the late 19th century. Thomas Worth, Willy Miller, Walter M. Dunk, Eastman Johnson, and Tanner’s teacher Thomas Eakins had tackled the subject in their artwork.

These images are often reduced to a minstrel-type portrayal. Tanner painted a sensitive reinterpretation. Instead of a generalization, the painting portrays a specific moment of human interaction. The two characters concentrate intently on the task before them. They seem to be oblivious to the rest of the world, which enlarges the sense of real contact and cooperation. The skillfully painted portraits of the individuals make it obvious that these are real people and not types.

In addition to being a meaningful exploration of human qualities, the piece is masterfully painted. Tanner undertakes the difficult endeavor of portraying two separate and varying light sources. A natural white, blue glow from outside enters from the left while the warm light from a fireplace is apparent on the right. The figures are illuminated where the two light sources meet; some have hypothesized this as a manifestation of Tanner’s situation in transition between two worlds, his American past and his newfound home in France. – Wikipedia.org

Last Monday’s Art – The Pre-Raphaelites
Next Monday’s Art – The Renaissance

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Monday Morning Museum: The Pre-Raphaelites

The Pre-Raphaelites – Britain from 1848 to the Late-Nineteenth Century

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (also known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The three founders were joined by William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner to form the seven-member "brotherhood". – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Dante Gabriel Rossetti (see art example below), the other member of the Pre-Raphaelites are William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, William Michael Rossetti, James Colloinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner.

Helen of Troy, 1863, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

Last Monday’s Art – Precisionism
Next Monday’s Art – Realism

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Monday Morning Museum: Precisionism

Precisionism – America from the 1920s to the 1930s

Precisionism was the first indigenous modern-art movement in the United States and an early American contribution to the rise of Modernism. The Precisionist style, which first emerged after World War I and was at the height of its popularity during the 1920s and early 1930s, celebrated the new American landscape of skyscrapers, bridges, and factories in a form that has also been called "Cubist-Realism." – Wkipedia.org

In addition to Preston Dickinson (see art example below), other Precisionist are Charles Demuth and Charles Sheeler.

Still Life With Vase of Chinese Lanterns, by Preston Dickinson (1891-1930

Last Monday’s Art – Post-Impressionism
Next Monday’s Art – The Pre-Raphaelites

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Monday Morning Museum: Post-Impressionism

Post-Impressionism – France from the 1880s to 1900

"Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) is the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet. Fry used the term when he organized the 1910 exhibition Manet and the Post-Impressionists. Post-Impressionists extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: they continued using vivid colours, often thick application of paint, and real-life subject matter, but they were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, to distort form for expressive effect, and to use unnatural or arbitrary colour." - Wikipedia.org

In addition to Henri Rousseau (see art example below), other Post-Impressionists are Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Vincent Willem van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Struggle Between Tiger and Bull, circa 1908-1909 by Henri Rousseau (1844-1910)

Last Monday’s Art – Pop Art
Next Monday’s Art – Precisionism

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Monday Morning Museum: Pop Art

Pop Art – From the 1950s to 1960s

“Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid-1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular culture such as advertising, news, etc. In pop art, material is sometimes visually removed from its known context, isolated, and/or combined with unrelated material. The concept of pop art refers not as much to the art itself as to the attitudes that led to it.” – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Andy Warhol (see art example below), other practitioners of Pop Art are Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein.

The Birth of Venus by Andy Warhol (1928-1987)

Last Monday’s Art – Pointillism
Next Monday’s Art – Post-Impressionism

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