Monday Morning Museum: Ukiyo-e Printmaking

Ukiyo-e Printmaking – Japan during the Edo period from the 1600s to 1867

Ukiyo-e (浮世絵 literally "pictures of the floating world"?) (Japanese pronunciation: [ukijo.e] or [ukijoꜜe]) is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints (or woodcuts) and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters. It is the main artistic genre of woodblock printing in Japan. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Ando Hiroshige (see art example below), other Ukiyo-e printmakers are Hishikawa Moronnobu, Katsushika Hokusai, Kitagawa Utamaro and Toshusai Sharaku

Tsubo Plain at Susaki, Fukagawa by Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858)

Last Monday’s Art – Tonalism

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Monday Morning Museum: Tonalism

Tonalism – America from 1880 to 1910

Tonalism was an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s when American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Between 1880 and 1915, dark, neutral hues such as gray, brown or blue, often dominated compositions by artists associated with the style. During the late 1890s, American art critics began to use the term "tonal" to describe these works. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to George Inness (see art example below), the other prominent Tonalist is James Abbott McNeill Whistler.

Sunset at Etretat, 1875, by George Inness (1825-1894)

Last Monday’s Art – Symbolism
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Monday Morning Museum: Symbolism

Symbolism – Late Nineteenth Century

Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil, 1857) by Charles Baudelaire. The works of Edgar Allan Poe, which Baudelaire admired greatly and translated into French, were a significant influence and the source of many stock tropes and images. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Odilon Redon (see art example below), the art of Symbolism also includes Gustav Moreau and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

Le Char d’Apollon, circa 1910, by Odilon Redon (1840-1916)

Last Monday’s Art – Surrealism
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Monday Morning Museum: Surrealism

Surrealism – Europe from 1924 to the 1950s

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. The aim was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality." Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Joan Miró (see art example below), other Surrealists are Max Ernst, Giorgio de Chirico, Jean Arp, Man Ray and René Magritte.

The Gold of the Azure, 1967, by Joan Miró (1893-1983)

This painting show’s Miró’s continued use of the signs and symbols of the forties as an expression of his poetic concept of painting. Stars, planets, the elementary configurations of the ever-present figures (man and woman, the masculine principle and the feminine principle) and on top of them a curving line – probably a bird that reinvents the horizon – all contribute to the definition of this space and offer a new vision of Miró’s cosmology. - Fundación Joan Miró de Barcelona.

Last Monday’s Art – Romanticism
Next Monday’s Art – Symbolism

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Monday Morning Museum: Romanticism

Romanticism – Late Eighteenth Century to Mid-Nineteenth Century

Romanticism (also the Romantic era or the Romantic period) was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850. Partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, it was also a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Caspar David Friedrich (see art example below), Romanticism is also practiced by John Constable, Joseph Mallord William Turner and William Blake.

The Wanderer Above the Mists, circa 1816-1818, by Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840)

“…represent the loneliness of the modern subject placed in a majestic landscape, as well as the failure of man in a hostile natural environment. In Friedrich's oeuvre landscape is imbued with an existential meaning, it becomes a metaphor for human fate.” – Hamburger-Kunsthalle.de

Last Monday’s Art – The Rococo Style
Next Monday’s Art – Surrealism

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Monday Morning Museum: The Rococo Style

The Rococo Style – Europe from 1715 to 1774

Rococo (/rəˈkoʊkoʊ/ or /roʊkəˈkoʊ/), less commonly roccoco, also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century artistic movement and style, which affected several aspects of the arts including painting, sculpture, architecture, interior design, decoration, literature, music and theatre. The Rococo developed in the early part of the 18th century in Paris, France as a reaction against the grandeur, symmetry and strict regulations of the Baroque, especially that of the Palace of Versailles. In such a way, Rococo artists opted for a more jocular, florid and graceful approach to Baroque art and architecture. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Jean-Honoré Fragonard (see art example below), other Rococo artists are François Boucher, Jean-Antoine Watteau and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

The Swing, 1767, by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806)

The Swing is Fragonard's best-known painting, encapsulating for many the finesse, humour and joie de vivre of the Rococo. No other work better demonstrates his ability to combine erotic licence with a visionary feeling for nature. According to the poet Collé, the history painter Doyen was commissioned by an unnamed ‘gentleman of the Court’ to paint his young mistress on a swing, pushed by a bishop with himself admiring her legs from below. Fragonard, who became well-known for his erotic genre-pictures, proved better suited to paint the work, in which the impudent reference to the church has been omitted, leaving the girl as the main focus, delicious in her froth of pink silk, poised mid-air tantalizingly beyond the reach of both her elderly seated admirer and her excited young lover. – Wallace Collection.org

Last Monday’s Art – The Northern Renaissance
Next Monday’s Art – Romanticism

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Monday Morning Museum: The Northern Renaissance

The Northern Renaissance - Germany and the Netherlands in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

The Northern Renaissance is the Renaissance that occurred in the European countries north of Italy. Before 1497 Italian Renaissance humanism had little influence outside Italy. From the late 15th century the ideas spread around Europe. This influenced the German Renaissance, French Renaissance, English Renaissance, Renaissance in the Low Countries, Polish Renaissance and other national and localized movements, each with different characteristics and strengths. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Jan van Eyck (see art example below), other artists of the Northern Renaissance are Robert Campin, Rogier van der Weyden, Albrecht Dürer, Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel and Hans Holbein.

The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434, by Jan van Eyck (circa 1395-1441)

This work is a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, but is not intended as a record of their wedding. His wife is not pregnant, as is often thought, but holding up her full-skirted dress in the contemporary fashion. Arnolfini was a member of a merchant family from Lucca living in Bruges. The couple are shown in a well-appointed interior.

The ornate Latin signature translates as 'Jan van Eyck was here 1434'. The similarity to modern graffiti is not accidental. Van Eyck often inscribed his pictures in a witty way. The mirror reflects two figures in the doorway. One may be the painter himself. Arnolfini raises his right hand as he faces them, perhaps as a greeting.

Van Eyck was intensely interested in the effects of light: oil paint allowed him to depict it with great subtlety in this picture, notably on the gleaming brass chandelier. – The National Gallery, London

Last Monday’s Art – The Renaissance
Next Monday’s Art – The Rococo Style

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Monday Morning Museum: The Renaissance

The Renaissance – Italy in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth centuries

The Renaissance (UK /rɨˈneɪsəns/, US /ˈrɛnɨsɑːns/, French pronunciation: [ʁənɛsɑ̃s], from French: Renaissance "re-birth", Italian: Rinascimento, from rinascere "to be reborn") was a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. Though availability of paper and the invention of metal movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century, the changes of the Renaissance were not uniformly experienced across Europe. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Raphael Sanzio (see art example below), other Renaissance artists are Sandro Botticelli, Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Leonardo da Vinci.

St. George Fighting the Dragon, 1505 by Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520)

Last Monday’s Art – Realism
Next Monday’s Art – The Northern Renaissance

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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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Monday Morning Museum: Pointillism

Pointillism – France in the 1880s

“Pointillism /ˈpwɛntɨlɪzəm/ is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term Pointillism was first coined by art critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works of these artists, and is now used without its earlier mocking connotation.” – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Henri-Edmond Cross (see art example below), other Pointillists are Georges Seurat, Paul Signac and Camille Pissarro

Les Iles d’Or, circa 1891-1892 by Henri-Edmond Cross (1856-1910)

“An exhibition of the work of Henry-Edmond Cross opened at the Druet Gallery in Paris on 21 March 1905. Emile Verhaeren, in a letter prefacing the catalogue, described the surroundings in which his friend had been living since he had joined him in the South of France: "I see the sea close by, the mountain chain of the Maures and in the distance the islands of Hyères, so beautiful that they are called the Golden Isles. […] the mountains unroll their ornamental line along the horizon and in the curve of the beaches, between the points of a succession of large capes, the fine yellow sand sparkles in the light". The poet could be describing the landscape of The Golden Isles which Cross painted in 1891-1892.

Although the subject of the canvas is indeed the islands, Cross has eliminated all picturesque elements and concentrated on the effects of light on colour. The various elements in the landscape become three large coloured bands: the sand, sea and sky.

In keeping with the Neo-impressionist technique that he had recently begun to apply, he used rounded brushstrokes of various sizes from the dabs in the foreground to the tiny dots on the horizon, adjusting the spacing to create a slight effect of perspective. The very high horizon line running across the composition is a direct reference to the Japanese art of Ukiyo-e prints.

Such a resolutely modern work could not fail to please Felix Fénéon, an ardent defender of Neo-impressionism, who bought it. The canvas was no doubt Cross' most daring work; it joined the national collections in 1947 after the first auction of the critic's collection.” – Musée d’Orsay

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

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Monday Morning Museum: Photorealism

Photorealism – From the 1960s to the 1970s

“Photorealism is the genre of painting based on using cameras and photographs to gather visual information and then from this creating a painting that appears to be photographic. The term is primarily applied to paintings from the United States art movement that began in the late 1960s and early 1970s.” – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Richard Estes (see art example below), others practitioners of Photorealism are Chuck Close and Audrey Flack.

Paris Street Scene, 1972 by Richard Estes (1932-Present)

Last Monday’s Art – Op Art
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Monday Morning Museum: Op Art

Op Art – From the 1950s to the 1960s

Op art, also known as optical art, is a style of visual art that makes use of optical illusions.

"Optical art is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing." Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made in black and white. When the viewer looks at them, the impression is given of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibration, patterns, or alternatively, of swelling or warping. – Wikipedia.org

In addition in Victor Vasarely (see art example below), other Op Art artists are Josef Albers, Maurits Cornelis Escher, Bridget Riley, Richard Anuszkiewicz, François Morellet and Jesús-Rafael Soto.

Zebegen by Victor Vasarely (1908-1997)

Last Monday’s Art – Neo-Plasticism
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Monday Morning Museum: Neo-Plasticism

Neo-Plasticism – Holland from 1920 to 1940

De Stijl (/də ˈstaɪl/; Dutch pronunciation: [də ˈstɛil]), Dutch for "The Style", also known as neoplasticism, was a Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917. In a narrower sense, the term De Stijl is used to refer to a body of work from 1917 to 1931 founded in the Netherlands. De Stijl is also the name of a journal that was published by the Dutch painter, designer, writer, and critic Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931), propagating the group's theories. – Wikipedia.org

In addition to Theo Van Doesburg (see art example below), other practitioners of Neo-Plasticism are Piet Mondrian, Vilmos Huszar, Jean Gorin, Charmion von Wiegand and Ilya Bolotowsky.

Peinture Pure, 1920 by Theo Van Doesburg (1883-1931)

Réalisée en 1920, quand Mondrian publie Le Néoplasticisme chez Léonce Rosenberg à Paris – et que Van Doesburg choisit le pseudonyme de I.K. Bonset pour éditer la revue dada Mécano (1920-1927) –, Peinture pure (cat. rais. no 652) est exemplaire de l’évolution du système plastique globalisant de Van Doesburg, appliqué à toutes les pratiques artistiques : peinture, architecture, arts décoratifs et typographie. . . . Le titre Décomposition sous lequel Peinture pure a été exposée dans les années 1920 (La Haye, « La Section d’Or », 11 juillet-1er août 1920) avant de prendre son nom actuel à l’exposition du Salon des Indépendants à Paris, en 1929, est significatif des deux formules d’« élémentarisation » et d’« intégration », élaborées par De Stijl. Le terme d’élémentarisation signifie décomposition de la forme en une série de composantes réduites à quelques éléments, et celui d’intégration désigne l’articulation de ces éléments entre eux en un tout indivisible et non hiérarchique. Avec Peinture pure, Van Doesburg considérait qu’il avait atteint son but d’« une composition entièrement plate dans laquelle le point central est en dehors de la peinture ». Proche d’une autre peinture modulaire de 1920, Composition XX (Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza), elle s’en distingue par la présence, dans le coin gauche de la toile, d’un grand carré d’un blanc vibrant, qui contredit ironiquement le caractère mécaniquement répétitif de la trame picturale. – Centre Georges Pompidou

Approximate translation:

Made in 1920, when Mondrian published Le Néoplasticisme (The Neoplasticism) at Léonce Rosenberg in Paris - and that Van Doesburg chose the pseudonym I.K. Bonset to edit the dada magazine Mécano (Mechanic) (1920-1927) - Peinture pure (Pure Painting) (cat. rais. No. 652) is an example of the evolution of the plastic holistic system of Van Doesburg, applied to all artistic practices: painting, architecture, decorative arts and typography. . . . The title Décomposition (Decomposition) under which Peinture pure (Pure Painting) was exhibited in the 1920s (The Hague, "The Golden Section", 11 July-1 August 1920) before taking its current name to the exhibition of the Salon des Indépendants (Show of the Independents) in Paris, in 1929, is significant of the two forms of "elementarisation" and of "integration", developed by De Stijl. The term elementarisation refers to decomposition in the form of a series of components reduced to a few elements, and the integration refers to the articulation of these elements together indivisible and non-hierarchical. With Peinture pure (Painting Pure), Van Doesburg believed he had achieved his goal of "a fully flat composition in which the focus is outside the painting". Close to another modular painting of 1920, Composition XX (Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza), it is distinguished by the presence, in the left corner of the canvas, of a large square of vibrant white, which ironically contradicts the mechanically repetitive nature of the pictorial frame.

Last Monday’s Art – Neoclassicism
Next Monday’s Art – Op Art

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