I chose Matisse and Picasso because while I am familiar with both artists, I don't know much about their relationship with each other. I chose Dance at the Moulin de la Galette because I've never been a big Renoir fan, so maybe learning more about the man and one of his most famous paintings will sway my opinion a little bit. I chose A Sunday on La Grande Jatte because it's always fascinating to learn about Seurat's process, and I chose Expressionism because it simply is a movement that can be strange and alluring.
Matisse and Picasso began in such a strange way that at first I felt like I was watching a Bergman film. We are first introduced with Matisse, who believes that drawing is that same as painting, but just with fewer materials. In 1905, most people were shocked at Matisse's portrait of his wife. The American Stein family, on the other hand, recognized it as something new and unique, and purchased it. It was Gertrude Stein that insisted that Matisse and Picasso meet. Their personalities, however, were very different. Picasso ran hot, was passionate, and had the support of his family. Matisse was cool, thoughtful, and had to go against his parent's wishes in order to paint. The women in their paintings, as well, couldn't be more different. Picasso often painted them diseased, as prostitutes, with misshapen, mask-like faces, while Matisse's women were innocent and deity-like. They both, however, respected one another.
In 1918, they had a joint exhibition, but then parted ways for a time. At nearly 50, Matisse left his family for Nice, and painted "odelisks". Picasso, meanwhile, married Olga the ballet dancer, who did not care for the avant garde. He created odelisk paintings that mock them, and Olga as well. Matisse traveled to Tahiti, but Picasso felt no need to travel. He wanted to paint while as close as possible to the unconscious, and so did not need the external stimulus of a new, exotic place.
Both artists were interested in painting the woman in relation to the painter, but Matisse's were more real, more personal women. Picasso had many lovers, and amplified their round, curving femininity in his paintings. His women were more objectified and exploited than Matisse's, who wanted an equal. Both Picasso and Matisse stayed in Paris during the German occupation of France, and the violence of the times can be seen in Picasso's work, but not in Matisse's, even when he learned that his wife and daughter had been arrested. Both experienced depression and had suicidal thoughts occasionally, and painting was a way to cope with this, even if their end products were vastly different. Late in life, both experienced "new" lives. Picasso became a father again at age 70 and explored ceramics, and Matisse became restricted to a wheel chair, where he used paper cutouts to create his artwork. The two would visit and talk with another, obsessed with their opposites. When Matisse was creating the artwork for a chapel, the differences between them became more pronounced, as Picasso was a staunch atheist. Still, Picasso helped him with the project for four years. In the Temple of War and Peace, Picasso created a "reply" to Matisse's chapel, a much darker place. At Matisse's death, however, Picasso did not attend the funeral. He mourned privately, and carried on the dialogue he had with him, now assuming both ends of the conversation.
Dance at the Moulin de la Galette is an example of the Impressionist's love for the joy of modern, bourgeois life in Paris. It's a Sunday afternoon at a dance hall, the dappling of the sun evident. There are actually two versions of it, one half the size of the other and rarely seen in public. Renoir loved the dance hall, which had not yet been transformed by Haussmann and was nestled between two windmills. Some of the people featured in the painting are local models he was fond of, while others were fellow artists and friends. The women were often from the lower class, while the men were typically higher class. What is not evident in the painting is the prostitution that existed in these dance halls. While the women are smiling and laughing, they were largely poor seamstresses that sometimes had to resort to selling themselves. One of the main figures, for instance, only modeled for Renoir because she needed the money. His world was a fantasy world, that only featured joy.
The carefree painting was created in violent times, when the government declared war on Paris. The dance hall was even occupied by the "Commune," the rebelling forces. It wasn't because he was trying to pretend that everything was perfect that he left out these darker sides of the dance hall, but because he wanted to show the positive side of people. Renoir began his career as a porcelain painter, and from then on he was interested in the interactions and flirtations between men and women. In Dance at the Moulin de la Galette, the couples not only touch each other, but seem to cling to each other. They appear very intimate. Other artists chose this dance hall as the subject for their artwork, but the effect is quite different. It often appears seamier, darker, and edgier. The innocence and joy is gone. All of the paintings are from the artists' points of view, one not more valid than another.
The painting, whether it's "accurate" or not, was new in the way it was painted. At the time, it looked unfinished and sketchy to many people. He did not always mix his colors, but instead painted colors side by side. He possibly did not paint in the studio, but at the dance hall itself. The smaller version is even sketchier, which is why most people believe this one came first. The larger version was shown in the third Impressionist exhibition, where the reaction was mixed. It was the artist Gustave Caillebotte who purchased it, and it now rests in the Musee d'Orsay. The smaller version, meanwhile, is typically hidden from public eye. In 1990, it was up for auction, and bought for 78 million dollars, the second highest bid for a painting in the world. The winner placed it into a climate controlled vault, where it could be seen by no one, until it was sold again for fifty million dollars by an anonymous bidder. While this private collector has made it so that the public can no longer view it, Dance at the Moulin de la Galette is still seen through reproductions, magnets, t-shirts, and countless other versions of it.
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte explores the Seurat painting of the same name. It was both an artwork and a experiment, and is now continuously caricatured. Seurat was in his twenties when he spent two years on the painting, which took place on an island on the Seine. Some believe that the location of the painting hints at prostitution, and that the woman with the fishing reel was a prostitute. Another odd aspect is the monkey, which was a symbol for lascivious behavior. Because of this, it is thought that the owner was a mistress of several men, who kept her dressed fashionably.
The painting was created in Seurat's new style, Pointalism. He actually painted on the island, observing it in different types of light, with figures placed in different areas. He read about color theory, and how a color was affected by the colors that were placed next to it. Having already spent a year on the painting, he now went over it with the tiny dots and dashes it's now famous for. Up close, one can see the tiny, contrasting colors that make up the painting, but when standing back, they work together and create an energetic, bustling surface. The rigidity of the figures' profiles are perhaps a comment on the rigidity of society at the time, or were perhaps influenced by Egyptian art's rigid poses.
Many artists were offended by the painting, and refused to have their paintings exhibited alongside it. Few at the exhibition paid it any attention, but those who did championed it as a comment on modern Parisian society. It was soon bought by an American, and it was only after this that France truly appreciated the painting. It now is displayed in Chicago, and only has left the city once, when it was nearly ruined in a fire. Like Dance at the Moulin de la Galette, the painting has been replicated in many forms, even as a topiary.
Expressionism, unlike the other videos, does not focus on one or two specific artists, but on the movement in general. Still, Edvard Munch is one of the most prominent artists of this movement. In his Ashes, Munch shows the sorrow of the woman, and the incompatibility of the genders. He showed raw emotion in his figures, which was too harsh for many of the bourgeois audience. Perhaps he was capable of portraying such emotion because of the deep, tragic feelings he felt at a young age at the deaths of his mother and sister. His paintings were often pessimistic, showing the anxiety people felt both in nature and in the modern world.
Franz Marc, the German artist, typically incorporated animals into his paintings, for he found them beautiful while humans were "ugly." This is evident in The Tiger, where the animal is not a trophy for humans, but majestic in its own right. His paintings were typically painted in unrealistic colors that were chosen instead for their emotional content. The forms were very simplified and angular, almost abstract, and he joined the movement led by Kandinsky, The Blue Rider. His paintings feel like premonitions of war, which would soon cause his death. Ernst Kirchner's Five Women on the Street is another German painting, created near the beginning of WWI. The figures appear flashy, streamlined, and rather grotesque in their fanged luxury. He began another art group, The Bridge, which was a period of friendship and creativity for the artist. His style changed after the breakup of the group, becoming more linear and tense. Like Marc, his disquieting painting of the five women seems to be a premonition of the war.
Max Beckman worked as a medical orderly during WWI, and this changed his painting style. His work became sharper, and was labeled degenerate. In Amsterdam, he created Actors, where a king appears to be stabbing himself with a knife. The work is a triptych, portraying a play, and isfilled with movement and action. What exactly is going on in the painting is something of a mystery, but it is perhaps a metaphor for his own life. Georg Baselitz's The Great Friends shows two people who appear to be filled with sorrow but are somewhat lifeless. They appear to be in some kind of ruin, but it is unclear what catastrophe has taken place. Is it real? A dream? While the two friends seem to be in very bad shape, they are struggling to survive, so there is some hope. Anselm Kiefer's Interior explores, like many of his paintings, Nazi Germany. The painting is highly textured and rough looking, with earthy coloring. No people inhabit the painting, and it almost seems to be a study on architectural perspective. It is reminiscent of da Vinci's The Last Supper, but the Messiah is now gone and the place is abandoned and rotting. It is also influenced by Nazi architecture, which appears in his painting as ghostly and tomb like.
Matisse and Picasso related to the text because it focused on two artists that were leaders of prominent 20th century movements. The video is a good supplement to the text because it shows how the artists of different movements interacted with each other. Sometimes, when learning about various movements, one forgets that many of them were happening at the same time, and these artists would have known and influenced each other. Dance at the Moulin de la Galette explores Renoir's masterpiece, which is one of the few Renoirs that I don't mind. We learned a little bit about it in the text, but in the video we learn about the historical context of the painting, and how many elements of the dance hall were left out in order to create a carefree painting. I never would have known that a rather mysterious, smaller version of the painting exists, and I would have dismissed it as a fluff scene rather than a painting of hope. This video as well as A Sunday on La Grande Jatte shows how the artworks have become more than paintings. We learn about the original paintings in the text, but in the videos we learn how they have entered popular culture. Expressionism was the most uncomfortable to watch of the videos. It conveyed the emotions that were present in Expressionism in a more palpable manner than the text did. It also covered Expressionist paintings from a century ago to fairly recently, so it was nice to see how the movement has evolved. That said, the narration was drier than I would have preferred, at least after having watched the other videos. Overall, though, the videos went in-depth into the artist's lives and historical contexts, which made me able to appreciate the artworks more than I had done previously.
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