Umenie a kultúra USA s Mgr. Martausovou

Arts & culture USA with Mgr. Martausová

Colonial America

 first, there were no arts, because people had to concentrate on building cities, taking care of

food, preserving religious traditions and settling down

 the development of arts in America is closely connected with various kinds of crafts that can

be considered to be the first types of arts in America

 the first fine arts were literature (Thomas Smith,e.g) and portraiture

 Portraiture

– it was ment only for the wealthiest people, because paiting them was very

expensive

 the authors didn´t sign their portraits and didn´t frame them either

 people were usually depicted as sitting, in very unnatural positions & were

surrounded by objects expressing their wealth

 the most famous painters of that time were Gerrit Duykinckck, Pieter

Vanderlyn, John Smibert (he was the 1st one to frame his paintings) &
Dominic West

 Dominic West

– participated on a Grand Tour (young artists from America

visited centres of European art such as Italy & France in order to learn new
techniques); he was a president of the Royal Academy of Arts

 his student, Charles Wilson Peale was one of the first

painters to paint a portrait of George Washington

Arts & society of the New Republic

 period after America claimed independence, the 1st constitution was ratified

 neoclassicism

became extremely popular, the whole Washington, D.C. was built in this

style, as well as the White House because it expressed America´s democratic attitude

 Hudson River School

– the 1st truly American artistic fraterniny; representatives: Thomas

Cole & George Innes (the most skilled lanscape painter)

 also genre painting became very popular – artists left martial & political themes and

focused on social issues

 innocence was one of the prevalent themes (painted children)

 first women started to paint (Mary Cassat, Lilly Martin

Spencer)

Gilded Age

 a period after the Civil War

 first museums & theatres were established

 two kinds of art: 1. „Official art“ - supported by the aristocracy, its purpose was to present

the idea of America being finally unified

2. Gilded Age Art

- „Gilded Age“ was a term coined by Mark Twain;

the artists focused on economic transofrmation, modernization &
industrialization

 Art Nouveau

– affected painting as well as architecture; Tiffany =)

 1st carrier woman – Candace Wheeler

 Impressionism

– many young artists left for Paris to learn new techniques
 focused on a landscape, on the impression of the artist rather than the

realictic view of the surroundings

 The Aschan School

– there were 8 of them, the most important was William Glackens

 they were called „The Apostles of Ugliness“

 they tried to produce art that would be for the masses, for ordinary

people

Photography

 unlike paintings, it was capable of capturing reality almost accurately

 first, its taking was very restricted due to a type of photography called Daguerrotype

 a photo taken was carved into a copper plate covered with silver which

created a mirror effect

 it was non-reproducible

 Talbotype

– a real boom in photography, different types were taken: 1. Public portraits –

photographing celebrities; Napoleon Sarony

2. Civil War photography
3. Scientific photography – concentrated on differenced between races and ethnicities; Zealy
4. Documentary photography – focused on social problems, such as immigration; Jacob Riis
5. Pictorialism – a movement which claimed that photos shouls resemble paitings; Alfred Stieglitz,
Paul Strand, Gertrude Kässebier
6. Amateur photography – started when the Kodak comapny as the first one sold camers for
ordinary people; the motto stated „You press the button, we do the rest“; the camera was very
comfortable, light and easy to work with

Modernism

 artists tried to turn away from European art and create their own, new art

 tried to recover the emotional values that were supressed during the Gilded Age

 The Armory Show

– exhibition containing modernist American works, as well as from the

Aschan painters & European modernists (Van Gogh ♥♥♥♥♥)

 an attempt to fight against the National Academy

 The Stieglitz Stable

– disagreed with the Aschans, claimed that American art is elite, not for

the masses

 tried to addapt European avant-garde art to American modernist styles

 Synchronism

– tried to capture the rhythm of music

 American Dada

– tried to push the boundaries of art as far as possible, challenge the art

 artists produced art of already existing goods or junk

 Interwar years & Modernism

– people were disillusioned from the war, this reflected in

the arts (very bleak, dark & depressing)

 The Jazz Age (1920´s)

 1st murals

 also Native Americans & Hispanics started to be recognized

=)

 representatives of all these styles above: Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O´Keefe, Marcel

Duchamp, Arthur Dove, Diego Rivera

New Deal for the arts

 time of the Great Depression

 the collapse of the stock market caused the collapse of the arts market

 art was no more supported by the nobilities, it became non-discriminatory & artists of

different races & religions gained popularity

 artists turned away from the previous symbols of americanism (industries & factories) and

went back to ordinary people and social issues

 government started tu support the arts; established associations for the artists

 Lester Beall

 Social Realism

– almost 60% of women in America were unemployed; the government

called upon them to give their jobs up for men, so many women started to paint

 Isabel Bishop, Dorothea Lange

 Regionalism

– the authors went back to American history

 depicted the life of American farmers, presented self-reliance & hard work as

the most important values which are the source of American strenght &
solidarity

 Grant Wood; Thomas Hart Benton

(the leading figure)

Ethnic & Aesthetic pluralism

 Native Americans wanted to show that they also had an artictic voice & that they were

modern; the government supported young Indians in painting

 Stuart Davis

Abstractionism

2. a non-objective art (didn´t depict any objects)
3. became a political weapon, used for protesting aginst the conditions in America
4. Jackson Pollock

– Benton´s student, used to be a regionalist, but later the turned to

abstractionism

 during the Cold War, many artists became a political weapon (they painted propagandas),

others turned to surrealism; Norman Rockwell

Neo-dada & Pop Art

 The Store

 Carl Oldenburg´s exhibition whose main purpose was to show that there is not such a

big difference between a museum visitor & a department store shopper

 the artists depicted things from everyday consumer life (hamburgers, doughnuts...)

 American artists no more competed with Europe

 Neo-dada

– claimed that artists should paint whatever they want

 The Black Mountain event

– blending of music, dancing, movies, paintings

& scuplture; the meaning of an artwork was to be completed by the audience

 Jasper Johns

 The Beats

– expressed their disgust with racism, consumerism & conformism of American

people; echoed existencialism; called for freedom of expression; interested in reamking
America

 Jay DeFeo; Bruce Conner

 Funk

– influenced by Zen-Buddhism (not the result, but the process is important)

 Robert Ameson

 Pop Art

– depicted popular consumer items (TV, soup cans, comic books, Coca-Cola...)

 Andy Warhol; James Rosenquist

 Minimalism

– claimed that art should be pure, honest & direct

 Richard Serra, Chuck Close

 Conceptual art

– claimed that content is important, not the form

 Joseph Kossuth

Earthworks – tried to bring the art back to nature
Nancy Holt