Visual Arts Final Exam
MODERN ART
DADA 1916-1922
Marcel Duchamp – “Fountian 1917 sculpture”
Ready made sculpture that consist of porcelain urinal signed ‘R. Mutt’ the urinal is situated upside
down.
Context and movement:
- WWII Hugo Ball had established the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich.
- Centre for artist and writers that shared an outlook of protesting against the society of that
time. It was a cross between a nightclub and art society. The events were important to the
founding of DADA. Which was a protest movement against WWI.
- Millions killed and questioned human existence.
- DADA originated because of the disillusionment and disgust of the senseless war. Autocratic
governments and materialistic gains started the great war.
- The war showed the government greed and materialism and what it does.
- Human logic was a result to the carnage and the only solution was political anarchy.
- It placed importance on human emotion, intuitive and irrational.
Creative process, concepts and subject matter:
- Duchamps work clearly mocks traditional art and art museums and its systems. By using
manufactured objects and calling or declaring it art.
- There is an experimentation with the use of ready-made objects as they are playfully
assembled, it is not showing a clear process or intent.
- The traditions are completely rejected and there is no use of skill or illusionistic space
created.
https://cdn.britannica.com/24/181724-050-67D779F6/Fountain-replica-original-Marcel-
Duchamp-1917.jpg
, ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
Jackson Pollock – “Lavender Mist”
Abstract painting, multitude of drips and splatters of lilac-toned and grey paint (readymade artist)
Context and movement:
- Harold Rosenberg had published an article with the title American Action painters, from that
the term action painter was used to describe artists whose paintings were made with the
physical act of painting.
- The act was seen as an existential exercise, and relevant to the artist’s personality. An extreme
form of honesty and self-expression.
- Artists that were a part of abstract expressionism knew each other and were contemporaries
but has no uniform stylistic trait or manifesto or programme.
Creative process, concepts and subject matter:
- Pollock creates his pieces by using a big canvas and laying it on the floor. He then attacks the
canvas with paint using unconventional methods of dripping and splattering paint.
- With the process being completed he would evaluate the canvas and choose a suitable portion
that would remind him of something and/or had artistic merit.
- Pollock goal was to remove any motif which could create an association, and his technical
work showed imagery and employed skill and realistic technique to show illusionistic space.
- His work embodied experimentation as he creates things that have never been done before and
he does not plan anything out, his work is the essence of experimentation.
https://www.jackson-pollock.org/assets/img/paintings/lavender-mist.jpg
MODERN ART
DADA 1916-1922
Marcel Duchamp – “Fountian 1917 sculpture”
Ready made sculpture that consist of porcelain urinal signed ‘R. Mutt’ the urinal is situated upside
down.
Context and movement:
- WWII Hugo Ball had established the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich.
- Centre for artist and writers that shared an outlook of protesting against the society of that
time. It was a cross between a nightclub and art society. The events were important to the
founding of DADA. Which was a protest movement against WWI.
- Millions killed and questioned human existence.
- DADA originated because of the disillusionment and disgust of the senseless war. Autocratic
governments and materialistic gains started the great war.
- The war showed the government greed and materialism and what it does.
- Human logic was a result to the carnage and the only solution was political anarchy.
- It placed importance on human emotion, intuitive and irrational.
Creative process, concepts and subject matter:
- Duchamps work clearly mocks traditional art and art museums and its systems. By using
manufactured objects and calling or declaring it art.
- There is an experimentation with the use of ready-made objects as they are playfully
assembled, it is not showing a clear process or intent.
- The traditions are completely rejected and there is no use of skill or illusionistic space
created.
https://cdn.britannica.com/24/181724-050-67D779F6/Fountain-replica-original-Marcel-
Duchamp-1917.jpg
, ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
Jackson Pollock – “Lavender Mist”
Abstract painting, multitude of drips and splatters of lilac-toned and grey paint (readymade artist)
Context and movement:
- Harold Rosenberg had published an article with the title American Action painters, from that
the term action painter was used to describe artists whose paintings were made with the
physical act of painting.
- The act was seen as an existential exercise, and relevant to the artist’s personality. An extreme
form of honesty and self-expression.
- Artists that were a part of abstract expressionism knew each other and were contemporaries
but has no uniform stylistic trait or manifesto or programme.
Creative process, concepts and subject matter:
- Pollock creates his pieces by using a big canvas and laying it on the floor. He then attacks the
canvas with paint using unconventional methods of dripping and splattering paint.
- With the process being completed he would evaluate the canvas and choose a suitable portion
that would remind him of something and/or had artistic merit.
- Pollock goal was to remove any motif which could create an association, and his technical
work showed imagery and employed skill and realistic technique to show illusionistic space.
- His work embodied experimentation as he creates things that have never been done before and
he does not plan anything out, his work is the essence of experimentation.
https://www.jackson-pollock.org/assets/img/paintings/lavender-mist.jpg
