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1873    Neoclassicism/Naturalism                                          William-Adolphe Bougeureau                    Nymphs and Satyr                                  Oil On Canvas

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1873    Neoclassicism/Naturalism                                          William-Adolphe Bougeureau                    Nymphs and Satyr                                  Oil On Canvas

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This piece depicts a group of nude nymphs bathing in a pool of water with a satyr, which is a drunken and lustful roman god. This painting was largely attractive to the male audience because, at the time female nudity was not commonplace, so seeing it in a painting was provocative and appealing. The painting was later acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark. The painting is a part of academism, and could be considered as a reaction against impressionism. The Academy was formed after the death of Michaelangelo, D'avinci, and other renaissance artists. It involves classical and traditional approaches to painting and the arts and emphasizes the importance of preservation of tradition.  Additionally, artists working for the (French) Academy, were guaranteed pay, so long as they remained within the academy's guidelines. Artists were scouted and picked from young ages and were brought up being taught fundamental art principals and techniques.
Image collected from: https://useum.org/artwork/Nymphs-and-Satyr-William-Adolphe-Bouguereau-1873

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1876. Modern Sculpture. Auguste Rodin. The Walking Man. 1905 (made 1877-78). Bronze. 

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1876. Modern Sculpture. Auguste Rodin. The Walking Man. 1905 (made 1877-78). Bronze. 

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Rodin notably emphasized the importance of building forms within his works. He largely emphasizes the drama, energy and movement within the sculpture while also showing his analysis and understanding of the human form. Rodin challenged traditional sculpture by only representing fragmented features of the human body and excluding the arms and legs of the body. By doing this, he expressed the fact that sculpture can still be complete and brilliant despite the fact that it is not represented in it's entirety.

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Auguste Rodin | The Walking Man (L’homme qui marche) | French | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Signature: On front of base: A. Rodin

Inscription: On top of base: à Madame / Nelson Robinson de New York / M. Rodin heureux de voir / son oeuvre l’homme qui marche / figurée dans son salon lui offre / ses hommages affecteux

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1876 Impressionism Claude Monet: Boulevard des Capucines. 

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1876 Impressionism Claude Monet: Boulevard des Capucines. 

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This painting depicts the liveliness and movement taking place in the streets of Paris. Monet's use of color and a shallow sense of perspective create an energetic sense of movement which mimics photography. This piece falls into the early impressionistic movement, which began in France in the 1860s and valued the expression of movement and experimentation with color and line work over the ability to accurately depict something. Some of the early and influential impressionists include Degas, Renoir and Monet. Impressionism disregards

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Claude Monet | Boulevard des Capucines | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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1884-86 Post/Neo -Impressionism/ Pointillism A Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat

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1884-86 Post/Neo -Impressionism/ Pointillism A Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat

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| This painting by Seurat depicts a variety of people from different walks of life all gathered in a park in Paris. Elements such as a mistress in a bustle with a monkey or a man in casual clothing laying comfortably in the grass are all in stand in contrast to each other and emphasize the diversity and social atmospheres in Paris at the time. Seurat and other impressionists and Post impressionists emphasized the importance of knowledge of color theory and were heavily influenced by the scientific understandings of the world around them. Therefore, This style of painting, which is more specifically considered pointillism, required precision in its use of colors, as it is comprised of thousands of dots of paint.

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1888 Post Impressionism (primitivist ideology) Paul Gaugin: The Vision after the sermon. Oil on canvas

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1888 Post Impressionism (primitivist ideology) Paul Gaugin: The Vision after the sermon. Oil on canvas

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This painting depicts a group of women seeing a vision of Jacob wrestling with an angel after listening to a sermon. This painting is significant because of Gaugin's ability to stray from naturalism and its tendencies. In the image, we can tell that accurate perspective isn't a priority in Gaugin's work (hence his still life paintings with disproportionate tables). If we look at the faces or placements of the figures throughout the painting, we can see that there is no use of shading to help indicate whether objects are in the foreground or background. Gaugin was also considered one of the first artists to begin to adopt a more primitivist ideology and incorporate it into his work. Primitivism is not considered an art movement, but a belief that idealizes non-western cultures by assuming that they are more connected to earth and simplicity, but also sees the as inferior to western cultures and society.

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Gauguin's Vision of the Sermon is one of the most famous images in the history of art. Puzzling and mysterious, this daring and experimental composition became a manifesto for a new approach to painting. With its surprising colour, its bold outlines and deliberately flattened shapes, Gauguin set a new benchmark for the artist's freedom to distort and exaggerate for expressive purposes, declaring his interest in an art based on the world of ideas and the imagination rather than observed reality.

Gauguin was a late starter as an artist. Prior to painting Vision of the Sermon, his nomadic life had already included a childhood in Peru, a spell as a merchant sailor and a phase as a respectable stockbroker in Paris. He was a collector and amateur painter when, after the stock market crash of 1882, he decided to take up painting full-time, eventually more or less abandoning his wife and family and embarking on the peripatetic lifestyle that would ultimately take him across the world to the South Seas and the island of Tahiti.

Vision of the Sermon was painted at Pont-Aven in Brittany in the summer of 1888. Gauguin was looking to move beyond the Impressionism of his early work, and his stays in Brittany in 1886 and 1888 were important stages in the formation of a new, simpler style. He was working closely with his young friend Émile Bernard and was in touch by letter with Vincent van Gogh in Arles. The ideas and ambitions that they shared encouraged Gauguin to experiment and in late September he wrote to Van Gogh to tell him that he had just painted 'a religious picture, badly executed but it interested me to do it and I like it'. In this painting Gauguin attempted to combine the real and the imagined. The Breton women in traditional costume in the foreground have just heard a sermon, presumably delivered by the tonsured priest that we glimpse at the lower right. In the upper half of the composition Gauguin evokes the vision that the women now share after listening to the sermon which described the biblical episode of Jacob wrestling with an angel (Genesis 32: 24-32). To emphasise the contrast between the real women and the spiritual experience they imagine, Gauguin divided the composition with the diagonal trunk of an apple tree and set their dream of the wrestling figures against a striking, flat red background. Gauguin was pleased with the result and in the same letter to Van Gogh he wrote: 'I think I have achieved a great rustic and superstitious simplicity in the figures. The whole is very severe.'

Gauguin's deliberate distortions of form and colour were a rejection not just of conventional painting but also of more modern naturalistic styles such as Impressionism. Vision of the Sermon was shown at various exhibitions from 1889 onwards and it helped to establish his reputation as an innovator, becoming an important example for younger artists seeking new directions in art. Even today it remains a challenging picture, and Gauguin himself was not surprised when, shortly after its completion, he twice tried to donate it to local churches but his offers were firmly rejected.

This text was originally published in 100 Masterpieces: National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2015.

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Vision of the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel)

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Gauguin's Vision of the Sermon is one of the most famous images in the history of art. Puzzling and mysterious, this daring and experimental composition became a manifesto for a new approach to painting.

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1888 Expressionism. The Night Cafe. Vincent Van Gogh. Oil on Canvas

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1888 Expressionism. The Night Cafe. Vincent Van Gogh. Oil on Canvas

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This painting By Van Gogh Depicts a very intense atmosphere within a cafe where a crime is about to take place. Van Gogh is rumored to have painted this after a violent dispute with Gaugin and occurred before he infamously cut off his own ear and before he went to an asylum. Van Gogh's work encapsulates the post impressionist period. Van Gogh's work is very expressive and textured. In this piece, we can see the radiation of light being emitted from the light bulbs based on the distinct and textured line work surrounding the light bulbs. Van Gogh's work marks the transition into a more expressionistic approach to art which is very emotional and marked by its distinct vibrancy and texture and expression of emotion.

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Alan Shestack, ed., Yale University Art Gallery Selections (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1983), 68-69, ill.

Michael Conforti et al., The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings, exh. cat. (Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2006), 156, 181-83, 248, 316, 328, no. 144, fig. 149, 152.

Carol Troyen et al., Edward Hopper, exh. cat. (Verona, Italy: MFA Publications, 2007), 199, no. 74, ill.

Carlos Bosch, El Billar No Es De Vagos: Ciencia, Juegos y Diversion (San Diego: El Fondo de Cultura Economica, 2010), ill.

Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, Nineteenth-Century European Art, ed. Sarah Touborg (Boston: Laurence King Publishing Ltd., 2012), 435.

Arthur P. Shimamura, Experiencing Art: In the Brain of the Beholder (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 83, fig. 4.6.

Natalya Semyonova and Nicolas V. Iljine, eds., Selling Russia's Treasures, The Soviet Trade in Nationalized Art, 1917-1938 (New York: MTA Publishing, 2013), 234-235, ill.

Walter Feilchenfeldt, Vincent van Gogh: The Years in France, Complete Paintings 1886-1890, II (London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2013), 160; 342, ill.

Penelope J. E. Davies, Janson's History of Art: The Western Tradition, Reissued 8th ed. (Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2016), 913-14, fig. 26.10.

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Alan Shestack, ed., Yale University Art Gallery Selections (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1983), 68-69, ill. Michael Conforti et al., The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings, exh. cat. (Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2006), 156, 181-83, 248, 316, 328, no. 144, fig.

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1893 Proto- Expressionism Edvard Munch. The Cry. Oil on Canvas

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1893 Proto- Expressionism Edvard Munch. The Cry. Oil on Canvas

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Much like Van Gogh, Munch also struggled with severe mental health issues and inner turmoil which was then expressed in his artwork. The Cry is possibly a representation of the anxieties and general mental instability that Munch was experiencing. This era marked the beginning of Proto- Expressionism and Symbolism. This Movement also includes artists such as Edouard Vuillard and Henri de Toulouse - Lautrec. Proto- expression is often identifiable through its significantly thick and textured line work and its expressiveness and emotionality and general disregard for depicting accurate forms.

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Edvard Munch's iconic (1895), among the most celebrated and recognized images in art history, will be on view at The Museum of Modern Art for a period of six months. Of the four versions of made by Munch between 1893 and 1910, this pastel-on-board from 1895 is the only one remaining in private hands; the three other versions are in the collections of museums in Norway. The Scream is being lent by a private collector.

"The startling power of Munch's original work endures almost despite the image's present-day ubiquity," notes Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, who is organizing the installation. "The visual subtlety and complexity of this composition can't be summed up in a cliché."

A haunting rendition of a hairless figure on a bridge under a yellow-orange sky, The Scream has captured the popular imagination since the time of its making. The image was originally conceived by Munch as part of his epic Frieze of Life series, which explored the progression of modern life by focusing on the themes of love, angst, and death. Especially concerned with the expressive representation of emotions and personal relationships, Munch was associated with the international development of Symbolism during the 1890s and recognized as a precursor of 20th-century Expressionism.

The Scream will be installed in the Museum's Painting and Sculpture Galleries, along with a selection of prints by Munch drawn from the Museum's extensive collection of his work.

Please note that during Member Early Viewing Hours, this exhibition is not open to the general public until 10:30 a.m.

Organized by Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture.

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Exhibition. Oct 24, 2012-Apr 29, 2013. Edvard Munch's iconic The Scream (1895), among the most celebrated and recognized images in art history, will be on view at The Museum of Modern Art for a period of six months.

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1893. Graphic Arts. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Jane Avril at the Jardin de Paris. Color Lithograph. 

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1893. Graphic Arts. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Jane Avril at the Jardin de Paris. Color Lithograph. 

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This piece was produced by a Color Lithograph and is widely considered to be the origin of graphic arts. When producing this image, it needed to be able to be reproduced many times for very cheap, so a minimal color pallet was used. Additionally, it was a poster, so it needed to be eye catching. Toulouse accomplished all of these things, his color pallet only consists of yellow, red, and a greyscale. Additionally, he uses a suggestive pose in order to attract the attention of a male audience. This piece largely encapsulates what graphic arts aims to communicate which is simplified forms with a minimal color pallet and the ability to effectively communicate while providing minimal but necessary information.

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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec | Jane Avril | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Lautrec's graphic posters-for performers, like Jane Avril, or dance halls, like the Moulin Rouge-embody the ebullient, frenetic spirit of the nightlife in fin-de-siècle Paris. Avril, a lifelong friend of the artist, commissioned this print to advertise her cabaret show at the Jardin de Paris in 1893.

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1903. Fauvism. Carmelina. Henri Matisse. Oil on Canvas

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1903. Fauvism. Carmelina. Henri Matisse. Oil on Canvas

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In this piece, Matisse draws on inspiration from multiple different art movements such as expressionism and neo- expressionism. In this painting, Matisse depicts a model, while also painting himself reflected in a mirror in the background. Matisse is one of the large influential artists in fauvism. Fauvism has a tendency to be expressive in its form and mark making and utilize unrealistic or unnatural and vibrant color pallets.

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Matisse represented the female nude many times, both in painting and in sculpture. In this striking early work, the rounded forms of Carmelina's body, strongly modeled in light and dark, stand out almost in relief against the pattern of rectangular shapes behind her. The subject of the nude, usually relaxed and seductive, here becomes a confrontation between the boldly posed model and the artist, who is visible in the mirror at the back of the studio.

Inscriptions Lower left: Henri Matisse

Provenance By 1912, Bernheim-Jeune, Paris [see note 1]. 1931, sold by Baron Shigetaro Fukushima (b. 1895 - d. 1960), Paris, to Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York; 1932, sold by Pierre Matisse Gallery to the MFA for $10,050 [see note 2]. (Accession Date: February 4, 1932)

NOTES:
[1] Bernheim-Jeune et Cie. lent the painting to the "Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition" (Grafton Galleries, London, October 5 - December 31, 1912), cat. no. 9. [2] MFA accession numbers RES.32.2-RES.32.18 were purchased for $10,050.

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Matisse represented the female nude many times, both in painting and in sculpture. In this striking early work, the rounded forms of Carmelina's body, strongly modeled in light and dark, stand out almost in relief against the pattern of rectangular shapes behind her.

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1905-06. French Fauvism. Henri Matisse. The Joy of Life. Oil on Canvas

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1905-06. French Fauvism. Henri Matisse. The Joy of Life. Oil on Canvas

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This painting depicts a group of nude figures having a picnic on a beach. Gaugin utilities primarily warm and pink non-naturalistic tones to represent this figures. There are even green and blue halos around some figures, further abstracting from realistic representations of human forms in space. Additionally the embraces taking place among several of the characters provide a sense of sensuality and vivacity. Matisse, along with other french fauvists such as Raoul Dufy and Georges Braque use vibrant tones in their work and nearly abstracted or simplified forms and shadows in their works.

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Barnes Collection Online - Henri Matisse: Le Bonheur de vivre, also called The Joy of Life

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Barnes Collection Online - Henri Matisse: Le Bonheur de vivre, also called The Joy of Life

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Barnes Foundation Collection: Henri Matisse. Le Bonheur de vivre, also called The Joy of Life -- The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia is home to one of the world's greatest collections of impressionist, post-impressionist and early modern paintings.

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1907-08. Art Nouveau.  Gustav Klint. The Kiss. Oil on Canvas. 

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1907-08. Art Nouveau.  Gustav Klint. The Kiss. Oil on Canvas. 

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This painting depicts two lovers sharing a kiss, but also is a larger metaphor and expression for the love and intimacy shared within a relationship. Klimt is a great representation of the art nouveau style because, this piece, along with others represent the common stylistic techniques used within the genre. Art Nouveau largely emphasizes decorative or ornamental and at times, primitive elements. We can see this, especially in, The Kiss because the figures appeared to be wrapped in a cloak which looks similar to stained glass.

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Austrian artist Gustav Klimt is known for his ethereal, pattern-rich portraits. Today, several of these canvases are considered masterpieces, though , a particularly exquisite piece, seems to float above the rest.

Featuring shimmering gold tones, stylized forms, and sentimental iconography, The Kiss has enchanted audiences since its completion in 1908. Today, the awe-inspiring piece is housed in Vienna's esteemed Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, though its illustrious legacy transcends Klimt's Austrian roots.

Art Historical Context

As a member of the Secessionist Movement and a pioneer of Symbolism-a European genre of art characterized by mystical motifs, a personal approach to the visual arts, and an aesthetic similar to the contemporaneous Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts movements- Gustav Klimt often took an avant-garde approach to painting. His distinctive style is particularly apparent in The Kiss, which was painted during his luminous " Golden Period."

Works produced during this time feature pronounced planes and delicate detailing made of gold leaf. Inspired by Byzantine mosaics, this gilding gives each piece a glimmering appearance that accentuates the ethereal nature of Klimt's subject matter and style. In addition to The Kiss, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907), Judith and the Head of Holofernes (1901), and Water Serpents I (1904) convey this glimmering aesthetic.

Subject Matter

The Kiss depicts an embracing couple kneeling in a grassy patch of wildflowers. Clad in a geometrically-printed robe and with a crown of vines on his head, the man cradles the woman's face as he leans in to kiss her. The female figure-whose colorful, organically patterned dress contrasts her partner's garment-wears flowers in her hair. As she wraps her arms around her partner's neck, her eyes are peacefully closed, emphasizing the tranquility and intimacy of the scene.

Klimt often explored this theme of love in his work. In The Tree of Life, a mosaic from his Stoclet Frieze series, two figures that bear striking resemblance to those featured in The Kiss-both compositionally and aesthetically - are shown in a similar intimate embrace.

This amorous focus is also evident in Love, an early piece painted in 1895. While, stylistically, this work has little in common with Klimt's more well-known paintings, its romantic subject matter conveys his interest in exploring and capturing love."Whoever wants to know something about me," he said, "should look attentively at my pictures and there seek to recognize what I am and what I want."

As apparent in The Family, another gilded painting by Klimt, the artist's tendency toward this iconography is not limited to romantic love. In this depiction, a sleeping mother and father hug their child. Like The Kiss, the scene offers a quiet glimpse into an intimate relationship.

Aesthetic Importance

In addition to its golden style and subject matter, The Kiss is celebrated for other details distinctive to the artist. These include the presence of contrasting patterns, a bright color scheme, and fine lines.

Like many painters of the Vienna Secession-a movement formed by Austrian artists interested in breaking free from tradition-Klimt employed a highly decorative style in most of his works. This approach materialized mostly as patterns, which have a strong presence in The Kiss. From radiating rings and swirling spirals to rectangular blocks and concentric squares, the shapes, and forms featured in the painting showcase Klimt's attention to detail.

Though he is predominantly renowned for his liberal use of gold, Klimt also often employed a radiant range of colors in his compositions. This is particularly apparent in the stylized flowers that adorn the scene. These floral embellishments are evident in the hair of the embracing subjects, as well as in the grass in which they're kneeling. They are made up of an array of tones, including purple, white, blue, green, red, and orange, and add a touch of matte color to the nearly entirely reflective canvas.

Delicate Draughtsmanship

While many people recognize The Kiss for its bold pattern-work and shimmering paint, the fine lines that compose its figures are also characteristically Klimt. The artist's skilled draughtsmanship is especially evident in his rendering of the female subject. Her soft face features intricate eyelashes and a delicately-defined nose, while simple lines compose her gently bent hands.

Even with such a striking ability to gracefully conceive figurative yet dreamy subject matter, Klimt was unsure of his talents' true merit. "I can paint and draw," he explained. "I believe this myself and a few other people say that they believe this too. But I'm not certain of whether it's true." Given the everlasting influence and enduring admiration of The Kiss, however, there's little room for doubt.

Frequently Asked Questions

Austrian artist Gustav Klimt painted The Kiss between 1907 and 1908.

Gustav Klimt's The Kiss is located on the upper level of the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Austria.

What is the meaning behind The Kiss by Gustav Klimt?

The Kiss is a depiction of love, as evidenced by the couple intertwined in an amorous embrace.

This article has been edited and updated.

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The Story Behind Gustav Klimt's Shimmering Symbolist Painting 'The Kiss'

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Austrian artist Gustav Klimt is known for his masterpiece: "The Kiss." It is a shimmering and beloved sample of his Golden Period, which we explore.

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1907. Cubism. Pablo Picasso. Les Demoiselles D'Avignon. Oil on Canvas

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1907. Cubism. Pablo Picasso. Les Demoiselles D'Avignon. Oil on Canvas

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This piece depicts a group of prosititues which are soliciting themselves while wearing African masks. It is said that pablo drew inspiration from primitive or african art while visiting a museum and that is where he was able to draw inspiration for the simplified forms of the faces on the female characters in the painting. Cubism in itself uses a plastic language in order to create simplified and expressive forms. It is not naturalistic in its forms and often aims to capture the energy or vague forms of an object. Some of the prominent artists within this movement are Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

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1910(-26). German expressionism/ Die Brucke. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Self portrait with model. Oil on Canvas. 

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1910(-26). German expressionism/ Die Brucke. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Self portrait with model. Oil on Canvas. 

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In this painting, Kirchner portrays himself with a model, although there is notable uncomfortable sexual tension between the two. There is both a physical distance between them, with Kirchner being in the forefront, which may signify his dissociation or superiority to the model. Additionally, he is only depicted as wearing a robe and is holding his hand near his pelvic area while holding a phallic object, suggesting that he has sexual intentions with the model. Additionally, the model has her hands in front of her pelvis, seemingly guarding it, which possible evokes a sense of shame, discomfort or embarrassment. Kirchner belongs to a genre of fauvism called Die Brucke (or The Bridge). German fauvism in itself aimed to express the artists emotions in more abstract ways while still maintaining an intellectual sense of being. The bridge is defined by mixing elements of both high and low art.

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Self-Portrait With Model (1910) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany. Source Wikimedia Commons

When I look at this painting, a pleasurable sensation of anarchy gathers in me. The image has a glorious disruptive quality about it - you might almost say an aggression - which is simultaneously stirred and soothed by its wildly optimistic colouration.

The painting is of a man and woman, the artist and his model. She is sat on a chest or a box, wearing a pale blue chemise decorated in pink ribbons, the same pink that blush her cheeks. She appears to be looking at the artist askance, a look of suspicion that makes the him the true subject of the work.

Detail of 'Self-Portrait With Model' (1910) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany. Source Wikimedia Commons

The artist is in the foreground and has painted himself almost as an announcement. He is swaggering. He has a pipe in his mouth, verile pink lips, and an audacious orange-and-blue striped robe with large buttons and cuffs - under which he appears to be naked. He holds a paintbrush in one hand and a palette in the other, mid-deed as it were, as if this were a moment's pause between brushstrokes, a second to stand back and assess his subject and to take a draw on his pipe.

The artist is consciously showing off. It is a declaration of freedom and fertility: the freedom to paint semi-nude models, the fertility of the imagination to render the scene so brightly. The insertion of himself into the painting ought be read as a triumphal gesture, a proud depiction of his own liberty within his chosen profession.

The very directness of this painting - why I think it feels so pressing, so urgent - is in the disruptive quality of its composition. How the artist's head and feet are cut off by the edges of the canvas, how the facial details are so crudely painted, the broad blocks of colour, especially in the blue zigzags of his robe. All these elements stress the provocative nature of the work. There is life here: we feel that the picture plane we are looking is the very painting that the artist is pondering over, as if he might just step forward and dab his brush at the tips of our noses.

Brücke Manifesto woodcut (1906) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Source Wikimedia Commons

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was born in 1880 and painted this picture when he was 30 years old. Some years earlier, in 1905, he had come together with other artists in Dresden to form the Die Brücke group - an artistic movement translated as The Bridge. Along with the other founding members Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, they sought to forge a new perspective on art and the future of self-expression. The group composed a manifesto (mostly Kirchner's work), which was carved on wood and spoke to a new generation:

"Believing in progress and a new generation of creative as well as receptive people, we call all youth together. As youth, bearers of the future, we want to achieve freedom to live and work in opposition to old, established forces. Everyone belongs with us who, directly and without dissimulation, represents that which drives him to create."

At the time of the group's creation, Dresden was by no means a major art centre. The Die Brücke group sought to take inspiration from artists in other realms: the post-impressionism of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Edvard Munch, and the colour experiments of Fauvism, of André Derain and especially Henri Matisse. They also affirmed their national heritage, drawing on German artists of the Reformation period such as Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach the Elder, reviving older media too, particularly the techniques and aesthetics of woodcut printing.

Die Brücke - and Kirchner most emphatically - wanted to live and work like authentic artists. Once he had completed his university studies in architecture, he committed himself entirely to painting. He founded a studio in Dresden in an old butcher's shop that was became the focal point for the group. The artist Fritz Bleyl described Kirchner's studio as "that of a real bohemian, full of paintings lying all over the place, drawings, books and artist's materials - much more like an artist's romantic lodgings than the home of a well-organised architecture student."

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Reading Art: Self-Portrait With Model by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

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When I look at this painting, a pleasurable sensation of anarchy gathers in me. The image has a glorious disruptive quality about it - you might almost say an aggression - which is simultaneously stirred and soothed by its wildly optimistic colouration. The painting is of a man and woman, the artist and his model.

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1910. Analytic Cubism. Pablo Picasso. Portrait of Ambroise Vollard. Oil on Canvas

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1910. Analytic Cubism. Pablo Picasso. Portrait of Ambroise Vollard. Oil on Canvas

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Picasso had previously done a portrait of Vollard, but was now attempting to apply the concepts of analytical cubism to the portrait. In the painting, we can see simplified elements of the art dealers face as his body appears to erode or dissolve before out eyes. Although the painting uses minimal shape and color pallet, we are still able to clearly distinguish the fact that it is Vollard in the painting, which goes on to capture the mentally engaging intention of analytic cubism.

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Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, 1910, 65×93 cm by Pablo Picasso: History, Analysis & Facts

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Portrait of Ambroise Vollard is one of artworks by Pablo Picasso. Artwork analysis, large resolution images, user comments, interesting facts and much more.

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1911. German Expressionism/ Blue Rider. Vasily Kandinsky. Composition IV. Oil on Canvas 

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1911. German Expressionism/ Blue Rider. Vasily Kandinsky. Composition IV. Oil on Canvas 

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This painting is meant to be a visual expression of what music felt or sounded like to the artist. In this way it is very expressive of the artists emotions and spirituality and connectedness to the elements existing outside of themselves. . It belongs to a movement under german expressionism called the blue rider. The blue rider began as a socially progressive magazine which was headed by Wassily Kandinsky. Similar to other forms of expressionism, it utilized non natural color pallets with expressive line work and abstracted human forms, however, the blue rider aimed to depict more spiritual meanings in their works. Kandinsky very likely had synesthesia and would often express how things like music made him feel and many other artists under the blue rider aimed to capture the abstract emotions an feelings witin their artworks as well.

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It was painted in 1911 and is part of a ten-part collection. Kandinsky used vivid and contrasting colours to make a visual, spiritual and emotional impact on the observer. He is regarded as one of the earliest pioneers in purely abstract art.

Two Cossacks are seen with sabers in the upper left corner of the painting. On the right, are several Cossacks carrying lances and one with a saber against a blue hill with a house on it. A rainbow in the middle left of the picture signifies a bridge. Yellows and reds are outlined by black lines. Kazimir Malevich produced similar themes in his work.

Sharp lines of varying thickness contrast with the softer colours painted, while two vertical lines seem to divide the composition. The viewer is immediately drawn to the area coloured blue, in a background that is largely coloured in light pastels. Colours merge together, and lines and shapes combine, hinting at peace and salvation to follow.

The usage of colour in Monet's painting Haystacks and the musical composition of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin left quite an impression on Kandinsky. He was also drawn to the spiritual ideas of theosophy of Madame Blavatsky. He used an amalgam of chaotic shapes and colours in Composition IV to convey emotional and spiritual meanings. Human figures did not feature in any in of his art, except in his paintings Sunday, Old Russia (1904) and Riding Couple (1907). The use of colour in both paintings is emphasised over the actual depiction of the subject matter.

From 1906 to 1908 Kandinsky spent much of time travelling across Europe, finally settling in the small Bavarian town of Murnau. Wassily Kandinsky became famous for his painting, Der Blaue Reiter or Blue Rider (1903), which was used to describe his transitional Blue Rider Period, the early phase in his development as a painter. During this period, 1911 to1914, he further explored and refined the use of colour and shape to with emotion that would typify his later works. During this time he helped to establish the Munich New Artists' Association, a home for innovative and experimental artists whose works were too radical for the establishment.

He returned to Russia in 1914 and also helped to establish the Institute of Artistic Culture in Moscow. He left Russia in 1921 after being invited to teach at Bauhaus school of art and architecture by its founder, architect Walter Gropius. from 1922 until the Nazis closed it in 1933.

During the Bauhaus period, (1922-1933), Kandinsky's paintings took on a geometric aspect, including circles, half-circles, coloured checkerboards, colour and monochrome straight lines, curves, and planes rich in colours and shading, as shown in Yellow - red - blue (1925), all which contribute to the complexity of his compositions. From 1934 to 1944 was the Great Synthesis period. Kandinsky created his last major paintings in his Paris living-room studio. His compositions were now biomorphic, organic in form and outline, as shown in Composition IX (1936) and Composition X (1939).

Kandinsky set the benchmark for expressive contemporary art in the twentieth century. His paintings and writings greatly influenced the Abstract Expressionism movement and its offshoots like Color Field painting. Painters such as Arshile Gorky and Jackson Pollock were influenced by biomorphic work from his later Great Synthesis period. Color Field painters Mark Rothko were fascinated by the Kandinsky's use of shading and different colours and their impact on the viewer. Even the 1980s artists working in the Neo-Expressionist painters like Julian Schnabel and Philip Guston used his ideas in their own works work.

Wassily Kandinsky was born in Moscow on December 16, 1866, to well educated, upper-class parents of mixed ethnic origins. He lived in France and became a citizen in 1939. He died at Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1944, at age 77. His paintings became more and more abstracted from the surrounding world as he gradually refined his style. He switched to titling his works Composition, Impression, or Improvisation to heighten their disconnection from the real world and Composition IV is an excellent example of this.

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Buy Composition IV by Wassily Kandinsky as a framed art print. Learn more about this famous Kandinsky painting.

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1912. Synthetic Cubism. Pablo Picasso. Still Life with Chair Caning. Oil and Pasted Oilcloth on Canvas with rope. 

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1912. Synthetic Cubism. Pablo Picasso. Still Life with Chair Caning. Oil and Pasted Oilcloth on Canvas with rope. 

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This Picasso piece actually signified the invention of collage. At this point, Picasso had successfully demonstrated the ability to convey realistic and cubist features within his work, so he then included literal and real physical elements into his work in order to convey texture and further add a layer of abstraction into his work. Synthetic Cubism often involves collage and the ability of artist to add separate physical elements into their work. This movement was spearheaded by Picasso but is practiced by other artists such as Georges Braque, and has influenced its way into other movements such as Dadaism.

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Pablo Picasso, Still Life with Chair Caning, 1912, oil and oilcloth on canvas framed with rope, 29 x 37 cm (Musée Picasso, Paris)

The Evolution of Cubism

Beginning in 1908, and continuing through the first few months of 1912, Braque and Picasso co-invent the first phase of Cubism. Since it is dominated by the analysis of form, this first stage is usually referred to as Analytic Cubism. But then during the summer of 1912, Braque leaves Paris to take a holiday in Provence. During his time there, he wanders into a hardware store, and there he finds a roll of oil cloth. Oil cloth is an early version of contact paper, the vinyl adhesive used to line the shelves or drawers in a cupboard. Then, as now, these materials come in a variety of pre-printed patterns.

Braque purchased some oil cloth printed with a fake wood grain. That particular pattern drew his attention because he was at work on a Cubist drawing of a guitar, and he was about to render the grain of the wood in pencil. Instead, he cut the oil cloth and pasted a piece of the factory-printed grain pattern right into his drawing. With this collage, Braque changed the direction of art for the next ninety years.

Collage

As you might expect, Picasso was not far behind Braque. Picasso immediately begins to create collage with oil cloth as well—and adds other elements to the mix (but remember, it was really Braque who introduced collage—he never gets enough credit). So what is the big deal? Oil cloth, collage, wood grain patterns—what does this have to do with art and Cubism? One of the keys to understanding the importance of Cubism, of Picasso and Braque, is to consider their actions and how unusual they were for the time. When Braque, and then Picasso placed industrially-produced objects (“low” commercial culture) into the realm of fine art (“high” culture) they acted as artistic iconoclasts (“icon”=image/”clast”=destroyer).

Moreover, they questioned the elitism of the art world, which had always dictated the separation of common, everyday experience from the rarefied, contemplative realm of artistic creation. Of equal importance, their work highlighted—and separated—the role of technical skill from art-making. Braque and Picasso introduced a “fake” element on purpose, not to mislead or fool their audience, but rather to force a discussion of art and craft, of high and low, of unique and mass-produced objects. They ask: “Can this object still be art if I don’t actually render its forms myself, if the quality of the art is no longer directly tied to my technical skills or level of craftsmanship?”

Pablo Picasso, Still Life with Chair Caning, 1912, oil on oil-cloth over canvas edged with rope, 29 x 37 cm (Musée Picasso)

Still-Life with Chair Caning

Virtually all avant-garde art of the second half of the twentieth century is indebted to this brave renunciation. But that doesn’t make this kind of Cubism, often called Synthetic Cubism (piecing together, or synthesis of form), any easier to interpret. At first glance, Picasso’s Still-Life with Chair Caning of 1912 might seem a mish-mash of forms instead of clear picture. But we can understand the image—and other like it—by breaking down Cubist pictorial language into parts. Let’s start at the upper right: almost at the edge of the canvas (at two o’clock) there is the handle of a knife. Follow it to the left to find the blade. The knife cuts a piece of citrus fruit. You can make out the rind and the segments of the slice at the bottom right corner of the blade.

Below the fruit, which is probably a lemon, is the white, scalloped edge of a napkin. To the left of these things and standing vertically in the top center of the canvas (twelve o’clock) is a wine glass. It’s hard to see at first, so look carefully. Just at the top edge of the chair caning is the glass’s base, above it is the stem (thicker than you might expect), and then the bowl of the glass. It is difficult to find the forms you would expect because Picasso depicts the glass from more than one angle. At eleven o’clock is the famous “JOU,” which means “game” in French, but also the first three letters of the French word for newspaper (or more literally, “daily”; journal=daily). In fact, you can make out the bulk of the folded paper quite clearly. Don’t be confused by the pipe that lays across the newspaper. Do you see its stem and bowl?

Looking Down and Looking Through

But there are still big questions: why the chair caning, what is the gray diagonal at the bottom of the glass, and why the rope frame? (Think of a ship’s port hole. The port hole reference is an important clue.) Also, why don’t the letters sit better on the newspaper? Finally, why is the canvas oval? It has already been determined that this still life is composed of a sliced lemon, a glass, newspaper, and a pipe. Perhaps this is a breakfast setting, with a citron pressé (French lemonade). In any case, these items are arranged upon a glass tabletop. You can see the reflection of the glass. In fact, the glass allows us to see below the table’s surface, which is how we see the chair caning—which represents the seat tucked in below the table.

Okay, so far so good. But why is the table elliptical in shape? This appears to be a café table, which are round or square but never oval. Yet, when we look at a circular table, we never see it from directly above. Instead, we see it at an angle, and it appears elliptical in shape as we approach the table to sit down. But what about the rope, which was not mass-produced, nor made by Picasso, but rather something made especially for this painting? We can view it as the bumper of a table, as it was used in some cafés, or as the frame of a ship’s port hole, which we can look “through,” to see the objects represented. The rope’s simultaneous horizontal and vertical orientation creates a way for the viewer (us) to read the image in two ways—looking down and looking through/across. Put simply, Picasso wants us to remember that the painting is something different from that which it represents. Or as Gertrude Stein said, “A rose is a rose is a rose.”

Additional resources:

Musée Picasso, Paris

Picasso on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Cubism on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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Pablo Picasso, Still Life with Chair Caning – Smarthistory

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Introducing mechanically reproduced images here undermines Picasso’s vocation as a painter—so why does he do it?

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1913. Modern Sculpture. Constanin Brancusi. The Kiss. Limestone. 

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1913. Modern Sculpture. Constanin Brancusi. The Kiss. Limestone. 

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This sculpture depicts both a male and female character embracing and sharing a kiss and is perhaps one of the most recognizable of Brancusi's work and is a sound representation of his ability to simplify and create distinct forms. This piece is notable for its ability to communicate the gender of each form, even though the design of each character is relatively minimal and similar to one another. This piece also has primitive elements in the fact that is similar to indigenous or African sculptures.

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Constantin Brancusi, (French (born Romania), 1876-1957)

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1913. Futurism. Umberto Boccioni. Dynamism of a soccer player. Oil on canvas. 

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1913. Futurism. Umberto Boccioni. Dynamism of a soccer player. Oil on canvas. 

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In this piece, we are seeing what is the energy of a soccer player moving. This piece belongs to the futurist movement which draws inspiration from cubism. Futurism originates in Italy and attempts to capture the energy and spirituality which lies beneath or within the visible and tangible surface of an object. Futurist artists also followed a manifesto in which they were striving to rid themselves of past art and social constructs and actually rebel against them. Some of the notable artists from this group were Umberto Bocciono and Kurt Schwitters.

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Umberto Boccioni. Dynamism of a Soccer Player. 1913 | MoMA

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Umberto Boccioni. Dynamism of a Soccer Player. 1913. Oil on canvas. 6′ 4 1/8″ x 6′ 7 1/8″ (193.2 x 201 cm). The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection. 580.1967. Painting and Sculpture

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1917. DADAism. Marcel Duchamp. Fountain. (photograph)

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1917. DADAism. Marcel Duchamp. Fountain. (photograph)

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This piece is actually a urinal fountain taken out of its original context (a restroom) and placed in an art exhibition. The artists purpose was to cause us to question what constitutes art and whether or not context largely influences our perception of art. This piece is DADAist, however DADAism is technically an anti art movement. Dadaism is an aggressive, pro-war and suggestive movement which traveled to different cities and countries to spread its agendas. To display a piece from this movement as art would inherently go against its anti-art ideology.

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To celebrate the centennial of one of the greatest-and most amusing-controversies in the history of modern art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is presenting an exhibition on Marcel Duchamp's legendary "readymade," Fountain. Marcel Duchamp and the Fountain Scandal focuses on the spring of 1917, when Duchamp, with the help of several friends, notoriously submitted a porcelain urinal to an unjuried exhibition held by the Society of Independent Artists in New York. Purchased from a store that sold plumbing fixtures, this object, which was titled Fountain and signed "R. Mutt" was rejected by a vote of the organizers, touching off a fierce debate. The Museum's exhibition explores Duchamp's staging of this controversy and highlights the radical ideas that were sparked by this crucial episode in the history of avant-garde art.

Timothy Rub, the George D. Widener Director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, said: "One hundred years ago, Duchamp's Fountain turned the art world upside down. As artists and critics debated whether this was art or a hoax, the artist's designation of the porcelain urinal as a readymade changed the course of modern art. Today, young artists continue to find inspiration and sources of provocation in it, and thus it is fitting that we return to this object and consider its continuing importance a century later."

The exhibition is presented in Gallery 182, in which many of Duchamp's celebrated masterpieces have been displayed since 1954. It details the story of Fountain and the roles of the colorful cast of characters around it, from the celebrated photographer Alfred Stieglitz and collector Walter Arensberg to the writer and artist Beatrice Wood. The exhibition includes period photographs, publications, and numerous other readymades, all from the Museum's unrivaled collection. It takes an especially close look at the readymades, objects that the artist chose, signed, and sometimes inscribed with mysterious phrases. Duchamp considered them his greatest achievement.

The Society of Independents was founded in late 1916 by a group that included Duchamp. In meetings at the apartment of the collectors Louise and Walter Arensberg and elsewhere, the group planned a large exhibition for the following April. It decided that no jury would control artists' participation in the show. Duchamp bought his urinal from the New York showroom of the J. L. Mott Iron Works. He signed and dated it "R. Mutt 1917," and had it submitted to the exhibition. Upon its rejection, Duchamp resigned from the Independents in protest, as did Arensberg. A few days later, Duchamp brought Fountain to Stieglitz, who photographed it for The Blind Man, an avant-garde magazine published by Duchamp and his friends. In its May issue, the magazine defended the work, an editorial by Wood declaring: "Whether Mr. Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view-created a new thought for that object." The Museum's exhibition includes a reproduction of the publication; visitors can turn the pages.

The original Fountain was soon lost or destroyed. In the Museum's exhibition, it is documented by a printer's proof of Stieglitz's photograph that appeared in Blind Man, showing it displayed on a pedestal before a painting by Marsden Hartley at Stieglitz's gallery, "291." It is seen also in a photograph by Duchamp's friend Henri-Pierre Roché, in which Fountain hangs above a doorjamb in the artist's studio at 33 West 67 th St. The Museum's version of Fountain, the earliest of 14 full-size replicas, was signed and dated "R. Mutt 1917" by Duchamp in 1950.

Matthew Affron, the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, said: "Duchamp understood quite early the profound challenge that the readymade posed to widely held ideas about the significance of originals and copies in art. As time went on, he became more interested in making replicas. He overturned ideas of originality, raising questions that have only grown in significance during our time, and so one hundred years after its conception, Duchamp's readymade sculpture continues to bewilder."

This exhibition is made possible by the Young Friends of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Curators
Matthew Affron, The Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art
John Vick, Collections Project Manager
Duchamp at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art contains the world's most comprehensive collection of works by Duchamp, from his earliest paintings to his final work, along with the largest archive devoted to the artist. Among the original readymades are With Hidden Noise, 1916, and 50 cc of Paris Air, 1919. Replicas of readymades that were lost include Bicycle Wheel, 1913, and Bottlerack, 1914. Other highlights are Nude Descending the Staircase (No. 2), 1912, which had been a succés de scandale at the New York Armory Show in 1913, and two other versions of the painting. In addition, the Museum contains The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), 1915-23, which Duchamp himself installed in Gallery 182 in 1954, shortly after the Museum received the renowned collection of modern art given by Louise and Walter Arensberg. On view in an adjacent gallery is Étant donnés, completed in 1966, which entered the collection following the artist's death in 1968. The artist Jasper Johns has called Etant donn é s "the strangest work of art any museum has ever had in it."

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To celebrate the centennial of one of the greatest-and most amusing-controversies in the history of modern art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is presenting an exhibition on Marcel Duchamp's legendary "readymade," Fountain. Marcel Duchamp and the Fountain Scandal focuses on the spring of 1917, when Duchamp, with the help of several friends, noto...

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1930. Abstraction/ De Stijl. Piet Mondrian. Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow. Oil on Canvas. 

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1930. Abstraction/ De Stijl. Piet Mondrian. Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow. Oil on Canvas. 

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This Piece is a part of the abstract art movement, and even more specifically, a part of the De Stijl sub-movement which was originated in the Netherlands and drew from elements of cubism. It aims to communicate simplified and mechanical forms along with a flat style and often minimized color scheme. Those who worked within this movement, most notably Piet Mondrian, utilized neo-plastic elements and language in order to simplify forms into geometric shapes and primary colors. This is a piece that is even in person as the texture of the brush strokes and edges of the canvas were all treated with such detail.

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Masterpiece Stories

James W Singer min Read

Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow , 1930, Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland. Detail.

Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow is a golden example of Abstraction, De Stijl, and Constructivism. It purges the art of individual subjects by reducing images to the universal elements of color, line, and direction. Primary colors are the least mixed. Straight lines are the least curved. Cardinal directions are the least varying. They are pure, direct, and fundamental. Universal elements create a universal reality where a total integration of art and life can exist.

Historical Context

), a Dutch magazine filled with utopian ideals proposing the total integration of art and life. It was during these formative years that Mondrian began moving towards abstraction. Like his Russian contemporary, Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) lived in an Europe shaken by the violence of World War I (1914-18). It was a time of societal reevaluation and self exploration. In 1917 Mondrian co-founded De Stijl ( The Style Wassily Kandinsky, Mondrian began with representational landscapes but slowly moved towards more abstract compositions. By 1920, Mondrian had developed Neoplasticism (pure plastic art) which would become his famous signature style of reducing compositions to cardinal lines and primary colors.

Purity & Sobriety

Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow represents Piet Mondrian's artistic highpoint of purity and sobriety. Created in 1930, the oil on canvas painting measures a square 1' 5.7" x 1' 5.7" (45 cm x 45 cm). It is probably Mondrian's most famous canvas despite its diminutive size. However, within its small borders are the attempts of absolute harmony and universal appeal. There is almost something psychologically satisfying to the composition as we respond to the simple lines, bold colors, and rectangular shapes.

Moral Code

The painting is an arrangement of black lines, white voids, and color blocks. The lines are limited to horizontal and vertical directions while the colors are limited to red, blue, and yellow. Mondrian believed that cardinal directions and primary colors were universal elements which lead to an universal beauty of balanced contrasts and dynamic tension. Art was a moral code that through severity and austerity could produce beauty and sensuality. While the composition lacks any diagonal lines and mixed colors, it is paradoxically satisfying and seductive. It triggers the mathematical pleasure senses with the same satisfaction of decluttering a filled room, organizing a prized collection, or discovering the solution to a complex problem.

Color Hierarchy

Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow is strongly dominated by red. There is an apparent color hierarchy with red as the most prominent, followed by blue, and then finally yellow. If the painting's dimensions are split into nine even squares the color hierarchy becomes extremely apparent. The red easily fills four squares, the blue dominates one square, and the yellow fills approximately one-fourth of a square. The colors are reduced by quarters in a mathematical pattern of 4 : 1 : ¼, thereby creating a geometric construction with hierarchical proportions.

Character & Boldness

The red block fills ⅔ of the painting's width and ⅔ of the painting's height. It is 4/9 or almost half of the composition. The red's dominance injects a strong accent of color which develops the piece's character and boldness.

Line Hierarchy

Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow is also strongly dominated by lines. Like the colors, there is hierarchy in the lines' prominence and importance. Only two lines in the painting cross the composition's entire dimensions: a vertical line ⅓ from the left and an horizontal line ⅓ from the bottom. Each line spans the respective height and width of the canvas. They define the left and bottom borders of the red block, and bisect the painting into 4 uneven quadrants. The other three lines in the painting are smaller and hierarchically less important. They define smaller spaces without crossing each other.

Architectural Influence

The painting has a cautious and painstaking arrangement. It is methodical with a mathematician's precision. It is no surprise that it was commissioned by Piet Mondrian's friend Alfred Roth, a Swiss modernist architect, who admired Mondrian's elemental foci of lines and space. Roth's architectural plans were influenced by Mondrian's spatial arrangements and therefore had a cleaner geometry compared to Roth's colleague, the famous Le Corbusier.

Handwritten Dedication

Alfred Roth donated Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow to the Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland in 1987 after owning it 57 years. With its ironclad provenance, the painting has become a cornerstone of the museum's Classical Modernism department. Mondrian clearly appreciated Roth's friendship as indicated by the handwritten dedication on the back. It reads, translated from the original French:

Dedicated to my dear friend and colleague Alfred Roth: To count only with rapport while creating them and while seeking their balance in art and in life, it is the beautiful work of today, it is preparing for the future.

Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow is a golden example of Abstraction, De Stijl, and Constructivism. It presents a universal reality in a single frontal plane. It is a pattern of color, line, and direction. It is a pattern of artistic beauty.

Bibliography

1.

Beckett, Wendy, and Patricia Wright. Sister Wendy's 1000 Masterpieces . London, UK: Dorling Kindersley Limited, 1999.

6.

Gardner, Helen, Fred S. Kleiner, and Christin J. Mamiya. Gardner's Art Through the Ages . 12th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005.

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Masterpiece Story: Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow by Piet Mondrian

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Masterpiece Stories James W Singer min Read Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow , 1930, Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland. Detail. Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow is a golden example of Abstraction, De Stijl, and Constructivism. It purges the art of individual subjects by reducing images to the universal elements of color, line, and direction.

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1936. Surrealism (object). Meret Oppenheim. Fur Covered Cup, saucer, and spoon, cup.

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1936. Surrealism (object). Meret Oppenheim. Fur Covered Cup, saucer, and spoon, cup.

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This piece was constructed to provoke thought and the idea of sensation. It takes every day items and reinvents them by combining them with an unexpected element, in this case, hair, which causes us to re-examine our experience with these objects and reimagine them. Surrealism and its artists question reality and social constructs and often times delve into fantasy and surreal or hallucinatory ideas in order to create dreamlike or out of this world pieces. Surrealism aims to get us to question why we do the things we do, say the things we say, or see things the way we do and rearrange our realities. Notable artists from this movement include Max Ernst, Salvador Dali, and Andre Masson

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Hunter, S., Jacobus, J. M., & Wheeler, D. (2004). Pages: 16, 17, 20, 26, 29, 39,41, 46, 47,51, 59, 64,76, 103, 109, 113, 119, 137, 141, 143. 153, 162, 171, 187. In Modern art (pp. 16–187). essay, Prentice Hall.

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