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Early Modern: Art, War, and Emotion

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The beginning of the 20th century became the artistic era for emotional exploration and rebellion. Early Modern art was also heavily influenced by the Great War (WWI) starting in 1914. Artists used their art as an expression of the deep grief or stress that they felt from World War I and the desire to create art that escaped reality flourished. This contributed to the rise of styles like Surrealism. Prior to the war, many early modern pieces were focused on trying to showcase deep emotional connections and reflect the new way of life where cities were now the norm. Art also began to focus on topics like racial justice, sexuality, and other taboo topics. Woman and Mirror  by Ernest Ludwig Kirchner, 1912, Germany https://robinurton.com/history/expressionism.htm Woman and Mirror was painted prior to WW1 in Germany. It was one of the many Expressionist paintings completed by Kirchner, a major contributor to German Expressionism. It displays a woman in a dressing room getting ready for ...
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Romantic Era: Romanticism vs. Realism

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The Romantic Era took place in the 19th century and consisted of a large range of creative freedoms and unique styles. Going into the 1800's, Europe was turning a corner and seeing unparalleled diversity and technology, making it no surprise that art also grew in diversity and began to draw from a larger base of influences. Some popular influences of the Romantic era are human behaviors, emotions, and experiences. At this point, the majority of art in this style has separated from religious influences that were characteristics of earlier artistic eras; and instead turned towards the human experience. I focused on paintings that came from France during this era so that it can be better observed how different artists approached portraying the world when faced with similar social, economic, political, and religious influences. Romanticism Romanticism was characterized by its sense for the dramatic. Romanticism liked to represent the world through an extreme lens. It was heavily focuse...
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Classical Architecture

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In the 1700's, art began to shift its focus once again. This time, the artists and architect's drew their inspiration from classic Greek and Roman influences. They also drew inspiration from new scientific discoveries such as the ruins of Pompeii. The discovery and exploration of ancient Greek and Roman ruins led to a new focus in the arts that re-ignited the use of ancient art and architecture approaches. Acts of heroism and selflessness also began to take the stage. Neoclassical describes the new use of classical influences. Neo means "new" so neoclassical means "new classical". In this era, classical was referencing the ancient Greek and Roman art ( Jackie, ThoughtCo ). The architecture in specific caught my eye as a beautiful rebirth of Greek and Roman architecture. Some of the key aspects of ancient Greek and Roman architecture, drawn from ancient ruins, included symmetry, arches, columns, and proportion ( Kljaich, Art200x ). Church of the Madeleine, Fr...
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Baroque

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The Baroque period of art was defined by some of the artistic rule-breaking that became more common. Defying the previous composition of artwork was one key difference. Prior to the Baroque period, paintings and other pieces of artwork were organized and followed very rigid poses.  Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,  Resurrection of Lazarus , c. 1609, oil on canvas, 380 x 275 cm (Museo di Messina) Resurrection of Lazarus was one of the many beautiful depictions of dramatic posing and reflects what it means to "catch a moment in time". This piece was done as a commission for a wealthy Italian family, the Lizzari family (Caravaggio.org). They then presented the painting to a church. It was completed in 1609 in Messina, Italy and painted by Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio, often referenced as Caravaggio (Ch'ien, Smarthistory). The painting is currently on display in the Museum of Messina (Museo di Messina).  Some of the key characters that stand out about this piece is th...
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Renaissance

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     The Renaissance led to major shifts in how art and culture were being perceived and started to shift the values of everyday people. During the Renaissance, the arts were becoming more valued by the everyday people, but less so by the church. The Protestant Church once funded large quantities of artwork and in doing so, heavily influenced the theme of most the well known works of the time. As the Renaissance took place, art grew to be more accessible and was beginning to be enjoyed by more classes of people.      As churches began to pull their funding in the arts, royals were often quick to replace them. The Dukes of Burgundy were a shining example of royalty largely funding the creation and exploration of art during the 15th century (Dr. Harris and Dr. Zucker, Khan Academy). Royalty prided themselves on the funding of artwork due to the influence they would have over what was being created and the blatant show of wealth. Another practice that began to...
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Art Analysis: Arcane

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The Elements of Art Art has long been created, viewed, interpreted, and recreated throughout history. The widely recognized elements of art are Line, Shape, Tone, Color, Pattern, Texture, and Form. These seven elements are thought of as being the building blocks of any piece of art regardless of whether it's a painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.  Artistic Elements in Arcane       One beautiful example of the use of different artistic elements comes from the popular show Arcane  by Riot Games and available on Netflix. This show has two seasons and was released 2021-2024.  Arcane has been nominated for many awards including the Emmy Award, which the show won in 2022 for Outstanding Animated Program. The range of art styles present can be analyzed and debated for hours, but I've one of my personal favorites to share with you. I referenced the show itself, information about the show through IMDB and a highly regarded gaming blog called 80 Level. Due to the...
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Introduction

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      My name is Grace Lorntzen and I am currently pursuing a Bachelor's of Elementary Education. I currently work as an online tutor and enjoy working with kids. In the past, I've worked as a swim instructor for a few years. In my free time I enjoy music, reading, and drawing. I also love swimming but haven't swam much since winter started. I grew up moving around a lot but I currently live on campus and moved from Seattle. I'm taking this class to both meet my degree requirements and find new types of art to explore. I'm most excited to learn about Modern and Non-Western art. Maple Leaf- Fine Art America     One type of art that has always been of interest to me is black and white artwork that uses a simple and common office pen or Sharpie. I first started discovering this kind of art in middle school when I saw a post on Pinterest made entirely out of a pen. I loved how similar to the artwork above, it used textures and pressure to change the tone and to add ...
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