Explorations of Art

Mid-Century Modern art refers to the artwork that was created in the mid-1900's, around 1940-1960. During this time period, multiple major events took place including World War 2. World War 2 dramatically influenced art in similar ways to World War 1; however, there were a few key differences in how the events were put onto canvas. Following the mid-modern era, was the post-modern era. Post-modern extends from the late 1900's to present day. Post-modern art is constantly changing and shifting. Although the time period plays a major role into each of these artistic eras, there are some other artistic differences that differentiate the two. Mid-modern artwork often sought to convey universal truths. They looked for ways to show things as fact and the artists often took on assumptions that there was only one "correct" way to view something. Post-modern artists challenged this approach by instead turning their focus to the idea that one event can have many different persp...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

     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...