A new chapter

I apologize for once again being scarce around here lately. I just moved to the Cleveland area this past weekend and am undergoing an entire week full of commuting to the Case Western campus for grad school orientations and training and registering and all sorts of nonsense. It's tiring and stressful, but it's pretty exciting. I start classes next Monday and am taking three things: Art History Methodologies, Visual Arts & Museums I, and Contemporary Art: Critical Directions (which will be taught by an artist from Portugal!). The latter course I am both looking forward to and anxious about: my biggest weakness in this field of study is contemporary art, and it is also one of my least favorite genres. I've never actually taken a course dedicated entirely to contemporary art, so this will be an interesting experience for me. I figured I should go ahead and get it out of the way my first semester.

Once I get all settled into a better routine (still figuring out my sleeping/eating/bus-riding schedule), I will definitely start posting more often here. I have a bunch of exciting ideas which I'm looking forward to writing posts about, including another fashion post (this time inspired by the Dutch Golden Age paintings of Johannes Vermeer, made famous by the Scarlett Johansson film The Girl with the Pearl Earring). I have also been amassing a good collection of links to other art history blogs that I plan to make a post on and keep permanently posted somewhere on the blog.

In the meantime, I hope everyone's summer is going splendidly! I look forward to sharing more fascinating art history with you, as well as my own experiences in my Masters program here in Cleveland.

Highlights: Detroit Institute of Arts

I'm back! The reasons why I was back and forth to and from Michigan over the past couple weeks is a long story and not really relevant so I won't get into it here, but while I was there I was able to visit the fantastic DIA not once, but twice! I've heard that it's the 6th largest museum in the United States, and I believe it. We barely were able to cover the whole museum in two days.

There's been a lot of talk about the DIA in recent weeks, due to the city of Detroit filing for bankruptcy and it's crippling $18 billion debt. Many people are suggesting the city, which owns the museum, sell off its art collection which is valued at about $2 billion. And many more, myself included, are adamant in how much of a BAD IDEA that would be, not even just for the sake of saving the art from falling into the hands of private collectors who would be unlikely to exhibit it publicly.

For a good overview of the situation and a set of compelling arguments against selling the collection (which include the fact that $2 billion hardly makes a dent in the total debt, that much of the art is protected by charitable donation law, and that the DIA's collection is one of the only true tourist spots left in the city that actually brings in revenue), check out this great article on Hyperallergic:
http://hyperallergic.com/76416/new-yorker-art-critic-justifies-looting-of-detroit-museum/

In the meantime, as I did with the Cleveland museum, I just wanted to showcase the museum and some of my favorite works in its collection.

Henri Matisse, The Window, 1916

One of the strengths of the DIA is their modern collection, including a painting that is probably on my Top 5 list of all time, Matisse's lovely The Window as seen above. I can't get over the colors and how serene and lovely it is. I am seriously obsessed with this painting. It's also surprisingly large, at nearly four feet tall. The department also hosts a large room full of German Expressionist work, including some excellent pieces by Marc, Kandinsky, Kirchner, Beckmann, Dix, and Schmitt-Rottluff, and a number of lovely works from Vincent van Gogh, Joan Miro, and Picasso. Very impressive indeed!

Franz Marc, Animals in a Landscape, 1914

Pablo Picasso, Woman Seated in an Armchair,
1923

The DIA also boasts an incredible selection of American, European (the third floor consists of a huge collection of Dutch Golden Age painting, as well as Western European Rococo, Neo-Classical, and Romantic painting, decorative art, and furniture, to an extent I've hardly ever seen except perhaps at the Metropolitan), Contemporary, and most significantly, non-Western works. Their non-western section in particular, taking up the entire ground floor and divided into a variety of different wings, is incredible. Never before have I seen such an extensive and inclusive collection of African art, and the Islamic section is to die for. 

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, The Wedding Dance, 1566

Rachel Ruysch, Flowers in a Glass Vase, 1704

John Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781

John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark, 1771

It is difficult to get images off the DIA's website and I can't find many of the non-Western pieces elsewhere on the internet, so I direct you to the following links to peruse their amazing collections yourself!
Africa, Oceania, and Indigenous America
Arts of Asia and the Islamic World

The Diego Rivera Courtyard in the center of the second floor of the museum is an entire room covered in floor to ceiling murals by Diego Rivera, one of the most famous Mexican painters, the husband of Frida Kahlo, and one of Detroit's most famous citizens. The images depict Detroit in its golden days of the automobile industry.

On a trip!

Hi guys, just wanted to stick a little note up here letting everyone know that I am currently on a bit of a roadtrip in Michigan and will probably not be able to get many posts up this week or next. But I get to spend the day at the Detroit Institute of Art tomorrow, so I may try to post something about that museum later this week.

German Expressionism

Lady Gaga...Tim Burton's Batman...film noir...Liza Manelli...early science fiction movies. What do all of these have in common? The answer is a lot more than you might suspect and involves my favorite genre of art history.

The term German Expressionism denotes a specific type of modern German art that had its origins in the 1890s, most notably with Edvard Munch's Der Schrei  (The Scream). Munch took his own psychosis and inner trauma of the mind and made it visible through the abstracted, swirling, and harsh use of color and line. Another originator of German Expressionism could be said to be Egon Schiele, the Austrian contemporary of Gustav Klimt who also expressed his own emotional turmoil and troubled thoughts by creating contorted, often grotesque figures of himself and others.

Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893.

Egon Schiele, Self-Portrait, 

At the turn of the century, Europe was experiencing a host of changes, both good and bad, and some more revolutionary than others. Particularly of importance to Europeans was the changing tides of international relations, war, and politics, and the Expressionist artists that emerged in Germany in the 1910s held almost prophetic visions of future war, poverty, and strife. It was as if the artists of the two major German Expressionist groups, Die Brücke (The Bridge) and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) knew that war was coming. They could feel it in the air, an intuition so permeating that nearly the entirety of their collective oeuvre had an underlying sense of foreboding,  of violence, decay, and even unhealthy decadence. 

Emil Nolde (Die Bruecke), The Prophet, 1912.

Ernst Kirchner (Die Bruecke), Berlin Street Scene, 1913.

Franz Marc (Der Blaue Reiter), Fate of the Animals, 1913.

Wassily Kandinsky (Der Blaue Reiter), Composition VI, 1913.

As you can see, chief elements of German Expressionist style include sharp angles, stark contrasts of light and shadow, elongated or mutated proportions (especially in figures), and cacophonous dynamics and interplay of shapes.

Even as German Expressionism morphed into the lesser known Neue Sachlichkeit and Bauhaus movements (and later, Art Deco), its influence remained strong among a variety of art forms, especially film. The 1920s marked an era of German film-making that surpassed all other film at the time. The most famous actors and directors were German, and the majority of them starred and directed films that were inherently Expressionist in their themes and style. Dark tales of class differences, insanity, and monsters (both human and non) abounded, combined with the eerie and overtly symbolic imagery of much of the Expressionist art of the previous decade. Many of these films were science fiction in genre, and if they weren't, they certainly held elements of the fantastic, the surreal, and the dark. Chief among them included F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and 1927's epic Metropolis, directed by the "master of darkness" himself, Fritz Lang. Check those links for the full movies!

Nosferatu

Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Metropolis

Metropolis

(as an aside, be sure to watch Metropolis if you haven't. not only is it a classic, but it's full of a ridiculous amount of symbolism, from the occult, to Masonic, to creepily accurate predictions of the future. an interesting fact: they used mirrors to make normal-sized actors look small enough to go with the miniature sets they built of the city. Mirrors!)

Many of the films produced in this golden era of German film had actual Expressionist painters on hand for the creative process, set design, and costuming, and so the style of the films melded closely with the visual art of the 1910s, both in aesthetic style and symbolic themes. In the next few decades, German Expressionist film would give birth to film noir, especially the work of Hitchcock, whose films retained the dark visual style of Expressionism, as well as it's dark themes and twists. Hitchcock was particularly inspired by Expressionism thanks to his work as set designer on some Hollywood-produced Expressionist films. F.W. Murnau's The Last Laugh was especially influential (if you are interested in Expressionist cinema and its far-reaching ramifications, Sigfried Kracauer's From Caligari to Hitler is an excellent book, as is Lotte Eisner's The Haunted Screen).

Top: Suspicion (Hitchcock), Bottom: Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)

The dark decadence of Expressionism was abandoned for obvious reasons in the post-War years, but saw a re-emergence in the form of 80s science fiction, particularly Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns, and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (the latter of which even draws inspiration from the fashions of the Expressionist era: Pris looks like a cabaret dancer, and Rachael dresses and does her hair similar to a German lady of the 30s). Drawing on both the visual and thematic elements of their early film and painting ancestors, the films paved the way for a new popularity of the style. Dark City is another good example of the style being used in more contemporary times.

Tim Burton's Batman (1989)

Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982)

Jumping back just a tad to 1972, I want to touch on the Oscar-winning movie-version of Cabaret featuring Liza Minnelli. Re-watch this classic and you may notice that it takes place in the early 1930s, Berlin. Expressionist touches are visible all throughout the film, not only in the stage sets and performances of the titular cabaret show, but also in the cinematography of the film itself: the lighting, the set placement, and the angles, especially. Of particular note is the wonderful tableau vivant of one of the most famous Expressionist portraits of the 1920s, Otto Dix's Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden.

Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles in the 1972 film adaptation of the hit musical. 

The tableau vivant in the film, compared to the original painting.

There is another reason why I bring up Cabaret as an example of Expressionist traits:

No one who has watched both Cabaret and Lady Gaga's bizarre "Alejandro" music video could miss the similarities and obvious references to cabaret performances, but what you may have missed the first time around are the elements, once again both visual and thematic, of earlier German Expressionist films such as Metropolis and Caligari. Gaga wears sci-fi-influenced costumes that would seem perfectly at home in the world of Metropolis, and she uses strong aesthetic traits of both the Expressionist films and the art of the Die Brucke and Der Blaue Reiter artists, as well as making blatant references to the German military. The video is a big nod to German culture of the first half of the century.

The ways in which German Expressionism was an artistic genre that overlapped into film, music, and literature (the last of which I don't have time to cover here, but if you're curious, just pick up anything by the quintessential writer of the Expressionist style: Franz Kafka) are half of what fascinates me about the style. It is unique in that it came to existence just as film was gaining strength, and therefore its influences can be found throughout film-making, but also in other various forms, due to the era's growth in communications and international relations. No other art historical genre has really had such overarching reach in the modern era.

Now that you've gotten a little primer on German Expressionism, keep en eye out for its influence! Can you think of any other particularly Expressionist-inspired things? 

Weekend Tidbits 7/14

A bit of a Cleveland theme going on today, celebrating this week's earlier post about the Cleveland Museum of Art.

(also, sorry this is a bit late! yesterday I took a mini-road trip to model for a Tarot Card themed photoshoot for a friend. It was a lot of fun!)

Mysteries of the Cleveland Museum of Art's acquisition of Poussin's Holy Family
Art history has a surprisingly exciting background of spying, intrigue, and mystery, and this is just one more example, involving a Soviet spy and the French government.


  

Japanese and Korean Treasures Dazzle after 8 Years in Storage
After 8 years of being in storage during the Cleveland museum's huge renovation, the impressive Asian art collection is finally being displayed in it's new, glorious home! Again, fantastic backstory here, about a few of the famous curators who gathered treasures during their military stays in Japan and Asia during the wars. The renowned curator Sherman Lee even served as one of the monuments men in Japan during WWII. 

Knowing History: Behind Civ 5's Brave New World
 If you love history and you haven't played Civilization 5 (for PC), you are MISSING OUT. The new expansion just came out this week and this article tells of the fascinating process the creators go through in doing  historical research and portraying the various civilizations as accurately as possible!

Archaeologists Unearth Carved Head of Roman God in Bishop Auckland
A neat archaeological find by Durham University that sheds light on the religion and mythology of the people living near the Roman frontier in Northern England. A friend of mine is studying at Durham's archaeology program, so this was very exciting for him!

Cornelia Konrads
Not news, persay, but an awesome contemporary landscape/earth artist that I discovered via tumblr. Check out her site and some of the incredibly neat and unique examples of her art.

Highlights: Cleveland Museum of Art

The first of a series of posts dedicating to highlighting some of my favorite museums and art-history locales around the globe. I've decided to start with my favorite museum in Ohio, which is where I will be taking classes this fall for my graduate studies in art history/museum studies at Case Western :)

Since my very first visit to the Cleveland museum as a child, I fell in love. It's a mystical place in many respects, but most notably, in my case as a young girl, because of it's grand hall of armor and Medieval weaponry. The ancient legends practically come alive in that place. But the museum has a million and one other amazing things to offer visitors, including world-class collections of all types of non-Western art and some of the world's most famous masterpieces of painting. They've also just finished an immense renovation, the results of which I have yet to see...but I hear that the new atrium is absolutely gorgeous. 

The museum is also one of the most active and engaging that I've come across in my home state of Ohio. They have special themed tours almost daily, concerts and multimedia events on the grounds every week, and a whole slew of other festivals, fun classes, and interactive activities, as well as multiple traveling exhibits at once (check out this page to see their current and upcoming exhibitions, which include Renaissance textiles and Van Gogh) They even hosted a Game of Thrones themed tour a few weeks ago! 

The CMA is home to many famous European masterpieces:

Salvador Dali, The Dream, 1931.

(click through to see more!)

Byzantine Renaissance

Every now and then, a designer fashion collection comes out that is so insanely art historical that us history fans go nuts. Dolce & Gabbana's Fall 2013 collection is exactly that. Known to some as the "mosaic collection", it appropriates beautiful Byzantine mosaic art to the fullest extent, using the hi-res photo printing technique that is popular in fashion recently (like the current trend in printed leggings, for example). Even the non-printed pieces in this collection invoke the feel of the Byzantine era: rich, bejeweled, elegant, and refined.  We also get a pious and monastic feel with some of the cuts, particularly the pieces made from stiffer fabric, with their boxier shapes. The accessories as well, the tiaras and crowns and large gelded cross pendants, refer back to the regal Byzantine empire. The models all look like Empress Theodora come to life.

To see the entire collection, check out NYMag's site: http://nymag.com/thecut/fashion/shows/2013/fall/milan/rtw/dolce-gabbana.html

Byzantine art and history has always been a fascinating subject for me, though not one I've been able to study extensively. The recognizable Byzantine style, which its golden mosaics and abstracted figures and landscapes, came about through the influences of ancient Greece, the ideals of which the Byzantine empire strived to recreate. Byzantium itself, with Constantinople (now Istanbul) as its capital, was the continuation of the eastern Roman empire, and it's history and relation to Western Europe is long and complicated and quite tumultuous. After the fall of the Roman empire and the rise and spread of Christianity as Europe's dominant religion, the continent split into the Byzantine Empire in the east (comprised of the Slavic and Greek regions) and the Holy Roman Empire in central Europe (France and the Germanic states, and eventually Italy, though it first belonged to the Byzantine empire). A constant jostling for religious authority between the two empires was the cause of many schisms in the Christian religion and brought about  two completely different styles of Christian religious art, which is obvious even today in the old Byzantine states (such as Greece and Russia, with their Byzantine tradition of icons).

Byzantine art was produced almost entirely by the church and the government, which were nearly one and the same at the time, and so are comprised of the most expensive materials available. Gold and precious gems were used as a means of propaganda and promotion of the empire, but also, and perhaps more importantly, as an earthly attempt to replicate the absolute glory and splendor of heaven.

Anonymous Italian painter, Madonna and Child Enthroned, ca. 1200

Mosaic of Emperor Justinian I, Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy. Circa 545 AD.

Detail of mosaic of Empress Theodora, Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy. Theodora is one of my favorite historical ladies.

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey. Completed in 532 AD. Now converted to an Islamic mosque.

Detail of mosaic of St. John, the Virgin and Child, and St. Irene.
Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey.

It is difficult to truly capture the utter splendor of Byzantine art and mosaics via images on the internet. If you ever get a chance to visit a Byzantine church or see Byzantine art in person in a museum, don't miss out!