The Inter-War Era

Was a stressful and tense period. The first World War had just ended with America's boldening clean-sweep finish that gave them the upper hand in world power. Suddenly our economy crashes sending the rest of the world spiraling downwards. The Great Depression breaks out and not soon after, Hitler is rebuilding Germany and building up a massive army that he plans to use for destruciton.

Obviously this wasn't the most peaceful of times and numerous forms of reflective art began to emerge. One particularly interesting genre of fine art, one highly endowed by my good friend Emlyn, was nothing short of the strange and weird: Dadaism which played on the senses and took your imagination for a ride.

Beginning in 1916, Dada art was a sort of social protest to colonolization (which they believed began the war) and conformity. Dadaism acted as a sort of "anti-art" that rivaled and re-thought the conservative fine art base.

Its popularity spike began to decline around 1920 and never again gained its wide following. I thought that this was the most interesting form of art correlating to social protest, it was even more special due to the fact that these ideaologies came to light during our first World War where most of society was highly conservative and conforming, and didn't appreciate anything outside of normal boudaries.

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Photography and Poetry

A dynamic duo if I do say so myself. Recently I had written a particularly touching poem (if I do again say so myself) that I was enticed to intertwine with my recent collection of landscape photography.

It is still a work in progress but felt compelled to share my journey thus far.

By blending my [minimal] skills in Photoshop CS2 and in landscape photography I felt that I was able to bring my words to life in a more emotional sense than with simply just a few choice words. By blending some key phrases and powerful/emotional pictures I feel that I am doing more justice to my favorite [thus far] poem.

What I tried to incorporate into each piece of work that I have done (six so far) is the sense of grandiocity and that my words can be bigger than simple text. Each line has a moment in time, each phrase carries its own weight in power and context.

Picasso and the War

Today I had an enlightened discussion with my peers about the effects on art during the era of World War One. One very pertinent figure during this time period was Pablo Picasso. His abstract Cubism gave his perspectives on the looming and eventual war in an entirely new manner showcasing it from that classic "Picasso" standard.

One of my peers pointed out Picasso's hidden bull skull in the middle of the picture. The bull skull of course representing his native country of Spain in one way or another.

The thing that stuck out the most to me though was the obvious human suffering and chaos that was being produced from this tension of battle. Of course all of these things were heightened when the war did actually start, yet this drastic representation shows us the enormity of Pablo's early premonitions of what was to come

Art Critiques

Yesterday I finished my condradicting art critiques for one of abstract's most recognized men: Piet Mondrian. To be honest I had a bit of fun while writing these seemingly opposite reviews while trying to run a common thread through them. Here are the beginning and endings to my two very exciting reviews!

Positive Beg. + End:

He has done it again; his brilliant works cease to amaze me and continue to stun even his early conservative critics of late. Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red, while seemingly unimpressive to the untrained eye, conveys more than simplicity but perfection. His Neo-Pasticist style continues to shine through his pieces and into the eyes of his adorers. Mondrian’s latest proves to the art world that De Stijl is still alive and breathing.

While the genre has been related to Cubism countless times, there is both a stark contrast between the two and a fine outline you can scarcely make out of the Neo-Plasticism origins. Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso still remain two diversely separate abstract artists in its flowering age, and yet both share the same ingenuity, the same spark in their contemporary work.

Negative Beg. + End:

Piet Mondrian has been called “revolutionary”, “a profit for the abstract world”, and “a painter to make history” but there is only one word that sums up this abstract painter: lazy. Piet Mondrian has not done anything substantial for the art world, he has not blazed a trail for people to follow, and he has taken five colors (red, blue, yellow, black and white) and painted something my son could have done in a few hours with a ruler and paint.

Principles of perfection in abstract is not a misguided idea, it is simply one that cannot be conveyed using a few black lines and a dabbling of primary colors as art.

After all of my research of both sides of the argument, I think that I learned more about the artist than I would have after only doing one perspective.

Neo-Plasticism

Otherwise known as the new plastic art movement or De Stijl. Neo Plasticism was an artistic style that captured the essential form of the abstract. The style mostly relies completely on straight, horizontal or vertical lines and uses only primary colors and black and white. Piet Mondrian was Neo Plasticism's frontline man when the movement started and was their flagship man throughout its history from 1917-1931.

Highly influenced by the Cubism art movement (pioneered by Picasso), which involves almost collage-like abstract paintings, Neo Plasticism was founded on, among other things, the mysticism of artistic hypotheticals like the "perfect line". Plasticists adored order in their work. They loved to push the boundries of simplicity and achieved just that.

Today, Neo Plasticism is not what it used to be. When the movement began it had tried to achieve international recogition. While it did become a well known period, it was mostly considered to be Dutch art.

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More Mondrian

So in the past few days I have been trying to find more inspiring Piet pieces (which tends to be quite easy due to the fact that most of his stuff looks the same) and came across something I was not expecting. The picture at the right depicts something OTHER than straight lines with the occasional primary color associated with it. The painting of a "gray tree" (as it's so adeptly called) was something unlike anything I had previously seen by Mondrian and so I took a closer look at it. Not once not twice but numerous times, something in his brief brush strokes and long curved branches caught my eye in just the right position. This usage of, almost depressing, shades of black is unlike anything else in his main genre and period of work.

One thing that comes to my mind is how much it looks careless. I found this the most interesting thing of the piece especially in comparisson to his other works, it is like night and day. In the "classical" Mondrian pieces, he takes maticulous care of his lines and boxes and yet in this painting it seems that his background work was almost laxidasical and careless and yet it is one of his most famous pieces. This stark contrast sparked my interest in this artist, where it is extremely clear that there is more than meets the eye.

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Piet Who?

Mondrian of course! Piet Mondrian is one of the most renowned abstract artists to live. His work is included in numerous reputable museums (including the Louve) and appear in pop culture even to this day. As you can see on the right, Piet was a fan of the three primary colors. He almost exclusivly only used the colors white, black, yellow, red, and blue and very rarely did any shading of these colors. His strict abstract style was a pioneer to the genre that chose to incorporate an almost perfect disymmetry.

There has always been something that drew my eye to this artist and never let go. At first I passed it off as lazy half-assed "art" but later found a very deep feeling to his pieces. I believe he is an artist that you either like alot, or one that brushes you the wrong way for most everyone, and for me his pieces (like the one featured above) make me think numerous ways about them. One thought process is one of simpler times. Another is a mockery of "fine" artists, I see this as something revolutionary, orchestrating to the public that there is more than one mold for an artist to fill.

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The Artists' Quandry

The Industrial Revolution not only brought with it numerous advancements in the manufacturing of textile and other practical items, but in the pigment and other paint production fields as well. This step up in technology allowed painters from all backgrounds to express themselves through the arts in an easier and cheaper way.

Unfortunatly the era of the industry brought with it brutally harsh and dreary cityscapes that affected landscape for miles in every direction. This bleak setting brought on a much more dreary mindset that bled through in artists' paintings.

In the end it brought up an ironic situation that I thought interesting: advancements in art affecting art; and yet this is only on a smaller scale. Overall with the beginning of the romantisism era and the rise of the middle class, art became much less gaudy and pompous, and much more approachable and welcoming bringing in a larger and more diverse crowd of collectors and enthusiasts.


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The Industrial Revolution

One particularly main era in world and American history that transformed social mindset was the Industrial Revolution. The changes during this time were one of the quickest and most drastic in recent human history. Families went from living serene lives on their farm, picking and planting crops, and enjoying the simple times. When the economy starting to rely on industry everything started to change. People went from tending to their crops to tending to their machines and trying to stay awake, pay attention, and not get ripped to shreds. Families had to leave the home to go to work for the first time and started to become lost in the factories, not seeing each other for full days. Life became monotonous, dark, dreary and complicated.

Clearly life and perspectives became different with the bleaker surroundings. I am intent on discovering how life during the Industrial Revolution.

Eternal Questions

Before one can start his or her conquest through the journey of art, one must ask themselves what they interpret art as and art's purpose in our growth as a society. Personally I find art to be something not necessary but essential in a growing civilization. As the human race we look to different art forms to express our thoughts in a manner that we can share with another human that relates to them on a deeper level than just plain words. An expression of thought, of being, that another can look at and without thinking become entranced by. I think this is what art should and, for the most part, strives to be.

To look at art's roots as cave paintings we see that it transpired to be a medium that could tell a story or make a connection with another being where words (or grunts) would not do it justice. This is why I believe that art is considered to be necessary for a civilization that wants to adapt and that wants to grow.

This blog starts me on my epic journey to discover what is art and how it was influenced by one of our most important phases: the Industrial Revolution.

Enjoy.