Monday, 16 February 2015

Revolutionising the Image

 In this lecture we looked at 'style', Cubism and Futurism. The first thing that was discussed was 'The Canon', and we looked at the Doryphorus of Polycleitus sculpture in relation to this, as an example of all that followed being based upon a previous design, as all other sculptures made after this one were modeled on it. 


                                         

From previous study of classical history I know that an example of a sculpture being modeled after the 'canon' measurements of the Doryphorus of Polcleitus work was the Prima Porta statue - a statue of the emperor Augustus:

                                                         

Following on from this in the lecture, we then looked at style. 'Style' being the aesthetic features of something, a reference to appearance. It can be used to categorise art pieces. The term 'sylised' means a certain look to an image. One interesting example we looked at was a work by Picasso called 'Woman and Child on a Seashore' , however from looking at the style of the artwork you would not have thought it was made by Picasso because it was not done in his well-known cubist style.


We then looked at Cubism, which was a movement started at around 1907 with Picasso and Braque considered to be the founders of Cubism. Features of the movement were intercepting lines, removed depth, with all different angles being featured and a geometric look. The different phases of cubism were also discussed. The first phase being known as 'Analytic Cubism' which was more austere, serious and featured a reduces palette. The second phase is known as 'Synthetic Cubism' and included elements of collage, a mixture of materials and the importance of text was demonstrated. Braque that it was not meant to be read, and invited readership while rejecting it.

 Analytic                                            Synthetic

It was then discussed how Analytic cubism inspired the De Stijl movement (1917-1931) as the movement looked at maths and geometry in perfect forms.

Lastly we looked at Futurism which was a movement that came about towards the end of Cubism, and it's manifesto written by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. The futurist artist Franz Marc's work shows Cubism influences: