Modern Art Essay -- Manet, Rembrandt, Gaugin

This paper references the following worksOlympia. Edouard Manet. 1863. Oil on canvas. H. 130 W. 190 cm. Paris, Muse dOrsay Self Portrait. Rembrandt. 1660. Oil on canvas. 31.61 x 26.5 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Self Portrait Dedicated to capital of Minnesota Gaugin. Vincent van Gogh. 1888. Oil on canvas. 60.5 x 49.4 cm. Fogg Art Museum, Harvard UniversityPieta. Anabale Carricci. 1600. Oil on canvas. 149 x 156 cm. Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy. charr with Dead Child. Kathe Kollowitz. 1903. Etching. 39 x 48 cm. To the casual viewer, Modern inventionifice is often shocking, amusing, indecipherable and unnerving because art has always been understood in terms of traditional representation. However at the turn of the nineteenth century, European artists began to rebel against the institution of classical art. To gain success as an artist in Europe up until this time, acceptance by the Royal Academies of Art was essential (Rosenfeld 2000). The approved styl e was that of classical antiquity depicting idealised historical, mythological and apparitional scenes and because the Academies controlled official patronage for artists, they set the rules for standards of beauty in art (Rosenfeld 2000). However with the rise of modernity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, art theory evolved. Modernity in this period was characterised by rapid growth of industry and technology in the city, which meant substantial social and economic innovation crossways Europe. Feelings of anxiety and instability accompanied this rapid transformation (Sturken and Cartwright 2009, 449) and lead to a self-conscious awareness within artists and consumers alike. So strongly were the changes felt that artists began reinterpreting traditional repress matter to reflect this new modern age. Ultimately, Modern artists sought truth over beauty, a concept which encompassed both the physicality of painting as a medium as well as the artists sense of self in an endeavour to create pure art (Greenberg). Academic art strove to overcome the limitations of painting as a medium surface flatness, canvas structure and properties of paint pigment (Kleiner 2009, 822), to create illusions of space and aesthetics. Modern artists reacted by emphasising the said(prenominal) properties to communicate original insights and observations. However, the popular notion that Modernism was a... ...3857?accountid=10382 (accessed Feb 4, 2015)Figure 2. Olympia. Edouard Manet. 1863. Oil on canvas. H. 130 W. 190 cm. Paris, Muse dOrsay offered to the French State by public subscription initiated by Claude Monet, 1890 RMN-Grand Palais (Muse dOrsay) / Herv Lewandowski. Reproduced from http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/flashpoints/visualarts/olympia_a.html (accessed Feb 4, 2015).Figure 3. Self Portrait. Rembrandt. 1660. Oil on canvas. 31.61 x 26.5 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. http//totallyhistory.com/self-portrait-altman/ (accessed Feb 4, 2015)Fig ure 4. Self Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gaugin. Vincent van Gogh. 1888. Oil on canvas. 60.5 x 49.4 cm. Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. http//www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh/self/gogh.self-gauguin.jpg (accessed Feb 4, 2015)Figure 5. Pieta. Anabale Carricci. 1600. Oil on canvas. 149 x 156 cm. Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy. http//www.wikipaintings.org/en/annibale-carracci/pieta-1600 (accessed Feb 4, 2015)Figure 6. Woman with Dead Child. Kathe Kollowitz. 1903. Etching. 39 x 48 cm. oj0 http//hammer.ucla.edu/programs/detail/program_id/204 (accessed Feb 4, 2015)