Shock of the new: The view from the Edge

 CLASS ACTIVITY: Shock of the new: The view from the Edge

Watch “Shock of the new, Episode 8, “The view from the Edge”, Robert Hughes

Youtube: http://youtu.be/AFc1BeS0vKI

Worksheet:

1. Watch the DVD/ youtube clip and Take notes.

Include:

·      list the main themes

·      the main artists

·      Points of interest

2. Choose one of the paintings below to analyse using the 4 step analysis criteria: (choose one group of two images eg: Analysis & Comparison 1)

Describe: Tell what you see (the visual facts).  Include research about the art & artist.

Analyse: Using the 8 Design elements and 8 design principles; mentally separate the parts or elements, thinking in terms of textures, shapes/forms, light/dark or bright/dull colours, types of lines, and sensory qualities. In this step consider the most significant art principles that were used in the artwork. Describe how the artist used them to organize the elements.

Interpret: An interpretation seeks to explain the meaning of the work based on what you have learned so far about the artwork, what do you think the artist was trying to say?

Judgement: After careful observation, analysis, and interpretation of an artwork, you are ready to make your own judgment. This is your personal evaluation based on the understandings of the work(s).

 

Record answers in your journal

3. Compare the painting with corresponding photo or painting provided.

Answer: does this comparison bring a new meaning to the painting?

How does the painting fit into the historical context of the photo / image?

If you separate the two images, is it now possible to see one without thinking of the other?

What impact does this have on you?

Why has Robert Hughes described these artists as having a ‘view from the edge’?

Analysis & Comparison 1:

Analyse this painting:

 

Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893, tempera and crayon on cardboard, 91 x 73.5 cm

It is assumed that here as well his starting point was private feelings and experience. His diaries contain several remarks that seem to form a background to this depiction of existential angst, among them the following: “I was walking along the road with two friends – Then the sun went down – The sky suddenly turned to blood and I felt a great scream in nature –”. Munch produced several drawings and prints of this subject.

http://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/collections_and_research/edvard_munch_in_the_national_museum/the_scream/

Compare to this photograph:

Chachapoya mummy, Musee de l'Homme

 

This is an image of the mummified remains of a Chachapoyas warrior. (An Inca warrior, Peru)

It is a hypothesis based on conjectures, although not supported by documents that

Munch was inspired to paint his masterpiece by this mummy that the Norwegian artist and Paul Gauguin saw together at the 1889 Trocadero exposition in Paris.

Analysis & Comparison 2:

Analyse this painting:

Frances Bacon, 1953, ‘Study after Velazquez’s Portrait of pop Innocent X’, oil on canvas,

This painting is on of a series of over 45 variants of the Velázquez painting in which Bacon executed throughout the 1950s and early 1960s.

http://www2.tate.org.uk/francisbacon/

Compare to this painting:

Diego Velázquez, 1650, Portrait of Pope Innocent X, oil on canvas

Analysis & Comparison 3:

Analyse this painting:

Franz Marc, 1911 ‘The Large Blue Horse’, oil on canvas, 105x181.1cm

The Blue Rider, was a magazine publication series, which he was a co-founder of; it focused on the movement, and it was well known to be connected to a small group of artists who were in charge of posting images, as well as breaking stories, during the time that the magazine was in existence in Germany. They focussed upon nature rather than depicting the immediate war torn environment.

Compare to this photograph:

 

Nazi Germany Holocaust image