ART Test 2 - Take Home Essay Question
REMEMBER Labels: Art History
and italicize titles of artwork
Daniel Contreras
ART P112 CRN 32284
Professor James Entz
6 April 2011
Moving Forward
I firmly believe that Charles Baudelaire's statement describing modernity as "the transitory, the fugitive, and the contingent" is true. The world cannot achieve true modernity if it stays at a standstill, frozen and unchanging. Therefore the contingent, the fugitive and the transitory must be opposite. There is always more than one single way to achieve something. There usually are fall backs like Plan B, Plan C and on. In order to be considered as modern, the subject has to respond and adapt to change which is dependent upon something else. Everything that is novel is changeable, like a chameleon changing its skin into the same color of the mossy rock it is underneath. The chameleon camouflaging to match its surroundings is an example of the fugitive which is always "on the run." Modernity is constantly in motion, moving from one place to another like a city transit bus. This example of always moving forward demonstrates the transitory as modernity.
Nothing has captured modernity better than the impressionist styled paintings. In fact, impressionism is contingent all in its own. After several rejections from The Salon, who favored traditional styled paintings, these anti-establishment artists broke away from previous inveterate traditions to what now is known as impressionism. In 1874, this group of independent artists gathered together to present the first impressionist exhibit. These artists chose to depict the modernity of the world through a new and revolutionary means (Samu par.1). Louis Leroy coined the term "impressionist" inside his Le Charivari newspaper review after seeing Claude Monet's art piece Impression, Sunrise at the 1874 exhibit. Leroy wrote, "A preliminary drawing for a wallpaper pattern is more highly finished than this seascape” (Wikipedia). What Leroy meant in this quote was that Monet’s finished composition had an unrefined sketchy quality, which was odd and modern. The artwork contained pure colors, broken and loose brush strokes. In Monet's Impression, Sunrise, the new impressionist style is candidly showcased. Modernity is present in the picture in the way the colors are used. The dominance of color over subject was a characteristic that was absent in previous traditional paintings and present in many Impressionist paintings. However, instead of muted colors for shadows, Monet and other impressionists chose pure and bright colors. The transitory motions of the brush strokes reveal the artist’s hand, unlike Romanticism and Neoclassicism where the artist’s brush strokes were, for the most part, invisible. The brush strokes also give the picture a blurry characteristic. The dabs of color that represent the reflections from the sun and silhouetted boat create a rippling feeling on top of the water. Most scholarly artists painted in art studios. On the other hand, Monet chose to create his art pieces outdoors. The booming impact of the Industrial Revolution had made it possible for artists to bring paint outdoors in little tubes; so now they could choose to either work in the studio or not. Among many of Monet's subjects were nature, light, and leisure time for the working class.
Claude Monet's compositions were the result of transitioning into different atmospheres. In Monet's Rouen Cathedral, the Portal and the Tower of Alvane, the Morning, the dawn is the transitory and the form is the fugitive. This artwork captures the movement of light for a brief moment so beautifully that to ignore its modernity is to ignore the magic of the always changing world. That drawn scene will change soon. With his own eyes, Monet directly drew what he saw. He captured time or recovered a memory and preserved it on canvas. Monet painted a vast series of pictures pertaining to the Rouen Cathedral that are similarly beautiful and share some characteristics within themselves. Some difficulties that Monet faced while painting the series were: he had to hastily capture the image before the atmospheric and light conditions changed. Thus, the series of the Rouen Cathedral lacked the detailed manner that traditional paintings possessed. When viewed side by side, the canvases depict the passage of time; while the Rouen Cathedral is shown at the beginning (dawn) and gradually moving towards the end (dusk) (Art Factory par.6).
Paris Street, Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte captures a transitory impression of a Paris street just after a stormed has passed, from memory. It was so recent that the pedestrians still have their umbrellas up, and the brick street is still wet. Just like Monet, Caillebotte depicted events of everyday life and of nature portraying light and the subjects in the scene as they appeared to him in a fleeting moment of time. Paris Street, Rainy Day could also serve as a metaphor. It may suggest the initial period of civil calm that followed bloody fighting in the streets of Paris. Fighting took place in that very intersection, just before the painting was completed in 1877.
The painting also captures in vivid color the changes just implemented by Napoleon the 3rd of the Paris cityscape and street corners. However, Napoleon had more in mind than just civic pride and classical architectural taste. Police and soldiers under his charge could now form up and maneuver in such wide spaces; where as previously, enraged citizens could easily block a street for hours or even days (Samu par.5). The middle class Parisians shown here in this artwork are outdoors on a clean, safe street dressed lavishly. Though the presence of the umbrella leaves some uncertainty whether the storm has really passed or has just taken a brief resting.
In Paris Street, Rainy Day the modern urban street scene is transformed into something bustling, complicated and stunning. There is also a absence of interaction amongst many of the people on the street, suggesting more modern ideas of the alienation in urban life and the lack of communication between people, possibly neighbors, in larger cities.
The viewers have the choice to either follow the street on the left of the mammoth structure or voyage into the street to the right of the building. Notice that the path on the left seems to lead us deep into the horizon. Though the one on the right seems not as deep. Either way, we are still the modern man, wandering about possibly without a destination, like a flâneur. The foreground is dominated by the couple and the brand new brick street to the left combined with an approach to a modern sense of perspective. Caillebotte and other Impressionists often responded to photography, a new invention of the 19th century, in their paintings. Caillebotte made sure that art remained relevant by depicting life on canvas in ways that photography was not able. Impressionists did this especially when it came to capturing perspective, light, and color. In Paris Street, Rainy Day, Caillebotte gives photography a little jab. Not only can paintings portray life more richly and fully than a camera, but if a painter chooses to, he may crop human beings in half or cut off subjects at their knees.
All in all, I still agree with Charles Baudelaire that modernity is the contingent, the fugitive and the transitory. Deconstructionist literary critic and theorist Paul de Man said, “Modernity exists in the form of a desire to wipe out whatever came earlier, in the hope of reaching at least a point that could be called a true present, a point of origin that marks a new departure.”
Works Cited
Adams, Laurie. "Chapter 19 & 20." Art across Time. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill College, 2010. 690-731. Print.
"Claude Monet - Rouen Cathedral in Full Sunlight." Art Factory. Web. 30 Mar. 2011.
"Louis Leroy." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 18 Dec. 2009. Web. 31 Mar. 2011.
Samu, Margaret. "Impressionism: Art and Modernity". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Web. Oct. 30 Mar. 2011.