ARTS237 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Voyeurism, Surrealism, Kazimir Malevich
Katherine Paterson
ARTS237 Postmodern Art
Week 1 3/3/17
-Catcher and the Rye - about truth being not true > different versions of truth? Should
we question truth? > what is truth? > Postmodernism allows there to be multiple truths
happening at the same time as the definition of truth has expanded > if truth is
expanded then reality is expanded too
-Traditions in western visual art from Renaissance to 1800s: - classifications in 5
genres > designed to transmit an officially decided truth (reinforce where power lay,
what to believe) > modernists rejected this and postmodernist rejected it to the
extreme (to change how we view the world)
-History (including religious) painting > iconography + narrative
-E.g. Giotto "Crucification" 1300s > made to visually convey the bible to those
who couldn't read > hierarchy in triangle and symbolism aid this
communication of truth
-Also truths change when skills of painters improve and as knowledge of the
times improve e.g. Leonardo da Vinci "Madonna and Child with St Anne"
1510 compared to Giotto > flatness to more naturalistic, feudal society
evolution, emergence of humanism
-Portraits > where are the eyes looking
-Where are the eyes looking > looking at you to demand you to look at them
because they are important (e.g. Queen ELizabeth) OR looking away from
the audience inviting their gaze to be a voyeur (e.g. Whistler "Symphony in
White" 1864) > teaches us the hierarchy of society > teaches us when to
engage with those higher or lower than you
-Genre Paintings > scenes from everyday life with a message
-E.g. Bruegel "The Peasants Wedding Dance" 1607
-In postmodernism this becomes performance art > every day can be art
-Landscape
-E.g. Constable "The Hay Wain" 1821
-Cutting edge artists not interested in doing new things with landscapes
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