Using images from various artists, I will chronologically chart the incremental rise of and gradual deconstruction of pictographic representation from the Renaissance to the 1840s. From the naturalism of Giotto, (1308) to the perspective of Pierro de la Francesca and Masaccio, through developments in anatomical accuracy by Davinci and Michelangelo, we will see how those novel fascinations evolved through time to embrace the expressiveness of the medium over the virtuosity of draftsmanship. The painterly development of impasto by Titian and liberties taken with El Greco’s elongated figures will be shown to have inspired trends in painting that yielded Goya’s loosely configured brushstrokes and Turner’s nearly complete abstractions by the 1830s.

SIGN UP

“Family of Charles IV” Francisco de Goya, 1800. (Image has been altered.)

Looking at numerous artists from Manet to Renoir and Monet, we will observe how, in the decades after the French revolution, the rise of the bourgeoisie, the invention of tubes for paint, and rebellion against the established academy of art revolutionized painting. These developments made art available to more collectors and enabled more people to take up painting without sponsorship or accreditation. We will examine how the Impressionists banded together to oppose the academy and developed the early anti-establishment tradition of the avant-garde. We will then observe how the advent of photography, among a host of other influences, inspired artists to capture light and atmospheric attributes rather than to emphasize draftsmanship and pictographic accuracy.

SIGN UP

“Houses of Parliament” Claude Monet, 1899-1901

From Post Impressionism, which includes Gaugin, Van Gogh and Cezanne, through Matisse’s Fauvism to the Cubism of Braque and Picasso to Orphism and Futurism, this talk is ism-packed even before we discuss the first abstractions of Kandinsky Malevich and Mondrian. We will also look at the spiritualist abstractions of Hilma af Klint and discuss why she kept those now iconic works a secret. While surveying a wide range of abstract imagery we will examine the motivations and ideas of the artists behind these various movements and individual works.

SIGN UP

“Composition X” Vassily Kandinsky. 51.2″ x 76.8″ oil on canvas, 1939.

In our fourth talk we will see how the horrors of WWI disrupted the progression of abstraction and then spawned the DADA movement which evolved into Surrealism. We will examine both the historical and aesthetic links between Kandinsky, Surrealism, WWII and Abstract Expressionism. Special attention will be paid to the turbulent transition of the art center of the West from Paris to New York. Connections will be established between Malevich, DADA, Minimalism and Post Minimalism as cultural developments. In addition, we will look at images of Gees Bend quilting and works by outsider, first peoples and Aboriginal artists. In conclusion, we will see how abstraction has been a means of existential and cultural expression in numerous cultures throughout human history even as it slowly evolved throughout the western canon since the Renaissance.

SIGN UP

“Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110″ Robert Motherwell. 82″ x 114” acrylic with graphite and charcoal on canvas, 1971.