New Vision

Fountain

Marcel Duchamp. Fountain. 1917.
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. Revised Second ed. Vol. 2. New York: Prentice Hall Inc., and Harry N. Abrams Inc., 2005.

Reminder! Book Pages 16 - 20
due on Tuesday!
 
readymade = an industrially produced object that becomes a work of art through the choice or assistance of the artist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Strand
1890 - 1976

 

Abstraciton with oranges

Paul Strand. Abstraction, Twin Lakes, Connecticut. 1916.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1987.1100.10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Orange and Bowls

Paul Strand. Orange and Bowls, Twin Lakes, Connecticut. 1916.
http://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/-ORANGES-AND-BOWLS--TWIN-LAKES--CONNECTI/4D3CFDD741DD7E42

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The full potential power of every medium is dependent upon the purity of its use...This means a real respect for the thing in front of him... The fullest realization of this accomplished without tricks of process or manipulation, through the use of straight photographic methods." - Paul Strand

Wall Street

Paul Strand. Wall Street. 1916.
http://www.masters-of-photography.com/S/strand/strand_wall_street_full.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blind
"The work was brutally direct, pure and devoid of trickery." - Stieglitz on Strand

Paul Strand.  New York (from Camera Work, June 1917). Platinum print.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/33.43.334

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woman on the Telephone

Aleksander Rodchenko. Woman at the Telephone. 1928.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xCykdpQhXe8/StRX3UR_YhI/AAAAAAAAE7I/xOnK4B9EVio/s1600-h/On+the+telephone+1928.jpg
"Photography's long-acknowledged power to mirror the face of the world was by no means abandoned, but in the 1920s and '30s a host of unconventional forms and techniques suddenly flourished. Abstract photograms, photomontages composed of fragmented images, the combination of photographs with modern typography and graphic design in posters and magazine pages - all were facets of what artist and theorist László Moholy-Nagy enthusiastically described as a "new vision" rooted in the technological culture of the twentieth century." - Metropolitan Museum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photogram

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Lucia Moholy.  Photogram.  1924.
Marien, Mary Warner.  Photography: A Cultural History.  Second edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking Figure

Alexander Rodchenko.  Untitled (Walking Figure).  1928.
Marien, Mary Warner.  Photography: A cultural History.  Second edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.

 

"One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again." - Rodchenko

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chauffer

Alexander Rodchenko. Chauffeur. 1933.
http://www.masters-of-photography.com/R/rodchenko/rodchenko_chauffeur_full.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laszlo Maholy-Nagy. Chairs at Margate. 1935.
http://www.geh.org/taschen/htmlsrc8/m198121630006_ful.html#topofimage

 

New Vision = a cool, reductive and straight approach to photography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Echeoeria

Albert Renger-Patzsch. Echeoeria. 1922.
Renger-Patzsch believed in "photographic photography"
 
New Vision elements:
Geometric compositions that approach abstraction
Use of the close-up and oblique points of view
Play with reflective surfaces to alter perception
Manipulation of light
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fierce Eye Building

Florence Henri. The Fierce Eye Building. 1929.
Rosenblum, Naomi. A World History of Photography. Abbeville Press, New York. 1989.

Scandinavia

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.  Scandinavia. 1930.
http://www.geh.org/fm/amico99/htmlsrc2/moholy_sld00001.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Revolutionary spirit of modern photography expressed
in the 1929 Film Und Foto exhibition

Film und Foto Poster

Film und Foto International Exhibition poster. 1929.
Marien, Mary Warner.  Photography: A Cultural History.  Second edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.

 
Photographs declared the greatest of contemporary technological wonders because of its capacity to "be one of the most effective weapons against the mechanization of the spirit."
 
Some of the artists included:
Berencice Abbott
Herbert Bayer
Imogen Cunningham
John Heartfield
Florence Henri
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
Paul Outerbridge
Man Ray
Albert Renger-Patzsch
Aleksander Rodchenko
Charles Sheeler
Edward Steichen
Edward Weston
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Historic Context
1889 - 1910 Pictorialism
1912 Titanic sinks
1913 Armory Show in New York
1913 - 1933 German Weimar Republic
1914 - 1918 World War I
  Over 37 million deaths
1916 - 1923 Dadaism
1917 - 1920 Russian Revolution
1922 Formation of the Soviet Union
  Fascists under Benito Mussolini seize power in Italy
1924 - 1940s Surrealism
1926 - 1953 Stalin gains control the Soviet Union
1929 Great Depression begins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dada = a nonsensical term used to define an international artistic and literary movement of the early 20th century.  Born of the widespread disillusionment engendered by World War I, it attacked conventional standards of aesthetics and behavior and stressed absurdity and the role of the unpredictable in artistic creation.

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Militarism. 1924. Photomontage.
http://www.euroartmagazine.com/new/?page=1&content=155
 
"While the thunder of guns rolled in the distance, we sang, painted, glued and composed for all our worth. We are seeking an art that would heal mankind from the madness of the age."- Jean Arp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut with the Kitchen Knife

Hannah Hoch. Cut with a Kitchen Knife Dada through the last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany. 1919-20.
Rosenblum, Naomi. A World History of Photography. Abbeville Press, New York. 1989.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut with the Kitchen Knife

Hannah Hoch. Cut with a Kitchen Knife Dada through the last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany. 1919-20.
Rosenblum, Naomi. A World History of Photography. Abbeville Press, New York. 1989.
Hannah Hoch organizes the photomontage
into four quadrants:
Upper right = Anti Dada world
Lower right = The Great Dada World
Upper left = "Dada" springs from Einstein's head
Lower left = figure demands that the masses join Dada
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photomontage - a collage of separate photographs that is re-photographed so that the final image is converted back into a seemless photographic print

Hanah Hoch. Dada Dance. 1922. Photomontage.
http://gypsyart.yolasite.com/art-history/dadaism

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
"The excess of Hell falls into the coffers of Pastor Klatt for innocent children of criminals."
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Heartfield. Adolf the Superman: 
Swallows Gold and Spits Out Junk. 1932.
http://www.towson.edu/heartfield/images/Adolf_the_Superman.jpg

John Heartfield. Have No Fear - He's A Vegetarian. 1936.
http://faculty.guhsd.net/mejohnson/Artheartfield_HaveNoFear.html