ART428, Test 3, March 20, 2007 PRINT VERSION OF ANSWER KEY

(4 points ea.) 1. Carra Funeral of the Anarchist Galli

2. Sant’Elia Power Plant; City of the Future

3. Malevich Taking in the Rye; stage I

4. Malevich Knife Grinder, stage I

5. Rozanova Non-objective composition (flight on airplane)

6. Malevich Three Female Figures; stage III

7. Rodchenko Hanging Construction

8. Tatlin Monument to the Third International

9. Kandinsky Composition VII; stage II

10. Malevich Suprematist composition, stage II

Part Two. (4 points ea.)

1. (Gorky) influence of Kandinsky seen in the separation of color and line which leads to the presence of undefined forms, and the treatment of the entire canvas equally (there’s no central focal point, there’s no suggestion of an important foreground image and less important background)

2. (GE spire at the NY World’s Fair in 1939) constructivism in the direct expression of electric power (it looks like a bolt a lightning); you cannot talk about function in this case since a) this work is not functional and b) if it had been, you wouldn’t be able to tell that from the photograph; it’s resemblance to the dynamic thrust of Tatlin’s monument; might also refer to futurism for subject matter (if you recognized that it was a lightning bolt) and the lines of force

3. This one is Kandinsky: second stage; appears to be an improvisation, rather than a composition, because we can still make out references to the church on the hill and the cannons but clear signs of his increasing use of “free” color to communicate without recognizable subject matter

4. (Barnett Newman) this is an example of a work which at first sight appears to influenced by suprematism, especially by Rozanova because of the overall interest in color, yet with one exception, neither Rozanova nor Malevich eliminated the presence of geometric forms the way this painting does – a line is not a geometric form; perhaps some influence of Kandinsky in the treatment of color as a separate plane, and although I can see an argument for futurist “lines of force,” there’s too much “blank” space in the form of an atmospheric treatment of the blue background to make futurism a likely influence

5. (Larionov) You had seen this one before and your textbook also discussed Larionov’s rayonnism, but without remembering, the best association to make is to futurism and the expression of speed and movement; might refer to Carra, as the best example of the futurists since Boccioni’s paintings are much more centrifugal in their composition than this one; it also suggests an expressionist influence although expressionism was not really on this test 6. (Tatlin): this should remind you of Tatlin’s early reliefs where the goal is not the representation of an object as it looks but as it “feels”; the use of materials in a raw state can only be associated with Tatlin

7. (Kandinsky) this looks like a late stage I Kandinsky painting – we can still recognize the landscape and the fauvist colors but at the same time, he is clearly moving away from an interest in the naturalistic forms of the landscape to a stronger interest in color

8. (Kandinsky) stage III because of the increased sense of patterning in the background and the more clearly defined shapes; the chaotic force of the earlier compositions is no longer present even though he is still treating color and form as independent or separate facts

9. (Thomas Hart Benton) this was a tricky one because it is clearly a figurative painting, unlike the others we’ve looked like; you might see an expressionist influence in the subject matter of what appears to be a drowning man and an apocalyptic scene or a futurist influence for largely the same reasons; the subject matter could suggest a futurist influence although the style does not

10. (Stuart Davis) although he isn’t influenced by suprematism, that is probably the strongest visual association, especially if you refer to Rozanova; cubist collage is the more likely influence

11. (Schlemmer–a Bauhaus production) the influence here might be described as either suprematist or constructivist – the simplification of the bodies and the use of geometric forms and flat planes certainly reminds us of suprematism, especially the costumes for Victory over the Sun; the abstracted treatment of the stage may remind us of constructivism although Stepanova would be a better reference than Popova

12. (Joseph Stella) futurism is the best answer for this one because of the lines of force, the interest in creating a sense of movement which pulls the eye into the center of the painting

III. Short answer questions (2 points ea.) 1. Of the two artists on this test who achieved the greatest degree of abstraction in the early 20th century, one retained an underlying connection to the landscape in his paintings and one did not. Who are these artists and which one eliminates all signs of the landscape in his period of absolute abstraction? Kandinsky and Malevich; Malevich is the one who eliminates signs of the landscape

2. Which movement centralizes war as subject and ironically loses its best artists to a real war? Futurism 3.Who were these artists? Boccioni and Sant’Elia were killed in WWI

4. True or false: The futurist love of machines was responsible for the abstract tendencies we see in their art. FALSE (If you read the manifestoes, it is the interest in depicting speed and movement which provides the fundamental basis for their paintings.)

5. True or false: For the constructivists, a love of realism led to the development of a style which focused on accurate representation of the real world. False (Realism to the constructivists meant the creation, not representation, of real things.) 6. True or false: Walter Benjamin believed that not only did photography have the power to make poverty and other abject conditions look beautiful, but that it was obligated to do so. False (This is true up until the last clause; he did not believe that photography should make poverty look beautiful. This was the failure of photography –and art– that it made abjection beautiful.)

7. True or false: With the exception of cubism, all of the movements we’ve studied so far have some degree of utopianism in them. True

8. True or false: The constructivists shared the belief that the fourth dimension was a path to a spiritual sphere of existence. False

9. One artist wrote that every work is a “child of its time.” Who said this? Kandinsky

10. What did he mean by this? That art comes out of the cultural conditions which produced it and that artists should not try to recreate earlier styles because they are living in a different cultural period.