Art 107 Short Answer Question questions These questions will help you prepare for quizzes. Also, the information gathered by studying these questions will help build the content for your essay. INTRODUCTION (SEE TEXTBOOK AND LISTEN TO POWERPOINT FOR ANSWERS – BRING QUESTIONS TO CLASS) 1. Briefly define Modern, Postmodernism and Contemporary. 2. Briefly define Deconstruction and who were some of the key thinkers behind the movement. 3. Where could New York Artists go to see European Modernist paintings (several answers)? 4. Why did Social Realism lose popularity as a style? 5. Who was Clement Greenberg and how did he define art? 6. Identify the philosopher that influenced Greenberg’s theories and in what way? 7. Why was mythology important to the Abstract Expressionists and where did they look to make a connection? 8. Abstract Expressionist painting is split into two schools, describe what they are and how do they differ? 9. Identify the psychoanalyst that influenced the Abstract Expressionist (AE) movement. 10. Describe some of the key elements of existentialist philosophy? 11. Who coined the term Action painting? LEE KRASNER 12. Why did Krasner dislike the ideologies of Surrealism adopted by many AEs. 13. Identify the modernist artist who inspired Krasner’s style and describe the changes she made to make her work her own? 14. Describe the gender Krasner addresses in her Untitled painting from 1948. 15. Describe the role Krasner played in the development of Jackson Pollock’s career? FRANZ KLINE 16. Describe Kline’s painting process. 17. Describe Kline’s childhood experiences that inspired his paintings? 18. Why were many of Kline’s works (and other artists) left untitled? 19. What did Kline do to his works after applying the initial brushstrokes that led to criticism from other artists and critics and why? ALEXANDER CALDER 20. When calculating the cycles of the mobiles, describe what Calder was hoping to achieve? 21. Identify the term is used to describe Calder’s moving sculpture? 22. Describe the phrase “open-form” sculpture and where did this style originate? 23. Define “Biomorphic Surrealism.” 24. Why did Calder consider himself a “Realist”? HANS HOFMANN 25. Describe the “European Sensibility” in relation to Hans Hoffman. 26. Why is Hofmann considered a key figure in the rise of Abstract Expressionism? 27. Describe “push and pull” in relation to painting? 28. Describe the two forms of Abstract Expressionism seen in Hofmann’s paintings. ARSHILE GORKY 29. Why is Gorky sometimes the “Existentialist Hero?” 30. Describe the content and formal elements that make Gorky’s painting of himself and his mother iconic. 31. Describe the symbolic meaning associated with Gorky’s “liver” and “cock’s comb” in his painting? WILLEM DeKOONING 32. Identify the past artists who inspired DeKooning’s works and in what way? 33. Define pentimenti? 34. Who did De Kooning meet at Black Mountain College in North Carolina and why were these relationships significant? (significance discussed later) 35. Identify the source that inspired Willem de Kooning’s Woman paintings? 36. What was de Kooning hoping to capture in his Woman paintings? 37. What was the response to Willem deKooning’s Woman paintings? ELAINE DEKOONING 38. Describe Elaine de Kooning’s style of painting. 39. What inspired her to create these series? 40. Describe the stigma Elaine tried to overcome? JACKSON POLLOCK 41. Describe Jackson Pollock experiences in Arizona that he incorporated into his painting process? 42. Identify the literary sources that Pollock and other Abstract Expressionist utilized to delve further into the subconscious and represent these ideas in their art. 43. Briefly describe Jackson Pollock’s approach to painting. 44. Describe the connection between Pollock’s drip style and Native American sand painting? 45. Identify the term used to describe Pollock’s coverage of the canvas? 46. Where did Pollock complete most of his drip paintings and why was this location ideal? 47. Describe the events that led to Pollock’s return to his early style. COLOR FIELD PAINTERS BARNET NEWMAN 48. Define the sublime and how Newman redefines the term in his art. 49. How did Newman define abstraction in realist terms? 50. What is meant by the term “zip”? 51. What does the title Onement I mean and what did the paintings symbolize? MARK ROTHKO 52. How can Rothko’s works be viewed as more political than other Abstract Expressionists? 53. Why was children’s art important to the development of Rothko’s career? 54. When conducting a literal reading of Rothko’s paintings, describe what it represents. 55. Analyze Mark Rothko’s goals for his paintings. 56. Describe the connection to Nietzsche’s ideologies in relation to Rothko’s paintings? 57. How are you supposed to interpret a Rothko painting? DAVID SMITH 58. Describe the symbolic meaning associated with steel in Smith’s sculpture and what inspired him to use this material. 59. How is Smith’s sculpture similar to Abstract Expressionist painters in terms of design and content? 60. Describe Smith’s totems? 61. How did Smith define a series? 62. What inspired the design of Smith’s Construction with Forged Neck? (several) 63. How is Smith’s Cubi series similar to the formal elements of the Gestural and Color Field Abstract Expressionists? ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG 64. Describe the purpose behind Rauschenberg’s “White paintings.” 65. Describe “combines”. 66. What space were “combines” supposed to represent? 67. What was the importance of found objects in his works? 68. Why were Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg important figures in the Pop art movement? 69. Why were Rauschenberg’s silkscreen paintings an effective medium for the Pre-Pop movement? 70. Discuss “compositional confusion” in relation to Rauschenberg’s paintings as well as sikscreen and lithograph prints. 71. What types of images were incorporated into Rauchenberg’s silkscreen and lithographic prints and why do they represent a disruption of the hierarchy within fine art? JASPER JOHNS 72. Who inspired Jasper Johns to switch to “found objects?” 73. Why did Jasper Johns use flags and targets in his paintings? 74. Why do Johns works “not support an iconographic reading?” 75. Describe the Encaustic technique. 76. Which philosopher inspired Johns and in what way? 77. How do his works disrupt our understanding of language? POSTWAR EUROPEAN ARTISTS FRANCIS BACON 78. How is Bacon’s work instinctual and surreal? 79. Describe the content/symbolism of Bacon’s paintings and why was it blasphemous to some? 80. Describe the references to Eumenides in Bacon’s artwork. 81. Describe the numerous sources Bacon accessed as subject matter for his paintings. LUCIAN FREUD 82. What did Freud want to capture in his portraits? 83. Describe Freud’s painting process in order to capture “portraits of people.” CHAPTER 1 (Kalb Textbook): DISCOVERING THE CONTEMPORARY JAMES ROSENQUIST 84. What did he do for a living in the late 50s and how did this inspired his art style? 85. Describe the effects of fragmentation in his images. 86. What term is used to describe the level of illusion in his works? 87. What political event inspired F-111 and how are these events transformed in his artwork? CLAUS OLDENBURG (see powerpoint) 88. How did Oldenberg undermine the identity of objects? 89. Why is his work autobiographical? 90. What is “Ray Gun”? 91. Why is Oldenberg’s Pie a la Mode the quintessential Pop sculpture? 92. Describe the contradiction in Oldenberg’s soft sculpture? 93. Describe the transformation that takes place in Oldenberg’s large-scale sculpture? ROY LICHTENSTEIN 94. Describe his painting process and why it is an example of appropriating popular culture. 95. What term is used to describe the patterns in his paintings? NAM JUN PAIK 96. Describe Fluxus and who were the artists connected to Fluxus? 97. What artistic medium did Nam June Paik develop early in his career? 98. Why did Paik use televisions in his work? 99. What is the purpose of the Stuart Collection and who were some of the artists represented? http://stuartcollection.ucsd.edu/StuartCollection/index.htm MINIMALISM 100. Briefly describe some of the basic elements of minimalism. 101. How did the Minimalists treat works of art? 102. Why did the Minimalists need texts to accompany their works? 103. Why did Greenberg dislike Minimalism? DONALD JUDD 104. How were Judd’s works Utopian in the Minimalist sense (even though he said they were not)? 105. What were his interests? 106. What was eliminated in his sculpture? ROBERT MORRIS 107. How should you interact with a Morris sculpture? 108. Why did he choose the L shape? 109. Why did he use felt? HELIO OITICICA 110. Why was an installation an effective medium for Oiticica’s Tropicalia piece? 111. What was his inspiration for the piece? LYNDA BENGLIS 112. Describe the connection between materials and process in Benglis’ Excess and the resulting formal elements. 113. Why were the materials and process strongly connected to femininity but also challenged masculinity? 114. What role did Benglis play in relation to mainstream feminist art? ROBERT SMITHSON 115. Where is the Spiral Jetty located and why was this location important? 116. Discuss the concept of Entropy in relation to Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty? 117. What are nonsites? JOSEPH BEUYS 118. What traumas remained at the core of Beuys works? 119. Why were animals important in his works? 120. What materials did Beuys’ feel would bring about healing? 121. What role does transformation play in his works? 122. Describe Beuys’ organization and his political activism. LEON GOLUB 123. What techniques did Golub incorporate into his Vietnam painting to “get at the real”? 124. What did he appropriate in his image and why was this effective? 125. Why were political issues important to Golub? ROMARE BEARDEN 126.