(Art) What art movements were inspired by wartime events? Is there one specific work of art that tells a story about the war?
Guernica by Pablo Picasso- most powerful painting during WW2.
1. Standing at 3.49 metres tall and 7.76 metres wide, the large mural shows the suffering of people, animals, and buildings wrenched by violence and chaos.
2. The painting is believed to be a response to the bombing Guernica, a Basque country village in northern Spain, by German and Italian warplanes, at the request of the Spanish Nationlists.
3. Picasso uses black, white, and grey paint to set a somber mood and express pain and chaos.
Art changed over the time because it was a more tragic time so art started to get very dark. Art was more tragic and action painting were illustrated to show the tragic time. Violence and symbols of destruction were more obvious in artwork during this time influenced by the war. The artists must’ve had some experience (family dying, being in war etc.) experiences changed art. People look at art relating to their experiences, if art didn’t change, art would have no meaning to people who looked at the artists work. Abstract Expressionism can be broken into two large subdivisions: Action Painting, which came first, and Colour Field Painting. Action Paintings generally have a more violent, frenzied appearance, while Colour Field Paintings have a calmer, almost spiritual quality. Abstract, with an emphasis on the artist expressing everything from personal feelings to universal, spiritual concerns. With the Action Painters, the physical act of painting becomes, to a certain extent, the subject matter. In Conceptual art the idea, rather than the object, is most important. Conceptual artists were reacting against the commercialized art world of the 1960s, the formalism of post-war art (especially the impersonality of Minimalism), as well as the limitations of traditional art. What the viewer usually saw in the gallery was merely the document (drawing, photograph, written proposals, charts, maps, video, and even language itself.) of the artist's thinking process. Sometimes, not even a document was produced. The concept was the "material." Conceptualism was sometimes used as an all- encompassing term to describe other non-traditional art movements as well, such as Performance art and Earth art. Earth artists rejected the commercialization of art and supported the growing ecological movement of the 1960s. Many of these artists approached the earth and its resources with a spiritual attitude. Instead of using the land as merely a site for art, proponents of Earth art moulded the land itself into a work of art. Earth artists were not part of an organized movement; their goals and methods were wide-ranging. Photographic documentation is often part of the earth artist's process, since many of the works are designed to last only a short time. Some of the projects are never realized due to their scale or cost, and therefore exist only on paper. Artists explored extreme and varying themes in the years before and after World War I, and those same themes were revisited in the aftermath of World War II, creating an interesting parallel. This article is divided into two sections: 1900-1945 and 1945-2000 and focuses on art themes that captured the talents and ideas of some of the most well known artists around the world. Pioneered by Pablo Picasso, Cubism sought to deepen the consideration that expressionist artists had created by rendering objects and ideas from different angles, seeking to break up and analyse things. Primitivism was similar by extension and was influenced by American colonization and exploration in the early 1900s. Featuring collages and works made of many different mediums, Cubism and Primitivism explored the human relationship with the mundane and extraordinary and was characterized by it's analytic and synthetic qualities. This art movement was also rather short and reached its height in the years between 1907 and 1911, extending and intermingling with the Futurism movement, although art scholars agree it had reached the end of its lifetime by 1919. Probably Picasso's most famous work, Guernica is certainly the his most powerful political statement, painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during Spanish Civil War.
Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace. On completion Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. This tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention.
This work is seen as an amalgamation of pastoral and epic styles. The discarding of color intensifies the drama, producing a reportage quality as in a photographic record. Guernica is blue, black and white, 3.5 metre (11 ft) tall and 7.8 metre (25.6 ft) wide, a mural-size canvas painted in oil. This painting can be seen in the Muse Reina Sofia in Madrid. Interpretations of Guernica vary widely and contradict one another. This extends, for example, to the mural's two dominant elements: the bull and the horse. Art historian Patricia Failing said, "The bull and the horse are important characters in Spanish culture. Picasso himself certainly used these characters to play many different roles over time. This has made the task of interpreting the specific meaning of the bull and the horse very tough. Their relationship is a kind of ballet that was conceived in a variety of ways throughout Picasso's career." Some critics warn against trusting the polital message in Guernica. For instance the rampaging bull, a major motif of destruction here, has previous figured, whether as a bull or Minotaur, as Picasso' ego. However, in this instance the bull probably represents the onslaught of Fascism. Picasso said it meant brutality and darkness, presumably reminiscent of his prophetic. He also stated that the horse represented the people of Guernica.
1. Standing at 3.49 metres tall and 7.76 metres wide, the large mural shows the suffering of people, animals, and buildings wrenched by violence and chaos.
2. The painting is believed to be a response to the bombing Guernica, a Basque country village in northern Spain, by German and Italian warplanes, at the request of the Spanish Nationlists.
3. Picasso uses black, white, and grey paint to set a somber mood and express pain and chaos.
Art changed over the time because it was a more tragic time so art started to get very dark. Art was more tragic and action painting were illustrated to show the tragic time. Violence and symbols of destruction were more obvious in artwork during this time influenced by the war. The artists must’ve had some experience (family dying, being in war etc.) experiences changed art. People look at art relating to their experiences, if art didn’t change, art would have no meaning to people who looked at the artists work. Abstract Expressionism can be broken into two large subdivisions: Action Painting, which came first, and Colour Field Painting. Action Paintings generally have a more violent, frenzied appearance, while Colour Field Paintings have a calmer, almost spiritual quality. Abstract, with an emphasis on the artist expressing everything from personal feelings to universal, spiritual concerns. With the Action Painters, the physical act of painting becomes, to a certain extent, the subject matter. In Conceptual art the idea, rather than the object, is most important. Conceptual artists were reacting against the commercialized art world of the 1960s, the formalism of post-war art (especially the impersonality of Minimalism), as well as the limitations of traditional art. What the viewer usually saw in the gallery was merely the document (drawing, photograph, written proposals, charts, maps, video, and even language itself.) of the artist's thinking process. Sometimes, not even a document was produced. The concept was the "material." Conceptualism was sometimes used as an all- encompassing term to describe other non-traditional art movements as well, such as Performance art and Earth art. Earth artists rejected the commercialization of art and supported the growing ecological movement of the 1960s. Many of these artists approached the earth and its resources with a spiritual attitude. Instead of using the land as merely a site for art, proponents of Earth art moulded the land itself into a work of art. Earth artists were not part of an organized movement; their goals and methods were wide-ranging. Photographic documentation is often part of the earth artist's process, since many of the works are designed to last only a short time. Some of the projects are never realized due to their scale or cost, and therefore exist only on paper. Artists explored extreme and varying themes in the years before and after World War I, and those same themes were revisited in the aftermath of World War II, creating an interesting parallel. This article is divided into two sections: 1900-1945 and 1945-2000 and focuses on art themes that captured the talents and ideas of some of the most well known artists around the world. Pioneered by Pablo Picasso, Cubism sought to deepen the consideration that expressionist artists had created by rendering objects and ideas from different angles, seeking to break up and analyse things. Primitivism was similar by extension and was influenced by American colonization and exploration in the early 1900s. Featuring collages and works made of many different mediums, Cubism and Primitivism explored the human relationship with the mundane and extraordinary and was characterized by it's analytic and synthetic qualities. This art movement was also rather short and reached its height in the years between 1907 and 1911, extending and intermingling with the Futurism movement, although art scholars agree it had reached the end of its lifetime by 1919. Probably Picasso's most famous work, Guernica is certainly the his most powerful political statement, painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during Spanish Civil War.
Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace. On completion Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. This tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention.
This work is seen as an amalgamation of pastoral and epic styles. The discarding of color intensifies the drama, producing a reportage quality as in a photographic record. Guernica is blue, black and white, 3.5 metre (11 ft) tall and 7.8 metre (25.6 ft) wide, a mural-size canvas painted in oil. This painting can be seen in the Muse Reina Sofia in Madrid. Interpretations of Guernica vary widely and contradict one another. This extends, for example, to the mural's two dominant elements: the bull and the horse. Art historian Patricia Failing said, "The bull and the horse are important characters in Spanish culture. Picasso himself certainly used these characters to play many different roles over time. This has made the task of interpreting the specific meaning of the bull and the horse very tough. Their relationship is a kind of ballet that was conceived in a variety of ways throughout Picasso's career." Some critics warn against trusting the polital message in Guernica. For instance the rampaging bull, a major motif of destruction here, has previous figured, whether as a bull or Minotaur, as Picasso' ego. However, in this instance the bull probably represents the onslaught of Fascism. Picasso said it meant brutality and darkness, presumably reminiscent of his prophetic. He also stated that the horse represented the people of Guernica.