Exploring Artistic Styles Across History

May 10, 2025

Lecture on Style in Art

Introduction

  • Topic: Understanding 'style' in art
    • Defined as the distinctive handling of elements and media associated with an artist, school, movement, culture, or time period.

Example Works and Styles

1. Amorous Couple

  • Medium: Polychrome ceramic
  • Culture: Mayan
  • Era: Late Classic (8th to 10th century A.D.)
  • Region: Yucatan Peninsula
  • Identifying Features:
    • Distinct cultural look, including headdress and clothing styles.

2. Roy Lichtenstein

  • Style: Pop Art
  • Characteristics:
    • Looks like comic books with flat colors and bold lines.
    • Use of three primary colors (blue, red, yellow).
    • Concept of appropriation - borrowing images from mass-produced comic books to create unique works of art.

3. Jackson Pollock

  • Style: Abstract Expressionism / Action Painting
  • Characteristics:
    • Chaotic, non-representational.
    • Influenced by psychoanalysis and unconscious expression.
    • Technique related to psychic automatism (similar to surrealists).

4. Grant Wood's American Gothic

  • Style: Regionalism
  • Characteristics:
    • Realistic, naturalistic style.
    • Reflects Midwestern life during the Great Depression.
    • Influenced by Flemish painting and early Northern Renaissance style.

5. Jan van Eyck's Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride

  • Style: Early Northern Renaissance
  • Characteristics:
    • Use of oil paint for luminosity and color.
    • Detailed, symbolic, and narrative elements.
    • The use of mirrors and reflections to show skill and narrative depth.

6. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's The Two Girlfriends

  • Style: Impressionism
  • Characteristics:
    • Loose brushwork and abstract appearance.

7. Robert Mapplethorpe's Photography

  • Characteristics:
    • Formal style emphasizing contrast.
    • Often associated with modern photography and formalism.

8. Oscar Kokoschka's The Tempest

  • Style: Expressionism
  • Characteristics:
    • Reflects emotional state and psychological depth.
    • Personal and historical influences (e.g., breakup, war).

9. René Magritte's The Lovers 2

  • Style: Surrealism
  • Characteristics:
    • Dream-like, bizarre imagery.
    • Influenced by Freudian theories on the unconscious.

10. Gustav Klimt's The Kiss

  • Style: Viennese Secession, influenced by Art Nouveau and Byzantine art.
  • Characteristics:
    • Decorative, abstract surface with gold, silver, and platinum.

11. Auguste Rodin's The Kiss

  • Style: Modernism, Realism
  • Characteristics:
    • Naturalistic proportions with an abstract unfinished base.

12. Constantin Brancusi's The Kiss

  • Style: Proto-Cubism/Organic Sculpture
  • Characteristics:
    • Simplified forms drawing from ancient influences.
    • Contrast with Rodin's naturalism.

13. Barbara Hepworth's Two Figures (Menhirs)

  • Style: Modern Abstract Sculpture
  • Characteristics:
    • Organic, abstract forms with historic references (standing stones).

14. Barbara Kruger's We Don't Need Another Hero

  • Style: Appropriation Art
  • Characteristics:
    • Feminist themes challenging gender roles.
    • Appropriation of Norman Rockwell's imagery and style.

Conclusion

  • Key Quote: Andy Warhol's view on the fluidity of artistic style.
  • Emphasizes the idea that art styles are diverse and can be interchangeable.

These notes summarize key points and examples from a lecture on style in art, illustrating various movements, famous works, and the broader context and interpretation of style across history.