6-3 Realism and Impressionism
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Overview: Realism and Impressionism
Realism, Impressionism, and post-Impressionism are cultural eras that
took place largely in Europe, Great Britain, and the United States. In the
mid-nineteenth century, social a!tudes were changing. Self-indulgence
and exo"cism were replaced by reverence for everyday life and images
such as a seat by the fire with a loving family, including children and pets.
This cozy scene was even reflected in the snug apartment of one Mr.
Sherlock Holmes at 221B Baker St., the imaginary crea"on of a Bri"sh
doctor, Arthur Conan Doyle.
During this period of transi"on, the simple pleasures of life were
celebrated. In the United States, the New England author Henry David
Thoreau built a cabin with his own hands and lived there for two years,
eventually wri"ng the bestseller Walden. As the century drew on, reform
was in the air. Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and
other writers fearlessly opposed slavery in the United States, while in
Great Britain, the author Charles Dickens decried child labor and the lot
of the poor.
Ar"sts began selec"ng simple subjects for their art, rather than
emo"onal ba#le scenes or dreamy landscapes filled with desola"on.
Realism was a widespread movement in Europe and the United States in
which the common things of daily life were considered worthy of
considera"on on their own terms. For example, a pot of milk and a cow
would be considered worthy objects for a pain"ng. In the United States,
Winslow Homer painted pictures of fishermen at sea. In France, Gustave
Courbet painted poor workers in a stone quarry or on the farm, o$en
using dull earth tones to emphasize the actual appearance of the land.
From Realism, it was a small step to Impressionism. While Realism
a#empted to portray objects and ac"vi"es as seen by the human eye in
almost a clinical, scien"fic manner, Impressionism a#empted to capture
life’s flee"ng impressions, with feelings, images, and sensa"ons, rather
than the harsh lines of Realism. Impressionism also influenced music and
literature. The impressionist composer Debussy wrote haun"ng music
that seemed to dri$ around no"ons of tonality, such as the song “Clair
de Lune” (moonlight). The American composer Amy Beach wove lateRoman"c and impressionist tone clusters into her many works, especially
notable in songs about birds and flowers.
Authors such as the novelists Émile Zola (French) and Virginia Woolf
(Bri"sh) began to break the rules that had governed fic"on wri"ng for
centuries, abandoning strict chronology and moving seamlessly in and
out of "me. Once the great ar"sts, writers, composers, and other
thinkers of the late nineteenth and early twen"eth centuries began to
demolish the old ways of crea"ng, there was no turning back. It was just
a ma#er of "me before great originals like Picasso in art, Stravinsky in
music, and Joyce in fic"on were to build a new modern consciousness
out of the ashes of polite Victorian society.
Ar"cle: A Beginner's Guide to Realism
This link provides an overview of Realism including examples of ar"facts
from the "me period.
Ar"cle: A Beginner's Guide to Impressionism
This link provides an overview of impressionist art with several excellent
examples.
6-3-1 Worksheet: Realism, Impressionism, and Modern
World, Part 1
Download the worksheet and save it to your local files on your
computer. Then, in the first table, complete the following:
1. For each era, iden"fy an ar"fact that depicts one of the
characteris"cs provided.
2. Explain which characteris"c you think it represents, and why.
Once your work is complete, save the file again. You will complete the
second table later this week. You will submit your worksheet at the end
of this week.
To complete this assignment, review the following documents:
Worksheet Realism, Impressionism, and the Modern World
Worksheet Realism, Impressionism, and the Modern World Rubric
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You have viewed this topic
This learning block explores a cultural trend toward more realis"c
depic"ons of human experience. Realism in turn led to Impressionism and
post-Impressionism from the late nineteenth to the early twen"eth
century. This was a cultural perspec"ve in which crea"ve innovators
depicted the impressions made upon the senses. A$er par"cipa"ng in this
learning block, you will be able to:
Explore the drama"c shi$s in cultural mood as the decline of
Roman"cism led to Realism, Impressionism, and the dawn of the
modern world
Last Visited Apr 8, 2019 4:33 PM
6-4 Modern World
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Overview: Modern World
We le! the great ar"sts, writers, and thinkers of the nineteenth century
as they were beginning to challenge the forms and conven"ons of their
art. Instead of producing neatly painted scenes depic"ng the world in
scien"fic detail, visual ar"sts began to paint with greater energy and
abandon, some"mes slapping paint on a canvas to emulate the effects of
light, or drawing exaggerated cartoons to create social cri"cism (such as
the French poli"cal ar"st Daumier).
The very forms that great art depended on were being broken down. In
the early twen"eth century, this approach to art exploded into a
revolu"on in which creators smashed the old forms and embraced
everything that was new. The ar"st Pablo Picasso pushed the limits of
visual art as far as he could before developing cubism, a way of breaking
down images into visual building blocks. At the same "me, the Russian
composer Igor Stravinsky set off riots with the performances of his music
to The Rite of Spring, a score that incorporated primeval rhythms and
dissonant chords, expressed in a sugges"ve ballet that shocked
Edwardian sensibili"es. The novels of Joyce, Ka$a, and Woolf explored
new approaches to pain"ng word pictures, such as se%ng an en"re
novel in one day or imagining a world where men turned into insects or
were jailed without knowing why. It was no coincidence that these
changes occurred around the "me that Sigmund Freud published his
theories about the conscious and subconscious mind. Just before,
during, and a!er World War I (1916–18), the modern world was born.
Throughout the twen"eth century and into our own "me, crea"ve
thinkers and ar"sts have con"nued to explore and challenge with everchanging works that address the major concerns of the human race and
individuals. New cultural media have developed, including the mo"on
picture, invented by Thomas Alva Edison and today considered by many
to be the signature art form of our "me. The Great Depression,
Prohibi"on, women’s right to vote, civil rights in the United States, and
World War II all not only paralleled changes in the arts and philosophy,
but in many ways were influenced by them. Picasso’s mural Guernica not
only cri"qued the whole no"on of war but influenced future discussions
of conflict by opinion makers and the vo"ng public. The twen"eth
century was also a "me of “isms” in the arts: not only cubism, but also
fauvism (the art of wild colors), surrealism (think Dali’s mel"ng
"mepieces), abstract expressionism, and even graffi"sm (Basquiat was
one of the first graffi" ar"sts to earn serious considera"on).
The more extreme fac"ons of the modern world since the birth of The
Rite of Spring have been called the avant-garde, which is French for
“going before.” Radicals such as conductor Pierre Boulez proclaimed,
“Blow the opera houses up!” (as cited in Peyser, 2007, p. 292) and “All
the art of the past should be destroyed!” (Peyser, 2007, p. 119) but not
all avant-garde creators have been so focused on destruc"on. Andy
Warhol, a visual ar"st from Pi'sburgh, built an expanding art empire on
the humble founda"ons of Campbell Soup cans and photos of
celebri"es.
The twen"eth century also saw the emergence of new voices in Western
culture, especially from those who had been marginalized. The rag"me
music of Sco' Joplin and other composers and the development of
spirituals and gospel music paved the way for the Jazz Age, which
reached its peak in the so-called Roaring Twen"es. The Harlem
Renaissance further provided a cultural topic for great ar"sts, writers,
and other creators whose voices had been repressed for too long. The
syncopated beat of jazz led to the Beat Genera"on, celebrated by
Greenwich Village poets such as Allen Ginsberg and writer Jack Kerouac,
who also wove Zen Buddhist themes into their work. Women’s voices
also were raised in song, art, wri"ng, and philosophy. One of the most
influen"al philosophers in the twen"eth century was Susanne Langer,
who wrote Philosophy in a New Key, which explored how people need
to create symbols and to inject their world with meaning.
As the world entered the computer and digital age in the last third of the
twen"eth century, electronic technology became both the message and
the medium. In fact, a popular thinker of the mid-twen"eth century,
Marshall McLuhan, coined the phrase “the medium is the message.” As
the Beatles took the world by storm in the 1970s, ar"sts created new
forms of expression, such as “happenings,” cartoons as serious art
(Lichtenstein), and music for prepared piano by John Cage. Advances in
film resulted in wide screen and special effects, rejuvena"ng the science
fic"on genre in movies such as Star Wars. Black and white art-house fare
by auteur directors such as Truffaut and Antonioni played down the
street from Doris Day and Rock Hudson comedies. Later, Spike Lee
reinvented the cinema from an African American sensibility.
As the twen"eth century entered its final decades, the monumental art
of the past, characterized by respectable figures on horseback in stone
or bronze, had given way to the colorful plas"c art of Claes Oldenburg,
known for crea"ng a giant Swiss Army knife sculpture, and Jeffrey
Koons’s Balloon Dog, which looks like an oversized pink balloon toy.
Music con"nued to evolve in crea"ve ways. On the popular front, rock
and roll, Motown, country, and folk yielded to rap, hip hop, industrial,
and alterna"ve sounds. On the classical stage, discord dominated in the
works of the Polish composer Penderecki, while Philip Glass pioneered
minimalism. Philosophically, Derrida’s deconstruc"onist ideas helped
create a new interest in cri"cal thinking, a tradi"on that found its roots
in the discourses of Socrates more than 2,000 years earlier. Literature
con"nued to enchant and inspire millions as best-sellers such as The
Hunger Games and Harry Po'er proved that popular fic"on could be
complex and literary as well as ac"on-packed and exci"ng.
In the early years of the twenty-first century, these trends con"nued to
give birth to new forms of expression throughout the world. Many digital
ar"sts today no longer use pen and paper at all; in fact, cursive wri"ng—
the ar"s"c flow of penmanship cherished as a communica"on tool since
the Middle Ages—may not be taught at all in the public schools of the
near future. The arts and philosophy may have changed radically over
the past 10,000 or more years, but one thing is certain: They are as
important and conspicuous as ever and, if anything, have taken on new
significance as tools for communica"on, celebra"on, and self or societal
expression.
References
Peyser, J. (2007). To Boulez and beyond. Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Li'lefield.
Video: Harlem Renaissance (2:54)
Watch this short video on the Harlem Renaissance, an important part of
world culture during the first half of the twen"eth century.
Cap"on Video: "The Harlem Renaissance" (2:54)
Ar"cle: La"na Writers Are Silent No Longer
Women, LGBT, and minority writers and ar"sts are coming into their
own in the modern world. This ar"cle from the Los Angeles Times
describes the struggles and successes of La"na writers as they assert
their right to self-expression and reach wider audiences. In prepara"on
for the next ac"vity, as you read this ar"cle, think about other individuals
who have made an impact with their crea"on.
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Task: View this topic
This learning block begins with innova"on and changes in world cultures
beginning just before the outbreak of World War I in 1914. New a%tudes
toward cultural norms, including the birth of civil and women’s rights and
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQIA) rights, led to greater
freedom in the arts and literature, a trend s"ll unfolding in our own "me.
A!er par"cipa"ng in this learning block, you will be able to:
Assess the impact of the ar"facts created by influen"al people in
the twen"eth and twenty-first centuries on the culture and society
of the "mes
6-4-1 Worksheet: Realism, Impressionism, and
Modern World, Part 2
Instruc!ons
Open the worksheet that you worked on earlier in the week. Then, complete
the second table, address the following:
1. In the first column, iden!fy creators from the twen!eth and twentyfirst centuries who you think made important contribu!ons to art and
culture in the form of humani!es ar!facts that impacted society.
2. Iden!fy one of the ar!facts they created (in the second column) and
the medium of the ar!fact (in the third column). Recall from
Fundamentals of Human Culture that mediums can include dance,
literature, sculpture, visual arts, architecture, music, performance, and
so forth. Then, explain why you believe the creator felt the need to
express their ideas (in the fourth column).
For example, if one of the people you chose was John Lennon, you could
iden!fy one of his songs and discuss how the song relates to examples of his
social ac!vism.
Once you have completed the second table, answer the ques!on presented
at the bo"om of the page: What differences do you no!ce between the
ar!facts from each era? Reflec!ng on what you have learned in this theme,
where do you think those differences stemmed from?
Once the worksheet is complete, save the file a final !me. Submit your
completed worksheet for grading.
To complete this assignment, review the following documents:
Worksheet Realism, Impressionism, and the Modern World
Worksheet Realism, Impressionism, and the Modern World Rubric
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Task: Submit to complete this assignment
Assessment
HUM 100
Worksheet: Realism,
Impressionism, and
the Modern World
Rubric
Last Visited Apr 7, 2019 5:03 PM
HUM 100 Worksheet: Realism, Impressionism, and the Modern World Rubric
Critical Elements
Engagement
Part 1: Content
Proficient (100%)
Worksheet is complete
Provides a response that
demonstrates basic
understanding of the
characteristics of Realism
and Impressionism
Part 2: Content
Provides a response that
demonstrates basic
understanding of human
expression in the twentieth
and twenty-first centuries
Response
Compares characteristics of
the two eras
Communicates Clearly
Clearly communicates key
ideas and thoughts
Needs Improvement (75%)
Worksheet is incomplete
Response is missing
components that would
demonstrate basic
understanding of the
characteristics of Realism
and Impressionism
Response is missing
components that would
demonstrate basic
understanding of human
expression in the twentieth
and twenty-first centuries
Compares characteristics of
the two eras, but response is
unfocused or unclear
Response needs clarification
in order to support
understanding of key ideas
and thoughts
Not Evident (0%)
Worksheet is blank
Response does not
demonstrate a basic
understanding of the
characteristics of Realism
and Impressionism
Value
15
30
Response does not
demonstrate a basic
understanding of human
expression in the twentieth
and twenty-first centuries
30
Does not provide response
15
Key ideas or thoughts are
not understandable
10
Total
100%
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