Oedipus and the Sphinx by Gustave Moreau, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso, Robie House by Frank Lloyd Wright, and Woman with the Hat by Henri Matisse. I chose these four works of art because I think they were pivotal in establishing artistic convention at the time they were created.
French artist, Gustave Moreau was a principal Symbolistic artist who was pivotal in establishing the Art for Art’s Sake movement. The Art’s for Art’s sake movement was the idea that art has its own independent value from its subject matter. Moreau’s goal was to create a deep story using theatrical content and subjects with animated expressions to force the viewer to decipher mythological scenes. Using symbols and iconographic subject matter, Moreau created one of the most renowned paintings of his time called Oedipus and the Sphinx. The painting is based on a Greek myth: Oedipus and the Riddle of the Sphinx. He shows a strong Greek king, Oedipus staring down at a Sphinx with a human woman’s head and a body of an animal on his chest. Everything in the painting symbolizes something in the story that Moreau is telling ultimately consciously creating a new movement called, History Painting.
Pablo Picasso was born in Spain and co-founded the Cubism movement with Georges Braque. His career has spanned the entire course of modern art and influenced many artists in many different mediums along the way. The idea behind Cubism was to create an experience for viewers to sense a type of out of body experience or a fourth dimension when viewing their work such as Picasso’s painting called Les Demoiselles d/Avignon, 1907. This painting is the quincentennial Cubism painting in that it is a simple subject that has been altered to give the viewer many viewpoints while staying static. It consists of five demoiselle or young prostitutes from Barcelona’s red-light district with African looking masks and angular shaped bodies. Picasso collected African art and the shapes of Cubism were inspired by these sculptures. Cubism can be defined as Modern art because it was a conscious movement that was established around 1907.
A forward-thinking American architect who was influential to the Arts and Crafts Movement was Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright is responsible for the term Prairie Style architecture that consists of a long, low horizontal structures that emphasized the natural elements of the surrounding area. In 1909 Wright designed the Robie House located in Chicago, Illinois. This house, just like all of Wright’s structures, was ahead of its time. It is the quintessential Prairie Style with horizontal everything, cantilevered eves, many stained-glass windows and an open floorplan. Frank Lloyd Wright’s created this new style of architecture was very conscious because he changed the interior of houses from closed off sectional rooms to one great open floor plan and allowing the interior and exterior elements to intertwine.
French painter, Henri Matisse painted Woman with the Hat in 1905.
After trying out his hand in Seurat’s pointillism style which felt unnatural, Matisse painted a portrait of his wife and called it, Woman with the Hat. He placed her in an ordinary pose and setting, but he treated her face like he treated a landscape, with vibrant colors and quick brushwork. The painting was not liked by critics of the time and hung in a room at one of the Salon’s. In this room were other paintings and sculptures that were also unliked. This room (called Room VII) of paintings was hated by visitors, but oddly enough started the Fauvism Movement. It was because of the horrid paintings and sculptures that the Fauves were referred to as wild beasts and also originated a phrase, color for color’s sake for obvious reasons.