Modern Era Synthesis Question Asher Period 1 Team 6

Modern Era Synthesis Question

     Guernica is a painting by Pablio Picasso. It was created in response to the bombing of  by Guernica the German and Italian warplanes, 26 April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Republican government commissioned Picasso to paint a large mural for the Spanish display at the Paris International Exposition at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris. 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 antiwar symbol, and an embodiment of peace, upon completion, Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. The lack of color also shows the emotionless of the people. The colors of each individuals has left and vanished. Picasso’s later paintings began to perform more use of free color to show the idea of existentialism. Life becomes more meaningful, and each actions the person commits are used as fuel for a later purpose. The bland and emotionless life scurries as color expresses the meaning of life and the purposefulness of people.

Modern Era Synthesis - Asher.Period.1.Team.8.

Rembrandt’s artistic style was well-known to be detailed as well as extremely emotionally charged. This artist’s greatest creative successes are thoroughly exemplified in his portraits of contemporaries, self-portraits, as well as various scenes from the Bible. His paintings, stylistically, established a transition from the earlier “smooth” manner to the late “rough” treatment of rich paint surfaces. Picasso’s artist style, on the other hand, differed greatly. During his life, he experimented with classical and academic, realistic, and finally analytical and synthetic cubism. In his period of cubism, Picasso became famous for painting people and aspects of society as abstracted shapes. Although these two artists employed diverse and different means of expression, they both held similar opinions and a similar underlying belief regarding society during the Modern Era. This era is known as a period which was at the helm of prosperous advancements. Such advancements included science, politics, warfare, and technology. With all these advancements came an inevitable shift in the mindset of that society. Many people no longer had an interest in the “realism” which Rembrandt implied. For example, in Rembrandt’s iconic painting The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, emotion is thoroughly and expressively depicted, as several discouraged apostles plead to Jesus Christ to save them from the treacherous storm. The painting vividly illuminates the beastly way in which the ship’s sails are torn which results in a flooded vessel. Picasso contrastingly painted Guernica, which innovatively used various shapes to portray the attack on the Spanish city of Guernica by the Germans and Italians. Picasso’s artwork is credited for its distortion of reality. Guernica became famed during World War II, when innocent, lost, and confused felt as is they could turn to no one. Both painters idealized emotions and explained the turmoil society was intertwined into. They chose to create a depiction which ostracized the suffering of humankind in some shape or form.

Jessie Yen, Ruhi Sharma, Sidney Gerst , Rachel Clauss :D

Asher. P2.T4 - Modern Era Synthesis

The separation and contention that was formed during the Modern Era between “'spiritual' abstract painting and the 'materialist' representational painting of the Western tradition” has served as the canvas for new forms of expression and social criticism. Academia criticized the nineteenth century's preoccupation with subject matter, the person or object, and apparent lack of the spiritual or emotional elements, and has professed that modern art concerned form rather than representation. During the modern era we saw a shift in how we both interpreted and created art. We started to take focus away from replicating an object or person, such as Rembrandt did, to replicating an inspiring or emotional connection or reaction. This became the basis for Modernism art.

The ideals of modernism are visible in the cubist paintings of Picasso most of all, who was what many believe to be the most renowned modern painter. Picasso's cubist art represented a hitherto unheard of level of abstraction. Picasso and others created 'analytical' Cubism a style of painting in which the objective representation of a subject was broken down and formalized. Although strict modernists would object to any social connection or implications within modern art Picasso allowed many elements of social interest to be incorporated into his works. In his earlier works the circus performers, impoverished beggars and prostitutes, and Parisian night life figures do not demonstrate contemporary ideals, but Picasso painted them as symbolic 'types'. Many believe that this stemmed from the tendency to divided and define social, cultural, and economic differences within the country during the first half of the Modern Era. These growing gaps within the population became barriers and the source of eventual societal and economic instability that has led to patterns of violence and prejudice throughout the Modern Era and well into our time.

Late on, after he had honed his cubist style, Picasso’s work often contained hidden social criticisms. The scraps of newspaper in Guitare brought attention to and eventual criticism to the events of the Balkan War. Picasso's monumental painting Guernica presents similar problems. While it can be read simply as a symbol of the terror of war, it was painted in response to the Spanish civil war and the atrocities committed by the Nazis. Another one of his famous works, Massacre in Korea, a product of the Korean War during this era, portrays U.S. soldiers massacring communist sympathizers in Korea, all in the cubist style. Compare to the analytical scenes depicted in Rembrandt’s works, Picasso's works plainly displayed the tragedies, fears, and social changes and criticisms of the era.

asher.p2.t1.modern era

asher.p2.t1.modern era

by Calvin Chan, Christina Yang, Jane Lu, Brianna Loo (Period 2, Team 1)

Differentiate. Stand out. Become avant-garde. Nowadays, EVERYBODY is searching for away to become different. To isolate themselves from the norm of modern culture. To pave the way for future innovation. Why? Because our society has indulged in such rapid evolution that our span of specific interest has diminished into mere nothingness. We have grown to live in a fast-paced world where “hi-tech” will become “yesterday’s thing” in a few days. However, this is nothing new. In fact, this has a logistical problem since the beginning of the Modern Era.

The Modern Era marked the beginning of a prosperous time, with advancements in technology, science, film, and photography. But let’s zoom in on the evolution of contemporary art. Artists of the time recognized that “realistic painting” was no longer appealing to the general public because of the introduction of photography. As a response to this trend, cubism invaded the world of art, most notably in Pablo Picasso’s famous works of art. It started out as an abstract art form, heavily centered on angular shapes and clear distinctions. It had an almost 3-dimensional feel, yet still allowed blend in similar color and shapes. Picasso desired to use everyday, tangible objects to depict something more obscure. In a way, he wanted to confuse the audience, almost mocking them for taking art for granted. He painted sceneries and simple objects, but with an abstract palette. He used simple shapes (circles, squares, triangles) and welded them to form a complete piece of art.

Of course, Picasso aimed to appeal to the audience through differentiation. Never before have simple geometric figures been used as pixels to an artistic canvas. It was unheard of, new, and different; it appealed to the public. But in a way, this was also Picasso and the other cubism artists’ means of retaliation. They used the simplest of objects, those that were clearly familiar to the general public (which they have discarded as useless and elementary), to form something that attracted the intention of the worldwide population. They used the very “trash” of the generation, to create the next big thing. This satirically mocked the social standards of the Modern era, exposing the desire for radical advancements. The artists of the Modern era recognized the danger that the advancement-centric society possessed; they realized that by continually pursuing advancement, there may be no more room to advance. Therefore, they pulled society back and restrained its desires by using elementary tactics to appeal to the public.

Modern Era Synthesis Period 2 Team 7

As the Edwardian Era shifted to the Modern Era, a shift in the arts took place as well. Rembrandt’s portraits conveyed the images of different figures under a respectful light highlighting the contours of each portrait. This can be related to the science during the era as philosophers developed different thoughts by analyzing only actual facts. Philosophers aimed to not use subjective interpretations just as Rembrandt’s portraits did not need to be interpreted under a subjective lens.

Picasso’s cubistic works greatly contrasted from Rembrandt’s portraits as they illuminated the devastation of society during this time. As World War II began, many civilians began to lose trust in the government and saw this event as a great tragedy. Picasso’s use of vibrant colors and geometric shapes and lines distort reality in order for the viewer to use a subjective lens when interpreting the meaning of Picasso’s works. For example, Guernica depicted the tragedy of the German and Italian attack on the Spanish city of Guernica. Many innocent civilians’ lives were lost. Picasso painted this piece in order to convey an anti-war sentiment and highlighted the suffering of society during this time. Having a subjective perspective when interpreting the meaning of Picasso’s works elicits the true essence for the viewer to capture. Picasso’s works can be related to the religion during this period as one needed to interpret one’s self and messages from God in order to endure the hardships during this time.

Modern Era Synthesis T2P2

The Modern Era was characterized by the public reverting to the traditional beliefs dealing with religion, family and self-consciousness. The ideals became slightly more refined so did some of the art, but some of it did not. Two great artists of this time had completely opposite styles. Picasso illustrated that with his cubism and Rembrandt showed this with his psychological portraits. Both of these artists were brilliant, and both of them made different social statements in their work. Picasso was a painter that wanted to make the general public more aware of what surrounded them, especially the war. World War II was raging when Picasso was at his painting prime. Art pieces that he did during this period interpreted the war in some way. Take Guernica, this is a beautiful painting but the event it is describing is a horrific time in our history. While Picasso brought to light the anguish and distress of the Modern Era, Rembrandt illustrated the tame and refined nature of the era. He did this through amazing portraits of people and nature. Because of what he was illustrating his surroundings he made his paintings more polished then Picassos’ were. Rembrandts’ The Storm on the Sea of Galilee showed specifically peoples’ emotions, which do not show up as much in Picassos’ paintings. Both of these artists were attempting to make statements and they both did. Picassos’ message drew his audiences attention to the nightmare of war and sadness and Rembrandt showed his supporters the tendency of the era to be reflective and polished.

Modern Era Synthesis

Period 2

Team 4

Modern Era Synthesis

Modern Era was the time when technology structured cities and saw agriculture’s new existence as a large factory, causing people to experience new technology and globalization which allowed people to interact and live interdependent lives. Development of technology altered conditions as well as the way people think. People began to pursue new ways of life, abandoning the old conventions that had been the legacy and influence in the American society. America during this era faced sharply fluctuating economic circumstances, from prosperity that came with technological advancements to the Great Depression. With these drastic events that changed the face of the world forever, change became the norm. Moreover, people, during the time of prosperity, relied on the government until the economic turnover, which began to implant distrust in the people. This extreme phase led people to question the family, the government, and the Church as to whether anyone can be trusted. Each individual behaves and thinks uniquely, naturally leading to introspection. The individual’s recognition of difference contributes to their challenging of old beliefs and bringing up new ideas. Men’s traditional mythical view transformed to incorporate the existence of others and create one’s own culture as the cities, trade, and communication arose. As spiritual entities, people believe that logical analysis with no spiritual connection lacks personal meaning. Humans have desire, an emotional will that is beyond pure reason. When there are no ways to express this within the cultural norms of society, it can beget fanaticism, radicalism, and extremism causing people look for some way to reveal their idiosyncratic existence.