Customer center

We are a boutique essay service, not a mass production custom writing factory. Let us create a perfect paper for you today!

Example research essay topic: 20 Th Century Marcel Duchamp - 2,449 words

NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote

Dissent &# 038; Disorder EXHIBITION Welcome to the 1999 annual exhibit on the pathways to the freedom of expression we enjoy today and the artist that pioneered the modern art style by standing up for what they believe in and by changing the ideals that the public had on how art should be. In our exhibit we are displaying artworks from the period that were the building blocks to the artworks we enjoy today. These periods include Fauvism, Futurism, Expressionism, Dada and Surrealism. Dada In a nutshell the Dada period was a western Europe artistic and literary movement (1916 - 23) that sought the discovery of authentic reality through the abolition of traditional culture and aesthetic forms. Dada in French meant hobby-horse and was a nihilistic movement in the arts that flourished primarily in Z rich, New York City, Berlin, Cologne, Paris, and Hannover. Several explanations have been given by various members of the movement as to how it received its name.

According to the most widely accepted account, the name was adopted at Hugo Balls Cabaret (Caf) Voltaire, in Z rich, during one of the meetings held in 1916 by a group of young artists and war resisters that included Jean Arp, Richard H lsenbeck, Tristan Tara, Marcel Jan, and Emmy Hennings; when a paper knife inserted into a French-German dictionary pointed to the word dada, this word was seized upon by the group as appropriate for their anti-aesthetic creations and protest activities, which were engendered by disgust for bourgeois (middle class) values and despair over World War I. A precursor of what was to be called the Dada movement, and ultimately its leading member, was Marcel Duchamp, who in 1913 created his first ready-made (now lost), the Bicycle Wheel, consisting of a wheel mounted on the seat of a stool. Marcel Duchamp (1887 1968) Marcel was a French painter and a brother of Raymond Duchamp-Villon and half-brother of Jacques Villon. Duchamp is noted for his cubist-futurist painting Nude Descending a Staircase, depicting continuous action with a series of overlapping figures; it was the cause of great controversy when exhibited in 1913 at the New York Armory Show. Duchamp also invented the ready-made which were commonplace objects placed on display as artworks, the urinal entitled Fountain, which he exhibited as works of art. In 1915 he helped found a Dada group in New York.

After 1920, Duchamp produced a series of elaborate nonfunctional machines. He then emigrated to the United States in 1942. Most of his works are on display at the Philadelphia Museum of art including his famous The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors. Surrealism Surrealism was a 20 th-century literary and artistic movement that attempts to express the workings of the subconscious by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtaposition of subject matter. The Surrealism movement in visual art and literature flourished in Europe between World Wars I and II.

Surrealism grew principally out of the earlier Dada movement, which before World War I produced works of anti-art that deliberately defied reason; but Surrealism's emphasis was not on negation but on positive expression. The movement represented a reaction against what its members saw as the destruction wrought by the rationalism that had guided European culture and politics in the past and that had culminated in the horrors of World War I. According to the major spokesman of the movement, the poet and critic Andr Breton, who published The Surrealist Manifesto in 1924, Surrealism was a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious realms of experience so completely that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in an absolute reality, a surreality. Drawing heavily on theories adapted from Sigmund Freud, Breton saw the unconscious as the wellspring of the imagination. He defined genius in terms of accessibility to this normally untapped realm, which, he believed, could be attained by poets and painters alike. The major Surrealist painters were Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Andr Masson, Ren Magritte, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dal, Pierre Roy, Paul Delvaux, and Joan Mir.

With its emphasis on content and free form, Surrealism provided a major alternative to the contemporary, highly formalistic Cubist movement and was largely responsible for perpetuating in modern painting the traditional emphasis on content. Futurism Futurism was an international art movement founded in Italy in 1909. It was (and is) a refreshing contrast to the weepy sentimentalism of Romanticism. The Futurists loved speed, noise, machines, pollution, and cities; they embraced the exciting new world that waste upon them rather than hypocritically enjoying the modern world s comforts while loudly denouncing the forces that made them possible. Fearing and attacking technology has become almost second nature to many people today; the Futurist manifestos show us an alternative philosophy. Too bad they were all Fascists.

Futurism was an early 20 th-century artistic movement that centred in Italy and emphasised the dynamism, speed, energy, and power of the machine and the vitality, change, and restlessness of modern life in general. The most significant results of the movement were in the visual arts and poetry. Futurism was first announced on Feb. 20, 1909, when the Paris newspaper Le Figaro published a manifesto by the Italian poet and editor Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (q. v. ). The name Futurism, coined by Marinetti, reflected his emphasis on discarding what he conceived to be the static and irrelevant art of the past and celebrating change, originality, and innovation in culture and society.

Marinetti's manifesto glorified the new technology of the automobile and the beauty of its speed, power, and movement. He exalted violence and conflict and called for the sweeping repudiation of traditional cultural, social, and political values and the destruction of such cultural institutions as museums and libraries. The manifestos rhetoric was passionately bombastic; its tone was aggressive and inflammatory and was purposely intended to inspire public anger and amazement, to arouse controversy, and to attract widespread attention. Fauvism Fauvism was a style of painting that flourished in France from 1898 to 1908; it used pure, brilliant colour, applied straight from the paint tubes in an aggressive, direct manner to create a sense of an explosion on the canvas. The Fauve's painted directly from nature as the impressionists had before them, but their works were invested with a strong expressive reaction to the subjects they painted. First formally exhibited in Paris in 1905, Fauvist paintings shocked visitors to the annual Salon d Automne; one of these visitors was the critic Louis Vauxcelles, who, because of the violence of their works, dubbed the painters Les Fauve's (Wild Beasts).

The leader of the group was Henri Matisse, who had arrived at the Fauve style after careful, critical study of the masters of Postimpressionism Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Georges Seurat. Matisse's methodical studies led him to reject traditional renderings of three dimensional space and to seek instead a new picture space defined by movement of colour. Matisse exhibited his famous Woman with the Hat (Walter A. Haas Collection, San Francisco) at the 1905 exhibition; brisk strokes of colour blues, greens, and reform an energetic, expressive view of the woman. As always in Matisse's Fauve style, his painting is ruled by his intuitive sense of formal order. Other members of the group included two painters from Chat, Fr. , Andr Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck, who, together with Matisse, formed the nucleus of the Fauve's.

Derains Fauve paintings translate every tone of a landscape into pure colour, applied with short, forceful brushstrokes. The agitated swirls of intense colour in Vlamincks works are indebted to the expressive power of van Gogh. Three young painters from Le Havre were also attracted to Fauvism by the strong personality of Matisse. Other Friend found the emotional connotations of the bright Fauve colours a relief from the mediocre Impressionism he practiced; his companion Raoul Dufy developed a rather carefree ornamental version of the bold style that suited his own personal aesthetic nature; and Georges Braque created a definite sense of rhythm and structure out of small spots of colour, foreshadowing his development of Cubism. Albert Market, Matisse's fellow student at the +cole des Beaux-Arts in the 1890 s, also participated in Fauvism, as did the Dutchman Kees van Dongen, who applied the style to depictions of the fashionable society of Paris. Other painters associated with the Fauve's were Georges Rouault, Henri Gauguin, Charles Canon, and Jean Puy.

Fauvism was for most of these artists a transitional, learning stage. By 1908 a revived interest in Paul C zanne's vision of the order and structure of nature had led them to reject the turbulent emotionalism of Fauvism in favour of the logic of Cubism. Matisse alone pursued the course he had pioneered, achieving a sophisticated balance between his own emotions and the world painted. Expressionism In the north of Europe, the Fauve's celebration of colour was pushed to new emotional and psychological depths. Expressionism, as it was generally known, developed almost simultaneously in different countries from about 1905. Characterised by heightened, symbolic colours and exaggerated imagery, it was German Expressionism in particular that tended to dwell on the darker, sinister aspects of the human psyche.

The term Expressionism can be used to describe various art forms but, in its broadest sense, it is used to describe any art that raises subjective feelings above objective observations. The paintings aim to reflect the artists state of mind rather than the reality of the external world. The German Expressionist movement began in 1905 with artists such as Kirchner and Nolde, who favored the Fauvist style of bright colors but also added stronger linear effects and harsher outlines. Although Expressionism developed a distinctly German character, the Frenchman, Georges Rouault (1871 - 1958), links the decorative effects of Fauvism in France with the symbolic colour of German Expressionism. Rouault trained with Matisse at Moreau's academy and exhibited with the Fauve's, but his palette of colours and profound subject matter place him as an early, if isolated Expressionist. His work has been described as Fauvism with dark glasses.

Rouault was a deeply religious man and some consider him the greatest religious artist of the 20 th century. He began his career apprenticed to a stained-glass worker, and his love of harsh, binding outlines containing a radiance of colour gives poignancy to his paintings of whores and fools. He himself does not judge them, though the terrible compassion with which he shows his wretched figures makes a powerful impression: Prostitute at Her Mirror (1906; 70 x 60 cm (27 1 / 2 x 23 1 / 2 in) ) is a savage indictment of human cruelty. She is a travesty of femineity, although poverty drives her still to prink miserably before her mirror in the hope of work. Yet the picture does not depress, but holds out hope of redemption. Strangely enough, this work is for Rouault if not exactly a religious picture at least a profoundly moral one.

She is a sad female version of his tortured Christs, a figure mocked and scorned, held in disrepute. The bridge to the future Die Br cke (The Bridge) was the first of two Expressionist movements that emerged in Germany in the early decades of the 20 th century. In 1905 a group of German Expressionist artists came together in Dresden and took that name chosen by Schmidt-Rottluff to indicate their faith in the art of the future, towards which their work would serve as a bridge. In practice they were not a cohesive group, and their art became an angst-ridden type of Expressionism. The achievement that had the most lasting value was their revival of graphic arts, in particular, the woodcut using bold and simplified forms The artists of Die Br cke drew inspiration from van Gogh, Gauguin and primitive art.

Munch was also a strong influence, having exhibited his art in Berlin from 1892. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880 - 1938), the leading spirit of Die Br cke, wanted German art to be a bridge to the future. He insisted that the group, which included Erich Hockey (1883 - 1970) and Karl Schmidt-Rottluf (1884 - 1976), express inner convictions with sincerity and spontaneity. Even at their wildest, the Fauve's had retained a sense of harmony and design, but Die Br cke abandoned such restraint. They used images of the modern city to convey a hostile, alienating world, with distorted figures and colours. Kirchner does just this in Berlin Street Scene (1913; 121 x 95 cm (47 1 / 2 x 37 1 / 2 in) ), where the shrill colours and jagged hysteria of his own vision flash forth uneasily.

There is a powerful sense of violence, contained with difficulty, in much of their art. Emil Nolde (1867 - 1956), briefly associated with Die Br cke, was a more profound Expressionist who worked in isolation for much of his career. His interest in primitive art and sensual color led him to paint some remarkable pictures with dynamic energy, simple rhythms, and visual tension. He could even illuminate the marshes of his native Germany with dramatic clashes of stunning color. Yet Early Evening (1916; 74 x 101 cm (29 x 39 1 / 2 in) ) is not mere drama: light glimmers over the distance with an exhilarating sense of space. Die Br cke collapsed as the inner convictions of each artist began to differ, but arguably the greatest German artist of the time was Max Beckmann (1884 - 1950).

Working independently, he constructed his own bridge, to link the objective truthfulness of great artists of the past with his own subjective emotions. Like some other Expressionists, he served in World War I and suffered unbearable depression and hallucinations as a result. His work reflects his stress through its sheer intensity: cruel, brutal images are held still by solid colours and flat, heavy shapes to give an almost timeless quality. Such an unshakeable certainty of vision meant that he was hated by the Nazis, and he ended his days in the United States, a lonely force for good. He is perhaps just discernible as a descendant of D rer in his love of self-portraits and blend of the clumsy and suave with which he imagines himself: in Self-Portrait (1944; 95 x 60 cm (37 1 / 2 x 23 1 / 2 in) ), he looks out, not at himself, but at us, with a prophetic urgency. (License plate from Duchamp's Volkswagen) Marcel Duchamp Painted metal, 4 x 18; mounted on wood, 18 x 23. 25 Nude Descending A Staircase Duchamp, Marcel The Scream Munch, Edvard Madonna Munch, Edvard Dynamism Of Cyclist Boccioni, Umberto Henri Matisse (1869 - 1954) 1904 - 5 Woman with the Hat, Paris Faux Valid 1963


Free research essays on topics related to: henri matisse, dada movement, 20 th century, marcel duchamp, van gogh

Research essay sample on 20 Th Century Marcel Duchamp

Writing service prices per page

  • $18.85 - in 14 days
  • $19.95 - in 3 days
  • $23.95 - within 48 hours
  • $26.95 - within 24 hours
  • $29.95 - within 12 hours
  • $34.95 - within 6 hours
  • $39.95 - within 3 hours
  • Calculate total price

Our guarantee

  • 100% money back guarantee
  • plagiarism-free authentic works
  • completely confidential service
  • timely revisions until completely satisfied
  • 24/7 customer support
  • payments protected by PayPal

Secure payment

With EssayChief you get

  • Strict plagiarism detection regulations
  • 300+ words per page
  • Times New Roman font 12 pts, double-spaced
  • FREE abstract, outline, bibliography
  • Money back guarantee for missed deadline
  • Round-the-clock customer support
  • Complete anonymity of all our clients
  • Custom essays
  • Writing service

EssayChief can handle your

  • essays, term papers
  • book and movie reports
  • Power Point presentations
  • annotated bibliographies
  • theses, dissertations
  • exam preparations
  • editing and proofreading of your texts
  • academic ghostwriting of any kind

Free essay samples

Browse essays by topic:

Stay with EssayChief! We offer 10% discount to all our return customers. Once you place your order you will receive an email with the password. You can use this password for unlimited period and you can share it with your friends!

Academic ghostwriting

About us

© 2002-2024 EssayChief.com