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Paper Abstract: Analysis of two French artists. Aesthetic strategies used by both. Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jette" and Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase." Seurat's pointillism style. Duchamps's work in experimental forms. The technique and vision of both artists. Characteristics shared by Duchamp and Seurat. Paper Introduction: Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon On the Island of La Grande Jette” and “Nude Descending a Staircase” by Marcel Duchamp Among the many art historians and theorists who have made an attempt to determine the means and methods by which the artistic term “modernism” is developed, is Sandro Bocola (1999) in The Art of Modernism: Art, Culture and Society from Goya to the Present Day, which concludes that “modernism” is a trend in art that rejected “historicism” and “classicism” and became an art that “mirrors the scientific revolution. The trailblazing discoveries of psychoanalysis and the new physics, the effect of technological and industrial progress, (44). In the terms of macro-history that spans the centuries of art, “Modern” art usually refers to a period that typically Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. A history of western art. Through careful analysis and a leap of the imagination, we can see thecharacteristics that are shared by these two artists who both believed thatvirtually everything could be submitted to reason: tradition, customs,history, even art. After being rejectedtoo many times, he got together with other artists and founded the Societedes Artistes Independents. In 1913 it was the hit of theNew York "Armory Show (Stokstad 39). 1999.Bowness, Arthur. In Modern art and modernism, edited by E Frascina and C. It is one of art's mysteries that all too often, the most famous andacclaimed artists produce few famous paintings while some relatively minorartists produce some of the most famous individual paintings? Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Simonton (1988), in his long analysis of scientific reasoning and itsrelation to the creative process points out points out that studying theconceptual innovators that he was writing about has a parallel in the findings of psychologists on the life cycles of practitioners of a variety of scientific and artistic disciplines. Whereas Seurat was always on the outside,Duchamp was right in the center of the exclusive painters' circle known asthe "Golden Section", (also inhabited by La Fresnaye, Lйger, Metzinger,Picabia). History of Art. If you study his "Chess Players" you see a perspective thatwould have pleased Cezanne, and a use of color that is Manet mixed withMonet. 1982. Hisartwork before the 1913 Armory Show in New York is comfortable butderivative. (Bell 58). "Experimental artists work incrementally, theirinnovations appear gradually, and they generally do their best work late intheir careers; conceptual artists innovate more suddenly, produceindividual breakthrough works, and usually do their best work" (Tansey andKleiner 23) When Seurat, for instance, was at the Ecole, almost all of thediscussion was about Impressionism, which was considered the "Modern Art"of the time. Duchamp, on the other hand, was on the inner circle looking out. (Janson 29). and Kleiner, Fred S. The psychologists have established that chemists, mathematicians, theoretical physicists, and poets typically make their most important contributions at younger ages than do astronomers, biologists, geologists, and novelists (Simonton 12 ). Conversations with Picasso. Abrams, Inc. We know from art history that there were those who hated theworks of Michelangelo, who grew ill looking at the paintings of Rembrandt,who could not accept the visions of Picasso, and who would shout at theworks of Jackson Pollock. New York: Harry N. The Art of Modernism: Art, Culture and Society from Goya to the Present Day. This was called"Pointillism," a concept and style that was a precursor to the concept ofpixillation which is at the basis of all digital reproduction (Fleming 142)Marcel Duchamp Marcel Duchamp was born in 1887, and turned out to be a 2 th CenturyRenaissance man achieving recognition as a painter, film maker, poet,musician, partier, and chess player. The trailblazingdiscoveries of psychoanalysis and the new physics, the effect oftechnological and industrial progress, (44). Works CitedAdams, L.S. Seurat thought there was much wrong with themost popular school of Impressionism, and in his search, came up with astyle of painting which was basically dots of color. "But, more than this, it was felt that the truthrevealed thereby could be applied in the political and social spheres tocorrect problems and improve the political and social condition ofhumankind" (Brassai 39). 75-88.Bocola, Sandro Bocola. Both attempted to use science as amajor aesthetic component. 1991Janson, H.W. The thinking of the establishment wasthat "Quality in art is not just a matter of private experience. Seurat did not create long treatises onfractalization, but it is interesting to note that Einstein, in his earlywritings, referred to pointillism in his explanations of how lighttraveled. New York: Prestel. 1982Brassai, Dale. Both Seurat and Duchamp were "outsiders" (Seurat by birth andexperience) and Duchamp by choice. Bocola goes further, arguing that the resulting dynamics are echoed in artistic efforts to. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers. Somehistorians point to the difference in approach between experimental andconceptual painters. "The debt to Cezanne". The artist of modernism move farther and farther away from visible appearances; step by step, but inexorably, they push forward fundamentals and universals, to universal being, and thereby evolve two basic forms of representation that reflect the above-mentioned developments: structure and energy (Bocola 44). Scientific genius. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Publishers. New York: Harry Abrams, 1995.Bell, Charles. Simonton (1994) suggests that "Modern artists who haveproduced experimental innovations have generally been prompted by aestheticconsiderations; their art has usually sought to express visual perceptionsor sensations" (Simonton 118). Arts and Ideas. Harrison. In that respect, they confirm the parametersof Bocola's arguments. 1994 Abrams, Inc. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.1999Fleming, William. We can't draw from that statement, however,that Seurat saw the world as a series of dots or that Duchamp could not seethe form and shape of a nude woman walking down a staircase. More specifically, modernism can be thought of asreferring to the philosophy of modern art" (Bocola 44). New York: Museum of Modern Art. When used in that sense, and also in the sense of Bocola,"modernism" refers to the creative strategy (or strategies) of the artistswho choose to let their art reflect the mood or the temper of the times. 1999.Tansey, Richard G. 1984Simonton, D.K. In this paper, we shall argue that the two artists selected -- Georges-Pierre Seurat and Marcel Duchamp -- were not only "modernist" (in theBocola sense) but were also futurists. And, we must not forget, also opened up new avenues of profit,since both of these men were believers that art should be a vocation andnot an avocation (Adams 122). This rejection is understandable as teenaged angst, but it goesdeeper to technique. Cezanne and the end of Impressionism. Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon On the Island of La Grande Jette" and "Nude Descending a Staircase" by Marcel Duchamp Among the many art historians and theorists who have made an attemptto determine the means and methods by which the artistic term "modernism"is developed, is Sandro Bocola (1999) in The Art of Modernism: Art, Cultureand Society from Goya to the Present Day, which concludes that "modernism"is a trend in art that rejected "historicism" and "classicism" and becamean art that "mirrors the scientific revolution. 1991Shiff, Robert. It is this more specific use of modern that is intended when peoplespeak of modern art. Let us consider a quick backgroundof the two artists.Georges-Pierre Seurat Seurat was born in Paris in 1859 and when he was 19 he enrolled at theEcole des Beaux-Arts in 1878 and 1879. However, Impressionism was too limiting and Seurat rejectedthat. The best taste is that of the people who, in eachgeneration, spend the most time and trouble on art, and this best taste hasalways turned out to be unanimous, within certain limits" (Bowness 44). New York: Prentice Hall: Harry N. The similarities of these two artists (and by expansion, the art ofalmost everyone from da Vinci to Warhol) tells us that "modernism" is afact of life and it is always an attempt to show that life, rather thenexplain it. Art History. Almost all of the criticism of Seurat was concerninghis technique and not his vision. .visualize and express the invisible foundations of reality. In 1912 he painted one of his main works, "Nudesdescending a Staircase", shown for the first time in October of that yearat the exhibition of the "Golden Section". After the Armory show, Duchamp resented being ignored, and alsobeing called old-fashioned and set out to break all molds (Stokstad 52). Art, as was the language, wascontrolled by a committee of elders who ran an Academie and who determinedwhat was good art and what was bad art (Shiff 92). Modern European art. In the terms of macro-history that spans the centuries of art,"Modern" art usually refers to a period that typically encompasses the186 s and lasts to the 197 s and this term is the most common descriptionused to describe the style and the ideology of art produced during thatera. "The term modernism is also used to refer to the artof the modern period. There is aconsensus of taste. At the risk of gross oversimplification, it seems that we can safelysay that the aesthetic strategy used by Seurat was to fractalize color togive a sub atomic representation, while Duchamp attempted to fractalizespace and time. London: Thames and Hudson. This kind of thinking quickly gave rise to theexciting possibility of creating a new and better vision of the worldaround them. However, as Rosenberg (1994) in his excellentbook on the traditional aspects of the modern, observes that in all works,no matter how radical or upsetting "we can recognize Renaissance humanism[in] that modernist expression of confidence that humankind can learn tounderstand, and then master, nature and natural forces, that we can graspthe nature of the universe, and even shape our individual destinies and thefuture of the world (Bocola 39). In many ways he was anearly version of Andy Warhol. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.1988.Stokstad, Marilyn. . If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.