Chapter 21

1. Explain why you selected each of the TWO videos you choose from the selection listed above.

The reason I selected the cubism video is because I had previously taken an interest in cubism, and I was curious s to what the video would exemplify.  The second video that I chose was the Dada video, because I had never heard of it before, although, while watching it I had recognized the style of Dada.

2. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

In the Cubism video, Juan Gris described cubism as deconstructing images which starts as shapes and ends with a situation we recognize from our own experience.  I learned about the way in which Cubism plays with the viewers perception of the image. Cubism artists may use multiple perspectives of the same object to emphasis certain features of that object. This same technique is used in Hannah Hoch’s “ New York” collage, which isn’t Cubism, rather it is classified under Dada. Artist, Kurt Schwitters’ is considered one of the founders of Dada. He used everyday objects in his art, but isn’t concerned so much with the object, as he is with “ the music the light plays on them.”

2. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

The readings in the text give the concepts of cubism and Dada a context. After World War 1, concerns over war and economic/ social equality became the center of the arts. Through Art, many of the discussions regarding these issues were brought to the mainstream: allowing for the progression of many societies. The text also describes the pretext to the evolution of surrealism, cubism, and dada. The Avant-Garde movement facilitated a change in perspective for many artists around the world: allowing for new, bold ideas in the art culture.  George Grosz exemplifies this in his “untitled” painting of Germany, where everything is lacking the fundamental characteristics that make human life worth living.