Throughout his lifetime, Pablo Picasso created a multitude of art forms which spanned over his several modern art movements. Picasso’s various artistic movements were jarring in their aesthetic differences; however, it is clear to the trained eye that Picasso was able to maintain certain and specific underlying elements throughout his changing movements. These underlying elements included brush stroke patterns, shading, as well as emotional projections. Picasso’s Woman Plaiting Her Hair and Girl with a Mandolin are prime examples of Picasso work that from first glance, have stark differences, but share both underlying artistic technique as well as emotional depth. Despite being painted only four years apart from one another, Woman Plaiting Her Hair and Girl with a Mandolin show few similarities in composition, color and style. The works are so distinguished that to an untrained eye, these pieces might look like works from two different artists entirely. Woman Plaiting Her Hair uses soft curves and warm skin tones to draw the viewer closer to the subject. Girl with a Mandolin on the other hand, forces the viewer to step back from the canvas and analyze the geometric intricacies and watch as the various shapes and lines connect to form the body and face of a girl. But when juxtaposed, both pieces project feelings of youth and beauty onto the viewer. While these paintings may not look alike on first glance, similarities help connect these two pieces in the timeline of Picasso’s art career. His ability to paint similar subjects in completely different styles across his art movements helps reveal his range and ease in artistic translation over time.

-Eli McClain

One work is arguably the most famous pieces in the art world, which people flock from all over the globe to see; the other is a postcard replica of the first work, only doodled on in pencil. These are the Mona Lisa by Leonardo DaVinci and LH.O.O.Q. by Marcel Duchamp, respectively. These two works could be said to lie on opposite ends of the artistic spectrum, considering how one is appreciated as a classic while the other one may as well be akin to… drawing a mustache on the Mona Lisa. The two pictures are so similar, though, save for one small detail; what kind of significance could that slight difference really have? It is simple: the creation of the latter work challenges our perception of what art truly is and how we view it, which we can see when juxtaposed with the more traditional Mona Lisa for contrast. 

Mary Yanez

With the onset of personal health issues at the epoch of the 20^th century, it is believed to be that Claude Monet produced works of art that were to coincide with his developing cataracts. This influence is depicted in the differences between his works “Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies” and “The Japanese Footbridge”. Although both paintings are centralized around the same subject, it is evident that there is a transformation in his style. Monet’s style evolves from concentrated and detailed to a more indeterminate and fluid technique. However, Monet was known for focusing on “capturing the moment” such as changes in light and the passing of seasons. Thus it is possible that this change in style between the paintings could not only be attributed to his health, but also the fact that he wished to encapsulate the atmosphere of the very moment he was a part of.

Ariella Caminero

Everyone views art differently; sometimes, a piece seems easier to understand, while other times, a piece of art may just confuse the viewer. Artists often use different colors and techniques in order to more clearly express their perception of the world. Whereas Miro uses differing paint patterns, colors, and geometric shapes in The Birth of the World to highlight an abstract, chaotic, raw view of the world, Seurat’s Evening, Honfleur utilizes a precise painting technique, known as pointillism, and particular colors in order to show how duality enhances the world around us.

Jessica Sun

“Agapanthus” by Claude Monet and the painting “Abstract Portrait of Marcel Duchamp” create a rift in the ways of viewing art, with “Agapanthus” being a painting which can be appreciated in its beauty due to its visual appeal as a painting as opposed “Abstract Portrait of Marcel Duchamp” which requires a more interactive mind and understanding of time period. This need to understand context in the painting may alienate a viewer from its true beauty.The painting “Agapanthus” by Claude Monet has a rudimentary yet naturally explicit appearance due to its impressionistic painting style. This piece is created with a majority of cool hues, predominantly blue. This is contrasted greatly by the crisp technically linear yet abstract appearance in “Abstract Portrait of Marcel Duchamp” by Katherine Sophie Drier. This painting has a mix of all different hues, varying from cool to warm and of various intensities.

Glenn Collaku

Cubism is the era of art that inspires the incredible diversity in modern styles of art. It was incredibly influential, and within itself developed and changed rapidly in a few short years. Perhaps the most well known artist of the Cubism era is Pablo Picasso. Though the general trend of the era runs in the opposite direction, Picasso’s art style shifts from the colorful and fractured to the gray and divided. Picasso’s earlier Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is the most well known work of the Cubism era, but his later Ma Jolie is more representative of Picasso’s matured style and his ideas of Cubism.

Though each era in art is revolutionary in its own ways, Cubism is the first era that breaks out of perspective that is seen literally. Everything that came before is a vision that could exist in reality, but Cubism breaks out of that mold. Its defining art style is paintings that portrays subjects in multiple perspectives in one dimension. Its defining principle is to present its subject in a greater context. While Les Demoiselles is well-remembered as the start of the Cubist movement, people often don’t recall its later developments.

-Jessica Ng

The definition of artwork has changed drastically since its conception. With each new art movement, new characteristics become imbued into what is collectively considered art. One of the most famous paintings today is Leonardo di Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”, which revolutionized portrait painting during the Italian Renaissance in several ways such as the technique of sfumato and the presence of a fictional landscape in the background. Several centuries later during the movement of Dadaism, another artist again altered what people considered art with his use of ready-made pieces; Marcel Duchamp. With the belief that it was an artist’s decision to call something art that would make it so, he created “L.H.O.O.Q.”, a postcard reproduction of “Mona Lisa” with the addition of a mustache and goatee. While di Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and Duchamp’s “L.H.O.O.Q.” are almost identical in appearance, they differ greatly in intention such that “Mona Lisa” was a portrait that showcased new techniques while “L.H.O.O.Q.” was a parody meant to repose the question of what art is.

The Surrealist art movement began with the goal of accessing the subconscious mind and imagination, conveyed through images, in order to create a new perception of reality. However, many Surrealist painters, although united by their inspiration from the subconscious, often differed in their techniques to portray it effectively. Some artists depicted ordinary objects placed out of context, while some painted dreams, hallucinations, and primal desires. Others, such as Joan Miro and Max Ernst use contrasts between the art and its subject matter in some of their works, which emphasizes, and therefore, effectively conveys and stimulates the subconscious mind. Although Miro’s The Birth of a Nation and Ernst’s Two Children are Threatened by a Nightingale are both examples of imaginative, surrealist paintings, Miro expresses the subconscious mind through the contrast between his abstract style and the use of ordinary objects, while Ernst does so through the contrast between his realistic, crisp style and reference to dreams.

The dance review that I read was titled “Blacka Di Danca Shakes His Way Through Borough Hall” by Siobhan Burke. I found this dance review interesting because I learned about the BEAT festival, which is something I have never heard about before. The idea of bringing performing arts to nontheatrical sites in Brooklyn such as parks, warehouses, and galleries is something I never knew existed or heard about before. I found this review very helpful and I noticed some of the aspects of a dance critique that Wendy Oliver mentioned in the reading. One of the things I noticed was the description portion of the critique. Burke says, “In the Nuh Linga (No Linger), the foot draws an S-shape on the floor while the upper body snakes and fingers snap. Down the Flank resembles the act of kicking a soccer ball and the Gully Creeper that of sneaking out at night.” Burke did a good job at describing certain steps and creating an image in my head of what it could look like. This was done really well and I liked how easy it was to understand certain steps and how they are carried out without even seeing them in person.

Another aspect of the critique that I noticed was interpretation. Interpretation includes the the writer’s personal views of the entire work or certain aspects of it in order to find the meaning of it. I saw this when Burke said, “The BEAT organizers aren’t always prudent in their pairing of artist and site; last year’s nocturnal performances in Green-Wood Cemetery, for instance, underutilized that locale. “Dancehall in Borough Hall” at first seemed like another mismatch, the bureaucratic vibes at odds with the dynamism of Blacka Di Danca and his sidekicks, Janelle Garvey and Aliyah Ali. But as they settled in for a 15-minute show, followed by a 45-minute class for adventurous audience members (the rest of us could just observe), the sterility of the space fell away. And it didn’t matter that only a few people were watching; a wiry, daring dancer with unlimited charisma, Blacka Di Danca can work a crowd of any size.” Even though Burke had his doubts in the beginning, after seeing the entire performance, he concluded that the overall dance performance was successful and he noticed that even though the place of the performance was odd it ended up working regardless. Burke also shows his final evaluation of the dance performance when he says “Excited to the point of giddiness by the history of his form, Blacka di Danca is keeping it very much alive.”

I can tell by the critique that Burke has looked into Blacka Di Danca’s style and his previous works. This helped him to be able to interpret the dance better and to come up with his final evaluation of the entire piece of work. Just like Wendy Oliver mentioned in the reading, I agree that a critique has to allow the reader to feel well informed about the performance even if they saw it in person or not. A good critique gives specific details but also gives general observations to better understand and visualize the performance being reviewed. I think that Burke could have possibly analyzed the dance performance more, but overall I do think it was a good critique in the sense that it allowed me to experience the performance even though I was not present.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner once said, “It seems as though the goal of my work has always been to dissolve myself completely into the sensations of the surrounding in order to then integrate this into a coherent painterly form.” Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was part of the German Expressionist movement which spread across Europe from 1905 to1920. German expressionism is said to be heavily influenced and even a form of Post-Impressionism, but there is a clear and distinct different between the two movements. Even though, both movements rejected the classic view of art, expressionism was all about expressing what came within the artist and interpreting the pieces of work through the feelings of the artist. Artists did not only capture moments in life but they actually put emotions and experiences of their own lives in their work for the viewers to interpret. The paintings “Self Portrait as a Soldier” and “Blick auf Davos” both by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner are examples of how an expressionist artist portrayed his own emotions and experiences in his pieces of art. Kirchner demonstrates this through the use of primitivism, vivid colors, and rough lines to portray his transition from an unstable and fearful mental state, depicted in “Self Portrait of a soldier,” to that of a relieved and serene one which is then depicted in “Blick auf Davos”.