Realism in American Literature
The history of the world culture has provided us with a great number of art
movements that reflect particular trends and views of certain epochs. Today
there are more than twenty art movements in culture that have their own peculiarities
and convey certain ideas to modern people. Due to the Internet that offers different
web sites, devoted to various trends, we are able to find more information on
this topic.
The web site “Realism in American Literature, 1860-1890” (http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/realism.htm_)
gives the main characteristics of realism in American literature, the information
on the main authors who practiced realism and offers different views of writers
and linguists on realism and its role in American literature in 1860 –
1890. On the other hand, the web site “Realism (1850-1880)” (http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/c19th/realism.htm)
characterizes the main trends of realism in painting. It gives the brief history
of the development of this style, its definition, presents the works of different
representatives of realism of different countries. The classification of Realism
schools of painting and their description is of particular interest on this
site. At the same time, you can find some extra links to other useful web sites
concerning Realism.
The authors of the web site “Impressionism (1874-1886)” (http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=546)elucidate
impressionism - another art movement that took place at once after Realism.
The site provides the information about the history of the appearance of this
trend, shows the connection of Realism and Impressionism and tells about the
first “impressionist exhibition” held in 1874 in Paris.
In addition, the next site “Examples of artworks by American Impressionist
painters” (http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/ij/impressionism.Cassatt.html)
offers a rich diversity of works of the most prominent American artists who
adhered to this trend. Here we find works by Childe Hassam, Albert Henry Krehbiel
and Mary Cassatt. It was especially interesting to learn that there was a group
of American painters that was known as the American Ten. They were the artists
from New York and Boston who always exhibited together. Here we can also find
their most famous works.
The web site “The Cubist Rupture” (http://uk.portalmundos.com/mundoarte/comments/cubist.htm)
is devoted to Cubism and its achievements in the development of art. “An
exceptional achievement of Cubism was the introduction of the collage to the
painting. In this way, painting was not an illusionist art anymore…”(http://uk.portalmundos.com/mundoarte/comments/cubist.htm).
The site gives the information on various types of Cubism, its schools and the
most influential representatives, such as Pablo Picasso. The article is rich
in interesting opinions about Cubism: “it supposed the fourth dimension
(time), as it synthesized a series of views from different angles.”(http://uk.portalmundos.com/mundoarte/comments/cubist.htm).
The site http://www.cubism-asada.com/index_e.html helps to understand better
all the peculiarities of this trend and offers a variety of examples of Cubist
painters and their works.
Another bright and strong art movement, Fauvism, is characterized on the site
“Fauvism. The Wild Beasts of Early Twentieth Century Art” (http://www.sanderhome.com/Fauves/
). Created by Stephen Sander, it gives general information about this rather
unknown trend. “Today fauvism, once thought of as a minor, short-lived,
movement, is recognized as having paved the way to both cubism and modern expressionism
in its disregard for natural forms and its love of unbridled color.” (http://www.sanderhome.com/Fauves/
)In order to learn more about one of the most prominent modern Fauvism artist
you should visit the site “Maryse Casol, Modern Art – Fauvism”
(http://www.marysecasol.com/Default.aspx?tabid=287) that helps us to get acquainted
with her creative work.
The XX century gave the humanity the movement Abstraction that had impact on
all spheres of art. To find more about it you should visit the web site “Abstraction
in the Twentieth Century”(http://artnetweb.com/abstraction/content.html).It
characterizes the manifestation of Abstraction in sculpture, music, theatre,
photography, film and dance and gives detailed information on all the peculiarities
of the development of this trend. The web site “Abstract Artists Painters”
(http://www.artquotes.net/directory/1artists_abstract.htm) can be the continuation
of the acquaintance with this topic as it abounds with reproductions of abstract
canvases that can be bright illustrations to the theoretical information about
abstraction.
Trying to find some information on Dada, I came across the web site “International
Dada Archive” (http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/index.html). It offers the
access to the International Dada Archive and covers numerous editions (books
and periodicals) concerning this movement and the major Dadaists. The site Dada
(http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/dada/) contains a detailed and interesting
description of the process of appearance of the term “Dada” and
mentions the name of the predecessor and finally the leader of this movement
Marcel Duchamp. Detailed information can be found on the site “The Essential
Dada” http://members.chello.nl/j.seegers1/dada_files/)
The above discussed art movement Dadaism engendered the surrealistic style.
It developed in the XX century and first appeared in Europe. “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 had culminated in the horrors of World War I.” (http://www.surrealist.com/).
This web site provides information on the history of the movement, its development
and the most prominent artists. The web site http://www.cnac-gp.fr/education/ressources/ENS-Surrealistart-EN/ENS-Surrealistart-EN.htm
is an inexhaustible source of information for those who are interested in surrealism
as there you can find biographies of all outstanding surrealists such as Giorgio
de Chirico, Man Ray and, of course, Salvador Dali; the glossary, containing
wide-spread terms and the chronology of the development of surrealism.
There are all grounds to state that Abstract Expressionism dawned in America
in the beginning of the XX century. In the framework of this movement, there
even existed ‘American Type Painting’ used by Greenberg. Further
information on the topic can be found on the web site http://www.artchive.com/artchive/abex.html,
where the information on the major representatives is also given. If you would
like to continue the studying of this art trend, you can also profit by the
list of other available sources on the topic. The site http://abstractart.20m.com/expressionism.html
explains the difference between Action Painting and Color Field Painting and
gives the main characteristic of Abstract Expressionism: “Most abstract
expressionist art is not a painting of an object or image, but instead a study
in color and brush stroke”
The sites http://www.popartists.com/ and http://www.lapopart.com/index.asp aim
at presenting the major artists, working in pop art, such as Jasper Johns, David
Hockney, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselmann and others. They
give the possibility to get acquainted with the latest works of this trend and
keep abreast in the development of this art movement.
The web site
http://www.npaction.org/article/articleview/678/1/222 presents an original project
of Sam Bower that is aimed at the promotion of the environmental movement and
encouraging people to create environmental art. The project is called greenmuseum.org
and due to the Internet, it became popular and thus contributed much to the
development of the trend as well. To understand better what environmental art
is you should visit the site “Sculptures and Art from the air” (http://www.andrewrogers.org/)
that is devoted to a modern representative of this movement Andrew Rogers and
is, in fact, a gallery of his works. The motto of his work is “The challenge
is always to use materials in a new and different way, and make them convey
meaning and portray form in a manner that has not previously been seen”.
(http://www.andrewrogers.org/)
Thus, within this paper I tried to list the most interesting and informative
Internet links that can help you to learn more about different art movements
that appeared in the history of art at different times, from the XIX century
up to nowadays.
References
1. http://abstractart.20m.com/expressionism.html
2. http://artnetweb.com/abstraction/content.html
3. http://members.chello.nl/j.seegers1/dada_files/
4. http://uk.portalmundos.com/mundoarte/comments/cubist.htm
5. http://uk.portalmundos.com/mundoarte/comments/cubist.htm
6. http://www.andrewrogers.org
7. http://www.artchive.com/artchive/abex.html
8. http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/ij/impressionism.Cassatt.html
9. http://www.cnac-gp.fr/education/ressources/ENS-Surrealistart-EN/ENS-Surrealistart-EN.htm
10. http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/c19th/realism.htm
11. http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/dada/
12. http://www.lapopart.com/index.asp
13. http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/index.html
14. http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=546
15. http://www.marysecasol.com/Default.aspx?tabid=287
16. http://www.npaction.org/article/articleview/678/1/222
17. http://www.popartists.com/
18. http://www.sanderhome.com/
19. http://www.surrealist.com/
20. http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/realism.htm
