Matisse and Picasso: breaking boundaries

Transcription

1 Matisse and Picasso: breaking boundaries Start date 21 March 2014 End date 23 March 2014 Venue Madingley Hall Madingley Cambridge Tutor Mary Conochie Course code 1314NRX123 Director of Programmes Dr Tim London For further information on this course, please contact Linda Fisher, Academic Programme Manager on Liz Williams, Programme Administrator on To book See: or telephone Tutor biography Mary Conochie has an MA by Research in Art History (Distinction) from London University, where she specialised in Renaissance portrayals of the feminine in both saintly and secular images. Her subjects include 15th-century Italian painting, 19th-century movements and 20th-century isms. She has taught art history at Homerton College and Anglia Ruskin University and art theory at Norwich University College of the Arts and at the University of Hertfordshire. Mary is a panel tutor for the Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge currently teaching Advance, Diploma and Certificate courses. Her approach to art history is thematic, for example, taking Paris and themes relating to the city as a focus for analysing the historical and sociocultural issues surrounding 19th-century French painting University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, Madingley Hall, Cambridge, CB23 8AQ

2 Course Programme: Friday 21 March 2014 Please plan to arrive between 16:30 and 18:30. You can meet other course members in the bar which opens at 18:15. Tea and Coffee making facilities are available in the study bedrooms. 19:00 Dinner 20:30 22:00 Traditional Beginnings the early careers of Matisse and Picasso 22:00 Terrace bar open for informal discussion Saturday 22 March :00 Breakfast 09:00 10:30 Fauvism and Cubism Matisse and Picasso respectively initiate the first twentieth century movements and revolutionise the role of colour and line in painting. 10:30 Coffee 11:00 12:30 Still life painting how both artists use still life as a tool to challenge spatial preconceptions and three dimensionality. 13:00 Lunch 14:00 Free 16:00 Tea 16:30 18:00 The 1920s Matisse s Nice period and Picasso s interpretation of the neoclassical and surrealism. 19:00 Dinner 20:30 22:00 Losing Face how both artists reinterpret the portrait 22:00 Terrace bar open for informal discussion Sunday 23 March :00 Breakfast 09:00 10:30 The Nude from Matisse s Odalisques to Picasso s deconstruction of the female form. 10:30 Coffee

3 11:00 12: Matisse s development of papier collés in his final years. The dichotomy between Picasso s art and his politics. 12:45 Lunch The course will disperse after lunch

4 Course syllabus Aims: Matisse and Picasso were pioneers of modern art. This course aims to examine how they broke all artistic boundaries by challenging and reinterpreting traditional subjects: the nude, the portrait and the still life. By discussing these common themes and particular time periods, this course also aims to contextualise the work of these two artists within a period of extraordinary historical, social and cultural changes. Content: We will discuss how Matisse and Picasso could be described as the antithesis of each other: representing two opposing, longstanding, approaches to art that of colorito (colour) and disegno (line). Through the expressive use of colour Matisse aimed to evoke a sense of harmony and tranquillity in the viewer. Picasso s art is anything but that: he eradicates colour in order to deconstruct the object through fragmentation of line resulting images often challenging and disquieting. Indeed he subverts every pre-existing artistic norm of the previous 500 years. On the other hand, their relationship could be described as symbiotic because they are inextricably linked not only through their quest for the new but also their experiences within the art market often patronised the same collectors and gallery owners. Particular attention will be given to their not insignificant influence upon each other s work throughout their artistic careers. We will examine how they counterbalance each other: representing extremes in their use colour and line but at times their works merge and appear indistinguishable. We will also analyse how Fauvism and Cubism, movements created by Matisse and Picasso respectively, contributed to furtherance of modern art. Matisse recorded his theories on art in Notes of a Painter (1908). Picasso did not. His statements on art are often contradictory, perverse, misleading: probably because of his belief that art should speak for itself. Although there was constant, sometimes bitter, rivalry between them, paradoxically this was balanced by great mutual respect for each other s work. Presentation of the course: Powerpoint presentations of images are used during the course. Lists of images and relevant texts will be provided and class discussion is encouraged throughout the sessions. Outcomes: As a result of the course, within the constraints of the time available, students should be able to: define the movements of Fauvism and Cubism and their relevance to Modernism. recognise the main differences between Matisse and Picasso in their artistic practice. identify similarities between Matisse and Picasso in term of subject matter and techniques used. relate paintings discussed to the period in which they were produced.

5 Reading and resources list Listed below are a number of texts that might be of interest for future reference, but do not need to be bought (or consulted) for the course. Author Title Publisher and date Alarco Paloma & Warner Malcolm Antliff Mark & Leighten Patricia The Mirror and the Mask: Portraiture in the Age of Picasso, Cubism and Culture (World of Art Series) , London Bois Yves-Alain Matisse and Picasso 2001, Flammarion Brodskaia Nathalia Fauves (Art of the Century Collection), 2011 Chipp Herschel B Theories of Modern Art 1968, University of California Press Clark T J Picasso and Truth: from Cubism to Guernica (The A W Mellon Lectures in Fine Art), 2013 Cooper Douglas The Cubist Epoch 1999 edition, Phaidon Cowling Elizabeth et al Matisse/Picasso 2002, Tate Publications Cox Neil Cubism (Art and Ideas), 2000, Phaidon Eik Kahng et al Flam Jack D Flam Jack D Harrison Charles et al Picasso and Braque: The Cubist Experiment Matisse on Art: Documents of Twentieth Century Art Matisse and Picasso: The Story of Their Rivalry and Friendship Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century Kimbell Art Museum, , Phaidon 2004, California University Press 1993, Open University Penrose R Picasso 1999 Richardson, John Rubin W and Baldassari A A Life of Picasso: Volumes I The Triumphant Years, Volume II The Painter of Modern Life and Volume III, Picasso & Portraiture: Representation and Transformation reprinted 2009, London 1997, Museum of Modern Art, New York Spurling Hilary Matisse: The Life 2009, New York

6 Note Students of the Institute of Continuing Education are entitled to 20% discount on books published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) which are purchased at the Press bookshop, 1 Trinity Street, Cambridge (Mon-Sat 9am 5:30pm, Sun 11am 5pm). A letter or confirming acceptance on to a current Institute course should be taken as evidence of enrolment. Information correct as of December 2013