📝History of Art Criticism Unit 3 – 19th Century Art Criticism

Key Figures and Movements

• John Ruskin, a prominent Victorian art critic, championed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and Gothic Revival architecture
  • Ruskin emphasized the moral and social role of art, believing it should convey truth and beauty
  • He criticized the industrial revolution's impact on art and society in works like "The Stones of Venice" (1851-1853)
• Charles Baudelaire, a French poet and art critic, was a key figure in the development of modernist aesthetics
  • Baudelaire's concept of the "flaneur" (an urban wanderer) influenced Impressionist artists and their depictions of modern life
• Émile Zola, a French novelist and art critic, defended the Impressionists and advocated for a naturalist approach to art criticism
• The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, founded in 1848, rejected academic conventions and sought to revive the sincerity and naturalism of early Renaissance art
• Impressionism, which emerged in the 1870s, focused on capturing the fleeting effects of light, color, and atmosphere in everyday scenes
  • Key Impressionist artists included Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro
• Post-Impressionism, a term coined by Roger Fry in 1910, encompassed artists like Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Gauguin who extended and challenged Impressionist principles

Historical Context

• The 19th century witnessed significant social, political, and technological changes that shaped the art world and art criticism
• The Industrial Revolution led to the growth of cities, the rise of the middle class, and new forms of leisure and consumption
  • This created a new market for art and changed the relationship between artists, patrons, and the public
• The French Revolution of 1789 and subsequent political upheavals challenged traditional hierarchies and authority, including the Academy's dominance over art education and taste
• The invention of photography in the 1830s raised questions about the nature and purpose of art, as well as the role of the artist
• The rise of nationalism and imperialism influenced artistic representations of history, identity, and the "other"
  • Orientalism, a term coined by Edward Said, refers to the Western fascination with and stereotyping of Middle Eastern and North African cultures in art and literature
• The women's movement and the campaign for women's suffrage gathered momentum in the late 19th century, challenging gender roles and representation in art
• The publication of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" (1859) and the growth of scientific materialism challenged religious beliefs and traditional conceptions of human nature

Major Theories and Approaches

• Formalism, an approach that emphasized the formal properties of art (color, line, composition) over its subject matter or social context, gained prominence in the late 19th century
  • Formalist critics like Roger Fry and Clive Bell argued that the aesthetic value of art lay in its "significant form" rather than its representational content
• Historicism, the belief that art should be understood and evaluated in its historical context, was influential throughout the 19th century
  • Historicist approaches often involved the classification and periodization of art into styles and movements (Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism)
• The concept of "art for art's sake" (l'art pour l'art) emerged in the mid-19th century, asserting the autonomy of art from moral, political, or utilitarian concerns
  • This idea was associated with the Aesthetic Movement and figures like Théophile Gautier and Walter Pater
• Psychoanalytic theories, based on the work of Sigmund Freud, began to be applied to art criticism in the early 20th century
  • Psychoanalytic critics explored the unconscious motivations and symbolism in art, as well as the psychological dynamics between artist, artwork, and viewer
• Marxist and socialist theories of art emphasized the social and economic determinants of artistic production and reception
  • Marxist critics like William Morris and Walter Benjamin examined the commodification of art under capitalism and the potential for art to serve as a tool for social change
• Evolutionary and biological theories of art, influenced by Darwin's ideas, sought to explain the origins and functions of artistic behavior in human development
  • These theories often focused on the adaptive value of art in terms of sexual selection, social cohesion, or cognitive development

Influential Texts and Publications

• John Ruskin's "Modern Painters" (1843-1860) was a seminal work of art criticism that championed the work of J.M.W. Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites while criticizing the "mechanistic" tendencies of modern art
• Charles Baudelaire's "The Painter of Modern Life" (1863) was a key text in the development of modernist aesthetics, celebrating the ephemeral and contingent aspects of urban experience
• Émile Zola's "Édouard Manet" (1867) was an influential defense of the Impressionist painter and his unconventional style
• Walter Pater's "Studies in the History of the Renaissance" (1873) was a seminal work of aesthetic criticism that emphasized the subjective and sensuous experience of art
  • Pater's famous phrase "art for art's sake" became a rallying cry for the Aesthetic Movement
• Sigmund Freud's "The Interpretation of Dreams" (1900) introduced psychoanalytic concepts that would later be applied to art criticism, such as the unconscious, repression, and symbolism
• Roger Fry's "An Essay in Aesthetics" (1909) was an important statement of formalist principles, arguing that the aesthetic emotion aroused by art was distinct from its representational or associative content
• Clive Bell's "Art" (1914) further developed formalist ideas, introducing the concept of "significant form" as the essential quality of art
• Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) examined the impact of technologies like photography and film on the nature and function of art in modern society

Impact on Artists and Artworks

• The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, influenced by Ruskin's ideas, sought to revive the naturalism and sincerity of early Renaissance art in works like John Everett Millais's "Ophelia" (1851-1852)
• Impressionist artists like Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir were inspired by Baudelaire's concept of the "painter of modern life" and his emphasis on capturing the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere
  • Monet's series paintings of haystacks, poplars, and Rouen Cathedral exemplified the Impressionist interest in the changing appearances of objects under different conditions
• Post-Impressionist artists like Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh reacted against the Impressionists' emphasis on optical sensation, seeking to express more enduring structures and emotions in their work
  • Cézanne's analytical approach to form and space, as in his "Mont Sainte-Victoire" series, laid the groundwork for Cubism and abstract art
• The Aesthetic Movement, influenced by Pater's ideas, emphasized the decorative and sensuous qualities of art in works like James McNeill Whistler's "Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket" (1875)
• Symbolist artists like Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon drew on psychoanalytic ideas to explore dream-like and mythological imagery in their paintings and prints
• Expressionist artists like Edvard Munch and Vasily Kandinsky used distorted forms and intense colors to convey subjective emotions and inner states, reflecting the influence of psychoanalytic and spiritual theories of art
• Dada and Surrealist artists like Marcel Duchamp and Salvador Dalí challenged traditional notions of art and authorship, often using found objects, chance procedures, and automatism to subvert rational control and tap into the unconscious

Debates and Controversies

• The Realism debate: Gustave Courbet's raw, unidealized depictions of peasants and workers in paintings like "The Stone Breakers" (1849) sparked controversy over the proper subject matter and style of art
  • Conservative critics accused Courbet of promoting socialist ideas and undermining the elevated status of art
• The Impressionist exhibitions: The Impressionists' independent exhibitions, held from 1874 to 1886, challenged the authority of the official Salon and the Academy
  • Critics like Louis Leroy mocked the Impressionists' sketchy, unfinished style and unconventional subject matter, as in his review of Claude Monet's "Impression, Sunrise" (1872)
• The Ruskin-Whistler trial: In 1877, Ruskin accused Whistler of "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face" in his Nocturne paintings
  • Whistler sued Ruskin for libel, leading to a highly publicized trial that pitted the Aesthetic Movement's "art for art's sake" philosophy against Ruskin's moralistic view of art
• The "degenerate art" campaign: In Nazi Germany, modernist and avant-garde art was labeled "degenerate" and banned from public display
  • The 1937 "Degenerate Art" exhibition in Munich presented hundreds of confiscated artworks as examples of cultural decay and racial impurity
• The formalism-contextualism debate: In the mid-20th century, formalist critics like Clement Greenberg and Michael Fried argued that the value of art lay in its formal properties and medium-specific qualities
  • Contextualist critics like T.J. Clark and Michael Baxandall countered that art should be understood in relation to its social, historical, and ideological contexts
• The "culture wars" of the 1980s and 1990s: Controversies over public funding for the arts, censorship, and the politicization of art criticism polarized the American art world
  • High-profile cases like the Robert Mapplethorpe obscenity trial and the removal of Richard Serra's "Tilted Arc" from a New York City plaza sparked debates over the limits of artistic freedom and the role of public art

Legacy and Influence

• The 19th-century art criticism played a crucial role in shaping the development of modern art and aesthetics
• Ruskin's ideas about the moral and social function of art influenced the Arts and Crafts Movement and the development of art education in Britain and the United States
• Baudelaire's concept of modernity and his championing of the "painter of modern life" helped to establish the avant-garde as a key force in modern art
• The Impressionists' challenge to academic conventions and their emphasis on the perceptual experience of the individual viewer laid the groundwork for the development of abstract art in the early 20th century
• The formalist theories of Fry and Bell had a lasting impact on the way art is analyzed and evaluated, particularly in terms of its formal properties and aesthetic autonomy
• Psychoanalytic and Marxist approaches to art criticism, developed in the early 20th century, continue to inform contemporary debates about the psychological, social, and political dimensions of art
• The feminist art movement of the 1970s drew on 19th-century women's rights activism and challenged the male-dominated canon of art history and criticism
• Postcolonial and decolonial approaches to art criticism, emerging in the late 20th century, have sought to decenter Western perspectives and recover marginalized voices and traditions in the global art world
  • These approaches often critique the legacies of Orientalism, exoticism, and cultural appropriation in 19th-century art and art criticism

Case Studies and Examples

• John Ruskin's defense of J.M.W. Turner: In the first volume of "Modern Painters" (1843), Ruskin argued that Turner's expressive use of color and atmosphere captured the sublime and spiritual aspects of nature, challenging the prevailing taste for more literal and finished landscapes
• Émile Zola's defense of Édouard Manet: In his 1867 essay "Édouard Manet," Zola praised the artist's unconventional style and subject matter, which had been ridiculed by conservative critics
  • Zola argued that Manet's paintings of modern life, such as "Olympia" (1863) and "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe" (1863), represented a new kind of realism that confronted the viewer with the truth of contemporary society
• Oscar Wilde's defense of Aestheticism: In his 1891 essay "The Decay of Lying," Wilde argued that art should be valued for its beauty and imagination rather than its morality or truthfulness
  • Wilde's flamboyant persona and his novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1890) became symbols of the Aesthetic Movement's decadent and amoral reputation
• Roger Fry's Post-Impressionist exhibitions: In 1910 and 1912, Fry organized two influential exhibitions of Post-Impressionist art in London, which introduced the British public to the work of Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Gauguin
  • Fry's catalogues for these exhibitions, "Manet and the Post-Impressionists" (1910) and "Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition" (1912), helped to establish the term "Post-Impressionism" and the formalist approach to art criticism
• Clement Greenberg's defense of Abstract Expressionism: In essays like "Avant-Garde and Kitsch" (1939) and "Modernist Painting" (1960), Greenberg argued that the abstract paintings of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and others represented the culmination of modernism's quest for medium-specificity and flatness
  • Greenberg's formalist criticism, which emphasized the optical and material properties of art over its representational or expressive content, became highly influential in the post-war American art world
• Linda Nochlin's feminist critique of the canon: In her groundbreaking 1971 essay "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?", Nochlin challenged the assumptions of traditional art history and criticism, which had largely ignored or marginalized women artists
  • Nochlin argued that the very notion of artistic genius was a masculine construct, and that women's exclusion from art education and institutions had limited their opportunities for success and recognition
• Edward Said's critique of Orientalism: In his 1978 book "Orientalism," Said analyzed the ways in which Western art, literature, and scholarship had constructed a romanticized and essentialized image of the Middle East and North Africa
  • Said's work helped to inspire a new generation of postcolonial and decolonial art critics, who sought to challenge the Eurocentric biases and power dynamics of the global art world