————————Renaissance————————

Renaissance, meaning “reborn” in French, is a word that almost everyone is familiar with. It would be so cliché if I just copy and paste everything about it from Wikipedia, because I am sure that you have already read it more than once and already are tired of it.

In fact, the essence of the Renaissance was an outburst of desire to observe, to know, to think, to question, and to understand. However, thoughts are no more than thoughts if they were locked up in people’s heads. Expressing is a superior method to make the ideas, conceptions, and the notions clear, vivid, and lucid. Therefore, artists from the 14th century to the 17th century seized this desire and displayed it in numerous forms, such as painting, literature, drama, sculpture, and science.

Nevertheless, artists back then didn’t just randomly hit up on giving rebirth of ancient Greek and Rome culture. From 1378 to 1417, the two popes of Rome and Avignon, opposed each other, therefore causing a profound political and religious crisis, which became the Great Schism in the Western Church, where the power of the popes was vastly weakened, and people's faith has begun to collapse.

In May 1453, Constantinople fell into the hands of the Ottoman Turks, who attacked the Byzantine Empire viciously. As a consequence, a large number of intellectuals flee Western Europe with plentiful art treasures and ancient books, which later provided theoretical support for the cultural communication in Renaissance.

Also, the printing press changed the social nature of reading and secularized it as a daily activity. During the age of manuscripts, the spread of religion relied heavily on churches and universities, which placed communicators high above the masses and distanced people from God and knowledge.

Nonetheless, with the printing press, reading the Bible without a priest preaching would develop a personal understanding instead of an authoritative one, in other words, people were brought much closer to God, therefore this revolution of the communication method brought an upheaval of the entire Christianity. Eventually, the center of art moved to Europe, and so did the Renaissance begin.

————————Impressionism————————

Monet, Renoir and Bazille, three students of a classicism artist, refused to follow academic art and were tired of academicism which emphasized traditions, grace, theology and opposed free self-expression. Therefore, they went to the Exhibitions of Rejects (Salon des refusés) in 1863 and were fascinated by the painting “Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe” by Manet.

Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, Édouard Manet, 1862

Oil on canvas, 2.08 m x 2.64 m

This painting broke an absolute taboo of academicism – illustrate a naked woman who isn’t a goddess. However, Monet was inspired by its chiaroscuro and decided to sketch in nature to capture the minor changes of objects as a result of interacting with light and air.

 Later, he created the well-known painting, “Impression, Sunrise”, and showed it to the public at the very first exhibition of impressionism. Louis Leroy, a French art critic who was fond of life-like, classicism paintings, satirized the painting through its name: “Impression--I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it...and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape”.

 However, this exact name was adopted by many impressionists and it became the word that represents one of the most brilliant, outstanding art school. Eventually, the wonderful, colorful gate of impressionism gradually opened, therefore Monet became the most convinced and significant founder.

Impressionists dared to break the rules of painting accumulated by European artists over the centuries and the monopoly of French art academies on the authority of selecting artworks for art salons. Many of the future artists benefited from this unprecedented freedom and created countless unique art works.

————————Post-Impressionism———————

Young, brave artists followed the footsteps of impressionists and went to the brand new Post-Impressionism world to experience a fabulous adventure. However, there were barely any paths and they didn't even have a compass! They had to cut through the thorns and feel their ways in the dark individually.

Once the rules and frames of traditional aesthetic standards were pushed aside , all that there left for artists was a truly blank canvas.

Thus, they queried themselves with many questions, for instance: “What do I paint?”, “How do I paint?” or even “What is the essence of painting?” and “Why do I paint?” As a result of these inquiries, though these youthful artists were grateful to the courage and pioneering contributions of the Impressionists, they have begun to notice the limitations of Impressionism.

This, however, created a difficult situation for critics and researchers, because too many new styles emerged in a very short period. Each one of them was so special, that it was hard for scholars to summarise, therefore these schools were collectively called Post-Impressionism.

————————George Seurat———————

In the past, to display a color, artists had to blend and mix different color paints to create the ideal colour. On the contrary, Seurat divided the ideal color into dots in different colours with a specific ratio and placed them densely on the canvas, so that the ideal color will be composed of differently coloured dots in flesh eyes.

Seurat's quest of bright colors originated from the Impressionists, especially Monet and other artists who loved to sketch outdoors to catch the change in lights and shades. Monet even repeatedly painted the same object from the same point of view, at different times of a day to paint it in different colors.

This enthusiasm for visual perception almost cast off all the shackles of traditional aesthetic standards. With such passion, they have no time for anything but try excitedly to paint every change of the color.

Seurat was much calmer than the artists full of eagerness and sincerity. He admired the colors used by the Impressionists, however, they relied too much on visual senses, painting what they saw, following the stimulation of light to the eyes, which is too straight forward and random, that limited the space for artists to express their thoughts and feelings.

By invoking scientific theories, Seurat created pointillism, and used this technique to paint many artworks that emphasizes both the bright colors of Impressionism and his thinking.

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It was also impossible for Seurat to finish a painting within few hours. Instead, he spent a lot of time in the studio, practicing the method precisely, painting pointillism with precision, which involved much patience, this also gave him more time to conceive his artworks.

———————— A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte———————

This painting, just like other Impressionist paintings, gives people a relaxing and pleasant atmosphere. When you are gazing at it, the greenery is so refreshing, the beautiful sunshine reflecting on the river, people were having fun and hang out with their friends on a lovely afternoon.

Nonetheless, something became different when you look at it for a little bit more. It seems like this picture is static. Wait, but which painting isn't static after all? I think there are also two different types of stillness.

 One of them gives people a hint about what will happen in the next moment, for example, the photo that captured the moment when the athlete was at the start of the race, providing people a sense of dynamism. Oppositely, there are not any hints in the other kind of stillness, as if the last moment, this moment, and the next moment are all the same.

"La Grande Jatte" expresses exactly the second type of stillness. It feels like nothing has ever happened in this world, and nothing will happen in the future, time and space will remain the same, all people, creatures, even the sun, the breeze, and the dust in the air, are frozen on the canvas.

————————Marcel Duchamp————————

Marcel Duchamp, one of the pioneers of Experimental Art and a central figure of Dadaism in the 20th century, intensely influenced Western art before WWII. Since his artworks have been seeking liberty and irrationality, Duchamp was called the Father of Conceptual Art.

The mechanization of production and the outbreak of the WWI had a large impact on art during monopoly capital at the beginning of the 20th century, and political upheavals turned beliefs and lives upside down. The world needed a change; therefore, art was seeking for a revolution.

With the image of a fearless vandal, Duchamp accomplished the conceptual change of art, and the alternation of artistic creation. And how exactly did he achieve it? Before we move to his work of art, we should recognize the theory behind the readymade by Duchamp:

* The choice of object is itself a creative act.

* By cancelling the ‘useful’ function of an object, it becomes art.

* The presentation and addition of a title to the object have given it ‘a new thought’, a new meaning.

Fountain, Marcel Duchamp, 1917

Readymade sculpture, 61 cm x 36 cm x 48 cm

——————————Fountain——————————

Duchamp’s artwork “Fountain” is a great representative of the combination of the theory and practice. In 1917, the Society of Independent Artists was preparing to hold an exhibition. He purchased a model urinal from the J. L. Mott Iron Works, signed “ R. MUTT 1917” on it, named it “Fountain” and submit it to the association as an artwork.

This event is significant, because it opened the door to contemporary art and influenced many artists who later became successful and famous, e.g. Huang Yong Ping, he drew inspiration from Duchamp's art in the Mid 1980s. He then started to think about the dematerialization and conceptualization and created many wonderful artworks. When a urinal could be a work of art, then everything in the world could be as well.

People who are grateful to Duchamp are not for his marvelous work, but his attitude of advocating questioning everything freely. What he did was an absolute shot at art, however the only ‘art’ that fell was the one which was rigid in method, in other words, readymade did not only “attack” the status of traditional forms of art, but also the essence of it, while more contemporary art schools and forms emerged.

The idea of “Art should be seen as a concept instead of an object” from Duchamp also guided us to several new questions, for instance: Who should decide whether it is an art piece, artists themselves or critics? Does every artwork need the hand of artists? Are they makers or choosers? And lastly, what is the relationship between art pieces and artists?

What are your answers? Write it down here!

———————In the Penal Colony———————

In the penal colony is a short story which narrates the progress of horrific torture with an intricate execution machine. An explorer is invited to the colony to watch the execution of The Condemned, which is conducted by The Officer utilizing The Apparatus and assisted by The Soldier.

It "writes" a commandment which he violated on The Condemned’s flesh by slowly turning his body and cutting it innumerable times with many needles. Also, the prisoner does not know in advance what his crime is, because he has no trial and neither is he allowed to defend himself.

After fanatically describing the apparatus to the explorer, the officer has put The Condemned in the machine. The explorer wonders if there is a way to stop him because it is inhumane, yet he doesn't manage to say a word against it. The officer interprets the apparatus is less and less popular ever since a new person assumed the office of commandant ——the officer is its only real supporter.

The new commandant does not like this torture and hopes that the explorer is of the same opinion so that he can take the initiative as opposed to the officer. On the other side, The officer expects that the explorer admires the procedure and will protect the legacy of the old commandant.

However, eventually, The explorer tells him that he cannot defend the procedure. In fact, he will speak out against it. Disheartened, the officer releases the condemned and goes into the apparatus because clearly, his world has just collapsed.

Dramatically, the apparatus doesn't function smoothly, instead, it starts to breakdown. the machine impales the body of the officer and he died with a mangled body in just a few minutes.

Later, the explorer with the condemned and the soldier visit the old commandant's cemetery which is located in the colony's teahouse and hidden under a table. The inscription on his gravestone predicts that the old commandant will revive and lead his supporters to a great victory. Then, the explorer takes a ferry to leave in a hurry. The condemned and the soldier attempt to go with him, but he refused to grant them getting on the boat.

This novella by Kafka is to the end, however, people has never stopped guessing, thinking, analyzing what is behind the apparatus. Certainly, numerous experts must have written elaborate and detailed articles, nevertheless, I still have the desire to express my humble opinion.

From my perspective, "In the Penal Colony" satirizes the fairness of the trial system. First of all, the only person who is qualified to put "the condemned" on trial was the officer, and the trial was so ridiculous that the condemned did not even know what crime he committed. Though the commandments that are written on prisoners' bodies are different, the punishment is always the death penalty.

This stereotyped trial process is not reasonable, fair, nor humane. However, the citizens of the colony used to be extremely eager to watch the execution, which proves their ignorance. Therefore, the power to judge is entirely in the leaders' hands, for instance, the commandant and the officer, forming a dictatorship.

The old commandant established the execution system to maintain and stabilize dictatorial domination. Nevertheless, the new commandant tries to disintegrate the apparatus, symbolizing the old rule, to initiate his own - a new system that may also be dictatorial, since the soldiers and the condemned are trying to flee the colony at the end of the novel.

—————A Concise History of Modern Art after Two Minutes in the Washing Machine—————

Yongping Huang was born in Fujian Province, China on 18 February 1954, who is believed to be one of the most famous and outstanding contemporary artists. As mentioned before, he was strongly influenced by Marcel Duchamp, an excellent representative of surrealism, and therefore established a Chinese artist group called “Xiamen Dada” in 1986. It left a splendid page in the ’85 New Wave Movement, which refers to an art movement by the symbol of Modernism in the Mid 1980s in China Mainland.

The picture on the left shows one of his early artworks, which is “A Concise History of Modern Art after Two Minutes in the Washing Machine”. He took two books, one is called “Composition of Chinese Painting” by the Chinese art historian Wang Bomin and the other by the English art historian Herbert Read, then put them in a washing machine for two minutes. The final appearance of this project was a pile of pulp presented on a squared box.

To understand this art piece to the fullest, we should refer to its historical context. China has begun to develop progressively back then, and Chinese started to see the world outside their motherland, especially the West. Thus, there was a confusing question growing in almost every Chinese’s head: How do I choose between tradition and modernity, between East and West? Yongping Huang was trying to solve this problem by creating this artwork. The washing machine played the role of considering about it, reflecting on eastern and western art history.

Truly, it seemed to do exact the opposite thing of cleansing, as these two textbooks became such a chaos, in other words, nobody would even look at it if they were in a trash can! But it leads us individuals, the society, and the whole world to several new queries: Do we just accept the situation and leave it there? Or are we able to find another representative to prove it is not a chaos after all? At last, is there any dispute hidden in what seems peace on surface? If yes, should we reveal it or just let it be?

——————————Reptiles——————————

Furthermore, at the age of 35, Huang immediately attracted the western art field’s attention after he exhibited his work “Reptiles” for the first time in “Les Magiciens de la Terre”, an art exhibit at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. This was a continuation of his 80s’ pulp series. This project was displayed as a turtle-shaped tomb, which is made from local Chinese newspapers that have been washed in a washing machine. Huang used the turtle to symbolize longevity, however, the grave relates to death, which is a metaphor to show that culture is “constantly” dying and reviving.