BLAS 110: African American Art

Short Answer Questions Exam #2

Study these questions to help prepare for the Quizzes and write Essay question.

FARRINGTON TEXT

CHAPTER 4: 19^TH CENTURY NEOCLASSICISM

1. Describe the artistic transition from the Federal period to the Neoclassical period

2. Which ancient cultures inspired the Neoclassical style?

3. Who was Johann Joachim Winklemann and what were his views on art?

4. Describe some of the characteristics of Neoclassicism.

5. Describe Edmonia Lewis’ experience/history as an African American female sculptor.

6. Describe some of the events that enabled Lewis’ to pursue an artistic career.

7. Describe her style of sculpting (reference Neoclassical elements and references to contemporary history and social issues).

8. What struggles did Lewis face as a sculptor?

9. Describe the connection between Lewis’ Hagar in the wilderness and 19^th century events in the U.S?

10. Describe event that is commemorated in Lewis’ Forever Free?

11. What comment is Lewis making about gender roles in Forever Free?

12. What type of sculpture did Florville Foy and Daniel Warbug specialize in that enabled them to earn an income as artists?

13. Which ancient monument did Warburg appropriate (borrow) when sculpting his Holcomb-Aiken Family Monument?

Two-dimensional art

14. Why were their few opportunities for A.A. painters, printmakers, graphic artists, etc.

15. Who are limners?

16. Define miniaturist.

17. Why was Joshua Johnson able to achieve some success as a painter?

18. Describe Johnson’s style of painting.

19. Why was the Peale family significant?

20. Describe the role Charles Peale Polk played in the development of Johnston’s (Johnson’s) career?

21. Who is represented in Johnson’s Portrait of a Gentleman and why is this painting significant?

22. Describe some of the characteristics of 19^th century American portraiture (see Johnson, Simpson, and Hudson) Note similarities and differences in their styles.

23. Why is Simpson described as a colorist?

24. Describe some of the unique techniques Hudson applied when painting portraits.

25. Define trompe loeil.

26. Describe some of the struggles women faced when trying to enter the art field.

27. What types of works did women create.

28. Describe Folk Art.

29. What are friendship albums?

30. Who is Sarah Mapps Douglas and why was she and how did she assist African American women?

CHAPTER 5: ROMANTICISM TO IMPRESSIOISM IN THE 19^TH CENTURY

31. What is meant by “fine arts”?

32. Where could audiences view the fine arts?

33. What were the names of some of the early museums?

34. Why was the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876 important for African American artists?

35. What other venues were available for African American artists to display their works or art?

36. Why role did abolitionists feel art could play in their cause?

37. Define transcendentalism and manifest destiny.

38. What inspired Duncanson to paint landscapes?

39. Describe the Ohio and Hudson River Schools.

40. Define en plein air.

41. Describe the content of Duncanson’s Lotus Eaters and how it relates to issues of manifest destiny.

42. What is meant by “romantic sentimentalism” in relation to Duncanson’s Uncle Tom and Little Eva panting?

43. Describe the Uncle Tom stereotype and how is manifest in works of art?

44. Describe the characteristics of American Romantic Landscape paintings.

45. How did Duncanson and Edward Mitchell’s Bannister’s approach to Romanticism differ?

46. Who was instrumental in helping Bannister become a fine arts painter?

47. Where did Bannister train a an artist?

48. Define impasto.

49. Describe the Impressionist style.

50. Define genre painting.

51. Describe the various ways Tanner’s religious upbringing is represented in his painting?

52. Where did Tanner receive his training as an artist and why was his instructor a key figure in his development?

53. What did Henry Ossawa Tanner believe his paintings could illustrate?

54. Discuss the significance of the banjo in Tanner’s painting Banjo Lesson?

55. Describe Minstrelsy.

56. Describe the types of stereotypical images that were produced during the Reconstruction period and why are this images are considered a new type of slavery?

57. Why were the messages in Tanner’s paintings not an ideal form of combating ethnic stereotypes? (consider the definition of fine art and where the image would be visible)

58. Why did Tanner move to Paris?

Photography

59. Describe a daguerreotype and calotype.

60. Why was photography considered fine art by some but not by others?

61. Why was James Presley Ball an important figure within the African American art world?

62. Describe the events relating to the murder of William Biggerstaff and why Ball’s photographs are significant historically as well as artistically.

63. Describe George Washington Foster’s architectural style (see Mother AME Zion Church).

64. Describe the Neoclassical elements in Julian Francis Abele’s design of the Philadelphia Free Library.

CHAPTER 5: MODERNISM AND THE HARLEM RENASSIANCE (View powerpoint for uestions in BOLD)

65. Define the Mammy, jezebel and sapphire myth?

66. Describe the different manifestations of the mammy image.

67. Briefly describe the main theme in D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation and how this theme connects to the popular print forms during the reconstruction period?

68. Describe the cinematography of Griffith’s film used to enhance the visual effects of the film?

69. Who was the author of Modern Negro Art and why was this book an important? (see intro to Powell text)

70. Define/Describe modern art.

71. Define the term primitivism in relation to modern art.

72. Describe the New Negro movement and who were the key thinkers behind this movement?

73. Describe Alain Locke’s views on African American Art?

74. Describe the conflicts African American artists face who incorporated modern forms into their works of art?

75. What inspired Fuller when creating Ethiopia Awakening?

76. What did Fuller ‘s Ethiopia Awakening commemorate and symbolize?

77. Describe the formal elements of Ethiopia Awakening that enhance the content.

78. Why did Sargent Johnson have more freedom of expression when creating his sculpture?

79. Define the terms stylized and why is it used to describe Sargent’s sculpture?

80. What inspired Johnson’s Forever Free and how does his work differ from Lewis’ work with the same title?

81. How does the style of Nancy Elizabeth Prophet differ from Sargent Johnson?

82. Describe the connection between Barthe’s training as a dancer and his sculpture.

83. Why were Barthe’s works described as non-political?

84. Describe the formal elements of Barthe’s sculpture.

85. What is the name of the art school where many Chicago artists studied their craft?

86. What was the Harmon Foundation and why was the foundation award important but also seen as a hindrance to artists?

87. Describe the African forms that appear in Hayden’s Fetishe et Fleurs?

88. Why was Hayden’s Nous Quatres a Paris criticized?

89. Name a few of the artists based in Chicago and what were some of their goals as artists?

90. Describe the two styles in Motley’s paintings and what led to the change.

91. Describe the symbols in Motley’s Mending Socks.

92. Describe Motley’s visual celebration of the Jazz Age in his Chicago night scene paintings.

93. Who was the most celebrated of the New Negro Artists?

94. Describe the role of the WPA and FAP and why were these institutions important? (see Chapter 7)

95. How did Douglas resolve the conflict between the realists and modernists?

96. Where were many of Douglas’ murals located and why were these sites ideal?

97. Describe the various messages portrayed in Douglas’ paintings.

98. Describe the Cubist formal elements of Douglas’ paintings (use terms).

99. Define academic Primitivism and how does it compare to the Neo-primitive style.

100. Describe Johnson’s expressionist and woodblock style and their individual effects.

101. What inspired Johnson’s content painting technique in his woodblock paintings?

102. Define Negritude?

103. Describe the Africanisms and Cubist elements in Lois Mailou Jones’ Les Fetiches.

104. Define fetish and how does it relate to African American art?

105. What was meant by the phrase talented 10^th? (see Powell text as well)

106. Describe the formal elements of van der Zee’s photographs?

107. Describe van der Zee’s intent when taking his photographs?

108. List a few of publications that featured African American artists?

109. Describe the woodblock print process.

110. Describe the formal elements of a woodblock print.

CHAPTER 7: SOCIAL REALISM

111. Describe the style Social Realism?

112. Why were Murals in public venues important?

113. Describe the message Charles Alston sent with his Medicine (Modern Medicine) mural and why is the location of the mural an ideal location to communicate this message?

114. Describe the abstract elements in Woodruff’s The Card Players (see powerpoint).

115. Which Mexican artists inspired Woodruff’s Mutiny Aboard the Amistad and in what way?

116. Describe the content of Woodruff’s Mutiny… mural?

117. Describe the characteristics of Modernist/International style architecture (see Williams building)

118. List some of the major achievements of Paul Revere Williams as an architect.

119. Besides the Insurance Building, what other types of buildings did Williams design?

120. Describe the Bauhaus style of architecture.

121. Name the center in Harlem where artists could study their craft.

122. What is commemorated in Savage’s The Harp?

123. Describe the characteristics of surrealism.

124. Describe the surrealist elements in Savage’s The Harp (visually and in terms of content).

125. Describe the dual styles appear in Charles White’s prints and paintings (see powerpoint)?

126. What types of subjects did Charles White focus on and why?

127. Which African American artists had communist affiliations and how did these ideals manifest in their works of art?

128. Describe a lithograph.

129. Describe the way in which the formal elements of Blackburn’s paintings strengthen the message of the painting.

130. Compare and contrast Blackburn and Crichlow’s styles (focus on formal elements).

131. Describe the documentary and communist elements in Blackburn and Brown’s prints.

132. Chapter review question (Why did so many artists travel to Paris and what did they experience during their time in the city?)