This week you will use your reading for the week as a point of departure to create your own artistic production to present to the class in a narrated...

This week you will use your reading for the week as a point of departure to make your own artistic production to present to the class in a narrated PowerPoint.

Directions

• Complete the reading for this week 
• Select one of the visual art pieces from the chapter to use as a point of inspiration 
• Draw an art piece inspired by your selected art piece 
• one-page reflection about the relationship between your art production and the inspiration piece 
• 5-minute narrated PowerPoint and upload to the Discussion Forum for this week 

For Your Inspiration Piece

• Record the title, artist, year, place of origin 
• Explain the context and artistic movement 

For Your Art Production

• Methods: paint, watercolor, pencil, crayon, marker, collage, sculpture
• NO COMPUTER GENERATED PIECES 
• Provide a title 
• Explain the narrative of your piece and the connection to the inspiration 

For Your Presentation

• Provide an introduction 
• Explain and show your inspiration piece 
• Describe and show your art piece 
• Explain the thematic connection between the two pieces

The OutsideThe Outside

The Outside, first performed in 1917, is a one-act play. Because of bandwidth constraints, we are presenting this to you as streaming media files in three acts. Click to view a transcript of the play (Links to an external site.)

Links to an external site.

 and to see a list of the actors and their characters.

Act One

Play

00:00

Mute

Act Two

Play

00:00

Mute

Act Three

Play

00:00

Mute

The Fin de Siecle

Sensing that change was about to sweep the world, the French began referring to themselves as the Fin de Siecle, or end of the century, at the end of the 19th century. By this point, the phonograph, telephone, automobile, and typewriter had been invented. England had plunged into a depression, which only spurred the Labor Movement and ended England's reign as a world power. France also was experiencing major social change. Crime, drug use, and alcohol abuse were on the rise, and France had plunged into a type of moral decay unprecedented in modern history.

The end of the century also brought to life several social movements that challenged traditional codes of moral behavior. The suffrage movement was in full swing, and women in the United States and England openly petitioned for the right to vote. Some women even went so far as to wear men's trousers openly as a statement of independence and equality. England's Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), an open homosexual, identified himself as a decadent and challenged popular perception.

Social upheaval only fueled the disruption that several scientific and technological developments brought on. Innovations in transportation such as the car, although monumental, invited additional chaos because there were no rules for automobiles and horse-drawn carriages to share the road. Science, although proving to be a boon in the long run, exacerbated the short-term discord felt across Europe and the United States. Developments, such as Einstein's Theory of Relativity and J. J. Thomson's detection of the atom, would stimulate a century's worth of technological advancement.

Postimpressionism

Literally "what came after impressionism," Postimpressionism is a broad umbrella for a diverse range of aesthetic choices. Postimpressionists believed that impressionism was too uncontrolled and unorganized; the fleeting and immutable could be better captured in a manner with greater psychological depth. Postimpressionists placed greater emphasis on linear form, perspective, and spatial relationships than their impressionist predecessors. On the surface, however, the paintings of Postimpressionist artists would seem dramatically dissimilar so that when exhibited together, the work of Cezanne, Seurat, and Van Gogh might appear to have been accomplished at three different times.

Paul Cezanne sought to bring order and control to the Postimpressionist movement by carefully arranging his subjects and juxtaposing objects unlikely to be gathered together in a presentation, such as the combination of fabric and fruit in Still Life with Bowl of Fruit (Links to an external site.)

Links to an external site.

 (1883-1887). The painting also highlights one of Cezanne's most significant techniques. Cezanne was a meticulous painter of line. He considered each stroke to be a plane of color. Cezanne cleaned his brush between each stroke so that every stroke of color would be unique. In his painting, the most common shape is certainly the circle. Cezanne combined colors and spherical strokes to create a layered effect for each object.

Georges Seurat (1859-1891) also employed a painstaking process in his work. Seurat believed that art could be defined in a system of rules. He favored balance and unity in his work. Although he employed the soft textures of the impressionists, Seurat's work defined form and spatial relationships. To create paintings such as Bathers at Asnieres (Links to an external site.)

Links to an external site.

 (1883), Seurat first created silhouettes and then arranged the depth of each shape. Seurat favored repetition of shape and color in carefully contrived patterns. Seurat painted in petit points, also referred to as pointillism, giving the surface of his paintings an impressionistic veneer.

Communism and Fascism

After the war, a prospering United States was a sharp contrast to an economically disabled Europe, but it would not be long until the roaring twenties would tumble to an abrupt halt. The stock market crash of 1929 plunged the United States and its somewhat economically dependent European neighbors into a lasting depression. Both sides of the Atlantic became immersed in sentiments of despondence and hopelessness. The once-rising middle class all but disappeared, which created a spacious divide between the poor and the small but conspicuous upper class. Social tension grew steadily throughout the depression era and resulted in two of the most significant political developments of the century.

At the time, the socialist Soviet Union captured international attention because it seemed immune from the economic disaster that its neighbors were experiencing. The insular nature of the Soviet economy did not lend much room for codependency on neighboring economies. Many of the poor among the European nations and the United States began questioning the wisdom of a capitalist economy and wondered if socialist ideals may have prevented such a disaster, but many among the struggling middle class were eager to blame an economy that depends on "big business" for its vitality. The two sides were neatly split into the far-left ideals of communism and the far-right principles of fascism.

Though they may seem worlds apart, communism and fascism have one vital element in common: the status of the individual as being part of the whole. But in almost every other way, fascism and communism seem firmly opposed. In the communist definition, the individual's rights and identity are governed by the class to which he or she belongs, but in the fascist definition, the individual is characterized by his or her national identity. While communism spread throughout Europe and loomed ominously for a while in the United States, it eventually faded as an international threat. Fascism, although not as prevalent a political threat, became a primary agent in establishing the conditions for the second great conflict of the 20th century.

German fascist leader Adolf Hitler used Germany's depressed economy as a persuasive vehicle for promoting a particularly racially skewed version of fascism. Hitler's assertion that the Aryan race was somehow superior seemed an inconceivable argument to modern thinking, but given an economically dejected racial majority, pinning Germany's problems on a minority whose expulsion promised an economic turn was a clear act of national desperation. After the 1932 elections, Hitler took office and established a policy of Aryan dominance. It was not until Hitler's conquests extended into neighboring nations that the German fascist movement would spark World War II.

Early Feminism

While the Western world churned in self-doubt and disorder, a movement that had originated in the 19th century gained momentum quickly. Even while women were gradually given the practical political recognitions they sought, they were facing a void of sincere social equality. Gradually, women were taking their seats among artistic contemporaries as viable candidates for leadership of an artistic genre. Nineteenth-century figures Rosa Bonheur and impressionist Mary Cassat rallied with their male contemporaries to form a unique visual aesthetic, and writers such as Kate Chopin sought to reveal the female condition as it was influenced by social mores. Leaders in the suffrage movement (early feminism) rallied for political and social equality in the streets, in universities, and even in Congress. Elizabeth Cady Stanton's The Solitude of Self, given before a Congressional Judiciary Committee in 1892, is perhaps one of the best-known speeches of the suffrage movement. In her call to legalize the equal treatment of women, Stanton illuminates the plight of women at the turn of the century as being governed by an order of men and male standards. She writes that if women must be responsible for themselves in times of solitude, then they are entitled to the same rights in every other situation. Her parting words, "Who, I ask you, can take, dare take, on himself the rights, the duties, the responsibilities of another human soul?" speaks volumes of the goals of the suffrage movement. Her work, believed to be a precursor to the Civil Rights Movement, had a profound effect on the social changes of the mid-20th century.

Perhaps early 20th century writers made some of the most assertive contributions to the movement. This week's audio and reading, The Outside by Susan Glaspell (at the top of the lecture), reflects a common sentiment among feminist writers of this period. In the opening scene, we meet the Captain and Bradford, both seasoned New England sailors and lifesavers whose views on women are not exactly favorable. Bradford and the Captain's attitudes are offset by the more prevalent roles of Allie Mayo and Mrs. Patrick, widows whose reclusive behaviors intimidate and mystify the men in the play. Bradford, the Captain, and Tony (the third male character) exist to juxtapose the women. This is a very common strategy for Glaspell's plays. In the beginning, the characters seem to be sharply divided and somewhat superficial, but gradually the characters are unraveled and we learn that they are not as straightforwardly stereotypical as we originally were led to believe. The male roles exist to present the women as though they were simply "not in their right minds" and to set up a false expectation for the audience when they are finally fully introduced to the characters. The men give a critical backstory and the stereotypical point of view so that we are somewhat surprised by the richly layered female characters.

One of the most prominent feminist writers of the 20th century, however, is Virginia Woolf. Her 1929 book, A Room of One's Own, is considered one of the most influential works in the feminist literary canon and became her thesis (of sorts), calling women to "author" their own identities. Borrowing from Samuel Coleridge, Woolf believed that the most fertile mind is that which is androgynous and without care for the presumed feminine or masculine orientation of any given topic. Her extensive theory manifests in her 1928 novel Orlando, a fantasy in which the central character incarnates throughout a period of several centuries, alternating between male and female identities to emerge as a modern (1928) and enlightened woman. This week's reading, A Society (1921), examines the social and intellectual constraints placed upon the early 20th-century woman and the effects of a sudden immersion in a decidedly male world.