Lesson 16: What Shocks in 1863

This lessons discusses Modern art with a focus on Édouard Manet

Everything’s for Sale: The Barmaid as a Figure of Commodity in A Bar at the Folies Bergère

This paper explores the role of the barmaid in relation to commodity in Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies Bergère during the explosion of mass consumption that helped define nineteenth century Paris modernity. Building upon existing scholarship, I explore the figure’s role as a member of the emerging working class female, a possible prostitute and an advertising device, promoting the bar’s goods, along with the experience of the Folies-Bergère to the city’s inhabitants. This paper includes formal and iconographical analysis of the figure in relation to commodity as well as a cultural analysis of how these representations reflect attitudes surrounding the commodification of female roles in newly modernized Paris

Play, the film

O artigo analisa e debate o espectáculo Play, the Film, nascido da colaboração entre o colectivo Cão Solteiro e André Godinho, focando as dúvidas por ele suscitadas relativamente ao posicionamento do espectador – «onde estamos» – e as levantadas relativamente ao sentido dos discursos – «o que é que isto quer dizer?»

The Influence of Pupil Alignment on Spectator Address in Manet's Portraiture

Participants judged 94 portraits painted by Édouard Manet (70), Gustave Courbet (12) and Henri Fantin-Latour (12) for horizontal and vertical pupil misalignment and gaze ambiguity (Experiment 1) and focal point of gaze (Experiment 2). Eye movements were also measured as participants considered the extent to which sitters in the same portraits acknowledged viewers (spectators; Experiment 3). The results showed Manet portraits to be frequently painted with misaligned pupils that are associated with gaze ambiguity, especially when misaligned on the vertical axis. This ambiguity of gaze was associated with the average focal point of gaze as being judged further up and to the left of the centre for ambiguous relative to non-ambiguous portraits. These decisions in relation to portraits displaying ambiguous gaze were associated with increased eye-movements to the eye region relative to those portraits not displaying ambiguity. Finally, ratings of acknowledgement taken in Experiment 3 correlated with those of gaze ambiguity taken in Experiment 1. The results are interpreted in terms of the role of eye gaze in influencing spectatorship of portraits and, specifically, Fried’s theory of the ‘double relation’ (Fried 1980; Fried 1996) between painting and spectator in the paintings of Manet

Paul by Paul by Paul

In 2020 flamboyant fashion is associated with queer performativity. Psychologist Alan Downs and queer theorist madison moore understand this to be a response to a culture that is hostile to sexual behaviour and gender expression that falls outside a rigid binary. I study the history of flamboyant aesthetics and camp sensibilities from an intersectional perspective, and locate designers and artists who have produced clothes in ways that materialize the political implications of fashion. As a studio-based artist, I employ traditional sewing techniques, digital technologies, and performance to create clothes and new media works that demonstrate a circular understanding of time, and highlight the role of the artist as both creator and creation. I complicate a capitalist notion of progress with one-of-a-kind costumes, and reuse and transform textiles to develop a rhetorical strategy of self-expression that fosters sustainable community

A modernidade pictórica de Manet

In this article we show the essence of Édouard Manet’s pictorial modernity. His painting rebels against the basic concepts of previous painting, hoisting a modernity that consists, first of all, in painting criticizing itself in order to discover its own essence. Manet discovers that, in addition to this self-reflection, painting must become flat, have a theme, reflect contemporary life, and finally de-idealize art in general. In this article we analyze each of these characteristics andpresent the de-idealization as the final synthesis of Manet’s pictorial modernity. With it, Manet claims that art must become truly modern, that is, just art.En este artículo mostramos la esencia de la modernidad pictórica de Édouard Manet. Su pintura se rebela contra los conceptos básicos de la pintura anterior, enarbolando una modernidad que consiste, en primer lugar, en que la pintura hace una crítica de sí misma para descubrir su propia esencia. Manet descubre que, además de esta autorreflexión, la pintura debe hacerse plana, tener un tema, reflejar la vida contemporánea y, finalmente, desidealiza el arte en general. En este trabajo analizamos cada una de esas características y presentamos la desidealización como síntesis final de la modernidad pictórica de Manet. Con ella, Manet pretende que el arte sea  verdaderamente moderno, es decir, solo arte.Neste artigo mostramos a essência da modernidade pictórica de Édouard Manet. A sua pintura rebela-se contra os conceitos básicos da pintura anterior, erguendo uma modernidade que consiste, antes de mais, na a pintura criticando-se a si própria para descobrir a sua própria essência. Manet descobre que, além dessa auto-reflexão, a pintura deve tornar-se plana, ter um tema, refletir a vida contemporânea e, finalmente, desidealizar a arte em geral. Neste artigo analisamos cada uma dessas características e apresentamos a desidealização como síntese final da modernidade pictórica de Manet. Com ela, Manet afirma que a arte deve se tornar verdadeiramente moderna, ou seja, apenas arte

Spectral imaging and archival data in analyzing the Madonna of the Rabbit painting by Manet and Titian

A concise insight into the outputs provided by the latest prototype of visible-near infrared (VIS-NIR) multispectral scanner (National Research Council-National Institute of Optics, CNR-INO, Italy) is presented. The analytical data acquired on an oil painting Madonna of the Rabbit by É. Manet are described. In this work, the VIS-NIR was complemented with X-ray fluorescence (XRF) mapping for the chemical and spatial characterization of several pigments. The spatially registered VIS-NIR data facilitated their processing by spectral correlation mapping (SCM) and artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm respectively for pigment mapping and improved visibility of pentimenti and of underdrawing style. The data provided several key elements for the comparison with a homonymous original work by Titian studied within the ARCHive LABoratory (ARCHLAB) transnational access project

Barmaids: A History of Women’s Work in Pubs, by Diane Kirkby

This review of Barmaids by Diane Kirkby explores the development of women’s work in Australian pubs over the history of European settlement in Australia. Written for Professor Birkner’s Modern Australia course, this review also connects Barmaids to themes of the class

Object Lessons: David Askevold's Learning About Cars and Chocolates

David Askevold’s twenty-minute video Learning About Cars and Chocolates (1972) tackles a host of epistemological questions about how we live with, live through and come to know commodities. This text provides a detailed analysis of how a few of these questions play out in the video

The Prometheus Challenge

Degas, Manet, Picasso, Dali and Lipchitz produced works of art exemplifying a seeming impossibility: Not only combining incompatible attributes but doing so consistently with aesthetic strictures Horace formulated in Ars Poetica. The article explains how these artists were able to do this, achieving what some critics have called ‘a new art,’ ‘a miracle,’ and ‘a new metaphor.’ The article also argues that the author achieved the same result in sculpture by means of philosophical analysis – probably a first in the history of art