music narrator thomas moran embarked on his first trip to the west in 1871. The United States at the time was still recoveng from the ravages of the civil war. Americans turned with hope to the western frontier. By painting the pristine grandeur of these remote places, moran enabled 19thcentury americans to visualize a magnificent landscape most would never see. His paintings transformed their perceptions of the west. From 1867 to 1879, the United States government sponsored four western expeditions, now known as the great surveys. Of all the ais who accompanied them, ne is more associated with the surveys than thomas moran. The watercolors he brought back from wyoming, the first color images of yellowstone, played a key role in the creation of the National Parks system. Yellowstone had long been familiar to american indians, mountainmen, traders and travelers. Legendary, seemingly unbelievable stories made their way east. The canyon was said to be a fearful chasm, the river a frightfu
The sequel to defeat was revolution a bitter struggle between nationalists and revolutionaries. Groszs observations of nationalist brutality made him one of the lefts most powerful propagandists. I felt the ground shaking beneath my feet, he said. And the shaking was visible in my work. His caricatures of weimar germany reject a society depraved by greed and power. Groszs contempt was shared by wider artistic developments in europe and america. Those developments became known as dada. Dada was like a storm that broke over the world of art. It had many centers from zurich to hanover, from cologne to new york and many sorts of artistic expression. Unlike grosz in berlin, these dada artists didnt see the exposure of Class Divisions as their central purpose. They attacked the foundations on which nations were built truth, beauty, reason, science. In the wake of the catastrophe, all these values were brought into question. In paris and new york, Marcel Duchamp produced his readymades a hat
Built on a trapezoal plot of land adjoining the original gallery, the East Building is of a unique and radical design, utilizing triangular shapes with large interior spaces. It was a collaborative effort spanning more than ten years. Director j. Carter brown worked closely with architect i. M. Pei in its development. Seven works of art were commissioned it was agreed that a ecific pieas needed to animate the unbroken expanse of wall in the central crtyard. But the artist would have to have a capacity for monumental concepts, with a sense of color and scale appropriate to the site. A unanimous choice was spanish artist joan miro. Born in the catalan city of barcelona in 1893, miro has remained close to the land and its people. But as a young man in paris, he joined with friends like max ernst and jean arp in the emerging Surrealist Movement of the 1920s. In his painting the farm, miros characteristic symbols and themes began to appear serpenne shapes, checkeoard patterns, finitepace re
music narrator thomas moran embarked on his first trip to the west in 1871. The United States at the time was still recoveng from the ravages of the civil war. Americans turned with hope to the western frontier. By painting the pristine grandeur of these remote places, moran enabled 19thcentury americans to visualize a magnificent landscape mostould never see. His paintings transformed their perceptions of the west. From 1867 to 1879, the United States government sponsored four western expeditions, now known as the great surveys. Of all the ais who accompanied them, none is more associated with the surveys than thomas moran. The watercolors he brought back from wyoming, the first color images of yellowstone, played a key role in the creation of the National Parks system. Yellowstone had long been familiar to american indians, mountainmen, traders and travelers. Legendary,eemingly unbelievable stories made their way east. The canyon was said to be a fearful chasm, the river a frightful
Through the months of april and may, meter by meter the forms of the tapestry gradually begito emerge. Miro has said of his approach to art, things come to me slowly. My vocabulary formsas not been the discovery of a day. It took shape alst in spite of myself. In this way, ty ripen in my spirit. Into the steamy month of august, the spirit of femme grows until the figure is complete. Now, with only a few inches of background remaining, royo welcomes miro to his studio once more to witness the final steps of an eightmonth process. Royo says, working together, we have become solosely attuned that i can almost read his mind. I take direction as much from an expression or gesture as from words or sketches. Working with miro has forced me make a constant effort to do better, an effort from which i have benefited in many respects. For these two catalan artists, it has been a fulfilling experience. What was born in the imagination of one artist has been translated and skillfully brought into b