Deck 38: After the War: Existential Doubt,artistic Triumph,and the Culture of Consumption

Question 1

Two examples of color-field painters are

A) Joan Mitchell and Mark Rothko.
B) Grace Hartigan and Joan Mitchell.
C) Helen Frankenthaler and Mark Rothko.
D) Mark Rothko and Grace Hartigan.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

In Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different,So Appealing?,why does Richard Hamilton position a canned ham in front of the nearly nude stripper?

A) The can mimics the stripper's curves.
B) The placement is a chance occurrence.
C) Like the ham, the stripper, he wanted to claim, is not quite "real."
D) Both, he wanted to show, are consumable flesh-"meat."

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Why did the London-formed Independents call their creations "Pop Art"?

A) They based it on American popular culture.
B) The vivid colors they used "pop" from the canvas.
C) It celebrated the popular films of the 1950s.
D) The term derived from London slang.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

In Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot,why does Godot never arrive?

A) He is dead.
B) The audience never knows.
C) He never existed.
D) He goes to the wrong place.

Question 5

The philosophical movement of existentialism primarily offered people

A) an explanation for the horrors of World War II.
B) affirmation of the existence of a higher power.
C) a path for finding some sense of meaning in life.
D) a realization that people are not in control of their lives.

Question 6

According to existential feminist Simone de Beauvoir,why are women often satisfied with secondary status to men?

A) Women are conditioned to accept that they are the lesser gender.
B) Men provide women financial and existential protection.
C) Women define their existence through the needs of others.
D) Men have conditioned women to shun change.

Question 7

Jean Dubuffet works,such as Corps de Dame,look disordered,because he

A) practiced "ghost drawing," producing works while in a trance.
B) aimed for "authentic" art, divorced from convention and tradition.
C) modeled his works after the art brut created by psychotics and children.
D) deconstructed figures, reducing them to unraveled lines.

Question 8

Lawrence Ferlinghetti,owner of San Francisco's City Lights bookstore,was charged with obscenity for

A) publishing Allen Ginsberg's "Howl."
B) hosting an Allan Kaprow Happening.
C) selling copies of Jack Kerouac's On the Road.
D) hosting Beat poetry readings.

Question 9

In writing,Jack Kerouac likened his process to that of a

A) color-field painter.
B) classical violinist.
C) jazz musician.
D) free-verse poet.

Question 10

According to theologian Reinhold Niebuhr,religion provided post-World War II alienated people with

A) a capacity to forgive.
B) freedom to act morally.
C) courage to conquer despair.
D) power to accept change.

Question 11

The organization known as "The Club" excluded communists,homosexuals,and women,claiming them to be

A) incapable of producing serious art.
B) capable of bringing negative attention to The Club.
C) prone to make political statements.
D) the three groups that take over.

Question 12

Combine paintings are the invention of

A) Tom Wesselmann.
B) Jasper Johns.
C) Merce Cunningham.
D) Robert Rauschenberg.

Question 13

In Albert Camus's The Stranger,society condemns Meursault,the main character,because he

A) refuses to lie.
B) confesses to being a thief.
C) believes in nothing.
D) has an affair.

Question 14

Jackson Pollock's work can best be labeled

A) action painting.
B) hard-edge painting.
C) color-field painting.
D) combine painting.

Question 15

Why did a rooster have psychological meaning to Jackson Pollock,who painted one into his Guardians of the Secret?

A) He identified with the arrogance associated with the rooster.
B) He grew up on a California chicken farm.
C) A rooster had stolen his severed fingertip.
D) Like his art, roosters symbolize honesty.

Question 16

John Cage's notorious 4'33" (4 minutes,33 seconds)has

A) instrumentation by strings only.
B) percussion only.
C) no instrumentation or vocals.
D) vocals only.

Question 17

According to Søren Kierkegaard,why must Christians live in a state of anguish?

A) They must endure the guilt of their sins.
B) Belief in God requires suspension of reason.
C) They hold responsibility for Jesus's sacrifice.
D) Temptation awaits them at every turn.

Question 18

The theme of hell being other people is most central to

A) Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.
B) Albert Camus's The Stranger.
C) Jean-Paul Sartre's Huis Clos (No Exit).
D) Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex.

Question 19

What is Jean-Paul Sartre's first principle of atheistic existentialism?

A) "Only in suffering can a man make a leap of faith."
B) "A man's eternal hell is other people."
C) "The path up and down are one in the same."
D) "Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself."

Question 20

To reap the full effect of David Smith's Blackburn: Song of an Irish Blacksmith,the viewer must

A) see it in different lights.
B) move around it.
C) know Smith's background.
D) see it move.

Question 21

List and explain two characteristics of Theater of the Absurd,illustrating your points with specific plays.

Question 22

In The Second Sex,Simone de Beauvoir presented complacency with the status quo as the reason for women occupying a secondary status to men.List two female Abstract Expressionist painters,and discuss their contributions to the male-dominated art world.

Question 23

Define "existentialism," and give two reasons for its appeal to post-World War II people.

Question 24

From the London Independents to Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein,artists of the 1950s and early 1960s were fascinated by American popular culture.Identify and explain two reasons for this fascination.

Question 25

Minimalist art seems to ask an intriguing question-what,minimally,makes a work of art? Using as your examples the works discussed in this chapter,list three qualities necessary for a work to be considered art.

Question 26

Identify and explain two ways the art of the Abstract Expressionists introduced a new aspect-the creation of meaning shifting from artist to audience.

Question 27

Compare the statements being presented about women in Andy Warhol's Marilyn Diptych and Roy Lichtenstein's Oh,Jeff ...I Love You,Too ...But ...."

Question 28

Most Minimalist art is based on

A) pure geometries.
B) formlessness.
C) patterns generated by water.
D) the aesthetics of chance.

Question 29

In the 1960s,Roy Lichtenstein based his paintings on

A) comic strips.
B) movie posters.
C) advertisements for prepared foods.
D) pictures of glamorous models in magazines.

Question 30

Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Guggenheim Museum as a spiral with a ramp and an open rotunda in the middle so that

A) visitors could see what they had viewed and what was to come.
B) the building would survive longer.
C) visitors would not tire from climbing many stairs.
D) natural light would amply permeate the picture galleries.

Question 31

Which Pop artist is best known for making enlarged everyday objects?

A) Andy Warhol
B) Tom Wesselmann
C) Roy Lichtenstein
D) Claes Oldenburg

Question 32

Explain the idea behind Ludwig Miles van der Rohe's Farnsworth House.List two advantages and two disadvantages of living in this transparent house.

Question 33

In the early 1960s,Pop Art was designed to represent reality in terms of

A) subjective experience.
B) the media.
C) a series of traditional conventions.
D) literary formulas.

Question 34

The musical score for Allan Kaprow's Happenings was designed to represent

A) an urban cacophony.
B) a Beat poetry reading.
C) John Cage's collaborative pieces.
D) Jackson Pollock's action painting.

Question 35

Identify and define two of existential feminist Simone de Beauvoir's reasons for a woman not being able to realize her own existence.Do these reasons have relevance in our post-women's liberation society? Defend your response.

Question 36

Sol LeWitt's Wall Drawing #146a is based on a vocabulary of

A) Egyptian hieroglyphs.
B) 20 different kinds of lines.
B) randomly generated markings.
C) squares and rectangles.

Question 37

What question did the Minimalists seem to ask with their works?

A) Why must art include imagery?
B) What makes a work of art?
C) How can art be made new?
D) What role does a viewer play?

Question 38

Describe Jackson Pollock's process for creating an "action painting." Then explain the meaning of the result of this technique.

Question 39

Explain John Cage's notions about music as reflected in 4'33" (4 minutes 33 seconds).Justify your position as to whether this piece qualifies as "music."