Deck 29: Modernism in Europe and America, 1900 to 1945

Question 1

Her work is often described as autobiographical because of her unflinching self-portrait portrayals. She gives the viewer a personal glimpse into herself and suffering. Which of the following artists does this describe?

A) Frida Kahlo
B) Hannah Höch
C) Georgia O'Keeffe
D) Dorothea Lange

Answer 1

A

Question 2

The Berlin version of collage, which consisted of "found" details, was called ____.

A) photomontage
B) automatism
C) precisionism
D) Synthetic Cubism

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Thomas Hart Benton, a Regionalist artist, focused his attention on which of the following subjects?

A) Times Square, New York
B) The waterfront
C) The social history of Missouri
D) The farming landscape of the Midwest

Answer 3

C

Question 4

____ developed the theory of Neoplasticism.

A) Picasso
B) Chagall
C) Mondrian
D) Marc

Question 5

What style is described as compositions of shapes and forms abstracted from the conventionally conceived world?

A) Fauvism
B) Cubism
C) De Stijl
D) Neoplasticism

Question 6

What message did Vera Mukhina convey in her work entitled The Worker and the Collective Farmworker?

A) She conveyed the horror of war.
B) She glorified the communal labor of the Soviet people.
C) She glorified urban lifestyles.
D) She showed motion through dynamic line.

Question 7

Dorothea Lange's photograph of a migrant worker caused people to ____.

A) rush food to hungry workers
B) criticize her
C) accuse artists of being Marxists
D) boycott her exhibitions

Question 8

In the artist's eyes, Fate of the Animals was almost a premonition of which historical event?

A) World War II
B) The Great Depression
C) The Russian Revolution
D) World War I

Question 9

Which of the following artists shared Stieglitz's concern to position photography as an art form with the same fine-art status as painting and sculpture?

A) Dorothea Lange
B) Georgia O'Keeffe
C) Edward Hopper
D) Edward Weston

Question 10

The artist of the The Eclipse of the Sun, ____, criticized militarism and capitalism.

A) Picasso
B) Marc
C) Grosz
D) Kandinsky

Question 11

What message is portrayed in Edward Hopper's Nighthawks?

A) The pervasive loneliness of modern humans
B) The seediness of city life
C) The energetic rhythm of city life
D) The cosmopolitan atmosphere of big city life

Question 12

Which of the following works demonstrates the Futurists' interest in motion?

A) The City
B) Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash
C) Champs de Mars (The Red Tower)
D) The Portuguese

Question 13

Which of the following artists created a modern American art style combining Synthetic Cubism with jazz tempos and his perception of the fast-paced American culture?

A) Marsden Hartley
B) Charles Demuth
C) Georgia O'Keeffe
D) Stuart Davis

Question 14

In Synthetic Cubist works, such as ____, artists constructed paintings and drawings from objects and shapes cut from paper or other materials.

A) The Dance
B) Fate of the Animals
C) Demoiselles d'Avignon
D) Still-Life with Chair-Caning

Question 15

The American movement known initially as the Eight and then as the Ash Can School focused on the ____.

A) horror of trench warfare in World War II
B) mundane activity of farm life
C) bleak and seedy aspects of city life
D) dynamism of the machine

Question 16

The artist Delaunay shared with Futurism a fascination with ____.

A) technological innovation
B) architectural design
C) universal potential of art
D) collage elements

Question 17

Who is the artist who created a work of art that can be described as "a wickedly funny gift"?

A) Edward Weston
B) Alfred Stieglitz
C) Man Ray
D) Marsden Hartley

Question 18

Which of the following artists created large-scale, kinetic sculptures?

A) Henry Moore
B) Constantine Brancusi
C) Alexander Calder
D) Umberto Boccioni

Question 19

The floating figure in Barlach's ____ represents the dying soul before awakening to everlasting life.

A) War Monument
B) Bird in Space
C) Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
D) Column

Question 20

The dominant figure of the Fauves, ____, believed that color should play a role in conveying meaning.

A) Pablo Picasso
B) Henri Matisse
C) Max Beckmann
D) Otto Dix

Question 21

____ explored ways to express in art the world of dreams and the unconscious.

A) Surrealism
B) The Neue Sachlichkeit
C) Fauvism
D) Futurism

Question 22

Which of the following statements about Dada is true?

A) Dada originated in Copenhagen.
B) All Dada works were created in marble.
C) Dada revived the Renaissance pictorial tradition.
D) Dada aimed to undermine traditional notions about art.

Question 23

Who belonged to the Pittura Metafisica movement, which greatly influenced Surrealism?

A) Matisse
B) Ernst
C) De Chirico
D) Kandinsky

Question 24

The hovering figure that served as a memorial to those who died in World War I was created by ____.

A) Wilhelm Lehmbruck
B) Ernst Barlach
C) Ernst Kirchner
D) Max Beckmann

Question 25

The photographer ____ was hired to document the deplorable living conditions of the rural poor.

A) Alfred Stieglitz
B) Charles Sheeler
C) Edward Weston
D) Dorothea Lange

Question 26

Surrealist artists used Dada's ____ to engage elements of fantasy and activate unconscious forces.

A) Cubism
B) photographs
C) Kandinsky's style
D) improvisational techniques

Question 27

Which of the Blaue Reiter artists found animals superior to humans as the subject for his art?

A) Wassily Kandinsky
B) Paul Klee
C) Emil Nolde
D) Franz Marc

Question 28

Henry Moore's Reclining Figure is said to have been inspired by ____.

A) an African ancestral figure
B) a Chinese figure of Guanyin
C) a pre-Columbian figure, the chacmool
D) a medieval representation of Mary Magdalene

Question 29

The goal of Dalí's "paranoiac-critical" method was to ____.

A) portray the art of madmen
B) illustrate the sado-masochistic theories of Krafft-Ebing
C) pour his emotions directly onto the canvas, with no thought of technique
D) create images of inner reality and irrationality as concrete as the world of physical reality

Question 30

In the ____ style of Surrealism, artists presented recognizable scenes that transformed into a dream or nightmare.

A) biomorphic
B) collage
C) naturalistic
D) Breton

Question 31

A Romanian sculptor, the work of ____, emphasized natural and organic forms.

A) Barlach
B) Brancusi
C) Hepworth
D) Moore

Question 32

The work of Ernst Kirchner shows ____.

A) the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites
B) the influence of Italian Renaissance frescoes
C) subjects drawn from the industrialized urban bourgeoisie
D) the influence of Analytical Cubism

Question 33

The Chrysler Building by William van Alen has elements from which of the following styles?

A) Art Nouveau
B) Art Deco
C) Cubist
D) Fin-de-siècle

Question 34

Which phrase best expresses the sculptural style of Boccioni?

A) Nervous agitation
B) Dynamic movement
C) Sinuous organic curves
D) Sharply intersecting planes

Question 35

Matisse deviated from traditional representations of domestic interiors by ____ and simplifying them.

A) imposing a machine aesthetic
B) exaggerating the scale of objects
C) flattening forms
D) borrowing from Surrealism

Question 36

In ____, the angularity of the figures and rough paint surface contributed to the save nature of the scene.

A) Ernst Kirchner's Street, Dresden
B) Wassily Kandinsky's Improvisation 28
C) Max Beckmann's Night
D) Kurt Schwitters's Merz pictures

Question 37

The German artist ____ deviated from traditional religious images by creating works that were highly activated and emotionally wrenching.

A) Henry Matisse
B) André Derain
C) Emile Nolde
D) Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Question 38

Who said: "We rejected imitative colors, and that with pure colors we obtained stronger reactions."?

A) Pablo Picasso
B) Ernst Kirchner
C) Max Beckmann
D) Henri Matisse

Question 39

Kirchner's stylistic qualities, including perspective distortions, disquieting figures, and color choices, reflect the influence of ____.

A) Franc Marc
B) Edvard Munch
C) Frida Kahlo
D) Emile Nolde

Question 40

A nonobjective work refers to work that ____.

A) has been abstracted from a natural object
B) has no reference to the external appearance of the physical world
C) is not considered objectionable by anyone
D) has no material form but is merely conceived in the mind

Question 41

How does the work of Hannah Höch reflect German society of the Weimar Republic years?

Question 42

What opinions exist regarding whether Dumuth's My Egypt were intended to extol the American industrial scene?

Question 43

Describe the Armory Show. How did it impact the American art scene of the early 20th century?

Question 44

How did society see the avant-garde artist?

Question 45

Brancusi said, "What is real is not the external form but the essence of things." How does this statement reflect his work?

Question 46

How did Georgia O'Keeffe reflect the fast pace of city life in her work?

Question 47

How did Le Corbusier design a house as "a machine for living"?

Question 48

Briefly describe Futurism.

Question 49

Briefly describe Surrealism.

Question 50

How does Night by Max Beckmann become a metaphor for German society during 1918-1919?

Question 51

Briefly contrast Analytic and Synthetic Cubism.

Question 52

How did the subject matter Edward Hopper used in his art relate to the Depression era?

Question 53

What was the purpose of the Bauhaus?

Question 54

What is a "prairie house"?

Question 55

Picasso said, "Painting is not made to decorate apartments. It is an instrument for offensive and defensive war against the enemy." How did this statement reflect the political nature of artists during this time period, and how did it mirror Picasso's personal politics?

Question 56

Describe Art Deco.

Question 57

What subject matter did Jacob Lawrence use in his work, and how was it significant?

Question 58

"German artists of spirit and integrity have refused to conform. They have gone into exile or slipped into anxious obscurity. . . . Their paintings or sculptures have been hidden or exiled." This Alfred Barr's statement is referring to what event? How did this "flight" impact the art of the United States?

Question 59

What is a "mobile," who created it, and why?

Question 60

What was "291"?

Question 61

Describe the utopian ideals of Suprematism and Constructivism. How were these philosophies manifested in Revolutionary Russia, now called the Soviet Union? How did the art community respond to these concepts? Use examples to support your essay.

Question 62

Compare and contrast the works of Edward Weston and Dorothea Lange. How did each artist respond to the medium of photography as a visual art form? How did their works reflect their respective environments?

Question 63

Compare the works of Jacob Lawrence and Edward Hopper. How did each artist respond to his period? What artistic devices did each artist use to create emotion in his work? What was the sociopolitical context each artist addressed? Use examples to support your essay.

Question 64

Discuss the relationship of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye to Frank Lloyd Wright's Kaufmann House (Fallingwater). How did the architects marry the shape, volume, and space of each house to its environment? How do these structures represent each architect and his philosophy?

Question 65

Explain the development of Cubism and the artistic movements that it spawned. Use examples to support your essay.

Question 66

How do these houses describe their functionality?

Question 67

Describe the impact the Armory Show (1913) had on the American art scene. Use examples to support your essay.

Question 68

How do these works differ in how they deal with the theme of war?

Question 69

Who created these models, and what were their purposes?

Question 70

Compare and contrast the Fauves with the German Expressionists. What influences can be seen in each movement? How did each influence the other? Use examples to support your essay.

Question 71

Compare the works of Hannah Höch, Marcel Duchamp, and Kurt Schwitters as it relates to Dada. How did each artist respond to the sociopolitical context of the period?

Question 72

How is this artist's attitude about urban living reflected in this work?

Question 73

How does this work break with the academic traditions of heroic male nudity?

Question 74

Who created these works, and what were their themes? Why did the artists feel that such themes were relevant?

Question 75

How did both of these works break with tradition?

Question 76

Describe Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. How did this work reshape the art of the early 20th century? Include in your discussion the influences coming from primitive art. Use examples to support your essay.

Question 77

What do these works describe, and how do they reflect the United States?

Question 78

How does this work reflect the Futurist art movement?

Question 79

Compare these two country homes. Who did them, and when? How does each deal with the issues of the relationship of the building to the surroundings? How does each respond to formal design and function?

Question 80

Explain the use of art as a vehicle for propaganda in the works of Höch, Grosz, Picasso, and Lawrence. Use examples to support your essay.