Societal Subjects Re-picked up in A Paris Street in 1871 by Maximilien Luce

On March 18th of 1871, a horn was blown marking the start of battle in Paris. The Paris Commune forces, primarily consisting of working class people, had occupied the city hall. Although this occupation only lasted for about two months, it was considered as a milestone for left wing movements in contemporary politics. It had a significant influence on history; Marx even considered it as a strong evidence for his Ccommunist theory. For anarchists, Paris Commune also represented an experiment for anarchy. Because the Paris Commune did not serve as a government, rather it leaned towards building a highly democratic and autonomous government basing in Paris. Even though it ended shortly, it left a lasting impact on the some anarchists as they find their own ways to commemorate the glorious movement in their own ways. Among them, Neo-Impressionist Maximilien Luce painted A Paris Street in 1871 as his commemoration. Furthermore, author Alastair Wright an author, discusses Maximilien Luce and his pieces, particularly A Paris Street in 1871. In his article, he admits that even after more than one hundred years, A Paris Street in 1871 still strikes him strange in two aspects: history per se and art history.

In retrospect of the history, the failure of Paris Commune still remains as one of the awkward topics in the history. Quotes from Wikipedia: “Although many leftist leaders such as Marx embraced it, other assessments were highly critical”. Thus, due to this huge contrast of attitudes towards Paris Commune, Luce’s portrait of Paris Commune did not receive as much praise as portraits about July Revolution. In art history, Luce and his close friend, Signac, were two of the most famous Neo-Impressionists. As Signac focused more on how to innovate the use of Pointillism in Impressionism in his mid-career, Luce used A Paris Street in 1871 as a rejoinder to him, in order to criticize the lack of attention in the brutal realities in Neo-Impressionism.

In the composition of the painting, Luce portrays five corpses lying on a street in Paris. The warm lighting and choice of color indicate that the scene is taking place in the early morning. Wright believes that the time setting reflects the morning is very close to the occurrence of the Paris Commune, and the dead bodies are the results of small combats across the capital. Wright also discourses that choosing Paris Commune as the subject of the painting was unique considering most of the other combats, such as July Revolution, depicted victory instead of defeats. Unlike Paris Commune, some other successful combats or revolutions such as July Revolution offer a lot of victorious themes or subjects to the painters. He then compares  A Paris Street in 1871 to a painting called Liberty Leading People, claiming that they are similar in composition but contrast in the meaning. In the comparison, he states that the former portrays a union of citizens, bourgeois, workers, etc. during July Revolution, and it was supported by people from all classes in the country; while the Paris Commune is only consisted of working-class people and it failed. Therefore, portraits about victories of July Revolution contains larger significance for historical events painters since the viewers are always more excited to see victories than defeats. Wright indicates that, Luce, as an anarchist, deliberately painted A Paris Street in 1871 to reflect back on history and to raise awareness on the former glory of Paris Commune; Luce wanted to commemorate the historical event by bringing politics into the world of art. The painting is also intended to pick up the connection between neo-impressionism and politics. Before 19th century, there were paintings regarding contemporary politics. However, these themes somehow disappeared simultaneously. Thus, Luce wanted to commemorate the historical event by bringing themes of politics into the world of art.

In order to highlight Luce’s usage of Pointillism and themes in his pieces, Wright aligns Luce’s paintings with those of Signac. He suggests that the difference in political views would partly differ in the painter’s choice of themes. Signac, as a representative of bourgeois impressionists, often depicts bourgeois life in his paintings, such as the interior decorations or characters. For example, in Sunday, he depicts a bourgeois couple standing in the distance in a well-decorated room in which lies a huge carpet and a bookshelf that reaches the ceiling. Wright also writes that Luce “generates clear social reality…as the sign of liberation” and he, “without concern for profit”, would try his best to contrast bourgeois and official convention by portraying social reality in his art pieces.

However, as A Paris Street in 1971 is thought of as a response from Luce to the Commune, it was more related to the tradition of political engagement. Luce knew he was taking a risk, because many other works failed at attempts to do the same job. As the return of Commune almost seems impossible nowadays. The painting A Paris Street in 1871 seems more like an acknowledgement than a sign of return to the tradition. Moreover, the issue about Paris Commune is whether it is a revolutionary movement, signifying the ideal state of human society, or it simply was an amorphous movement led by impulsive working class.

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The Dancers of Degas

Edgar Degas was one of the foremost impressionist and realist painters of the 1800s. The Dancer paintings done by Edgar Degas are arguably some of his most complex works he’d ever accomplish. In the article Dancers By Edgar Degas written by Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall, the authors say that, “Dancers is one of the most chromatically complex, densely worked, and thematically nuanced pastels made by Degas at any point in his career.” They ascribed the success of these paintings to the use of a medium which had already been deemed useless, along with the choice of color, the method of application, and the figures, and by doing so created some of the most life like and hauntingly beautiful paintings of his time.

For the medium, or the material that is being painted on, Degas chose to use pastels on canvas. The use of pastels had previously been written off, as the end result was often times not permanent and could apparently easily disintegrate. Degas managed to put layer over layer over layer of pastel color and made something spectacular. He put so many on sometime that his canvas had “the surface appearance of a cork board mat.” In later dancer painting, this technique went to an extreme when he layered 4 different pastel colors on top of each other, creating a almost stone like quality on the canvas, far from the dusty, unattractive way it was said to look.

Degas subjects for the Dancer paintings were of course dancers. He obtained all his models from the  dancers of the French Opera House. He did not usually capture them however, glorified on stage, but back at the barre and in their rehearsals doing everyday tasks. He would often take the most beautiful positions and make them monochromatic, only to put them in color later in another piece. The way he depicted the wings of the stage was one of the most revelled pieces that he ever created. A peek backstage into the wings was a rare view, and the way Degas did it was by showing them not even paying attention to the stage, and even sometime not even their full bodies, just little glimpses of calves and feet. Edgar Degas created this quality to his dancers that was not previously shown in any works of art. He made his dancers life-like. Not sullied by the pounds of powder and makeup worn in the style of the day. He had this ability to look past all that and actually see the women as they were. The dancers had these beautiful flesh tones despite the stage make-up that was very unlike other paintings of the day such as the landscapes, people and building done by Paul Cézanne. Degas went so far as to actually become an Abonné, wealthy men who were famous for being allowed backstage and paid ‘special’ attention to the dancers, to get the pieces and poses he wanted.

Edgar Degas went out of his way to make sure that all of his paintings had a certain integrity. At the time he was born, impressionist artists were all that was around. Artists from Monet to de Goya were all painting in the same style as Degas, but what set him apart was that he refused to settle to other standards just because people thought the end result would be unsatisfactory. His dancer paintings are hailed now as some of the most realistic depictions of that setting today. Degas Dancers had a truth to them that went beyond the surface, literally and figuratively, that still captivates onlookers and make them wonder about the mysterious life of the beautiful dancers alighting the canvas.


Works Cited
DeVonyar, Jill, and Kendall. "“Dancers” By Edgar Degas." Record Of The Princeton
University Art Museum 66.(2007): 30-40. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 24 Apr. 2012.

Does Graffiti Belong in the Classroom?

Catherine Auten

Artist “Banksy” from the UK gets threatened with arrest on a regular basis. He is wanted for vandalizing the streets of the UK with graffiti. However, many have noticed that his graffiti is more than just someone’s initials on the side of a building or a gang symbol; they are works of art with an array of meaning behind them. The graffiti murals are so popular and respected now, that they are even making their way into the classroom. In a recent publication of Art Education, author Seng Kuan Chung encourages teachers to use Banksy’s art to allow students to reflect critically on the messages and implications that art can carry.

Chung points out that students will be more receptive to Banksy’s work because it is modern and they can relate to it. He suggests that teachers use this to their advantage and get students more involved in a dialogue about art. Chung claims that because Banksy’s art is so controversial and obviously subversive, it forces observers to have specific thoughts and feelings about the piece. This is the perfect starting point for students to begin learning what to look for in pieces of art and how to talk about what they see.

Chung encourages teachers to show students specific Banksy works like “Graffiti Removal Hotline,” “Kissing Policemen,” and “Sweeping it Under the Carpet.” He believes that these pieces have obvious and unmistakable messages, so they are perfect starting points for students. He then gives teachers a list of questions to ask the students about the piece. These questions start with asking students to simply observe the piece of art and report what they see. The questions then ask for some analysis of the piece and then ask questions about what the piece means for the culture they live in.

At the end of the article, Chung suggests that teachers encourage students to make some art of their own. His suggestion is that they draw an image onto a t-shirt and then wear the t-shirt and explain to their classmates the cultural and artistic meaning of their work. The questions and activities that Chung suggests gnaw at the boundaries of legality, art and vandalism and force students to think broadly and critically about the world they live in. Banksy is the perfect artist for this type of dialogue with students. Not only is Banksy “cool,” but he also creates controversial and skilled works of art.


Works Cited

Chung, Seng Kuan. "An Art of Resistance From the Street to the Classroom." Art Education 62.4 (July 2009): 25-32. Art Full Text. Web.

Pablo Picasso's Guernica

The Political Intentions of Pablo Picasso

Jordan Bailey

Pablo Picasso, the renowned and influential Spanish artist, created over 16,840 works in his lifetime. Included in that number are paintings, drawings, sculptures, and ceramic works. Picasso’s art has been widely studied, analyzed, and criticized since he emerged as a prominent artist of the 20th century. Many art historians and lovers of art have interpreted Picasso’s paintings in various manners throughout the years, and Lynda Morris’s exhibition in Liverpool aims to shed a new light on Picasso’s later works. For the last thirty years, Morris has been constructing an exhibition designed to illuminate the works of Picasso in a political light that has been largely ignored in recent years. Zoe Petersen, however, author of the article “Picasso: Peace and Freedom,” disagrees with the correlation that Morris attempts to draw between Picasso and politics, citing flaws in the exhibition’s major works such as The Charnel House, The Spaniards who Died for France, and The Rape of Sabine Women.

The inclusion of Picasso’s The Charnel House in Morris’s exhibition is intended to highlight the political intentions of Picasso in the 1940s. This painting responds to a film and photographs about the slaughter of a Spanish Republican family at the hands of the French during the Spanish Civil War. Morris argues that with this painting, “Picasso already had his eye on the relationship between painting and the mass media.” She goes on to claim that he “predates Warhol in his awareness” (Petersen). The Charnel House is commonly known as Picasso’s second major anti-war piece, after his 1937 painting, Guernica. The intent of The Charnel House was to cause outrage among the public, and Zoe Petersen argues that Picasso’s attempt blatantly fails and presents us instead with a “curiously unmoving image.” Petersen maintains that The Charnel House is simply a political reaction to a specific event, rather than the artist’s own perception of his life in political terms as is illustrated in Guernica. The Charnel House lacks a certain “depth and ambiguity” that is present in Guernica, according to Petersen.

Another work featured in Morris’s exhibition is Monument to the Spaniards who Died for France, a piece featuring an altar paying tribute to the dead Spaniards in World War II. The painting incorporates “a laurel-crowned bust on a draped plinth, a military bugle bearing the French colours, memento mori skull and bones, and, oddly, a couple of pot plants” (Petersen). The caricature-like construction of this work is said to illuminate the pretentiousness of the neo-classical style. Petersen argues that this piece does not support the theme of Morris’s exhibition, but disproves it by exposing to audiences that Picasso’s political movement was over by the time he painted Monument to the Spaniards who Died for France. Petersen explains that by the time this painting was finished at the end of World War II, Picasso had exhausted the use of political statements in his works and no longer found the theme urgent.

Another piece contained in the “Picasso: Peace and Freedom” exhibition is The Rape of Sabine Women. This painting illustrates Picasso’s correlation of suffering and surrender with the female gender. Morris argues that the women represented in this piece are an expression of fear of nuclear annihilation due to the Cuban missile crisis that was occurring at the time of the piece’s construction. Petersen agrees that Picasso probably felt the tension of the Cuban missile crisis during the 1960s, but argues that Picasso would still have painted The Rape of Sabine Women had the missile crisis not been happening. Petersen claims that the painting is a result of Picasso’s desire to take on Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, two neo-classical French painters, rather than a consequence of the missile crisis.

Although Morris’s exhibition begs viewers to consider the political implications of Picasso’s works, many art historians disagree with the assumed correlation.


Works Cited:
Petersen, Zoe. "Picasso Peace and Freedom." Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 24.6 (2010): 749-767. Web. 22 Apr. 2012. < http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=3&sid=280c28fe-725d-46f7-8ee1-36e1c4803ac3@sessionmgr15&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl

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