Christopher Mittelstadt's Blog

       Marriage of Reason and Squalor II Frank Stella (1953)      The mid-modern age was one of constant change, which is shown in the many styles of the time. One of the styles to come out of this period is Minimalism, a form focusing on straightforward visuals where the art simply represents exactly what it is physically. Shown above is the Marriage of Reason and Squalor II by Frank Stella. It is one of the most famous Minimalist works, purposefully shying away from using line to create any kind of three-dimensional form and instead retreating into what it is, a matched set of lines on black. Stella was one of the mos influential Minimalist artists at the time and is known for describing the style with, "What you see is what you see" (moma.org). The Musket Frank Stella (1990)       Another work from Stella is shown above. The Musket is a sculpture meant to demonstrate Stella's dissatisfaction and confusion towards the mid-modern art world. In a time dominated by Cubism

    Here I would like to talk about the style that interested me most when learning about the early modern era: Dadaism. The style exploded following World War I with artists such as Duchamp and Picabia being some prolific names of the scene. In ways, Dada works served as "anti-art", forsaking aesthetics and idealisms to instead present work that shocked the viewer into looking inwards at their own beliefs and societies. This attitude prevailed during the time after the war, with the conflict serving as a point of introspection as to the modernization and brutality of mankind. Mechanical Head Raoul Haussman (1919)       Shown above is the sculpture Mechanical Head by Raoul Haussman. He created this piece in 1919 in Berlin. The sculpture consists of a dummy head adorned with multiple accessories, such as a measuring tape, and a tin cup. This piece is meant to critique modernization and industrialization by letting the head represent man. While capable of performing these funct

      I would like to share what I have learned about what I feel to be the two main art styles of the Romantic Era: Romanticism and Realism.     The Raft of Medusa Theodore Gericault (1819)     Depicted above are two Romantic paintings. The first is The Raft of the Medusa by Theodore Gericault. This was painted in 1819 in France three years after a devastating naval disaster that serves as the subject of the painting. This painting demonstrates several key Romantic motifs in its image, one being its grim portrayal of tragedy, not putting on airs to cover up a dark moment in history. Its subjectivity is also a commonly seen trait in Romantic paintings, with the only thing objectively being shown being human suffering, leaving the viewer to create their own narrative, who was to blame for this?      The use of tone is extremely dramatic, holding onto techniques of the neoclassical era while advancing the message of the painting in a manner nearly antithetical to that of Neoclassicism.