SOBRE A ARTE ENTRE OS S�CULOS 19 E 20: UMA ABORDAGEM A PARTIR DAS REPRESENTA��ES DO ATELI� VAZIO / On art between the 19th and 20th centuries: an approach from representations of the empty studio

O estudo da hist�ria da arte no Brasil costumava tratar o s�culo 19 e o 20 como dois per�odos bastante distintos, quase conflitantes, sobre os quais n�o era poss�vel conceber que houvesse di�logo. Nos �ltimos anos, com as revis�es historiogr�ficas sobre a abordagem modernista, os pesquisadores valorizaram a produ��o oitocentista e por consequ�ncia abriram o campo para novas possibilidades de estudo sobre a arte nas primeiras d�cadas dos anos 1900. O presente artigo intenciona contribuir com essas pesquisas, propondo uma leitura para al�m das transforma��es est�ticas ocorridas nesse per�odo, tendo como ponto de partida as representa��es do ateli� vazio. Assim, considerando o ateli� vazio um tema por excel�ncia na arte do s�culo 19, investigamos sua persist�ncia no s�culo 20 apesar das mudan�as de paradigma na pintura. Para tanto, reunimos algumas obras realizadas entre os anos 1880 e 1950 aproximadamente, nas quais observamos aspectos sobre a posi��o do artista como profissional, a concep��o da arte e da realidade que os cerca.Palavras-chaveAteli� vazio. S�culos 19 e 20. Pintura. Artista.�AbstractThe study of Art History in Brazil used to treat the 19th century and the 20th century as two very distinct, almost conflicting periods, about which it was not possible to conceive that there were dialogues. In recent years, with the historiographic revisions on the modernist approach, researchers have valued the nineteenth-century production and consequently opened the field to new possibilities of studying art in the early 1900s. The present article intends to contribute to this research, proposing a reading beyond the aesthetic transformations that occurred in this period, taking as a starting point the representations of the empty studio. Thus, considering the empty studio a theme par excellence in 19th century art, we investigate its persistence in the 20th century despite the paradigm shifts in painting. To this end, we gathered some works from approximately 1880 to 1950, in which we observed aspects about the position of the artist as a professional, the conception of art and the reality that surrounds them.Keywords:Empty studio. 19th and 20th centuries. Painting. Artist.

On the Reflection of the Baroque Style in the Russian Art of Ballet

The article is devoted to the theme of the Baroque style on the Russian ballet scene of the end of the 19th century, and the focus of attention of this research steps over the bounds of the indicated time period, dwelling upon the reflection of Baroque subject matter on the 20th and early 21st century art of ballet. The author does not analyze the plotline basis of ballet performances and does not attempt to search for stylistic attributes of the Baroque period which would confirm the ballet’s pertaining to the Baroque era. The author determines as her main goal the aspiration to comprehend the fundamental — philosophical, value-based and spiritually significant — dominant ideas of human existence which are relevant beyond time and, hence, significant today, as well: the themes of personality, time, good and evil, stereotypes and algorithms (the theme of liberty), the theme of allusions. The author finds it important to comprehend how, conformably with the baroque worldview, they disclosed themselves in the late 19th century art of ballet (during the era of Marius Petitpas’ late productions, which was the flourishing of the Baroque style in ballet), exerting an impact on its plotline and architectonic structure. While preserving the retrospective-explorative vector of her research, the author poses the question, why do these specific concepts of the epoch’s worldview, as well as the constructive peculiarities of the baroque manner of ballet production has manifested itself in the art of 20th and 21st century ballet-masters George Balanchine and Alexei Miroshnichenko.

Aesthetics of Art and Life Sciences: Collaborations and Resistance

In this paper, the author pays attention to the actual phenomenon of art and life science collaborative projects. She discusses the orientation of this project towards the world. In the course of modernity, the fields of art and science have been established as relatively autonomous fields with canonized methods and objectives. The author will compare scientific and artistic activities and address the question of their objectives. If art and science strive for different objectives, are these art and science projects about harmonizing them, or what is the objective that art follows and perhaps differs much from science? The author emphasizes a certain role of art, which art inherited from Romanticism. Comprehension of art as an avant-garde was extremely important for 19th-century art, particularly in France, where artists considered themselves the avant-garde of the society and also used militant rhetoric. Mallarmé, for instance, said that the modern poet is “at strike against the society”. This romantic attitude of the artists that position themselves rebelliously against the norms and cannons of the majority of population, insisted in the art throughout modernism and expressed particularly strongly in the historical avant-gardes. The author claims that exactly this heritage is crucial for the art that enters the field of science and is engaged with its socially-relevant aspects. The contemporary art projects entering the field of life sciences inherit the tradition of the avant-garde. The modes of collaborations and resistance will be addressed in the paper. Particular relevance will be given to the orientation of art towards the future. That is the comprehension of art as a political agent. Article received: June 12, 2019; Article accepted: July 6, 2019; Published online: October 15, 2019; Review articleHow to cite this article: Tratnik, Polona. "Aesthetics of Art and Life Sciences: Collaborations and Resistance." AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 20 (2019): 11-16. doi: 10.25038/am.v0i20.329

Rethinking the stylistic categories of Portuguese 19th century sculpture: the work of António Teixeira Lopes

This paper aims to rethink 19th century Portuguese sculpture’s stylistic categories from the analysis of the work of António Teixeira Lopes, who is considered the major representative of naturalism in this country. First, the concept of naturalism in Portuguese art history is examined, with a critical characterization of its separation from romanticism (contrasting with mainstream literature) and demonstrating that its emergence from painting research and its adoption in sculpture is inoperative when observing a concrete art work. Secondly, with the Portuguese art reality as a backdrop, Teixeira Lopes’ academic and professional life is contextualised. Finally, based on the analysis of the sculptor’s work and the knowledge of his methods and views on art, the labelling of Lopes as a naturalist is questioned and the necessity for a less compartmentalized understanding of 19th century art is stressed.

Looking Back at Looking Forward: Art Exhibitions in Poland for the 1975 AICA Congress

The above text examines the 11th Congress of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) organised in the People’s Republic of Poland in September of 1975 upon the initiative of Professor Juliusz Starzyński, who was the head of the organisation’s Polish Section. The congress, whose offi cial theme was “Art – Science – Technology as Elements of the Development of our Epoch”, marked the second AICA event in history to be held in Poland, and while Starzyński himself did not live to see the result of his efforts, the intent to commission a number of collateral exhibitions across the country – meant to serve as surveys of Polish art – was successful. Those attending the congress had the occasion to visit the cities of Cracow, Łódź, Warsaw, and Wrocław. The text takes a closer look at two of these exhibitions: Voir et Conçevoir (Widzieć i rozumieć) which was developed for Cracow’s historic Cloth Hall, a part of the city’s National Museum, by Mieczysław Porębski in collaboration with Andrzej Pawłowski, and the exhibition that came to be known as Critics’ Picks (Krytycy sztuki proponują), which was held at the Central Bureau of Art Exhibitions, known as the Zachęta, in Warsaw. The concept of each, it is argued, was driven by a need for experiment. While the former exhibition came to be remembered as an innovative, if not radical, way of engaging the permanent museum display in which the highlights of Polish 19th-century art were juxtaposed with several new commissions by contemporary artists, the latter – the result of no less an experimental concept in which a group presentation was based on a survey conducted among local critics – remains largely forgotten – the upshot of a series of compromises, largely enforced by the political situation of the time. Exploring Voir et Conçevoir and Critics’ Picks as exhibitions in state institutions within the context of an international event, the paper seeks to shed light on the intersection of offi cial artistic practices and politics in the People’s Republic of Poland in the mid-1970s in an attempt to identify the key agents that were active in the fi eld as well as the defi ning conditions of their activity – or, in other words, to ask the question as to what kind of offi cial statements were made possible at the time and how they were motivated.

How Style Became Famous and Irrelevant at the Same Time

The article is concerned with the theoretical issue of the status of style in visual arts, aiming to demonstrate that – within art history – stylistics acquired its disciplinary autonomy in the late 18th century when, J. J. Winckelmann was the first to detach stylistics from rhetoric, thus expanding the field of stylistic competence to the history of art. It was also the time when, under the influence of early Romanticism, the entirely opposite tendencies originated, those of the emphasized individuation of art. Therefore, parallel to the birth of theoretical notion of “the styles of the eras”, romanticists not only paved the way for Modernism, but also thwarted the application of a newly risen stylistic methodology concerned with the cultural codification of style. The disagreement between the “classicists”, and “romanticists”, eventually culminated in the schism of the Paris Salon and the emergence of a wide range of new trends, heterogeneous conceptions and avant-garde movement, all in a very short space of time. The concept of “the style of epoch” has been staggered by the challenges of the 20th century. The function of culture within the stylistic characteristics of the 19th century art production was appropriated by artists, whose artwork acquired total objectual autonomy. The cultural and stylistic codification of of historical periods conceived in the 18th century could no longer be applied to the heterogeneous art produced during the Modernist era. By affirming the obviousness of the visual, Modernism eluded all the semantic, functional, utilitarian, narrative and symbolic burdens of earlier periods. This article endeavours to show how, subsequent to the epoch of Modernism, style can be discussed exclusively at a level of the apparent expressed features of an artwork. Codification which follows the principle of temporal “anchoring” in the cultural context of the Modernits era of Modernism remains both risky and ineffective stylistic strategy.

How Style Became Famous and Irrelevant at the Same Time

The article is concerned with the theoretical issue of the status of style in visual arts, aiming to demonstrate that – within art history – stylistics acquired its disciplinary autonomy in the late 18th century when, J. J. Winckelmann was the first to detach stylistics from rhetoric, thus expanding the field of stylistic competence to the history of art. It was also the time when, under the influence of early Romanticism, the entirely opposite tendencies originated, those of the emphasized individuation of art. Therefore, parallel to the birth of theoretical notion of “the styles of the eras”, romanticists not only paved the way for Modernism, but also thwarted the application of a newly risen stylistic methodology concerned with the cultural codification of style. The disagreement between the “classicists”, and “romanticists”, eventually culminated in the schism of the Paris Salon and the emergence of a wide range of new trends, heterogeneous conceptions and avant-garde movement, all in a very short space of time. The concept of “the style of epoch” has been staggered by the challenges of the 20th century. The function of culture within the stylistic characteristics of the 19th century art production was appropriated by artists, whose artwork acquired total objectual autonomy. The cultural and stylistic codification of of historical periods conceived in the 18th century could no longer be applied to the heterogeneous art produced during the Modernist era. By affirming the obviousness of the visual, Modernism eluded all the semantic, functional, utilitarian, narrative and symbolic burdens of earlier periods. This article endeavours to show how, subsequent to the epoch of Modernism, style can be discussed exclusively at a level of the apparent expressed features of an artwork. Codification which follows the principle of temporal “anchoring” in the cultural context of the Modernits era of Modernism remains both risky and ineffective stylistic strategy.