ART 215 – Art Across Borders: Contemporary Globalism

Note: Answer each question in full sentences. Each answer should be from three to six sentences in length.

1. In reading Canaday’s writing on early Picasso and early Cubism, I’m less interested that you memorize all of the intricacies of Cubism than that you get a sense of what Canaday thought was important about Picasso. Canaday’s describes Picasso in a manner that defined what people of the 1940s and 1950s expected of a “modern” artist. Answer two questions:
   1. What are some of the words that Canaday uses to characterize Picasso as a person and artist? Pick a few choice ones.
   2. How many times did Picasso change in the period described by Canaday? Why do you think that “changing” is important in describing a “modern” artist?

1. On Gaiger:
   1. Summarize Gaiger’s argument about what American modern (abstract) art of the 1940s and 1950s stood for? Reading Stonor’s article on the CIA will help you to understand Gaiger’s text.
   2. What was “the primitive” for Newman? Does it seem different than the way that Picasso related to that term?

3. Smarthistory videos: Summarize briefly how space and form work in each of the paintings discussed.