BEST AMERICAN ART by Alexandra Jopp

Sergei Gerasimov: Kolkhoz Holiday (1937) By Alexandra A Jopp Art had an important role in Communist revolutionary activity in Europe between the wars through the method of “socialist realism,” in which the French Communist Party tried to “dictate form as well as content to those artists who were Party members.” (Lewis 61) The approach was formulated in 1932 by Stalinist apparatchiks in the Soviet Union and covered all spheres of artistic activity – literature, drama, cinema, painting, sculpture, music and architecture. Anthem of the People's Love . Stalin-era (1950-51). Painted by Oleksi Shovkunenko, Platon Biletsky, & Igor Reznik Helena Lewis affirms the main principles of socialist realism: “it was to be a historically truthful and concrete depiction of reality with a thematic emphasis on the coming of the revolution.” It was also important, according to the method, for artists to make their works consistent with the themes of socialist ideol...

Diego Rivera, Chester Dale , 1945, oil on canvas. Chester Dale Collection By Alexandra A Jopp Art has always been a commodity prized by the wealthy. An Old Master painting expresses many of the art world’s core beliefs regarding artistic brilliance, making it a valuable and treasured possession that signifies not only high financial status, but also – at least the owner hopes – cultural refinement and erudition. A privately assembled collection of French and American paintings on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., demonstrates the importance of wealthy individuals to the cultural life of a nation. “From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection” is on view until July 31 on the Ground Floor of the Gallery’s West Building. In the words of one director, “ the whole rib structure of the modern French school [is] here .” [1] One of many pleasures of the exhibit is that what one finds is often unexpected: Beautifully-patterned odalisques by Renoi...

By Alexandra A Jopp In a series of three short essays, Franco Moretti, in Graphs, Maps, Trees explores methods of analyzing literature through a framework grounded in cartographic theory. As an example, during this process, Moretti uses diagrams to demonstrate the rise of the novel in the 18th and 19th centuries in countries such as England, Spain, Italy, Japan and Nigeria. The charm of numbers along with Moretti’s erudition and Italian temperament – his style and voice are very excited, it seems to me – offers a controversial new paradigm for how critics may approach literature. Moretti’s book focuses on defining the cultural stratification of literature. He believes that human culture is closely connected with the geography of a country, and that the history of each culture is, in large part, a function of its topography. Therefore, geographical conditions generate those ideas that are the bases of any artistic products. His argument appears to be a literary cousin to the one off...

By Alexandra A Jopp Science and technology has transformed the humanities through the development of digital media [1].  In art history, in particular, it has created enormous opportunities related to visual culture. This essay will look at digital history and new media and the effects that they are having on the world of art. The Internet has enabled the mass distribution of text and images around the world. While it has created some challenges related to ownership and copyright issues, it has helped to fulfill many of the goals of the digital humanities. First, the new technology enables more collaboration and cooperation among scholars [2]. Second, it offers more comprehensive coverage of the historical material by, for example, providing links to photographs and documentation. Historical sites, museums, libraries and archives often employ digitization to promote their collections. These holdings, however, must have a purpose, and that purpose depends upon what a given ins...

By Alexandra A. Jopp I created this blog in 2009 to showcase the works of important - but not necessarily very well known - 19th and 20th-century American artists. In 2010, I expanded the blog to include European masters. As part of this new direction, and for the purposes of a course I am taking on new media and digital history at George Mason University , I have written a series of posts that will offer a review of Orientalist art as it developed in Europe from 1798 to 1914. (For the purposes of this blog, I will use “Orientalism” as an art-historical term that relates to a small group of 19th-century French artists who took the Maghreb and the Middle East as their subject matter.) I will focus on the following collection of images: odalisques depicted in all their sensuality; bathers; and other harem scenes that feature the myriad colors and fabrics that are emblematic of Orientalism. My aim is to create an online resource for images and printed materials on this topic and to...

By Alexandra A Jopp In the 19th century, more and more artists traveled to the Middle East and North Africa. English painters went to India and Egypt, while French painters explored North Africa, especially Algeria and Morocco. According to Eric Underwood, “the conquest of Algeria during the reign of Louis-Philippe also aroused the interest of the French public and helped to increase the popularity of oriental characters.” ( 226 ). The East had a special appeal to artists of the Romantic era, particularly Eugene Delacroix, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Theodore Chasseriau and Eugene Fromentin. Orientalism and exotica begins with Delacroix (1798-1863). His first Orientalist painting, The Women of Algiers (1834), is not only an enchanting masterpiece but also one of his most important works. Eugene Delacroix. The Women of Algiers, 1834. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Perceptions of Islamic culture in the West result not only from the Arabic language, mosques and the Koran, and stories from One...