Session 2: The Visual Culture of Modern Europe: New Technologies, New Venues, New Ideas

Learning Objectives:

1.    To identify and explain the role that 19th century international expositions played in establishing the western model of modernity in modern popular culture.
2.    To identify and explain the role that photography played in documenting and representing modern life.
3.    To identify and explain the historical context for the representation of the modern nude.

Glossary of Terms: 

Documentary photography
A category of photography that developed initially in the United States in the late 19th century and was associated with moralizing and reforming activities and groups.  Documentary photographs were often combined with explanatory text and published as books.

Fine Art photography
A category of photography that closely followed the conventions, subjects, and aesthetics of painting.

“Transparent medium” 
A term used to describe the authenticity that photographs were believed to have since they were made with a machine, lacked the idealizing and subjective characteristics associated with painting, and depicted what was real and actual. 

19th Century Photography
What happens when a new invention shatters existing notions of reality?  Of truth? Of beauty? That was the challenge of photography in the 19th century. A camera that produced small, black and white images reshaped what people considered "real." Once those images began to circulate, an entirely new arena of visual production became available. Photography changed the visual culture of modern Europe and impacted fine art as well.

Consider

•    What kind of questions did photography raise about the nature of reality and representation?
•    How did photographs shape culture and influence public opinion?
•    Is the camera a transparent medium?

These are important questions to address because, unlike a paint brush, the camera was a machine. The 19th century put a lot of faith in machines. Cameras were not exclusive to fine artists, which meant that many people were taking pictures and using them in a variety of ways and for different purposes.

World Fairs

World Fairs were a new addition to 19th century European popular culture. They offered entertainment, education and a variety of  “arm chair “ travel.  For a small entrance fee, people could see everything from contemporary fine art to crafts and jewels; from new inventions, technologies and machines to exhibits of non-western art and culture.

·       How did World Fairs shape the European perception of non-western cultures?
·       What role did World Fairs play in reinforcing notions of modernity?

The Nude

The nude body and its representation is critical to western notions of beauty, morality and art. It has been a protected form in western art, moving fluidly from pagan antiquity through the Renaissance and into modernity, always surrounded by a discourse that controlled its construction, interpretation and status. In the 19th  century, modern artists abandoned the male nude, but retained the female, although they dramatically broke with academic conventions and practices regarding her representation and interpretation.

·       What conventions and practices were necessary for the naked body to function as the nude in fine art?
·       What was the discourse of the modern female nude?