Comprehensive Painting Series Lectures

 

How is “Comprehensive Art” Possible? 

——

 From “Gesamtkunstwerk” to “Intermedia”

 

Published on Apr. 18th, 2021

 

 

Keynote Speaker

Zheng Ye, Ph.D. in Art History of Freie Universität Berlin, Art History scholar

 

Hostess

Chen Yan, Professor and Dean, Department of Comprehensive Painting

 

Time

October 16th, 2020, 9:30 am

 

Location

China Academy of Art, Nanshan Campus, Room 3-311

 

Organizer

Department of Comprehensive Painting, School of Painting, CAA

Research Center of Comprehensive Painting

 

 

1“Gesamtkunstwerk”

 

 

In the late 19th century, the term “Gesamtkunstwerk”, created by Richard Wagner, began to be seen as an idealism and goal for artistic development in the future. There are three main definitions of this ideology. First, Gesamtkunstwerk describes artworks that use multiple or all available artistic forms in the creating process. Second, such ideology was designated to encourage people to break the interpersonal and interdisciplinary estrangement, both of which caused by social class and labor division. Thereout, a novel futuristic human culture will be born. Last but not least, Wagner believed that Gesamtkunstwerk should be fully ordinated by the artist, working together with other artistic participants as a whole. Furthermore, “Gesamtkunstwerk” serves the purpose of “totality” – the completeness of the human spirit, which specifically referred to the transformation from Christianity to ethos.

 

 

Case Study 1: Kölner Dom

The term “Gesamtkunstwerk” would easily remind us of the medieval cathedrals. They are perfect examples of combining all art categories to serve a sole purpose -to show the spirituality and transcendentality of Christian faith.

 

 

 

 

Case Study 2: Wagner’s Dramas

 

Wagner’s “Gesamtkunstwerk” theatrical play Der Ring Des Nibelungen was a story of the medieval German mythology. Picture shown is one of the 14 mise-en-scène paintings by German Romanticism artist Ludwig von Hofmann, specially made for the show’s premiere in 1876 (black and white photography).

 

Scene 1 of Das Rheingold from the first Bayreuth Festival production of the Bühnenfestspiel in 1876 .

 

 

 

The concept “Gesamtkunstwerk” is a reminder to us that artists would resorts to various sensations to create artworks. Such a process also involves miscellaneous art forms (music, theatrical play, painting, sculpture, film and performance etc.) Our lecture selected abundant cases of such fusion of art forms in western art history; they also helped forming many artistic styles and genres. Their “Gesamtkunstwerk” goals differ as well; all were profoundly connected to the social background, political idealism and cultural ideology at the moment.

 

 

 

Case Study 3: Art Nouveau Era architectures, such as Antonio Gaudi’s Sagrada Família and Rudolf Steiner’s Goetheanum

 

The influence of Gesamtkunstwerk on Art Nouveau was mainly on architecture. When architecture become the king of all arts, architectures must consider the design as a whole; the Gesamtkunstwerk of architecture includes both the interior and exterior elements, such as interior decoration, murals, furniture display and lighting.

 

 

Antonio Gaudi’s Sagrada Família

 

Antonio Gaudi’s Sagrada Família

 

Sagrada Família in Gothic Revival style, 1882

 

Rudolf Steiner’s Goetheanum, 1914

 

Rudolf Steiner’s Goetheanum

Refurbished 1925-28

 

Rudolf Steiner’s Goetheanum, interior

 

 

 

Case Study 4: Architecture motifs in expressionism paintings, Lyonel Feininger’s Cathedral of Socialism designed for the Bauhaus Manifesto, Oskar Schlemmer’s Das Triadische Ballett, and Wassily Kandinsky’s abstract paintings

 

Created in the early 20th centry, Kandinsky’s abstract paintings were often named after musical compositions; that very word can also refer to the structure and component of a picture. Kandinsky insisted that shape, color and sound are interconnected parts of Gesamtkunstwerk.

 

 

Lyonel Feininger’s Der Dom in Halle, watercolor, 1931

 

In the Bauhaus Manifesto

 Lyonel Feininger’s Cathedral of Socialism

 

Oskar Schlemmer’s Das Triadische Ballett

 

Costume designs from Das Triadische Ballett

 

Kandinsky’s Composition 7, 1913

 

Kandinsky’s Composition 8, 1923

 

 

 

 

Case Study 5: French Cubism’s collage, assembly and Kurt Schwitters’s Merz

 

 

French Cubism’s collage. Picture shown is Juan Gris’ Tea Cups, paper, charcoal and oil on canvas, 1914

 

Kurt Schwitters’s Merz: applying cubism collage and assembly in living space creation. Picture shown is a replica photo of Merzbau.

 

Kurt Schwitters’s Merz painting Picture with Light Center, newspaper, pencil, watercolow and oil paint, 1919

 

 

 

 

 

Case Study 6: Jackson Pollock’s Action Painting

 

Jackson Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), 1950

 

 

 

Case Study 7: Robert Rauschenberg’s Assemblage

 

Besides assembling pre-existing materials and readily available products together to break through the two-dimensional boundary, Robert Rauschenberg’s Assemblage arts see these three-dimensional compositions as media that can be painted upon.

 

Canyon, 1959 

Robert Rauschenberg

Monogram (1955-59) 

Robert Rauschenberg

 

 

 

Case Study 8: Allan Kaprow’s 18 Happenings in 6 Parts, 1959

 

 

 

 

Case Study 9: Raphael Montañez Ortiz’s videos, performances and comprehensive media paintings

 

 

American artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz

Videotapes

 

American artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz

 Videotapes

 

 

Raphael Montanez Ortiz

Archeological Find #3, 1961 

 

 

Raphael Montanez Ortiz

Chair Destruction, 1965

 

 

 

2“Intermedia”

 

 

In the 60s, the comprehensiveness in art is already a clear term. The core question was how to display the comprehensiveness as well as how to understand these newly emerged art forms. Dick Higgins was the first user of the word “intermedia” to describe all sorts of interdisciplinary artistic behavior. He aimed “to look for the connection between various forms and categories of arts”. “Intermedia” is not a certain form of art, but rather a standpoint, methodology, or notion. It is a notion of long history; for western art however, the rise of intermedium corresponds to postmodernism with a background of Pop art trending. As a result, its “Gesamtkunstwerk goal” shifted to the coalescing of art and life. Postmodern art theory rejects the concept of “finished” and “complete”, believing that all arts should be unfinished and being seen as in intergradation or undefined limbo. This is exactly the core value of “intermedia”.

 

Dick Higgins: “Much of the best work being produced today seems to fall between media…The ready-made or found object, in a sense an intermedium since it was not intended to conform to the pure medium, usually suggests this…and therefore suggests a location in the field between the general area of art media and those of life media.” (Higgins: Horizons, S.18.20)

 

“Intermedia is a connotation that waver between media, not to confused with mixed medium where multiple media were shown simultaneously. It often appears in the chain of thoughts of a performance art or theory.” Morgan: Commentaries, S.3)

 

 

Case Study 10: Mail Art from American Artist David Cole

 

PAUMONOCK ENVELOPE POSTAGE STAMPS

1994 ,by David Cole

 

 

Case Study 11: German artist John Alsace’s image-text illustrations

 

 

 

Case Study 12: Chinese Literati paintings, Jin Hui Dui and Japanese Haiga

 

Jin Hui Dui (“Eight Broken” paintings)

 

Japanese Haiga

 

 

 

3 Conclusion

 

 

The content of this lecture is part of Professor Zheng’s comprehensive painting theories. The speech rotates around the keywords of “Gesamtkunstwerk” and “Intermedia”. Apart from the core concepts, Professor Zheng provided ample examples of renowned artworks in history as a reinforcement to the definition of comprehensive painting. He also explained the early history of comprehensive painting as well as the cause of its birth, interpreting their connection to the nowadays comprehensive painting as a subject.

 

Looking at the association between of “Gesamtkunstwerk” and “Intermedia”, one could confidently state that all forms of art originated from painting, music and poetry, with painting being the foundation. As artists spare no effort to break the restriction of media, new forms of art emerge. Among these neoteric, intermedia art formats -namely collage, action painting, performance art, conceptualism and new media art, exists comprehensive painting. The intrinsic idea of “comprehensive painting” is its conceptual quality, while it is an intermedium as well. Comprehensive painting, by definition, utilizes the modality of art to introspect the relationship between media.

 

 

Lecture footage, Oct. 16th, 2020

 

 

About the Keynote Speaker

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zeng XiaoJie / Writer

Zheng Ye / Translator

Zheng Ye / Reviewer

Ma Jing / Editor