Vertical Genial One Pager

The piece is titled Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2 by Marcel Duchamp. This painting was created in 1912 in France. It currently hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (my hometown!). The work demonstrates Duchamp's engagement with Cubism at the time. The piece was created just before WWI, a time in which rapid industrialization occurred, changing the world forever. Duchamp and few other artists wanted to reshape people's perspective of art through abstract compositions.

When the piece was presented in New York in 1913, at the Armory Show, the Cubists on the art committee attempted to reject it. The public had a combative response to its abstract style which greatly affected his reputation. The artists and the buyers had different perspectives on the subject of the painting claiming that it did not align with the concept of art- to be something ornamental. His work focused on concepts and ideas as opposed to art as something decorative, a concept that was only beginning to take place.

This weeks annotation will focus on two readings: Wöfflin and Mark Smith's Producing Sense. n Wöfflin's work, the author discusses how architecture and visual art create bodily responses through optical phenomena causing an 'excitation of the motor nerves' (1). He discusses the ways in which eye muscles react to zigzags and lines and how the body is connected to such a response. Smith's reading discusses the importance of the history of senses and how our perception of sensory stimuli changes over time based on the cultural and historical contexts.

Wölfflin discusses how lines and visual forms can lead to physical sensations such as movement, tension, and rhythm. He claims that our eyes and bodies react in different ways to horizontal vs vertical lines "in the field of proportions, horizontal things 'rest' and vertical things 'stand' (116). Duchamp's use of a zigzag fracture compels the viewers eye to "move" with the figure which can stimulate an imaginative bodily response. The use of zig-zags can also portray the newfound machinery and the mechanization of life.

Wöfflin argues that art should engage the viewer physically and mentally, which this painting does as it stimulates the optic nerve, causing the viewer to feel motion as much as they perceive it: The painting shows a nude figure in motion going down a staircase in a non-traditional and abstract form (1).

Through the use of futurist and cubist works, artists of the time sought to portray the concept of 'time' through 2D works.

Smith talks about the importance of understanding the "production and consumption of senses" within their original context (841). Duchamp's work can be connected to this as it reflects the significant context of the industrial age. We could potentially assume that the use of fragmentation reflects the rapid technological advancements of the time and how peoples perception of art began to shift.

The colors are largely monochromatic using shades of brown and gold, the palette is limited to maintain the viewers focus on the form and movement.

The painting is separated into geometric shapes such as cylinders, cones, and sharp angles. The shapes overlap and form a figure shape moving through space in a fragmented way.

As I've remarked, this painting was a form of Cubism which explains why the shapes have been broken down into objects and strays away from the traditional representation of the nude.

Smith notes that "sensory stresses the role of senses... in shaping the role of people's experience of the past" and "shows how they understood their worlds and why" (842). For Duchamp, he understood his world and artistic self as expressing something different than what was normalized at the time. This piece can be seen as a representation of how people's experience of movement as well as how the passage of time had changed. Duchamp had no interest in painting in a typical fashion, disrupting traditional perspectives.

We can connect Duchamp's work to Smith's example of scent and his question of "whose nose was doing the smelling" and "how the definition of smell changed over time" (843) by examining how Nude Descending a Staircase was perceived when it was first shown in the early 20th century. At the time, it was rejected by viewers for its abstract style. This raises important questions: Who determined that Cubism was not an appropriate form of art then? How and why has that perception changed, allowing it to be accepted as a major form of art? This shift in perception demonstrates how cultural forces shape sensory experiences.

Nudity was typically depicted with much more precision and accuracy, and often in religious contexts. At the time, nudity as a form of art was idealized and celebrated for its beauty. However, Duchamp's adaptation of nudity breaks away from traditional depictions of the human body with the use of a fragmented body, deterring from the classical ideal of the nude aiming to focus on form and movement rather than beauty. We can tie this back to Smith's perspective of how historical context shapes our perspectives of art.

Wolfflin remarks "what matter are not the individual products of an age, but the fundamental temper which produced them" (120). In relation to Duchamp's piece, the artist wanted to change the products of the time and create something that aligned with what he wanted to produce. Not only was he reacting to the products of his age, but he was creating a new form of art.

Similar to what Wolfflin remarked about architecture "people make buildings which reflect their own bodily feelings" (121), we can infer Duchamp's work does the same acting as an embodiment of the human experience. We can interpret his use of a mechanical portrayal as a reflection of bodily sensations and emotions of the time- feelings of dislocation and acceleration to a faster paced lifestyle.

Sight vs. Vision: sight is simply just looking at this painting (the mechanics), vision is how we interpret and analyze this painting, how our mind processes what we are seeing. This is why we are able to recognize the shapes and fragmented elements as well as the different uses of color. Sight is also connected to the brain and is used to understand the function of what we are seeing. Our brain has to flip the image into the right verticality.

The piece is titled Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2 by Marcel Duchamp. This painting was created in 1912 in France. It currently hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (my hometown!). The work demonstrates Duchamp's engagement with Cubism at the time. The piece was created just before WWI, a time in which rapid industrialization occurred, changing the world forever. Duchamp and few other artists wanted to reshape people's perspective of art through abstract compositions.

When the piece was presented in New York in 1913, at the Armory Show, the Cubists on the art committee attempted to reject it. The public had a combative response to its abstract style which greatly affected his reputation. The artists and the buyers had different perspectives on the subject of the painting claiming that it did not align with the concept of art- to be something ornamental. His work focused on concepts and ideas as opposed to art as something decorative, a concept that was only beginning to take place.

This weeks annotation will focus on two readings: Wöfflin and Mark Smith's Producing Sense. n Wöfflin's work, the author discusses how architecture and visual art create bodily responses through optical phenomena causing an 'excitation of the motor nerves' (1). He discusses the ways in which eye muscles react to zigzags and lines and how the body is connected to such a response. Smith's reading discusses the importance of the history of senses and how our perception of sensory stimuli changes over time based on the cultural and historical contexts.

Wölfflin discusses how lines and visual forms can lead to physical sensations such as movement, tension, and rhythm. He claims that our eyes and bodies react in different ways to horizontal vs vertical lines "in the field of proportions, horizontal things 'rest' and vertical things 'stand' (116). Duchamp's use of a zigzag fracture compels the viewers eye to "move" with the figure which can stimulate an imaginative bodily response. The use of zig-zags can also portray the newfound machinery and the mechanization of life.

Wöfflin argues that art should engage the viewer physically and mentally, which this painting does as it stimulates the optic nerve, causing the viewer to feel motion as much as they perceive it: The painting shows a nude figure in motion going down a staircase in a non-traditional and abstract form (1).

Through the use of futurist and cubist works, artists of the time sought to portray the concept of 'time' through 2D works.

Smith talks about the importance of understanding the "production and consumption of senses" within their original context (841). Duchamp's work can be connected to this as it reflects the significant context of the industrial age. We could potentially assume that the use of fragmentation reflects the rapid technological advancements of the time and how peoples perception of art began to shift.

The colors are largely monochromatic using shades of brown and gold, the palette is limited to maintain the viewers focus on the form and movement.

The painting is separated into geometric shapes such as cylinders, cones, and sharp angles. The shapes overlap and form a figure shape moving through space in a fragmented way.

As I've remarked, this painting was a form of Cubism which explains why the shapes have been broken down into objects and strays away from the traditional representation of the nude.

Smith notes that "sensory stresses the role of senses... in shaping the role of people's experience of the past" and "shows how they understood their worlds and why" (842). For Duchamp, he understood his world and artistic self as expressing something different than what was normalized at the time. This piece can be seen as a representation of how people's experience of movement as well as how the passage of time had changed. Duchamp had no interest in painting in a typical fashion, disrupting traditional perspectives.

We can connect Duchamp's work to Smith's example of scent and his question of "whose nose was doing the smelling" and "how the definition of smell changed over time" (843) by examining how Nude Descending a Staircase was perceived when it was first shown in the early 20th century. At the time, it was rejected by viewers for its abstract style. This raises important questions: Who determined that Cubism was not an appropriate form of art then? How and why has that perception changed, allowing it to be accepted as a major form of art? This shift in perception demonstrates how cultural forces shape sensory experiences.

Nudity was typically depicted with much more precision and accuracy, and often in religious contexts. At the time, nudity as a form of art was idealized and celebrated for its beauty. However, Duchamp's adaptation of nudity breaks away from traditional depictions of the human body with the use of a fragmented body, deterring from the classical ideal of the nude aiming to focus on form and movement rather than beauty. We can tie this back to Smith's perspective of how historical context shapes our perspectives of art.

Wolfflin remarks "what matter are not the individual products of an age, but the fundamental temper which produced them" (120). In relation to Duchamp's piece, the artist wanted to change the products of the time and create something that aligned with what he wanted to produce. Not only was he reacting to the products of his age, but he was creating a new form of art.

Similar to what Wolfflin remarked about architecture "people make buildings which reflect their own bodily feelings" (121), we can infer Duchamp's work does the same acting as an embodiment of the human experience. We can interpret his use of a mechanical portrayal as a reflection of bodily sensations and emotions of the time- feelings of dislocation and acceleration to a faster paced lifestyle.