City Art

(1877) Gustave Caillebotte, Art Institute of Chicago

Paris Street; Rainy Day

First Cities

2003 Exhibit The Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC

UR

Ur was the capital of an empire stretching across southern Mesopotamia. (today-Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq) Excavations at Ur undertaken from 1922–34 by a joint expedition of The British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia, uncovered a settlement of mud-brick temples dating to 4000 B.C. At the edge of the sacred area a cemetery grew up, which included burials known today as the Royal Graves. An area of ordinary people's houses was excavated in which a number of street corners have small shrines. The largest surviving religious buildings, dedicated to the moon god Nanna.

Troy

Troy is one of the most famous sites in the western world largely through its association with Homer's epic tale of the Iliad. Two main phases of the site date to the third millennium B.C. 3000 B.C., Two gateways flanked by massive towers gave access to the settlement. Houses inside the walls are much larger than in the earlier phase and are constructed of massive stones. It is, however, the wealth of objects from Troy II that has made it legendary. These are important because they demonstrate an extensive trade network that linked Troy with other sites in Anatolia, the Cyclades, and the Greek mainland

Nippur

Nippur, the religious center of Mesopotamia, lies in the desert, a hundred miles south of Baghdad. Sumerian literary compositions have been found at Nippur, and the remains of a temple dedicated to the queen of heaven, Inanna. Archeological excavations (1888, 1948) revealed numerous rebuildings of the temple, one upon the other, dating from 3200 B.C. to A.D. 100.

Mohenjo-daro

South Asia's first cities were established around 2600 B.C. in what is now Pakistan and northwestern India.

Mohenjo-daro grew up along a trade routes as an administrative and ritual center. The city was built on a grid pattern with different walled sectors or mounds, oriented in different directions. Towering high above the plain, with fired brick gateways and mud-brick walls, the city would have been a landmark, visible for many miles. Inhabited continuously for more than seven hundred years, the city was home rulers supported by artisans, traders, and farmers.

City Life

Images

Eiffel Tower(actual and “orphed”)

Gustave Eiffel (bottom), accompanied by a collaborator Mr. Salles, at the summet of the tower. 1889

Robert Delaunay (1885-1941)Tour Eiffel ; La Tour rouge, 1911,

paintings by Guerin for Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago, 1909

Beaux-Arts

The academic classical architectural

style taught at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris in the second half of the 19th C. Grand and lush, the style was perfectly attuned to the mood of Europe and North America

•Palais Garnier, Opéra de Paris or,1875

New York Public Library

• Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Mervin Carrère and Thomas Hastings in New York City, was one of the outstanding Beaux-Arts architecture firms in the United States

One-time governor Samuel J. Tilden (1814-1886),upon his death bequeathed the bulk of his fortune-- about $2.4 million -- to "establish and maintain a free library and reading room in the city of New York. Official dedication of the Library: May 23, 1911.

Art Institute of Chicago

Art Institute of Chicago

Formerly: The Allerton BuildingConstruction Start: 1892Completed: 1893 This

grand building was erected for the World’s Columbian Exposition as the World's Congress Auxiliary Building, with the intent that the Art Institute occupy the space after the fair closed. designed by the Boston firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge

The White City(in more ways than one)

Ida B. Wells

Art Nouveau

• Art Deco is an elegant style of decorative art, design and architecture that began as a Modernist reaction to the Art Nouveau style (characterized by intricately detailed patterns of curving lines and is rooted in the British Arts & Crafts movement of William Morris). Art deco’s elegance and sleekness of line, replaced the voluptuous beaux arts style.

Paris, France: 9 Rue Vavin: door (art deco)

Chrysler Building NYC in a Jim Buckels-lithograph

Art Deco decoration on side of Radio City Music Hall

The Pacific Stock Exchange Lunch Club (1930-1987), now The City Club, is considered the best interior in the Art Deco style in San Francisco

1913Reed and Stern and Warren and Wetmore, architectsNew York, New York

Grand Central Terminal

classicist

Kay Sage (1898-1963)I Saw Three Cities, 1944Oil on canvasPrinceton University Art Museum

For next week’s book: Dream and Stones

A Lot To Look At

LuEllen Joy Giera

http://www.planetcollage.com/

Peter JacobsThe Great Divide trilogy

• Opposing Forces

Pablo Picasso

Guitar collage

Pablo Picasso

• Guitar and Sheet Music 1912

Hannah Hoch

• Hochfinanz (High Finance)1923

• Photomontage With Collage

Raoul Hausmann Dada Collage

Kurt Schwitters

Janice Elkins

• City Collage

• Texture of the City 2003

Rachelle Woo Chuang