Exploring the Text

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  1. Look first at the painting’s lines, shapes, colors, and composition (where and how the objects are placed on the canvas). What is your first impression? Then look at the iconography (the recognizable objects). Do they change your first impression?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Look first at the painting’s lines, shapes, colors, and composition (where and how the objects are placed on the canvas). What is your first impression? Then look at the iconography (the recognizable objects). Do they change your first impression?
  2. Portrait of a German Officer is one of a series of abstract portraits of German officers. What evidence of war do you see in the painting? What do you think Marsden Hartley’s opinion was of the military and the war culture he saw in Berlin during those years?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Portrait of a German Officer is one of a series of abstract portraits of German officers. What evidence of war do you see in the painting? What do you think Marsden Hartley’s opinion was of the military and the war culture he saw in Berlin during those years?
  3. What do you think this painting says about Karl von Freyburg? About Hartley’s relationship with him?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What do you think this painting says about Karl von Freyburg? About Hartley’s relationship with him?
  4. How did Hartley communicate emotion in this painting?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - How did Hartley communicate emotion in this painting?
  5. This painting is inspired by both cubism (visual fragments composed as if in a collage) and German expressionism (coarse brushwork and bright colors contrasted with black). What is the effect of this combination of techniques? Consider both the physical and the psychological effects of the work.

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - This painting is inspired by both cubism (visual fragments composed as if in a collage) and German expressionism (coarse brushwork and bright colors contrasted with black). What is the effect of this combination of techniques? Consider both the physical and the psychological effects of the work.