readings 4

I am reading The Great War and Modernism written by Jasie Stokes. It is a very well written paper about the Great War. World War I was a very devastating war that shaped the world, and it is mostly forgotten. Most of our attention is focused on World War II and other more recent wars. We do have evidence through the art during the first world war that show how people felt or were affected by it. Much of the art is very dramatic, and symbolizes broken young soldiers who would be better off dead, because they would suffer from their injuries for the rest of their lives. The Dada movement after the war is rather interesting, because they seem very apposed to war and they wanted to show people the effects of it. I do not completely understand the paper, because I have not studied these movements. It is too far advanced for my understanding and for critiquing.
I looked up some pictures from Van Eyck. He was an amazing oil painter. Although his paintings were very serious and dark they seemed intriguing. I could assume that Northern Europe is pretty dark anyways, and very cloudy. No one is smiling in his photos, and all his portraits are very serious with no action.
I also had the opportunity to look up Caravaggio. His paintings were more action oriented and did not seem as serious. They appeared to be a bit more dramatic. His time period is in the Baroque era when the Catholic church was trying counter reform. I can see how people might have wanted to stay with the Catholic church to this style of painting.