ART in 20th century
It has been calculated that there are more artists practising today than
were alive in the whole Renaissance, all three centuries of it. But we
are no longer following one storyline: we are in a new situation, where
there is now no mainstream. The stream has flowed into the sea and
all we can do now is to trace some of the main currents.
20th-century art is almost indefinable, and ironically we can consider
that as its definition. This makes sense, as we live in a world that is in
a constant state of flux. Not only is science changing the outward
forms of life, but we are beginning to discover the strange centrality of
our subconscious desires and fears. All this is completely new and
unsettling, and art naturally reflects it.
The story of painting now loses its way temporarily: it enters upon an
encounter with the unknown and the uncertain. Only the passage of
time can reveal which artists in our contemporary world will last, and
which will not.
We have dates in the 20th century, and pictures to attach to them, but
there is no longer a coherent time sequence. This can be irritating to
the tidy-minded, but it is in fact exciting in its adventurous freedom.
With so many interesting artists, some of whom time may vindicate as
of great importance, there is only space to touch briefly on those who
seem to many observers to be part of the story, and not just
footnotes.
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Fauvism
Matisse, Master of Color
Expressionism
Artistic Emigres
Picasso and Cubism
The Age of Machinery
Towards Abstraction
Paul Klee
Pure Abstraction
Art of the Fantastic
Pre-War American Painting
Abstract Expressionism
Pop Art