Notes for the Units on 20th c Art
Modernism (Modern Art, Art of the 20th century)
- rejection of conventions- commitment to radical innovation
- experimentation and discovery
- avante garde – from the French military term for “front ranks”
Artists and their work which stand in the forefront of a movement or of new ideas, often
in opposition to established ideas and traditions; art that's ahead of its time, innovative,
and experimental
- tremendous aesthetic diversity- with several broad tendencies:
1. abstraction, either partial or totally nonrepresentational= communicates through line,
shape, color, texture, etc. alone
- architecture gets more abstract- simple geometric forms and undecorated
surfaces
2. emphasis on physical artmaking processes- visible brushstrokes, chisel marks, etc.
3. question the nature of art- new techniques, new materials, break down distinctions
between art and everyday life
Sample artwork:
Matisse, Harmony in Red, (Red Room), oil, 6’ x 8’, 1908-9
Fauves
- aka “wild beasts” by critic- led by Matisse and Andre Derain- first exhibited in Autumn Salon
of Paris in 1905
- simplified design
- rich surface textures
- shocking color- connected to their emotional capabilities- had seen van Gogh and Gauguin in
Paris retrospectives- but further liberated color from its descriptive function and used it for both
expressive and structural ends
- totally independent of official Salon
- a loose association of artists that disintegrated soon after they started – lasted about 5 years
Sample artwork:
André Derain. London Bridge. 1906. oil.26" x 39".
German Expressionism
Die Brucke (The Bridge) and Die Blaue Reiter (the Blue Rider)
- primitivism= simple, direct- inspiration from so-called primitive art of Oceania,
children, folk art, “naïve” artist, mentally ill
- bold stylization as an alternative to the illusionism of tradition
- more authentic state of being, uncorrupted
- harsh colors, aggressively brushed paint, distorted forms
- express feelings of injustice of society
Sample artwork:
Wassily Kandinsky. Composition IV. 1911. 62 13/16" x 98 5/8".
Pablo Picasso and Modernism
Sample artwork:
Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon, oil, 8’ x 8’, 1907
Cubism
- formed by Picasso and Braque in 1908
- radical
- it created a new kind of pictorial space, replacing tradition as far back as the Renaissance
- ***new conception of painting as an arrangement of form and color on a 2D surface
- a dismissal of the pictorial illusionism that had dominated Western art over the yearsaggressive avante garde critique of convention
- also seen on a larger scale as part of anarchism, revolution and disdain for tradition- an attack
on society’s complacency and status quo
- rejection of naturalism- preference for abstracted shapes and forms
- pushed Cezanne’s analysis further- broke apart life’s optical spread, then recomposed it using
new logic of design
- original and trailblazing!
Sample artwork:
Georges Braque, The Portuguese, oil, 4’ x 3’, 1910
Dada
An early twentieth century art movement which ridiculed contemporary culture and traditional
art forms. The movement was formed to prove the bankruptcy of existing style of artistic
expression rather than to promote a particular style itself.
-
consequence of World War I
-absurd and playful, emotive and intuitive, and often cryptic.
Example artwork
Duchamp, LHOOQ, 1919
-
Translates to “She is hot in the pants” or “there is a fire down there”
Poked fun with goatee, mustache and title
Shake people out of their dominate values
Surrealism
Influenced by the theories of the pioneer of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (German, 18561939), the images found in surrealist works are as confusing and startling as those of dreams.
Surrealist works can have a realistic, though irrational style, precisely describing dreamlike
fantasies, as in the works of René Magritte and Salvador Dalí.
Or, it could have a more abstract style, modeled upon the psychotherapeutic procedure of "free
association" as a means to eliminate conscious control in order to express the workings of the
unconscious mind.
Example artwork
Dali, The Peristence of Memory, 1924
-
“every morning upon waking I experience a supreme pleasure, that of being Salvador
Dali!”
Explored dream imagery
See video clip
Art of Political Protest
Example artwork
Picasso’s Guernica, oil, 1937
Latin American Modernism
Example artwork
Frida Kahlo, The 2 Fridas, oil, 1939
American regionalism
1930’s- Depression and politics motivated artists to search for their own identity (personal and
national)
Example artwork
Grant Wood, American Gothic, oil, 1930
Post WWII- the center of the art world moves to New York
Abstract Expressionism- 1940’s and 50’s
A painting movement in which artists typically applied paint rapidly, and with force to their huge
canvases in an effort to show feelings and emotions, painting gesturally, non-geometrically,
sometimes applying paint with large brushes, sometimes dripping or even throwing it onto
canvas. Their work is characterized by a strong dependence on what appears to be accident and
chance, but which is actually highly planned.
Some Abstract Expressionist artists were concerned with adopting a peaceful and mystical
approach to a purely abstract image. Usually there was no effort to represent subject matter. Not
all work was abstract, nor was all work expressive, but it was generally believed that the
spontaneity of the artists' approach to their work would draw from and release the creativity of
their unconscious minds. The expressive method of painting was often considered as important
as the painting itself. (artlex.com)
Example artwork
Pollock, Autumn Rhythm, oil, 1950
Pop art
An art movement and style that had its origins in England in the 1950s and made its way to the
United States during the 1960s.
Pop artists have focused attention upon familiar images of the popular culture such as billboards,
comic strips, magazine advertisements, and supermarket products.
Example artwork
Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, silkscreen, 1962
Minimalism
A twentieth century art movement and style stressing the idea of reducing a work of art to the
minimum number of colors, values, shapes, lines and textures. No attempt is made to represent
or symbolize any other object or experience.
Example artwork
Donald Judd, Untitled, metal, 1967.
Conceptual Art
Art that is intended to convey an idea or a concept to the perceiver, rejecting the creation or
appreciation of a traditional art object such as a painting or a sculpture as a precious commodity.
Conceptual Art emerged as an art movement in the 1960s. Concept art resulted in an art object
being replaced by an analysis of it. The art object is not an end in itself.
Conceptual Art is so dependent upon the text (or discourse) surrounding it.
Example artwork
Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965
Earthworks
Earthworks often refer to phenomena such as the slow process of erosion or to the movement of
planets or stars, especially the sun. Many earthworks are intended to help us to better understand
nature. Some demonstrate the inherent differences between nature and civilization, often
pointing out artists' desires to understand, conquer, and control natural processes.
Example artwork
Christo and Jeanne- Claude, Running Fence, fabric and poles,1972-6
Feminism
Feminists point out that throughout most of recorded history males have imposed patriarchal
(father-centered) social systems (in which they have dominated females).
Feminist art notes that significant in the dominant (meaning especially Western) culture's
patriarchal heritage is the preponderance of art made by males, and for male audiences,
sometimes transgressing against females.
Men have maintained a studio system which has excluded women from training as artists, a
gallery system that has kept them from exhibiting and selling their work, as well as from being
collected by museums — albeit somewhat less in recent years than before.
Example artwork
Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1970
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39 women contributers to history
Many place settings have overt female genitalia
Installation ArtArt that is or has been installed — arranged in a place — either by the artist or as specified by
the artist. It might be either site-specific or not, and either indoors or out. The term became
widely used in the 1970s and 1980s, and continues to be employed by many people. Installations
may be temporary or permanent, but most will be known to posterity through documentation.
Performance artArt in which works in any of a variety of media are executed premeditated before a live
audience. Although this might appear to be theater, theatrical performances present illusions of
events, while performance art presents actual events as art. One of the things setting
postmodernism apart from modernism is its acceptance of aspects of theater. Performance
elements surfaced in a number of conceptual art movements of the 1960s.
Example artwork
Ana Mendieta. Tree of Life Series. 1977