Literary Arts 11
20th Century Art
DVG ONE
Concepts and Context
Three major approaches to art (that often overlap)
1. Formal (organized with a new process or materials)
2. Psychological and Conceptual (inner world, dreams, fantasy)
3. Social and Political (educates or changes society)
Three major style periods/schools of thought overlap at the edges:
1. Modern (1900 – 1960)
2. Contemporary (1970 – 1990)
3. Post-Modern (1990 – present)
Three ground-breaking figures: Matisse, Picasso, Duchamp
Three categories of art: Realistic, Abstract, and Non-Objective art
Major Historical/Social/Ideological Influences
 Man is in constant change and movement due to technology, science, and war. Technology evolves
rapidly. At the beginning of the 20th century, people are getting around by horse, and by 1969, we
have a man on the moon! These technological advances play a major role in art.

Einstein, space, and time

WWI, WWII, Vietnam War, Cold War, assassination of American leaders, Civil Rights Movement,
Woman’s Movement, threat of nuclear annihilation, global dislocation, environmental concerns
(and more!)

Reality is a sticky concept: one person’s perception is not that of another. There is also a third
reality: that of the picture, plane, or surface. Viewers have the responsibility to look at a
challenging piece of art and come to their own conclusions. We have our own lens, based on our
own life experiences and psyches.

The artists own individuality becomes a work of art (2nd half of century).

Pleasure principle, immediate gratification, “me-ism”
How do artists/viewers approach Modern art?
 Formal

Psychological/Conceptual

Social/Political
Cult of the Genius
Characteristics
 Intellectual
 Subjective
 Self-referral/“me-ism”
 Makes you question, “What is art?”
What is a “school” of art?
ASHCAN SCHOOL
 everyday scenes from the beginning of 20th c. (beginning in 1901)
 many are newspapermen
 some also classified as “American Impressionists”
What is going on in American society at the beginning of the 20th century?
Henri
Bellows
Davies
Prendergast
Luks
Shinn
Sloan
Who is Gertrude Stein & why do these guys like to use her as a model?
Glackens
Lawson
EXPRESSIONISM vs. eXPRESSIONISM


discordant colors, grotesque, coarse/crude brushstrokes
invites an emotional response
Literary Arts 11
20th Century Art
DVG TWO
FAUVISM
Derain
Matisse
color
canvas as surface:
Ambiguity – Why does he do this?
decoupage
EXPRESSIONISM
Rouault
life philosophy:
stained glass
ABSTRACTION as a conscious choice, rather than as a convention
Pablo Picasso
ANALYTIC CUBISM (Einstein)
oil pastels
Portrait of Gertrude Stein
Stein’s Salon
African influences
Les Demoiselles D’Avignon
Georges Braque
SYNTHETIC CUBISM
Portraying feelings
ARCHITECTURE
Frank Lloyd Wright
Fallingwater
asymmetrical
Crafts movement
Japanese influence
open plan
split level
picture window
carport
recessed lighting
ranch house
location
Literary Arts 11
20th Century Art
DVG THREE
Matisse’s sculptures (move from Abstract to Nonobjective)
Sculpture from new materials and/or recurring media used in new ways
Reflection becomes a component in the making of sculpture
Maillol
Lachaise
Picasso’s paintings
explore and interpret CLASSICISM
printmaking
Guernica – How does it make a timeless statement?
GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM
 between World Wars, Axis powers suffering, inflation, disease, starvation
 Art is a tool to make a statement to depict insane and sinister, showing a strong moral bias.
Emotional Response
Meaningful Distortion, Unrestrained Color, Bold Brushwork, Thick Impasto Paint
DEGENERATE ART
 Hitler’s statements about what art should be
 Art Scene moves from Paris to NY
Bridging Old to New
Kirchner
Nolda
Beckmann
Soutine
Groze
Literary Arts 11
20th Century Art
DVG FOUR
DER BLEU REITER: incorporates non-Western sources
Modigliani
Kandinsky
 synesthesia
 invents nonobjective art
 composition vs. improvisation
Marc
FUTURISM: Utopia/Dystopia – glorify the machine – manifesto
Duchamp
Nude Descending a Staircase
Boccioni
Leger
PRECISIONISM
Demuth
DE STIJL / NEOPLASTICISM / SUPREMETISM / CONSTRUCTIVISM
(Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead)
Skyscrapers
Le Corbusier – “Homes are machines for living.”
Villa Savoye
Modrian – reducing paintings to their most elementary and harmonious parts
Pevsner – the possibility of infinity
BAUHAUS
Moholy-Nagy – kinetic sculptures & new technologies
Malevich
Albers – the psychic effect of colors
Literary Arts 11
20th Century Art
DVG FIVE
DA DA – nonsense intended to make you examine your values
Duchamp
Schoenberg, Marx, Freud, Mallarmes
Man Ray
Picasso
Picibia
SURREALISM – scale, levitation, juxtaposition, dislocation, transparency, transformation
deChirico
Miro
Arp
Cornel
Ernst
Dali
Tanguy
Klee
Oppenheim
Magrite
Chagall
Literary Arts 11
20th Century Art
DVG SIX
SOCIAL COMMENTARY & REALISM
Orozco
Rivera
Kahlo
Siqueiros
Hartley
Levine
Gropper
Lawrence
Evergood
Hopper
Lange
Kollwitz
Shahn
Bearden
REGIONALISM
Grant Wood – American Gothic
Doris Lee
O’Keeffe
Literary Arts 11
20th Century Art
DVG SEVEN
ABSTRACT SCULPTURE – new, industrial materials
Brancusi
Bird in Space
Picasso
Gonzalez
Giacometti
Calder
______________
What’s going on in the second half of the 20th century?
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM – expresses, rather than paints emotions; relies on calligraphy; explores
accidents and strong colors; tends toward contemplation (Eastern religions); leaves marks of the
creative process
Action Painting
Color Field
Bacon
Pollock
Kline
Krasner
De Kooning
Rothko
Women:
Literary Arts 11
20th Century Art
DVG EIGHT
REALISM OF THE 1930S AND 40S
Andrew Wyeth
Tempera
ABSTRACT FORMALISM / POST-PAINTERLY ABSTRACTION / LYRICAL ABSTRACTION
Stuart Davis
Bearden
Barnett Newman
Ellsworth Kelly
Frank Stella
OP(tical) ART: formal & intellectual, properties and spacing of color, produces psychophysiological
reaction, systematic, nonobjective, involves the beholder
Bridget Reilly
Bartlett
Brieline
Literary Arts 11
20th Century Art
DVG NINE
POST-WWII SCULPTURE
Conceptual Art
Earthworks
Barbara Hepworth
Henry Moore
Picasso
Noguchi
Louise Nevelson
Pomodoro
David Smith
Marisol
MINIMALISM
Sol LeWitt
Gooms
POP ART
Jasper Johns
Rauchenberg
Lichtenstein – Benday Dots
Oldenburg
Warhol
Rosenquist
Segal
Literary Arts 11
20th Century Art
DVG TEN
CONCEPTUAL ART / HAPPENINGS / ENVIRONMENTS / INSTALLATIONS / EARTHWORKS /
BODY ART / PERFORMANCE ART / LAND ART / PROCESS ART (1960s) – process & execution is the
art—not the physical product, documentation becomes art, what you see alters according to time &
place, art is eliminated as a marketable commodity, total environment is created instead of just one
object, all senses are involved, time becomes the element, audience participates, confrontation
provokes and puzzles to create a new idea, rituals
Tony Smith
Smithson
Christo & Jeanne-Claude
Keinholz
SUPERREALISM / NEW REALISM / PHOTOREALISM / HYPERREALISM – generates a sense of
unreality, banal subject matter, neither life nor art
Estes
Beal
Hockney
Chuck Close
Duane Hanson
ARCHITECTURE AFTER WWII
Le Corbusier
Wright – Guggenheim
Golden Gate Bridge
van der Rohe
Saarinen
Literary Arts 11
20th Century Art
DVG ELEVEN
POSTMODERNISM – every aspect of art making, all over the map, sublime, interplay between
pleasure and pain
Pei
Michael Graves
Nancy Graves
Sandy Skoglund
Audrey Flack
Miriam Schapiro
Golub
Judy Pfaff
Jeff Koons
Hirst
Murakami
Goldsworthy