Kasimir Malevich
Black Circle
1913
oil on canvas
41 1/2 x 41 1/2 in.
Kasimir Malevich
Black Square
1913
oil on canvas
41 3/4 x 41 7/8 in.
Kasimir Malevich
Black Square and Red Square
1915
oil on canvas
28 x 17 1/2 in.
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Portrait of Tristan Tzara
1916
Geneva, Switzerland
Artist: Hans Arp
Dadaism – so called for da
da (yes yes) a child’s
nonsense word or first word
in German, was an attempt
to rebel against the war and
violence with art
A combination of random
shapes and colors make up
this work in a world that
makes no sense – so should
its art make no sense
This is a portrait of the
artist’s friend Tzara a poet
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Fountain
1917
New York
Artist: Marcel Duchamp
Claimed Dada was French
for rocking horse to further
confuse the meaning of the
movement
Saw it as anti-art
Claimed what mattered most
about art was who made it
not its aesthetic qualities
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L.H.O.O.Q.
1917
New York
Artist: Duchamp
When the letters are
pronounced in French
they form a pun that
means this woman has
a hot ass
He used puns to further
undermine the stability
of meaning in art
Duchamp, In Advance of a Broken Arm, 1915
Marcel Duchamp
Bicycle Wheel
1913
assemblage
23 3/4 in. high
Marcel Duchamp
The Bride Stripped Bare by Her
Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass)
1915-23
oil, lead wire, foil, dust, varnish, glass
8 ft. 11 in. x 5 ft. 7 in.
Man Ray
Gift
1921
flatiron with nails
6 1/2 in. high
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Painting
1933
Paris, France
Artist: Joan Miro
Seems inhabited by
abstract creatures in
constant motion
Claimed he painted
entirely from
hallucinations
Automatism – drawing
liberated from planning
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Person Throwing a
Stone at a Bird
1926
Paris, France
Artist: Joan Miro
“Biomorphic
Abstraction”
Art taken from the
dream world and
the subconscious
Giorgio De Chirico
The Melancholy and Mystery
of a Street
1914
oil on canvas
34 1/4 x 28 1/4 in.
Giorgio De Chirico
The Great Metaphysician
1917
oil on canvas
41 1/8 x 27 1/2 in.
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The Persistence of
Memory
1931
Paris, France
Dali was a Spanish born
painter
The melted watches
represent that time is
relative and not fixed
Many of his paintings
depict the impossible
and the dreamlike
Salvador Dali
Anthropomorphic Bread
1932
oil on canvas
24 x 32 cm
Dali, Soft Construction w Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War), 1936
Dali, Apparition of a Face and a Fruit Dish on a Beach, 1948
Dali, Hallucinogenic Toreador, 1969-70
Dali, Corpus Hypercubicus (Crucifixion), 1954
Dali, Sacrament of the Last Supper, 1955
Salvador Dali
The Metamorphosis of Narcissus
1937
oil on canvas
51.2 x 78.5 cm
Salvador Dali
Young Virgin Autosodomized by Her
Own Chastity
1954
oil on canvas
Max Ernst
The Robing of the Bride
1940
oil on canvas
129.6 x 96.3 cm
René Magritte
The False Mirror
1928
oil on canvas
21 1/4 x 21 7/8 in.
René Magritte
The Treachery of Images
1928-29
oil on canvas
23 1/4 x 31 1/2 in.
Meret Oppenheim
Object
1936
fur-Covered cup, saucer and spoon
2 7/8 in. high
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Composition in Red, Yellow,
and Blue
1920
Paris, France
Artist: Piet Mondrian
Dutch by birth
De Stijl means the style in
Dutch – the movement
championed pure abstraction
Mondrian took cubism to its
extreme and just painted
abstract shapes and primary
colors
Piet Mondrian
Broadway Boogie Woogie
1943
oil on canvas
50 x 50 in.
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Bird in Space
1928
Paris, France
Artist: Constantin
Brancusi
Romanian born
Brancusi favored simple
forms and shapes in his
sculptures
It does not depict a bird
but rather the flight of a
bird
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Three Forms
1935
London, England
Artist: Barbara
Hepworth
Created shortly after the
birth of her own triplets
– the egg shaped forms
perhaps represent this
event
Egg-like in shape and
smooth
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Reclining Figure
1939
London, England
Artist: Henry Moore
In a classical reclining pose
similar to the Parthenon
sculptures
His admiration for
Stonehenge and weathered
prehistoric art can be readily
seen here
He attempted to obtain that
same weather & time worn
look
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Triple Gong
1951
Paris, France
Artist: Alexander
Calder
American born
Invented the mobile
Art that was responsive
to the environment;
some of the shapes did
not move intentionally
as a contrast
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Kouros
1944 – 1945
Poston, Arizona
Artist: Isamu Noguchi
Sculpted while in an
interment camp in Arizona
Used flat slabs of marble
because they were
inexpensive
Kouros is Greek for boy
Carved and constructed so it
uses two opposing
techniques; viewed from
different angles changes how
it appears
Demands that the viewer
moves to see it all
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Winter, Fifth Avenue
1893
New York
Artist: Alfred Stieglitz
Leading photographer of his
day
Taken during a winter storm
– shows nature’s ability to
overcome progress
Hw introduced European
modernism to America
through his studio in NY
He purchased the 1st Picasso
in America
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Yellow Calla
1929
New York
Artist: Georgia O’Keefe
O’Keefe painted flowers
close up and animal
bones
She emphasized the
abstract forms and
patterns of a flower
close up
Many art critics say that
O’Keefe’s work has
many sexual symbols in
it – she denied this
completely
Georgia O’Keeffe
Music—Pink and Blue, II
1919
oil on canvas
35 1/2 x 29 in.
Georgia O’Keeffe
Jack in the Pulpit IV
1930
oil on canvas
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Aucassin and Nicolette
1921
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Artist: Charles Demuth
Took architectural
landscape of American
cities and turned them
into basic shapes similar
to Picasso’s cubism
The title actually refers
to famous medieval
lovers
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Guernica
1937
Paris, France
Artist: Picasso
Painted on a 11 x 25 foot canvas to commemorate the massacre of the city
of Guernica by German supported air force and Franco
The city burned for 3 days – and thousands were killed
Picasso captures the chaos in this work
It was returned to Spain in 1981 on Picasso’s wish that when Spain
returned to democracy it could regain the painting
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Migrant Mother, Nipomo,
California
1936
Nipomo, California
Artist: Dorothea Lange
Lange included only 3 of this
woman’s 10 children to not
cause widespread anger and
resentment towards the
upper classes
Part of a project by FDR to
show that American farmers
needed help and the FSA
(Farm Security
Administration) to give them
aid
These photos are
propaganda in style not just
social conscience
Imogen Cunningham
Frida Kahlo Rivera-1931
1929
gelatin-silver print
Imogen Cunningham
Triangles
1923
gelatin-silver print
Ansel Adams
Monolith, the Face of Half Dome
1926
gelatin-silver print
Ansel Adams
Frozen Lakes and Cliffs, The Sierra Nevada,
Sequoia National Park, California
1932
gelatin-silver print
Man Ray
Larmes (Tears)
1932-33
gelatin-silver print
Man Ray
Prayer
1930
gelatin-silver print
Man Ray
Minotaur
1934
gelatin-silver print
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At the Time of the Louisville
Flood
1937
Louisville, Kentucky
Artist: Margaret BourkeWhite
Captured moments like these
during the great depression
Irony is key here as people in
soup line form behind
government propaganda
sign
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Unique Forms of
Continuity in Space
1913
Rome, Italy
Umberto Boccioni
Called for the
destruction of museums
and all existing art
forms
Ironic his works are
exhibited in many
museums
“An image of speed”
Giacomo Balla
Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash
1912
oil on canvas
2 ft. 11 3/8 in. x 3 ft. 7 1/4 in.
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Nighthawks
1942
Chicago, Illinois
Artist: Edward Hopper
Captures the solitude and
loneliness of the American
city after hours
Documented middle class
American scenes is a realistic
rather than abstract manner
Regionalism was a reaction
against abstraction –
American painters felt that
abstract was a European
movement and did not
represent America properly
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Missouri Mural (section)
1936
Jefferson City, Missouri
Artist: Thomas Hart Benton
Inspired by Mexican
muralists
Project to decorate public
buildings in USA was
funded by the Works
Progress Administration of
FDR
The radically anti-European
Benton claimed art for
American themes
Every aspect of Missouri life
was depicted in this mural
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They Also Found
Discrimination
1940 – 1941
Washington, DC
Artist: Jacob Lawrence
From his series of woodcuts
titled “The Migration of the
Negro”
Shows blacks with no face
and divided from whites
who sit leisurely
Even up north AfricanAmericans faced
discrimination – it was not
purely a southern
phenomenon as depicted
here
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Beat the Whites wit h
the Red Wedge
1919
St Petersburg, Russia
Artist: El Lissitzky
Abstract art was seen as
art for the masses; and
as such was used by the
artist as a tool for
propaganda and
information
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Detroit Industry
1932 – 1933
Detroit, Michigan
Artist: Diego Rivera
Mexican born Rivera
had tremendous
influence on the murals
of Benton
Expose of worker’s
plight and a plea for
social reform
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Cocoa-Pod-Shaped
Coffin
1970s
Ghana
Artist: Kane Kwei
Coffin size and shape
He was an informally
trained carpenter who
made coffins in unique
shapes
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Diego and I
1929
Mexico
Artist: Frida Kahlo
Reveals the pain of
her all powerful and
all-seeing husband
who is always on
her mind
Frida Kahlo
The Broken Column
1944
oil on canvas
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The Jungle
1943
Havana, Cuba
Artist: Wilfredo Lam
He studied in Paris where
we can see Picasso had a
great influence on him
It is a record of his reaction
to being placed in a prison
camp in Martinique by the
Nazis
Density is focus and African
masks
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Mona Lisa at the Age of
Twelve
1959
Colombia
Artist: Fernando Botero
Famous for his bloated
figures
Attempt to show the Latin
American aristocracy’s
gluttony and their ability to
consume the land and its
people
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Autumn Rhythm: Number
30
1950
New York
Artist: Jackson Pollock
“Drip Paintings”
Unrolled canvas on floor and
dripped, threw and
splattered paint on it – he
claimed he knew what he
was trying to achieve before
starting the painting
although they appear
accidental
Action Jackson
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Excavation
1950
New York
Artist: Willem de
Kooning
Dutch born immigrant
Human figures can be
barely seen to arise
throughout the painting
The red white and blue
splotch in the middle
suggests an American
flag
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Woman I
1950
New York, NY
Artist: Willem de
Kooning
Large brush strokes
with clumps of paint
Here is his favorite
theme of the earth
mother/fertility
goddess
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Red, Brown, and Black
1958
New York
Artist: Mark Rothko
Russian immigrant to
America
His art contained only flat
color fields and an absence
of recognizable subjects
Made shapes fuzzy without
clear lines
Believed these works
allowed viewers to
experience their feelings
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Mauve District
1966
New York
Artist: Helen
Frankenthaler
Worked on raw canvas,
no glue or white
background
Some areas were even
left unpainted
intentionally
Yves Klein
Anthropometry
1960
pigment in synthetic resin on paper on canvas
145 x 248 cm
Yves Klein
Anthropometry Performance
Galerie Internationale d’Art Contemporain
Paris, France
March 9, 1960
Yves Klein
Untitled Fire Painting
1961
charred pasteboard on wood
50 x 38 cm