th CENTURY
ABSTRACT ART OF THE 20th
From Expressionism to Abstraction
Matisse and the “Fauves” in France, and Kirchner and Kandinsky, with other
Expressionists in Germany, used simplified forms and exaggerated colours to
express emotion. Kandinsky in particular pushed this to the point of a painterly
abstraction based upon spontaneity and improvisation. He later moved towards the
use of geometric shapes.
Matisse “Backs” 1912-30 Here we see Matisse’s process of abstraction over a
long period.
Wassily Kandinsky Composition IV 1911
Although this appears to be an abstract
painting we can decipher images of a
landscape with a battle scene. This picture
is analysed at
http://www.artchive.com/glyphs/kandinsky/i
ndex.html
Wassily Kandinsky Improvisation 7 1910
Like the other painting on this slide
there is a strong landscape “feel” to this
painting.
Composition VIII 1923
Red-Yellow-Blue 1925
By the 1920s Kandinsky
was working with
geometrical shapes and the
landscape references are
not as obvious.
Icarus 1947
As he was bedridden with terminal
cancer Matisse could only work
with coloured paper and scissors,
with assistants. This massive
paper collage “L’Escargot” (The
Snail) is his last great work
From Cubism to Abstraction
Cubism was the first “difficult” development in 20th Century Art. Picasso’s own style
changed quickly – these paintings were painted within 6 years 1906-12. His
paintings first became more simplified, then fragmented, and then were built up in
abstract collages. Other artists around Europe and then around the world picked up
on the possibilities of these developments. Two of the most important were Piet
Mondrian in Holland and Kasimir Malevich in Russia.
Piet Mondrian’s move to pure abstraction
Molen (Mill); Mill in Sunlight 1908
Broadway Boogie Woogie 1942-1943
Piet Mondrian Composition No. III White-Yellow
1935-42
This painting is an example of Mondrian’s
“mature” style.
He did not start as an abstract painter but
as a landscape painter in his native
Holland.
He moved to Paris in the early years of the
20th Century and saw Picasso’s early
Cubist paintings.
In the next sequence of paintings we can
see how Piet Mondrian, influenced by
Picasso’s Cubism, moved from
Representation to Abstraction
Red Tree 1908
Apple Tree c.1911
Grey Tree 1911
Trees, c. 1912
Ocean 5 1915
Pier and Ocean 1915
This is Mondrian’s approach to painting seascapes, referred to as “plus and minus
Cubism”. As with Picasso the compositions fade out in the corners and resolve as
ovals.
Composition with Color Planes and Gray Lines 1 1918
These images come from the
website of the German city of
Tübingen.
Can you spot the influence of the
painter Mondrian in any of these
images?
Kasimir Malevich – a leap into the dark
Black Square 1915
Like most artists Malevich worked through a number
of different styles before he found his own. Here we
see him exploring aspects of Impressionism and
Cubism.
Englishman in Moscow and Soldier of the First Division – both 1914
By 1914 his style included more abstract elements taken from Cubism and from Italian
Futurism.
Red Square: Painterly Realism of a
Peasant Woman in Two
Dimensions, 1915
Suprematismo. 1915.
El Lissitzky Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge 1919.
During the Russian Revolution and Civil War the artist El Lissitzky used
Malevich’s “Suprematist” style to produce this poster.
dada, Surrealism and Abstraction
Joan Miró, Blue I, 1962
Joan Miro “Grand Ecart” 1969
Jean (Hans) Arp was one of the originators of dada in Zurich. Being of French
ancestry, but born in German territory he did not want to fight in WW1. In
collaboration with poet Hugo Ball and other artists he developed an “antiart” style based upon play. In the collages above the paper elements are
scattered at random without prior thought.
After the war he became an important sculptor and a member of the Surrealist
movement.
Automatic Drawing. (1917-18)
Jean (Hans) Arp.
Before my Birth.
1914. Collage.
Jean Arp
Enak's Tears (Terrestrial Forms)
1917 Painted wood relief.
Constellation According to the
Laws of Chance c.1930
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Jean Arp Head with Annoying Objects – 1930
Henry Moore Three Standing Figures, 1953
Barbara Hepworth,– Two Forms – 1933
For a slideshow of early modernist sculpture visit
http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7138/gallery/
Joan Miró: The Farm 1921-22.
Surrealist paintings by Joan Miro
Figure and Dog with Sun
Joan Miro Blue 1 1962
Although nearly all of Miro’s paintings have some reference to an external reality that
reference is not always obvious. Not knowing Miro’s intentions with this work means
that we have to view it as an abstract work.
Abstraction after 1940
When Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and France in 1940 many leading artists
chose to leave Paris, which had been the centre of Europe’s arts community, and
moved to the USA. These artists included the Dutch painter Mondrian and many
leading Surrealists.
These Surrealists exerted a strong influence upon the younger generation of artists
working in New York. This influence was in part theoretical – the Surrealists
favoured chance, accident and the operations of the unconscious mind. The
English artist S.W. Hayter was experimenting with the controlled pouring of paint,
as was the German artist Max Ernst, who used a variety of techniques to introduce
a random quality into his work.
The first American artist to pick up on this was Armenian born Arshile Gorky, who
had moved from representation, through a Picasso inspired abstraction to an
abstract Surrealist style.
Gorky died in 1948, before contemporary American art “took off”.
Arshile Gorky.
Organization, 1933-36
The Artist and His Mother, 1926-36.
Arshile Gorky
Painting, 1936-37
Untitled, summer 1944. Oil on canvas, 167 x
178.2 cm.
The first of the young American artists to make a big public impact was Jackson
Pollock.
Pollock had been trained in the “regionalist” style and his early work.
His style moved from the figurative to Picasso-influenced abstraction.
The first paintings to attract notice were densely worked paintings with mythological
titles or titles referring to Native American themes.
Jackson Pollock
The She-Wolf 1943
The Moon Woman 1942
Number 23, 1948
By 1947 Pollock had moved to total abstraction in a signature style in which the
paint was poured, dripped or splashed onto the canvas, with the brush rarely
touching the surface. These paintings are loose, gestural and layered.
The composition is described as “all-over” (although the edges are less worked
than the centres).
Full Fathom Five 1947
Woman 1944
Woman V 1952/3
Seated Woman 1952
Dutch born Willem de Kooning was the most highly regarded of the young
Americans. His style was rarely purely abstract. The development of his style can
be seen in his series of images of women from the 1940s and 50s.
By 1953 his work has become more gestural, more aggressive, butis still based
upon an underlying drawing.
Red Abstract, 1944
Vessels of Magic1946
Russian born Mark Rothko ’s work is very different to that of either Pollock or De
Kooning. His style is quietist and meditational. His work is described as Colour
Field Painting.
As his style developed he moved towards greater and greater simplicity. By the
1950s his paintings were composed of soft edged rectangles of colour stacked on
top of each other.
Mark Rothko
No. 2. 1954
Untitled 1957
Aboriginal artist Rover Thomas once attended an exhibition of his paintings at the
National Gallery where he spotted a striking work by the American abstractionist
Mark Rothko. He stared at it intently for a time and declared: "That bugger paints
just like me!"
Tate Gallery installation
Rothko late in his life produced
works in series to be installed in
purpose-built spaces. The most
ambitious project was the Rothko
Chapel - a non-denominational
meditation space in Houston,
Texas. He spent three years
working on the paintings for this
space.
Another space was created for the
Tate Gallery in London.
Rothko’s work can be related to the
more severe forms of abstraction
that developed under the umbrella
name of Minimalism, though his
contemporary Ad Reinhardt is
closer to it’s spirit.
Sadly Reinhardt’s paintings do not
reproduce well and need to be seen
in real life.
Rothko Chapel Central Triptych
Abstract Painting No. 9, 1960-1966
Abstract Painting, No. 34, 1964
These two images give some idea of the difficulties of
presenting Reinhardt’s paintings in a slide show.
Ad Reinhardt was a cartoonist as well as a painter and theorist. Here he pithily
puts forward his case for abstract art.
Abstract painting after 1960
Just as Pop Artists used
everyday objects and
images as the source of
their artworks, making
neutral, uninvolved art so
their abstract
contemporaries produced
deadpan abstract
paintings without the
expressionism of Pollock
and de Kooning and
without the Spirituality of
Rothko.
Andy Warhol
Roy Lichtenstein
Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein even made
cartoon-like pictures of Abstract
Expressionist paintings.
Are these “Abstract Paintings” or are they
pictures of paintings?
Frank Stella
Sinerli Variations Squared
Colored Ground
Frank Stella Hyena Stomp 1962
Morris Louis Isis, 1954
American painter Morris Louis developed a style based upon the pouring of transparent
acrylic paint (Magna) onto canvas. These pourings create in this case translucent veils
of overlaid colour, each colour subdued by those underneath or above. As with Jackson
Pollock the composition is “all over”, with the edges and corners less worked.
Morris LOUIS Dalet Zayin
Here, the overlaid colours are close in hue and reinforce each other, giving strong
blue-blacks and greys with glowing reds. The reduced num,ber of layers allows us th
see the shapes of the pourings.
Donald Judd Works installed at the artist’s space
at Marfa, Texas
Donald Judd Untitled 1969
Painter/sculptor Donald Judd represents an
extreme of Minimalism. Much of his later work
was concerned with mathematical permutations
of proportion and with mathematical box shapes.
Seeing one in isolation is not the best way to
view the work – a gallery full is (to me at least)
fascinating.
Peter Booth Painting 1971
PETER BOOTH Black Door 1974
Peter Booth made his name with a series of massive Black Paintings. He later moved
into a kind of visionary representation.
Agnes Martin Untitled 1997
Tony Smith - Sculptures
Gerhard Richter
Self Portrait 1992
Abstract Painting 1992