EARLY TWENTIETH
CENTURY
TIME PERIOD
1900 – 1945
KEY IDEAS
 Early modern art flourished at a time of immense political unrest and
social upheaval.
 Modern artists and architects were quick to embrace new technologies.
 Avant-garde patrons cultivated cutting-edge artists.
 The Armory Show introduced modern art to America and Gallery 291
exhibited photography.
 Modern art becomes more international.
FAUVISM
c. 1905 – 1908
So named because a critic thought the works looked like they were created
by ‘Wild Beasts’. Fauves stressed a painterly surface with broad, flat
areas of violently contrasting color. Expressive efforts maximized.
HENRI MATISSE, Woman with the Hat, 1905. Oil on canvas, 2’8” x 2’.
HENRI MATISSE, Red Room (Harmony in Red), 1908. Oil on canvas, 5’11” x 8’1”.
ANDRE DERAIN, London Bridge, 1906. Oil on canvas, 2’4” x 3’3”.
GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM
1905 – c. 1913
The German equivalent of Fauvism, Die Brüke (The Bridge) artists saw
themselves as a bridge from traditional to modern painting. A second
group, called Der Blue Reiter (The Blue Rider) began to forsake
representational art and moved towards abstraction.
ERNST LUDWIG KIRCHNER, Street, Dresden, 1908. Oil on canvas, 4’11” x 6’7”.
VASSILY KANDINSKY, Improvisation 28, 1912. Oil on canvas, 3’ 8” x 5’4”.
CUBISM
c. 1907 – 1930s
Influenced by simple geometries of African masks, which were popular in
Paris. Artists broke down human forms into angles and shapes, which
showed the same object from many perspectives.
Two Forms: Analytical and Synthetic. Analytical cubism was highly
experimental with jagged edges and complex lines. Synthetic cubism was
inspired by collages, found objects and featured flattened forms.
PABLO PICASSO, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907. Oil on canvas, 8’ x 7’8”.
FUTURISM
1909 – 1914
Inspired by Cubism, futurism celebrated modern scientific and
technological progress. Forms look shattered and prismatic as artists
glorify the machine.
UMBERTO BOCCIONI, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913. Bronze, 3’8” x 2’11” x 1’4”.
DADA
1916 – 1925
Disillusioned by useless slaughter of World War I, Dadaists rejected
conventional methods of representation and exhibition. Oil and canvas
are abandoned in favor of the absurd and nonsensical.
MARCEL DUCHAMP, Fountain, 1917. Ready-made glazed sanitary china with black paint, 1’ high.
THE ARMORY SHOW
1913
Named after the building in New York where it was held, The Armory
Show introduced Americans to current trends in European painting and
American artists.
MARCEL DUCHAMP, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, 1912. Oil on canvas, 4’10” x 2’11”.
PHOTO-SECESSION
1902 – 1917
From 1902-1917 Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery, called 291, was the most
progressive gallery in the United States, showing photographs as works of
art and other avant-garde paintings.
ALFRED STIEGLITZ, The Steerage, 1907. Photogravure, 1’ x 10”.
SURREALISM
1924 – 1930s
Inspired by psychological studies of Freud and Jung. Surrealists sought to
represent an unseen world of dreams, subconscious thoughts, and
unspoken communication.
SALVADOR DALÍ, The Persistence of Memory, 1931. Oil on canvas, 10” x 1’1”.
MERET OPPENHEIM, Object, 1936. Fur-covered cup, saucer. 4” in diameter and 9” in diameter.
FRIDA KAHLO, The Two Fridas, 1939. Oil on canvas, 5’7” x 5’7”.
JOAN MIRÓ, Painting, 1933. Oil on canvas, 5’8” x 6’5”.
SUPREMATISM
1913 – 1920s
Suprematists thought that nonobjective reality was greater than anything
that could be achieved by representation. Forms float on a white
background, usually suspended in thoughtful arrangements.
KAZIMIR MALEVICH, Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying, 1915. Oil on canvas, 1’11” x 1’7”.
DESTIJL
1917 – 1930s
Literally ‘The Style,’ DeStijl was a Dutch movement that advocated pure
abstraction by reducing images to the most basic forms and colors
possible.
PIET MONDRIAN, Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930. Oil on canvas, 1’6” x 1’6”.
GERRIT RIETVELD, Shröder House, 1924, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
ARCHITECTURE
TITLE
DATES
LOCATION
BAUHAUS
1919-1933
Weimer and Dessau, Germany
INTERNATIONAL STYLE
1920s-1930s
International
PRARIE STYLE
1900-1917
Chicago
ART DECO
1920-1930s
International
WALTER GROPIUS, Shop Block, The Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany, 1925-1926.
LE COURBUSIER, Villa Savoye, Poissy-sur-Seine, France, 1929.
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, Kaufmann House (Falling Water), Bear Run, Pennsylvania, 1936-1939.
WILLIAM VAN ALEN, The Chrysler Building, New York, 1928-1930.
ORGANIC ART
Late 1920s -1930s
More organic than descriptive, Organic artists believed in the honesty of simple
shapes and the sleekness and roundness of forms.
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI, Bird in Space, 1928. Bronze, 4’6” x 8” x 6”.
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL COMMENTARY
1930s
Depression art recognized the plight of the destitute and raised social issues and
concerns.
PABLO PICASSO, Guernica, 1937. Oil on canvas, 11’5” x 25’6”.
DOROTHEA LANGE, Migrant Mother, Nipomo Valley, 1935. Silver gelatin print.
EDWARD HOPPER, Nighthawks, 1942. Oil on canvas, 2’6” x 4’9”.
JACOB LAWRENCE, Migration of the Negro #58, 1940-1941. Tempera on masonite, 1’ x 1’6”.
GRANT WOOD, American Gothic, 1930. Oil on beaverbord, 2’6” x 2’1”.