20th Century Post WWII
‘Less is More’
Chapter 34
Abstract Expressionism
• Movement from 1940’s-1950’s
• Artists expressed their inner feelings through
abstract paintings - with few identifiable
objects.
• NYC was the center of the movement
• AH: 2 varieties – gestural abstraction and
chromatic abstraction
Gestural Abstraction….
• Expressive application of paint leaving visible
and often chaotic brushstrokes
• Also called – “action painting” – Jackson
Pollock & William de Kooning
Chromatic Abstraction…
• Lacks energetic application of painting but
uses blocks and lines of color to express
complex feelings about the universe.
• Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman are
chromatic abstract expressionists.
AH: have referred to their canvases as color field
paintings; and also refer to the movement
(A.E.) as the New York School.
Jackson Pollock
• On a raw, unprimed
canvas he dribbled,
flinged, splashed and
poured paint on the
floor of his studio.
• He walked around,
even stepped on the
canvas
• Gave a feeling of
actually being in the
painting.
“Jack the Dripper”
• Time magazine 1951
• No hidden meanings or
symbols
• Body movements and
gestures.
• Non-representation –
Pollock’s paintings
resemble (G.E.)
Kandinsky – no depth
• Kandinsky expressed
spirituality – Pollock
subconscious
William de Kooning
•
•
•
•
Dutch painter
Action painter
Inner thoughts/emotions
Reworked his canvases –
wiping off layers and
repainting
• “Woman I” a piece from
his series of large female
images.
Mark Rothko
• Huge blocks of color
• Incorporated light hues
and muted dark shades.
• A.E. because he lacks
identifiable imagery and
uses color to express
vision.
• Saw life as a cycle of
tragic and happy times.
• Used abstract blocks of
color of express deep
feelings about life.
Barnett Newman
• Used color to express
feelings about humanity
and relationship with
the universe .
• Painted the canvas 1
color, with stripes
vertically through itstripes were referred to
as ZIPS.
Concord, 1949
Barnett Newman (American, 1905–1970)
Oil and masking tape on canvas
Helen Frankanthaler
• Combined Abstract Expressionism and a style
referred to as POST-PAINTERLY ABSTRACTION
• Although lacks subconscious expressiveness of
action painting, Frankenthaler used Pollock’s
method of laying canvas on the ground to do her
work
• She diluted her paints then poured the paint onto
a raw, unprimed canvas, letting the colors soak in
the material
• AH: refer to the technique as color stains
Bay Side 1967
New York School Sculpture
• The NY school artists also produced sculpture.
• Resembled Abstract Expressionists paintings
because they are primarily
NONREPRESENATIONAL and express
subjectivity of the artists that created them.
• These artists used industrial materials such as
metal and wood
David Smith’s Cubi Series
• Welded pieces of metal
together in abstract
compositions.
• The spaces between the
lines of welded metal
bear an interesting
resemblance to the
paintings of Pollock.
• Smith’s influences
included artists such as
Picasso.
David Smith’s Cubi Series
• As his career progressed,
his style evolved
• Most famous is the Cubi
series came out in the early
1960’s
• Basic geometric shapes
such as squares, rectangles,
and circles
• Welded in a way that the
shapes are in a precarious
way (as they would fall
from the sculpture).
David Smith’s Cubi Series
• They are cantilevered in
space, similar to F. L.
Wright implemented in
his architecture
• Smith uses machines with
wire brushes to burnish
the metal – gives a
textural feel.
• AH: Believe Smith’s Cubi
series as having some
human
characteristics…life is a
precarious balance
David Smith’s Cubi Series
• Some critics also note
Cubi’’s resemblance to
Native American totem
poles in their size and
the way they are
stacked.
• This is plausible to due
his interest in
spirituality and
Existential philosophy.
Louise Nevelson
• Assemblage sculpture out
of wood and welded metal
• Russian born, raised in
Maine, became
acquainted with wood at
the lumberyard her father
owned
• Became a part of the NYS
• Showed UNITY with
repeating shapes and
color
Louise Nevelson
• Her sculptures often
consisted of stacked,
boxlike compartments
with a variety of shapes
inside them.
• Often painted her
sculptures one color, so
as to NOT distract the
viewer.
Departure from Abstract Expressionism
• Hard Edge OR Post Painterly Abstraction
• Sought to extract the qualities of
Expressionism, like action painting, while
creating abstract canvases of crisp lines and
solid colors.
Frank Stella’s Pinstripe Paintings
• A famous Post Painterly Abstractionist
• Developed canvases of solid color separated by
areas of bare canvas
• Canvases emphasized flatness with no sense of
recessional space
• From a distance it appears that his canvases
actually have pinstripes…
• Stella said “What you see is what you see.”
• Used canvases of different sizes and shapes
Frank Stella’s Pinstripe Paintings
• Some are shaped like
protractors
• Pinstripe motif
Minimalism…. ‘Less Is More’
• An American Movement 1960’s and 70’s
• Emphasized hard shapes and straight edges (like
the PPA)
• Sculptors infused NO surface decoration,
narrative elements, figures, or other imagery
• Donald Judd, leading Minimalist, described the
idea as “getting rid of the things that people
used to think were essential to art”
• These artists did not seek to create abstractions
of figures, but like Stella, created geometric
sculptures (so the viewer saw what they saw)
Minimalism…. ‘Less Is More’
• Their sculptures were
typically large and made
of metal
• Removed visible signs of
themselves in the work
• Donald Judd, Untitled
1969
• Several metal boxes, in a
vertical composition
attached to a wall with
steel brackets.
Minimalism…. ‘Less Is More’
• The boxes are evenly
spaced and
prefabricated
• Did not hide his material
• Polished brass; could
see inside the boxes
(used colored Plexiglas)
Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial
• Maya Ying Lin’s Minimalist Masterpiece
• While a college student won a commission to
design the VVM, in DC
• Designed as an angled, black wall that slowly
increases to 10’ tall at the corner and gradually
recedes back into the ground
• “The Wall” is geometric and simple in appearance;
made of black granite that is reflected and incised
with the names of 58,000 casualties and missing
American soldiers of the VW.
Pop Art
• A reaction to the AE movement, Pop Art was
developed
• Pop Art strived to attempt to meet people’s
demand for more recognizable art
• Popular in the 1960’s – based on recognizable
imagery drawn from POPULAR CULTURE; such
as advertising, consumer products, comic books
and celebrities
• In the 50’s the U.S. economy became
increasingly consumer based
Pop Art
• Artists produced artwork that reflected the
consumerism of American Society
• Pop Artists developed graphic art techniques;
like photographic transfer to create images,
supplying color by using benday dots and
silkscreens
• BUT, Pop Art was not a new phenomenon since
Dada artists incorporated imagery from the
1910’s culture with photomontages and readymades …
Richard Hamilton
• British created Just What
Is It That Make’s Today’s
Homes So Different, So
Appealing?
• Small collage with pop
culture references
• Expressed mass media
with the TV, a newspaper,
and a theater marquee
• Included advertising with
Hoover vacuums, Ford
cars…
Richard Hamilton
• Hormel canned ham, and Tootsie pops
• To express pop culture, he used images of a
famous bodybuilder (Charles Atlas); and an
image from an erotic magazine
• Viewers felt that they were stepping into a
display of a department store window
• The expression of the mundane elements of
pop culture became the new avant garde
Jasper Johns
• Influenced the the
development of Pop Art in
the United States
• Created his famous Target
with Four Faces, painted
plaster casts of 4 faces
from the nose down with
a target painted below
• Johns presents only parts
of the faces, and their
juxtaposition with the
target encourages the
viewer to think about the
piece.
Jasper Johns -Flag
• Recognizable imagery
• Encaustic painting of an
American flag 3’6”x 5’
5/8”
• Under the flag are
newspaper clippings
(unusual context);
because the wax is
translucent one can see
the newspaper
Robert Rauschenberg
• Used scraps of
newspaper, photographs
and discarded materials
to make his assemblages
• Collected items from the
environment
• “Painting relates to both
art and life. Neither can
be made. (I try to act in
the gap of the two).”
Robert Rauschenberg
• Combed the streets of NYC for materials to
use in his assemblage paintings, which he
called combines.
• He “combines” multiple meanings in his works
• Recognizable objects and images of objects
may seem odd when juxtaposed, but on closer
view his arrangements have connections
• Canyon
Canyon, 1959
• A stuffed eagle placed on
a pedestal shares a
connection with the
pillow suspended by
fabric from the pedestal;
the eagle is covered with
feathers while the pillow
is stuffed with them…
• A photograph with a
young boy, hand is raised;
echoes the pose of a
postcard of the Statue of
Liberty holding the torch.
Roy Lichenstein
• Comic-strip-style paintings
• Often used images from romantic comic strips
and war comics
• Re-created a melodramatic moment in his
paintings
• His paintings have flat areas of color
surrounded by heavy black lines
• His trademark – BENDAY DOTS …name
derivative of Benjamin Day printer, who used
the method of dots for printing color on cheap
paper.
Roy Lichenstein “Hopeless”
• Benday dots are solid dots
of color; RED on WHITE
give flesh tone; BLUE on
WHITE give the
impression of light blue
• When looked at from a
distance it looks a solid
block of color
• Lichenstein used this
method for an authentic
comic book feel
Andy Warhol
• Went to art school where he designed newspaper
advertisements for shoes
• Influenced him to develop the art of the
commodities – objects that are bought and sold
• Used graphic arts production methods such as
photographic transfer and silkscreen…
• These methods allowed him to make multiple
copies of consumer items such as Campbell’s
Soup cans, Coca-Cola bottles, and Brillo Pad
boxes.
Andy Warhol
• Even named his studio
“The Factory”
• Produced images of
1960’s pop icons like
Marilyn Monroe and Elvis
Presley
Superrealism (Photorealism)
• Still-life’s or portrait paintings with
photographic accuracy during the 1960’s and
70’s
• Audrey Flack and Chuck Close
Audrey Flack
• Realistic still-life paintings
that resemble 17th century
Dutch vanitas paintings in
both tromp l’oeil and
Symbolism
• MM real name was Norma
Jean; symbolism that tells
the story of her life from
childhood photograph as
well as references that her
life was cut short at age 36
Audrey Flack
• Flack included fruit, symbolizing life, some of
which a partially peeled
• Dutch vanitas paintings often had fruit partially
peeled to show how life is slowly being peeled
away
• An hourglass and pocket watch = passage of time;
calendar page of August month she died; red
lipstick perfume and pearls – her trademark
• The glass and small Dutch cup reference the
Dutch influence
Audrey Flack
• She commented…. images she saw were
almost exclusively photographic quality. She
remarked that much of how we see the world
is through photographs
• Flack used airbrush to blend away and trace of
brushstrokes.
Chuck Close
• Painted images of
average people, usually
friends and family
• Close revived
portraiture “Big Self
Portrait”
• Based on a photograph
• Very distinct and
recognizable
Duane Hanson
• Sculptor of the Superrealist
style, whose work reflects
American pop culture
• Created average American
people of the 1960’s and
70’s
• Tourists – a man and
woman in gaudy attire
• The man is overweight and
balding, the woman is
slightly taller with thick
lipstick and sunglasses
• Perhaps a retired couple?
Duane Hanson
• What is he saying about Americans? His he
presenting a stereotype of American tourists?
• He created many Realistic sculptures, a boxer,
weightlifter, a supermarket shopper and a sun
bather
• Took casts of the bodies of real people and
made either a bronze/polyester resin
sculpture of their forms
• Used real hair and clothes
Art and Politics
• Feminist and Earth Art!!
• Exemplify the politically charged climate of
America during the 1960’s and 70’s
• The era of the Cold War and the Vietnam War
• Peace protests criticizing our military
involvement in Vietnam
• “Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll” – Rock music
proliferated; social more became more relaxed
as younger generations experimented with
sexuality and drugs (Think Forrest Gump movie)
Art and Politics
• America was forced to come to grips with
social racial and gender inequality, that caused
protests and riots
• Amidst the political turmoil, many Americans
artists sought to use an unconventional way to
express their reactions
Feminist Art and Judy Chicago
• During the 60’s female artists began to use their
work to address issues of sexual discrimination
• Raises awareness of the significant
accomplishments of women
• Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party is an installation
piece, that is an artwork that creates an
environment of its own in a section of a museum
or gallery
• The Dinner Party alludes to 39 women that Chicago
believed should be recognized by having a seat at
“the table”
The Dinner Party- Symbolism
• Originally wanted 13
women (witches coven);
the number was
inadequate so tripled the
number 39 famous
women
• The table is a equilateral
triangle with each side
measuring 48 feet
• Triangle symbolic of
Mother Goddess
The Dinner Party- Symbolism
• Incorporated traditional women’s art
mediums – ceramics and embroidery
• Each setting had a distinct design with
abstract organic imagery resembling female
reproductive system
• Achieved UNITY with the same goblets and
utensils for each setting
Environmentalism and Earth Art
• Citizens started to preserve nature in the face of
growing industrial and the production of cars
• Artists began to create works that incorporated
natural materials and were placed in outdoor
locations
• The movement of art from the museum to
sculpture gardens into new contexts – as the
work acts as a dialogue to the site itself
• Earth Art is site specific, most are in remote
locations – the desert…
Robert Smithson’s – Spiral Jetty
• Disliked the idea of turning the natural site into
photographs and paintings – believed that it
could not be properly captured through a 2D
surface
• So, he created earthworks outdoors
• Drove around for inspiration
• Spiral Jetty, Great Salt Lake in Utah…low-level
scanning; that is he drove around until the site
conveyed shape or design in his mind
Robert Smithson’s – Spiral Jetty
• The Great Salt Lake he
visualized a spiraling
shape
• Discovered salt crystals in
the lake as having a spiral
• Moved tons of sand and
rocks to create the spiral
• 1,500 feet long
• Thus the design has a
dialogue with the site
Robert Smithson’s
• Diverse influences: Stonehenge; prehistoric
earth mounds in the US; used Minimalist
vocabulary to achieve the simplicity and
clarity of his design of Spiral Jetty
Conclusion
• Variety of movements
after WW II
• By 1945 the center of
the art world was
moving to NYC
• Abstract Exp (Gestural
and Chromatic)
• Color Stains
• NY School
• David Smith
•
•
•
•
•
Louise Nevelson
Hard Edge
Minimalism
Pop Art
Superrealism
(Photorealism)
• Judy Chicago
• Earth Art