Post-WWII Art
Modernism has seen it all…
Malevich, Black Square, 1913
Minimalism by a Suprematist--based on fundamental geometric
forms
Robert
Rauschenberg,
White Painting,
1951
Deconstructive art of
the 50s and 60s follows
the lead of Dada,
Cubism, taking the
essence of art to a
minimalist place
World Events, 1945-70
•
•
•
•
•
•
1945--- atomic bomb dropped by the
Americans on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
1947--- India gains independence from
Great Britain…Ghandi leads with nonviolent protest
1949---Chinese Communist Party takes
over all of mainland China under Mao
Zedong
1950s--- North vs South Korean War
1960s---Vietnam War; uprisings in South
America; Arab/Israeli conflict; liberation
of many African and Caribbean countries
1960s USA: social revolution---Flower
Power, Women’s Lib, Civil Rights---rich
material of power and identity for artists
Francis Bacon, British, Painting, 1946,
“brutality of fact”, no glorification---crucifixion
is a carcass, blood red and raw
1945-70
Despair
Alienation
Disillusion
• WWI (Europe),
10 million dead;
WWII (global),
35 million dead
• Existentialism,
Atheism--Sartre…Without
God,
is there
meaninglessness
?
Alberto Giacometti, Swiss, Man Pointing, 1947, 70” tall
(lifesized), clay then cast in bronze. At the Met in NYC.
Thin man is surrounded by mass of air, isolation, fragility.
Giacometti is a friend of Sartre.
Life is uneasy…Art Brut
Jean Dubuffet, Uneasy Life, 1953, French
Scratchings of the insane, children, tortured life.
Impasto of plaster, glue, sand
Abstract Expressionism --1940-1960s
• After WWII, art center
shifts from Paris to NYC
• Direct from Kandinsky…
• NO ILLUSION…paint is
the subject
• In NY, the goal is to
create an emotion
through non-figurative
abstraction
• Two styles develop:
gestural abstraction
(ACTION) Pollock
vs
• chromatic abstraction
(COLOR FIELD) Rothko
Untitled, 1942
Lee Krasner was an abstract
expressionist and wife of Jackson
Pollock. In the 50s and 60s, how do
you think she may have struggled
with her dual role? Celebrated
Abstract Expressionist, Hans
Hofmann, was to have said: ” This is
so good you would not know that it
was painted by a woman.”
Hofmann, The Golden Wall, 1961… my
favorite as a little girl! From Germany,
Hofmann was a bridge between
expressionist schools
ACTION---Gestural Abstraction
Jackson Pollock, #1, 1950
7 feet x 10 feet…huge! Drip painting technique with canvas
on the floor (also used pour painting). Used acrylics, a new
painting medium with much quicker drying time. Represents
the collective unconscious; was an alcoholic…finally died in a
car crash due to drunk driving at age 44
Willem de Kooning, Woman I, 1950
Dutch, moved to NYC in 1930s; work both figurative and strictly abstract…based on
expressive emotional energy of his movements while painting
COLOR FIELD
(a term later used)
---
Chromatic Abstraction
Barnett Newman, Heroicus Sublimis, 1950
Zips on color, 11 feet x 18 feet. Anticipates the label, “post-painterly abstraction”
Mark Rothko,
#14, 1960
“color is the doorway to
reality”. Pure emotion
and spirituality.
Abstract Expressionism
Clyfford Still, 1948-C
Shifted from figural to abstract in
1938-42, earlier than
contemporaries. Was from the
west coast, although showed in
NYC. For early abstract
expressionists, active brushstrokes
and monumental scale were to
carry universal themes of life,
struggle, death.
POST-PAINTERLY ABSTRACTION--1964-70s
•
•
•
•
•
•
1960s American movement—cool and
detached purity. (Minimalism later in the
decade follows this path)
Eliminate all brushstrokes and emotive
subject. No depth.
Find the essential elements…make it strictly
2-D as canvas is a flat plane. 3-D is illusion.
Large canvases often with irregular shapes
“Post-Painterly Abstraction” is a term
coined in 1964 by art critic, Clement
Greenberg, to describe works not imbued
with strong personal reaction or painterly
qualities.
MINIMALISM pushes the PostPainterly envelope. Systematic
exploration of shape…repetition,
symmetry…control over
chance…mechanical finish. Frank
Stella and Donald Judd.
Ellsworth Kelly, Red, Blue, Green, 1963
Pioneer of 60s Minimalism:
Frank Stella, Mas o Menos,
shaped canvas, 1964 (“more
or less”)
Color Field-Abstract Expressionist-Post-Painterly Abstraction
What should you call it? Many labels to define the same artwork
Helen Frankenthaler, The Bay, 1963. Stained canvases with diluted acrylic paint.
Not emotional (like Rothko) but formalist resolution of work. “Color field” is generally used to describe more
detached works of the ‘60s such as Frankenthaler’s. Rothko, on the other hand, is labeled a “chromatic
abstractionist.” Keep in mind, though, that these labels are usually produced by art critics or producers to
describe or sell a show.
A large canvas of Frankenthaler’s can be seen at the National Gallery-East Wing—in the 2nd floor lobby area.
Post-Painterly Abstraction
Color Field
Morris Louis, Saraband, 1959,
An admirer of Frankenthaler, Louis’s works involve pouring
distinct stripes of color in fluid lines down large canvases. Part of
the Washington (DC) Color School of the 60s.
Shift from post-war anxiety of 50s
to vibrancy of the 60s. Term
“color field” is dubbed.
An optimistic and youthful
energy
Post-Painterly Abstraction
vs
Minimalism
Morris Louis, Alpha-Pi, 1961
8’6”x14’9”, acrylic, at the Met in NYC
“Unfurleds”. Organically flowing rivulets of pure
color with only the slightest reference to nature or
self. Flat color flows on its own not with sense of
human hand. Louis died following year of lung
cancer at age 49.
Frank Stella, Harran II,( protractor series)
1967
6’x10’8”, flourescent polymer paint on canvas
Mathematical and scientific--Deliberation over spontaneity. No interpretation---the
enjoyment of seeing the visual form should be enough.
Formalism pushed to its end result.
MODERN ABSTRACT SCULPTURE—
1950-70s
well, not sculpture but “stacks”
also Donald Judd,
Untitled, 1969
Minimalism=a modern style where the least
possible number of elements are used to reduce
the concept to its simplest form. Compositions are
often untitled. Had its peak in the 1960s and 70s.
Donald Judd, Untitled, 1969, plexiglass. Several versions of his stacked pieces…one at Hirshhorn.
Artpiece is a stack work, cantilevered from the wall. Judd is seen as one of the most influential Minimalist artists by
historians, but soundly rejected the label himself. Depersonalized art to create pure forms….used “real materials in
real space.” Power is in the purity of materials and character as a whole.
MODERN SCULPTURE—1950-70s
David Smith, Cubi XVIII, 1964
Abstract, minimalist. Considers sunlight
effects on metal, outdoor habitat, burnished
metal with steel wool for texture
Tony Smith, Die, 1962
Minimalist style---no identified subject,
texture, color. Steel and terra cotta box.
6’x6’x6’. NO ILLUSION, NO
DECEPTION…object as object. Only two
sides can be seen at one time. Relativity
in meaning. What could “die” mean? 6
feet under? Random throw of the dice?
Fabrication as die cut? Die as in dead?
MODERN SCULPTURE—1950-70s
Louise Bourgeois, Cumul I, 1969,
approx 2’x4’x4’, marble on wood plinth
Biomorphic form a la Miro…shapes take on their own
life…Organic, sensuous and suggestive. Anthropomorphic
shapes of betrayal and anxiety.
Louise Nevelson, Tropical Garden, II,
1957
Found objects, painted wood, 99”x133” ASSEMBLAGE
Russian immigrant more than minimalist…references Dada,
Surrealism. “Art needs an aesthetic surprise.” Sought the
inbetween place of one state to another…lyrical, mysterious