Chapter 15: The Contemporary
Spirit
The Age of Anxiety
• The rise of the Cold War between the USA and
the Soviet Union (USSR) created this age.
The Age of Anxiety
• Post-war America
– Be-bop
• It was the revival of
improvisational purism in
the area of jazz.
• Charlie “Bird” Parker is
regarded as one of the
movements perfectionists.
The Age of Anxiety
• Post-war America
– The Beats
• These were the American
writers who quested for the
meaning of life.
• Alec Ginsberg was one of the
most prominent writers from
this group.
The Age of Anxiety
• Post-war America
– The Confessional Poets
• American women writers
turned inward in their
writing giving intensely
intimate accounts of their
lives.
• Anne Sexton was regarded
as one of the avant-garde
of this group.
The Age of Anxiety
• The Existentialists
– This movement
approached the idea that
the world was absurd
and lacked true meaning.
– Jean-Paul Sartre’s, one of
the avant-garde of this
movement, greatest work
is No Exit.
The Age of Anxiety
• The Existentialists
– Simone de Beauvoir
• She was Sartre’s female
counterpart.
• Her most famous work was
The Second Sex.
The Age of Anxiety
• The Existential Hero
– These characters emerge from the concept of
trying to find identity under insane conditions.
The Age of Anxiety
• The Existential Hero
– Ralph Ellison’s Invisible
Man is about a young
black man’s struggle in a
racist world that simply
wants to exploit his ability
but only perceive him in a
stereotypical fashion.
The Age of Anxiety
• The Existential Hero
– Joseph Heller
• He is best known for his work, Catch-22.
• The story is about the captain of a bomber who tries to
escape his commander by faking his insanity.
Art & Architecture in Postwar America
• The New York School
– Abstract Expressionism
• The concept was to express emotion through abstract
subjects.
• Jackson Pollock’s dripping and splattering style is one of
the most famous members of this genre.
Art & Architecture in Postwar America
• Modern Architecture
– Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
• He championed the
concept of “less is more.”
• His purist style became the
preferred concept of the
modern office building.
Art & Architecture in Postwar America
• Modern Architecture
– Frank Lloyd Wright
• He moved away from his “natural” style and began
experimenting with sculptural architecture.
Guggenheim Museum, New York City
Art & Architecture in Postwar America
• Sculpture
– Alexander Calder is best known for his mobiles.
Art & Architecture in Postwar America
• Sculpture
– Louise Nevelson used “found” material to create
what became known as assemblages.
Art & Architecture in Postwar America
• Black Mountain College
– This was founded in North Carolina in 1933 as an
experimental college dedicated to the creative
arts.
Art & Architecture in Postwar America
• Black Mountain College
– John Cage
• He influenced two of the
Black Mountain alumni
Robert Rauschenberg &
Merce Cunningham.
• He created a piano piece
by flipping a coin to decide
the sequence of tones
which was termed aleatory
music.
The Sixties
• Visual Arts
– Allan Kaprow
• He is one of the
founders of the
movement in which
a “happening” is
created where the
artist and the
audience are equal
partners.
The Sixties
• Visual Arts
– Pop Art
• The concept was to
incorporate massproduction into art.
By Lobo
The Sixties
• Visual Arts
– Pop Art
• Andy Warhol
– He was the avant-garde of the
movement.
– His “In the future everybody will
be world famous for fifteen
minutes.”
The Sixties
• Visual Arts
– Pop Art
• Minimalism
– This movement became the
“anti-expressionist” form.
– Donald Judd is one of the
famous sculptors of this work.
– Conceptual Art was the
concept that art might simply
be an idea.
By Piet Mondrian
The Sixties
• Modern Music
– Rock and Roll emerged with the focus featuring
electric guitars and strong rhythms.
The Sixties
• Modern Music
– Rock and Roll
• The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Sixties
• Modern Music
– Rock and Roll
• The Bob Dylan and his political voice.
The Sixties
• Modern Music
– Rock and Roll
• San Francisco & the
counter-culture
– The Grateful Dead
– Jefferson Airplane
The Sixties
• Modern Music
– Rock and Roll
• African-American
influence gives rise to
rhythm & blues (R & B).
– James Brown
– Aretha Franklin
– Marvin Gaye
The Postmodern
• This style encompasses stylistic hybrids.
• Renzo Piano & Richard Rogers
– Champion the postmodern passion in their
building of the Pompidou Center.
The Postmodern
• Pluralism
– Is the concept of no one style or influence
predominating art.
Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles
The Postmodern
• Pluralism
– Earth Art (Land Art) is the concept of merging
sculpture with the environment.
The Mud Man
The Postmodern
• Pluralism
– Installations
• Two pioneers in
this arena are
Christo & JeanClaude.
• These are works
that are created
at a site and then
dismantled.
Miami’s Pink Islands
Global Awareness
• Racial and gender focus becomes more
pronounced in the modern world.
Leeches by Jean-Michael Basquiat