20th Century Review
SUMMARY – Modernism
• emphasis on materials or expression
instead of illusion
• a notion of progress & evolution
poet Ezra Pound: “Make it new."
 results in lots of “isms”
TRENDS
ABSTRACTION
KANDINSKY
FLATTENING OF PICTORIAL SPACE
PRIMITIVISM
EXPRESSIONISM
CUBISM
PICASSO
NOLDE
PICASSO
SURREALISM DUCHAMP
definition
Abstract art –– art which is either completely
non-representational, or which converts forms
observed in reality into patterns which are
read by the spectator primarily as
independent relationships, rather than with
reference to the original source.
Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms
KANDINSKY
textbook example
p. 396
ABSTRACTION
Improvisation 28 (second version) 1912
Oil on canvas, 43 7/8 x 63 7/8 inches
p. 389
REMEMBER THE
TITLE IN FRENCH
Picasso
Les
Demoiselle
d’Avignon
1907
CUBISM
PRIMITIVISM
Nolde, Dance Around the Golden Calf, 1910
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P
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M
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V
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M
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p. 396
Duchamp,
La Boite en
Valide
(L.H.O.O.Q.),
1919
DADA
“appropriation”
Gropius – Bauhaus
1926
Mies van der Rohe
Seagram Building 1957
listening example - DEBUSSY
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
(Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune) (1894)
-- exoticism, mythical pastoral
-- ambiguous (vague?) harmony
-- very little, if any, recognizable conventional or
traditional form
-- very well received at its premiere by the public; it
baffled the musical establishment
-- emphasis on sonority (timbre & colorful harmony)
-- called Impressionist, although Debussy hated the
term
Stravinsky
The Rite of Spring (Le
Sacre du printemps)
(1913; for very large
orchestra)
-- a ballet with a story line
written in part by an
anthropologist
TEXTBOOK CD
-- interested in primitive or
exotic materials; what is
behind the mask of
civilization?
Stravinsky
The Rite of Spring
TEXTBOOK CD
-- radically new: non-tonal,
harsh unresolved
dissonance, percussive,
brilliant orchestral effects,
extreme ranges,
rhythmically and metrically
very irregular and quite
innovative
-- a riot (somewhat staged)
at its premiere; much
publicity ensues
Schoenberg
Listening example:
Etwas Rasch
(somewhat fast) from
Six Little Piano
Pieces, Op. 19 (1911)
TEXTBOOK CD
Blue self-portrait, 1910
TRENDS
• DISSONANCE “LIBERATED”
• “PRIMITIVISM” – MORE GENERALLY:
FOLK MUSIC, AN ALTERNATIVE TO
STANDARD PATTERNS & FORMULAS
• CHAOTIC SURFACES, CONSISTENT INNER
WORKINGS
• EXPRESSIONISM
CHAOS v. ORDER
SUMMARY – after WW2
MODERNISM CONTINUES – PROGRESS &
MATERIALS; EACH WORK OF ART DICTATES ITS
OWN TERMS [POLLOCK, abstract expressionism]
CONCEPTUAL ART – ULTIMATE CHALLENGE TO THE
VERY IDEA OF ART, THE ULTIMATE CONCLUSION OF
MODERNISM? [SMITHSON Spiral Jetty]
POST-MODERNISM – QUESTION NARRATIVE!
[CHICAGO The Dinner Party]
Jackson Pollock, Lavendar Mist No. 1, 1950
compare
p. 420
textbook p. 436
Robert Smithson
Spiral Jetty, 1970
Frank Gehry
p. 444
POMO
CHARACTERISTICS OF POST-MODERNISM:
• QUOTATION, PASTISHE, COLLAGE
• CHALLENGES AUTHORITY OF “MASTER”
NARRATIVE
• FOCUSES ON THE “CONSTRUCTED-NESS” OF
NARRATIVE, AUTHORITY, REALITY
(“deconstruction” is not just analysis)
see p. 431
Judy Chicago
p. 440
Gentileschi,
Judith Slaying
Holofernes,
1620
FAMOUS FEMALE
ARTIST;
A CARAVAGGISTI
Hildegard
of Bingen
1098-1179
Abbess, scholar,
visionary, poet,
musician, healer,
spiritual leader
One of the earliest
“named”
composers in the
European tradition
Listening example
by Hildegard of Bingen, c.1150
• large intervals
• large or wide range (large ambitus)
• this is chant, but NOT Gregorian chant
music summary
ORDER & CHAOS
• SURFACE CHAOS/INNER ORDER:
Rite of Spring; serialism
• SURFACE ORDER/INNER ORDER:
minimalism (Reich, Music for 18)
• SURFACE CHAOS/INNER CHAOS:
chance methods (John Cage)
CAGE listening example
John Cage (1912-1992),
Sonata II from Sonatas and
Interludes for Prepared
Piano (19 pieces composed
1946-1948)
-- influenced by gamelan
and other non-Western
music
STEVE REICH
Preferred the term
“process music”
Formed his own
ensemble to play
pieces like
Drumming and
Music for 18 Musicians
definition
Abstract –– considered apart from
concrete existence; the genre of
painting whose intellectual and
affective content depends solely on
intrinsic form (Amer Heritage Dict.)
Roots of the term: removed from
(concrete reality); to pull away from
Mondrian – 1940s
BROADWAY BOOGIE
WOOGIE, 1942-43
50 X 50 in.
ABSTRACTION
p. 394
JOHN ADAMS
LISTENING EXAMPLE
NIXON IN CHINA
an opera about . . . Nixon in China
CD EXAMPLE
The Chairman Dances