Objectives
• Grasp the speed of change in art in our own time.
• Recognize the emergence of New York as a major
•
•
•
cultural capital.
Recognize the growth of "borderless" art.
Appreciate the extent to which much of the
developments in art represent conversations of art with
art.
Analyze the role that liberation movements (feminist,
color, third world) have had on both art and patronage.
Historical Context
• United States and Soviet Union = Cold
War
• Capitalism V. Communism
– Policy of Containment
• Artists reflect state of humanity
– EXISTENTIALISM
• New York = The New Paris
Francis Bacon
• Draws on Expressionist work
– Van Gogh
– Munch
– Picasso
• Took Diego Velazquez’s Pope Innocent X
• Figure in a claustrophobic box
• Black Void
• Slaughterhouses = Crucifixion
Velazquez
Bacon
Head Surrounded
by Sides of Beef
Francis Bacon
1954
Abstract Expressionism
• NO identifiable subject matter
• Made New York art capital
• Inspired by Surrealism
• Action Painting
• Color Field Painting
Two Categories for Abstract Expressionism:
Action Painting
Color-Field Painting
• Jackson Pollock:
– Surrealism
– Feelings
– Drip Technique
He sometimes applied paint
directly from the tube, and at times
also used aluminum paint to
achieve a glittery effect. His
vigorous attack on the canvas and
intense devotion to the very act of
painting led to the term "action
painting."
“On the floor I am more at
ease, I feel nearer, more a part
of the painting, since this way I
can walk around in it, work from
the four sides and be literally
`in' the painting.”
Jackson Pollock, 1947.
Died in a drunk driving
accident in 1956
Jackson Pollock, Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952.
Jackson Pollock, Lavender Mist: Number 1, 1950.
Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm: Number 30, 1950.
Mark Rothko
(1903-1997)
•Emigrated to the United States from
Russia in 1913
•Part of the New York School
•Used bands of color as the only true
means of capturing feeling
Rothko paintings on display
Mark Rothko, No.10, 1950.
By 1950 Rothko had reduced the
number of floating rectangles to two,
three, or four and aligned them vertically
against a colored ground, arriving at his
signature style.
From that time on he would work
almost invariably within this format,
suggesting in numerous variations of
color and tone an astonishing range
of atmospheres and moods.
Mark Rothko, White Center, 1950.
In 1954 he asked that his
largest pictures be installed
"so that they must be first
encountered at close
quarters, so that the first
experience is to be within the
picture."
Rothko after completing his painting, Black Square.
Helen Frankenthaler (1928-)
•Influenced by Pollock and Rothko
Post-painterly Abstraction
was a new movement in
painting which derived from
the Abstract Expressionism
of the 1940s and 1950s but
"favored openness or
clarity" as opposed to the
dense painterly surfaces of
that painting style.
Helen Frankenthaler, Other Generations,1957. ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
The first Jackson Pollock show
Frankenthaler saw was in 1951. She
had this to say about seeing Pollock's
paintings Autumn Rhythm, Number 30,
1950 (1950), Number One (1950), and
Lavender Mist:
"It was all there. I wanted to live in this
land. I had to live there, and master
the language."
Helen Frankenthaler
Seeing the Moon on a Hot Summer Day
1987
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
Helen Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea,1952. ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
Pop Art
• Gained momentum in
•
•
•
•
the 1950’s
Everyday materials
Mass Popular Culture
Consumer Goods
Famous people
Featuring the work of:
RICHARD HAMILTON
JASPER JOHNS
ROY LICHTENSTEIN
ANDY WARHOL
CLAES OLDENBURG
Pop Art was originally a U.S. and British movement in the 1950s and
60s to react against Abstract Expressionism
Abstract Expressionism
Focused on elements rather
than objects
Pop Art
Focused on recognizable
objects
Other Pop Art Influences
Fast Food restaurants in the
1950’s turned sandwiches into
a mass-produced item
Television and Commercials
made ordinary objects seem
extraordinary!
…Pop Art thus creates the beginnings
of POSTMODERNISM
Richard Hamilton
• Helped to pioneer the pop art style
• “Just What is it That Makes Today’s Homes
So Different, So Appealing?”
– Collage
– Borrowed advertising slogan
– Adam and Eve
– Modern comfort, progress, and success
Just What Is It That Makes Today’s
Homes So Different, So Appealing?
Richard Hamilton
1956
Jasper Johns
• Known for assemblage (‘Junk’)
Sculpture
• Considered himself a ‘Neo-Dadaist’
more than a Pop Artist
• Inspired by Duchamp
Jasper Johns
Target With Four Faces
1955.
Jasper Johns, Flag, 1954-55. POP ART
Jasper Johns, 3 Flags 1954-55. POP ART
Jasper Johns, Detail of Flag, 1954-55. POP ART
Jasper Johns, White Flag, 1955. POP ART
Jasper Johns, Map, 1963. POP ART
Andy Warhol
(1928-1987)
• Commercial artist
• Celebrities and
everyday objects
• Mass Produced
Andy Warhol,
Campbell’s Soup Can, 1967.
POP ART
What's great about this country is that
America started the tradition where the
richest consumers buy essentially the same
things as the poorest. You can be watching
TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the
President drinks Coca Cola, Liz Taylor drinks
Coca Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca
Cola, too. A coke is a coke and no amount of
money can get you a better coke than the one
the bum on the corner is drinking. All the
cokes are the same and all the cokes are
good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President
knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.
Andy Warhol,
Pete Rose, 1985.
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: (From A to B and
Back Again), 1975
Andy Warhol,
Pete Rose, 1985.
POP ART
When you see
something
gruesome over and
over, it tends to
lose its effect.
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol,
16 Jackies, 1964.
Andy Warhol,
Self Portrait, 1964.
POP ART
Andy Warhol,
Green Marilyn, 1962.
POP ART
Andy Warhol,
Mick Jagger, 1975.
POP ART
Roy Lichtenstein
(1923-1997)
•Created art with a
COMIC-BOOK style
•Colors are basic, blackoutlined
•Skin colors created with
BENDAY DOTS…
Just like the
COMIC BOOKS!
Roy Lichtenstein, Temple of Apollo, 1964. POP ART
Roy Lichtenstein, Bedroom at Arles, 1992. Screenprint. POP ART
Roy Lichtenstein
Vincent Van Gogh
Roy Lichtenstein, Go For Baroque, 1969. POP ART
Roy Lichtenstein
Cubist Still Life with Playing Cards,
1974.
POP ART
Roy Lichtenstein, House I, 1996. POP ART
Roy Lichtenstein, BMW 320i, 1977. POP ART
Roy Lichtenstein, Modern Room, 1991. POP ART
Roy Lichtenstein, Artist’s Studio (The Dance), 1974. POP ART
Claes Oldenburg
(1929-)
•Known for creating large-scale
versions of recognizable objects
Claes Oldenburg
Softlight Switches,
1963-69.
POP ART
Claes Oldenburg, Giant Hamburger, 1962. POP ART
Claes Oldenburg, Floor Cake, 1962. POP ART
Claes Oldenburg,
Clothespin, 1976.
POP ART
Claes Oldenburg, Spoonbridge and Cherry, 1985-1988. POP ART
Claes Oldenburg,
Corridor Pin, Blue, 1999.
POP ART
Claes Oldenburg, Flying Pins, 2000. POP ART
OP Art
• Optical Art
• Geometric Abstraction
• Illusions
Bridget Riley, Movement in Squares,
1961. OP ART
Bridget Riley, Movement in Squares, 1961. OP ART
Op Art is derived from the
constructivist practices of the
Bauhaus. This German school,
founded by Walter Gropius,
stressed the relationship of form
and function within a framework
of analysis and rationality.
Students were taught to focus on
the overall design, or entire
composition, in order to present
unified works. When the
Bauhaus was forced to close in
1933, many of its instructors fled
to the United States where the
movement took root in Chicago,
where Anni and Josef Albers
would come to teach.
An optical illusion by Hungarian-born artist Victor Vasarely
Bridget Riley,
Cataract 3, 1967.
OP ART
Bridget Riley,
Arrest 1, 1965.
OP ART
Spiral Jetty
• Robert Smithson
• Earth Art emerged in the 60’s-70’s
– Ecological Issues = HOT TOPIC
• Landscape = Medium = Site Specific
• 1,500 ft.
• Great Salt Lake
– Utah
• Spiral = Galaxies, Shells, DNA, etc…
Spiral Jetty
Robert Smithson
Salt Lake City, Utah
1969
Robert Smithson, 1969.
Sun Tunnels
• Four concrete tunnels
• 18 ft.
• Ends aligned with points of horizon
• Sunsets and Solstices
• Patterns of the 4 constellations
– Capricorn, Perseus, Draco, and Columbia
Nancy Holt, Sun Tunnels, 1973-76. EARTHWORKS
Nancy Holt, Sun Tunnels, 1973-76. EARTHWORKS
Vietnam Vet Memorial
• Maya Lin
• V-Shaped Monument
• 60,000 Casualties of the Vietnam War
listed in the order they were reported
• Points to Lincoln Memorial and
Washington Monument
• Black Granite = Reflective
• Influenced by the Minimalist movement
Feminist Art
• Coincided with the Women’s Liberation
movement in the late 60’s-70’s
• Challenged dominance of men
• Arts VS. Crafts
Faith Ringgold
• Born in Harlem in 1930
• Stories on quilts related to
African-American heritage
(Great-great-greatgrandmother was a slave)
• She is still a professor of
Art at the University of
California in San Diego
Faith Ringgold, Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles, 1991.
Faith Ringgold, Dancing at the Louvre, 1991.
Faith Ringgold
Tar Beach, 1988.
Faith Ringgold
Tar Beach 2, 1990.
The Dinner Party
• Judy Chicago
• Mixed Medium Installation
• Recognizes the accomplishments of women throughout
•
•
•
history
Triangular Table
999 Notable women on the floor
13 Place Settings on each side
– # Present at the Last Supper
– # of witches in a coven
• Place Settings = Domesticity
• Plates = Abstract forms of genitals
– “That is all the women at the table had in common…”
Ana Mendieta
• Sent away from Cuba during the Cold War
• Woman = Deeper identification with
nature
• Performance and Body Art
• Tree of Life Series = Maternal Source
Cindy Sherman
• Made-up self in settings that quote wellknown old movies
The Liberation of Aunt Jemima
• Betye Saar
• Attacked stereotypes
• Mixed Media
• “Mammy”
The Liberation of Aunt Jemima
Betye Saar
1972
MODERNIST ARCHITECTURE
“Less is
MORE.”
POSTMODERNIST ARCHITECTURE
“Less is
A BORE.”
AT&T Building
• Designed by Phillip
•
Johnson
Masonry and Glass
– Ode to the Classics
• Divided into three
parts
The top slopes down like a pediment,
including a space in the middle known
as an orbiculum (similar to the look of
18th century dressers)
Thin strips of masonry that make up the
center resembles the fluting of columns
Phillip Johnson, the AT&T Building
(New York), 1984. POSTMODERN
The entrance includes a massive
round arch, similar to a triumphal arch
or a Romanesque portal.
(Please note the modern-day looking
‘coffers’ and ‘rose window’)
Phillip Johnson, the AT&T Building
(New York), 1984. POSTMODERN
Pompidou Center
• Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano
• Interior Framework exposed
• Color Coded
– Red: Escalators, Stairs
– Green: Plumbing
– Blue: Air Ducts, Air Conditioning
– Yellow: Electricity
• Interior has interchanging walls
• Metal and Glass
The Pompidou Centre is a multipurpose
structure. It contains a public library,
France’s National Museum of Modern
Art, a theatre and numerous halls. It
was named after the French President
Georges Pompidou.
It demonstrates MODERNIST
architecture with its steel support beams
and functionality, but it’s mixture of
influences and lack of decoration and
make it POSTMODERNIST.
Richard Rodgers and Renzo Piano, The Pompidou Centre, 1977. POSTMODERN
Guggenheim: Bilbao, Spain
• Designed by Frank Gehry
• 1993-1997
• Asymmetrical Exterior with outside walls
• Irregular masses of titanium walls
• Curved Lines
• Deconstructivist Architecture
• Exterior = Ship Reference
Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, 1997. DECONSTRUCTIVISM
Sydney Opera House
• Three Buildings in One
• Concert Hall, Opera House, Restaurant
• Fanlike vaults = Ships Sails
Sydney Opera House
Joern Utzon
1959-1972