Impressionism
Characteristics include:
Scenes of daily leisurely
activities
Loose brushstrokes
Pastel colors (with blues and
violets replacing blacks and
browns)
Lack of a structured
composition (as compared to a
triangular Renaissance layout)
Natural lighting
The Impressionists
Edouard Manet
Father of Impressionism – joined the group in 1873, but never stopped using black
Claude Monet
‘Impression: Sunrise”, most committed Impressionist painter, repeatedly painted objects
over and over to observe how light affects color
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Rosy-cheeked people in social settings
Mary Cassatt
America-born, known for women & children in natural domestic settings, eventually
influenced by Ukiyo-e Japanese prints
Edgar Degas
Diagonal compositons, skilled at drawing, pastel, sculpture & painting, Teacher of Cassatt,
Racehorses, Bathers & Ballerinas
The Post-Impressionists
Post-Impressionism is a whole a term coined by the British artist and art critic
Roger Fry in 1914, to describe the development of European art since Monet.
It’s roughly the period between 1886 and 1892 to describe the artistic movements
based on or derived from Impressionism. The term is now taken to mean those
artists who followed the Impressionists and to some extent rejected their ideas.
Generally, they considered Impressionism too casual or too naturalistic, and
sought a means of exploring emotion in paint.
The Post-Impressionists
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Disabled poster artist known as one of the first Graphic Designers
Paul Cezanne
Large block-like brushstrokes; Still lifes, Landscapes
Vincent Van Gogh
Distrurbed painter of loose brushstrokes and bright, vivid colors
George Seurat
Founder of Pointillism; Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande
Jatte
Paul Gauguin
Rejected Urban Life and choose secondary-colored Tahitian women
MODERNISM
Modernism allowed artists to assert their freedom to create in a new
style and provide them with a mission to define the meaning of their
times..
Early 20th Century Art was influenced by…
• the beginning of the atomic age
• existentialism (Nietzsche)- “God is Dead”
• the invention of psychoanalysis
• Freud-inner drives control human behavior
• Jung-collective unconscious
• The Russian Revolution
• The Great War (humanity’s inhumanity)
• The Great Global Depression
• the rise of the “Avant Garde”
Sum up the early 1900s with the three types:
THE EXPRESSIVE (color)
Fauvism
Die Brucke
Der Blaue Reiter
THE ABSTRACT (shape)
Cubism
Futurism
Art Deco
THE WEIRD (form & fantasy)
Dada
Surrealism
Expressionism
The use of uncharacteristic colors chosen by the artist…
 to release of the artist’s inner vision
 to evoke feelings from the viewer
Fauvism: Matisse
Die Brucke: Kollwitz and Kirschner
Der Blaue Reiter: Vassily Kandinsky
Early 20th Century styles based on SHAPE and
FORM:
Cubism: Picasso
Futurism: Umberto Boccioni
Art Deco: Willem Van Allen
to show the ‘concept’ of an object rather than creating a detail of the real
thing
to show different views of an object at once, emphasizing time, space & the
Machine age
to simplify objects to their most basic, primitive terms
DADA: Duchamp
Started as a reaction to the horrors of WWI and
Nihilism
Began independently in Zurich and NY
French for “hobbyhorse”, but the word itself had
no meaning
Believed that reason and logic had been
responsible for war
Only hope was anarchy, irrationality, and intuition
Pessimism and disgust of the artists helped them
reject traditionArp pioneered the use of chance in artworkreleassed him from the role of artist
For Dadaists, the idea of chance comes from the
unconsciousness- influenced by Freud
SURREALISM:
Magritte, Dali, Miro, Klee
Most Dada artists joined the Surrealist movement
as well
Included many similar ideas -used Dada
techniques to “release the unconscious”
Exploration of ways to express in art the world of
dreams and the unconscious
Inspired by Freud and Jung - interested in the
nature of dreams
In dreams, people moved beyond the constraints
of society
Artists’ role: to bring inner and outer reality
together
Abstract Expressionism
The first truly American visual art form
that helped put New York as a cultural
capital (perhaps even above Paris).
Drawing from Surrealism, they
developed the NEW YORK SCHOOL,
which comprised action painting, Jazz,
abstract expressionism and
improvisional theatre.
This period of art was special because it
was the first to recognize art with NO
identifiable subject matter!
Jackson Pollock,
No. 5, 1948, 1948.
Two Main Categories for Abstract Expressionism:
Action Painting:
Jackson Pollock
Willem de Kooning
Color-Field Painting:
Mark Rothko
Post-Painterly Abstraction: Helen Frankenthaler
Featuring the work of:
Jasper Johns
Robert Rauschenberg
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
Jasper Johns
Known for assemblage (‘Junk’)
Sculpture
Considered himself a ‘Neo-Dadaist’
more than a Pop Artist
Jasper Johns, Target
With Four Faces, 1955.
Jasper Johns, Flag, 1954-55. POP ART
Jasper Johns, Detail of Flag, 1954-55. POP ART
Jasper Johns, Painted Bronze, 1960. POP ART
Jasper Johns, White Flag, 1955. POP ART
Jasper Johns, Map, 1963. POP ART
Robert
Rauschenberg
New little about art until he visited an
art museum while his was serving in
the Navy during WWII.
Right after WWII he went to an art
institute.
Robert Rauschenberg,
Untitled, 1954.
Robert Rauschenberg,
Monogram, 1955.
Robert Rauschenberg,
Canyon, 1959.
Andy Warhol
(1928-1987)
Commercial artist who became known
for his silkscreens of celebrities and
everyday objects
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,
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 COMICBOOK 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
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
Factors to consider:
Gravity
Elements
Environment
Audience
Physical Touch by People
Claes Oldenburg, Spoonbridge and Cherry, 1985-1988. POP ART
Claes Oldenburg,
Corridor Pin, Blue,
1999.
POP ART
Claes Oldenburg, Flying Pins, 2000. POP ART