Mid-to-Late 20th Century

Late Modernism After World War II

Mid-Century Modern Architecture

Clean Lines / “Less is More”

Free from excessive decoration

Organic Form

Geometric / International Style

Le Corbusier, Notre Dame du Haut (Ronchamp, France), 1950 - 1955

Le Corbusier

Notre Dame du Haut

1950 - 1955

• Small church chapel which replaced a building destroyed in WWII

• Shape represents praying hands or wings of a dove (symbol of peace)

• Reference to Medieval Architecture

• Concrete over metal structure

Eero Saarinen, Terminal at Kennedy Airport (New York), 1952 - 1956

Eero Saarinen

Terminal at Kennedy Airport, NY

1952 - 1956

• Airport Terminal in New York

• Futuristic

•Scandanavian Modernism

•Simple curved, organic shapes

• Theme of Motion / “Wings in Flight”

• Two concrete “shells”

Eero Saarinen, Tulip Pedestal Furniture, 1957

Frank Lloyd Wright, Guggenheim Museum (New York City), 1943 - 1959

Frank Lloyd Wright

Guggenheim Museum

1943 - 1959

• Art Museum built for Guggenheim family (major American art patrons)

• Concrete Building

• Shape inspired by the spiral shaped shell of a snail

• Building slopes down from top to bottom (using gravity)

• Central atrium with natural light

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson

Seagram Building (New York)

1956 - 1958

• International Style

• Simple and Pure rectangular shape

• Mies van der Rohe helped change the look of cities – tall “glass boxes” (design easily imitated)

• Amber colored windows and bronze colored structure

Abstract Expressionism

• First major Avant-Garde art movement in USA (started in New York in late 1940’s)

• Abstraction expressing raw emotion

• New York becomes the center of the art world (no longer Paris)

Jackson Pollock

Action Painting

Focus on the creative process

Expressive feeling through action

Used sticks to “throw” paint onto the canvas (walked on the canvas) – artist literally “in” the painting

Jackson Pollock, Lavender Mist, 1950, Oil, enamel, aluminum paint on canvas

Jackson Pollock, Lavender Mist, 1950, Oil, enamel, aluminum paint on canvas

Large scale painting with drips, splatters, and dribbles of paint

Controlled Randomness

Energetic

Oil Paint / Industrial Paints (house and car paint)

Willem de Kooning, Woman I, 1950 – 1952, Oil on Canvas

Willem de Kooning, Woman I, 1950 – 1952, Oil on Canvas

Importance of Process – de Kooning repainted this painting many times (many layers)

“Rawness” and “Intensity”

Jumbled lines / Agitated patches of color

“Ferocious” looking woman

Other Abstraction

Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1961, Oil on Canvas

Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1961, Oil on Canvas

Harmony and Spirituality / simple and pure

“Color field” painting

Focus on Color / Symbolism of Color / Emotion of Color

Ellsworth Kelly, Red Blue Green, 1963, Oil on canvas

Hard-Edged Painting

Focus on Color

Flatness – painting as two-dimensional

Absence of “the artist’s hand”

Ellsworth Kelly, Red Blue Green, 1963, Oil on canvas

Comparison

Alexander Calder, Red Lily Pads, 1956, Kinetic Sculpture (Painted Sheet Metal and Metal Rods)

Alexander Calder Red Lily Pads Kinetic Sculpture 1956

• Alexander Calder invented the mobile

• Kinetic sculpture - sculpture with movement

• Calder’s work often references the natural world

• Earlier in his career, he exhibited his work with the Surrealists

• Later in his career when he lived in New York, he kept a distance from the artistsof the New York School

• Dimensions: 106.7 x 510.5 x 276.9 cm

Minimal Art

• Sculptural Movement began in 1960’s

• “Limitation of sculpture”

• Geometric forms

• Very simple, pure aesthetic (less is more)

Donald Judd, Untitled, 1961, Brass and Plexiglas sculpture

Donald Judd, Untitled, 1961, Brass and Plexiglas sculpture

Power of the materials (“message in the medium”)

Basic geometric forms (simple and clear)

Sculpture not intended to be symbolic or metaphorical

Pop Art

• Movement began in UK in 1960’s (later became more popular in USA)

• Art based on popular culture

• Art “for the people”

• Reaction against Abstract Expressionism

Roy Lictenstein, Hopeless, 1963,

Oil on canvas

Roy Lictenstein, Hopeless, 1963, Oil on canvas

Art based on comic books

Melodramatic scene / Romance

“That’s the way it SHOULD have BEGUN, but it’s hopeless!”

Used dots to create the look of comic book printing “benday dots”

Andy WarholCampbell's soup can series

Andy Warhol Campbell's Tomato Soup Silkscreen on Canvas 1961

Mass-production American IconSilkscreen (commercial form of printmaking used for t-shirts, etc.) Connection to Graphic Design

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962, Oil, acrylic, and silk-screen on canvas

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962, Oil, acrylic, and silk-screen on canvas

Marilyn Monroe, American Actress who committed suicide

Fame and tragedy

Warhol – artist celebrity

Reference to film and to Renaissance art

Comparison

Conceptual Art

• Intellectual Avant-Garde Movement begun in late 1960’s

• Idea is most important aspect

• Objects used to express a concept (finished product is less important than the idea)

• Questioning art and our understanding of art

Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965, Wood chair, photograph of chair, photograph of dictionary definition

Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965, Wood chair, photograph of chair, photograph of dictionary definition

Language and Vision (Text and Image)

Idea of what is a chair

Challenged “what is art”

Comparison