THE 20TH CENTURY: MODERN ART

INTRODUCTION “Beauty must be convulsive or cease to be,”

said Surrealist spokesman André Breton Art concerned itself less with exterior visual

reality and more with interior vision The artist paints “not what you see, but what

you know there is” (P. Picasso) The sharpest break with the past in the whole

evolution of Western art Twentieth-century art liberated form (Cubism)

from traditional rules and freed color (Fauvism) from accurately representing an object.

Modern artists defied convention with a vengeance, heeding Gauguin’s demand for “a breaking of all the old windows, even if we cut our fingers on the glass”

The core of this philosophy (modernism) was a relentless quest for radical freedom of expression

The artist stressed private concerns, experiences and imagination as the sole source of art

During the first half of the century, the School of Paris reigned supreme (Fauvism, Cubism and Surrealism)

In the 50s – the New York School of Abstract Expressionism (Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning – “busted our idea of a picture all to hell”)

FAUVISM (1904-1908) The first major avant-garde art movement Fauvists (Matisse, Vlaminck, Derain, Dufy,

Braque and Rouault) changed the way we look at the world: they were extremely creative with the use of color in unexpected way

Public response to their art was hostile: fauves = wild beasts;

“raving madness”, ‘a universe of ugliness”, “the naïve and brutal efforts of a child playing with a paint-box”

Main influences: post-impressionists (Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne) and non-European tribal arts (Derain, Vlaminck and Matisse collected African masks)

DERAIN, “BIG BEN,” 1905

VLAMINCK, “LANDSCAPE WITH RED TREES,”1907

DUFY, “INTERIOR WITH OPEN WINDOW,” 1928

HALLMARKS OF FAUVISM (1904-1908)

Short-lived: “You can’t remain forever in a state of paroxysm” (Braque)

Intense, bright, clashing colorsDistorted forms and perspectiveVigorous brushstrokesFlat, linear patternsBare canvas as part of overall

design

TWIN TITANS OF THE 20TH CENTURYChromatic revolutionMatisse, “The Green Stripe

(Mme Matisse),” 1905

Revolt against realism – form (Cubism)

Picasso, ”The Blindman’s Meal,” 1903

MATISSE, “GOLDFISH AND SCULPTURE,” 1911

MATISSE, “DANCE” (FIRST VERSION), 1909

MATISSE, “LES BÊTES DE LA MER,” 1950

PICASSO’S BLUE PERIOD: “LA CELESTINA,” 1904

PICASSO, “IN 'LAPIN AGILE' OR HARLEQUIN WITH A GLASS,” 1905

PICASSO, “GUERNICA,” 1937

HARBINGER OF CUBISMPICASSO, “DEMOISELLES D’AVIGNON,” 1907

CUBISM (1908-1914)

The four “true” cubists: Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger

“Art consists of inventing and not copying” (Léger)

Analytical Cubism analyzed the form of objects by shattering them into fragments spread out on the canvas

Synthetic Cubism dismantled the form only to reassemble, or “synthesize”, its essential structural lines/elements

WHICH IS WHICH?Picasso, “Portrait of Ambroise Vollard,” 1910

Picasso, “The Studio,” 1928

PICASSO, A DOCUMETARY: HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=CCTG41OALHU (PART 1 – APPROX. 9.5 MINUTES; PART 2 – 10 MINUTES)

BRAQUE, “MANDOLIN,” 1914

SYMBOLISM IS THE PRACTICE OF REPRESENTING THINGS BY SYMBOLS, OR OF INVESTING THINGS WITH A SYMBOLIC MEANING OR CHARACTER. A SYMBOL IS AN OBJECT, ACTION, OR IDEA THAT REPRESENTS SOMETHING OTHER THAN ITSELF, OFTEN OF A MORE ABSTRACT NATURE. SYMBOLISM CREATES QUALITY ASPECTS THAT MAKE LITERATURE LIKE POETRY AND NOVELS MORE MEANINGFUL.

THE KISS BY GUSTAV KLIMT (1907-1908, OIL ON CANVAS, APPLIED LAYERS OF GOLD LEAF, VIENNA)

MODERNISM OUTSIDE OF FRANCE

Futurism (Italy) Constructivism (Russia) Precisionism (United States)

FUTURISM (ITALY, 1909-1918)

Features

Artists

Lines of force representing movement and modern life

Boccioni, Balla, Severini, Russolo

BOCCIONI, “UNIQUE FORMS OF CONTINUITY IN SPACE,” 1913

CONSTRUCTIVISM (RUSSIA, 1913-1932)

Features

Artists

Geometric art reflecting modern technology

Tatlin, Malevich, Popova, Rodchenko, Lissitzky, Gabo, Pevsner

TATLIN, “MODEL FOR THE MONUMENT FOR THE 3RD INTERNATIONAL,” 1920

PRECISIONISM, THE USA, 1915-1930

Features

Artists

sleek urban and industrial forms

Sheeler, Demuth,O’Keeffe

O’KEEFFE, “CITY NIGHT,” 1926

EXPRESSIONISM: THE FINE ART OF FEELING (1905-1930)

Distorted and exaggerated forms and colors for emotional impact

Two famous German schools: Die Brücke (believed their art work will be a bridge to the future; disintegrated in 1913) and Der Blaue Reiter (pure abstraction; disintegrated in 1914)

DIE BRÜCKEKirchner, “Berlin Street Scene,” 1913

Kollwitz, “Infant Mortality,” 1925

DER BLAUE REITERKandinsky, “Improvisation 31 (Sea Battle), “ 1913

Klee, “Blue Night,” 1937

VASSILY KANDINSKY, IMPROVISATION NO. 30, 1913. OIL ON CANVAS, ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO

DUTCH EXPRESSIONISM (1917-1931)

Tried to eliminate emotion from art Advocated a severe art of pure

geometry (De Stijl, “The Style”) During the chaos of WWI, Mondrian

(1872-1944) concluded that “nature is a damned wretched affair”

Mondrian decided to jettison “natural”, messy art for a new style called Neo-Plasticism, whose goal was to create a precise, mechanical order lacking in the natural world.

BRANCHING OUT: PROGRESSIVE SIMPLIFICATION OF NATURAL FORMMondrian, “Gray Tree,” 1912

Mondrian, “Flowering Apple Tree,” 1912

MONDRIAN, “COMPOSITION IN RED, BLUE, AND YELLOW,” 1920

BOOGIE WOOGIE BROADWAY (1943)

MONDRIAN: HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=B8BXJLVDP7U (2.09 MINUTES)

EXPRESSIONISM , A DOCUMENTARY : HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=DD5G9ZJFS9A (10.01 MINUTES)

DADA (1916-1922) Founded in neutral Zurich in 1916 by a

group of refugees from WWI, the Dada movement got its name from a nonsense word

It protested the madness of war. Dadaist artists felt they could no longer

trust reason and the establishment. Their alternative was to overthrow all

authority and cultivate absurdity. Dada was an international attitude that

spread from Zurich to France, Germany and the USA.

Its main strategy was to denounce and shock.

They hoped to awaken the imagination.

DUCHAMP, “FOUNTAIN,” 1917

THE ART CRITIC (1919-20) BY RAOUL HAUSMANN

GEORGE GROSZ, THE GUILTY ONE REMAINS UNKNOWN (1919)

HANS ARP, COLLAGE ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE LAWS OF CHANCE, C. 1919

DADA AND SURREALISM: HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=0BCOPHW1Y8G (2.24 MINUTES)

 

SURREALISM (THE 20S AND 30S) IN EUROPE AND AMERICA

Experiments with automatism Creating without conscious control Tapping into the unconscious Going beyond realism Attempts at expressing the bizarre and

the irrational; truths unreachable by logic

Two forms:improvised art, devoid of conscious control (Miró and Ernst)attempts at presenting hallucinatory scenes that defy common sense (Dalí and Magritte)

Miró, “Dutch Interior II,” c. 1920

Ernst, “Two Children Threatened by A Nightingale”, 1924

Dalí, “The Persistence of Memory,” 1931

Magritte, “The False Mirror,” 1928

SURREALISM IN PHOTOGRAPHYMan Ray, “Rayograph,” 1928

Weston, “Leeks,” 1927

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM (40S AND EARLY 50S) Claimed that art is not just the product of

artistic creation but the active process of creating it

“action painting” Stressed energy, action, kineticism, and

freneticism A reaction to the war that devastated two

continents Works of art were now not only irrational, but

, at their core, unpremeditated accidents Abstract Expressionists liberated themselves

from geometric abstraction and the need to suggest recognizable images.

The impassioned act of painting became an absolute value in itself.

GORKY, “WATER OF THE FLOWER MILL,” 1944

DE KOONING, “WOMAN I,” 1950-52

VENUS OF WILLENDORFTHE VENUS OF WILLENDORF, NOW KNOWN IN ACADEMIA AS THE WOMAN OF WILLENDORF, IS AN 11 CM (4.3 IN) HIGH STATUETTE OF A FEMALE FIGURE ESTIMATED TO HAVE BEEN MADE BETWEEN 24,000 AND 22,000 BCE. IT WAS FOUND IN 1908 BY A WORKMAN NAMED JOHANN VERAN OR JOSEF VERAM DURING EXCAVATIONS CONDUCTED BY ARCHAEOLOGISTS JOSEF SZOMBATHY, HUGO OBERMAIER AND JOSEF BAYER AT A PALEOLITHIC SITE NEAR WILLENDORF, A VILLAGE IN LOWER AUSTRIA NEAR THE CITY OF KREMS.[3] IT IS CARVED FROM AN OOLITIC LIMESTONE THAT IS NOT LOCAL TO THE AREA, AND TINTED WITH RED OCHRE. THE "VENUS OF WILLENDORF" IS NOW IN THE NATURHISTORISCHES MUSEUM IN VIENNA, AUSTRIA

WILLEM DE KOONING: ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST: HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=EM31IY2XQOW&FEATURE=FVST (2.53 MINUTES)

HOFMANN, “THE GATE,” 1960

JACKSON POLLOCK, “NO. 1, 1950(LAVENDER MIST)”

JACKSON POLLOCK HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=MICMDV2IK-Q (5 PARTS)

COLOR FIELD: ROTHKO, “BLUE, ORANGE, RED,”, 1961

STAIN PAINTING:FRANKENTHALER, “THE BAY,” 1963

LOUIS, “POINT OF TRANQUILITY,” 1959-60

HARD EDGE (1958 ONWARDS)Calculated, impersonal abstraction

Sharply contoured, simple forms

Paintings precise and cool as if painted by machines

Pigment-covered areas bordered by canvas stretchers

ALBERS, “HOMAGE TO THE SQUARE: ’ASCENDING,’” 1953

NOLAND, “BEND SINISTER,” 1964

POP ART (THE 60S ONWARDS)

Subjects from popular cultureCommercial art background Images from Times Square neon

signs, the mass media, and advertising

Return to pictorial subject matter Impersonal art; anonymous styleShiny colors, snappy design,

mechanical quality, glossy familiarity

WARHOL, “100 CANS OF CAMPBELL’S SOUP,” 1962

ANDY WARHOL, A DOCUMENTARY:HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=UHR4DID9ZGK (49.22 MINUTES)

REFERENCES

Strickland, Carol. The Annotated Mona Lisa. A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, 2007. Print