William Faulkner, recipient of the William Faulkner, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950William Faulkner, recipient of the William Faulkner, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950

Faulkner is the first American to receive this prestigious award

Civil Defense

Chapter Twenty-TwoChapter Twenty-Two

The Contemporary ContourThe Contemporary Contour1945 - Present1945 - Present

Chapter Twenty-TwoChapter Twenty-Two

The Contemporary ContourThe Contemporary Contour1945 - Present1945 - Present

An Era of Many Names:•The Nuclear Age•The Computer Age•The Information Age•The Late-Capitalist Age•The American Age•The Postindustrial Age•The Space Age•The Age of Globalization

ExistentialismExistentialismExistentialismExistentialism Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

“the crowd is untruth” Autonomous individual, self-examination; Christian Existentialism “Who am I? What am I doing here? Where am I going?” Attacked organized state religion; proposed “leap of faith”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) Moral relativism “If you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into

you” Sartre (1905-1980)

Implications of a world not rooted in religion Individual place, freedom, ethics

Toward a Global CultureToward a Global CultureToward a Global CultureToward a Global Culture Artistic satire of modern warfare

Joseph Heller—Catch 22; Thomas Pynchon—Gravity’s Rainbow; Stanley Kubrick—Dr. Strangelove

Global economy and Cold War Search for individual, social meaning in a

shrinking world of mass-produced consumer goods

Artist as voice of protest, hope Beat literature: Ginsberg, Kerouac

Allen Ginsberg Beat Poet

Edward Hopper, Nighthawks (1942)

Identity Politics since 1945Identity Politics since 1945Identity Politics since 1945Identity Politics since 1945 Civil rights for minorities (1960s-present) Second-wave feminism (1970s-present) Gay and lesbian rights (1980s-present) Growing sense of cultural pluralism as

Western nations become home to more and more people from different civilizations and as native peoples assert their rights

Juane Quick-to-See Smith, Indian, Indio, Indigenous (1992)

ArchitectureArchitectureArchitectureArchitecture

The Modern and the Postmodern

Le Corbusier, a European modernist architect: a house is a machine for living in.

“Le Corbusier-haus, Berlin”

How does this apartment house compare and contrast with other architectures we have studied: Greek and Roman, Gothic, Renaissance, Rococo, Neo-Classical?

American modernist architectureAmerican modernist architecture

Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) “Form ever follows function”

Wainwright Building, St. Louis1890-91With terra cotta tile organic decoration

Mies van der Rohe, a European modernist and admirer of Sullivan: “Less is More” The Seagrams Building, NYC

American modernist architectureAmerican modernist architecture Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959)

Function is accomplished through form Organic architecture Use of new materials: ferroconcrete Flow of space vs. obstruction of space Private home, Fallingwater Guggenheim Museum (1957-1959)

Frank Lloyd Wright: organic architectureThe Kauffman House outside Pittsburgh, aka “Fallingwater.” How is this house organic?

Frank Lloyd Wright: Form Follows Function: museum goers walk down a spiral ramp inside, viewing art on the walls in one continuous uninterrupted stream. ”Democracy needs something basically better than a box” The Guggenheim Museum, 1957-59, New York City

Atlanta’s Modernist High Museum: how does form follow function here?

Midtown Atlanta: Postmodernist Architecture.What is modern looking about this skyline? What isn’t?

One Atlantic Center

GLG Grand

191 Peachtree Tower

Frank Gehry, Postmodern Praguecomputer-aided architecture

Frank Gehry, Guggenheim MuseumBilbao, Spain

Frank Gehry, Furniture Designer The Wiggle Chair (corrugated cardboard); sofa and stools (molded polymer)

Peggy Guggenheim: the Medici of Modern Art

Guggenheim’s Art of this Century gallery in NYC

Pre-WWIIModern Art

Picasso’s Le Gourmet(1901)

What other modern artists does this resemble?

(see, this guy can really paint too!)

Picasso’s cubist style

Portrait of Maya with a Doll (1938)

How is Picasso moving away from the conventions of past art?

Postwar Picasso

Musketeer (1968)

Picasso has moved towards a very colorful, almost cartoonish geometrical abstraction. What elements of traditional realist art remain here?

Romare Bearden, American Cubist and collagist

Rocket (left) and Train (right)

Pre-WWII Expressionism

Munch, Anxiety

How is munch expressing the interior state of anxiety in this painting?

NewExpressionism

Francis BaconSelf Portrait

NewExpressionism

Francis BaconHead

NewExpressionism

Francis BaconThree Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (3)

Art Since 1945Art Since 1945Prodigious variety; numerous stylesProdigious variety; numerous stylesArt Since 1945Art Since 1945Prodigious variety; numerous stylesProdigious variety; numerous styles

International dilution of American art Refugee teachers,

artists Peggy Guggenheim

Patron of modern art

Painting Since 1945:Painting Since 1945:

Abstract ExpressionismAbstract ExpressionismPainting Since 1945:Painting Since 1945:

Abstract ExpressionismAbstract Expressionism Color field paintings

Color detached from imagery Artistic goals

Break with other conventions of art Feeling, not seeing

Jackson Pollock at work

Pollock, The She WolfWhat is being expressed here?

Pollock, Eyes in the Heat

What is being expressed here?

Pollock, Number 1 (1948) Freewrite

Adolph Gottlieb in front of his painting, Spray 1957

Adolph Gottlieb,“color field” painting Icon (1964)

The abstract shapes and colors evoke feelings and provoke assocations

FREEWRITE

Robert Motherwell, Elegy for the Spanish Republic n°34, 1953-54

Mark Rothko, Center Tryptich for Rothko Chapel, 1966, Houston. The panels of varying shades of the same color are meant to be meditated upon, much like Byzantine icons.

Painting Since 1945:Painting Since 1945:

The Return to RepresentationThe Return to RepresentationPainting Since 1945:Painting Since 1945:

The Return to RepresentationThe Return to Representation Consideration of the object; painting the

stuff of everyday life Jasper Johns (b. 1930) Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925)

John Cage’s “Happenings” Combine paintings

Andy Warhol Pop Art, popular culture, consumerism

Jasper Johns, Painted Bronze, 1960,

Robert Rauschenberg, Monogram, 1955-59, oil and collage on canvas, with stuffed goat and tire

Andy Warhol makes art out of the supermarketCoke Bottles and Campbell’s Soup Can

Roy Lichtenstein, Blam!, 1962Making art out of mass media and pop culture

Photorealism.Chuck Close, Self Portrait

Minimalism

Ellsworth Kelly

“Grey Panels 2”

1974

Contemporary Sculptureis playful, serious, creepy and wonderful

Contemporary Sculptureis playful, serious, creepy and wonderful

Continuity + Experimentation New materials, technical skills

David Smith (1906 – 1965) Alexander Calder (1898 – 1976)

Assemblage Disparate materialsOrganic wholes Nevelson, Cornell, Segal, Kienholz

David Smith, Cubi VII, 1964. 

Alexander Calder, Three Up and Three Downat the High Museum of Art, Atlanta 

What style is the building in the background?

Louise Nevelson, Sky Cathedral (1958) 

Joseph Cornell, two box works circa 1950 

George Segal, Bus Riders

Segal, “The Diner” (1964)

Claes Oldenburg, Floor Burger, 1962, Canvas, foam rubber, 52 x 84'

Claes Oldenburg, Clothespin, 1976, cor-Ten and stainless steel, Center Square, Philadelphia

Edward Kleinholz, The State Hospital, 1966

Christo and Jeanne Claude, Running Fence, 1972

Christo and Jeanne Claude, The Gates, NYC 2006

Nam June Paik, Megatron

Nam June Paik, TV Buddah, 1974

Nam June Paik, Nomad

Maya Ying Lin, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 1982. This view “closes the circle” of culture, as the modern memorial is balanced by the Ancient Egyptian-themed Washington Monument.

Maya Ying Lin, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 1982. This view “closes the circle” of culture, as the modern memorial is balanced by the Ancient Egyptian-themed Washington Monument.

The End