20th Century Art

Why is it so… weird?

• Think of how much and how quickly the world has changed in the last 110 years.

• Modern art is a reflection of that turbulence.

• Cameras make realistic art obsolete.

• Mass production makes art marketable

• Like the mannerists who followed Michelangelo and co., the artists of the 20th century valued originality and innovation over just beauty.– If you can’t please the public, shock it.

• Realistic doesn’t equal “good” art. Instead, go back to the 4 questions:– What do I see?– What do I know about what I see?– What was the artist trying to do/say?– How successful was he/she?

The Moderns1900-1914

Matisse• Not realistic

– Simple lines & figures – Bright colors– Not concerned about

distance /three-dimensionality

La Danse, 1910

Fauves“Wild Beasts”

• French artists Inspired by African and Oceanic art

= Modern art that looks primitive

Derain,

Landscape at Cassis,

1907

Pablo Picasso1881-1973

• The master of many styles and mediums• Early paintings are very realistic

• The most famous and the greatest artist of the 20th century

Science and Charity, 1897

• Painted the outcasts of society; lived in total poverty.

• Went through periods of color dominance:– The Blue Period– The Rose Period

• With his friend, Georges Braque, developed Cubism

Life, 1903

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon1907

Cubism

• Shatter a glass sculpture, pick up the pieces, glue them on a canvas = Cubism!

• Shows several different perspectives of the same subject at the same time

• Like a round world sliced up to show all the parts.(Remember, this is the same time that Einstein’s

coming up with the theory of relativity/the 4th dimension!)

• Background and foreground overlap, the subject dissolves into pattern.

Carafe, Jug, and Fruit Bowl

1909

L’Accordeoniste,

1911

Guernica1937

On April 27, 1937, Franco (Spain’s dictator) gave Hitler permission to test their new air bombs on a village in northern Spain, Guernica.

When Picasso read accounts of it in the newspapers, he immediately began the plans for the 286 square-foot mural, Guernica.

Guernica

Abstract Art

• Simplifies things – a man = a stick figure, a squiggle = a wave, red = anger

• It’s about symbolism, capturing the essence of reality in a few lines and colors

• Think “visual music” (this is when jazz was developed in America)

Wassily Kandinsky(1866-1944)

Patterns that are just beautiful, even if they don’t “mean” anything

Composition VII, 1913

Piet Mondrain

Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red, 1937-1942

Painting at its most basic elements:black lines + white canvas + primary colors

Henry Moore1898-1986

“Carved the human body with the epic scale and restless poses of Michelangelo but with the crude rocks and simple lines of the Primitives.”

Expressionism• WWI left 10 million dead and killed the

optimism and faith in mankind that lead Europe since the Renaissance.

Postwar Europe = Cynicism and decadence

• Artists “expressed” their disgust by showing a distorted reality that emphasized the ugly.

- Lurid colors and simplified figures of the Fauves, but with a haunted, harsh tone.

The Scream, Edvard Munch,

1893(during the Post-Impressionist

period, but still a model of Expressionism)

Compare the two versions of terror, less than 75 years apart.

Dada

• Artistic grief became twisted humor

+ resentment of the bourgeoisie/pompous intellectuals

= Art that is outrageous, offensive, and meant to give traditional culture the finger.

Fountain, Marcel Duchamp, 1917

Surrealism

• “Beyond realism” – a mixed bag of reality

• A juxtaposition of images that you have to try to connect.

• If it doesn’t connect, then the artist has still forced you to think in new ways = success!

• Sigmund Freud also came along, introducing the idea of the subconscious and the importance of dreams.

Salvador Dali(1904-1989)

• Most famous surrealist

• Painted, with amazing realism, “random” objects to create an emotional punch.

Dali, Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening, 1944

Dali, Madonna of Port Lligat, 1940

The Persistence of Memory, 1931

Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931

The Treachery of Images, 1929

Guernica = A blend of Surrealism and Cubism

And then…

World War II

Art = Propaganda

Abstract Expressionism

• Expressing emotions using only color and form

• The act of creation becomes more important than the final product

Jackson Pollock, The She Wolf, 1943

Pollock, Silver over Black, White, Yellow, and Red, 1948

Pop Art

• The consumer = king!

• Art created from “pop”-ular objects, mocking pop culture by embracing it.

Andy Warhol(1928-1987)

Campbell’s Soup Cans, 1962 Marilyn Monroe, 1962

Ray Lichtenstein (1923-1997)

Drowning Girl, 1963

Post-Modernism1970-present

• Art = big business• Every object can be artistic, it just depends on

contextInstallations: An artist takes over an entire roomAssemblages: Recycle trash into larger sculpturesNatural Objects: Art from nature’s objectsInteraction: Viewer participationConceptual Art: The idea/concept is the keyDeconstruction: Changing the familiar/Put a familiar

object in a new settingPerformance Art: Mixed-media live performance

Installation Art

Rachel Whiteread,

Embankment,

2005

Assemblages

Raoul Hausmann,

Mechanical Head,

1920

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty (The Great Salt Lake), 1970

Natural Art

Interactive Art

Conceptual Art

Joseph Kosuth,

One and Three Chairs,

1965

Christo and Jean-Claude, The Gates, 2005

Christo and Jean-Claude,

The Umbrellas, 1991

Deconstruction

Performance Art

Video Clip:

“Over the Moon”, from the play Rent, Jonathan Larsen