Modern, Postmodern & Beyond

Europe before W W I

Kasimir Malevich

Black Circle

1913oil on canvas41 1/2 x 41 1/2 in.

Kasimir Malevich

Black Square

1913oil on canvas41 3/4 x 41 7/8 in.

Kasimir Malevich

Black Square and Red Square

1915oil on canvas28 x 17 1/2 in.

Dadaism Portrait of Tristan Tzara 1916 Geneva, Switzerland Artist: Hans Arp Dadaism – so called for

da da (yes yes) a child’s nonsense word or first word in German, was an attempt to rebel against the war and violence with art

A combination of random shapes and colors make up this work in a world that makes no sense – so should its art make no sense

This is a portrait of the artist’s friend Tzara a poet

Dadaism Fountain 1917 New York Artist: Marcel Duchamp Claimed Dada was French

for rocking horse to further confuse the meaning of the movement

Saw it as anti-art Claimed what mattered

most about art was who made it not its aesthetic qualities

Dadaism L.H.O.O.Q. 1917 New York Artist: Duchamp When the letters are

pronounced in French they form a pun that means this woman has a hot ass

He used puns to further undermine the stability of meaning in art

Duchamp, In Advance of a Broken Arm, 1915

Marcel Duchamp

Bicycle Wheel

1913assemblage23 3/4 in. high

Marcel Duchamp

The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass)

1915-23oil, lead wire, foil, dust, varnish, glass8 ft. 11 in. x 5 ft. 7 in.

Man Ray

Gift

1921flatiron with nails6 1/2 in. high

Surrealism/Automatism Painting 1933 Paris, France Artist: Joan Miro Seems inhabited by

abstract creatures in constant motion

Claimed he painted entirely from hallucinations

Automatism – drawing liberated from planning

Surrealism

Person Throwing a Stone at a Bird

1926 Paris, France Artist: Joan Miro “Biomorphic

Abstraction” Art taken from the

dream world and the subconscious

Giorgio De Chirico

The Melancholy and Mystery of a Street

1914oil on canvas34 1/4 x 28 1/4 in.

Giorgio De Chirico

The Great Metaphysician

1917oil on canvas41 1/8 x 27 1/2 in.

Surrealism

The Persistence of Memory

1931 Paris, France Dali was a Spanish

born painter The melted watches

represent that time is relative and not fixed

Many of his paintings depict the impossible and the dreamlike

Salvador Dali

Anthropomorphic Bread

1932oil on canvas24 x 32 cm

Dali, Soft Construction w Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War), 1936

Dali, Apparition of a Face and a Fruit Dish on a Beach, 1948

Dali, Hallucinogenic Toreador, 1969-70

Dali, Corpus Hypercubicus (Crucifixion), 1954

Dali, Sacrament of the Last Supper, 1955

Salvador Dali

The Metamorphosis of Narcissus

1937oil on canvas51.2 x 78.5 cm

Salvador Dali

Young Virgin Autosodomized by Her Own Chastity

1954oil on canvas

Max Ernst

The Robing of the Bride

1940oil on canvas129.6 x 96.3 cm

René Magritte

The False Mirror

1928oil on canvas21 1/4 x 21 7/8 in.

René Magritte

The Treachery of Images

1928-29oil on canvas23 1/4 x 31 1/2 in.

Meret Oppenheim

Object

1936fur-Covered cup, saucer and spoon2 7/8 in. high

De Stijl Movement Composition in Red,

Yellow, and Blue 1920 Paris, France Artist: Piet Mondrian Dutch by birth De Stijl means the style

in Dutch – the movement championed pure abstraction

Mondrian took cubism to its extreme and just painted abstract shapes and primary colors

Piet Mondrian

Broadway Boogie Woogie

1943oil on canvas50 x 50 in.

Abstract Art Bird in Space 1928 Paris, France Artist: Constantin

Brancusi Romanian born Brancusi favored

simple forms and shapes in his sculptures

It does not depict a bird but rather the flight of a bird

Abstract Art

Three Forms 1935 London, England Artist: Barbara

Hepworth Created shortly after

the birth of her own triplets – the egg shaped forms perhaps represent this event

Egg-like in shape and smooth

Europe before WW II

Abstract Art Reclining Figure 1939 London, England Artist: Henry Moore In a classical reclining

pose similar to the Parthenon sculptures

His admiration for Stonehenge and weathered prehistoric art can be readily seen here

He attempted to obtain that same weather & time worn look

Abstract Art Triple Gong 1951 Paris, France Artist: Alexander

Calder American born Invented the mobile Art that was

responsive to the environment; some of the shapes did not move intentionally as a contrast

Abstract Art Kouros 1944 – 1945 Poston, Arizona Artist: Isamu Noguchi Sculpted while in an

interment camp in Arizona

Used flat slabs of marble because they were inexpensive

Kouros is Greek for boy Carved and constructed

so it uses two opposing techniques; viewed from different angles changes how it appears

Demands that the viewer moves to see it all

American Modernism Winter, Fifth Avenue 1893 New York Artist: Alfred Stieglitz Leading photographer of

his day Taken during a winter

storm – shows nature’s ability to overcome progress

Hw introduced European modernism to America through his studio in NY

He purchased the 1st Picasso in America

American Modernism Yellow Calla 1929 New York Artist: Georgia

O’Keefe O’Keefe painted

flowers close up and animal bones

She emphasized the abstract forms and patterns of a flower close up

Many art critics say that O’Keefe’s work has many sexual symbols in it – she denied this completely

Georgia O’Keeffe

Music—Pink and Blue, II

1919oil on canvas35 1/2 x 29 in.

Georgia O’Keeffe

Jack in the Pulpit IV

1930oil on canvas

O’Keefe

American Modernism Aucassin and

Nicolette 1921 Lancaster,

Pennsylvania Artist: Charles

Demuth Took architectural

landscape of American cities and turned them into basic shapes similar to Picasso’s cubism

The title actually refers to famous medieval lovers

Surrealist

Guernica 1937 Paris, France Artist: Picasso Painted on a 11 x 25 foot canvas to commemorate the massacre

of the city of Guernica by German supported air force and Franco The city burned for 3 days – and thousands were killed Picasso captures the chaos in this work It was returned to Spain in 1981 on Picasso’s wish that when

Spain returned to democracy it could regain the painting

Photography Migrant Mother, Nipomo,

California 1936 Nipomo, California Artist: Dorothea Lange Lange included only 3 of

this woman’s 10 children to not cause widespread anger and resentment towards the upper classes

Part of a project by FDR to show that American farmers needed help and the FSA (Farm Security Administration) to give them aid

These photos are propaganda in style not just social conscience

Imogen Cunningham

Frida Kahlo Rivera-1931

1929gelatin-silver print

Imogen Cunningham

Triangles

1923gelatin-silver print

Ansel Adams

Monolith, the Face of Half Dome

1926gelatin-silver print

Ansel Adams

Frozen Lakes and Cliffs, The Sierra Nevada, Sequoia National Park, California

1932gelatin-silver print

Man Ray

Larmes (Tears)

1932-33gelatin-silver print

Man Ray

Prayer

1930gelatin-silver print

Man Ray

Minotaur

1934gelatin-silver print

Photography At the Time of the

Louisville Flood 1937 Louisville, Kentucky Artist: Margaret Bourke-

White Captured moments like

these during the great depression

Irony is key here as people in soup line form behind government propaganda sign

Futurists

Futurist Art Unique Forms of

Continuity in Space 1913 Rome, Italy Umberto Boccioni Called for the

destruction of museums and all existing art forms

Ironic his works are exhibited in many museums

“An image of speed”

Giacomo Balla

Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash

1912oil on canvas2 ft. 11 3/8 in. x 3 ft. 7 1/4 in.

American Regionalism/ Realism Nighthawks 1942 Chicago, Illinois Artist: Edward Hopper Captures the solitude and

loneliness of the American city after hours

Documented middle class American scenes is a realistic rather than abstract manner

Regionalism was a reaction against abstraction – American painters felt that abstract was a European movement and did not represent America properly

American Regionalism / Realism

Missouri Mural (section) 1936 Jefferson City, Missouri Artist: Thomas Hart

Benton Inspired by Mexican

muralists Project to decorate public

buildings in USA was funded by the Works Progress Administration of FDR

The radically anti-European Benton claimed art for American themes

Every aspect of Missouri life was depicted in this mural

American Regionalism They Also Found

Discrimination 1940 – 1941 Washington, DC Artist: Jacob Lawrence From his series of

woodcuts titled “The Migration of the Negro”

Shows blacks with no face and divided from whites who sit leisurely

Even up north African-Americans faced discrimination – it was not purely a southern phenomenon as depicted here

Abstract art as Propaganda

Beat the Whites wit h the Red Wedge

1919 St Petersburg, Russia Artist: El Lissitzky Abstract art was

seen as art for the masses; and as such was used by the artist as a tool for propaganda and information

Murals

Detroit Industry 1932 – 1933 Detroit, Michigan Artist: Diego Rivera Mexican born Rivera

had tremendous influence on the murals of Benton

Expose of worker’s plight and a plea for social reform

Modern African Art

Cocoa-Pod-Shaped Coffin

1970s Ghana Artist: Kane Kwei Coffin size and shape He was an informally

trained carpenter who made coffins in unique shapes

Modern Latin America

Diego and I 1929 Mexico Artist: Frida Kahlo Reveals the pain

of her all powerful and all-seeing husband who is always on her mind

Frida Kahlo

The Broken Column

1944oil on canvas

Modern Latin America The Jungle 1943 Havana, Cuba Artist: Wilfredo Lam He studied in Paris where

we can see Picasso had a great influence on him

It is a record of his reaction to being placed in a prison camp in Martinique by the Nazis

Density is focus and African masks

Modern Latin America Mona Lisa at the Age of

Twelve 1959 Colombia Artist: Fernando Botero Famous for his bloated

figures Attempt to show the

Latin American aristocracy’s gluttony and their ability to consume the land and its people

Botero

Britto

Modern Europe

American Abstract Expressionism Art

Autumn Rhythm: Number 30

1950 New York Artist: Jackson Pollock “Drip Paintings” Unrolled canvas on floor

and dripped, threw and splattered paint on it – he claimed he knew what he was trying to achieve before starting the painting although they appear accidental

Action Jackson

Abstract Expressionism

Excavation 1950 New York Artist: Willem de

Kooning Dutch born

immigrant Human figures can

be barely seen to arise throughout the painting

The red white and blue splotch in the middle suggests an American flag

Abstract Expressionism

Woman I 1950 New York, NY Artist: Willem de

Kooning Large brush strokes

with clumps of paint Here is his favorite

theme of the earth mother/fertility goddess

Abstract Expressionism Red, Brown, and Black 1958 New York Artist: Mark Rothko Russian immigrant to

America His art contained only flat

color fields and an absence of recognizable subjects

Made shapes fuzzy without clear lines

Believed these works allowed viewers to experience their feelings

Abstract Expressionism

Mauve District 1966 New York Artist: Helen

Frankenthaler Worked on raw

canvas, no glue or white background

Some areas were even left unpainted intentionally

Yves Klein

Anthropometry

1960pigment in synthetic resin on paper on canvas145 x 248 cm

Yves Klein

Anthropometry Performance

Galerie Internationale d’Art ContemporainParis, FranceMarch 9, 1960

Yves Klein

Untitled Fire Painting

1961charred pasteboard on wood50 x 38 cm