slides of history of

modern

art

class

IMPRESSIONISM

Claude Monet Impression, sunrise

IMPRESSIONISM

The Impressionist movement began towards the end of the 19th century.
The style of painting in this period placed a lot of emphasis on the play of
light, and how it could alter a scene and the objects within it
To better capture these qualities, artists observed reality by painting in
plein air and used their own personal vision to interpret this reality.

IMPRESSIONISM
Representations of the city/suburbs or the countryside instead of
historical or religious events
Common people instead of kings and the rich, the low
(cabarets, streets, etc) instead of the high (palaces, churches)
Focus on nature (light, time, color, etc) instead of culture (specific
families, historial situations, realistic depictions, gods, etc)
Painting landscapes and outdoor scenes outside, often working for
a very short period of time, when the light changes the
Impressionist stops working, returning on a subsequent day when
the light is similar (before the painter went outside to make
sketches and then did the proper painting on studio)
Unusual compositions, cropping and focal points in weird positions

Comparation to
Baroque Art

Above: Las meninas, from

Velzquez
Left: Bacco adolescente,
from Caravaggio

Comparation to
Neoclassicism Art

Above: School of Athens, from

Raphael
Left: Idealized portrait of a lady, from
Botticelli

Left: Wanderer above the sea of

fog, from Caspar David Friedrich
Below: The death of
Sardanapalus, from Delacroix

Comparation to
Romantique Art

Left: Bonjour Monsieur

Courbet, from Gustave
Courbet
Below: Gleaners, from JeanFranois Millet

Comparation
to Realist Art

Notice the differences between the previous paintings and

an impressionist painting like this one
(Boulevard Montmartre, from Pissarro)

Notice
the lack of details but the general impression of the
scene, the reflection, etc
the fact that shes a normal person from a lowpaid job, a
waitress in a bar, instead of a member of royal or rich
family, or some religious or historical theme

Claude Monet
Woman with a
Parasol

Monet
Waterlilies

Pissarro

Degas

Renoir

Monet - Graystaks

Alfred Sisley Vue du canal Saint-Martin

Manet Luncheon on the grass

Renoir - Le Moulin de la Galette

Degas - Rennpferde

Quick summary of Impressionism:

Light and its reflection.
Quickly painted surfaces (or the
appearance of quickly painted
surfaces).
Dots, dashes, commas and other short
brushstrokes.
Separating colors and letting the eye's
perception mix them.
Modern life as the subject matter.

POST
IMPRESSIONISM

POST-IMPRESSIONISM
In the mid-1880s, several artists began to distance themselves
from the Impressionist movement to explore geometry, color,
lines and expression.

These artists were called Post-Impressionists.

The most important Post-Impressionist painters included Edgar
Degas, Georges Pierre Seurat, Paul Czanne, Vincent van
Gogh, Henri Toulouse Lautrec and Paul Gauguin.

Key ideas
Structure, order, connection between color and shape
Symbolic and highly personal meanings (memories ,
emotions, ...)
Abstract form and pattern in the
application of paint to the canvas
(inspiration to later abstract art)
Geometric style (influenced Cubism)
or expressive style (influenced
Abstract Expressionism)

Edvard Munch - The scream

Rousseau The dream

Seurat - Sunday on La Grande Jatte (inventor of Pointillism)

Other example of Pointillist painting....

Pointillism

And
another....
(this one
called La
Parade, from
Seurat)

Self-portrait of Van Gogh using the pointillist style

Post-impressionism
Starry Night, by Van Gogh

Van Goghs Bedroom

Van Goghs
Still Life

Paul Czanne

Paul Czanne - Baigneuses

Also from Cezanne

From Paul Gauguin (exotic influences from his stay in Tahiti)

Some examples of application in design

http://nuagedesigns.com/impressionism-a-french-inspired-wedding/
https://www.etsy.com/market/van_gogh_inspired
http://www.collegefashion.net/inspiration/artistic-license-three-outfitsinspired-by-impressionism/
http://mashable.com/2016/05/27/delhi-taxi-fabric-designerautos/#ovE1d9flkEqK
http://designyoutrust.com/2016/08/solar-powered-glow-in-the-dark-bikepath-inspired-by-van-gogh/
http://blog.bandagedear.com/2012/05/color-palettes-for-homedecorating-inspired-by-vincent-van-gogh/
http://www.graphics.com/article-old/creating-impressionist-watercolorlook-photoshop-cs4-filters
http://www.chicagosplash.com/2013/06/21/impressionism-fashion-andmodernity-at-the-art-institute

F AU VISM
(the wild beasts)

Henri Matisse the joy of living

Other paintings from Matisse

Summary of F AU VISM:
COLOR! (pure, bright, not realistic)
Simplified forms (priority to color/mood)
Balance and flatness (color harmony, 2D
quality)
Ordinary subject matter (scenes from everyday
life, common people)
Expressiveness (emotion instead of descriptive
scenes)
Main influences: constructive color planes
of Czanne, the Symbolism of Gauguin and the
pure, bright colors of Van Gogh (Matisse also
credited Seurat and Signac for helping him
discover his fauvist style)

Paintings from
Albert Marquet

Andr Derain

Andr Derain

summary and passage to cubism

from fauvi sm to c ub i sm

CUBISM

Pablo Picasso - Les Demoiselles dAvignon (1907)

(young ladies of avignon, a brothel street in
barcelona)

His influences from

Matisse (fauvist
painter)

And from Czanne (both Picasso and Braque, the

main artists from Cubism, were influenced by him)

Pablo Picasso, Portrait of

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler,
1910

Georges Braque,
(French), La guitare,
1910

Georges Braque, Nature

Morte (Fruit Dish, Ace of
Clubs), 1913

Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937

Summary of Cubism
art going abstract instead of realistic
the rebellion of geometry (distortion of the scene)
defragmented objects reassembled in different ways
multiple perspectives mixed together
main artists: Picasso, Braque, Lger, Metzinger,
Delaunay, Lhote, Fauconnier, Gleizes, Gris
sub-genres: analytic cubism and synthetic cubism

Two types of Cubism...

analytic
vs
synthetic

ANALYTIC CUBISM
busy interweaving of planes and lines with the subjects (whether an
object, person or landscape) fractured, or broken up, making them look
rather like the surface of a crystal
subjects painted using a limited range of dark colours (blacks,
greys, ochres, etc)
there is very little tonal differentiation used: you dont see lots of lights
and darksthe general tone of works tends to be muted with a similar
dark tone used across the paintings
...versus SYNTHETIC CUBISM
Brighter colours and simpler lines and shapes
collage is used alongside paint. Previously cubism had broken objects
down to a grid of complicated planes (flat shapes). Now the artists built
up their pictures using collage and simple shapes. So instead of looking
closely at an object such as a bottle in order to analyse its shape and
structure they created a bottle-like shape from their imagination, making
this shape from a simple paper cutout or drawn outline
a range of textures: as well as collage, the cubist artists used a wider
range of painted and drawn marks. A smooth surface might appear
next to collaged newspaper or patterned paper; or next to lots of
roughly dotted brush strokes.

Some more not es on CUBISM:

~ was an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement
pioneered by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso
~ especially painting but also in music, literature and
architecture
~ variants such as Futurism and Constructivism
developed in other countries
~ main focus: objects are analyzed, broken up and
reassembled in an abstracted form, instead of
depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts
the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent
the subject in a greater context
~ Picasso's distortion of the women's faces makes the
painting a famous example of primitivism in modern
art.

Futurism

Umberto Boccioni
(Italian), The City
Rises, 1910

Futurism was an artistic and social movement that

originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized
and glorified themes associated with contemporary
concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth
and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and
the industrial city.

Giacomo Balla (Italian), Street Light,

1909

Giacomo Balla, Let Lastavica, 1913

Giacomo Balla (Italian), Abstract Speed + Sound, 1913

Umberto Boccioni, Charge of the Lancers, 1915

Paintings from Severini

Paintings from Carr

Also a movement in music and literature (composer Luigi Russolo and his noise machines)

Examples of graphic
design created by
futurists (notice the
industrial sounds and
the visual poetry of
the text)

Futurist architect: SantElia

Futurist sculpture: Boccioni

Summary on Futurism
focus on the industry, speed of modern urban life, the
speed and the noise, technology and machines, the
youth and the violent (contrast to Romanticism)
application of simultaneity (showing different versions of
the same object in order to perceive its totality)
movement in many fields: painting, sculpture, ceramics,
graphic design, industrial design, interior design, urban
design, theatre, film, fashion, textiles, literature, music,
architecture, and even gastronomy!
main artists: Balla, Boccioni, Severini, Carr and
Negreiros (in other fields: architecture of SantElia, music
of Russolo, the visual poetry of Marinetti, ...)
influenced many art movements: vorticism (e.g.
paintings on next slide), all abstract art and especially
dadaism

 Vor

Vorticism (an
example of the
impact of futurism)

The Anti-art movement

SOME CONTEXT ON DADA....

Dada emerged during World War I (1914-1918)-- a conflict that claimed the
lives of eight million soldiers and an estimated equal number of civilians. For
the disillusioned artists of Dada, the war merely confirmed the bankruptcy of
social, political, and economic structures that permitted and supported such
violence. From 1916 until the mid 1920s, a loose network of Dada artists in
Zurich, New York, Cologne, Hanover, and Paris declared an all-out assault
against not only conventional definitions of art but rational thought itself. The
beginnings of Dada, poet Tristan Tzara recalled, were not the beginnings of
art, but of disgust. THE FIRST MOVEMENT CHALLENGING WHAT WAS ART
Dada affiliates did not share a common style or practice so much as the wish,
as expressed by French artist Jean (Hans) Arp, to destroy the hoaxes of
reason and to discover an unreasoned order.
In Dada, visual art was considered secondary-- useful as a means of
communication, but of less importance than the ideas they communicated.
"For us, art is not an end in itself, wrote Dada poet Hugo Ball, but it is an
opportunity for the true perception and criticism of the times we live in.
Artists affiliated with Dada were nevertheless experimental in the ways they
made art, provocatively re-imagining what art and art-making could be.
They used unorthodox materials and chance procedures, infusing their work
with spontaneity and irreverence.
The climax of Berlin Dada was the International Dada Fair of 1920, the central
symbol of which was a dummy of a German officer with the head of a pig
that hung from the ceiling of the main gallery.

 Duchamp created the concept

of ready-made, a sculpture
made out of objects already
existing, not produced by the
artist
Take a moment to think about
what makes something a work
of art (and what makes an artist
the creator of an artwork)
Does Marcel Duchamps
sculpture fulfill any of your
criteria for something to be
called a work of art?
Marcel Duchamp. Bicycle
Wheel. New York, 1951
(third version, after lost
original of 1913).

Reflect on the function of these

objects (is the lost of any
practical use of them that make
them art?)

The Fountain the first ready-made by Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp. In Advance of the Broken Arm.

August 1964 (fourth version, after lost original of
November 1915).

Marcel Duchamp. Fresh Widow. 1920.

Marcel Duchamp. 3 Standard Stoppages. 191314.

Max Ernst. The Hat Makes the Man. 1920.

Kurt Schwitters. Merz Picture 32 A. The Cherry Picture. 1921.

Jean (Hans) Arp. Untitled (Collage with

Squares Arranged According to the Laws of
Chance. 191617.

Man Ray. The Rope Dancer Accompanies Herself with Her Shadows. 1916.

Richard Boix. Da-da (New York Dada Group). 1921.

El Lissitzky. Cabaret Voltaire Program for Merz-Matinen. 1923.

(example of dadaist graphic design)

El Lissitzky. Kurt Schwitters. c. 1924.

Francis Picabia. Dada Movement. 1919.

Jean (Hans) Arp. Merz 5, Arp Mappe: 7 Arpaden

(Arp Portfolio: 7 Arpades). 1923.

Jean (Hans) Arp. Merz 5, Arp

Mappe: 7 Arpaden (Arp
Portfolio: 7 Arpades). 1923.
TOP ROW (Left to Right)
1 Schnurrhut (Mustachehat)
2 Das Meer (The Sea)
3 Ein Nabel (One Navel)
4 Die Nabelflasche (The
Navelbottle)

BOTTOM ROW (Left to Right)

5 Schnurruhr (Mustachewatch)
6 Eierschlger (Eggbeater)
7 Arabische Acht (Arabic Eight)

Tho van Doesburg and Kurt Schwitters. Kleine Dada Soire

(Small Dada Evening). 1922.

Johannes Baader. The Author of the Book

"Fourteen Letters of Christ" in His Home. 1920.

Francis Picabia. MAmenez-y. 191920.

HANNAH HCH
'Incision With The Dada
Kitchen Knife Through
Germany's Last Weimar
Beer Belly Cultural
Epoch' 1920 (Collage)

RAOUL HAUSMANN
'ABCD' 1920 (collage)

RAOUL HAUSMANN
'The Spirit of Our Time',
1920 (assemblage)
GEORGE GROSZ
'The Pillars of Society'
1926 (oil on canvas)

MAX ERNST (1891-1976)

'The Chinese Nightingale'
1920 (photomontage)

Tristan Tzara - To make a Dadaist Poem (1920)

Take a newspaper.
Take some scissors.
Choose from this paper an article the length you want to make your
poem.
Cut out the article.
Next carefully cut out each of the words that make up this article and
put them all in a bag.
Shake gently.
Next take out each cutting one after the other.
Copy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bag.
The poem will resemble you.
And there you arean infinitely original author of charming sensibility,
even though unappreciated by the vulgar herd.

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

HANNAH HCH
'Incision With The Dada
Kitchen Knife Through
Germany's Last Weimar
Beer Belly Cultural
Epoch' 1920 (Collage)

RAOUL HAUSMANN
'ABCD' 1920 (collage)

RAOUL HAUSMANN
'The Spirit of Our Time',
1920 (assemblage)
GEORGE GROSZ
'The Pillars of Society'
1926 (oil on canvas)

MAX ERNST (1891-1976)

'The Chinese Nightingale'
1920 (photomontage)

MARCEL DUCHAMP
'L.H.O.O.Q',
1919 (ready-made)

FRANCIS PICABIA
'Love Parade'
1917 (oil on cardboard)
MAN RAY
'Object to be Destroyed',
1923 (ready-made)

More info

on

Dadaism

Dada was the first conceptual art movement where the focus of the artists was
not on crafting aesthetically pleasing objects but on making works that often
upended bourgeois sensibilities and that generated difficult questions about
society, the role of the artist, and the purpose of art.
So intent were members of Dada on opposing all norms of bourgeois culture that
the group was barely in favor of itself: "Dada is anti-Dada," they often cried. The
group's founding in the Cabaret Voltaire in Zrich was appropriate: the Cabaret
was named after the eighteenth century French satirist, Voltaire, whose novella
Candide mocked the idiocies of his society. As Hugo Ball, one of the founders of
both the Cabaret and Dada wrote, "This is our Candide against the times.
Artists like Hans Arp were intent on incorporating chance into the creation of
works of art. This went against all norms of traditional art production whereby a
work was meticulously planned and completed. The introduction of chance was
a way for Dadaists to challenge artistic norms and to question the role of the
artist in the artistic process.
Dada artists are known for their use of readymade objects - everyday objects
that could be bought and presented as art with little manipulation by the artist.
The use of the readymade forced questions about artistic creativity and the very
definition of art and its purpose in society.

Summary of D A D A:
The name 'Dada' means
'hobbyhorse' or the
exclamation "Yes-Yes".(or
simply doesnt mean nothing,
its the absurd, randomness,
pure fun and mockery.)
The Cabaret Voltaire in
Zurich was the birthplace of
Dada. After the war the
Dadaists relocated to Berlin,
Cologne, Hanover and New
York.

'The Art Critic',

by Raoul Hausmann

Summary of D A D A:
not so much a style of art like Cubism or Fauvism; it was
more a protest movement with an anti-establishment
manifesto (the artists from the movement were more united
in their ideals than in style, which range a wide variety of
mediums, materials and methods)
m a i n a r ti s ts : Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Hch, Johannes
Baader, Francis Picabia, Georg Grosz, John Heartfield, Max
Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Beatrice Wood, Kurt Schwitters,
Hans Richter, Hugo Ball, Tristan Tzara
Anti-War, Anti-Establishment and Anti-Art: confrontation
and provocation, replying to the absurd with irrationality ,
outrageous behavior for fighting against conservative
culture and traditions

Summary of D A D A:
Dada only lasted a few years but its impact was
considerable, it introduced and explored techniques and
concepts that we take for granted in art today: automatism,
chance, photomontage, assemblage, and the idea that an
artwork could be a temporary installation. They expanded
the boundaries and context of what was considered
acceptable as art, which in turn inspired future
developments such as Action Painting, Pop Art, Happenings,
Installations, Conceptual Art and post-modern art.
Dada was a form of artistic anarchy that challenged the
social, political and cultural values of the time. Dadaist artists
aimed to create a climate in which art was unrestricted by
established values.

One asian dadaist group:

MAVO (from Japan)

NEO-DADAISM

Summary of Neo-dadaism:
main artists: John Cage, Cunnigham, Jasper Johns, Robert

Rauschenberg and Allan Kaprow

movement started in the 50s, focused on America
challenges the notion of artistic authorship through participation by the
audience, the artworks meaning comes from the viewer's interpretation
of a work and not only the artists intention
uses materials from everyday life and mixes mediums, using chance
operations, creation of happenings and event scores
reaction to the emotionally charged paintings of the Abstract
Expressionists
instead of emotions focus on critical thinking generated by
contradictions, absurd juxtapositions, coded narratives, etc
influenced by Marcel Duchamp and Zen Buddhism
opened the way to Fluxus movement, and influenced Pop art,
Minimalism and Conceptualism
simultaneously mocked and celebrated consumer culture
disregarded boundaries between media and the dicotomy art vs. life

Some paintings of on
the most famous
neodadaist artist:
Robert
Rauschenberg

Ot h e r ne od a d a i s t mov e me nt :

Arte Povera
movement started in the 60s, mainly in Italy

a return to simple objects and messages

the body and behavior are art
the everyday becomes meaningful
traces of nature and industry appear
dynamism and energy are embodied in the work
nature can be documented in its physical and chemical
transformation
explore the notion of space and language
complex and symbolic signs lose meaning
ground zero, no culture, no art system, Art = Life
rejects scientific rationalism in favour of a myth world or absurdity
through jarring and comical juxtapositions, often of the new and the old,
or the highly processed and the pre-industrial
evoked some of the effects of modernization, how it tended to
destroy experiences of locality and memory as it pushed ever forwards
into the future
main artists: Pistoletto, Kounellis, Fabro, Anselmo, Manzoni, Pascali, Merz

The work of the main artist of Arte Povera: Pistoletto

Ot h e r ne od a d a i s t mov e me nt :

Nouveau Realisme:
main artists: Yves Klein and Arman, art critic Pierre Restany, others:
Dufrene, Hains, Raysse, Spoerri, Tinguely, Saint-Phalle, Baldaccini,
Deschamps, Rotella, de la Villegle
movement started in the 60s, mainly in France
focus on conceptualism, assemblages, performative paintings and
experimental poster art
they believed painting was dying and wanted to create artworks that
bring a different vision of the world (there fore the name new realism)
and that depict real objects over pure abstraction
considering a kind of european pop-art (but more similarities with the
american neodadaist movement Fluxus)
famous artworks from Klein: painting with nude models, International
Klein Blue, the empty exhibition
famous artworks from Arman: the full exhibition, junk art, assemblages
with repetition of objects

The work of the main

artist of
Nouveau Realisme:
Yves Klein

Ot h e r ne od a d a i s t mov e me nt :

F L UX US
1. Fluxus is an attitude. It is not a movement or a style.
2. Fluxus is intermedia. Fluxus creators like to see what
happens when different media intersect. They use found
and everyday objects, sounds, images, and texts to create
new combinations of objects, sounds, images, and texts.
3. Fluxus works are simple. The art is small, the texts are short,
and the performances are brief.
4. Fluxus is fun. Humor has always been an important
element in Fluxus.

Happenings
(the beginning of
performance art)

The rise of the Intermedia concept:

making art between different art
mediums (mixing for instance
sculpture, video, music and
performance in the same artwork)

The video art of Nam June Paik (Korean artist)

Fluxobjects from Maciunas, to be reproduced and

sold cheaply in Fluxshops (instead of unique artworks
to be sold expensively to museums or rich people)

Fluxus artworks are normally

interactive and experiential
(engaging different senses
and involving the
participation of the
audience, not only a viewer
but a user)

Artwork from Yoko Ono (Japan)

Alison Knowles
Make a Salad
Performance
(focus on the idea of
breaking the barrier
between art and life,
everything can be art if its a
conscious act)

Famous artists from the Fluxus movement:

Akasegawa, Joseph Beuys, Blonk, George Brecht,
Chamberlain, Jim Dine, Dick Higgins, Hjuler,
Jasper Johns, Allan Kaprow, Alison Knowles,
Maciunas, Manzoni, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik,
Rauschenberg, Shinohara, Wolf Vostell

Friedman's Twelve Fluxus Ideas:

1. Globalism (democratization and lack of boundaries between nations, culture,
society, art, high and low culture, etc)
2. Unity of art and life (there are no boundary to be broken)
3. Intermedia (a logical consequence from the absence of barrier between art
and life, it's a fusion rather than just a agreggate of different art forms
together like opera which still can be identified separely)
4. Experimentalism (artistic approach based on research and experiments,
innovating the concepts of conventionalism and what is art, collaboration as
main work paradigm)
5. Chance (reaction against routine from the fifties like the beat generation,
influence from dada and cage, related with darwin's random variation in the
sense that is evolutionary change rather than just random chance,
connected with experimentalism in order to create new possibilities that can
crystalize in new forms that evolve to future innovative realities, like the
generative quality of scientific experimentation method)
6. Playfulness (not only humour but also meaning free and uncompromised
experimentation)
7. Simplicity (the stripped-to-the-core elegant relationship between truth and
beauty, minimalism in terms of means and not exactly aestheticaly like
minimalism movement, the perfection of attention and focus on what is
essencial)

Friedman's Twelve Fluxus Ideas: (continuation)

8. Implicativeness (the work should imply a maximum of intellectual, sensuous or
emotional content within the minimum of material)
9. Exemplativism (the quality of a work exemplifying the theory and meaning of
its construction)
10. Specificity (the tendency of a work to be specific, self-contained and to
embody all its own parts, no ambiguity of meaning)
11. Presence in time (emphasis on time related artwork, questioning issues like
impermanence and change, for instance with performances, pieces that
degradate with time, musical compositions that use time as a core value,
etc)
12 Musicality (artwork that use scores like a musical composition, like event
scores for performance based works, instructions that can be used by others
to realize the work for themselves, with a connection to the experimental
approach to art that fluxus has, like science where an experiment is supposed
to be repeated by other scientists other than the one who design it, and also
with a connection to the social activism and democratization of art that
fluxus has and the believe that anyone can be an artist and realize a work,
the impossibility of owning an object of art, etc)

The group delivered a famous

manifesto expressing their ideas about
what art should be.

Asi an n e o - dadai s t g r ou p:

G U T A I

first radical, post-war artistic group in Japan

large-scale multimedia environments, performances, and
theatrical events
emphasizes the relationship between body and matter in pursuit
of originality
'gu' means tool, measures, or a way of doing something, while
'tai' means body meaning "embodiment" and "concreteness
freedom of expression with innovative materials and techniques,
including many mediums such as paint, performance, film, light,
sound, and other unconventional materials
the group developed a "collective spirit of individuality
Gutai art aspires "to go beyond abstraction" and "to pursue
enthusiastically the possibilities of pure creativity.
Gutai art highlights the method in which it is made, the process
of creation is very essential to the significance of the whole

Atsuko Tanaka

Sadamasa Motonaga

The group was very focused on performances

and live painting

sum mary of n eodadai sm

neo-Dada simultaneously mocked and
celebrated consumer culture, united opposing
conventions of abstraction and realism
disregarded boundaries between media through
experimentation with assemblage (3D version of
dadaist collage!), performance, intermedia, etc.
go beyond traditional aesthetic/beauty standards
inspired by Marcel Duchamp and John Cage
the idea that the viewer's interpretation (not the
artist's intention) determined the meaning of an
artwork (e.g. the silent concert and the white
paintings)

Abstract

Semi-abstraction inspired on
the cubists, fauvists,
impressionists,

Art

 vs Pure Abstract
Pure abstract forms through lines and
shapes, colors and tones, pattern and
textures
Non-objective (no goal, no message, art
for arts sake)
Non-representational (not from the world)
Visually the emphasis is on color
harmony, composition, balance, etc
Focus on the feeling and the expression

Artworks from Slobodkina, a pioneer of abstract art

Some types of abstract art:

Curvilinear

influenced by celtic or islamic art,

focus on patterns/repetition of
motifs

Some types of abstract art:

Color/light related

From figurative art to blobs of painting

(if you look close enough)
inspiration on impressionism

Detail on the painting

Waterlilies by Monet

Some types of abstract art:

Geometric (also known as concrete art)
Influence from analytical cubism (but going
forward into abstraction to not representing
something from the world), focus on the
explorations of shapes and flatness (it was
a reaction to the over-expression of
emotions of Expressionism)

Some types of abstract art:

Emotional or Intuitional
Tachisme, abstract
expressionism,
surrealism, etc

Using colors to express

feelings but also trying not to
think and bring out
sponteanity and our chaotic
subconscious

Some types of abstract art:

Gestural
Focus on abstract expressionism
and giving the most importance to the
process of painting itself (and not only
the final result)

Some types of abstract art:

Minimalist
Normally geometric shapes, stripped of all external
references and associations, going to the visual essence of
the shapes (without trying to convey messages,feelings, etc

Suprematism
pioneer movement on purely abstract art
supremacy of pure feeling or perception in
the pictorial arts.
inspired by the interest of Futurism in
movement and of Cubism in reduced forms
and multiple perspectives
totally abstract (it doesnt paint the world)
the zero degree in painting
simple forms and focus on surface
art can make us look at the world in new
ways (is transcendental art possible?)

Malevich, the main

suprematist artist, used
simple shapes as spiritual
icons

Malevich

Construtivism
influenced by Cubism, Suprematism,
Futurism and Dada (but political)
context of the russian revolution
art for social change instead of aesthetic
experience(communism politics)
composed with simple high-contrast
shapes and bold typography
failed and was replaced by social realism
main artists: Tatlin, Rodchenko, Lyubov
Popova, Naum Gabo, El Lissitzky

Alexander Rodchenko (Russian), Books (Please)!, 1924

Vladimir Tatlin (Russian), Model

for The Monument to the Third
International, 1919

El Lissitzky (Russian), Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, 1919

Great influence on graphic design:

DE STIJL

# De Stijl (The Style) also called Neo-Plasticism or New

Plastic Painting (plastic as material quality of paint)
# Inspired by geometric explorations of Cubism
# Main artists: Mondrian, Van Doesburg, Van Der Leck
# Mondrian: Pure abstract art becomes completely
emancipated, free of naturalistic appearances. (1929)
# They moved painting beyond naturalistic depiction
(e.g. use of perspective) to focus instead on the
material properties of paint and its unique ability to
express ideas abstractly using formal elements such as
line and color, emphasis on geometry and harmony
# Mondrian mainly used primary colors and simple
geometries to paint the underlying structure of reality;
and believed in the connection of painting with
philosophy and spirituality, and that the evolution of
abstraction was a sign of humanitys progress

DE STIJL/neoplasticism
the art going abstract!

Piet Mondrian,
Pier and Ocean
(Composition No. 10)
1915

Piet Mondrian,
Compostition with Gray
and Light Brown, 1918

Theo van Doesburg

(Dutch), Composition
IX, opus 18, 1917

Piet Mondrian (Dutch),

Composition with
Yellow, Blue and Red,
1942

Piet Mondrian (Dutch)

Broadway
Boogie-Woogie (19421943)

BAUHAUS WAS THE FIRST DESIGN SCHOOL,

Charles Eames and Ray Eames. Full Scale Model of Chaise Longue (La Chaise). 1948.

Walter Gropius' Manifesto:

"The ultimate aim of

all creative activity is a building! The decoration of buildings was
once the noblest function of fine arts, and fine arts were
indispensable to great architecture. Today they exist in
complacent isolation, and can only be rescued by the conscious
co-operation and collaboration of all craftsmen. Architects,
painters, and sculptors must once again come to know and
comprehend the composite character of a building, both as an
entity and in terms of its various parts. Then their work will be filled
with that true architectonic spirit which, as "salon art", it has lost." ...
"Architects, painters, sculptors, we must all return to crafts! For
there is no such thing as "professional art". There is no essential
difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an
exalted craftsman." ... "Let us therefore create a new guild of
craftsmen without the class-distinctions that raise an arrogant
barrier between craftsmen and artists! Let us desire, conceive,
and create the new building of the future together. It will
combine architecture, sculpture, and painting in a single form . "

Gunta Stlzl
Tapestry
1922-23

Josef Albers
Glass fragments in grid picture
ca. 1921

Josef Hartwig, Chess set,

1922

Vasily Kandinsky
Schwarze Form (Black
form)
1923
Marianne Brandt, Coffee and tea set, 1924

Herbert Bayer, Design fo

a multimedia building, 19

Oskar Schlemmer
Study for "The Triadic
Ballet , 1924
Herbert Bayer, Wall-painting on Weimar
Bauhaus building, 1923

Josef Albers
Set of stacking tables
ca. 1927

Lszl Moholy-Nagy
Untitled
1926

Johannes Itten, Circles, ca. 1916

Lszl Moholy-Nagy
Light prop for an electric
stage
1930

Lszl Moholy-Nagy
A 18
1927

Marcel Breuer
Wassily Chair
1927-28

Paul Klee, Fire in

the Evening, 1929
Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe with Lilly Reich
Side chair (MR 10), 1931

SUMMARY OF THE BAUHAUS DESIGN SCHOOL

# Inspired by constructivism and neoplasticism/de stijl
# Context: fouded in the 20s, world war I and civil war (and
the need for reconstruction of Germany), the Russian
example of communist revolution, etc
# Architect Walter Gropius was the head of the new design
school (with the purpose of rebuilding the country and form
a new social order: A world has been destroyed; we must
seek a radical solution. Gropius, 1918)
# Focus on new "rational" social housing for the workers, no
"bourgeois " ornaments and useless decorations
# economy of method, a severe geometry of form and
design that took into account the nature of the materials
employed
# Cooperation between architects, painters, sculptors,
designers and craftsmen

#1

SUMMARY OF THE BAUHAUS DESIGN SCHOOL

# No separation between art and life, between the artist
and the craftsman: design should improve society, not just
be a reflection of society
# Bauhaus ideology: an artist must be conscious of his social
responsibility to the community and the community has to
accept the artist and support him
# Includes fine art, industrial design, graphic design,
typography, interior design and architecture (building as the
ultimate art!)
# Artists involved in the school: Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger,
Wassily Kandinsky, Lszl Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer,
Joseph Albers, Mies Van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer
# The New Bauhaus was founded in 1937 in Chicago, after
the dissolution by the nazis in Germany in 1933

#2

ART DECO

Characteristics of
# architecture, painting, and sculpture to the graphic and
decorative arts
# influenced by Cubism, De Stijl, and Futurism but simpler to
undertand and appreciate
# artworks were symmetrical, geometric and simple
# its a style that didnt wanted to challenge or be complex,
just wanted to be beautiful
# machine-maid instead of the
organic/unique/homemade
quality of Art Nouveau
# decorative focus instead of the
non-ornamental style of the
Bauhaus

Art Nouveau

International movement of architecture and applied/decorative arts, that was a

reaction to academic art of the 19th century. It was inspired by natural forms and
structures, not only in flowers and plants but also in curved lines. Included interior
design, jewellery, furniture, textiles, utensils and lighting. Their philosophy was that art
should be a way of life, breaking the art vs function equation, people can live in art
nouveau-inspired house with art nouveau furniture, silverware, jewelery, etc.

Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest

Art Nouveau House, Portugal

Arthur
Mackmurdo,(English),
Book Cover, 1883

Aubrey Beardsley
(English), The Peacock
Skirt, 1892

Alphonse Mucha (Czech),

Poster for Gismonda, 1894

Gustav Klimt (Austrian), Medicine, 1907

(detail on right)

Gustav Klimt, The Kiss, 1908

Expressionism

In Expressionism the
focus is on distorting
reality accordingly to
the artists emotions.

Introduction to Expressionism
Reaction to Impressionism and other styles that dont
consider the feelings of the artist: art should come from
within the artist instead of representing the external visual
world (emotions over composition)
Main theme is the anxieties/isolation of modern world
Influenced by the Symbolist movement and by painters
such as Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch and James
Ensor. Some expressionist artists: Kokoschka, Franz Marc,
Schmidt-Rottluff, Kirchner, Schiele, Heckel, Soutine
Different phases: the initial german expressionism, the
american abstract expressionism (similar to art informel
from europe) and the neo-expressionism of the 80s

Great inspiration from

the Symbolist
movement... example:
Edvard Munch (Norwegian), The
Scream, 1893

The movement also

influenced german
cinema of that time
(notice the distorted town
and room as a way to
express the anxiety and
fears of the characters).

Die Brke

Die Brke (The Bridge) was a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden
in 1905. The seminal group had a major impact on the evolution of modern art in the
20th century and the creation of expressionism.
This group is sometimes compared to the Fauves. Both movements shared interests
in primitivist art. Both shared an interest in the expressing of extreme emotion
through high-keyed color that was very often non-naturalistic. Both movements
employed a drawing technique that was crude, and both groups shared an antipathy
to complete abstraction.
Die Brcke aimed to eschew the prevalent traditional academic style and find a new
mode of artistic expression, which would form a bridge (hence the name) between
the past and the present.

Ernst Ludwig
Kirchner
(German),
Nollendorplatz,
1912

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Group of

Artists, 1927

Der Blaue Reiter

Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) was founded by a number of Russian emigrants and
native German artists. Der Blaue Reiter was a movement lasting from 1911 to 1914,
fundamental to Expressionism,

Wassily
Kandinsky
(Russian),
Der Blaue
Reiter, 1903

Franz Marc (German), The Tower

of Blue Horses, 1913

Franz Marc,
Animals in a
Landscape, 1914

Examples of expressionist portraits:

Kthe Kollwitz. Self-Portrait, Hand at the Forehead

(Selbstbildnis mit der Hand an der Stirn). 1910, published c.
1946/1948.
Oskar Kokoschka. Self-Portrait. 1913

Erich Heckel. Portrait of a Man (Mnnerbildnis). 1919.

Oskar Kokoschka. Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat. 1909.

George Grosz. The Poet Max Herrmann-Neisse. 1927.

Lyrical abstraction

Lyrical abstraction was opposed not only to Cubist and Surrealist movements that
preceded it, but also to geometric abstraction (or "cold abstraction"). Lyrical
abstraction was in some ways the first to apply the lessons of Kandinsky, considered
one of the fathers of abstraction. For the artists in France, lyrical abstraction
represented an opening to personal expression.

Arshile Gorky (Armeniam) The Liver is the Cocks Comb, 1944,

Arshile
Gorky
(Armeniam)
Water from
the Flowery
Mill, 1944,

JeanPaul
Riopelle,
La Fort
Ardente,
1955

Paul Jenkins
(American) ,
Pawnee, 1958

Lyrical Abstraction was related

to Art Informel and Tachisme:
european versions of american abstract expressionism (tach of

tachisme means stain being a style more focused on blobs and

drippings, lyrical abstraction was more subtle and elegant, art informel
was due to the absence of form and was the generic name that include
the others)
reaction to cold geometric abstraction, putting emotion back into
abstract paintings
paintings made with spontaneous brushstrokes, drips and blobs of paint
straight from the tube, gestural way of painting
famous art groups within the style: cobra (europe) and gutai (asia)
some artists: Jean-Paul Riopelle, Wols, Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Soulages,
Nicolas de Stal, Hans Hartung, Serge Poliakoff, Georges Mathieu, Vieira
da Silva and Jean Messagier

Abstract Expressionism

Abstract expressionism was an American postWorld War II art movement. It was the
first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New
York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris. The main
artists were: Pollock, Rothko, Kooning, Gorky, Motherwell, Klee, Kadinsky, Newman,
Kline, Guston, Chamberlain, Krasner and David Smith.

Abstract expressionist value

expression over perfection, vitality
over finish, fluctuation over
repose, the unknown over the
known, the veiled over the clear,
the individual over society and
the inner over the outer.
William C. Seitz, American artist and Art historian

Action/gestural painting vs. Color field painting

Jackson Pollack (American), Lavender Mist: Number 1, 1950

Willem De Kooning (Dutch/

American), Woman V, 1953

Adolph Gottlieb. Man Looking

at Woman. 1949

Lyrical Abstraction

Franz Kline (American), Number 2, 1954

Helen Frankenthaler. Jacobs Ladder. 1928

Franz Kline. Chief. 1950

Color Field
Color Field painting is a style of abstract painting that emerged in New York City during the
1940s and 1950s. It was inspired by European modernism and closely related to Abstract
Expressionism, while many of its notable early proponents were among the pioneering
Abstract Expressionists. Color Field is characterized primarily by large fields of flat, solid
color spread across or stained into the canvas creating areas of unbroken surface and a flat
picture plane. The movement places less emphasis on gesture, brushstrokes and action in
favour of an overall consistency of form and process. In color field painting, color is freed
from objective context and becomes the subject in itself.

Mark Rothko
(American), No. 8,
1952

Mark Rothko (American),

No.61(Rust and Blue),
1953

Mark Rothko
(American), No.14,
1960

Barnett Newman (American),

Whos Afraid of Red, Yellow
and Blue?, 1966

Ad Reinhardt. Abstract Painting. 1963

Barnett Newman. The Voice. 1950

Robert Motherwell (American), Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110, 1971

Louise Nevelson. Sky Cathedral. 1958

David Smith. Australia. 1951

Examples of asian abstract

expressionist painters

Ismail Gulgee, Pakistan

Zao Wuo-Ki, China

Upper left: Wen-Yueh Tao

Upper right: Wu Guanzhong
Lower left: Chu Tehi
(China)

Summary of

Abstract Expressionism

First american avant-garde movement (the rise of New York as

art capital of the world)
Combines the emotional intensity of German Expressionists with
the anti-figurative aesthetic of abstract styles like Futurism,
Bauhaus and Cubism, but gives birth to the importance of the
act and not only the final result: Gestural/Action painting
Influenced by Surrealism, expressionists navigate in their
paintings between self-expression and their chaos of the
unconscious (e.g spontaneous and automatic creation)
Two main styles: colorfield and action painting
At a certain moment the canvas began to appear to one
American painter after another as an arena in which to act. What
was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event.
Harold Rosenberg

ABOUT

ABSTRACT

DRAWING...

Abstract Expressionist artists used gesture and color to evoke

certain moods or feelings. How can you express emotion in an
entirely abstract drawing?
Consider how you might use shape, lines, and color to express
feelings such as hope, fear, confidence, frustration, sadness,
happiness or anger. What kind of emotion might a curvy line
represent? What feeling does the color yellow evoke?

Pick two emotions a positive one and a negative one and

imagine what abstract drawings can represent them (avoid any
figurative elements, such as faces, hearts, or tears)
Compare the visual elements in these drawings. How are they
similar? How are they different? Which kind of colors, lines and
shapes can represent emotions such as sadness, happiness,
anger, tenderness, etc?

What does these colors,

lines and shapes make
you feel?

Reactions to abstract expressionism:

minimalism and hard-edge painting
(some artists wanted to get away
from expression of feelings and
focus only on the visual forms)

Which afterwars lead to a comeback

of expressionism due to the need to
get back to emotional paintings.

Some notes on

Neo-Expressionism

The movement started in Germany in the 60s/70s (with Baselitz

and the group New Fauves) but exploded in America in the
80s (with Basquiat, Schnabel, Fischl, etc)
Going away from the stylistically cool, distant sparseness
of Minimalism and Conceptualism
Wide variety of themes (mythological, cultural, historical,
nationalist, erotic, etc) and styles (raw and brutish
representations, a lot of textures, expressive brushwork, intense
colors)
Main artists: Julian Schnabel, Francesco Clemente, Jean-Michel
Basquiat, Cecily Brown, Anselm Kiefer, Eric Fischl, Jrg
Immendorff and Georg Baselitz
The return to subjectivity and storytelling of Neo-expressionism
play an important role on the transition between modernism to
post-modernism

Examples of works from Jean-Michel Basquiat

Surrealism

Some info on Surrealism

# influenced by Dada, Symbolism, Neoprimitivism, Freud and the
rise of psychoanalysis, the horrors of World War I , etc
# started mid 20s but reached its peak in the 30s
# like Dadaists, they wanted to go against societal rules and
expectations, but put emphasis on the power of imagination
# writer Andr Breton created the 1st surrealist manifesto in 1924
# focus on the subconscious and irrationality (e.g. dreams, free
association, automatism, sponteanous drawing)
# main artists: Salvador Dali, Man Ray, Andr Masson, Max Ernst,
Rene Magritte, Giorgio de Chirico, Alberto Giacometti, Joan
Mir, Yves Tanguy
# also in photography (Man Ray and Tabard), cinema (Luis
Bunuel and Maya Deren), music (Varese and Satie), theatre
(Artaud, Ionesco, Beckett), literature, etc
# some main themes: realistic items that have been used out-ofplace, unreal scenes, normal objects acting abnormally, and
fantastic creatures
# main styles: hyper-realism and automism

Ren Magritte (Belgian), The Treachery of Images, 1929

Ren Magritte, Golconde, 1953

Rene Magritte
Human Condition

Salvador Dali (Spanish), Metamorphosis of Narcissus, 1937

Salvador Dali (Spanish), Persistence of memory

Salvador Dali (Spanish)

Salvador Dali (Spanish)

Salvador Dali (Spanish)

Mir. The Birth of the World. Montroig, late summerfall 1925.

Joan Miro

Andr Masson, Automatic Drawing, 1924

Miro

Max Ernst

Max Ernst. L'vad (The Fugitive) from Histoire Naturelle (Natural History). 1926 (Reproduced
frottages executed c. 1925)

Giorgio de Chirico

Dorothea Tanning
Birthday, 1942

Man Ray, photography

Luis Bunuel,
Un Chien Andaluz
(Cinema)

Man Ray, Gift, c. 1921

Man Ray/Andr Masson

Mannequin, 1938
Man Ray, Object to Be Destroyed, 1923

Meret Oppenheim, Das Paar (The Couple),

pair of brown shoes attached at the toes,
original version 1936

Wolfgang Paalen, Articulated

Cloud, umbrella in foam, 1938

Meret Oppenheim. Object, 1936

Joseph Cornell. Taglioni's Jewel Casket. 1940.

Alberto Giacometti. The Palace at 4 a.m. 1932.

Salvador Dal. Retrospective Bust of a Woman. 1933 (some

elements reconstructed 1970)

Jean (Hans) Arp. Bell and Navels. 1931.

Salvador Dali, The Lobster Telephone

Marcel Jean, Spector of the Gardenia

Some Asian surrealist

artists
Choi Xoo Ang, Harue Koga, Zhang
Xiaogang, Yosuke Ueno, Kazuya
Akimoto, Deng Xinli

Pop Art

Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid-1950s in Britain and in the late
1950s in the United States. Pop art presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by
including imagery from popular culture such as advertising, news, etc. It is widely
interpreted as a reaction to the then-dominant ideas of abstract expressionism, as well
as an expansion upon them. And due to its utilization of found objects and images it is
similar to Dada. Pop art is aimed to employ images of popular as opposed to elitist
culture in art, emphasizing the banal or kitschy elements of any given culture, most
often through the use of irony. It is also associated with the artists' use of mechanical
means of reproduction or rendering techniques.

Richard
Diebenkorn

Richard Hamilton
(English), Just what
is it that makes
todays homes so
different, so
appealing?, 1956

Andy Warhol (American), Campbells Soup Cans,

1962

Andy Warhol, Gold Marilyn Monroe, 1962,

silkscreen on canvas

Andy Warhol
(American), Except
from Marylin
Diptych, 1962

Jasper Johns (American), Flag, 1955

Minimalism

Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual
art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence or identity of a
subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts. Minimalism
is any design or style in which the simplest and fewest elements are used to create
the maximum effect.
As a specific movement in the arts it is identified with developments in postWorld
War II Western Art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early
1970s. It is rooted in the reductive aspects of Modernism, and is often interpreted as
a reaction against Abstract expressionism and a bridge to Postminimal art practices.

Frank Stella
(American),
Astoria, 1958

Frank Stella, Die

Fahne Hoch!, 1959

Tony Smith (American), Free Ride, 1962

Richard Serra (American, Tilted

Arc, 1981

Richard Serra, Tilted Spheres, 2004

Photorealism

Photorealism is the genre of painting based on using cameras and photographs to gather
visual information and then from this creating a painting that appears to be
photographic. The term is primarily applied to paintings from the United States art
movement that began in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Richard Estes (American), Nedicks, 1970

John Baeder (American), Prouts Diner, 1974

Chuck Close
(American), Big
Self-Portrait,
1969

Chuck Close, Linda, 1976

Chuck
Close,
Frank, 1969

Hyperrealism

Hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high-resolution

photograph. Hyperrealism is considered an advancement of Photorealism by the
methods used to create the resulting paintings or sculptures. The term is primarily
applied to an independent art movement and art style in the United States and Europe
that has developed since the early 2000s

Agustin Reche Mora (Granadian), Calle Sevilla desde al cafeteria Hontanares, 2003

Agustin
Reche
Mora

Mauro David (Italian), Crystal dish with melons), 1999

Land Art, Earthworks

Land art, Earthworks is an art movement in which landscape and the work of art are
inextricably linked. It is also an art form that is created in nature, using natural
materials. Sculptures are not placed in the landscape, rather, the landscape is the
means of their creation. The works frequently exist in the open, located well away
from civilization, left to change and erode under natural conditions. Many of the first
works, created in the deserts of Nevada, New Mexico, Utah or Arizona were
ephemeral in nature and now only exist as video recordings or photographic
documents. They also pioneered a category of art called site-specific sculpture,
designed for a particular outdoor location.

Robert Smithson (American), Spiral Jetty, 1970

James Turrell (American), Roden Crater

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Andy Goldsworthy

Wrap-up of the modern

art movements

Further study and

recommended readings:
wikipedia pages of the art movements, main
artists, etc (use youtube and google as well)
https://www.khanacademy.org
http://arthistoryteachingresources.org
http://www.theartstory.org/
http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning