Mercedes Jones 20th century art final Dr.

Kelly Wacker

Overview Narrative: The pieces chosen for this exhibition typify the chaos and dramatic shift of art trends during the postwar period after 1945. Artists used new mediums or worked with previous mediums in new and innovative ways. They also often included the viewer in interpretation of work, and expressed the sadness of the aftermath of two world wars as well as the anxiety and change in the increase of modernity and technology. I have chosen to focus on works between the end of World War II and the 1960 although the term postwar art can be used even for contemporary art. This time most effectively expresses this shift that is the focus of this exhibition. Works both introspective in nature expressing the artists s individual anxieties such as DuBuffet s Le Metafisyx ,or a whole nation s as in Rauschenberg s Retroactive are included. The way in which artists made art and the public viewed it changed drastically postwar. This exhibition will focus on these trends in postwar art while showing a variety of styles and artists to show these common threads over a time period of two decades. These ten works show the innovation, uncertainty and creativity of postwar art. Installation narrative: The gallery will be a cool tone light ash grey almost white. Directional lighting will be placed on Giacometti s man pointing statue which will be roped off in the center of the room. Starting to the right, the order of the paintings will be as follows: Head surrounded by sides of beef , One: Number 31 , Untitled Rothko, Le Metafisyx , Retroactive and Flag, trust, and plaster casts . Calder s mobile four red systems will be in the left corner. After that, Orange Disaster & Flood . Special allowances in installation will have to be made for Pollock s One: Number 31 due to its large size. It should be installed in such a way that it can be viewed in its intended manner. Both up close as to be enveloped in an atmospheric way, but also with enough space to see if further back as to admire the rhythm in the paint drip patterns.

Wall Labels: 1. Alberto Giacometti Man Pointing, 1947 Sculpture

Alberto Giacometti s sculpture and artistic process reflect and embody the mood of postwar. The pain and uncertainty felt by many was present in the delicate figures and in Giacometti s own process of constantly re-working pieces. This statue evokes a lost and wandering emotion. With these characteristics, it is very evident as to why Giacometti was a central figure in the postwar late 1940s early 1950s existential art movement which revolved around these particular emotions. Because of this, it is a great starting point to experience this postwar exhibition.

2.

Francis Bacon Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef, 1954 Oil on Canvas Francis Bacon, like Giacometti, is a Existentialist artist. His works are dark in nature and utilize new techniques while referencing classical compositions and subject matter. For Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef Francis Bacon referenced Soutine and Rembrandt s paintings of sides of beef and Velazquez s Pope Portraits. Because he so heavily references common art iconography he includes the viewer more completely in the interpretation of his work by including the viewer s shared cultural personal experience. In this manner, he re-contextualized common symbolism into a new iconographic language used to express postwar anguish. The overall effect is introspective, dark, and grotesque in an intellectually referential way.

3.

Jackson Pollock One: Number 31, 1950 Oil and enamel paint on canvas Jackson Pollock was an abstract expressionist who created large scale action paintings by laying down canvas on the floor and dripping paint onto it. His process was a large part of his art, which is very characteristic of the new art trends present in postwar art. Another important aspect to Pollock s work is that it was influenced by his surroundings of the wide open west and mountain range. This can be seen in his choice of canvas size and unconfined line work and drip patterns. And like other art of the postwar period, it creates an environment and includes the viewer s experience in the artwork. This painting manages to be vast while maintain a tense environmental quality. One: Number 31 is a part of MoMA s permanent collection.

4.

Mark Rothko Untitled, 1968 Synthetic Polymer paint on paper 2

Mark Rothko is one of the most well known and misunderstood abstract expressionists. His works are color fields intended to express emotions and evoke and experience instead of a recognizable image. This particular painting is one of Rothko s later works and has three subtle boxes of yellow-orange, all inset within each other and with feathered soft edges. Rothko s work was highly spiritual in nature with a focus on human nature and emotions. The serene contemplative stacked color field paintings are a stark contrast to the artist s tragic suicide in 1970. This is a recent gift of the Mark Rothko foundation to the MoMA permanent collection. 5. Jean Dubuffet Le Metafisyx, 1950 Mixed media Jean DuBuffet created an art style known as Art Brut which is French for Raw Art . He valued the raw artistic expression of non traditionally trained artists such as children and the mentally ill. He sought to break free from pre-war convention and mimicked the pure expression found in these unlikely places. Part of this freedom from tradition was in his choice of medium which was a mix of sand, tar, gravel, wax, scratching, and other mixed media. His lasting contribution to art has been to question what is art, and who is an artist. 6. Robert Rauschenberg Retroactive I, 1964, Oil and silkscreen ink on canvas Rauschenberg used images from his own life that reflected society s current sociopolitical state. However, in the course of completing this screen print/painting President Kennedy was assassinated which lent a whole new interpretation and connotation to his chosen images. In this way, it is typical of postwar art in the fact that it re-contextualized old media into new art, and also allows for the meaning to shift and change while the world around it does. A quote from Rauschenberg used by the Warhol Foundation exemplifies this: I don t want a picture to look like something it isn t. I want it to look like something it is. And I think a picture is more like the real world when it s made out of the real world. 7. Jasper Johns Flag, Target, and plaster Casts, 1955 Mixed Media Jasper Johns was a Neo-Dadist who took common basic symbols and objects and arranged them to express his personal fears and anxieties surrounding his life. He was a veteran and grew up in the south. Being homosexual during the McCarthyism era informed his art in the way he used the American flag and nude body images. His works are heavily influenced by Marcel Duchamp and the Dada movement and paved the way for the Pop Artists. Both of these groups used 3

already existing symbols and found objects to express sociopolitical themes outside of the original context of the image by juxtaposition or abstraction. 8. Andy Warhol Orange Disaster, 1963 Acrylic and silkscreen enamel of canvas Andy Warhol is one of the best known Pop Artists. In his earlier works he criticized the plastic and voyeuristic nature of society through creating a viewer dynamic in his silk screens. By choosing to reproduce a violent scene in an out of focus blurry newspaper photo way in bright colors he effectively removes the humanity from the picture through repetition and keeping the naturalistic qualities of the image at a distance. This use of recognizable images and plasticity (whether in criticism or celebration) in postwar art is Pop Art. Orange Disaster is a part of the Guggenheim s permanent collection. 9. Alexander Calder Four Red Systems (Mobile), 1960 Painted metal and wire Calder created kinetic sculpture which incorporated not only the movement of the piece in perception on the piece, but also of the viewer. It is constantly changing. This is chaos and movement in a controlled and simple form relying on the viewer for interpretation, which is typical of postwar kinetic art. He, like Jasper Johns and many artists of this period, was heavily influenced by Dada and the element of the unknown and chance in exhibiting artwork instead of relying on a static image or object with a strict association. He was friends with many Dada artists such as Joan Miro. 10. Helen Frankenthaler Flood, 1967 Synthetic polymer of canvas The history of Postwar Art is severely lacking in its involvement of women artists. However, Frankenthaler is one of the most notable. She is heavily process based in the way she applies the paint to the canvas. She applies the paint in large abstract color fields and then manipulates edges of the canvas to spill the paint directionally. This was very innovative and unusual technique for abstract artists, and shows the repeated theme within postwar art of innovation in materials and the way in which they are used. The colors and shapes she uses are highly evocative of many things, among them landscapes.