The Contemporary Contour (Art After World War II and Contemporary Art)

The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945

Outline Chapter 22: The Contemporary ContourChapter 22: The Contemporary CultureToward a Global Culture Existentialism Painting since 1945 Abstract Expressionism The Return to Representation Contemporary Sculpture Architecture Some Trends in Contemporary Literature A Note on the Postmodern Music since 1945 Avant-Garde Developments The New Minimalists Traditional Approaches to Modern Music Popular Music

Outline Chapter 22

Timeline Chapter 22: The Contemporary Contour

1945 World War II ends; Holocaust becomes widely known 1945 Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye c.1925-1972 O'Keeffe, paintings of giant flowers and western themes 1948 Pollock, Number 1 (abstract expressionism) 1952 Beckett, Waiting for Godot 1953 Hopper, Office in a Small City; Night Hawks(1942) 1955 Warhol, Soupcans 1956 Bergman, Wild Strawberries 1958 Miës Van der Rohe and Philip Johnson, Seagram Building,

New York 1959 Wright, Guggenheim Museum, New York 1959 Calder, Big Red 1964 Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead 1977 Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, Pompidou Center, Paris 1978 Pei, East Wing, National Gallery of Art, Washington 1994 Gehry, American Center, Paris; Guggenheim,

Bilbao (1997)

Timeline Chapter 22

This chapter deals with Western culture after the time of the Second World War. In the postwar period, with Europe in shambles and the Far East still asleep, we confidently felt that the twentieth was the American century; many people, not always admiringly, spoke of the "Coca-Colazation" of the world. From the vantage point of the beginning of the 21st century we now see that, however powerful the United States may be, there now exist other countervailing powers, as the economic power of China readily demonstrates.

The World after WWII, Post-Modernism, and The Contemporary Landscape

This period has also seen some dramatic shifts in the arts. The modernist temper that prevailed both in literature and in the arts has had its inevitable reaction. The power of the New York School of painting (abstract expressionism/color field painting/minimalism) has been challenged by new art forces, mainly from Europe, that emphasize once again the picture plane and the expressive power of emotion. In literature, the modernist temper exemplified in writers like Eliot, Woolf, and others has now given way to a postmodern sensibility represented in writers who are from Latin America, Japan, and Europe. Increasing attention is being paid to the writers both from Eastern Europe and from Africa.

The Arts after WWII, Post-Modernism, and The Contemporary Landscape

Out of the human rights movement of the past decades has arisen a determined effort to affirm the place of women in the world of the arts both by retrieving their overlooked work from the past and by careful attention to those who work today. Similarly, peoples of color, both male and female, have come to the attention of large audiences as the arts democratize. Contemporary debates over the core humanities requirements in universities (Should they restrict themselves to the old "classics" or should they represent many voices and many cultures?) simply reflect the pressures of the culture, which is no longer sure of its older assumptions.

Questioning and Revising the Underpinnings of Culture

No consensus exists on a humanistic worldview. The power of existentialism after the war sprang both from its philosophical ideas and from its adaptability to the arts, especially the literary arts. While the writings of Albert Camus are still read and the plays of Beckett and Ionesco are still performed, they now reflect a settled place in the literary canon with no new single idea providing the power to energize the arts as a whole.

Existentislism, Humanism, Secularism, Relativism

It may well be that the key word to describe the contemporary situation is pluralism: a diversity of influences, ideas, and movements spawned by an age of instant communication and ever-growing technology. The notion of a global culture argues for a common culture growing out of mutual links. There is some evidence of commonality, but it must be said that in other areas there are regional differences and even antagonisms. What we seem to be seeing in an age when more people buy books, see films, watch television, listen to tapes and CDs, go to plays and concerts than ever before is a situation the Greek philosophers wrote about millennia ago-the curious puzzle about the relationship of unity and diversity in the observable world: We are one, but we are also many.

Pluralism(and What is Next?)

Hopper, Edward

•Office at Night 1940; Oil on canvas, 22 1/8 x 25 inches

•Hotel Room 1931 (150 Kb); •Oil on canvas, •60 x 65 inches

Georgia O'Keeffe

Bella Donna, 1939 Oil on canvas,

36 1/4 x 30 1/8 in.

Untitled (Two Pears), 1921

Oil on board, 8 7/8 x 10 in.

Black Mesa Landscape, New Mexico /Out Back of Marie’s II, 1930

Oil on canvas, 24 1/4 x 36 1/4 in.

Pollock, Jackson

Number 8, 1949 (detail) 1949 (280 Kb); Oil, enamel, and aluminum paint on canvas

The She-Wolf 1943 (230 Kb); Oil, gouache, and plaster on canvas, 41 7/8 x 67 in

Franz Kline

Lehigh V Span, 1959-196060 1/4 in. x 80 in. (153.04 cm x 203.2 cm)oil on canvas

WILLEM DE KOONING

Composition1955

Oil, enamel, and charcoal on canvas79 1/8 x 69 1/8 inches

Woman and Bicycle, 1952-53Oil on canvas, 76 1/2 x 49 in.

Robert Motherwell

Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110, Easter Day, 1971. Acrylic with pencil and charcoal on canvas,

82 x 114 inches. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Gift

HELEN FRANKENTHALER

HELEN FRANKENTHALER b. 1928Viewpoint II, 1979

Acrylic on canvas, 81 1/4 X 94 1/2"

Jasper Johns

Flag. 1954–55 Encaustic, oil, and collage on fabric mounted on plywood (three panels)

42 1/4 x 60 5/8" (107.3 x 154 cm)The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg. Bed. 1955.

Combine painting: oil and pencil on pillow,

quilt, and sheet on wood supports,

6' 3 1/4"x 31 1/2" x 8"Robert Rauschenberg

Malaysian Flower Cave/ROCI MALAYSIA, 1990

Andy Warhol

Marilyn, 1964

Campbell's Soup 1, 1968

Roy Lichtenstein

Vicki, 1964 enamel on steel

H.42 x W.42 x D.2 in.

Brushstroke, 1965color screenprint

on paper 58.4 x 73.6 cm

Picture and Pitcher,1977; cast 1978

Painted bronze, 95 x 40 x 24 1/2"

Philip Pearlstein

Two Models on Kilim Rug with Mirror, 1983acrylic paint on canvas

90 x 72 inches

Frank Stella

Adelante, 196497 1/4 in. x 165 1/2 in. metallic powder in polymer emulsion on canvas

Harran II, 1967. Polymer and fluorescent polymer paint on canvas, 120 x 240 inches.

Frank StellaJarama II, 1982

Cornell, Joseph

Untitled (Soap Bubble Set) 1936 (140 Kb); Construction,

15 3/4 x 14 1/4 x 5 7/16 in

Untitled 1942; Construction,13 1/8 x 10 x 3 1/2 in

Untitled (Medici Boy) 1942-52; Construction,

13 15/16 x 11 3/16 x 3 7/8 in

Alexander Calder

Mobile (Mobile), 1941. Painted aluminum,

Approx. 84 1/4 inches high.Red Lily Pads, 1956. Painted sheet metal, metal rods, and wire, 42 x 201 x 109 inches.

Edward Kienholz

Night Clerk at the Young Hotel, 1982-1983

118 3/4 in. x 120 1/2 in. x 48 1/2 in. mixed media

Back Seat DodgeDate: 1964

Claes Oldenburg

Claes OldenburgGiant Soft Fan (Ghost Version)

1967Canvas, wood, and foam rubber

Bedroom Ensemble   1963 wood, vinyl, metal, artificial fur, cloth and paper

installation space: 3 x 6.5 x 5.25 m

Robert Smithson

SPIRAL JETTY Rozel Point, Great Salt Lake, Utah

April 1970mud, precipitated salt crystals, rocks, water coil 1500' long and 15' wide

Nam June Paik

Megatron, 1995Video Screens142x270x23in

Mars, 1990Neon and video

Postmodernism and Contemporary Art

See Video: Art Of The Western World; Volume 9

The Internet and the Future