Mid-to-Late 20th Century Art

Modernism into Post-Modernism

Abstract Expressionism

• First major Avant-Garde art movement in USA (started in New York in late 1940’s)

• Abstraction expressing raw emotion

• New York becomes the center of the art world (no longer Paris)

Jackson Pollock

Action Painting

Focus on the creative process

Expressive feeling through action

Used sticks to “throw” paint onto the canvas (walked on the canvas) – artist literally “in” the painting

Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock, Lavender Mist, 1950, Oil, enamel, aluminum paint on canvas

Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock, Lavender Mist, 1950, Oil, enamel, aluminum paint on canvas

Large scale painting with drips, splatters, and dribbles of paint

Controlled Randomness

Energetic

Oil Paint / Industrial Paints (house and car paint)

Willem de Kooning

Willem de Kooning, Woman I, 1950 – 1952, Oil on Canvas

Willem de Kooning

Willem de Kooning, Woman I, 1950 – 1952, Oil on Canvas

Importance of Process – de Kooning repainted this painting many times (many layers)

“Rawness” and “Intensity”

Jumbled lines / Agitated patches of color

“Ferocious” looking woman

Later Abstraction

• More “controlled” forms of painting

• Symbolism of color

• Post-painterly abstraction

• Hard-edge Painting

Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1961, Oil on Canvas

Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1961, Oil on Canvas

Harmony and Spirituality / simple and pure

“Color field” painting

Focus on Color / Symbolism of Color / Emotion of Color

Ellsworth Kelly

Ellsworth Kelly, Red Blue Green, 1963, Oil on canvas

Ellsworth Kelly

Hard-Edged Painting

Focus on Color

Flatness – painting as two-dimensional

Absence of “the artist’s hand”

Ellsworth Kelly, Red Blue Green, 1963, Oil on canvas

Comparison

Op Art

Op Art, or Optical Art, is a style that makes use of optical illusions

Non-representational / Completely Abstract

Movement started in 1960s

Many of the Op artworks are black and white

Visual Movement, Flashing, Vibration, Hidden Images

Use of Pattern

Bridget RileyMovement in SquaresTempera on Board122 x 122 cm1961

Bridget RileyMovement in SquaresTempera on Board122 x 122 cm1961

Bridget Riley, from UK, is one of the most important artists in Op Art movement

Riley is fascinated with the act of looking

Visual movement and depth

Disorienting physical effect on the eyes

Pattern with variation

Minimal Art

• Sculptural Movement began in 1960’s

• “Limitation of sculpture”

• Geometric forms

• Very simple, pure aesthetic (less is more)

Donald Judd

Donald Judd, Untitled, 1961, Brass and Plexiglas sculpture

Donald Judd

Donald Judd, Untitled, 1961, Brass and Plexiglas sculpture

Power of the materials (“message in the medium”)

Basic geometric forms (simple and clear)

Sculpture not intended to be symbolic or metaphorical

Pop Art

• Movement began in UK in 1960’s (later became more popular in USA)

• Art based on popular culture

• Art “for the people”

• Reaction against Abstract Expressionism

Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lictenstein, Hopeless, 1963,

Oil on canvas

Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lictenstein, Hopeless, 1963, Oil on canvas

Art based on comic books

Melodramatic scene / Romance

“That’s the way it SHOULD have BEGUN, but it’s hopeless!”

Used dots to create the look of comic book printing “benday dots”

Andy WarholCampbell's soup can series

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

Campbell's Tomato Soup Silkscreen on Canvas 1961

Andy Warhol

Mass-production

American Icon

Silkscreen (commercial form of printmaking used for t-shirts, etc.)

Connection to Graphic Design

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962, Oil, acrylic,

and silk-screen on canvas

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962, Oil, acrylic, and silk-screen on canvas

Marilyn Monroe, American Actress who committed suicide

Fame and tragedy

Warhol – artist celebrity

Reference to film and to Renaissance art

Comparison

Conceptual Art

• Intellectual Avant-Garde Movement begun in late 1960’s

• Idea is most important aspect

• Objects used to express a concept (finished product is less important than the idea)

• Questioning art and our understanding of art

Joseph Kosuth

Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965, Wood chair, photograph of chair, photograph of dictionary definition

Joseph Kosuth

Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965, Wood chair, photograph of chair, photograph of dictionary definition

Language and Vision (Text and Image)

Idea of what is a chair

Challenged “what is art”

Comparison