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Timeline

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Minimalism/Conceptualism

Minimalism appeared in the 50s when artists like Frank Stella exhibited his “black paintings” representing the move away from gestural artists of the past.

Minimalism pushed abstraction to its limits and stripped art of all historical meaning.

There was little demonstration of skill in minimalist works and the viewer was often left with no reference to any subject or theme.

The works were purely formal and had no meaning other than the color, shape, and material of the work itself.

Key artists included Carl Andre, Donald Judd, Frank Stella, Dan Flavin, Richard Serra, and Eve Hesse.

Conceptualism places ideas over the form and visuals of a piece.

It involves performances with no concern for expression and skill. They did not care about marketability and were interested in ideas.

Movements like Dada and Surrealism influenced them as they expanded the boundaries of what art is.

Minimalism was also an influence due to its simplicity however conceptual artists reject Minimalists use of sculpture and painting.

Conceptual artists believe art does not need to have a physical form.

The movement was often criticized for being pretentious with no substance.

Key artists include Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Kosuths, Sol Le Witt, Bruce Nauman, and Jenny Holzer.

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Pop Art

Pop art flourished during the 50s in the UK and America. It was based on using objects of pop culture and things which were mass produced.

It was a reaction against the elitism of Abstract Expressionism, but also inspired by Cubist and Dada collages and the work of Francis Bacon.

There were 2 independent strands of Pop Art: one in the US and one in the UK.

Richard Hamilton- made collages featuring nude figures.

Eduardo Palozzi- similar work to Hamilton, collages featuring supermarket objects etc.

Peter Blake- prominent artist who designed the Beatles album cover in 1967.

James Rosenquist- made large scale billboards, he began to question capitalism and some of his work was politically motivated.

Roy Lichtenstein- a leading pop artist, worked in large scale and had a cartoonish style.

Andy Warhol- most famous pop artist who used celebrity motifs which he would screenprint repeatedly.

Robert Rauschenberg- embraced the chaos of American life, he would transform pieces of trash into works of art. He was fond of using found objects.

Claus Olderberg- made soft sculptures on a large scale. His work had a heavily humorous element.

Ed Ruscha- he was known for his artist books and his studies of Route 66.

Keith Haring- a pop/graffiti artist with a more contemporary style.

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Abstract Expressionism

Up until the 30s the trend was realism, with a gradual change to promote creativity without restriction.

Artists shared common experiences- living in New York with both world wars and the Great Depression so felt compelled to create work that expressed these concerns.

They would paint on large canvases in a rapid and seemingly random manner. They used large brushes and paint was often dripped or thrown onto the canvas.

Often influenced by Surrealists and aimed to produce work which revealed raw emotion.

There were 3 identifiable trends- action painting, colour field painting, and hard edge painting.

Action painting is an impulsive painting onto canvas using splashing and throwing eg Pollock.

Colour field painting is large areas of colour juxtaposed with flat planes and little reference to form.

Hard edge painting is large uniform canvases being subdivided by a narrow stripe of contrasting colour in the centre.

Politics was a heavy influence to Abstract Expressionism as it emerged against a background of capitalism and war. There were strong beliefs of freedom and a spirit of revolt.

Scale was a huge element of Abstract Expressionism.

Key artists were Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, David Smith, Lee Krasner, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Frans Kline.

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Dada/Surrealism

Dada was a movement in Switzerland and Zurich as a reaction to the first world war. One thing that defined Dada was its satire. It was in a way influenced by expressionism and futurism, there was always a link to the absurd, non painterly conventions. The cabaret included dance, music and the spoken word - and there were experimental performances of sound poetry as well as exhibitions - Kandinsky, Klee and Ernst showed their work in these. Dada paved the way for surrealism.

Hannah Hoch- Best known for her collages, made from newspaper, magazines, cut up paper etc. Critique of contemporary German life, by slicing it apart she's showing a fragmented depiction of life in Germany of that particular time. Metaphorically criticising the lack of humanity.

Johannes Badeer- he was very critical of the German public and had extremely political themes. He showcased a lot of performance art.

Raoul Hausmann- did experimental collages

John Heartfield- used collage and did political works which were anti-Nazi.

George Grosz- a caricature artist who mocked the German establishment. He eventually fled to America.

Jean Arp- a painter and writer, although best known for sculpture. She mainly worked with plaster and carvings.

Max Ernst- a self taught artist. He was the most inventive of the dada artists and is credited with the invention of frottage, grattage and decalomania. He was imprisoned by the Nazis and later joined a surrealist group in Paris.

Kurt Schwitters- he worked with collage and combined typography and imagery which was a fairly new concept at the time.

Man Ray- an American artist best known for his photography, he lived mainly in Paris and was involved with both Dada and surrealism.

Marcel Duchamp- he was a key member of DADA although his work was very controversial. He used ready made objects and turned them into art. He regarded modern industry as a resource. He also painted in a cubist sort of style.

Sigmund Freud's theories about free association, dream analysis and the hidden unconscious mind were a huge influence on the surrealists. Surrealist pieces can gave a realistic but irrational style, describing the dream-like fantasies as in the paintings of Magritte Tanguy and Dali, or they can be more experimental and spontaneous as in the work of Miro and Ernst.

Andre Breton- wrote poetry and 3 surrealist manifestos. He led a group of Paris surrealists to explore the subconscious, dream interpretation and automatic writing.

Yves Tanguy- he was a self taught French painter who joined the circle of surrealist artists around Breton in Paris in 1924. His work was more dream like and explored the state of the unconscious mind.

Rene Magritte- a metaphysical painter whose subject matter included childhood memories, the sky, and clouds. He produced work that was controversial and provoked reactions. His work really makes you think.

Giorgi De Chirico- an Italian metaphysical painter who influenced many surrealists, including Magritte.

Salvador Dali- he was interested in the work of Freud, using Freudian symbols and mythical structures. His later work compressed a lot of meaning. He could make any object look photorealistic. A lot of symbolic content in his paintings. Busy compositions. Large scale, elevated, commissioned paintings. Bold classical landscapes fused with dream-like sequences.

Frida Kalho- a Mexican surrealist, the majority of her work was self portraits.

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Fauvism/Cubism/Futurism/Vorticism

The first modern artists were Eduard Manet, Pablo Picasso, and Kandinsky. The first is debated among historians.

The Fauvist painters were the first to break Impressionism as well as traditional older methods of perception. Features of Fauvism included using paint straight from tube, and unnaturalistic and intense colours. Paintings were primarily landscapes. Key artists of fauvism include Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, Maurice De Vlaminck, Georges Rouault, and Raoul Dufy.

Fauvism was a short lived era, a transitional period in a lot of artist's careers. Many went on to favour cubism (except Matisse, he continued pioneering and developing fauvism)

Matisse- one of the main pioneers of Fauvism. His painting Open Window Collioure was the first real fauvist style painting. It featured unnatural colours, very vibrant and mostly complimentary. There are rectangular shapes, the walls on either side frame the view from the open window. He also makes no attempt to create an illusion of depth. Promenade among olive trees (another painting of Matisses) features broken colour, colour confidence, and blocks of colour. There’s a sense of pattern, as well as the canvas seeping through.

Andre Derain- worked closely with Matisse, short broken brushstrokes directly link with some of the post-impressionists artists. Very controlled.

Cubism rejected the idea that paintings should depict a single viewpoint. Form and space are broken down into geometric shapes. The subject matter includes still life, human figure, and interior spaces. It rejected the idea that art should come from nature and traditional perspective techniques. Key artists of cubism were Picasso and Braque.

There were two phases: analytical cubism (1907-12) and synthetic cubism (1913-21). Analytical cubism was fragmented, had multiple viewpoints, geometric forms, and a restricted palette. Synthetic cubism was more vibrant and colourful. Collage was introduced; fragments of newspaper, monoprint, tiles, texture, stencilling, more interesting shapes, interlocking of geometric shapes.

Futurism embraced the machine age and all things modern. It rejected the past and embraced the future. An important aspect of Futurism was the need to show movement in paintings creating abstract and rhythmic qualities. Futuristic art brings to mind the city, noise, heat and movement. It uses urban subject matter. It rejects cubism as it was perceived to be too intellectual and static. They were interested in creating new art which created shock value. It influenced art movements such as art deco surrealism, dada, vorticism and more.

Vorticism was all about the transformation of the world by the increasing use of technology and machinery. Verging on pure abstraction, architectural shapes coming through. Kind of anti-human in terms of style, still see a representation of context like boats, shapes of buildings etc. After the war many returned to figurative painting.

Whyndham Lewis- work has a sense of pessimism inspired by war, shows a time period of destruction. All his figures are dehumanised, turned into little abstract shapes. Very prophetic and timeless.

Vorticism Homework

What is the relevance of Vorticism? Vorticism is relevant due to the industrial developments at the time coupled with the culture of violence. It provides important insight into the time period.

What major event took place while it was developing? WW1 was the major event of the time.

What makes Vorticism unique? Vorticism is unique as it’s a sort of blend between Futurism and Cubism. The style had harsh lines and featured industrial objects and a fascination with machinery. It also reflected the violence of the times and the devastation of the war.

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Impressionism/Post Impressionism

Impressionists were concerned about getting an impression of a scene rather than a true depiction- they were interested in light and emotion.

Boudin- one of the first landscape artists to paint outside.

Monet- founding member of the impressionists. Used short quick strokes of paint and was unconcerned with detail. He had a free and spontaneous technique. Throughout his life, he did more than 250 water lily paintings. Towards the end these became more abstract.

Gustave Caillebatte- famous impressionist, also known as a realist.

Camille Pissarro- lesser known but a father of Impressionism who inspired many. He was a pointillist later in life.

Alfred Sisley- French born impressionist who was close to Monet. His work is consistent and he was known to like painting water.

Auguste Renoir- a leading organizer of Impressionism. He worked closely with Monet which led him to paint landscapes and water, although he also liked the human form.

Edouard Manet- linked with impressionists, he was one of the first to paint contemporary. Some work was considered shocking due to the way he painted it and the fact that it was considered eroticism.

Berthe Morisot- undervalued artist in her lifetime but is now considered great. Married to Monet’s brother.

Degas- wanted to produce paintings that were snapshots of life. His work was very popular. He preferred realism.

Impressionists were not popular during the 1860s but gained popularity by the 1880s.

Post Impressionism rejected the ideals of Impressionism.

Cezanne- bridged cubism and Impressionism. Famously said that “everything in nature is modeled after the cone, sphere, or cylinder”. His technique was visible brushstrokes and bold, flat patches of colour.

Impressionism Homework

Why was Impressionism disliked? Because it was considered shocking and controversial due to the bold colours and composition. Due to the time period, people did not like this although it began to get popular in the 1880s.

Describe the subject matter of Manets ‘Olympia’. Manets Olympia featured a nude woman being brought flowers. This woman was a prostitute and this was considered vulgar at the time, leading the painting to be the subject of controversy.

What’s the meaning of Cezanne’s quote “everything is modelled after the sphere, cone, and cylinder”. This quote means that when broken down, everything can be explained into these simple shapes. This is great for simplifying form in paintings.

Describe Cezanne’s painting technique. Cezanne used bold visible brushstrokes and thick paint. He also used vivid colours in flat blocky patches.