Art of the Western World (Post-Impressionism-Now)

Paul Cezanne

redefined art in terms of form, suggesting that paintings could be structured as a series of planes and all objects could be reduced to their simplest forms

Georges Seurat

applied colors in small dots of complimentary colors, which results in optical mixing; created vibrant but static compositions

Vincent van Gogh

used vigorous brushwork, twisting forms, and intense color to portray emotions

Paul Ganguin

searched for intense color, painted Tahiti through the lens of colonialism

Camera

called into question the need to create art at all

Chemically based paint

made it easier to paint outdoors

International influences

African masks, Japanese prints, etc

Edgar Degas

combined snapshot style of photography with Japanese perspective

Pre-Raphaelites

group of artists dissatisfied w/ effects of Industrial Revolution who tried to return to the style of pre-Renaissance art; blended Romantic, archaic and moralistic elements with a focus on nature

Art Nouveau

style of decoration, architecture, and design characterized by a focus on leaves and flowers, depicted with flowing lines

Fauvism

art movement led by Henri Matisse characterized by the use of intense, arbitrary color

Cubism

art style developed by Picasso and George Braque; characterized by the breaking up of figures into overlapping perspectives; influenced by African art

Die Brücke

group of artists that combined the arbitrary colors of the Fauvists with the intense feelings of Edvard Munch’s art

Expressionism

art movement that aimed to make the inner workings of the mind visible in art

Der Blaue Reiter

Expressionist group led by Vasily Kandinsky that focused on total abstraction

Piet Mondrian

created the De Stijl canvases which consist of flat fields of primary color

Armory Show

first major showing of modern art in the US; shocked viewers with art that had unconventional approaches to figure and space, abstracted figures, and non-objective style

Harlem Renaissance

African-American art movement fueled by the popularity of jazz

Dada

arose from anti-war sentiment and aimed to protest against societal norms

ready-mades

art made from ordinary objects given a new context

Surrealism

art movement that attended to portray the inner workings of the mind, inspired by Freud’s theories

Bauhaus

school of design that established standards for architecture and art that attempted to reconcile industrial mass-manufacture and aesthetic form; based on the principle that form should follow function

Art during WWII

organized art movements came to a standstill, art served as propaganda, the center of the international art world shifted to New York

Art critics

held great influence over the art scene including the development of art styles, such as abstraction

Abstract Expressionism

art movement based on the idea that art could be free from the limits of pictorial subject matter; emphasized dramatic colors and sweeping brushstrokes

Action Painting

form of Abstract Expressionism that used dramatic brushstrokes or Pollock’s dripping technique

Color Field Painting

form of Abstract Expressionism that featured broad areas of color and simple, geometric forms

Response to Abstract Expressionism

return to naturalism with a focus on ordinary consumer objects; ex. Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg

created sculptures from ordinary objects to create “combines”

Pop Art

art style characterized by the incorporation of images of mass culture

Andy Warhol

pop art icon who used a factory-like silkscreen approach to make his art

Minimalism

art style that focuses on simplification of form and often includes a monochromatic palette

hard-edge painting

creating very precise outlines, made possible by acrylic paint and the airbrush

Photorealism

art style characterized by super-realism achieved by the use of sharp focus, as in a photograph

Earthworks

artwork that incorporates the landscape or architecture

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

pioneers of Earthworks; wrapped several monuments, created a cloth fence, surrounded islands in plastic, and more; Christo designed the projects, Jeanne-Claude handled the logistics

Performance art

combination of theater and art in which the artist becomes the work; allows audience participation and are fleeting in nature

Guerrilla Girls

anonymous all-female group that uses guerrilla tactics to challenge an art world dominated by white men

Postmodernism

reintroduces traditional elements, exaggerates modernist techniques, questions the beliefs of contemporary society

Philip Johnson

prominent architect who suggested that one of the functions of art is decoration