Artists

Hugo Ball

• founder of Dada, “pope of dada”

• founded Cabaret Voltaire

  • Nightclub

  • Dada’s ‘birthplace’

• Wrote the dada manifesto

• absurdity, anti-war, rejection of traditional artistic conventions

• avant-garde theatre

Jean Arp

• Founding member of Dada

• explored the relationship between nature and abstraction

• organic shapes and biomorphic forms

• believed in chance and spontaneity in art-making

• significant influence on surrealism and abstraction

Otto Dix

• harsh, realistic depictions of war and post-war

  • survived as a soldier, influencing his art

• prominent member of New Objectivity

• themes of social criticism, political satire, human condition

• “degenerate art”

Marcel Duchamp

• Leading figure of Dada

• challenged traditional art norms, questioned role of the artist

• significant influence on conceptual art and postmodernism

• breaking down what is traditionally seen as art

Diego Rivera

• large scale murals depicting Mexican culture and history

• leading figure in Mexican Muralism

• social and political themes

  • struggles of working class

• member of the mexican communist party

Thomas Hart Benton

• regionalist style, scenes of rural America

• themes of american history, labour, and social issues

• influenced by mexican muralists

• everyday life, ordinary people

• exaggerates features

Grant Wood

• american regionalist movement

• depicted rural american life, landscapes

• sharp lines, detailed realism, saturated colours, sense of nostalgia

Peggy Guggenheim

• art collector

• significant role in promoting and supporting modern art

• influencial in establishing americana

Clement Greenburg

• influential art critic

• promoted abstract expressionism

• believed art should be autonomous and self-referential

• argued art should be judged based off of its formal properties

• significant impact on development of modern art

• emphasized flatness/two-dimentiality of painting

Jean-Paul Sartre

• key figure in existentialism

• believed in human responsibility, taking responsibility for ones actions

• concious decisions and choice

Paula Modersohn-Becker

• early expressionist

• key figure in modernism

• portraits, landscapes, still lives

• first female artist to paint self nude

• search for spiritualism, theosophy

• looking for alternative to classical style

Gabriele Munter

• expressionist

• part of blue rider group

• influenced by fauvism

• vibrant colour, bold brushwork

• “degenerate art”

• idealized representation

• scenes of everyday life

Frida Kahlo

• work inspired by emotional and physical pain

• themes of identity, gender, mexican culture

• blends elements of surrealism, symbolism, folk art

• highly political

• painted personal experience, personal symbolism, internal reality