MODERNISM
(1907 - 1980 C.E.)
​CONTENT: What do you see?
FORM: The details (what you see more exactly). How the artist delivers the content.
CONTEXT: Everything NOT observable.
FUNCTION: The intended purpose of the work.

APAH 250 Images

Symbolism
122. The Scream, Edvard Munch 
128. The Kiss, Gustav Klimt 
129. The Kiss, Constantin Brancusi 
 
Expressionism
131. The Goldfish, Henri Matisse 
133. Self-Portrait as a Soldier, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 
132. Improvisation 28 (second version), Vasily Kandinsky 
134. Memorial Sheet of Karl Liebknecht, Käthe Kollwitz 
 
Cubism
126. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Pablo Picasso 
130. The Portuguese, Georges Braque 

Dada
144. Fountain, Marcel Duchamp 
 
De Stijl
136. Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow, Piet Mondrian 
 
Surrealism
138. Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure), Meret Oppenheim 
140. The Two Fridas, Frida Kahlo 
 
Modern Intersections
140. The Two Fridas, Frida Kahlo 
141. The Migration of the Negro, Panel no. 49, Jacob Lawrence 
142. The Jungle, Wilfredo Lam 
143. Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Central Park, Diego Rivera
 
Modern Architecture
124. Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building, Louis Sullivan 
135. Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier 
139. Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright 
146. Seagram Building, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson 
152. House in New Castle County, Robert Venturi

American Post WWII Modern Art Movements
Abstract Expressionism
149. The Bay, Helen Frankenthaler 
145. Woman I, Willem de Kooning 
* Jackson Pollock

Pop Art
147. Marilyn Diptych, Andy Warhol 
150. Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks, Claes Oldenburg 
Earth Art
137. Illustration from The Results of the First Five-Year Plan, Varvara Stepanova 

Enviromental Art
151. Spiral Jetty, Robert Smithson
​
Installation Art
148. Narcissus garden, Yayoi Kusama 

KEY IDEAS

  • Early Modernism developed out of political unrest in all parts of the world.
  • Artists had really developed their own styles and were quick to accept new technologies
  • Rise in the Avant-garde
  • Armory Show of 1913
  • Stieglitz's Gallery 291
  • Many artists published their own manifestos about their artworks and philosophies of their movement.

​HISTORY

  • Imperialist Expansion:                   
  1. Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal --> Africa
  2. Britain --> India
  3. Dutch --> Indochina
  4. Russia --> Central Asia and Siberia
  5. Japan as its own rising formidable power in the Pacific                  
  • 1917             The US entered World War I
  • 1930s           Great Depression: Huge economic difficulties in the US and other Western countries
  • 1920s-1930s  Rise of Totalitarianism: Mussolini in Italy, Stalin in the Soviet Union, Hitler in Germany
  • 1941              The US entered World War II with the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese
  • 1945              WWII ends: The Allied forces defeated Germany, US dropped atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

MOVEMENTS, DATES, AND MAJOR ARTISTS

  • Fauvism (c. 1905)
  • Expressionism (1905-1930s)
  1. Die Bruke (1905)
  2. Der Blaue Reiter (1911)
  • Cubism (1907-1930s)
  • Futurism (1909-1914)
  • Suprematism (1913-1920s)
  • Constructivism (1914-1920s)
  • Dada (1916-1925)
  • DeStijl (1917-1930s)
  • Bauhaus (1919-1933)
  • Precisionism (1920s)
  • Surrealism (1924-1930s)
  • Art Deco (1920-1930s)
  • Organic Art (1920s-1930s)
  • Depression Era (1930s)
  • Abstract Expressionism (40s-50s)
  • Pop Art (55-60s)
  • Color Field Painting (60s)
  • Conceptual Art (60s)
  • Performance Art (60s)
  • Op Art (60s)
  • Minimalism (60s)
  • Site/Environmental Art (70s-90s)
  • Feminist Art (70s- present)
  • Postmodernism (75- present)
  • Video/Computer/Digital Art (contemporary)

VOCABULARY

abstract
action painting
assemblage
biomorphism
cantilever
collage
color field painting
documentary photography
earthwork
ferroconcrete
frottage
Happening
Harlem Renaissance
installation
mobile
ready-made
silkscreen
​Venice Biennale
Panel 14. For African Americans there was no justice in southern courts.
Panel 6. The trains were crowded with migrants.
Panel 59. In the North they had the freedom to vote.
* Confused about what's going on in the world politically during the early 20th century? Try World History Chronology, World War I.
*Great collection of images on F.L. Wright's Fallingwater architecture
* Article from Huffington Post about Benton's work and influence in America
* Have Instant Netflix? Watch The Rape of Europa and learn about Hitler's and the Nazi's involvement in the thievery of the world's most significant Artworks
* I have to say this kinda of amazing...Watch Chuck Close on The Colbert Report from a 2010 episode. He talks about his process, his disability, and his early and later portraits.
* Read about Chris Ofili's The Holy Virgin Mary (pdf) and why it's so controversial. Dialectical Journal template is here.
* Read more on the entirety of The Migration of the Negro 
*NY Times: Stepping Exhibition of Jacob Lawrence
* The Women of the Bauhaus School
​*10 of the most infamous artworks detroyed by WW2