A brief look at some of the most important art movements of the later 20th century.

1. Mid-to-Late 20th
Century Art

2. 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)
• Two form: action painting and colorfield painting

3. Jackson Pollock
Action Painting:
•Expressing feeling through action
•Focus on the process
•Used sticks to “throw” paint onto the
canvas

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

5. Willem de Kooning,
Woman I, 1950 – 1952
Oil on Canvas
•Importance of Process
de Kooning repainted this
canvas many times

6. Mark Rothko
Untitled (Red and Orange)
1961, Oil on Canvas
Color Field Painting:
•Large expanses of color
•Expresses emotion through
color

7. Ellsworth Kelly,
Red Blue Green,
1963, Oil on canvas
Hard-Edged Painting
Flat – painting as two-
dimensional surfacertist’s
hand

8. Comparison

9. Op Art
Optical Art - style that makes use of optical illusions
•Movement started in 1960s
•Many of the Op artworks are black and white
•Visual Movement, Flashing, Vibration, Hidden Images
•Use of Pattern

10. Bridget Riley
Movement in Squares
Tempera on Board
1961
Riley - one of the most
important artists in Op Art
•Visual movement
•Disorienting physical effect
on the eyes
•Pattern with variation

11. Minimal Art
• Sculptural Movement began in 1960’s
• Drastic reduction of form and content
• Pure geometric forms
• Very simple, pure aesthetic
• Less is more

12. Donald Judd, Untitled, 1961,
Brass and Plexiglas sculpture
• Power of the materials
• Basic geometric forms Sculpture not
intended to be symbolic or
metaphorical