This document provides an overview of key concepts and movements in modern Western art from the late 19th to early 20th century, focusing on individualism, expressionism, primitivism, and the search for self. It discusses individualism and expression, then covers post-impressionism exemplified by Van Gogh and Gauguin. It also discusses primitivism through Gauguin and Rousseau's works, as well as fauvism and northern European expressionism movements represented by Matisse, Derain, Munch, Kirchner, and Nolde among others. Key ideas of alienation, anomie, authenticity and spirituality in art are also covered.

1. Introduction to Modern Western Culture
Individualism, Expression,
Primitivism, and the Search for the
Self

2. Individualism – the idea that freedom of thought and action for each
person is the most important quality of a society, rather than shared effort and
responsibility. The opposite is ‘collectivism.’
expression – the communication (in visual image, speech or writing) of
beliefs or opinions. The verb form is, to express.

3. Max Beckmann, Self Portraits

4. Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night, 1889
Post-impressionism

5. Van Gogh, The Sower, 1888

6. Japanese print by Hiroshige and Van Gogh painting

7. The Artist Bedroom, 1889

8. Van Gogh, Church at Anvers, 1890

9. Paul Gauguin, Self-Portrait, 1890
Post-impressionism

10. Gauguin, Vision of the Sermon of the Mount, 1888

12. World’s Fair,
Paris, 1900
Korean Pavilion

13. Gauguin, 1892

14. Gauguin, Nevermore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQu1RMIkg3c

15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2p8GYmDtcc
Gauguin and Tahiti
Tahitian Scuplture of Fertility God

16. Animism – The religious belief that objects, places and
creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence.
Potentially, animism perceives all things—animals, plants,
rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork and
perhaps even words—as animated and alive.

17. Alienation – in the theory of Karl Marx, the process whereby the worker is
made to feel foreign to the products of his/her own labor.
anomie - lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or
group
Authenticity - Being genuine; original; the real thing. Having a claimed and
verifiable origin or authorship; not counterfeit or copied.
subjectivity - Expression of the individuality or personal point of view of
someone. ‘The work communicated a powerful feeling of the subjectivity of
the artist.’
spiritual - Describing a non-material and transcendent reality that is often
related to religious practice, and which is usually considered to be of more
significance than material reality. Many artists, especially those pursuing
abstraction, have been concerned with this dimension to existence.

18. Douanier Rousseau, Sleeping Gipsy, 1897

19. Rousseau, 1891

20. Primitivism - In general, a belief in the value of what is simple and
unsophisticated.
In art, it refers to a broad movement away from traditions associated with
Western classicism at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the
twentieth century.
This was motivated by the wish to criticize the negative impact of
modernization on life in the developed world, and reflects a desire to return
to the values expressed by societies before industrialization. A particular
point of reference were the artifacts produced by non-Western cultures that
were being encountered through colonization, such as in Africa and the
South Pacific.

21. Expressionism
• 1. French Expressionism

22. Fauvism - The name Fauves, French for "Wild Beasts," was given to artists
working in this style because it was felt that they used strong non-
naturalistic colours in a violent, uncontrolled way. Important Fauves were
Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954) and André Derain (French, 1880-1954).

23. Henri Matisse, Joy of Living, 1906

24. Henri Matisse, Bathers, 1905

25. Henri Matisse, Fauvist painting, 1905

26. Henri Matisse, Portrait of Mrs. Matisse, 1906

27. Henri Matisse, The Red Room

28. André Derain, Fauvist Landscape, 1905

29. André Derain, Fauvist landscape, 1906

30. Expressionism
• 2. Northern European Expressionism

31. Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUclH6P_hik

32. Edvard Munch

33. Munch paintings

34. Die Brucke or Die Brücke or The Bridge - A group of
German Expressionist artists based in Dresden and
Berlin between 1905 and 1913

35. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, The Street, 1907

36. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Left: Berlin Street scene, 1908
Right: Self-Portrait as a Soldier, 1915

37. African Tribal Masks

38. Emile Nolder, Masks, 1910

39. Emile Nolde
Left: Dance of the Golden calf, 1910
Right: Crucifixion, 1912

40. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
German Expressionist film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAtpxqajFa
k

41. Korean Tiger Painting. Left – academic. Right - folk
Korean Folk Painting