The document discusses how 20th century art challenged traditional definitions and purposes of art through several influences and movements. Photography changed art by providing exact depictions, decreasing the need for some types of art and shifting reasons for creating art. Post-Impressionism influenced abstraction and composition. Artists began exploring personal experiences and expression through art. Movements like Cubism, Surrealism, De Stijl and works by artists like Picasso, Dali, Mondrian and Giacometti further pushed boundaries of what art could be and its role in personal expression and social commentary.

1. th
20
Century art
A revising of what art is.

2. 20th Century art
• Several Influences
– Post-Impressionism
– Photography
– World Events
• Challenging of what art is.
• Shift from what is it, to how and why.
• Artist role changes.

3. How did photography change art?
• Photography captures
image
instantaneously.
• Exact depiction of
image.
• Decreases the need
for many types of art.
• Changes the reasons
people create art.

4. Post-Impressionism influence on
20th century.
• Abstraction follows postimpressionist focus on
elements and principles.
• Composition hugely
important for many 20th
century movements.
• Other 20th century artists
begin to look within to
find subject matter.
– Personal experiences
– Emotionalism

5. What is art?
• Even early 20th
Century art challenged
the purpose and the
meaning of art.
– Fountain
• This challenging of art,
also marks a shift in
the role of the artist.
• No longer just about
technical skill.

6. Why make art?
• Aesthetics
• Personal expression
• Social commentary

7. Artists who work for personal
expression.
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•
•
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Frida Kahlo
Pablo Picasso
Chagall
Pollock
Matisse
Dali?
The artists use art to
express inner thoughts
feelings or struggles.

8. Frida Kahlo
• Mexican Painter
• Created artwork based on
personal life.
• Influence by Magic-realism.
• NOT A SURREALIST.
• Darkness of work mimics
hardships in personal life.
• Painting for personal reasons.
• Diego Y Yo, or Diego and I
• Painted shortly after divorce from
Mexican Muralist Diego Rivera.
• Interpret this art work.

9. Pablo Picasso
• Prior to the development of
Cubism Picasso worked much
like the expressionists of the
late 19th Century.
• Picasso’s blue period was
brought on by a deep
depression.
• The blue pallet represents the
sadness in Picasso’s life.
• The subjects of the time
represent people low in status.
• Vastly different than Picasso’s
later work.

10. Cubist Picasso
• In 1907 Picasso along with friend
George Braque began Cubism.
• Influenced by Cezanne
• Though Picasso was a master of
many styles Cubism became his
legacy.
• In cubist works, the relationship
between shapes and colors
becomes more important that the
subject matter.
• The maids of Avaignon1907 often
recognized as Picasso’s first cubist
work.

11. De Stijlor The Style
• Dutch
• Artists were relying
only on design,
eliminating all
emotion.
• Exact opposite of
Expressionism.

12. Piet Mondrian
• Gradually flattening natural
forms and reducing them to
linear patterns, such as in Tree.
• Later restricts design to primary
colors, and black lines. The
“white squares” in diagonal
composition are actually
varying shades of grey.
• No center of interest, viewer
must see whole design all at
once.
• Careful calculations and
mathematical precision are
essential to such a
dehumanizing artistic style.

13. Giacometti
• Alberto Giacometti (Swiss)
• Beginning in 1934 his series
of figure works will become
what he is known for.
• Giacometti says this is a
powerful symbol of the
loneliness and alienation of
humanity in this century.
• What does he mean by
that?
• What would he say about
21st century?

14. Surrealism
• Sur- above or beyond realism- reality.
• Dream-like imagery, often comes from
dreams.
• Surrealists use several techniques to achieve
these images.
– Juxtaposition
– Levitation
– Repetition
– Diminishing Proportion

15. Salvador Dali
• Most famous Surrealist.
• Kicked out of Surrealist club
for being a facist.
• Persistence of Memory
Dali’s best known painting.
• Small painting of soft
objects that usually
represent objects metallic
and solid.
• Hated anything abstracted
• 1931
• 9 ½”X13”

16. Marc Chagall
• Chagall’s style is based
somewhat on Cubism,
but images are very
surreal and personal.
• Main subject is the
Russia he
remembered, before
he left in 1920.
• Often features funloving peasants, folklore, and fairy tells.

17. Alexander Calder
• American Sculptor
• Invented the Mobile
• Calder’s Mobiles hung from
a single point
• Lobster Trap and Fish Tail is
balanced so carefully a single
breath of air can send it
moving.
• With this type of work
endless possibilities of visual
interest. Rarely seen the
same by two people.
• Size : 101”X115”

18. 20th Century Architecture
• Breaking from the past
• Surge of Construction
• New types of construction
– Steel and Metal-frame
• Buildings no longer needed traditional arches
and columns
– Take on a grid-like shape
• Lines of buildings are clean and function
becomes a priority.

19. Frank Lloyd Wright
• Primary concern to develop a compatible
relationship between structure an location
• Disregarded tradition enclosed rooms with doors,
rooms would be separated only by partial walls
• Let exterior space flow through interior space
(creek)
• Overall horizontal feel (calm)
• Kaufmann house
• 1936
• Marriage of location and construction