Art 1020 Chapter 24 Modernism in Europe and America 1900-1945

Modernism
in
Europe and America,
1900 - 1945
1

fin de siècle
(isolation, disillusionment, psychological anguish)
2
Nihilism:
Existence
is
senseless

How did the modern artist challenge the
notion that art must realistically depict the
world?
Experimentation with:
• New subject matter
• Elements and design principles
• New techniques
• New mediums
• New materials 3

Europe 1900 – 1920, WWI
•Fauvism
•German Expressionism
•Primitivism and Cubism
•Futurism
•Dadism
•Suprematism and Constructivism
•Architecture
United States 1900 - 1930
4

Europe 1920 – 1945, WWII
•Surrealism
•Destijl
•Bauhaus Design
United States and Mexico
1930 - 1945 5

Europe and America 1900-1945
Events:
• National pride WWI, WWII
• Rise of Communism (Lenin), Fascism
(Mussolini, Franco), Nazism (Hitler)
• Economic advances, assembly
line, mass production
capital more widely dispersed
• Entrepreneurship pursued risky
ventures runaway markets
Great Depression
• scientific discoveries + philosophy + psych
Artistic Concept:
• Avant-garde artists explore
premises & formal qualities of art
• Challenged artistic conventions

Fauvism 1900-1910
“…I simply try to put down colours which render my
sensation…” Henri Matisse
Themes:
• Portraits, nudes
• Landscapes
• still lives
Forms:
• Bold colors direct from tube
(harsh, arbitrary, non-descriptive)
• Vigorous undisguised brushwork
• Expressiveness
• Rich surface textures
• Lively Linear patterns
• Distorted perspective
Henri Matisse, Portrait of Madame Matisse/The Green
Line (or Stripe), 1905. Oil and tempera on canvas, 15
7/8” x 12 7/8”. Statens Museum for Kunst,
Copenhagen.
Henri Matisse, Reclining Nude I, 1906-1907.
Bronze, 13 ½” x 19 ¾” x 11 ¼”. ( In background,
Blue Nude, 1907. Oil on canvas, 36 ½” x 56 1/8”.)
8

Jan Vemeer. The Milkmaid. 1656.
9

10
Figure 24-3 HENRI MATISSE, Red Room (Harmony in Red),
1908–1909. Oil on canvas. 5’ 11” x 8’ 1”. State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

11
Colonial Empires Around 1900
Yinka Shonibara, Scramble for Africa, 2003
14 life-size fiberglass mannequins, 14
chairs, table, Dutch wax printed cotton
The Pinnell Collection, Dallas from Age of
Enlightenment series.

African Influences on Modernism
Male Reliquary Figure, 19th century Gabon or
Democratic Republic of Congo; Ambete Wood,
pigment, metal, cowrie shells; H. 32 1/2 in. (82.6 cm)
The Pierre and Maria–Gaetana Matisse Collection,
Prestige Panel, 19th–20th century
.Democratic Republic of Congo; Kuba
peoples.Raffia palm fiber; L. 45 3/4 in.
(116.2 cm)
Bell Mallet (Lawle), early
20th century
Ivory Coast, Baule people.
Wood . 11 in.
Reliquary Head
(Nlo Bieri), 19th–
20th
century.Gabon;
Fang, Betsi
group.Wood,
metal, palm oil; 18
5/16 x 9 3/4 x 6 5/8
in
12

German Expressionism1905 – 1930s
2 Schools:
• Die Brücke “the bridge”
• Der Blaue Reiter “the blue rider”
Themes:
• dehumanization of modern life,
tensions leading to WWI
• Express subjective emotional experience
• Urban and rural scapes
Forms:
• Jarring color juxtapositions
• Distorted forms
• agitated brushwork
• 1st non-objective artwork
• Correspondence between color & feelings
FRANZ MARC Large Blue Horses 1911
Emil Nolde. The Masks. 1911.
13

14
Figure 24-5 ERNST LUDWIG KIRCHNER, Street Street, Dresden,
1908 (dated 1907). Oil on canvas, 4’ 11 ¼” x 6’ 6 ⅞”. Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Vassily Kandinsky Composition (from the Fourth Bauhaus Portfolio), 1922
Color lithograph on paper, 14 7/8 x 13 7/8 in. (36.7 x 34.6 cm)
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
15
Non-objective
art

Figure 24-8 FRANZ MARC, Fate of the Animals, 1913. Oil on canvas, 6’ 4 ¾” x 8’ 9 ½” 16

Figure 18-51 Virgin with the Dead Christ (Röttgen
Pietà), from the Rhineland, Germany, ca. 1300–1325.
Figure 17-12 MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, Pieta, ca. 1498-
1500. Marble, 5’ 8 ½” high. Saint Peter’s, Vatican City, Rome.
17

18
Figure 24-9 KÄTHE KOLLWITZ, Woman With Dead Child,
1903. Etching, 1’ 4 ⅝” x 1’ 7⅛”. British Museum, London.

19
Figure 24-10
EGON SCHIELE
Nude Self-Portrait, Grimacing, 1910.
Gouache, watercolor & pencil on paper.
1’ 10” x 1’ 2⅜”.
Albertina, Vienna.

1896 1901
1908
1906 1907
1938 1965 197220

Pablo Picasso, The Old Fisherman
(Salmerón), 1895, Museu de
Montserrat, Barcelona
Pablo Picasso, First Communion,
1896, Museu de Montserrat,
Barcelona
21

24-11A PABLO PICASSO, Family of
Saltimbanques, 1905. Oil on canvas, 6’
11 3/4" X 7’ 6 3/8”. National Gallery of
Art, DC
PABLO PICASSO, Blind Man’s Meal,
1903. Oil on canvas, 37.5” x 37.25”. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Blue Period Rose Period
22

Primitivism and Cubism
1900-1910
Primitivism:
• Simplified planar form
• Fractured figural shapes
• Emphasize 2-D space
• Later ambiguous planes with
multiple views
• Influence non-Western art
Analytical Cubism:
• Reduce & fracture objects into
geometric forms
• Multiple or contrasting vantage points
• Interest in representing
23

24
Figure 24-11
PABLO PICASSO,
Gertrude Stein,
1906–1907.
Oil on canvas,
3’ 3 ⅜” x 2’ 8”.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York .

Pablo Picasso, Studies for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, before 1907. Mixed media, various sizes .
Museum of Modern Art. 25

Museum of Modern Art. 26

Museum of Modern Art.
27

• In its earlier phase,
Demoiselles
included a sailor,
medical student,
and madam all
visible in this
preparatory sketch.
Study for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon which includes student
and sailor, c. 1907 28

• Describe what makes these
figures so unconventional.
• What do you notice about
the setting? Do the
fractured planes make the
setting difficult to identify?
• Describe the figures’ body
language, facial
expressions, and
relationships.
• What is artist
communicating?
• How might this work of art
have been controversial at
the time it was painted?Pablo Picasso. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Paris, June-July 1907. 8’ x 7’8”.
29

30Henri Matisse, Les Bonheur d'Vivre (The Joy of Life), 1906. 176.5 cm × 240.7 cm (69.5 in × 94.75 in). Barnes
Foundation, Philadelphia, PA>

31
Henri Matisse, Les Bonheur d'Vivre (The Joy of Life),
1906. 69.5” x 94.75”. Pablo Picasso. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
Paris, June-July 1907. 8’ x 7’8”.

Paul Cézanne. The Bather. c. 1885 Pablo Picasso. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Paris,
June-July 1907
32

33
Figure 24-14
GEORGES BRAQUE,
The Portuguese,
1911.
Oil on canvas,
3’ 10 ⅛” x 2’ 8”.
Kunstmuseum,
Basel.

Georges Braque. Man with a Guitar. 1911 Pablo Picasso. Ma Jolie. 1911–12
34

35
Figure 24-16 PABLO PICASSO, Still Life with Chair-Caning,
1912. Oil and oilcloth on canvas, 10 ⅝” x 1’ 1 ¾”. Musée Picasso, Paris.
Synthetic Cubism – 1st collage technique

36
1st constructed sculpture
Figure 24-19
PABLO PICASSO,
Maquette for Guitar
Maquette for Guitar,
1912.
Cardboard, string, and wire
(restored),
25 ¼” x 13” x 7 ½”.
Museum of Modern Art,
New York.

37
Cubist Sculpture
Figure 24-21
JULIO GONZÁLEZ,
Woman Combing Her Hair,
1936. Iron,
4’ 4” x 1’ 11½” x 2’ ⅝”.
Museum of Modern Art, New York.

38
Figure 24-18 PABLO PICASSO, Guernica Guernica,
1937. Oil on canvas, 11’ 5 ½” x 25’ 5 ¾”.
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid.
38

Futurism
1909-1915
“..persistency of an image on the retina, moving
objects constantly multiply themselves [and] their
form changes…”
Themes:
• Revolution in art and science
• Championed war to cleanse past
• Speed & dynamism modern
technology
Forms:
• Motion in time and space
• Distortion & Fragmented forms Figure 24-24 UMBERTO BOCCIONI, Unique
Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913 (cast 1931).
Bronze, 3’ 7 7/8” x 2’ 10 7/8” x 1’ 3 ¾”39

40
Figure 24-23 GIACOMO BALLA, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash,
1912. Oil on canvas, 2’ 11 ⅜” x 3’ 7 ¼”. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Dada 1915 – 1920s/1940s
“…Like everything in life, Dada is useless, everything happens
in a completely idiotic way…We are incapable of treating
seriously any subject whatsoever, let alone this subject:
ourselves.”
Mindset/Attitude:
• Reaction to insane spectacle of
collective homicide of WWI
• Absurdity, irrational
• Anti-art, nihilistic, pessimistic
• Unconscious (Freud & Jung)
• Undercurrent humor & whimsy
• Improvisation, chance
Forms:
• Ready-mades
• Collage
• photomontage
Hugo Ball reciting the poem,
Karawane at the Cabaret Voltaire,
Zurich, 1916. Photograph, 28 ½” x
15 ¾”
41

Duchamp’s Ready-Mades
Bicycle Wheel, Marcel Duchamp,
1913; Assisted readymade
bicycle wheel, diameter 25.5”,
mounted on a stool, 23.7”high.
Original lost.
Bottle Rack, Marcel Duchamp,
1914/64; bottle rack made of
galvanized iron. 59 x 37 cm. Original
In Advance of the Broken Arm, Marcel
Duchamp,1915; show shovel, wood and
galvanized iron. 47.8
42

“A great artist is one who allows us
to see things as we’ve never seen
them before.”
43

44
Figure 24-27 MARCEL DUCHAMP, Fountain Fountain, (second version), 1950 (original version produced
1917). Ready-made with black paint, 12” high. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.

45
Figure 24-1
HANNAH HÖCH,
Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada
through the Last Weimar Beer
Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany,
1919–1920.
Photomontage,
3’ 9” x 2’ 11 ½”.
Neue Nationalgalerie,
Staatliche Museen,
Berlin.
45

46
Suprematism
Constructivism
Productivism

47
Figure 24-30
KAZIMIR MALEVICH,
Suprematist Composition:
Airplane Flying,
1915 (dated 1914).
Oil on canvas,
1’ 10 ⅞” x 1’ 7”.
New York.
Supreme reality is pure feeling
which attaches to no object
Suprematism Non-Objective
47

48
Figure 24-31
NAUM GABO,
Column, ca. 1923 (reconstructed
1937). Perspex, wood, metal, glass,
3’ 5” x 2’ 5” x 2’ 5”.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York.
48
Constructivism

49
Figure 24-32
Vladimir Tatlin
Monument to the
Third International,
1919–1920.
Productivism

51
Figure 24-34 JOHN SLOAN, Sixth Avenue and 30th Street,
1907, 1909. Oil on canvas, 26 ¼” x 32”. Private Collection.
A
M
E
R
I
C
A
N
R
E
A
L
I
S
M

52
Installation photo of the Armory Show, New York National Guard’s 69th Regiment,
New York, 1913. Museum of Modern Art, New York.

53
Figure 24-35 MARCEL DUCHAMP,
Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2,
1912.
Oil on canvas,
4’ 10 “x 2’ 11”.
Philadelphia Museum of Art,
Philadelphia
(Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection).
53

Henri Matisse, Blue Nude. (Souvenir de Biskra), 1907. oil
on canvas, 36 ¼” x 56 1/8”. Baltimore Museum of Art. 55

Rrose Sélavay (Marcel
Duchamp). 1921. Photograph
by Man Ray. Art Direction by
Marcel Duchamp. Silver print.
Untitled (Rayograph), Man Ray, 1922;
Gelatin silver print, 9 3/8 x 7 1/16"
Man Ray, Champs
délicieux, 1922.
Rayograph gelatin
silver print. Man Ray
Trust. Fig. 27.656

57
Figure 24-42
GEORGIA O’KEEFFE,
New York, Night,
1929.
Oil on canvas,
3’ 4 ⅛” x 1’ 7 ⅛”.
Sheldon Memorial Art
Gallery,
Lincoln, Nebraska.
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1919
Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864–1946)
Palladium print; 9 5/8 x 7 11/16 in.
(24.4 x 19.5 cm)

Black Place II, 1944 Georgia O'Keeffe (American,
1887–1986)
Oil on canvas; 23 7/8 x 30 in. (60.8 x 76.1
cm)Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1959 (59.204.1)
Jack in the Pulpit No. IV. Georgia O’Keeffe. 1930. Oil
on Canvas. 40” x 30”.
58

59
Figure 24-47
WILLIAM VAN ALEN,
Chrysler Building,
New York, New York,
1928–1930.
Spire of stainless steel,
overall height 1,048’.
59

Figure 24-76 WILLIAM VAN ALEN, Chrysler Building,
New York, New York, 1928–1930. 60

62
Figure 24-48
GEORGE GROSZ,
The Eclipse of the Sun,
1916–1917.
Oil on Canvas,
6’ 9⅝” x 5’ 11⅞”.
Neue Sachlichkeit
New Objectivity

63
Figure 18-2 MATTHIAS GRÜNEWALD, Isenheim Altarpiece (open),
from the chapel of the Hospital of Saint Anthony, Isenheim, Germany, ca. 1510–1515. Oil on panel,
center panel 9' 9 ½” x 10’ 9”, each wing 8’ 2 ½” x 3’ ½”, predella 2’ 5 ½” x 11’ 2”. Musée d’Unterlinden, Colmar.

64
Figure 24-50 OTTO DIX, Der Krieg (The War), 1929–1932. Oil and tempera on wood, 6’ 8
½” x 13’ 4 ¾”. Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister, Dresden.

65
Figure 24-54 Adolf Hitler, accompanied by Nazi
commission members,
including photographer Heinrich Hoffmann, Wolfgang
Willrich, Walter Hansen, and painter Adolf Ziegler,
viewing the Entartete Kunst show on July 16, 1937.
View of sculpture exhibited at the Haus of German Art, n.d.
Degenerate Art
German “Ideal” Art

Surrealism“…superior reality...omnipotency of dreams, in the
undirected play of thought…”Andre Breton
Themes:
• Fantasy
• Dreams, unconscious
• Psyche
• Unite outer & inner “reality”
Forms:
• Automatic writing/drawing
• Dada improvisation: randomness,
Absurdity, irrational, incongruity
• Element of surprise, juxtaposition
• 3 types: Juxtaposition unrelated
items, Naturalistic, Biomorphic
Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory, 1931. Oil on canvas,
89 ½ x 13.” Museum of Modern Art, NY.
http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=79018
Joan Miro. Carnival of the Harlequin. 1925.
Oil on Canvas. 66

67
Figure 24-37
MAN RAY,
Cadeau (Gift),
ca. 1958 (replica of 1921
original). Painted flatiron with
row of 13 tacks with heads glued
to the bottom,
6 ⅛” high, 3 ⅝” wide, 4 ½” deep.
New York .
Surrealism
Juxtaposition of
Unrelated Objects

68
Figure 24-46
GIORGIO DE CHIRICO,
The Song of Love,
1914.
Oil on canvas,
2’ 4 ¾” x 1’ 11 ⅜”.
Naturalistic Surrealism
Super-reality

69
Figure 24-56 RENÉ MAGRITTE, The Trechery (or Perfidy) of Images, Treachery
1928–1929. Oil on canvas, 1’ 11 ⅝” x 3’ 1”. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

70
Figure 24-58 JOAN MIRÓ, Painting, 1933. 5’ 8” x 6’ 5”. Museum of Modern Art, New York .
Biomorphic Surrealism
Collage (study for Painting, June, 13, 1933)
Barcelona, February 11, 1933
Printed paper and graphite on paper, 18 1/2 x 24 7/8” (47 x
63.2 cm)The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Figure 24-56 PIET MONDRIAN, Composition in Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1937-1942. Oil on canvas, 1’ 11 ¾” x 1’ 9
71
Destijl

72Figure 24-65 GERRIT THOMAS RIETVELD, Schröder House, Utrecht, the Netherlands, 1924.
DeStijl

73
Figure 24-61
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI,
Bird in Space,
1928.
Bronze (unique cast),
4’ 6” x 8” x 6” high.
New York .
“…What is real is not the external
form but the essence of things.”
Brancusi
Abstract Sculpture

74
Figure 24-62 BARBARA HEPWORTH, Oval Sculpture (No. 2),
1943. Plaster cast, 11 ¼” x 16 ¼” x 10”. Tate Gallery, London.

76
Henry Moore sculptures – “…penetration into reality…present human psychological content…”

BAUHAUS
“Form follows
function”
“Less is more”
77

78
Figure 24-66 WALTER GROPIUS, Shop Block, the Bauhaus,
Dessau, Germany, 1925–1926.
78

79
Figure 24-66A MARCEL BREUER, Wassily (tubular) chair, 1925.

80
Figure 24-67
LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE, model
for a glass skyscraper,
Berlin, Germany,
1922
(no longer extant).

United States
and
Mexico
1930 - 1945
81

82New York Movie, 1939 by Edward Hopper

83
House by The Railroad, 1925 by Edward Hopper

84Jacob Lawrence. Tombstones, 1942. Gouache on paper, 30 7/8 × 22 13/16
in. (78.4 × 57.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

85
Figure 24-71
GRANT WOOD,
American Gothic
American Gothic,
1930.
Oil on beaverboard,
2’ 5 ⅝” x 2’ ⅞”.
Art Institute of Chicago,
Chicago.
Regionalism

86Diego Rivera. Man, Controller of the Universe. Rockefeller Plaza.

87
Figure 24-74 DIEGO RIVERA, Ancient Mexico, from the History of Mexico fresco murals,
National Palace, Mexico City, 1929–1935. Fresco.

88
Frida Kahlo, Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, Nickolas Muray Collection,Harry

Alexander Calder, Untitled, 1976. Aluminum honeycomb, tubing, and paint, 29’ 10 ½” x 76’. National Gallery of
Art, Washington, D.C. 89

Art Perceptions
• Choose 1 artwork to describe.
• Write 3 adjectives (describing words) for each
category:
1. Art elements (color, line, light and value, texture,
shape/volume/mass, space, time and motion)
2. Design Principles (unity and variety, balance,
emphasis and focal point, rhythm, scale,
proportion
3. Subject Matter
92

93
Pablo Picasso. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
Paris, June-July 1907. 8’ x 7’8”.
Figure 24-61
CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI,
Bird in Space,
1928.
Bronze (unique cast),
4’ 6” x 8” x 6” high.
New York .

94
Figure 24-24 UMBERTO BOCCIONI, Unique
Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913 (cast 1931).
Bronze, 3’ 7 7/8” x 2’ 10 7/8” x 1’ 3 ¾”

95
Gustav Klutsis, 1931
The USSR is the crack brigade
of the world proletariat
Publisher: Izogiz,
Moscow/Leningrad
(Lithography, 142x103 cm.,
inv.nr. BG E12/678-9, coll.
Rose)

Fig. 3.2, p.71 ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY JR. Saturday Night (1935). Oil on canvas. 81.3 cm x 101.6 cm.96

Bronzeville at Night. Archibald J. Motley Jr., 1949. Oil on canvas. Collection of Camille O. and William H. Cosby 97

Art 1020 Chapter 24 Modernism in Europe and America 1900-1945

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