The document provides an overview of major art movements from the late 20th century into the 21st century. It discusses Post-Modern architecture in the 1970s that embraced eclectic styles and references to the past. It also summarizes key works like the Pompidou Center and the Louvre Pyramid. Contemporary art is described as pluralistic with a variety of styles from past and present. Conceptual art emphasized ideas over finished objects. Land art and environmental art incorporated nature. Post-Modern, Neo-Expressionist, and Post-Pop art referenced previous movements. Technology and performance art expanded artistic mediums. Artists addressed social and political issues through their work.

1. Late 20th Century
into the 21st Century
Contemporary / Post-Modern Art

2. • Belief that Modernist Architecture was impersonal
and sterile
• Complex and Eclectic structures
• Post-Modern architecture accepts and embraces the
“messy and chaotic” nature of urban life
• References to architecture from the past
• Post-Modern Architecture often exposes rather than
conceals
Post-Modern Architecture

3. Richard Rogers (British) and Renzo Piano (Italian), Pompidou Center (Paris), 1977

5. Richard Rogers (British)
and Renzo Piano (Italian)
Pompidou Center (Paris), 1977
• Cultural Center and Museum
• Post-Modern - Reference to
Eiffel Tower (structure visible)
• Building “turned inside out”
exposed water, electrical, etc.
pipes, ducts, and tubes on the
outside
• Square in front of the museum
popular place to “hang out”

6. I.M. Pei, Louvre Pyramid (Paris), 1989

7. I.M. Pei
Louvre Pyramid
1989
• I.M. Pei is a Chinese American architect
• The glass pyramid serves as the main entrance to the
Louvre Museum - go down into the pyramid
• Post-modern - merger of the old, classic and new, ultra-
modern
• Commissioned by the President of France François
Mitterrand in 1984
• Sparked controversy as many people did not think the
design fits the Classical Louvre architecture

8. • Contemporary Art - Pluralism (many different styles)
• Post-Modern Art - Combines a Variety of Styles from Past and
Present
• New Mediums
• Technology
• Challenges the Viewer, Shocks, Surprises, Humor
• Deals with Current Issues – Society and Politics
Art Today

9. • Intellectual Avant-Garde Movement begun in late 1960’s
• Idea is most important aspect
• Objects used to express a concept (finished product is less
important than the idea)
• Questioning art and our understanding of art
Conceptual Art

10. Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965,
Wood chair, photograph of chair, photograph of
dictionary definition

11. Language and Vision (Text and Image)
Ways of Understanding the World /
Interpretation
Idea of what is a chair
Challenges “what is art”
Joseph Kosuth, One and Three
Chairs, 1965, Wood chair,
photograph of chair, photograph
of dictionary definition

12. Damien Hirst
For the Love of God, 2007
Diamonds, Platinum, Human Teeth

13. Made with 8,601 flawless diamonds,
including a pear-shaped pink diamond
located in the forehead that is known as
the Skull Star Diamond
First was a member of Young British
Artists (YBA) group formed in the
1990s. These artists dominated the art
scene in the UK / worldwide for over a
decade.
Memento Mori - reminder of death
Reference to the Diamond Industry
Hirst’s work is controversial
Damien Hirst
For the Love of God, 2007
Diamonds, Platinum, Human
Teeth

14. Super-realism
• American Art Movement in late 1960’s – 1970’s
• Extension of Pop Art (similar subjects, but different style)
• Highly detailed and realistic (sometimes called Photorealism)

15. Chuck Close, Big Self-
Portrait, 1967 – 1968,
Acrylic on Canvas
(8’11” x 11’2”)

16. Chuck Close, Big Self-
Portrait, 1967 – 1968, Acrylic
on Canvas (8’11” x 11’2”)
• Large Scale Portrait Paintings
based on Photographs
• In response to abstract art
• History of Realism in American
Art
• Truth / Reality
• Avoided creative compositions,
flattering lighting, and facial
expressions

18. Duane Hanson,
Supermarket Shopper,
1970, Polyester resin
and fiberglass
polychromed in oil with
clothing, steel cart, and
groceries

19. Duane Hanson, Supermarket
Shopper, 1970, Mixed Media
(Polyester resin and fiberglass
polychromed in oil with
clothing, steel cart, and
groceries)
Made plaster molds from real people
Stereotypical “average” Americans
“The subject matter I like best deals
with the familiar lower and middle
class American types of today.”
Sculptures sometimes mistaken for
real people

20. LAND Art
• Progressive Movement developed in the 1960’s in USA
• Increased concerns about environment (pollution, litter, urban
sprawl)
• Challenges traditional assumptions about art
• Site-specific (art in a particular location and about that
location)

21. Christo and
Jeanne-Claude,
Running Fence
(California, USA),
synthetic fabric,
cable, steel, 1972
-1976

22. Christo and Jeanne-
Claude, Running Fence
(California, USA), Pink
woven synthetic fabric,
1972 - 1976
5.5 meters high
40 Kilometer long nylon fence
Environmental art project
Artists claim that the art has
no meaning. Their goal is to
create something beautiful
and to see the landscape in a
new way.
Money raised by selling their
preliminary drawings

23. Robert
Smithson,
Spiral Jetty,
1970, Black
rock, salt
crystals, earth,
red water
(Utah, USA)

24. Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty,
1970, Black rock, salt crystals,
earth, red water (Utah, USA)
Manipulated the earth the
create an environmental
sculpture
“enduring power of nature”
Inspired by the location and
the molecular structure of
salt crystals that coat the
rocks
Spiral Jetty under water

25. Andy Goldsworthy, Knotweed Stalks (Screen Series), 1998, Land Art

26. Andy Goldsworthy
Knotweed Stalks
1998, Land Art
• Andy Goldsworthy is a British
sculptor, photographer, and
environmentalist
• Artist only uses natural materials
(leaves, flowers, sticks, ice, rocks,
etc.)
• Focus on Process
• Photography plays an important
role as the work itself is
temporary
• Artist is the subject of an important
documentary film, Rivers and
Tides, 1998

27. Neo-Expressionism
• Movement in 1980’s inspired by German Expressionists and
Abstract Expressionists
• Reintroduced human feeling back into art

28. Francesco
Clemente,
Francesco
Clemente, Oil on
Canvas, 1985

29. Francesco Clemente,
Francesco Clemente,
Oil on Canvas, 1985
• Clemente’s work draws
inspiration from
Expressionism and
Surrealism
• Self-Portrait
• Two sides of personality /
“inner self”
• Francesco interested in
connection of art to
spirituality (He is Italian, but
he lives in India part of the
year)

30. Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (Scull), 1981, Mixed Media

31. Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (Scull), 1981,
Mixed Media
• Basquiat was an American graffiti
artist of Haitian decent at the forefront
of hip-hop, street art culture in the late
1970s and 1980s
• He appropriated poetry, drawing, and
painting,
• His work marries text and image,
abstraction and figuration, and historical
information mixed with contemporary
critique / social commentary (especially
related to racism)
• A major reference source used by
Basquiat was the book Gray's
Anatomy
• Basquiat collaborated with Andy
Warhol on a series of work

32. Polaroid of Jean-Michel Basquiat by Andy Warhol

33. Post-Pop
• American artists in 1980’s and beyond still influenced by Pop
Art from the 1960’s
• Consumerism and Popular culture
• Humor

34. Jeff-Koons,
Pink
Panther,
1988,
Porcelain
sculpture

35. Jeff-Koons,
Pink Panther,
1988,
Porcelain sculpture
• Magazine centerfold
with well-known
cartoon character
• Commercialism /
Consumerism
• Kitsch (bad taste)
• “everything wrong with
contemporary American
society”

36. Keith Haring,
Untitled, 1985,
Mixed Media on
Canvas

37. Keith Haring, Untitled, 1985,
Mixed Media on Canvas
• Keith Haring started by drawing in
NY Subways (Graffiti art / Street Art)
• Keith Haring friends with Andy
Warhol who helped him to launch
his career in art galleries
• East-Village New York style
• Art for “the people”

38. Yayoi Kusama, Dots Obsession, Installation (balloons and vinyl), 2011

39. Yayoi Kusama
Dots Obsession,
Installation, 2011
• Japanese Avant-garde artist / writer
who brings together pop art,
minimalism, feminism, surrealism,
abstract expressionism
• works in many different mediums
(sculpture,painting, printmaking, film,
fashion, performance art)
• installation - art in a space that
creates an environment
• Lived in New York in 1960s where she
met Andy Warhol (she now lives in
Tokyo)
• Work deals with issues related to
psychology (she has experienced
psychiatric problems herself)

40. Art and Society
• Art as a social tool used to help change society
• Social and Political issues
• Art by and for minorities (issues of gender, race, sexuality)

41. Cindy Sherman,
Untitled Film
Still #35, 1979,
Black-and-white
photograph

42. Cindy Sherman,
Untitled Film Still #35,
1979, Black-and-white
photograph
• Sherman plays different
roles in her photographs
(dressed in costume) -
• Not a Self-Portrait
• Feminism - Questions how
women have been
portrayed in movies,
photography, art
• Photography shows the
shutter release cable on the
floor (artist took her own
photograph)

43. Barbara Kruger,
Untitled (I Shop
Therefore I Am),
1987, Photographic
silkscreen on vinyl

44. Barbara Kruger, Untitled
(I Shop Therefore I Am),
1987, Photographic
silkscreen on vinyl
Look of Advertising
Challenges Advertising (Kruger
worked as a graphic designer
before becoming an artist)
Deceptiveness of Media’s
messages
“I think, therefore I am” -
Philosophical statement by
Descartes

45. Comparison

46. ]
Cao Fei, Cosplayers, Video still, 2004

47. ]
Cao Fei, Cosplayers,
Video still, 2004
• Chinese artist (Guangzhou,
China)
• Post-modern mix of cultures,
influences
• Discrepancy between reality
and dreams
• Focus on individual’s longings
and the way they imagine
themselves
• Discontentment and
disillusionment of China’s
younger generation

48. Ai Weiwei, Coca-cola Vase, Painted neolithic vase (5000 BCE), 2007

49. Ai Weiwei
Coca-cola Vase
Painted neolithic vase
2007
• Critical of the effects of Capitalism in
China
• Highly and openly critical of the
Chinese government’s stance on
democracy and human rights
• Reference to Pop Art (Warhol also
made a series of paintings of Coca-cola /
Ai Weiwei is sometimes called the Beijing
Andy Warhol)
• Ai Weiwei creates sculpture,
installation art, photography, film, and
he even created a heavy metal rock
music album
• Uses social media to communicate with
large masses of people (highly influential)

50. Comparison

51. Ai Weiwei dropping a 2000 year old Han Dynasty urn, Performance

52. Performance Art
• Avant-garde art form started in 1960’s
• Action as an art form
• Multimedia
• New way to express ideas / concepts
• Ephemeral art form (temporary, element of time)

53. Laurie Anderson, O Superman, 1985, Performance Art

54. Laurie Anderson, O Superman,
1985, Performance Art
• Anderson wrote music
and lyrics
• Experimentation with
sound (electric violin and
synthesized voice)
• Symbolism / Hand-
gestures
• Feminist art combining
elements of pop art, pop
music, World music,
dada

55. Marina Abramovic, The Artist is Present, 2010, Performance Piece at MOMA, New York

56. Marina Abramović
The Artist is Present
2010, Performance Art
• Marina Abramović is a Serbian artist based in New York
• Her work explores the relationship between performer and
audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind
• The Artist is Present was a 736-hour and 30-minute static, silent
piece
• Abramović sat immobile in the Museum of Modern Art in New
York while spectators were invited to take turns sitting opposite her
• Collaborated with Lady Gaga and Jeff Koons, and appears in JayZ’s
music video, Picasso Baby

57. Technology and Art
• Artists adapting new technology into their art to reflect our
world today
• Experimental
• Use of Light and Sound
• Artists started experimenting with video in 1960’s
• Looking at an image in a video monitor / screen (related to
Renaissance idea of looking through a frame into a picture)
• Element of time / 4-D

58. Nam June Paik, TV Buddha, 1974, Buddha Statue, TV, Video Camera

59. Nam June Paik
TV Buddha, 1974,
Buddha Statue, TV, Video Camera
• Nam June Paik was a Korean-American
artist (founder of video art)
• Studied Art History and Music in Tokyo
then moved in New York in 1960s
• Worked with a variety of mediums
• Major influence on contemporary artists
• Statue of Buddha placed in front of a
television monitor with a closed-circuit
video camera directed from the top of
the monitor onto Buddha; Buddha silently
observes himself on the screen in an
infinite temporal loop

60. Jenny
Holzer,Truisms,
1988, LED
Electronic Signboard
(Times Square, New
York City)

61. Jenny Holzer, Truisms (Protect Me
From What I Want), 1988, LED
Electronic Signboard (Times Square,
New York City)
• Text as Art (connection
to literature and
language)
• Social Consciousness
• Uses advertising
format to deliver
messages
• Art in Public Spaces

62. Ryoji Ikeda,
The Transfinite, 2011,
digital / sound installation

63. Ikeda is a Japanese visual artist and electronic composer who lives in
Paris
Audio and visual experience in the form of an installation
Concept of “infinity, rationality, and the beauty of data”
Allows viewers to directly interact with the work (element of performance)
‘to me, the purest beauty is the world of mathematics. its perfect assemblage of
numbers, magnitudes and forms persist, independent of us. the aesthetic experience of the
sublime in mathematics is awe-inspiring. it is similar to the experience we have when we
confront the vast magnitude of the universe, which always leaves us open-mouthed”
-Ryoji Ikeda
Ryoji Ikeda,
The Transfinite, 2011,
digital / sound installation