Sayre2e ch38 integrated_lecture_pp_ts-150679

Copyright ©2012 Pearson Inc.
Duane Hanson. Supermarket Shopper. 1970.
Height: 65”.

Europe After the War: The Existential Quest
What is existentialism?
• Christian Existentialism: Kierkegaard, Niebuhr, and Tillich
— In the face of countless deaths, pessimism reigned, and ideological
conflict between the Western po0wers and the Eastern bloc
exacerbated a growing sense of meaninglessness, alienation, and
anxiety. Christianity found itself in crisis as well. Kierkegaard had
argued that Christians must live in a state of anguish caused by their
own freedom of choice. Niebuhr and Tillich further articulated this
position of Christian existentialism in America.
• The Philosophy of Sartre: Atheistic Existentialism — Sartre
argued for what is termed atheistic existentialism. Living in a universe
without God, and thus without revealed morality, individuals must
nevertheless choose to act ethically.

• De Beauvoir and Existential Feminism — Simone de Beauvoir
argued that women had passively allowed men to define them rather
than creating themselves.
• The Literature of Existentialism — The Stranger by Albert Camus
offers an antihero who refuses to admit to feelings that are absent even
though it condemns him. The Theater of the Absurd is a theater in
which the meaninglessness of existence is the central thematic concern
as is seen in Sartre’s No Exit. The most popular of the absurdist plays
is Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.
• The Art of Existentialism — Faced with the lack of life’s meaning
that Sartre’s existentialism proposed, painters and sculptors sought to
explore the truth of this condition in their own terms. Alberto Giacometti
produced City Square which was admired by Sartre. The French artist,
Jean Dubuffet created art brut, “raw art” from those unaffected by or
untrained in cultural convention.
• Discussion Question: What are the existentialist themes in the work of
Camus and Beckett?

Alberto Giacometti. City Square (La Place). 1948.
8-1/2" × 25-3/8" × 17-1/4”.

America After the War: Triumph and Doubt
What is Abstract Expressionism?
• The Triumph of American Art: Abstract Expressionism —
The individualistic spirit of Abstract Expressionism was seen as the
antithesis of communism, and their work was meant to convey the
message that America had not only triumphed in the war, but in art and
culture as well. New York, not Paris, was now the center of the art
world.
• Jackson Pollock plumbed the depths of the psyche and de Kooning
represents the psyche’s encounter with the world. Although excluded
from the inner (male) circle, a number of the women associated with
Abstract Expressionism were painters of exceptional ability. Both
Elaine de Kooning and Lee Krasner developed their own styles
separate from their husband’s. Joan Mitchell was obsessed with water
and was influenced by Monet.

• Both Rothko and Frankenthaler offered viewers a more meditative and
quiet painting based on large expanses of relatively undifferentiated
color. Calder and Smith demonstrated that sculpture could partake of
the same gestural freedom and psychological abstraction as Abstract
Expressionist painting. It could become a field of action.
• Discussion Question: What role did women play in Abstract
Expressionism?

Jean Dubuffet. Corps de Dame. 1950.
10-5/8" × 8-3/8”.

Jackson Pollock. Guardians of the Secret. 1943.
4’ 3/8" × 6’ 3-3/8”.

Richard Hamilton, John McHale, and John Voelcker. Closer Look: Pavilion
for the “This Is Tomorrow” exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, London.
1956.

 Closer Look: Richard Hamilton, Just What Is
It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different,
So Appealing?
MyArtsLabChapter 38 – After the War

Richard Hamilton. Closer Look: Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes
So Different, So Appealing?. 1956.
10-1/4" × 9-3/4”.

Jackson Pollock. Number 27. 1950.
4’ 1" × 8’ 10”.

 Video: Jackson Pollock at Work

Willem de Kooning. Seated Woman. ca. 1940.
54-1/4" × 36”.

Willem de Kooning. Pink Angels. 1945.
52" × 40”.

Willem de Kooning. Excavation. 1950.
81" × 100-1/4" (unframed).

Lee Krasner. White Squares. ca. 1948.
24" × 30”.

Grace Hartigan. River Bathers. 1953.
5'9-3/8" × 7'4-3/4”.

Joan Mitchell. Piano mécanique. 1958.
78" × 128”.

Mark Rothko. Green on Blue. 1956.
89-3/4" × 63-1/4”.

Helen Frankenthaler. The Bay. 1963.
6’ 8-3/4" × 6’ 9-1/2”.

Alexander Calder. Black, White, and Ten Red. 1957.
33" × 144”.

David Smith. Blackburn: Song of an Irish Blacksmith. Frontal view. 1949-
50.
46-1/4" × 49-3/4" × 24”.

David Smith. Blackburn: Song of an Irish Blacksmith. Profile view. 1949-50.
46-1/4" × 49-3/4" × 24”.

The Beat Generation
Who are the Beats?
• The Beat generation sought a heightened and, they believed, more
authentic style of life, defined by alienation, nonconformity, sexual
liberation, drugs, and alcohol.
• Robert Frank and Jack Kerouac — Frank published a book of
photographs as The Americans in 1958. The photographs captured
everyday, mundane things that might otherwise go by unseen, with a
sense of spontaneity and directness. Kerouac’s real-life adventures are
described in On the Road.
• Ginsberg and “Howl” — The work that best characterizes the Beat
generation is “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg. The publisher, Lawrence
Ferlinghetti was charged with obscenity; he was eventually acquitted.

• Cage and the Aesthetics of Chance — Ginsberg showed that
anything and everything could be admitted into the domain of art.
Composer John Cage “set about discovering means to let sounds be
themselves.” His composition 4’33” admits all manner of ambient
sound—whatever sounds happened during its performance were purely
a matter of chance. Rauschenberg began to make combine paintings,
works in which all manner of materials are combined to create the work.
Theater Piece #1 inaugurated a collaboration between Cunningham
(dance, Cage (music), and Rauschenberg (décor and costume) that
would span many years. Jasper Johns focused on the most common,
seemingly obvious subject matter. Cage’s aesthetic of diversity and
inclusiveness also informs the inventive multimedia pieces of Alan
Kaprow.
• Architecture in the 1950s — The design of Frank Lloyd Wright for
the Guggenheim Museum in New York represents the spirit if
architectural innovation that still pervade the practice of architecture to
this day.

Robert Rauschenberg. Bed. 1955.
6’ 3-1/4" × 31-1/2" × 8”.

Merce Cunningham. Summerspace. Set and costumes by Robert
Rauschenberg. 1958.

Jasper Johns. Three Flags. 1958.
30-7/8" × 45-1/2" × 5”.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Farnsworth House, Fox River, Plano, Illinois.
1950.

Frank Lloyd Wright. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
1957-59.

Pop Art
What is Pop Art?
• In the early 1960s, a number of artists created a “realist” art that
represented reality in terms of the media—advertising, television, comic
strips—the imagery of mass culture. The term Pop Art quickly became
attached to work such as Warhol’s famous paintings of Campbell’s
Soup cans. Roy Lichtenstein enlarged comic strip paintings. Claes
Oldenburg opened The Store, filled with life-size and over-life-size
sculptures of everything from pie a la mode, to hamburgers, hats, and
7-Up bottles.
• Discussion Question: How is pop art a rejection of commercialism?

Andy Warhol. Campbell’s Soup Cans. Installation at Ferus Gallery. 1962.

Tom Wesselmann. Still Life #20. 1962.
48" × 48" × 5-1/2”.

Andy Warhol. Marilyn Diptych. 1962.
6’ 8-7/8" × 4’ 9”.

 Closer Look: Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych
 Studio Technique Video: Silkscreen

Roy Lichtenstein. Oh, Jeff . . . I Love You, Too . . . But. . . . 1964.
4' × 4’.

Roy Lichtenstein. Little Big Painting. 1965.
70" × 82" × 2-1/4”.

Claes Oldenburg. Soft Toilet. 1966.
52" × 32" × 30”.

Frank Stella. Pagosa Springs. 1960.
99-3/8" × 99-1/4”.

Minimalism in Art
What is Minimalism in art?
• Nothing could be further from the onslaught of mass-media images in
the culture of consumption than Minimal Art’s almost pure and classical
geometries. Minimalist artists were intrigued with utilizing the
processes of mass production, the use of ready-made materials, the
employment of modular units. Minimalism invites the active
engagement of the viewer in experiencing it. Frank Stella’s Pagosa
Springs, draws attention to one of the fundamental properties of
painting—the support. The room installation by Sol LeWitt began as a
set of instructions to be followed by workers who execute the work
independently of the artist.

Carl Andre. Altstadt Copper Square. 1967.
Each unit: 3/16" × 19-11/16" × 19-11/16"; Overall: 3/16" × 197" × 197”.

Sol LeWitt. Wall Drawing #146A: All two-part combinations of arcs from
corners and sides, and straight, not straight, and broken lines within a 36-
inch (90 cm) grid. 2000, June.

Continuity & Change: The Civil Rights Movement: One of the "Little Rock
Nine," Elizabeth Eckford, braves a jeering crowd. 1957, September 4.

Sayre2e ch38 integrated_lecture_pp_ts-150679

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