chap 23 notes

Chapter 23 Postwar Modern Movements in the West

Abstract Expressionism - mainly American movement of artists, who came together informally, beginning in the 1940's, influenced by European abstraction and Surrealism. Major figures of Abstract Expressionism were Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. Common elements included a certain spiritual nature of the work, the elements of chance and the unconscious, and the absence or distortion of objective reality. The movement was at its height during the early 1950's

Jackson Pollock – known as Jack the Dripper created what was called "Action Painting“, large drip paintings

Mark Rothko – color field painting, large blocks of 2 – 3 colors. Rothko painted in oil only on large canvas with vertical formats. This considerably large proportion was utilized in order to overwhelm the viewer, or in Rothko’s words, to make the viewer feel enveloped within the painting

avant-garde – innovative or nontraditional artists who pave the way for new styles or movements

Pop Art - American non-organized movement, Pop Art is well-known as a late 1950's, early 1960's art movement. A reaction to Abstract Expressionism and the new consumer culture in the United States, Pop's early figures were Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol; Claes Oldenburg is a Pop Art sculptor. Pop artists generally wanted to make art that was 'cool' as opposed to the strong emotion of Abstract Expressionism; Images were generally taken from advertising and the contemporary world. Styles of Pop ranged from painterly to hard-edge

Andy Warhol - During the 1960s, at a time when popular culture became a dominant force in both society and the arts, Andy Warhol became the guru of Pop Art. Using the most ordinary objects, Coke bottles, Campbell's soup cans, and the most popular personalities of American culture, Warhol gave them heroic scale and turned them into art.

Optical Art was born in the 1950’s. It is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing. Op art is a perceptual experience related to how vision functions. It is a dynamic visual art, stemming from a discordant figure-ground relationship that causes the two planes to be in a tense and contradictory juxtaposition.

Minimalism - Not an organized movement, minimalism began in the 1960's, predominantly in the United States. Its main thesis is "less is more," a reaction against the highly emotional nature of Abstract Expressionism. Large sculptures and paintings consist of bare geometric forms - squares, cubes, sometimes in more complex arrangements and often limited in color.

Donald Judd – minimalist sculpture consists of large, heavy cube forms. Judd's cubes express a forceful finality and strength and are an expression of our times in terms of the lessening influence of the natural world and more influence from our industrial, geometric environment.

Site Works - Artists began creating works that are inseparable from the sites for which they were designed. In Site-specific works, the artist’s sensitivity to the location determines the composition, scale, medium, and even the content of each piece. Site works are environmental constructions frequently made of sculptural materials designed to interact with by not permanently alter the environment.

Christo - one of the best known environmental site artists. He creates temporary works that are a combination of natural and manmade, often involving large numbers of workers to construct the projects.

Claes Oldenburg – a sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions of everyday objects.

Installations - Made for a specific space, exploiting certain qualities of that space. Installations may be temporary or permanent. A work of art created for a specific location and designed to relate to that location. 3D use of constructing and assembling a work.

Earth Art - This international movement began in the 1970's, and used the natural world as its material and content, generally making large 'earthworks'. Environmental artists work as individuals, rather than as part of an organized art movement. Earthworks consist of natural materials, such as large rocks, arranged in patterns over a large and perhaps isolated area

Andy Goldsworthy - a brilliant British artist who collaborates with nature to make his creations. Goldsworthy regards all his creations as temporary. He photographs each piece once right after he makes it. His goal is to understand nature by directly participating in nature as intimately as he can. He generally works with whatever he notices: twigs, leaves, stones, snow and ice, reeds and thorns.

Giacometti - Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman, and printmaker. Giacometti was a key player in the Surrealist Movement, but his work resists easy categorization. He attempted to create renditions of his models the way he saw them and the way he thought they ought to be seen.

Henry Moore - Moore's signature form is a reclining figure. His explorations of Mayan figures lead him to increasing abstraction as he turned his thoughts towards experimentation with the elements of design. Moore's earlier reclining figures deal principally with mass, while his later ones contrast the solid elements of the sculpture with the space, not only round them but generally through them as he pierced the forms with openings.

Louise Nevelson - is known for her abstract expressionist “boxes” grouped together to form a new creation. She used found objects or everyday discarded things in her assemblages.

Alexander Calder - American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing the mobile. In addition to mobile and stabile sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry and designed carpets

Kinetic art – art that moves

Graffiti Art - Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is often regarded as unsightly damage or unwanted vandalism. Graffiti has existed since ancient times, with examples going back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. Graffiti can be anything from simple scratch marks to elaborate wall paintings. In modern times, spray paint and markers have become the most commonly used materials. In most countries, defacing property with graffiti without the property owner's consent is considered vandalism, which is punishable by law.

Jean-Micheal Basquiat – graffiti artist, started out tagging locations with his signature SAMO (Same Old Shit)

Keith Haring – graffiti art

Conceptual Art - An installation presents a visualization of 3-D, in real time and space. It can include 2-D mediums (painting, drawing, photography, etc), but a 3-D element is also necessary for the interaction of the viewer into the installation space. Video and electronic media are used frequently. Installation art is often conceptual in nature. That is, the emphasis is more on ideas than on the creation of unique objects. For this reason, installation art frequently incorporates an assembly of "ready made" (manufactured) objects instead of focusing on the craftsmanship of the artist. This is not, however, necessary for the definition of installation art, as many installation artists create every object in their installation.


Feminism - The feminist art movement refers to the efforts and accomplishments of feminists internationally to bring more visibility to women within art history and art practice. Corresponding with general developments within feminism, the movement began in the 1960s, flourished throughout the 1970s, and the effects of it continue to the present.
Judy Chicago - The Dinner Party - triangular in configuration created to honor and highlight important and forgotten women’s achievements in art and culture throughout history.

Guerrilla Girls - a group of women artists, writers, performers, film makers and arts professionals who fight discrimination. They wear gorilla masks to focus on the issues rather than their personalities. Using humor to convey information, they intend to expose sexism and racism in the art world.

Louise Bourgeois - Bourgeois’s early sculpture was composed of groupings of abstract and organic shapes often carved from wood. By the 1960s she began to execute her work in rubber, bronze, and stone and the pieces themselves became larger, more referential to what has become the dominant theme of her work—her childhood.

Performance - Sometimes, the artist is part of the installation, in which case the installation then becomes performance art. The term "Performance Art" got its start in the 1960s in the United States. It was originally used to describe any live artistic event that included poets, musicians, and film makers in addition to visual artists. It's worth noting that, even though we're referencing the 1960s, there were earlier precedents for Performance Art. The live performances of the Dadaists, in particular meshed poetry and the visual arts. The German Bauhaus, founded in 1919, included a theater workshop to explore relationships between space, sound and light - a good 20 years before the 1960s.