chapter study guide

The Later Twentieth Century: The Emergence of Postmodernism

WORLD WAR II AND ITS AFTERMATH

THE ART WORLD'S FOCUS SHIFTS WEST

POSTWAR EXPRESSIONISM IN EUROPE

MODERNIST FORMALISM

ALTERNATIVES TO MODERNIST FORMALISM

NEW MODELS FOR ARCHITECTURE: MODERNISM TO POSTMODERNISM

POSTMODERNISM IN PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND NEW MEDIA

MODERNIST FORMALISM

Abstract Expressionism

Abstract Expressionism is the first major American avant-garde movement. Abstract Expressionist paintings are usually abstract and express the artist's state of mind. Some Abstract Expressionists adopted Surrealist improvisation methods and created works that had a look of rough spontaneity and exhibited a refreshing energy. Abstract Expressionism developed along two lines: gestural abstraction, which relied on the expressiveness of energetically applied pigment, and chromatic abstraction, which focused on the emotional resonance of color.

The Primacy of Process: Jackson Pollock's large-scale gestural abstract painting Lavender Mist: Number 1, 1950 is composed of rhythmic drips, splatters, and dribbles of paint. Emphasis is on the creation process.

34-4 JACKSON POLLOCK, Lavender Mist: Number 1, 1950, 1950. Oil, enamel, and aluminum paint on canvas, 7' 3" x 9' 10". National Gallery of Art, Washington (Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund).

34-5 Photo of Jackson Pollock painting.

A Ferocious and Intense Woman: Willem de Kooning's Woman I, although rooted in figuration, displays the sweeping gestural brushstrokes and energetic application of pigment typical of gestural abstraction.

34-6 WILLEM DE KOONING, Woman I, 1950–1952. Oil on canvas, approx. 6' 4" x 4' 10". Museum of Modern Art, New York (purchase).

Color's Enduring Resonance: Vir Heroicus Sublimis by the chromatic abstractionist painter Barnett Newman consists of a single slightly modulated color field split by narrow bands that serve as accents that energize the field and give it scale.

34-7 BARNETT NEWMAN, Vir Heroicus Sublimis, 1950–1951 Oil on canvas, 7' 11 3/8" x 17' 9 1/4". Museum of Modern Art, New York. [gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Heller].

"Tragedy, Ecstasy, Doom": Mark Rothko's Untitled consists of large shimmering rectangles of intensely luminous pure color with hazy edges that seem to float on the surface of the canvas in front of a colored background. Rothko relies on color and shape to create emotion in the viewer.

34-8 MARK ROTHKO, Untitled, 1961. Oil on canvas, 5' 9" x 4' 2". Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Lee V. Eastman.

Post-Painterly Abstraction

Post-Painterly Abstraction developed out of Abstract Expressionism and exhibits a cool, detached rationality with an emphasis on pictorial control. The hand of the artist is conspicuously absent in Post-Painterly Abstraction.

Elemental Hard-Edge Painting: Ellsworth Kelly's completely abstract Red Blue Green has razor-sharp edges and clearly delineated color shapes in a simple composition.

34-9 ELLSWORTH KELLY, Red Blue Green, 1963. Oil on canvas, approx. 7' x 11' 4". Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (gift of Dr. and Mrs. Jack M. Farris).

"What You See Is What You See": Frank Stella's Nunca Pasa Nada is a simplified image of thin, evenly spaced pinstripes on a colored ground.

34-10 FRANK STELLA, Nunca Pasa Nada, 1964. Metallic powder in polymer emulsion on canvas, approx. 8' 9" x 17' 6". Collection of the Lannan Foundation.

Flat Color Field Painting: In Bay Side, Hellen Frankenthaler poured diluted paint onto unprimed canvas and allowed the pigments to soak into the fabric.

34-11 HELEN FRANKENTHALER, Bay Side, 1967. Acrylic on canvas, 6' 2" x 6' 9". André Emmerich Gallery, New York.

Stained Canvases: In Saraband, Morris Louis impregnated the canvas with paint by holding up the edges and pouring diluted acrylic resin to create billowy, fluid transparent shapes that run down the length of the unprimed canvas.

34-12 MORRIS LOUIS, Saraband, 1959. Acrylic resin on canvas, 8' 5 1/8" x 12' 5". Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Minimal Art

Minimal art, or Minimalism, strove for purity through primary structures.

Emphasizing Objecthood: Tony Smith's Die is a simple volumetric construction without an identifiable subject, color, surface texture, or narrative element. By reducing experience to its most fundamental level, Minimalist artists seek to inhibit any form of interpretation and to prevent the viewer finding any meaning in the art before them.

34-13 TONY SMITH, Die, 1962. Steel, 6' x 6' x 6'.

An Unambiguous Visual Vocabulary: Donald Judd sought to avoid ambiguity and falseness in his Minimalist sculpture Untitled, which is comprised of basic geometric boxes constructed of brass and red plexiglass.

34-14 DONALD JUDD, Untitled, 1969. Brass and red fluorescent plexiglass, ten units, 6 1/8" x 2' x 2' 3" each, with 6" intervals. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington (gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn). Art copyright © Donald Judd Estate/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

Healing Psychic Wounds: Maya Ying Lin's simple and austere design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a V-shaped wall constructed of polished black granite panels set into the landscape.

34-15 MAYA YING LIN, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C., 1981–1983. Black granite, each wing 246' long.

Image courtesy of Saskia, Ltd.

Diverse Sculptural Directions

Compelling Nontraditional Materials: Eva Hesse's spare and simple Hang-Up uses nontraditional sculptural materials to create a disquieting and compelling sculpture that extends into the room.

34-16 EVA HESSE, Hang-Up, 1965–1966. Acrylic on cloth over wood and steel, 6' x 7' x 6' 6". Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (gift of Arthur Keating and Mr. and Mrs. Edward Morris by exchange).

Monumental Metal Sculptures: David Smith's large-scale Cubi XVIII and Cubi XVII consist of simple geometric forms made of stainless steel piled haphazardly on top of one another.

34-17 DAVID SMITH, Cubi XVIII and Cubi XVII, 1963–1964. Polished stainless steel; Cubi XVIII, 9' 7 3/4" high; Cubi XVII, 8' 11 3/4" high x 5' 4 3/8" x 3' 2 1/8". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts (gift of Susan W. and Stephen D. Paine), and Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas (The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Fund). Copyright © estate of David Smith/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

Multiplicity of Meaning: Louise Nevelson's monochromatic Tropical Garden II is a rough geometric assemblage of found wooden objects and forms in which small sculptural compositions are enclosed in boxes of varied sizes that are joined together to form a wall.

34-18 LOUISE NEVELSON, Tropical Garden II, 1957–1959. Wood painted black, 5' 111/2" x 10' 113/4" x 1'. Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

Sensuous Organic Forms: Louise Bourgeois's Cumul I is a collection of different-sized, roundheaded, abstract shapes arranged within the soft folds of a cloak dotted with holes.

Performance Art

Performance Art used movements, gestures, and sounds of persons to communicate with the viewer. Generally, Performance Art survives only in documentary photographs taken at the time. It was informal and spontaneous in nature and employed the human body as its primary material.

A Composer's Influence: John Cage composed music using methods such as chance to convey the unpredictable and multilayered qualities of daily existence.

Happenings and Fluxus: Allan Kaprow developed a type of largely participatory event known as a Happening that was performed according to plan but without rehearsal, audience or repetition. The Fluxus group explored the nontraditional and commonplace in performances that were more theatrical than Happenings. Many Fluxus performances followed a compositional "score" and focused on single actions that were usually executed on a stage but without costumes or added decor.

Performance as Ritual: Joseph Beuys created actions aimed at illuminating the condition of modern humanity. His How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare incorporates fat and felt to symbolize healing and regeneration.

34-20 JOSEPH BEUYS, How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, 1965. Photograph of Performance art. Schmela Gallery, Düsseldorf.

Destruction as Creation: Jean Tinguely created the kinetic artwork Homage to New York, which was designed to "perform" and then destroy itself in a large courtyard area at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

34-21 JEAN TINGUELY, Homage to New York, 1960, just prior to its self-destruction in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Conceptual Art

Conceptual art asserted that the "artfulness" of art lay in the artist's idea, rather than in its final expression.

What Constitutes "Chairness"?: Joseph Kosuth's One and Three Chairs consists of an actual chair flanked by a full-scale photograph of the chair and a photostat of a dictionary definition of the word chair.

34-22 JOSEPH KOSUTH, One and Three Chairs, 1965. Wooden folding chair, photographic copy of a chair, and photographic enlargement of a dictionary definition of a chair; chair, 2' 8 3/8" x 1' 2 7/8" x 1' 8 7/8"; photo panel, 3' x 2' 1/8"; text panel, 2' x 2' 1/8". The Museum of Modern Art, New York (Larry Aldrich Foundation Fund).