1

-Influenced by the Dada movement.
-From the studies of Freud about the inner
working of the mind.
-Appreciate the mysteries of dreams and the
unconscious, and the appeal to the bizarre and
the strange.
-World made of pure imagination and personal
expression.

Salvador Dali (1904-1989)
• Used hallucinatory
characters
• Some of his work
included sexual figures
• Colorful personality

Rene Magritte (1898-1967)
• Uses everyday images
• It is suspected that he
hides the faces in his
work because his mom
was found dead with
her dress covering her
face.

Not To Be Reproduced

The Lovers

LEADING ARTISTS:
JACKSON POLLOCK
MARK ROTHKO
WILLEM DE KOONING
FRANZ KLINE
THIS WAS CONSIDERED VERY SERIOUS
“HIGH” ART
ART CRITICS PLAYED A LARGE ROLE IN
MAKING ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM A
LEADING ART FORM

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISTS

CAN BE SPLIT INTO TWO
BROAD STYLES:
THE ACTION PAINTERS
&
THE COLOUR FIELD PAINTERS

JACKSON POLLOCK 1912-1956
LEADER OF THE ACTION PAINTERS

MARK ROTHKO 1903- 1970
LEAD THE COLOUR FIELD PAINTERS

“ACTION PAINTERS”:
- -GESTURAL
- -MOVEMENT
- -ACTION
- DIRECTION
- THICK PAINT
- -LARGE SCALE
- -BOLD BRUSH
STROKES

POP ART
1960’s: Rebelled against the SERIOUSNESS of
the Abstract Expressionists

• Pop Art is art that is based on popular
culture and the mass media
– Reflects current values of society/culture
– Uses images borrowed from advertising,
photography, comic strips and other mass
media sources
• Pop Art is influenced from two
dimensional images
• Mechanical Production
– Screen Printing
– Machine Produced
– Emphasis on Mass Production

Where Did Pop Art Come
From?
• Visual art movement that began
mid 1950s in Britain, late 1950s
in the U.S.
• The Independent Group founded
in London in 1952 was precursor
to the Pop Art Movement
• Lawrence Alloway- “The Arts and
the Mass Media”
– Popular Mass Culture= led to term
Pop Art

History Of Pop Art
• 1950’s!
– Period of optimism
– Consumer boom
– Products mass marketed,
advertised
• Independent Group
– Aimed at symbols/ images from
media
• Coincided with youth and pop
music phenomenon

Influences
• Pop art widely interpreted as
reversal or reaction to Abstract
Expressionism
– emotional expression with particular
emphasis on the spontaneous act
• Drew upon DADAist elements
– Movement that mocked artistic and
social conventions. Emphasized the
illogical and absurd.
– Favored montage, collage and the
readymade

Characteristics
• Brings back the subject
• Questions art as a commodity
and as a unique art form
• Everyday subject matter
• Marked by
– Clear lines
– Bold colors
– Sharp paintwork
– Clear representations of symbols,
objects, and people common in
pop culture

Techniques
• Central focus= commercial art
– Styles of popular culture and the mass media
– News paper, comics, advertising, consumer
goods
– Mass production
– Low cost
– Expendable
– "Like a joke without humor, told over
and over again until it begins to
sound like a threat... Advertising art
which advertises itself as art that
hates advertising.” Harold
Rosenberg

Andy Warhol
• Born August 8th 1928
• One of the most
influential artists on the
20th century
• Famous for
– Avant-guard pop art
paintings and screen
printings

Campbell’s
Soup Can 1964
Andy Warhol
Silkscreen on
Canvas

Marilyn
Monroe 1967
Andy Warhol
Screenprint on
white paper

Roy Lichtenstein
• Born October 27, 1923
• Began first pop
paintings using cartoon
images and techniques
derived from the
appearance of
commercial printing
– Included use of
advertising suggesting
consumerism that
reflected home life

The Drowning
Girl
Roy Lichtenstein
1963

Summary
• Characterized by bold, simple,
everyday imagery, and vibrant
block colors.
• Influenced by abstract
expressionism and DADAism
• Reflects pop culture and
consumerism
• Easy to understand, recognize
and interpret
• Major artists: Andy Warhol, Roy
Lichtenstein

What is abstract art?
• This is an example of abstract art.
• What do you think abstract means?

Abstract Art
• Abstract artists felt that paintings did not have to
show only things that were recognizable. In their
paintings they did not try to show people, animals,
or places exactly as they appeared in the real world.
• They mainly used color and shape in their paintings
to show emotions. Some Abstract art is also called
Non-objective art. In non-objective art, you do not
see specific objects. It is not painted to look like
something specific.

Which artwork is abstract?

What is non-objective art?
• Non-objective artists use color and shape in
their paintings to show emotions. Some
Abstract art is also called Non-objective art.
• In non-objective art, you do not see specific
objects. It is not painted to look like
something specific.

All of these artworks are abstract. But, which
one(s) of them are non-objective?

Vasily Kandinsky, non-objective art,
and the interdisciplinary nature of
visual art

Composition VIII, 1923
Yellow, Red, Blue, 1925
Kandinsky was a non-
objective artist.

What does drawing what you hear
look like?

Kandinsky’s liked many kinds of music. He especially liked a
musician named Tschaikovsky.
He listened to Tschaikovsky while he painted.