1. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages,
12e
Unit 20; Chapter 34
From the Modern
to the Post-Modern and Beyond:
Art of the Later 20th Century
1

2. Map of the World in 1945
2

3. Map of the World in 2000
3

4. World War II and Its Aftermath
• Concerns w/ dynamics of power
• Identity is main area for discussion/action – self
identity and group/national identity
• Explorations into politics of identity to increase
how self-identity affects lives
• Movement of art center from Paris to US –
economic/political stability
• Modernism ends in 1970s
4

5. World War II and Its Aftermath
• Post-Modernism – not a style, but a cultural
interest
• PM grew from idea of populism (popular interest)
“Something for everyone”
• Wide range of styles, elements, subjects, formats
• Exploring the relationship between art & mass
culture
• Usually grounded in specific, historical conditions
(political issues, etc)
5

6. Modernism, Formalism, & Greenberg
Modernism = connected to strict formalism
(emphasis on visual elements rather than
subject); popular due to Greenberg
Greenberg = art critic 1940s – 1970s
• Rejected illusionism
• All about exploring properties of the medium
• Purity in art (quote on p. 1034)
• Alienation of public from art
6

7. Post-War Expressionism
• Existentialism = absurdity of human existence &
impossibility of certainty
• Brutality/roughness expressing artist’s state of
mind
7

8. •Brutal imagery of slaughter
•Based on WWII villains?
•Umbrella – N. Chamberlain?
•Crucified human form
•“remake violence of reality”
Figure 34-1 FRANCIS BACON, Painting, 1946.
Oil and pastel on linen, 6’ 5 7/8” x 4’ 4”. Museum
of Modern Art, New York (purchase).
8

9. Tortured vision of the world
Figure 34-2 JEAN DUBUFFET, Vie Inquiète (Uneasy Life), 1953. Oil on canvas, approx. 4’ 3” x 6’
4”. Tate Gallery, London.
9

10. • Existential – alienated, solitary,
lost in world’s immensity
• Rough surfaces
• Emaciated, elongated form
swallowed up by world
Figure 34-3 ALBERTO GIACOMETTI, Man
Pointing, 1947. Bronze no. 5 of 6, 5’ 10” x 3’ 1’ 5
5/8”. Nathan Emory Coffin Collection of the Des
Moines Art Center, Des Moines. 10

11. Modernist Formalism
Abstract Expressionism (NY School)
• Gestural/action painting = expressiveness of
applied pigment [Pollack, de Kooning]
• Chromatic = color’s emotional resonance
[Rothko]
• Are to grasp content intuitively, without thinking
• Expresses artist’s state of mind
• Strikes emotional chords in viewers
• Interest in unconscious forces
• Spontaneity, energy
11

12. Abstract Expressionism
Rosenberg – artist’s attempt to get inside of the
painting “what went onto the canvas was an
event”
12

13. Figure 34-4 JACKSON POLLOCK, Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), 1950. Oil, enamel, and
aluminum paint on canvas, 7’ 3” x 9’ 10”. National Gallery of Art, Washington 13

14. • Emphasis on creative
process
• Improvised, drawn from
subconscious
• Similar to Kandinsky
• Lack of well-defined
compositional focus
Figure 34-5 Photo of Jackson Pollock
painting.
14

15. • Sweeping brush strokes
• Energetic application of
paint
• Fertility figure? Venus?
• Process important
• Also did non-
representational works –
swaths & splashes of
pigment
• Rawness/intensity
Figure 34-6 WILLEM DE
KOONING, Woman I, 1950–1952. Oil
on canvas, 6’ 3 7/8” x 4’ 10”. Museum of
Modern Art, New York (purchase).
15

16. Chromatic Abstract Expressionist
• Quieter
• Eloquent use of color
• Color expresses universal themes – “spirit of
myth” – tragedy, ecstasy, doom (basic human
emotions)
• “simple expression of complex thought”
• Kinship with primitive/archaic art
• Relied on formal elements
16

17. • Color’s capacity to communicate & express his feelings
Figure 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).
17

18. • Compositionally
simple
• Color as
conveyor of
meaning
Figure 34-8 MARK
ROTHKO, No. 14, 1961 Oil
on canvas, 9’ 6” x 8’ 9”. San
Francisco Museum of
Modern Art, Helen Crocker
Russell Fund Purchase. 18

19. • Monumental
sculpture
• Simple geometric
forms
• Swirling patterns
on metal – surface
texture
Figure 34-9 David Smith, Cubi
XIX, 1964. Stainless steel.
19

20. Post-Painterly Abstraction
Formal elements of the style with tighter pictorial
control
• Hard-edged
• Color field
• Need to finish this section!!!
20

21. Figure 34-10 ELLSWORTH KELLY, Red Blue Green, 1963. Oil on canvas, 6’ 11 5/8” x 11’ 3
7/8”. Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (gift of Dr. and Mrs. Jack M. Farris).
21

22. Figure 34-11 FRANK STELLA, Nunca Pasa Nada, 1964. Metallic powder in polymer emulsion on
canvas, 9’ 2” x 18’ 4 1/2”. Collection of Lannan Foundation.
22

23. Figure 34-12 HELEN
FRANKENTHALER, Bay
Side, 1967. Acrylic on
canvas, 6’ 2” x 6’ 9”. Private
Collection, New York. 23

24. Figure 34-13 MORRIS LOUIS, Saraband, 1959. Acrylic resin on canvas, 8’ 5 1/8” x 12’ 5”.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. 24

25. Minimalist Abstraction
• Minimalism, a predominantly sculptural movement
• emphasis on objecthood
25

26. Figure 34-14 TONY SMITH, Die, 1962. Steel, 6’ x 6’ x 6’. Museum of Modern Art, New York
(gift of Jane Smith in honor of Agnes Gund).
26

27. Figure 34-15 DONALD JUDD, Untitled, 1969. Brass and colored
fluorescent plexiglass on steel brackets, ten units, 6 1/8” x 2’ x 2’ 3”
each, with 60 intervals. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington
27

28. Figure 34-16 MAYA YING LIN, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C., 1981–1983.
Black granite, each wing 246’ long. 28

29. Alternatives to Modernist Formalism
• Examine the expressive qualities of directions in
sculptural forms outside of Minimalism.
• Examine the development of Performance Art
and Happenings, combining two- and three-
dimensional art forms along with other arts.
• Examine the development of Conceptual Art and
the elimination of the object.
29

30. Expressive Sculpture
• Understand the ideas, feelings, and forms of
sculpture in contrast to the Minimalist forms.
30

31. Figure 34-17 LOUISE NEVELSON, Tropical Garden II, 1957–1959. Wood painted black, 5’ 11
1/2” x 10’ 11 3/4” x 1’. Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. 31

32. Figure 34-18 LOUISE BOURGEOIS, Cumul I, 1969. Marble, 1’ 10 3/8” x 4’ 2” x 4’. Musée
National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. 32

33. Figure 34-19 EVA HESSE, Hang-Up,
1965–1966. Acrylic on cloth over wood
and steel, 6’ x 7’ x 6’ 6”. Art Institute of
Chicago, Chicago
33

34. Figure 34-20 GEORGE BRECHT, Event Scores. 34

35. Performance Art and Happenings
• Examine the innovative forms of Performance Art
and Happenings which combined two- and three-
dimensional art along with other arts.
35

36. Figure 34-21 KAZUO SHIRAGA, Making a Work with His Own Body, 1955. Mud. 36

37. Figure 34-22 CAROLEE SCHNEEMAN,
Meat Joy, 1964. Photograph of performance at
Judson Church, New York.
37

38. Figure 34-23 JOSEPH BEUYS, How to Explain
Pictures to a Dead Hare, 1965. Photograph of
Performance art. Schmela Gallery, Düsseldorf.
38

39. Figure 34-24 JEAN TINGUELY, Homage
to New York, 1960, just prior to its self-
destruction in the garden of the Museum of
Modern Art, New York.
39

40. Conceptual Art
• Examine the development of Conceptual Art and
the elimination of the object and the idea itself as a work
of art.
40

41. Figure 34-25 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’ 2’ 1/8”. Museum of
Modern Art, New York 41

42. Figure 34-26 BRUCE
NAUMAN, The True
Artist Helps the World by
Revealing Mystic Truths
(Window or Wall Sign),
1967. Neon with glass
tubing suspension frame,
4’ 11” x 4’ 7” x 2”. Private
collection. 42

43. Art for the Public
• Understand the growing interest in the
communicative power of art in reaction to art that
had alienated the public.
• Understand Pop Art’s interest in traditional artistic
devices and consumerism.
• Examine Superrealism and its fidelity to optical
fact.
• Understand the development of site specific art
forms known as Environmental Art or earth
works.
43

44. Pop Art
• Understand the popular trends of traditional
artistic devices and consumerism in Pop Art.
44

45. Figure 34-27 RICHARD
HAMILTON, Just What
Is It That Makes Today’s
Homes So Different, So
Appealing?, 1956. Collage,
10 1/4” x 9 3/4”.
Kunsthalle Tübingen,
Tübingen, Germany. 45

46. Figure 34-28 JASPER JOHNS, Flag, 1954–1955, dated on reverse 1954. Encaustic, oil, and collage
on fabric mounted on plywood, 3’ 6 1/4” x 5’ 5/8”. Museum of Modern Art, New York
46

47. Figure 34-29 ROBERT
RAUSCHENBERG, Canyon, 1959.
Oil, pencil, paper, fabric, metal,
cardboard box, printed paper,
printed reproductions, photograph,
wood, paint tube, and mirror on
canvas, with oil on bald eagle, string,
and pillow, 6’ 9 3/4” x 5’ 10” x 2’.
Sonnabend Collection.
47

48. Figure 34-30 ROY
LICHTENSTEIN,
Hopeless, 1963. Oil on
canvas, 3’ 8” x 3’ 8”.
Kunstmuseum, Basel 48

49. Figure 34-31 ANDY WARHOL, Green
Coca-Cola Bottles, 1962. Oil on canvas, 6’ 10
1/2” x 4’ 9”. Collection of Whitney Museum
of American Art, New York
49

50. Figure 34-32 ANDY WARHOL, Marilyn Diptych, 1962. Oil, acrylic, and silk-screen enamel on
canvas. Tate Gallery, London.
50

51. Figure 34-33 CLAES OLDENBURG, photo of one-person show at the Green Gallery, New York,
1962. 51

52. Superrealism
• Examine Superrealism, its fidelity to optical fact
and attention to minute detail and commonplace
objects.
52

53. Figure 34-34 AUDREY FLACK, Marilyn, 1977. Oil over acrylic on canvas, 8’ x 8’. Collection of
the University of Arizona Museum, Tucson
53

54. Figure 34-35 CHUCK CLOSE, Big
Self-Portrait, 1967–1968. Acrylic on
canvas, 8’ 11” x 6’ 11” x 2”. Collection
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
54

55. Figure 34-36 DUANE HANSON,
Supermarket Shopper, 1970. Polyester
resin and fiberglass polychromed in oil,
with clothing, steel cart, and groceries,
life-size. Nachfolgeinstitut, Neue Galerie,
Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen. 55

56. Discussion Questions
 How are the two main processes of Abstract
Expressionism different? Name and processes and one
artist for each.
 What do Minimalist sculptors mean by the concept of
objecthood?
 What is meant by Conceptual Art and the elimination of the
object?
 Why do you think Modernist art and architecture
alienated the public? Do you agree that Postmodern art
and architecture are more in tune to the public’s
interests?
 In what ways has new technology already changed our
perception of what art is?
56