1. th
20
Century art
A revising of what art is.

2. 20th Century art
• Several Influences
– Post-Impressionism
– Photography
– World Events
• Challenging of what art is.
• Shift from what is it, to how and why.
• Artist role changes.

3. How did photography change art?
• Photography captures
image
instantaneously.
• Exact depiction of
image.
• Decreases the need
for many types of art.
• Changes the reasons
people create art.

4. Post-Impressionism influence on
20th century.
• Abstraction follows postimpressionist focus on
elements and principles.
• Composition hugely
important for many 20th
century movements.
• Other 20th century artists
begin to look within to
find subject matter.
– Personal experiences
– Emotionalism

5. What is art?
• Even early 20th
Century art challenged
the purpose and the
meaning of art.
– Fountain
• This challenging of art,
also marks a shift in
the role of the artist.
• No longer just about
technical skill.

6. Why make art?
• Aesthetics
• Personal expression
• Social commentary

7. Artists who work for personal
expression.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Frida Kahlo
Pablo Picasso
Chagall
Pollock
Matisse
Dali?
The artists use art to
express inner thoughts
feelings or struggles.

8. Frida Kahlo
• Mexican Painter
• Created artwork based on
personal life.
• Influence by Magic-realism.
• NOT A SURREALIST.
• Darkness of work mimics
hardships in personal life.
• Painting for personal reasons.
• Diego Y Yo, or Diego and I
• Painted shortly after divorce from
Mexican Muralist Diego Rivera.
• Interpret this art work.

9. Pablo Picasso
• Prior to the development of
Cubism Picasso worked much
like the expressionists of the
late 19th Century.
• Picasso’s blue period was
brought on by a deep
depression.
• The blue pallet represents the
sadness in Picasso’s life.
• The subjects of the time
represent people low in status.
• Vastly different than Picasso’s
later work.

10. Cubist Picasso
• In 1907 Picasso along with friend
George Braque began Cubism.
• Influenced by Cezanne
• Though Picasso was a master of
many styles Cubism became his
legacy.
• In cubist works, the relationship
between shapes and colors
becomes more important that the
subject matter.
• The maids of Avaignon1907 often
recognized as Picasso’s first cubist
work.

11. De Stijlor The Style
• Dutch
• Artists were relying
only on design,
eliminating all
emotion.
• Exact opposite of
Expressionism.

12. Piet Mondrian
• Gradually flattening natural
forms and reducing them to
linear patterns, such as in Tree.
• Later restricts design to primary
colors, and black lines. The
“white squares” in diagonal
composition are actually
varying shades of grey.
• No center of interest, viewer
must see whole design all at
once.
• Careful calculations and
mathematical precision are
essential to such a
dehumanizing artistic style.

13. Giacometti
• Alberto Giacometti (Swiss)
• Beginning in 1934 his series
of figure works will become
what he is known for.
• Giacometti says this is a
powerful symbol of the
loneliness and alienation of
humanity in this century.
• What does he mean by
that?
• What would he say about
21st century?

14. Surrealism
• Sur- above or beyond realism- reality.
• Dream-like imagery, often comes from
dreams.
• Surrealists use several techniques to achieve
these images.
– Juxtaposition
– Levitation
– Repetition
– Diminishing Proportion

15. Salvador Dali
• Most famous Surrealist.
• Kicked out of Surrealist club
for being a facist.
• Persistence of Memory
Dali’s best known painting.
• Small painting of soft
objects that usually
represent objects metallic
and solid.
• Hated anything abstracted
• 1931
• 9 ½”X13”

16. Marc Chagall
• Chagall’s style is based
somewhat on Cubism,
but images are very
surreal and personal.
• Main subject is the
Russia he
remembered, before
he left in 1920.
• Often features funloving peasants, folklore, and fairy tells.

17. Alexander Calder
• American Sculptor
• Invented the Mobile
• Calder’s Mobiles hung from
a single point
• Lobster Trap and Fish Tail is
balanced so carefully a single
breath of air can send it
moving.
• With this type of work
endless possibilities of visual
interest. Rarely seen the
same by two people.
• Size : 101”X115”

18. 20th Century Architecture
• Breaking from the past
• Surge of Construction
• New types of construction
– Steel and Metal-frame
• Buildings no longer needed traditional arches
and columns
– Take on a grid-like shape
• Lines of buildings are clean and function
becomes a priority.

19. Frank Lloyd Wright
• Primary concern to develop a compatible
relationship between structure an location
• Disregarded tradition enclosed rooms with doors,
rooms would be separated only by partial walls
• Let exterior space flow through interior space
(creek)
• Overall horizontal feel (calm)
• Kaufmann house
• 1936
• Marriage of location and construction