34: From the Modern to the Postmodern and Beyond Art of the Later - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

34: From the Modern to the Postmodern and Beyond

Art of the Later 20th Century

Painting, Francis Bacon, 1946 The end of World War II left people in a state of despair and skepticism. This was painted 1946, a year after World War II ended. With the split carcass in the background and the red color staining the lips of the central figure, this painting reflects

• n the butchery of the war.

The central figure may be a depiction of Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Benito Mussolini,

• r Franklin Roosevelt.

Bacon described his art as “an attempt to remake the violence of reality itself” The umbrella recalls Neville Chamberlain

Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), Jackson Pollock, 1950 Abstract Expressionism was a movement which aimed to express the artist's unconscious

• mind. Part of this movement was

Gestural Abstraction which featured spontaneously and energetically applied paint. Jackson Pollock was a great Gestural Abstraction artist. To create this piece and many others, he dripped and splattered paint all over a canvas laying on the floor. His unconventional ways of creating art put the emphasis on how the art was made rather than the finished piece. “I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides, and literally be in the painting.” -Pollock

Red Blue Green, Ellsworth Kelly, 1963 Die, Tony Smith, 1962 To Greenberg, both of these works would be “pure”. The painting embraces the two-dimensional quality of paint as there is no illusion of depth and the sculpture embraces its three-dimensional quality by being a simple, geometric form. Both of these works show “purity”. Greenberg, an influential art critic, stated, “the arts are to achieve concreteness, “purity,” by dealing solely with their respective selves - that is, by becoming “abstract” or nonfigurative.”

One and Three Chairs, Joseph Kosuth, 1965 This is an example of Conceptual art - art that emphasized an idea rather than how it was expressed. This display consists of a chair, a photograph of a chair, and the definition of a chair. Kosuth “asked the viewer to ponder the notion of what constitutes “chairness”.”

Green Coca-Cola Bottles, Andy Warhol, 1962 This is an example of Pop art. Pop art made use of many artistic devices that had been ignored by those trying to achieve “purity” in their art. These devices included signs, symbols, metaphors, allusions, illusions, and figurative

• imagery. By using such

devices and familiar images from the media and consumer culture rather than abstraction, Pop art could be understood and appreciated by more people. Andy Warhol was an American Pop

• artist. He made this piece which

features repeating images of Coca Cola bottles. The repetition emphasizes how huge this product was in the culture. Warhol used silk-screen printing so that he could mass produce his art.

Seagram Building, New York, Ludwig The Portland Building, Portland, Oregon, Michael Graves Mies Van Der Rohe and Philip Johnson Modern This corporate skyscraper is made mostly of glass and is incredibly simple - two characteristics common in Modern architecture. Contrasting the skyscraper on the left, this building is far from simple and sleek. Its’ exterior is elaborately decorated with colored paint, ornaments, and vertical

• shafts. These characteristics makes it Postmodern.

Postmodern

A Short History of Modernist Painting, Mark Tansey, 1982 Postmodern art frequently commented

• n things like the politics and past art.

This sequence by Mark Tansey reviews three ways art was approached in history. 1) The image on the left references how art was viewed during the Renaissance - as if it was through a window. 2) The image in the middle references the modernist ideal - that the piece of art is an object in and of itself. 3) The image on the right references how postmodern art reflects an artist's self consciousness and the artist’s place in the history of art.