16).
Romanticism (late 1700s–early 1800s)
Romantic artists often criticized the Industrial Revolution, championed the rights of the individual, and supported democratic movements and social justice; they opposed slavery and the exploitation of labor in urban factories.
After Romanticism, art is divided into movements rather than periods (see Chapter 3).
The Modern World and the Shattered Mirror
By the beginning of the 20th century, the camera seemed to have a monopoly on realism. That may be one reason painters turned toward abstraction. But it’s not the only reason. Following Cézanne’s example, many artists strove to simplify form (the human body, for example) into its geometrical components; that goal was partly the impetus for Cubism (see Chapter 22). For others, expressing feeling was more important than painting realistic forms. The Fauves expressed emotion with color while simplifying form, and the Expressionists suggested it by distorting form (see Chapter 21 for details).
Responding to modern pressures
Table 1-1 offers a breakdown of some specific art movements that happened in response to modern political, social, and cultural pressures.
TABLE 1-1: Art Movements of the 20th Century
| Stimulus | Responding Art Movement | Description |
|---|---|---|
| World War I | Dada | The so-called “anti-art” movement, Dada was a direct reaction to World War I and the old order that triggered it. If war was rational, artists would be irrational. See Chapter 23. |
| Sigmund Freud’s Theories | Surrealists | Freud’s theories of the role of the unconscious (the home of the irrational) inspired the Surrealists (the offspring of Dada) to paint their dreams and coax the unconscious to the surface so they could channel it into their art. Also in Chapter 23. |
| Einstein’s Theory of Relativity | Futurists | Published in 1905, Einstein’s theory of relativity stimulated the Futurists to include the fourth dimension, time, in their work. See Chapter 22. |
| Global Depression, Racism, and World War II | Activist Art | Horrendous acts of injustice fired up many artists, including photographers, to create activist art. New technology enabled photographers to capture people quickly and discreetly, showing life more “honestly,” more unposed than ever before. Pioneering photojournalists like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Dorothea Lange zoomed in on urban life, poverty, and war, and showed the world grim realities that had previously been swept under the carpet. See Chapter 25. |
| Psychoanalysis | Abstract Expressionism | After the Holocaust and Hiroshima, humankind seemed overdue for an appointment on the psychoanalyst’s couch. This inspired postwar American artist Jackson Pollock to pioneer Abstract Expressionism, the first international art movement spawned in the U.S. Pollock’s works look like he dropped a paint bomb on his canvases. Actually, he just dripped, poured, and threw on paint instead of slathering it on with a brush. See Chapter 23. |
Conceptualizing the craft
Pollock’s and de Kooning’s action painting — as dripping and throwing paint came to be called — signaled that art had moved away from craft toward pure expression and creative conceptualization. Many new forms of art grew out of the notion that process is more important than product. Craft had been the cornerstone of art for millennia. But after the war, Pollock and de Kooning seemed to drop an atom bomb on art itself, to release its pure creative energy (and shatter form to smithereens — or to splashes and drips).
Conceptualization began to drive the work of more and more artists. However, while this trend continued in performance art, installation art, and conceptual art, some artists backtracked to representation. The Photorealists, for example, showed that painting could reclaim realism from the camera (see Chapter 25).
Expressing mixed-up times
Postmodernism (see Chapter 26) is an odd term. It suggests that we’ve hit a cultural dead end, that we’ve run out of ideas and can’t make anything new or “modern.” All that’s left is to recycle the past or crab-leg it back to the cave days. Postmodern artists do recycle the past, usually in layers: a quart of Greece, a cup of Constructivism, a pound of Bauhaus, and a heaping tablespoon of Modernism. What’s the point of that?
Postmodern theorists believe society is no longer centered. In the Middle Ages, art revolved around religion. In the 19th century, Realist art centered around social reform. But since the 1970s, point of view has become fluid. To express our uncentered existence, artists try to show the relationships between past eras and the present. Some critics argue that Postmodernism is a spiritual short circuit, a jaded view that cuts off meaning from real life. You be the judge.
Chapter 2
Why People Make Art and What It All Means
IN THIS CHAPTER
