in those decades and beyond.
The gay rights movement of the ’70s and ’80s spawned a new wave of protest art.
Fauvism and Expressionism
Both of these early 20th-century movements pushed art in the direction of abstraction by simplifying or distorting form and by using expressive rather than naturalistic colors (see Chapter 21).
Fauvism (1905–1908)
Fauvism was a short-lived movement headed by Henri Matisse and André Derain. The Fauves simplified form by stylizing it. They also flattened perspective, which made their paintings look less like windows into the world and more like wallpaper. The leading Fauve, Henri Matisse, believed that art should be inspiring and decorative, fun to look at. It’s art you could hang in a child’s playroom — if your kid weren’t clamoring for SpongeBob and Elmo.
Expressionism (1905–1933)
Expressionism is two German movements: Die Brücke (The Bridge) and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). Die Brücke Expressionist artists distort the exterior of people and places to express the interior. On an Expressionist canvas, a scream distorts not just the face but the whole body and even the person’s surroundings. The madness in a war zone or inside an insane asylum would twist the architecture and surrounding environment so that they, too, look “deranged.” Der Blaue Reiter artists strove to depict the spiritual side of life, which led many of them to pure abstraction.
Cubism, Futurism, Dada, and Surrealism
Both Cubism and Futurism fractured physical reality into bite-size units, but for different reasons. Led by artists disillusioned with the unprecedented destruction and misery from World War I, Dada and Surrealism rejected the traditional values and art forms of the culture that they believed triggered the war.
Cubism (1908–1920s)
Cubism could be called the artsy side of Einstein’s theory of relativity. All is relative; what you see depends upon your point of view. Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso invented Cubism so people could observe all views of a person or an object at once, from any angle.
Futurism (1909–1940s)
Unlike other art movements, instead of turning their backs on the machine age, the Futurists embraced technology, speed, and, unfortunately, violence and Fascism. They felt Fascism was the only type of government that could carry out the cultural housecleaning they believed society needed. Their movement was based mostly in Italy and pre-Revolution Russia.
Dada (1916–1920)
The madness of World War I provoked artists to create Dada, which started in neutral Switzerland and quickly spread across Europe. Their “art” was to mock the prevailing culture, including mainstream art, with demonstrations, “actions,” and mock-art. The Dadaists assumed that rational thinking had caused the war; therefore, the antidote to war must be irrational thinking.
Surrealism (1924–1940s)
Surrealism was inspired by Dada and Freud’s theories of the unconscious. Like the Dadaists, the Surrealists (many of whom had been Dadaists) hoped to fix humanity by snubbing the rational world. But instead of mocking earlier art traditions like the Dadaists, they sought ways to get in touch with the deeper, instinctual reality of one’s unconscious. They painted their dreams, practiced free association, and mixed up the rational order of life in their art by juxtaposing objects that don’t normally or rationally fit together: a vacuum cleaner plugged into a tree, a locomotive roaring out of a fireplace, a melting clock hanging from a dead tree branch.
Abstract Expressionism (1946–1950s)
After World War II, American artists seemed to drop a bomb on German Expressionism, splattering the representational side of it and leaving only the naked expression. In German Expressionism, emotion distorts the face of reality, the way human faces are distorted by extreme feelings, but are still recognizable. In Abstract Expressionism, emotion distorts reality beyond all recognition. The most famous Abstract Expressionist, Jackson Pollock, achieved this effect by throwing paint on his canvases.
Pop Art (1960s)
In the early ’60s, Pop Art artists decided to co-opt the new styles of advertising, the fantasies of stardom, and the over-the-top optimism and hunger for ever-new stuff that characterizes post–World War II America. Their art is sometimes hard to distinguish from the movies, ads, and comic books they borrowed from and parodied.
Conceptual art, performance art, and feminist art (late 1960s–1970s)
In the late ’60s, the art world fractured into many minor movements. In one movement, artists believed that they didn’t need to produce any artwork but simply generate concepts.
Feminist art is sometimes linked with conceptual art in that it focuses on ideas related to the inequalities faced by women and tries to provoke change. But the movement has no set style. It might include a painting on canvas or a group of women dressed up in gorilla costumes crashing a public event to pass out pamphlets.
Postmodernism (1970–)
Postmodern means life “after Modernism.” And Modernism refers to art made between about 1890 and 1970. Postmodernist thinkers view contemporary society as a fragmented world that has no coherent center, no absolutes, no cultural baseline. How do you capture the mosaic of the mixed-up Postmodern world on canvas or in a building? Artists and architects do it by borrowing from the past and by mixing old styles until they wind up with a new style that reflects contemporary society as well as the past societies it evolved from.
Part 2
From Caves to Colosseum: Ancient Art
IN THIS PART …
Exploring
