Modernist Art

1
Modernist Art

• 1900-1950ish

2
Environmental Influences

• Reaction to WWI, WWII, and the Depression
• The essence of this art was
• Depression
• Questioning
• A strong search for something new to answer
  burning questions
• Took up urban subject matter and focused on
  social concern and protest

3
The Ash Can School

• Captured people in unguarded and relaxed moments
• Created by a group of New York artists
• Had the philosophy of art for lifes sake
• Presented the new themes of
• Streets of the city
• Key artists
• Robert Henri
• George Bellows
• Prize student of the Ash Can School showed harsh
  realities of struggle of society through sports

4
Abstract Art

• A form of art that was considered hard to
  comprehend and define
• Criticized because it did not represent the world
  straightforward
• Meaning was left to the interpreter
• Artists
• Georgia OKeeffe Influenced by her New Mexico
  surroundings. Used bold colors and feminine
  shapes
• Alexander Calder Abstract sculpter. Used bright
  colors and movement

5
Abstract Expressionism

• An original, powerful American style that
  dominated the period
• Extremely abstract art
• Bright colors were used and shapes were formed
  into human objects
• Most were used to express and address social
  concerns through art

6
Abstract Expressionism Artists

• Jackson Pollock
• Leader of this form
• Work incorporated movement, emotion, and
  spontaneity
• Jacob Lawrence
• Distinguished black painter
• Considered a social realist
• Work was about life in ghettos and the African
  American struggle for equal rights

7
Abstract Expressionism Artists Cont.

• Edward Hopper
• Used realism, turning everyday images into
  haunting depictions of modern isolation.
• Produce an incredibly lonesome feeling
• Willem de Kooning
• Extremely abstract
• Liked to paint women
• Used bright, vibrant colors

8
Cubism

• Style where forms are dissected into geometrical
  shapes and patterns resembling interlocking
  planes of no particular relationship
• Artists
• Piet Mondrian
• Most famous for his use of colored blocks meant
  to deconstruct things we see everyday
• Pablo Picasso
• Spanish artist who broke down people into shapes
  and then stylistically distorted them for effect