HISTORY OF 2Oth CENTURY ART TIMELINE

BY: MELISSA CAMUA

AT THE BEGINNING
Early into the 19
th
century, two new types of design emerged.
Picturesque
This type of design mixed styles, motifs, and media from Egypt, Greece, Rome, Byzantium,
Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo to create a hybrid design.

Proto-Functionalist
With a large middle class emerging and mass consumerism on the rise, the second wave
begins. Form over function prevails and faux veneering, fake surface, techniques become
popular. The first use of cast iron and glass frame buildings, beginning of the ideas for modern
skyscrapers. This is also known as bird cage steel in design.
ART NOUVEAU (1880-1910)
Art Nouveau, literally meaning new art, began as a reaction to the lavish excessiveness seen in
earlier 19
th
century design (Picturesque and Proto-Functionalist). The term, Art Nouveau, was
coined by Parisian art gallery owner Samuel Bing. The design that Bing exhibited, at the Exposition
De Beaux Arts in 1890, created interest, excitement, and reposition in the European art world at the
end of the 19
th
century. Thus, expensive, handcrafted objects were created for the wealthy.

MOTIFS TECHNIQUES
Wilting and Drooping Forms Filigree

Ornamental metalwork that utilizes
both positive and negative space.
Whiplash Line Faux Veneering
Making surfaces look like a different
form of material.
Abstraction in Form Majolica
Ceramics are fired at high temperatures.
Resistant to the fending and cracking.
Nature (Ex. Insects, Plants, Bats, and Women)
Lacquer Wood

Wood coated in several layers of paint.
Brought to Europe from East Asia.
Interplay Between Positive and Negative Space Marquetry
Wood is inlaid into furniture to make
patterns and designs.
Pronounced Asymmetry Favrille
Meaning to swirl. Technique for
coloring glass.
Byzantine and East-Asian Influences Acid Etching
The use of a strong acid to etch the
surface of material.
Form over Function


FRANCE
The Parisian School
This School focused on the abstracted form of objects and abstracted designs. Major artists
include Hector Guimard, who is known for his furniture and architectural designs, and Rene
Lalique, who is known for his beautiful jewelry and accessories.

The Nancy School
This School, like the Parisian School, also focused on the abstracted form of objects but
included a more realistic perspective. Major artists include Emil Galle and Louis Majorelle.
They both created furniture based on this Schools aspect of design.

SPAIN
The Modernista Movement
This movement, known as the Modernistas in Spain, centered in Barcelona. It was spear-
headed by architect and designer, Antonio Gaudi. Gaudi's work incorporate the basic motifs
of Art Nouveau mixed with Islamic and nautical elements of design. He also worked with non-
traditional building materials in an overly elaborate style.

SCOTLAND
The Glasgow Four
This movement begins in Glasgow, Scotland with a group of students, two men and two
women, from the Glasgow School of Design and Architecture. With influences from Celtic and
Japanese art, artists, such as Charles Rennie Macintosh, used elongated, rectilinear,
curvilinear shapes, abstracted ovals, and the technique of lacquer wood into furniture.

AUSTRIA
The Vienna Secession
This movement begins with a group of architects, artists, and designers who decided to rebel
against the rigid parameters posed on the art world by the Viennese Royal Academy. Artists
sought to create a type of design that was based upon the common motifs of Art Nouveau
combined with influences from Scotland and the ancient Byzantine world. Sources from Japan
were also used. A new abstracted, stripped down, modern form is introduced and becomes
the catalyst for modern design.

UNITED STATES
This movement is centered in the New York City and highlighted by jeweler and designer
Louis Comfort Tiffany. Tiffany studied jewelry and glass design in France and was influenced
by the designs of Lalique, Galle, and Majorelle. He used Art Nouveau motifs along with
Japanese and Byzantine design. Tiffany secularizes stained glass design and created a design
for coloring glass that is called Favrille.
ART MOVEMENTS LINKED TO:
ART NOUVEAU
These movements are directly linked to Art Nouveau. They include the use of closed and open
compositions.

Closed Composition
A painting style where each value stays within its own border. Every item in the work is clearly
recognized up close or at a distance.

Open Composition
A painting style where one value blends into the next. Items must be viewed at a distance to
be recognized. It was introduced by impressionists of conceptual art.

PRE-RAPHAELITE BROTHERHOOD
ENGLAND
Artists involved in this movement sought to use themes and painting techniques common to
the Medieval and Renaissance styles. Themes included myths, allegories, knights and
damsels, chivalry, the idealized woman. They also included themes outside the parameters of
the French Royal Academy and Japanese influences. Those who were accepted into this
movement needed to be proficient in the fine and decorative arts and photography. This
movement followed anti-industrial age sentiments and was craft oriented.
SYMBOLISM
PARIS
This movement spreads internationally. Themes included private meanings, sex, death,
dreams, escape, sensuality, reality vs. artifice, the severed head, femme fatale (deadly
women), grotesque, Satanism, the occult, and the writings of Edgar Allen Poe. Works were
meant to evoke a sense or thought from a person's past experience. The movement also
included painting, music, literature, poetry, sculpture, Japanese influences, and themes
outside of the parameters of the French Royal Academy.

Lithographs
Print created by cutting or etching the image onto a hard surface called a plate. There is a
limited run of the prints and once all are completed, the plate is destroyed.

EXPRESSIONISM
AUSTRIA AND GERMANY
Expressionism is the use of line and color to evoke emotion in the viewer. This movement
begins in Oslo, Norway and eventually spreads to Austria and Germany. Themes included sex,
death, despair, isolation, betrayal, and Freudian psychoanalytic theories. The works of
abstracted forms and conceptual art are used.

Gustav Klimt rendered his subjects in 3D. Their clothing and accessories always rendered in
2D. Subjects are always in front of gold leafed background. It is said that he was influenced by
Byzantine icons and Japanese screen prints.


IMAGES FROM THE PERIOD
1. Side Chair (1900) Hector Guimard
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Side_Chair,_1900,_Hector_Guimard.jpg>

2. Vase Marguerite Gall Petit Palais (1932) - mile Gall
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vase_Marguerite_Gall%C3%A9_Petit_Palais_OGAL00553_
n1.jpg>

3. Detail of Dining Room (1905-1908) - Gustav Klimt
History of Modern Art #5.5

4. James Abbott McNeil Whistler (1876-1877) The Peacock Room
History of Modern Art #5.3

5. Table Lamp (1900) Louis Comfort Tiffany
History of Modern Art #5.7















MACHINE AESTHETICS (1910-1930)
The Machine Aesthetic occurs as a reaction to the overly decorative excesses of the Art Nouveau
style. Because of this, stripped down, bare, geometric designs are now seen that mimic the new
industrial apparatus of the 20
th
century. Also, the future, technology, and the beauty of the
machine become part of the intrinsic designs of furniture, architecture, the decorative arts, and fine
arts. The works of this movement take on pure rational form and unlike Art Nouveau, function over
form prevails. Geometric forms such as chrome and steel tubes and gears dominate design.

The majority of art works connected to this tradition are conceptual and the themes center on non-
empathetic art more than of empathetic.

Non-Empathetic Art
An art form that does not elicit emotion when first viewed. It draws its effect from the
viewer's acquired knowledge about the work. It is, in many cases, not classically
figurative.

Empathetic Art
Works of art, usually paintings and sculptures, which follow an aesthetic linked to the
classical tradition. It elicits an immediate emotional reaction from the viewer. The viewer
visually and emotionally connects without documented facts.
Conceptual Art
An art form where the intellectual idea and the process of creating the work are many
times more important than the visual end result. This art form usually requires a mission
statement that will accompany the work of art. It is anti Art for Art's Sake, meaning that
the beauty of art is the reason for creating it.




MOTIFS TECHNIQUES
Stripped Down, Bare, and Simple Cantilever

Meaning self-supported. Was used for
roofs and chairs.
Geometric Forms Mobility
Chairs and walls are able to function
and move.
Primary Colors Chrome Tubing
Made and used to create a machine and
futuristic look in furniture and
architecture.
Futuristic and Machine Qualities Photo Montage
Images that are collected, passed down,
and then photographed to make one
cohesive work
Gears and Metal Tubing Solarization
Photo technique used to make pictures
come out negative when taken.
Conceptual Curtain Wall
Large bearing wall that consists
primarily of glass.
Function over Form Ribbon Window
Horizontal bends of windows that wrap
around a building.
THE NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND)
De Stijl and Elementarism (Neo-Plasticism)
De Stijl refers to architecture and the applied arts while Elementarism or Neo-Plasticism
refers to paintings. This art movement was conceptual, created as a functional-decorative
approach to design that had a social conscience. It was purposely to be viewed and enjoyed
by the masses, despite educational or economic background. It was also Populist in nature.
There is a trend in all of the arts toward Minimalism. Black and white grids with the primary
colors set into them are created in different configurations. In the words of Piet Mondrian,
When one attempts to filter down the world to its most basic essence, one can commune
with the Divine.

RUSSIA (THE U.S.S.R.)
Constructivism
Art, architecture, and design were created for the proletariat, also known as the lower
social class. The constructivists were minimalists. Propaganda would play a prevalent part in
all of the arts. It was the best way to express communist ideals. Here, the technique of
photomontage and diagonal design is used for the first time. Most motifs mimic the shape of
an airplane propeller when idle. They have many similarities to De Stijl, but Constructivism
tried to create a new society vis-a-vis art and architecture.

Suprematism
This movement begins in U.S.S.R. with Wassily Kandinsky and Kasimir Malevich. Their works
dealt with minimalism and abstraction. Influences from Expressionism and Neo-Plasticism
(Elementarism) are present. Images were to create free association in the viewer but color,
form, and line were the main subjects, not the images. These artists wanted to unveil a world
not seen, limited to few components. Geometry was to be the supreme independent
abstraction.

GERMANY
The Bauhaus
A school of design, art, and architecture that taught the concept of the Universality of Form.
The design theories and school were founded by Walter Groupies, Mies Van De Rohe, and
Marcel Breuer. Designs were created in art and architecture without forms that were intrinsic
to a particular culture of time period. The Bauhaus changed the face of 20th century
architecture and industrial design. Their ideas evolved out of 19
th
century Proto-Functionalism
and the Vienna Secession.

FRANCE
In France, a new modernism is seen that leans toward Art Deco. There were some artists,
architects, and designers that were drawn to the love of exalting the imagery of the machine.
The leader of this movement in France was Charles-Edouard Le Jeanneret, also known as Le
Corbusier. He believed that a house is a machine to live in.
ART MOVEMENTS LINKED TO:
MACHINE AESTHETICS
CUBISM
FRANCE
Here, the visual world is reduced or filtered down to 2D, flat, geometric planes. Artists denied
imaginary light sources. There are influences from Archaic Greek sculpture (Kouros) and
Byzantine icons. There were also influences from Africa and Polynesia.

Analytic Cubism
Flat, geometric images and simultaneous views of a single object are displayed profiles &
frontals at once.

Synthetic Cubism
Flat, geometric images and textures found in nature are copied in painted form. Technique of
Frottage, texture rubbing, is introduced.
FUTURISM
ITALY
This movement begins in Milan, Italy with the first group of young artists born into the
modern age of technology. It is influenced by science, automation, and Einstein's theories on
time and space. Glorification of war, anarchy, and the machine are present. This movement
also introduces the concepts totemism, images in art that refer to an ambiguous life from,
and photodynamica, paintings and sculptures that are influenced by action photography.
Photodynamica also depicts matter cutting through space and violent motion or dynamic
thrust.

AMERICAN ABSTRACTION
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
This movement begins in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It includes artists, photographers,
writers, and poets. A reductive, geometric style is seen, not unlike the Cubists and Futurists.
Here, American Abstraction introduces of non-objective portraits. These are portraits of
objects related to one person, without the person being present in the composition.
DADA
SWITZERLAND AND FRANCE
This movement is an anti-art movement, anti-middle class movement, and anti-war
movement that begin in Zurich, Switzerland by a young group of artists and designers trying
to escape the escalating horrors of WWI. These artists sought to create a new language for
the way a person views, thinks, and talks about art. They include conceptual art and
performance art. Two major ideas running through Dada are joining the un-joinable and the
subject of chance happening. This movement also elevated the decorative art of collage to
a fine art form. Two major artist of this movement are Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray.



IMAGES FROM THE PERIOD
1. Strasbourg Interior (1926-1928) Theo Van Doesburg
History of Modern Art #13.7

2. Robie House (1909) Frank Lloyd Wright
History of Modern Art #5.5

3. Standard Stoppages (1913-1914) - Marcel Duchamp
History of Modern Art #11.10

4. Sand-Blasted Colored Glass (1928) - Josef Albers
History of Modern Art #14.8

5. Maquette for Guitar (1912) Pablo Picasso
History of Modern Art #5.5









WORKS CITED
H.H. Arnason and Maria F. Prather. History of Modern Art. Prentiss Hall, Inc. 6th Edition. 2010.
Print.


TIMELINE
1877 The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Proserpine Dante Gabrielle Rossetti
1880 The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
The Golden Stair E. Burne-Jones
1885 The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
The Wheel of Fortune E. Burne-Jones
1889 Symbolism
My Irony Exceeds All Others Odilon Redon
1890 France: The Parisian School
Paris Metro Hector Guimard
Symbolism
Sin- Franz Von Stuck
1891 Symbolism
The Bride Jan Thorn-Prikker
1892 France: The Nancy School
Bat Vase Emil Galle
1894 France: The Parisian School
Brooch (Lady Bat) Rene Lalique
Art Nouveau Presentation
Hotel Solvay - Victor Horta
1895 France: The Parisian School
Large Buffet Hector Guimard
Czechoslovakia
Job Poster Alphonse Mucha
1897 Czechoslovakia
Poster for the play Gismonda Alphonse Mucha
1899 France: The Nancy School
Grandfather Clock Louis Majorelle

1900s Expressionism
The Scream Edvard Munch
Madonna Edvard Munch
The Dance of Life Edvard Munch
1901 France: The Nancy School
Bed Emil Galle
Austria: The Vienna Secession
The Majollica House Otto Wagner
Art Nouveau Presentation
Buntes Theater - August Endell
1902 Scotland: The Glasgow Four
The Macintosh House Charles Rennie Macintosh
1903 United States
Dragonfly Lamp Louis Comfort Tiffany
1904 United States
Large Lamp Louis Comfort Tiffany
1905 Spain: The Modernista Movement
Casa Batlo Antoni Gaudi
United States
Favrille Vase Louis Comfort Tiffany
1906 Austria: The Vienna Secession
Lounge Chair (Sitting Machine) Joseph Hoffmann
1907 Scotland: The Glasgow Four
Side Chairs Charles Rennie Macintosh
Austria: The Vienna Secession
Fledermaus Chair Joseph Hoffman
1908 Art Nouveau Presentation
AEG Logo - Peter Behrens



TIMELINE
1907 Analytic Cubism
Les Desmoiselles D'Avignon Pablo Picasso
1912 Synthetic Cubism
Still Life with Chair Caining Pablo Picasso
Dada
Nude Descending a Staircase Marcel Duchamp
1913 Futurism
Dynamism of a Cyclist Umberto Boccioni
Futurism
Sculpture for the Blind Constantin Brancusi
1914 American Abstraction
Portrait of a German Solider Marsden Hartley
1915 Dada
LHOOQ Marcel Duchamp
1917 Dada
Fountain Marcel Duchamp
Dada
Bicycle Wheel Marcel Duchamp
1918 De Stijl/Elementarism
Sideboard Gerrit Rietveld
1919 Futurism
The Kiss Consantin Brancusi
Machine Aesthetic Presentation
Cover for Chad Gadya- El Lissitzky
1920 De Stijl/Elementarism
Side Table and Chair Gerrit Rietveld
The U.S.S.R.
Boats Wassily Kandinsky

Dada
Birds in an Aquarium Jean Arp
1921 The U.S.S.R.
Spatal Force Wassily Kandinsky
1922 Machine Aesthetic Presentation
Block Screen - Eileen Gray
1923 Bauhaus
Lamp Josef Albers
Machine Aesthetic Presentation
Proun Room - El Lissitzky
1924 American Abstraction
I Saw the Figure Five in Gold Charles Demuth
Dada
The Violin DIngres Man Ray
1925 France
Le Pavillion D'Esprit Nouveau Le Corbusier
Machine Aesthetic Presentation
The Journalist Hannah Hoch
1927 Bauhaus
Lamp Alfred Dell
1928 Bauhaus
Side Chair Marcel Breuer
France
Chaise Lounge Le Corbusier
1929 Bauhaus
Barcelona Chair Mies Van Der Rohe
1930 Bauhaus
Kubis- Alfred Dell
Dada
Given Marcel Duchamp
1931 Bauhaus
MR20 Chair Mies Van Der Rohe