MODERN ART

• It includes artistic works produced during the

period extending roughly from the 1860’s to
the 1970’s and denotes style and philosophy
of the art produced during that era
 Modern Art
• It is associated with art in which the
traditions of the past have been thrown
aside in a spirit of experimentation.
Important movements during
Modern Period
 IMPRESSIONISM
• Focused on the almost impossible task of capturing
fleeting moments and colour.
• Introduced non-naturalist colour schemes and loose –
often highly textured brushwork.
• The main contribution of Impressionism to “modern
art” was to legitimize the use of non-naturalist
colours, thus paving the way for the wholly non-
naturalistic abstract of the 20th century
 FAUVISM
• The fashionable style during the mid-1900’s in
Paris.
• The main contribution of Fauvism to “modern art”
was to demonstrate the independent power of
colour.
 CUBISM
• An austere and challenging style of painting.
• Introduced a compositional system of flat splintered
planes as an alternative to Renaissance-inspired linear
perspective and rounded volumes
• The main contribution of Cubism to “modern art” was
to offer a whole new alternative to conventional
perspective, based on the inescapable fact of the flat
splintered picture plane
 FUTURISM
• Futurist art glorified speed, technology, the
automobile, the airplane and scientific achievement.
• Although very influential, it borrowed heavily from
Neo-Impressionism and Italian Divisionism, as well as
Cubism
• The main contribution of Futurism to “modern art”
was to introduce movement into the canvas, and to
link beauty with scientific advancement.
 EXPRESSIONISM
• The main contribution of Expressionism to
“modern art” was to popularize the idea of
subjectivity in painting and sculpture, and to show
that representational art may legitimately include
subjective distortion.
 DADA
• The first anti-art movement
• Dada was a revolt against the system which had
allowed the carnage of the First World War (1914-18)
• The main contribution of Dada was to shake up the
arts world and to widen the concept of “modern art”,
by embracing totally new types of creativity
(performance art and readymades) as well as new
materials (junk art) and themes. Its seditious sense of
humor endured in the Surrealism movement.
 SURREALISM
• Surrealism was the fashionable art movement of the
inter-war years, although the style is still seen today.
• Composed of abstract and figurative wings
• The main contribution of Surrealism to “modern art”
was to generate a refreshingly new set of images.
Whether this images were uniquely non-rational is
doubtful.
 ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
• A broad style of abstract painting, developed in New
York just after the World War II, hence it is also called
the New York Schools.
• The main contribution of Abstract Expressionism to
“modern art” was to popularize abstraction.
 POP ART
• A style of art whose images reflected the popular
culture and mass consumerism of 1960’s America.
• The main contribution of Abstract Expressionism to
“modern art” was to show that good art could be lo-
brow, and could be made of anything.