MODERN

ART
• In all of human history, art has
mirrored life in the community,
society, and the world in all its
colors, lines, shapes, and forms.
• The 20th century saw a boom in the
interchange of ideas, beliefs, values,
and lifestyles that continues to bring
the citizens of the world closer
together.
 Impressionism:
Origins of the Movement
• An art movement that emerged in the
second half of the 19th century among a
group of Paris-based artists.
• The term precisely captured what this
group of artists sought to represent in
their works: the viewer’s momentary
“impression” of an image
 Eugène Delacroix
• He was greatly admired and
emulated by the early
impressionists—specifically for his
use of expressive brushstrokes,
his emphasis on movement rather
than on clarity of form, and most
of all his study of the optical
effects of color.
 The Barque of Dante
Eugène Delacroix, 1822 Oil on canvas
 Color and Light
• The impressionists painted with freely
brushed colors that conveyed more of a
visual effect than a detailed rendering of
the subject.
• They used short “broken” strokes that were
intentionally made visible to the viewer.
• They also often placed pure unmixed
colors side by side, rather than blended
smoothly or shaded
 “Everyday” Subjects
• They ventured into capturing scenes of life
around them, household objects, landscapes
and seascapes, houses, cafes, and buildings.
• They presented ordinary people seemingly
caught off-guard doing everyday tasks, at
work or at leisure, or doing nothing at all.
• And they were not made to look beautiful or
lifelike, as body parts could be distorted and
facial features merely suggested by a few
strokes of the brush.
 Painting Outdoors
• The impressionists found that they could
best capture the ever-changing effects
of light on color by painting outdoors in
natural light.
• This gave their works a freshness and
immediacy that was quite a change from
the stiffer, heavier, more planned
paintings of earlier masters.
 Open Composition
• They experimented with
unusual visual angles, sizes of
objects that appeared out of
proportion, off-center
placement, and empty spaces
on the canvas.
 The Influence of Photography
• It inspired impressionists to capture fleeting
moments of action, whether in landscapes or
in the day-to-day lives of people.
• The artists were able to offer a subjective
view of their subjects, expressing their
personal perceptions rather than creating
exact representations.
• They also had the advantage of manipulating
color, which photography at that time still
lacked.
 EDOUARD MANET
• One of the first 19th century artists
to depict modern-life subjects.
• He was a key figure in the transition
from realism to impressionism, with
a number of his works considered
as marking the birth of modern art.
 Argenteuil
Edouard Manet, 1874
Rue Mosnier Decked With Flags
Edouard Manet, 1878
 Café Concert
Edouard Manet, 1878
The Bar at the Folies-Bergere
Edouard Manet, 1882
 CLAUDE MONET
• He was the most prominent of the
group; and is considered the most
influential figure in the movement.
• Monet is best known for his
landscape paintings, particularly
those depicting his beloved flower
gardens and water lily ponds at his
home in Giverny.
 La Promenade
Claude Monet, 1875
The Red Boats, Argenteuil
Claude Monet, 1875
Bridge Over a Pond of Water
Lilies Claude Monet, 1899
Irises in Monet’s Garden
Claude Monet, 1900
 AUGUSTE RENOIR
• His early works were snapshots of real
life, full of sparkling color and light.
• By the mid-1880s, however, Renoir
broke away from the impressionist
movement to apply a more disciplined,
formal technique to portraits of actual
people and figure paintings.
 Dancer
Auguste Renoir, 1874
A Girl with a Watering Can
Auguste Renoir, 1876
Mlle Irene Cahen d’Anvers
Auguste Renoir, 1880
 Post-Impressionism
• The artists continued using the basic qualities
of the impressionists before them—the vivid
colors, heavy brush strokes, and true-to-life
subjects.
• They expanded and experimented with these
in bold new ways, like using a geometric
approach, fragmenting objects and distorting
people’s faces and body parts, and applying
colors that were not necessarily realistic or
natural.
 PAUL CEZANNE
• A French artist and post-impressionist
painter.
• His work exemplified the transition from
late 19th-century impressionism to a
new and radically different world of art in
the 20th century—paving the way for the
next revolutionary art movement known
as expressionism.
Hortense Fiquet in a Striped Skirt
Paul Cezanne, 1878
Still Life with Compotier
Paul Cezanne, 1879-1882
 Harlequin
Paul Cezanne, 1888-1890
 Boy in a Red Vest
Paul Cezanne, 1890
 VINCENT VAN GOGH
• His works were remarkable for their
strong, heavy brush strokes, intense
emotions, and colors that appeared to
almost pulsate with energy.
• Van Gogh’s striking style was to have a
far-reaching influence on 20th century
art, with his works becoming among the
most recognized in the world.
Sheaves of Wheat in a Field
Vincent van Gogh, 1885
 The Sower
Vincent van Gogh, 1888
Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers
Vincent van Gogh, 1888
 Starry Night
Vincent van Gogh, 1889
Wheat Field with Cypresses
Vincent van Gogh, 1889
 Expressionism:
A Bold New Movement
• Expressionist artists created works with more
emotional force, rather than with realistic or
natural images.
• To achieve this, they distorted outlines,
applied strong colors, and exaggerated forms.
• They worked more with their imagination and
feelings, rather than with what their eyes saw
in the physical world.
 Neoprimitivism
• An art style that incorporated
elements from the native arts
of the South Sea Islanders
and the wood carvings of
African tribes which suddenly
became popular at that time.
 Head
Amedeo Modigliani, 1919 Stone
 Yellow Sweater
Amedeo Modigliani, 1919
 Fauvism
• A style that used bold, vibrant
colors and visual distortions. Its
name was derived from les
fauves (“wild beasts”), referring
to the group of French
expressionist painters who
painted in this style.
 Blue Window
Henri Matisse, 1911
 Woman with Hat
Henri Matisse, 1905
 Dadaism
• A style characterized by dream fantasies,
memory images, and visual tricks and
surprises. Wishing to protest against the
civilization that had brought on such
horrors, these artists rebelled against
established norms and authorities, and
against the traditional styles in art.
• They chose the child’s term for hobbyhorse,
dada, to refer to their new “non-style.”
Melancholy and Mystery of a Street
Giorgio de Chirico, 1914
 Surrealism
• A style that depicted an illogical,
subconscious dream world beyond the
logical, conscious, physical one. Its
name came from the term “super
realism,” with its artworks clearly
expressing a departure from reality—as
though the artists were dreaming, seeing
illusions, or experiencing an altered
mental state.
Persistence of Memory
Salvador Dali, 1931
 I and the Village
Marc Chagall, 1911
 Diana
Paul Klee, 1932
Personages with Star
Joan Miro, 1933
 Social Realism
• Artists used their works to protest against
the injustices, inequalities, immorality,
and ugliness of the human condition.
• Ben Shahn’s Miners’ Wives, for example,
spoke out against the hazardous
conditions faced by coal miners, after a
tragic accident killed 111 workers in
Illinois in 1947, leaving their wives and
children in mourning.
• Pablo Picasso’s Guernica has been
recognized as the most monumental
and comprehensive statement of social
realism against the brutality of war.
• Filling onewall of the Spanish Pavilion
at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris, it was
Picasso’s outcry against the German air
raid of the town of Guernica in his
native Spain.
 Miners’ Wives
Ben Shahn, 1948
 Guernica
Pablo Picasso,1937
 Abstractionism
• While expressionism was emotional,
abstractionism was logical and
rational. It involved analyzing,
detaching, selecting, and simplifying.
• Artists reduced a scene into
geometrical shapes, patterns, lines,
angles, textures and swirls of color.
 Cubism
• The cubist style derived its name from the
cube, a three dimensional geometric figure
composed of strictly measured lines,
planes, and angles.
• The cubists analyzed their subjects’ basic
geometrical forms, and broke them up into
a series of planes. Then they re-
assembled these planes, tilting and
interlocking them in different ways.
 Three Musicians
PabloPicasso,1921
Girl Before a Mirror (detail)
PabloPicasso,1932
 Futurism
• The futurists created art for a fast-
paced, machine-propelled age. They
admired the motion, force, speed, and
strength of mechanical forms.
• Their works depicted the dynamic
sensation of all these—as can be
seen in the works of Italian painter
Gino Severini.
 Armored Train
Gino Severini, 1915
 Mechanical Style
• Basic forms such as planes, cones,
spheres, and cylinders all fit together
precisely and neatly in their appointed
places.
• This can be seen in the works of Fernand
Léger. Mechanical parts such as
crankshafts, cylinder blocks, and pistons
are brightened only by the use of primary
colors. Otherwise, they are lifeless.
 The City
Fernand Léger, 1919
 Nonobjectivism
• The logical geometrical conclusion of
abstractionism.
• From the very term “non-object,” works in this
style did not make use of figures or even
representations of figures. They did not refer
to recognizable objects or forms in the
outside world.
• Lines, shapes, and colors were used in a
cool, impersonal approach that aimed for
balance, unity, and stability.
 New York City
Piet Mondrian,1942
 Action Painting
• One form of abstract expressionism was
seen in the works of Jackson Pollock. These
were created through what came to be
known as “action painting.”
• Pollock worked on huge canvases spread
on the floor, splattering, squirting, and
dribbling paint with (seemingly) no pre-
planned pattern or design in mind. The total
effect is one of vitality, creativity, “energy
made visible.”
 Autumn Rhythm
Jackson Pollock, 1950
 Color Field Painting
• In contrast to the vigorous
gestures of the action painters,
another group of artists who
came to be known as “color field
painters” used different color
saturations (purity, vividness,
intensity) to create their desired
effects.
Magenta, Black, Green
Mark Rothko,1949
 Vir Heroicus Sublimis
Barnett Newman, 1950-1951
 Forgotten Dream
Adolph Gottlieb, 1946
 Abstract No. 2
Lee Krasner, 1948
 Neodadaism
• It wanted to make reforms in traditional
values. It also made use of common
place, trivial, even nonsensical
objects. But unlike the angry, serious
tone of the original dadaists, the
neodadaists seemed to enjoy
nonsense for its own sake and simply
wanted to laugh at the world.
• Their works ranged from paintings, to
posters, to collages, to three-
dimensional “assemblages” and
installations.
• Their inspirations were the celebrities,
advertisements, billboards, and comic
strips that were becoming
commonplace at that time. Hence the
term pop (from “popular”) art
emerged.
 Twelve Cars
Andy Warhol, 1962
 Marilyn Monroe
Andy Warhol, 1967
 Whaam!
Roy Lichtenstein, 1963
 In the Car
Roy Lichtenstein, 1963
art was that which
 Conceptual Art
• Often requires little or no physical
craftsmanship.
• Much of the artist’s time and
effort goes into the concept or
idea behind the work, with the
actual execution then being
relatively quick and simple.
 One and Three Chairs
Joseph Kosuth, 1965
An actual chair (center), with a photograph of the same chair and an
enlarged copy of a dictionary definition of a chair
 Op Art
• This was yet another experiment in
visual experience—a form of “action
painting,” with the action taking
place in the viewer’s eye.
• In op art, lines, spaces, and colors
were precisely planned and
positioned to give the illusion of
movement
Current Bridget
Riley, 1964
 Contemporary
Arts Forms:
Installation Art
and Performance
Art
 Installation Art
• A contemporary art form that uses sculptural
materials and other media to modify the way
the viewer experiences a particular space.
• Usually life size or sometimes even larger,
installation art is not necessarily confined to
gallery spaces.
• It can be constructed or positioned in
everyday public or private spaces, both
indoor and outdoor.
 Cordillera Labyrinth
Roberto Villanueva, 1989
Bamboo and runo grass
Outdoor installation at the Cultural Center of the Philippines
Pasyon at Rebolusyon
Santiago Bose, 1989
 Go to Room 117
Sid Gomez Hildawa, 1990
 Performance Art
• A form of modern art in which the actions of
an individual or a group at a particular place
and in a particular time constitute the work.
• It can happen anywhere, at any time, or for
any length of time.
• It can be any situation that involves four
basic elements: time space the
performer’s body a relationship between
performer and audience.
• Performance art does include such activities
as theater, dance, music, mime, juggling,
and gymnastics.
• However, the term is usually reserved for
more unexpected, avant garde, and
unorthodox activities intended to capture the
audience’s attention.
• The performer himself or herself is the artist,
rather than an actor playing a character as in
a stage play.
• The performance venue may range from an art
gallery or museum to a theater, café, bar, or
street corner.
• The performance itself rarely follows a
traditional storyline or plot. It might be a series
of intimate gestures, a grand theatrical act, or
the performer remaining totally still.
• It may last for just a few minutes or extend for
several hours. It may be based on a written
script or spontaneously improvised as the
performance unfolds.