MODERN ART

MS. ROSENELL B. FLORES

 OVERVIEW
The art movements of the late 19th century to the 20th
century captured and expressed all these and more.
Specifically, these were the movements known as
impressionism and expressionism. While earlier periods of
art had a quite set conventions as to the style, technique, and
treatment of their subjects, impressionists and expressionists
conveyed their ideas and feelings in bold, innovative ways.
These were the exciting precursors of the modern art of the
21st century.
IMPRESSIONISM
 IMPRESSIONISM
Impressionism was an art movement that emerged in the
second half of the 19th century among a group of Paris-based
artists. The duration of the impressionist movement itself was
quite short, less than 20 years from 1872 to the mid-1880s. But
it had a tremendous impact and influence on the painting styles
that followed, such as neo-impressionism, post-impressionism,
fauvism, and cubism and even the artistic styles and movements
of today.

The name impressionism was coined from the title of a work by

French painter Claude Monet, Impression, soleil levant (in
English, Impression, Sunrise).
 Impression, Sunrise
Claude Monet, 1872
Oil on canvas

The term precisely captured what this group of artists sought to represent
in their works: the viewer’s momentary “impression” of an image. It was
not intended to be clear or precise, but more like a fleeting fragment of
reality caught on canvas, sometimes in mid-motion, at other times
awkwardly positioned just as it would be in real life.
EXPRESSIONISM
 EXPRESSIONISM
In the early 1900s, there arose in the Western art world a
movement that came to be known as expressionism.
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.
 EXPRESSIONISM
Among the various styles that arose within the expressionist art
movements were:
• Neoprimitivism
• Fauvism
• Dadaism
• Surrealism
• Social Realism
 NEOPRIMITIVISM
Neoprimitivism was 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. Among the Western artists who adapted these
elements was Amedeo Modigliani, who used the oval faces and
elongated shapes of African art in both his sculptures and
paintings.
SOME ARTWORKS OF
NEOPRIMITIVISM

Yellow Sweater
Head Amedeo Modigliani, 191
Amedeo Modigliani, c. 1913 Oil on canvas
Stone
 FAUVISM

Fauvism was 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. Perhaps
the most known among them was Henri Matisse.
SOME ARTWORKS OF FAUVISM

Blue Window Woman with Hat

Henri Matisse, 1911 Henri Matisse, 1905
Oil on canvas Oil on canvas
 DADAISM
Dadaism was a style characterized by dream
fantasies, memory images, and visual tricks and
surprises. Although the works appeared playful, the
movement arose from the pain that a group of
European artists felt after the suffering brought by
World War I. 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.”
 SOME ARTWORKS OF DADAISM

Melancholy and Mystery of a Street I and the Village

Giorgio de Chirico, 1914 Marc Chagall, 1911
Oil on canvas Oil on canvas
 SURREALISM
Surrealism was 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.
SOME ARTWORKS OF SURREALISM

Persistence of Memory
Salvador Dali, 1931
Oil on canvas Diana

Paul Klee, 1932

Oil on wood

Personages with Star

Joan Miro, 1933
Oil on canvas
 SOCIAL REALISM
The movement known as social realism. Expressed the
artist’s role in social reform. Here, artists used their
works to protest against the injustices, inequalities,
immorality, and ugliness of the human condition. In
different periods of history, social realists have addressed
different issues: war, poverty, corruption, industrial and
environmental hazards, and more in the hope of raising
people’s awareness and pushing society to seek reforms.
 SOME ARTWORKS OF SOCIAL
REALISM

Miners’ Wives
Ben Shahn, 1948
Egg tempera on board Guernica
Pablo Picasso, 1937
Oil on canvas (Size: 11’ 5 1/2” x 25’ 5 3/4”)
Ben Shahn’s Miners’ Wives, spoke out
against the hazardous conditions faced by Pablo Picasso’s Guernica has been recognized
as the most monumental and comprehensive
coal miners, after a tragic accident killed
statement of social realism against the brutality of
111 workers in Illinois in 1947, leaving
war.
their wives and children in mourning.
ABSTRACTIONISM
 ABSTRACTIONISM
The abstractionist movement arose from the intellectual
points of view in the 20th century. In the world of science,
physicists were formulating a new view of the universe,
which resulted in the concepts of space-time and relativity.
This intellectualism was reflected even in art. While
expressionism was emotional, abstractionism was logical
and rational. It involved analyzing, detaching, selecting,
and simplifying.
EXAMPLE ARTWORK OF
ABTRACTIONISM

Oval Still Life (Le Violon)

Georges Braque, 1914
Oil on canvas
 ABSTRACTIONISM
Grouped under abstractionism are the following art
styles:

• Cubism
• Futurism
• Mechanical style
• Non-objectivism
 CUBISM
The cubist style derived its name from the cube, a three-
dimensional geometric figure composed of strictly measured lines,
planes, and angles. Cubist artworks were, therefore, a play of
planes and angles on a flat surface. Foremost among the cubists
was Spanish painter/sculptor Pablo Picasso.

In earlier styles, subjects were depicted in a three-dimensional

manner, formed by light and shadow. In contrast, 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.
EXAMPLE ARTWORK OF CUBISM

Three Musicians
Pablo Picasso, 1921
Oil on canvas
Spanish painter/sculptor Pablo Picasso

Girl Before a Mirror (detail)

Pablo Picasso, 1932
Oil on canvas
 FUTURISM
The movement known as futurism began in Italy in the
early 1900s. As the name implies, the futurists created
art for a fast-paced, machine-propelled age. They
admired the motion, force, speed, and strength of
mechanical forms. Thus, their works depicted the
dynamic sensation of all these—as can be seen in the
works of Italian painter Gino Severini.
EXAMPLE ARTWORK OF FUTURISM

Armored Train
Gino Severini, 1915
Oil on canvas
 MECHANICAL STYLE
As a result of the futurist movement, what became
known as the mechanical style emerged. In this
style, basic forms such as planes, cones, spheres,
and cylinders all fit together precisely and neatly in
their appointed places.
EXAMPLE ARTWORK OF MECHANICAL
STYLE

The City
Fernand Léger, 1919
Oil on canvas
 NON-OBJECTIVISM
The logical geometrical conclusion of abstractionism came in the
style known as nonobjectivism. 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 This world.
Lines, shapes, and colors were used in a cool, impersonal
approach that aimed for balance, unity, and stability. Colors were
mainly black, white, and the primaries (red, yellow, and blue).
Foremost among the non-objectivists was Dutch painter Piet
Mondrian.
EXAMPLE ARTWORK OF NON-
OBJECTIVISM

New York City

Piet Mondrian, 1942
Oil on canvas
 ABSTRACT
EXPRESSIONISM
 ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
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.” Pollock’s first one-man show in New York in 1943
focused worldwide attention on abstract expressionism
for the first time.
EXAMPLE ARTWORK OF ABSTRACT
EXPRESSIONISM

Autumn Rhythm
Jackson
Pollock,1950 Oil on
canvas
COLOR FIELD
PAINITING
 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. Some of their works
were huge fields of vibrant color—as in the paintings of Mark
Rothko and Barnett Newman.
Others took the more intimate “pictograph” approach, filling the
canvas with repeating picture fragments or symbols—as in the
works of Adolph Gottlieb and Lee Krasner.
 EXAMPLE ARTWORK OF COLOR FIELD
PAINTING

Vir Heroicus Sublimis

Barnett Newman, 1950-1951 Forgotten Dream
Magenta, Black,on Orange
Oil on canvas
Mark Rothko, 1949
Oil on canvas Lee Krasner, 1948
Oil on canvas

Abstract No. 2
Lee Krasner, 1948
Oil on canvas
 Neodadaism, Pop Art, Op
Art
Like the dadaist movement that arose after World
War I, the neodadaism of the 1960s wanted to make
reforms in traditional values. It also made use of
commonplace, 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.
 Neodadaism, Pop Art, Op
Art
Their works ranged from paintings, to posters, to
collages, to three-dimensional “assemblages” and
installations. These made use of easily recognizable
objects and images from the emerging consumer society
—as in the prints of Andy Warhol. 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.
Neodadaism, Pop Art, Op
Art

Twelve Cars
Andy Warhol, 1962
Marilyn Monroe
Art print Andy Warhol, 1967
Silkscreen print

Whaam!
Roy Lichtenstein, 1963
Acrylic and oil on canvas
 CONCEPTUAL ART
As the term implies, conceptual art was that which
arose in the mind of the artist, took concrete form for a
time, and then disappeared (unless it was captured in
photo or film documentation). Conceptualists questioned
the idea of art as objects to be bought and sold. Instead,
they brought their artistic ideas to life temporarily, using
such unusual materials as grease, blocks of ice, food,
even just plain dirt.
EXAMPLE ARTWORK OF CONCEPTUAL ART

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
Another movement that emerged in the 1960s was
optical art or “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.
EXAMPLE ARTWORK OF OP
ART

Current
Bridget Riley, 1964
Synthetic polymer paint on composition board
 Forms:
Installation Art and
Performance Art
The 20th century also saw the rise of new art forms
aside from the traditional ones of painting and sculpture.
Among these were installation art and performance art.
Installation art makes use of space and materials in truly
innovative ways, while performance art makes use of the
human body, facial expressions, gestures, and sounds.
Both speak powerfully about contemporary issues,
challenging their viewers to respond.
 INSTALLATION ART
Installation art is a contemporary art form that
uses sculptural materials and other media to modify the
way the viewer experiences a particular space. Usually
lifesize 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.
 SOME ARTWORKS OF INSTALLATION ART

Cordillera Labyrinth Roberto Villanueva, Pasyon at Rebolusyon

1989 Bamboo and runo grass Santiago Bose, 1989
Outdoor installation at the Cultural Center of Mixed media installation
the Philippines

Go to Room 117
Four Masks
Sid Gomez Hildawa,
Edgar Talusan
1990
Fernandez, 1991
 PERFORMANCE ART
Performance art is 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.
EXAMPLE ARTWORK OF
PERFORMANCE ART

In performance art, the performer

himself or herself is the artist.