Modern Art 05:
Post-War Paris to NYC
Following World War II, the epicenter of the Western art world shifted from Paris to New York, giving rise to Abstract Expressionism, the first major American avant-garde movement. The postwar period (1945–1980) was marked by cultural upheaval, civil rights struggles, and the rise of consumerism, which fueled diverse artistic reactions. While artists initially pursued pure abstraction, subsequent movements like Pop Art, Superrealism, and Feminist Art reintroduced representation, social commentary, and popular culture. Simultaneously, architecture transitioned from the severe, functional simplicity of Modernism to the eclectic, historically referential, and complex aesthetic of Postmodernism.
Key Artists: Work, Influences, Movements
Performance & Body Art
Carolee Schneemann: A pioneering Performance artist who developed "kinetic theater".
Work/Focus: Her 1964 performance Meat Joy introduced a feminist dimension by using her body to challenge the "psychic territorial power lines" and traditional gender roles.
Influences: Her kinetic artworks evolved from her early painting-constructions.
Joseph Beuys: A Fluxus Performance artist who used actions to illuminate the condition of modern humanity.
Work/Focus: In How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare (1965), he took on the role of a shaman to revolutionize human thought.
Influences: His use of fat and felt derived from his WWII experience as a pilot, where nomadic Tatars saved his life using those materials.
Similarities/Differences: Like Schneemann, Beuys used his physical presence to confront audiences, but his work focused on spiritual healing and mysticism rather than feminist sensuality.
Ana Mendieta: Feminist artist who created earth/body works.
Work/Focus: Her Silueta series, including Flowers on Body (1973), addressed birth, death, and the human connection to the earth.
Influences: Being torn from her homeland of Cuba as a child drove her need to spiritually reconnect with nature.
Feminist Art & Photography
Cindy Sherman: Photographer.
Work/Focus: In Untitled Film Stills (1979), she constructed her own identity by posing in stereotypical female roles.
Influences: Soft-core pornography and popular film genres, addressing the "male gaze" in Western art.
Judy Chicago: Spearheaded the Feminist art movement.
Work/Focus: The Dinner Party (1979) honored 39 historical women using traditional female crafts like china painting and needlework.
Influences: Barbara Hepworth, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Louise Nevelson.
Expressionism & Abstract Expressionism
(New York School)
Francis Bacon: Postwar European Expressionist painter.
Work/Focus: Painting (1946) is a revolting, butchered image that serves as an indictment of humanity.
Influences: Nazi bombings of London during WWII and news photos of European officials.
Jackson Pollock: Abstract Expressionist known for "gestural" or action painting.
Work/Focus: Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist) features rhythmic drips and splatters created by flinging paint on unrolled canvas.
Influences: Carl Jung's collective unconscious, Surrealist automatism, and Native American sand painters.
Willem de Kooning: Abstract Expressionist (gestural).
Work/Focus: Woman I (1950-1952) features ferocious brushstrokes rooted in figuration but abstract in execution.
Influences: Advertising billboards and fertility goddesses.
Mark Rothko: Abstract Expressionist known for "chromatic" abstraction.
Work/Focus: No. 14 (1960) features shimmering veils of pure color intended to evoke basic human emotions like tragedy and ecstasy.
Influences: Primitive and archaic art; universal mythology.
Barnett Newman: Abstract Expressionist (chromatic).
Work/Focus: Vir Heroicus Sublimis (1950-1951) consists of a single color field split by narrow bands he called "zips".
Influences: Biology and Native American art.
Post-Painterly Abstraction & Minimalism
Frank Stella: Post-Painterly Abstractionist (hard-edge painting).
Work/Focus: Mas o Menos (1964) eliminated expressive brushwork in favor of evenly spaced pinstripes.
Influences: Clement Greenberg's insistence on medium purity ("What you see is what you see").
Donald Judd: Minimalist sculptor.
Work/Focus: Untitled (1969) features geometric boxes made of undisguised brass and Plexiglas, emphasizing the "objecthood" of the work.
Influences: A rejection of illusionism and a desire for concrete tangibility.
Eva Hesse: German artist associated with the dominant sculptural trend of the 1960s, Minimalism.
Pop Art & Superrealism
Claes Oldenburg: Pop artist known for sculpture.
Work/Focus: Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks (1969) is a colossal outdoor sculpture mixing phallic, cosmetic, and militaristic imagery as an antiwar statement.
Influences: Consumer culture and the function of art as a commodity.
Chuck Close: Superrealist (Photorealist) painter.
Work/Focus: Big Self-Portrait (1967-1968) features massive scale and methodical presentation to translate photographic info into paint.
Influences: Photography; a desire to purge the "baggage of traditional portrait painting".
Architecture:
Shift from Modernism to Postmodernism
Modernism: Modernist architecture (promoted by Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier) was dictated by severe simplicity, formal purity, and the rule that a building's form must logically arise from its function and structure. This resulted in sleek, geometrically rigid "glass boxes" (like the Seagram Building) that eventually drew criticism for being impersonal, sterile, and anonymous.
Postmodernism: Postmodernist architects (like Robert Venturi and Philip Johnson) rejected Modernism's rigid confines. They argued that form should be separate from function and actively embraced complexity, contradiction, and eclecticism. Postmodern buildings often incorporated whimsical historical references, classical motifs (like pediments or arches), and popular imagery, utilizing new high-tech materials.
Similarities and Differences
Abstract Expressionism vs. Post-Painterly Abstractionism: Both movements (part of the New York School era) focused on pure abstraction. However, Abstract Expressionism conveyed intense passion and featured loose, highly visible brushwork (the artist's "hand"). In contrast, Post-Painterly Abstraction (coined by Greenberg) was characterized by cool, detached rationality, tighter pictorial control, and the absence of visible brushstrokes.
Pop Art vs. Minimalism: Both movements emerged as reactions against the introspective, alienated nature of the Abstract Expressionists. Minimalism continued the pursuit of abstraction by reducing art to basic, unadorned geometric shapes and industrial materials devoid of any symbolism. Pop Art, conversely, completely rejected abstraction to reintroduce recognizable subjects, signs, and metaphors grounded in everyday mass media and consumer culture.
Performance Art vs. Happenings: Both avant-garde movements replaced stationary art objects with temporal actions. Happenings (developed by Allan Kaprow) were loosely structured, unscripted, highly participatory events where the boundary between audience and performer dissolved. Performance Art (such as Fluxus events) was more theatrical, often separating the performer and audience on a stage, and followed specific (though brief) compositional "scores" or stylized actions.
Feminist Art: Emerged in the 1970s with artists seeking to communicate with a wide audience about the social dynamics of power, privilege, and gender. It differed from formalist movements by prioritizing political and social commentary, often elevating traditional "women's crafts" to the level of fine art.
Key Questions
When did the center of the Western art world shift from Europe to the United States?
The center of the Western art world shifted from Europe (Paris) to the United States (New York) in the 1950s, following the devastation of World War II and the subsequent influx of émigré artists fleeing to America.How did museum commissions of performance events change Performance Art?
When Performance Art first emerged, it was intended as an antidote to traditional art commodities, designed to take place outside the confines of galleries and museums. However, when museums began commissioning these events in the late 1960s, they effectively neutralized much of the subversiveness that originally characterized the art form by institutionalizing it.How did Clement Greenberg influence art?
Clement Greenberg, the most prominent American art critic of the postwar period, shaped the era's art by championing strict formalism. He influenced artists by arguing that modern art must achieve "purity" by focusing exclusively on the inherent properties of its specific medium (such as the flatness of a canvas). His views drove artists to renounce illusion and explicit subject matter, directly fueling the rise of both Abstract Expressionism and Post-Painterly Abstraction.