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Home , Conceptual art, Concrete Art, Dada, Decollage, Divisionism, Fauvism

FACTFILE: GCE HISTORY OF MAJOR MOVEMENTS

Major Modern Art Movements

Key words Overview New types of art; , , kinetic, The range of Major Modern Art Movements is , , earthworks, art. extensive. There are over 100 known art movements and information on a selected range of the better Use of new materials; found objects, ephemeral known art movements in modern times is provided materials, junk, readymades and everyday items. below. The influence of one upon Expressive use of colour particularly in; another can be seen in the definitions as twentieth , Post Impressionism, , century art which became known as a time of ‘isms’. , , and colour field . New Techniques; Pointilism, automatic , frottage, , , Neo-Impressionism, Synthesism, , Neo- and .

1 FACTFILE: GCE / MAJOR MODERN ART MOVEMENTS

The Making of Modern Art

The Nine most influential Art Movements to impact Cubism (fl. 1908–14) on Modern Art; Primarily practised in painting and originating (1) Impressionism; in c.1907, Cubism saw employing (2) Fauvism; an analytic vision based on fragmentation and multiple viewpoints. It was like a deconstructing of (3) Cubism; the subject and came as a rejection of - (4) ; inspired linear and rounded volumes. The two main artists practising Cubism were Pablo (5) Expressionism; Picasso and , in two variants (6) Dada; ‘Analytical Cubism’ and ‘Synthetic Cubism’. This movement was to influence for the (7) ; next 50 years with the emergence of the flat (8) ; picture plane and an alternative to conventional perspective. (9) Pop Art.

Futurism (fl. 1909–14) Impressionism (–1880s) Founded by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876- The first great modern art movement and the 1944), Futurist art glorified speed, technology, most famous movement in the world today. The the automobile, the airplane and scientific Impressionists included; , Alfred achievement. The Futurists strove to portray the Sisley, , Edourd Manet, Camille dynamic character of twentieth century life. Pissaro and Pierre-Augustus Renoir. The Although very influential, it borrowed heavily from movement was characterised by discontinuous Neo-Impressionism and Italian , as brushstrokes. Preconceived notions of colour well as Cubism, especially its fragmented forms in were not applied. Instead nature was and multiple viewpoints. Carlo Carra, observed as it really was in its fleeting light and and were the leading painters colour and transmitted to canvas. The use of non- and was the chief sculptor in naturalist colours paved the way for abstract art of . David Burlick is known as the ‘Father the . of .’ The main contribution of Futurism to “modern art” was to introduce movement into the canvas, and to link beauty with Fauvism (c.1904–8) scientific advancement. From the French word ‘fauve’ meaning ‘wild beast’. This was a short-lived dramatic movement and one that proved highly influential. A key precursor of Expressionism (from 1905) Expressionism, it was a style adopted by artists Principal forerunners who anticipated this associated with and included André movement with the degree of emotional expression Derain and . They painted inherent in their work are; JMW Turner, Vincent spontaneously using bold colours. They rejected Van Gogh and Paul Gaugin. Expressionism began the impressionist technique of breaking colour up in pre-war through the work of two and instead painted an object in the colours – often groups ‘Die Brucke’ (Dresden/Berlin) and ‘Der Blaue brilliant and explosive – that they thought best Reiter’ (Munich) led by and expressed its inner qualities. respectively. This movement refers to art that rejects traditional adherence to and proportion and overrides this with the intensity of the ’s emotions. It uses emphasis and distortion of line, shape and colour to communicate this emotion.

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Dada (1916–24) Pop Art (, 1960s) International nihilistic movement among European A movement that began in Britain and the USA in artists and writers, Dada was the first anti-art the 1950s derived in the main from commercial movement that revolted against a system that art forms and characterised by outsized replicas could allow the carnage of the First World War. Dada of mass . It became the dominant avant- attacked conventional and stressed garde style until the late 1960s. It used the images absurdity and unpredictability in artistic creation. and techniques of mass media, advertising, film It originated in Zurich with the of the and popular culture, combined with vibrant block Romanian . In Berlin it had political colours, often in an ironic way. Andy Warhol overtones as exemplified byGeorge Grosz’s is the best known artist from this movement caricatures. The French movement centred around but Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, Andre Breton, , , Marcel Claes Oldenburg and Richard Hamilton were Duchamp, and . The also important artists. Perhaps owing to the latter three carried Dada to New York . Dada incorporation of commercial images, Pop art has principles were eventually modified to become the become one of the most recognizable styles of basis of Surrealism in 1924. modern art.

Additional Contemporary Movements; The major Surrealism (from 1924) styles and schools of modernist art in Europe and America during the past 40 years. Surrealism was founded in Paris by Andre Breton with his ‘Manifeste du Surrealisme’. It was ‘the’ fashionable art movement of the inter-war years, although the style is still evident today. Conceptualism (1960s onwards) Composed of abstract and figurative camps, it Derived from Dada and early 20th century evolved out of the of Dada, most of whose , exemplified byMarcel Duchamp, members metamorphosed into surrealists. It this movement is based on the principle that was influenced by Freudianism and dedicated to art is a ‘’ rather than a material object. the expression of the imagination as revealed in That is to say, the ‘idea’ that a work represents dreams, hallucinations, automatic or random image is considered its essential component, not the generation, free of the conscious control of work itself. This implied that concerns such as and convention. Surrealists attempt to liberate aesthetics, expression, skill and marketability were pictorial ideas from their traditional associations and all irrelevant standards by which art was usually they juxtapose unexpected objects or themes in an judged. Important exponents of Conceptualism atmosphere of fantasy. Artists working in this vein include Sol LeWitt (who said ‘the idea is the include; Salvador Dali, , René Magritte, machine that makes the art), , Felix Man Ray, Joan Miró, , Andre Masson Gonzales-Torres, , , Joseph and . In Colin Middleton Kosuth, Kruger and . and Dan O’Neill also worked in a Surrealist manner.

Performance (Early 1960s onwards) Abstract Expressionism (1948–60) Inspired by Conceptualism, Dada, Futurism and A movement of abstract painting that emerged in , combines with during the mid-1940s and attained visual . Performance includes “” singular prominence in American art in the following by individual artists, as well as “events” typically decade; also called action painting and the New involving groups, and can also incorporate a York School. It was the first important school in number of other media or activities, including American painting to declare its independence from video, installation, , and others. European styles and to influence the development Famous Performance artists include Marina of art abroad. There were two main styles within the Abramovic, the French postmodernist , movement – one was a highly animated form of the Swiss kinetic artist and sculptor , gestural ‘action painting’ as practiced by Jackson the British duo Gilbert & George and the German Pollock and there was the more passive, mood- contemporary installation artist Joseph Beuys. reflective style known as ‘colour field painting’ as popularised by Mark Rothko. Both types helped popularise abstraction.

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Installation (1960s onwards) Photo-Realism (1960s, 70s) This can be a three-dimensional work or work that is a style of highly detailed “life-like” is generally site-specific and designed to transform painting and , inspired by Pop-art, which the of a space. Dating from Surrealist emerged during the late 1960s. Also called super- events and shows created by realism or hyper-realism, artists’ work depended and others, involves the creation heavily on photographs, which they often projected of a compelling ‘environment’, often in the form onto canvas allowing images to be replicated with of a room-size ‘’. Famous exponents of precision and accuracy. Flourishing during the installation art include , Joseph 1970s, Photorealism engages the Marxist critic Beuys, , Christian Boltanski, ’s influential treatise,“The Work Richard Wilson and . of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” (1936) which attempts to position art within the sphere of mass media. Its leading members include Land Art (1960s onwards) and , as well as , , and John Also referred to as Art or Earthworks, Land Doherty. Super-realist sculptors include Duane Art is largely an American movement that uses Hanson, John de Andrea, Carole Feuerman, Ron the natural to create site-specific Mueck and Robert Gober. structures, art forms and . Land Art grew out of Conceptualism and . It was part of a reaction against commercialism, and encompassed small-scale installations (indoor Post-Minimalism (1971 onwards) and outdoor) as well as massive earthworks. Its Post-Minimalism refers to a range of art practices pioneering champion was . that emerged out of Minimalism in the late 1960s, Other postmodernist artists associated with the such as , Performance, , movement include: Gunther Uecker Robert Site-Specific Art and aspects of . Morris, , Christo and Jeanne- A term first used in 1971, referring to a style of Claude, , Jan Dibbets, James in which how something is done Turrell, , Richard Long and Andy and communicated becomes as relevant as the Goldsworthy. artwork itself. Post-Minimalism generally is difficult to define but can be seen as conceptualism meets postmodernist art. Leading Post-Minimalist artists, Minimalism (1960s onwards) include Hesse, and Hans Haake. Minimalism or Minimal Art - a form of ‘pure’ abstraction – emerged in New York in the early1960s. It was part of a renouncement by artists of recent art they thought had become stale and academic. Minimalism is characterised by extreme simplicity of form and a deliberate lack of expressive content. Important Minimalist painters include , and ; sculptors include Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris and Richard Serra. By the end of the 1970s Minimalism had triumphed in America and Europe.

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Table of Major Modern Art Movements 1860–present

1860–1930 1940–1960 1960–Now

1874–Impressionism 1940s– 1967–Supports-Surfaces

1880s– 1945–Art Brut 1970s–Post Modernism

1880–Post Impressionism 1946–Abstract Expressionism 1970s–Neo Expressionism

1880s–Pointilism / Divisionism 1946–Action Painting 1970s–Transavantgarde

1880–Arts and 1950s–Existential Art 1970s– / Graffitti

1890s–Nabis 1950s early–Neo Dada 1970s–New Image Painting

1905–Fauvism 1952 – Pop Art 1970s–Minimal Art

1905–Die Brucke 1952–Beat Art 1970s late–Neo Conceptualism

1905–Expressionism 1950s–Decollage 1970s–80s–Moscow Conceptualism

1908–Cubism 1950s mid–Op Art 1966–1986–Non Conformism

1909–Futurism 1957–Situationism 1992–Britart

1910–Ecole de Paris 1950s late– 1980s late–Neo Pop

1910– 1959–Hard Edge 1980 Hasselblad Award

1911–Blaue Reiter 1960s–Conceptual Art 1984–

1912– 1960s–Assemblage 1990–The New Leipzig School

1913– 1960s– 1990–Post Minimalism

1916–Dada 1960s–Performance Art 1998–Carnegie Art Award

1917– 1961–Nouveau Realism 1999–

1917–Neo Plasticism 1961–Kinetic Art 2001–

1919–Bauhaus 1961– 2002–

1920s– 1962–Post Painterly Expressionism

1920s– 1965–Land Art

1920s– 1965–Site Specific

1924–Surrealism 1960s late–Photo Realism

1930– 1960s–Body Art

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What is an art movement?

Suggested Activities (a) In relation to three art movements, detail the characteristics of these movements in Western art? – Discuss these characteristics in relation to two artists from each of the three movements you have chosen. (Can be in the form of an essay or informal notes)

(b) Draw a sketch representing each of the three movements. – The sketch can be a copy of a work within the movement or an original of the movement selected.

Links History of Photography; American Movie Classics; of Modern Art, New York, USA Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879) Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851): The of photography

References Charlotte Bonham-Carter & David Hodge (2013) Contemporary Art: 200 of the World’s Most Ground breaking Artists.

Will Gompertz (2013) What are you Looking At? Plume.

Rosalind Ormiston (2014) 50 Art Movements You Should Know: From Impressionism to Performance Art, Prestel, Goodman.

Sam Phillips (2013) Isms: Understanding Modern Art, Universe.

Ingo Walther (2012) Art of the 20th Century, Taschen.

© CCEA 2016 6