Art in Focus

Chapter 24: Modern Art Movements to the Present

Lesson Summaries-English

          During the modern era, artists use new materials and techniques to express their ideas in many different ways. Some artists draw on art styles from the past, while others reject any reference to historical models.

Lesson 1
Revolutions in European and American Art

          The art created after World War I reflected the disillusionment people felt. The movement known as Dada ridiculed contemporary culture and traditional art forms. For example, Marcel Duchamp exhibited absurd objects as works of art. Joan Miró helped begin a new style called Surrealism, using dreams and the subconscious as inspiration. Salvador Dalí, the most famous Surrealist, created bizarre works rich with symbolism, while Paul Klee depicted delightful fantasies.

          In the United States, Regionalist artists painted scenes and events typical of their sections of America. Grant Wood created rural scenes using the style of Flemish and German Realism. Edward Hopper captured the emptiness and loneliness of the urban scene. Other artists took new directions. Stuart Davis explored abstraction. Georgia O’Keeffe focused on close-up views of nature. Jacob Lawrence used his work for social protest.

          After World War II artists adopted Abstract Expressionism, applying paint freely to huge canvases in order to express emotions through the action of painting. Willem de Kooning used swirls and slashes of color and Jackson Pollock dripped and spattered his paints on the canvas. Helen Frankenthaler let large harmonious areas of color soak into her canvases. Robert Motherwell used nonobjective shapes to convey ominous feelings. Various other movements emerged later. Pop art portrayed images from the popular culture such as Campbell’s soup cans. Op Art created the impression of movement by means of optical illusions. Hard-edge painters such as Frank Stella used shapes with crisp, precise edges. In the 1970s, artists such as Alfred Leslie, Audrey Flack, and Andrew Wyeth worked in Photo-realism, a style so realistic it looks photographic. In Canada, artists have focused on nature for its expressive qualities.

          Today artists work in a variety of styles. For example, David Hockney combines drawing, collage, and painting to reflect his experiences and opinions. Elizabeth Murray uses shaped canvases, challenging the line between sculpture and painting. Judy Pfaff does the same in her installation art, where she suspends materials from the walls, floors, and ceiling of a room.

Lesson 2
Innovations in Sculpture and Architecture

          Sculptors in the twentieth century also searched for new forms. Jacques Lipchitz, Henry Moore, and Barbara Hepworth moved toward abstraction and created nonobjective sculptures. Louise Nevelson used the technique of assemblage, bringing together a variety of three-dimensional objects to form works of art. Alexander Calder created mobiles, shapes suspended on wires so as to move freely in the air. One artist to continue in a realistic style was Alan Houser, whose artworks reflect his Native American heritage. Duane Hanson’s portraits are as lifelike as possible.

          After 1950, architects began to search for alternatives to the International style, exemplified in modern skyscrapers. The Swiss architect Le Corbusier used massive, curving walls and abstract forms. The American Frank Lloyd Wright experimented with forms such as the great spiral, which he used for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. For the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Maya Lin designed an understated V-shaped black granite wall with the names of dead or missing soldiers inscribed on it. In the 1980s architects embraced the style of Postmodernism, continuing to use steel-cage construction methods but also incorporating features from earlier architectural styles. Michael Graves and Charles Moore have used various influences to design buildings that are pleasant and fun to look at. Art, with its roots at the dawn of civilization, continues to thrive and change today.

Lesson 3
Digital Art Forms

          Artists use photography, video, and digital media in new ways to capture light. Video has evolved from the analog format to a digital system, which processes words and images directly as numbers or digits. Digital media can be imported to a computer and shared with others.

          Several artists, mathematicians, and scientists helped forge the path of art technology. Jerry Uelsmann began by manipulating images in his darkroom. Sonia Landy Sheridan created the earliest form of computer graphic software. The artists who created the first art software were trained as traditional artists. A painter, David Em creates surreal alien worlds using scanners, digital cameras, and video. In 1981, the personal computer was developed. The French researcher Benoit Mandelbrot discovered fractals, geometric structures that have a shape and dimension determined by definite rules. This led to the first computer programs able to print graphics. William Latham then developed a unique 3-D computer graphic system that mathematically changes forms and animates them. He is known as an organic artist because his forms resemble natural beings.

          Today art classrooms are equipped with a variety of digital devices and software. Draw programs are two-dimensional vector or “object oriented” draw systems that are based on mathematical formulas. Paint programs are based on pixels and are used for painting and for photo editing. Animation software is based on various paint, draw, and 3-D systems and can be used to create simple or complex animations. 3-D modeling and rendering programs make 3-D forms and environments. Page layout software formats text and graphics together. Multimedia presentation software allows you to create a digital slide show by combining work from many sources. As technology evolves, the artistic options for self-expression increase. Artists who use new tools continue the ongoing story of art.