Figurative Avant-Garde after 1945

Revision

First Movements

• In an exhibition hold in 1925 two different movements appeared: – New Objectivity and – Magic Realism

• Their common characteristic is the representation of domestic indoors or scenes of every day life expressed in an unreal dimension.

New Objectivity

• Influences:– They trend to imitate ancient German models but

they depicted people and things with a cold and striking precision.

– They tried to take some elements of the expressionist, depicting greed, lust, rage, brutality, spinelessness and cowardice, this is, what they understood as the portrait of a person

New Objectivity

• Authors belonging to this movement are:– Max Beckman, – Otto Dix,– George Grosz, – Edward Hopper or – Balthus.

• Beckman, Dix and Grosz are more linked to the German expressionism, while the others created very personal works

New Objectivity

• Edward Hopper:• He painted a urban world, full of silence, in an

space unreal and metaphysical that created in the spectator an impression of the subject being far from them.

• His compositions are geometrical, with sophisticated lights, always cold and artificial, and with simplified details.

• The scene is always almost desert, with few images what underlines the impression of loneliness.

Hopper

New Objectivity

• Balthus:• His images create a cold and sombre atmosphere. • He was influenced by the realists and his portraits show a

gesture of great reflection and concentration. • He frequently depicted familiar scenes or images in which

very young girl are presents. • These girls were considered to be the only pure characters

but there is something provocative in them. • With the time he evolved to a more simple depiction.

Balthus

Magic Realism

• It has two different aspects:– the social and – the socialist realism.

• By Social Realism we understand art works which chronicle the everyday conditions of the working classes and are critical of the social environment that causes these conditions.

• This style was broadly accepted during the years following the 1929 crisis in the USA.

• Among the representatives of this group are the muralists:– Jose Clemente Orozco and – Diego Rivera.

Magic Realism

• In Paris, after the end of WWII many artists of left-wing focused on depicting the dramatic conditions of the working-class lives, their social plight, but workers, builders, men and women, capable of building a better world.

• Some members of this group were Picasso, Leger, Buffet and Gruber.

• Social Realism is not very different from Socialist Realism. • The main difference relies on the fact that Socialist Realism

tends to advertise revolution and it is linked to the adherence to party doctrine

Magic Realism

• Diego Rivera:• He was reputed as a muralist• In his works there are two main subjects:

– Revolution related– Mexican scenes

• His scenes are easy to understand and the colours are light and well limited by drawing.

Rivera

Hyper-Realism

• Hyper Realism is other trend of the same period. • It has a good representative in the Spanish Antonio

Lopez, with urban views that may appear as photography given the accuracy to the model.

• The important is to depict the things as they are perceived because their beauty lay on the accuracy to the model.

• The images are a bit unrealistic due to the lack of living elements of them

• It seems that aerial perspective is well capsized.

Antonio López

Other Authors

• There are several authors with different and personal ways of depicting reality in a realistic way.

• Two very different examples are:– Lucien Freud– Fernando Botero

Other Authors

• Lucien Freud:• Portraits and nudes are his specialities, often observed in

arresting close-up. • His early work was meticulously painted, so he has

sometimes been described as a `Realist' (or rather absurdly as a Superrealist).

• The subjectivity and intensity of his work has always set him apart from the sober tradition characteristic of most British figurative art since the Second World War.

• In his later work (from the late 1950s) his handling became much broader.

Freud

Other Authors

• Fernando Botero:• Monumentality, humour, irony and naivety are combined in

his conscious and talented work• He received influences of the Muralists and the Surrealists• His main subjects are:

– Art History– Bourgeoisie life– Colombian History– Historical characters

• He works as an sculptor too, having the same characteristics.

Botero