MODERNISMModernism allowed artists to assert their freedom to create in a new style and provide them with a mission to define the meaning of their times..

Early 20th Century Art was influenced by…• the beginning of the atomic age• existentialism (Nietzsche)- “God is Dead”• the invention of psychoanalysis • Freud-inner drives control human behavior • Jung-collective unconscious• The Russian Revolution• The Great War (humanity’s inhumanity)• The Great Global Depression• the rise of the “Avant Garde”

Mrs. Germano sums up the early 1900s with the three types:

THE EXPRESSIVE (color)

THE ABSTRACT (shape)

THE WEIRD (form & fantasy)

ExpressionismThe use of uncharacteristic colors chosen by the artist… to release of the artist’s inner vision to evoke feelings from the viewer

Fauvism

German Expressionism

Der Blaue Reiter

Fauvism very short-lived (1904-1908) influenced from the work of Post-Impressionists like Gauguin & Cezanne full of violent, ARBITRARY color and bold distortion, brutal brushstrokes Shocking to the critics and the public “Fauves”- French for ‘Wild Beasts’ Artists wore the label with pride Color’s structural, expressive, and aesthetic capabilities

Henri Matisse, The Joy of Life, 1905-06. FAUVISM

Henri Matisse, The Joy of Life, 1905-06

Flat planes of color, bold outlines come from Gauguin - also humanity in a state of nature - pagan scene like a bacchanal

“genius of omission”- radical simplification

The act of painting was joyous for him and his paintings show this

Henri MatisseThe Red Studio,1911.

Believed that color was the formal element most responsible for pictorial coherence… Color was not meant to imitate nature, but to express inner emotions

Henri Matisse, The Dance, 1909. FAUVISM

Henri Matisse,Green Stripe, 1905.

FAUVISM

Henri Matisse,La Musique,1939.

FAUVISM

Georges RouaultThe Old King, 1916-37.

FAUVISM

Georges Rouault

Fauvism with political connotations

Reminiscent of stained glass because Rouault was an

apprentice of the trade

A figure of merciless authority clutching flowers

German Expressionism“Die Brucke” (The Bridge)

•Color is important, but equal to that of distortion of images and violent brushstrokes

•Movement centered in Dresden, Germany and led by Ernst Kirschner

•Thought of themselves as bridging the old age of art with the new

•Influenced by medieval craft guilds- lived and worked together equally

•Focused on the detrimental effects of industrialization

Ernst Kirschner,Self Portrait as a Soldier, 1915.GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM

Ernst Kirschner,Two Women in the Street,

1914.

GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM

Kathe Kollwitz, The Survivors, 1923.GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM

Kathe Kollwitz

Worked almost exclusively in printmaking and drawing

Themes of inhumanity and injustice

The plight of workers and war victims

Son died during first week of WWI

Kathe Kollwitz, The Grieving Parents, 1932. GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM

Kathe Kollwitz, Woman With Dead Child, 1903 etching. GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM

The Outbreak, Kathe Kollwitz, 1903, etching

Vassily Kandinsky, Composition VII, 1913.

Der Blaue Reiter(The Blue Rider)

Another German Expressionist movement that produced feeling as visual FORM – not just color

Complete abstraction- non-objective work - elimination of representation

Knew about music, literature, science (the atomic theory) - material objects have no structure or purpose

Orchestration of color, form, line, and space- blueprints for an enlightened and liberated society, emphasizing spirituality

Vassily Kandinsky, Composition VII, 1913. DER BLAUE REITER

Vassily Kandinsky, Composition VI, 1913. DER BLAUE REITER

Vassily Kandinsky, Contrasting Sounds, 1924.

DER BLAUE REITER

Kandinsky. Concentric Circles.

Franz Marc, Dog Lying In the Snow, 1910-11. DER BLAUE REITER

Franz Marc, Yellow Cow, 1911. DER BLAUE REITER

Franz Marc,Foxes, 1913.DER BLAUE REITER

Franz Marc, The Lamb, 1913-14. DER BLAUE REITER

Franz Marc, Fighting Forms, 1914. DER BLAUE REITER

1913Armory ShowNew York CityFirst American show to exhibit works by Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Cubist, Fauvist and Early 20th Century Europeans

Over 1250 works by 300 artists

Started in New York, then traveled to Chicago and Boston

The NY Times called it “pathological”…

It was a good show, but don’t do it again… - critic

Marsden Hartley,Portrait of a German Officer1914.

Marsden Hartley was an American living in Munich and was directly influenced by these European movements

Gustav KlimtThe Kiss1907-08.

VIENNA SUCCESSION(Austrian Art Nouveau)

Gustav Klimt Adele Bloch-Bauer I

1907.

VIENNA SUCCESSION(Austrian Art Nouveau)

Gustav KlimtJudith with Head of Holofernes,1901.

VIENNA SUCCESSION(Austrian Art Nouveau)