![[object Object],[object Object],The Rothko Chapel, Houston, Tx.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/week6lecture20thcentury-110227164756-phpapp01/85/week-6-lecture-20th-century-1-320.jpg)
![1942 – American artists & critics distance themselves from Marxism and politically-driven avant-garde aesthetics ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],Diego Rivera, Man, Controller of the Universe , 1934, fresco, Museu del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
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Week 6 Lecture, 20th Century
- 11. Picturing Black Identity Seydou Keita, Man with Flower , 1959/1998 Kehinde Wiley, from Black Light , 2009
- 13. 1945 - The Aftermath of World War II Shogo Yamahata, Nagasaki, 1945
- 14. Abstraction & The Sublime Mark Rothko, Untitled , 1969 Caspar David Friedrich, Monk by the Sea , 1809
- 20. 1949 – A Melting Pot Aesthetic? Pollock, Autumn Rhythm (No. 30) , 1950, oil and enamel
- 23. “ A Mass of Tangled Hair”?: Understanding Pollock Hans Namuth Clement Greenberg outside Jackson Pollock’s studio, 1951 to render substance entirely optical and forms as an integral part of ambient space—this brings anti-illusionism full circle. Instead of the illusion of things, we are now offered the illusion of modalities; namely, that matter is incorporeal, weightless, and exists only optically like a mirage. -Greenberg on modernist painting massive crypto-landscapes -TJ Clark anti-form -Robert Morris
Notes de l'éditeur
- We can briefly return to Mexican muralism. Diego Rivera’s political leanings become more apparent as we look at the recreation of this RCA mural in Mexico City and the presence of a portrait of one of the most important politcal leaders of that day, Leon Trotsky. By beginning today’s conversation with this almost hidden reference to Trotsky, we can begin to discuss the political meanings behind mid-century modernist art, as well as the conditions in which this art was made, much of it by artists in exile. Trotsky was a Ukranian-born Bolshevik revolutionary, Marxist, and leader of the October Revolution in Russia. He was expelled from the Communist party during the rise of Stalin and deported. While living in exile in Mexico, he continued to be outspoken against Stalin and was eventually executed by a Soviet Agent. He also had a brief affair with the artist Frida Kahlo while living in one of hers and Diego’s houses in Mexico. All three figures (Diego, Frida, and Trotsky) believed in the cause of the proletariat to revolt and forge a new democratic state that would share control of the means of production.
- This is where we’ll begin today’s discussion of Mexican muralism and Surrealism – two important influences on the American movement, Abstract Expressionism. Its most prominent figure was Pollock, an artist whose work reflects the many artistic styles in practice during mid-century America, especially muralism and surrealism. We’ll come back to Pollock later.
- Much of the innovations of mid-century modern art will depend on this mass exile of artists to New York. Their styles and processes of artmaking will be adopted and modified. They’ll interact at lectures, exhibitions. This will encourage the development of Abstract Expressionism. Masson’s work created by manipulating a number of materials on surface of canvas, including sand, and delineating the emergence of “irrational” forms. The subject is a savage battle among sharp-toothed fishes, which reflects Masson’s belief that life is savage, a lesson he learned from his service and subsequent injuries in WWI. He joined the Surrealists in 1924.
- Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. WWII lasted from 1939-45.
- Perhaps much of mid-century modern art was a response to the devastation of WWII. What kind of world can be envisioned in paint following the Holocaust and the atomic bomb? Can one even go on just making paintings? Although Mark Rothko’s paintings are often appreciated for their decorative qualities (harmonious color combinations), he stated that they were meant to be anything but decorative. Believing that his work should express enduring themes, such as tragedy and ecstasy, he painted what can be interpreted as vast, desolate landscapes that dwarf man as he stands in front of them. Man may feel small, inconsequential in comparison to the sublimity of the world before him, particularly as its revealed through war or space exploration. This idea of the sublime (the feeling of awe or terror often with respect to nature) is not dissimilar to its manifestation in the early 19 th century, in the aftermath of the French and American revolutions. This is just one way of looking at the work of these American abstract painters, such as Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, and Rothko.
- Willem de Kooning - Dutch artist, began as figurative painter -received important solo show in 1948 -painted with a “tight grip on brish and nervous twists of wrists” (Art Since 1900) -tight control, wiping out and starting over