This document provides an introduction to an art history course on contemporary art since 1945. It discusses how postwar art challenged expectations of what art should look like, moving away from traditional subjects and embracing abstraction. Modernism is defined as favoring non-representational forms and the autonomy of art. However, postmodernism emerged as a reaction against some tenets of modernism, incorporating eclectic styles and questioning notions of progress. The reading explores the development of avant-garde art and its relationship to social and political currents over this period.

1. Introduction
© Fall 2012
Art 109A: Contemporary Art
Westchester Community College
Fall 2012
Dr. Melissa Hall

2. What is Art?
What do you think of when you
think about “art”?
• Painting
• Sculpture
• Photograph
Image source: Metropolitan Museum

3. What is Art?
Much of the art that has been made
since 1945 deliberately challenges
our expectations about what a work
of art should look like
Linda Weintraub, Art on the Edge and Over, 1995

4. Art Since 1945
This course will begin in 1945,
when artists first began to grapple
with the aftermath of World War II
We will examine the various ways
that artists endeavored to engage
with the changing world in which
they lived.
In the process, we shall see how
the very definition of what “art”
could be was dramatically
transformed.
George Grosz, Painter of the Hole I, 1947

5. The Concept of the
Avant Garde
The concept of the avant garde
originated in the 19th century
Avant Garde:
any creative group active in the
innovation and application of new
concepts and techniques in a given
field (especially in the arts)
radically new or original; "an avant-
garde theater piece"
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/
perl/webwn?s=avant-garde
Damien Roach, Avantgarde, 2008
http://www.sieshoeke.com/exhibitions/damien-roach-2008

6. The Concept of the
Avant Garde
Avant Garde: advance troops who
scout out enemies ahead of the
army
Soviet troops advance in the rubble of Stalingrad, WW II
Image source: http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/GermanFieldMarshalsWW2/FieldMarshalFriedrichWilh.html

7. The Concept of the
Avant Garde
Gustave Courbet exhibition at the
Paris World’s Fair 1855
Gustave Courbet, The Stone Breakers, 1849 (destroyed)

8. The Concept of the
Avant Garde
Courbet’s work did not look like
“art” to viewers at the time
W.P. Frith, Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Birth of
Venus, 1879
Museé d’Orsay

9. The Concept of the
Avant Garde
It was as shocking as Duchamp’s
urinal, or Jackson Pollock’s drip
paintings were to later audiences
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917
Tate Gallery
Norman Rockwell, The Connoisseur, 1962

10. The Concept of the
Avant Garde
Much of the art we will study does
not look like “art”
Carl Andre, Equivalent VIII, 1966
Tate Gallery

11. What
The Concept of the
Avant Garde
Avant garde art questions what art
is or can be
is
Art?
Damien Roach, Avantgarde, 2008
http://www.sieshoeke.com/exhibitions/damien-roach-2008

12. The Concept of the
Avant Garde
Avant-garde art challenges
accepted values in order to make
us think differently
Image source: http://www.noordinarylife.biz/Creative_Mind_Mapping.html

13. The Concept of the
Avant Garde
If it doesn’t challenge us, then it
probably isn’t “avant garde”
Referring to the contemporary art
market, David Hammons said: “The
system is making people offers they
can’t refuse when it should be
making them offers they can’t
understand.”
http://nymag.com/arts/art/
season2007/38981/
Image source: http://qualityjunkyard.com/2009/07/30/how-to-think-outside-the-box/

14. Modernity, Modern Art,
and Modernism
The avant garde emerged at a time
of rapid technological advancement
and “modernization”
Currier & Ives, The Progress of the Century, c. 1876
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pingnews/2941008151/

15. Modernity, Modern Art,
and Modernism
“Modernity” gave rise to a new
concept of historical time
Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times, 1936

16. Modernity, Modern Art,
and Modernism
Courbet’s predecessors looked to
the past
Ludovisi Venus
Roman copy of a Late
Classical original
National Museum of Rome
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Birth of Venus, 1879
Museé d’Orsay

17. Modernity, Modern Art,
and Modernism
Modern art looked to the future
Fernand Léger, The City, 1919
MOMA

18. Modernity, Modern Art,
and Modernism
Modern art in the 20th century
moved towards abstraction
Formalism replaced subject matter,
narrative, and reference to the
observable world
Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation 28 (second version), 1912
Guggenheim Museum

19. Formalism
Meaning was now communicated
through formal elements, rather
than through subject matter
Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying, 1915
MOMA

20. Modernism and
Progress
Experts argued that the trend
towards abstraction represented
“progress”
Alfred Barr, Cubism and Abstract Art,
Museum of Modern Art, 1936

21. Modernism and
Progress
Abstract Art was considered to be
“better” and more “advanced” than
figurative art
Ben Shahn, The Passion of Sacco and George L. K. Morris, Nautical Composition
Vanzetti, 1932-32 1937-42
Whitney Museum Whitney Museum

22. Modernism and
Autonomy
Abstract art was also believed to be
“autonomous” because it is
independent of reference to the
observable world
“[A] work of art . . . is worth
looking at primarily because it
presents a composition or
organization of color, line, light
and shade. . . since
resemblance to nature is at
best superfluous and at worst
distracting, it might as well be
eliminated.”
Alfred Barr, Cubism and Abstract Art, 1936
Carl Mydans, Alfred Barr, 1953 Alfred Barr, Cubism and Abstract Art,
LIFE Museum of Modern Art, 1936

23. Modernism and
Autonomy
Hans Hoffman in his studio, 1957
“Let me confess: I hold my mind
and my work free from any
association foreign to the act of
painting”
Hans Hoffmann
Hans Hoffmann, The Golden Wall, 1961
Art Institute of Chicago

24. Crisis
The Great Depression and the rise
of Fascism in the 1930s created a
crisis for avant garde artists
Dorothea Lange, White Angel Breadline, San Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler
Francisco, 1933
National Archives

25. Making Choices
Does art need to be realistic to be
politically effective?
Ben Shahn, this is Nazi Brutality, 1945 Joan Miro, Birth of the World, 1925
National Archives Museum of Modern Art

26. Modernism and
Autonomy
Meanwhile, avant garde art was
being suppressed abroad
Boris Vladimirski, Roses for Stalin,1920
Guidebook cover to the “Degenerate Art” exhibition, Munich, 1937
Image source: http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_image.cfm?image_id=2078

27. Modernism and
Autonomy
Exiled Communist leader Leon
Trotsky defended artistic
experimentation
“Art, like science, not only does
not seek orders, but by its very
essence cannot tolerate
them . . . . Art can become a
strong ally of revolution only
insofar as it remains faithful to
itself.”
Leon Trotsky, “Art and Politics,”
1938
Leon Trotsky

28. Avant Garde and
Kitsch
Clement Greenberg, “Avant Garde
and Kitsch,” Partisan Review, 1939
Political argument in defense of
autonomous art
Clement Greenberg

29. Avant Garde and
Kitsch
Greenberg argued that art must be
autonomous from “kitsch”
“Kitsch: popular, commercial art
and literature . . . magazine
covers, illustrations, ads, slick
and pulp fiction, comics, Tin Pan
Alley music, tap dancing,
Hollywood movies, etc., etc.”
Clement Greenberg, “Avant Garde and Kitsch”

30. Avant Garde and
Kitsch
Kitsch is “popular culture” – the
“culture of the masses”
“If kitsch is the official tendency
of culture in Germany, Italy and
Russia, it is not because their
respective governments are
controlled by philistines, but
because kitsch is the culture of
the masses in these countries, as
it is everywhere else. The
encouragement of kitsch is
merely another of the
inexpensive ways in which
totalitarian regimes seek to
ingratiate themselves with their
subjects. Since these regimes
cannot raise the cultural level of
Adolf Wissel, Farm Family from Kahlenberg, 1939
the masses . . . they will flatter
the masses by bringing all culture
down to their level.”
Clement Greenberg, “Avant Garde and Kitsch”

31. Avant Garde and
Kitsch
“Kitsch keeps a dictator in closer
contact with the ‘soul’ of the
people.”
Clement Greenberg, “Avant Garde and Kitsch”
Heinrich Knirr, Portrait of Adolf Hitler 1937

32. Modernism and
Politics
Greenberg implied that to make
abstract art was “radical,” politically
subversive, and a challenge to the
status quo
Russian Communist leader Vladimir
Lenin making public appearance.
Moscow, 1919
LIFE
Art & Language, Portrait of V.I. Lenin with Cap, in the Style of Jackson Pollock III 1980
Tate Gallery

33. Triumph of Modernism
After World War II, “American type”
Modernist abstraction became the
dominant art form in the United
States, and soon became a global
phenomenon
Jackson Pollock: Is He the Greatest Living
Painter in the United States?, Life Magazine,
1949
Frank Scherchel, People looking at a painting by artist Jackson Pollock at an
American art show, France, 1955
LIFE

34. Triumph of Modernism
Although considered “radical” and
subversive, Modernism was
embraced by institutions like the
Museum of Modern Art
Bruce Maud Design
http://www.brucemaudesign.com/
work_museum_of_modern_art.html
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. Philip L. Goodwin and Edward
Durell Stone, Architects, 1939. Robert Damora, Photographer, 1939.
Image source: http://www.robertdamora.com/

35. Triumph of Modernism
Corporate collections gravitated
towards Modernist abstraction
Ronald Bladen, The Cathedral Evening, 1972
Empire State Plaza, Albany

36. Triumph of Modernism
And wealthy collectors discovered
that Modernism was a good
investment
An anonymous phone telephone bidder paid £36.8m for Rothko’s 1950 White Center
(Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) at Sotheby’s in New York (May 2007)
Daily Mail
Mark Rothko, White Center (Yellow,
Pink and Lavender on Rose), 1950

37. Triumph of Modernism
Modernism became the new
“academy” -- and like Courbet, the
new avant garde rebelled against it
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Birth of Venus, 1879
Museé d’Orsay

38. Postmodernism
Postmodernism was a reaction
against Modernism
Clement Greenberg, Art and Culture: Critical Essays, Beacon Press, 1961

39. John Latham
John Latham, Still and Chew, 1967
performance in which he and fellow
students at Saint Martin’s School in
London chewed pages from
Clement Greenberg’s Art & Culture

40. Postmodernism
Postmodernism: first used in the
field of architecture
Postmodern architecture broke
with the International Style and
began incorporating an eclectic mix
of elements
Michael Graves and Associates, Team Disney Building, Burbank, California, 1991

41. Postmodernism
Postmodernism has been used to
categorize widely diverse styles and
concerns about making art. What
unifies postmodern art, if anything, is a
reaction to modernism—at times
destroying or debunking traditionally
held rules or canons of modern art; at
other times copying masterworks of the
past in new ways.
http://schools.walkerart.org/arttoday/
index.wac?id=2362
http://schools.walkerart.org/arttoday/index.wac?id=2362

42. Postmodernism
“The last generation . . . was arguably the most
abnormal, surprising, chaotic, and troubling era
in the entire history of art. All traditions in the
realm of the visual came tumbling down to an
extent never demonstrated before. Inherited
ideas about the relationship between visuality
and reality in general were confounded . . . .
Around 1960, the idea became widespread that
the aesthetic approach was not really the only
available way to make and appreciate the
importance of art . . . . Instead of pure form and
color, the values of criticism, analysis, cognition,
social commentary, wit, humor, surprise and
reversal now prevail. These values have
become the generalized underpinnings of a
broad post-Modern approach that contains many
styles . . . Yet it has always been a part of the
idea of democracy that it must have built-in
mechanisms of self-criticism, of which the arts
can be one among others.”
Arthur Danto, “Value in an Age of Chaos,” in
Linda Weintraub, Art on the Edge and Over, p.
254-58.

43. Postmodernism
Formalist principles no longer apply
For much contemporary art or art being
made today, the content or meaning is
more important than the materials or
forms used to make it. Until very
recently, artists were making art that
would engage viewers visually through
subject matter and the composition of
elements and principles. Contemporary
artists seem to be more interested in
engaging viewers conceptually through
ideas and issues. The elements of art,
while still present at times, are often not
adequate to understanding the meaning
of contemporary art.
http://schools.walkerart.org/arttoday/
index.wac?id=2362
Image source:
http://ihateblogs123.blogspot.com/2009/03/elements-and-principles-of-design.html

44. Modernism Postmodernism
Line Appropriation
Shape Time
Color Performance
Value Space
Texture Hybridity
Form

45. Postmodernism
Hybridity
“For artists today, the choice of
materials and media for creating art is
wide open. Some artists continue to use
traditional media such as paint, clay, or
bronze, but others have selected new or
unusual materials for their art, such as
industrial or recycled materials, and
newer technologies such as
photography, video, or digital media
offer artists even more ways to express
themselves. Many artists working today
incorporate more than material or
technique in ways that create hybrid art
forms. Combinations of still image,
moving image, sound, digital media,
and found objects can create new
hybrid art forms that are beyond what
traditional artists have ever imagined.”
http://schools.walkerart.org/arttoday/
index.wac?id=2377
Cia Guo-Qiang, Innoportune: Stage One, 2004
Seattle Art Museum (as seen in Guggenheim installation, I Want to Believe

46. Postmodernism
1. “After” Modernism; “after”
1968
2. Skeptical: questions belief
in given truths
3. Subjective: rejects
possibility of “objectivity” in
the belief that all truth is
contingent
4. Self reflexive: self
consciously aware of its
own practice
5. Hybrid: blurring of
distinctions between genres
and media (rejection of
categories/pigeon-holes)
6. Plural: accepting of
Image source: http://farisyakob.typepad.com/blog/2007/02/pseudomodern_co.html
plurality, multiplicity,
diversity

47. Postmodernism
Rejection of most
of our beliefs about “art”
Sarah Maple, Art is Crap
Image source: http://isiria.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/sarah-maple-art/

48. Postmodernism
Today’s art is more about ideas
than beauty or skill – which is why
you need to demonstrate creative
thinking in your portfolio
Image source: http://andreas-creative-thinking.blogspot.com/

49. When Was
Postmodernism?
Some believe that Post Modernism
began in the1950’s with the work of
Jasper Johns and Robert
Rauschenberg
Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, 1950s
Image source: http://jameswagner.com/nyc/2008/05/

50. When Was
Postmodernism?
Others suggest it began with
Marcel Duchamp and the Dada
Movement in the1920s
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917
Tate Gallery
Gordon Parks, Marcel Duchamp, 1952
LIFE

51. When Was
Postmodernism?
Still others believe that Post-
modernism began with the
“dematerialization” of the art object
in the 1960’s
Lucy Lippard, Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966-1972,
University of California Press, 1973

52. When Was
Postmodernism?
Postmodernism’s origins are
multiple and complex
Michael @ Picasaweb

53. When Was
Postmodernism?
Some think it’s already over, since
it is no longer possible to “shock”
people when the “avant garde” itself
has become a commodity
Robert Hughes, The Shock of
the New – a book and BBC
television series that aired in
the 1980s
http://nymag.com/arts/art/season2007/38981/

54. When Was
Postmodernism?
Whenever it began, Postmodernism
is where we are today
This course will help us understand
how we got here
Image source: http://farisyakob.typepad.com/blog/2007/02/pseudomodern_co.html

55. How This Course is
Structured
Chronological overview
Topics covered on different weeks
may be happening at the same time

56. How This Course is
Structured
Criteria for choosing artists
to cover:
 Historical importance
 Recently re-discovered or
“hot” (theory darlings)
 Personal biases
Jeff Koons with Pink Panther (1988)
Photo by Kevin Nance
Artnet

57. Survival Tips
How to survive this class . . . .
ART HISTORY

58. Survival Tips
Don’t expect to like everything
Image source:
http://www.chrismadden.co.uk/art/bogeyman.html

59. Survival Tips
Don’t expect to use the same
criteria to evaluate every work of art
Image source: http://www.sculptthefuturefoundation.org/criteria.html

60. Survival Tips
Much art since 1945 is designed to
challenge things like “criteria,”
“standards,” or
“principles of good design”
Image source: http://www.designsojourn.com/what-are-your-principles-of-good-design/

61. Survival Tips
Don’t expect me to “defend” what
we are looking at as art
If it’s in a museum, it’s art – like it or
not!
Piero Manzoni, Artist’s Shit, 1961

62. Survival Tips
Focus on “understanding” rather
than “liking” (not the same thing!)
Understand Modern Art Breath Spray
http://www.blueq.com/shop/item/114-productId.125837315_114-catId.117440520.html

63. Survival Tips
Be prepared to “not get it”
Focus on what you do know, and
what you can handle
Image source:
http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/
2009/07/07/im-confused/
Image source:
http://www.friendsorenemies.com/web/foe/journals/sugarimgoindown13/
entry/2838851/

64. Survival Tips
Learn from the critics who
write art reviews

65. Survival Tips
80 % description
15% quotation of artist/curator
statements
5% interpretation of “meaning”

66. Approximate Language
When we talk about contemporary
art, we rarely say “this means that”
Image source: http://www.fusion.uk.com/Publisher/Article.aspx?ID=129787

67. Approximate Language
Suggests
Explores
Addresses
Engages with
Seems to be concerned with
Raises questions about
Interrogates the notion that
Challenges ideas about
Raises questions about
Image source: http://www.fusion.uk.com/Publisher/Article.aspx?ID=129787

68. Evasive Language
And, it is always fashionable to say
a work of art is
Ambiguous
Contradictory
Has multiple (or multivalent)
meanings
Image source: http://www.fusion.uk.com/Publisher/Article.aspx?ID=129787

69. Contemporary Art
Contemporary art is what is
happening now
This course will cover art
from 1945-1990
Kate Gilmore, Shoe shopping
http://www.channels.com/episodes/show/10772191/Kate-Gilmore-Shoe-Shopping

70. Contemporary Art
The Art21 website is a good place
to explore artists working today
http://www.pbs.org/art21/

71. Contemporary Art
Artcyclopedia: database for
researching artists by name or
movement
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/

72. Contemporary Art
Links to museum websites (reliable
resources)

73. Contemporary Art
And articles and reference sites