EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

TIME PERIOD1900 – 1945

KEY IDEAS

Early modern art flourished at a time of immense political unrest and social upheaval. Modern artists and architects were quick to embrace new technologies.

Avant-garde patrons cultivated cutting-edge artists.

The Armory Show introduced modern art to America and Gallery 291 exhibited photography. Modern art becomes more international.

FAUVISM

c. 1905 – 1908

So named because a critic thought the works looked like they were created by ‘Wild Beasts’. Fauves stressed a painterly surface with broad, flat areas of violently contrasting color. Expressive efforts maximized.

HENRI MATISSE, Woman with the Hat, 1905. Oil on canvas, 2’8” x 2’.

HENRI MATISSE, Red Room (Harmony in Red), 1908. Oil on canvas, 5’11” x 8’1”.

ANDRE DERAIN, London Bridge, 1906. Oil on canvas, 2’4” x 3’3”.

GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM

1905 – c. 1913

The German equivalent of Fauvism, Die Brüke (The Bridge) artists saw themselves as a bridge from traditional to modern painting. A second group, called Der Blue Reiter (The Blue Rider) began to forsake representational art and moved towards abstraction.

ERNST LUDWIG KIRCHNER, Street, Dresden, 1908. Oil on canvas, 4’11” x 6’7”.

VASSILY KANDINSKY, Improvisation 28, 1912. Oil on canvas, 3’ 8” x 5’4”.

CUBISM

c. 1907 – 1930s

Influenced by simple geometries of African masks, which were popular in Paris. Artists broke down human forms into angles and shapes, which showed the same object from many perspectives.

Two Forms: Analytical and Synthetic. Analytical cubism was highly experimental with jagged edges and complex lines. Synthetic cubism was inspired by collages, found objects and featured flattened forms.

PABLO PICASSO, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907. Oil on canvas, 8’ x 7’8”.

FUTURISM

1909 – 1914

Inspired by Cubism, futurism celebrated modern scientific and technological progress. Forms look shattered and prismatic as artists glorify the machine.

UMBERTO BOCCIONI, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913. Bronze, 3’8” x 2’11” x 1’4”.

DADA

1916 – 1925

Disillusioned by useless slaughter of World War I, Dadaists rejected conventional methods of representation and exhibition. Oil and canvas are abandoned in favor of the absurd and nonsensical.

MARCEL DUCHAMP, Fountain, 1917. Ready-made glazed sanitary china with black paint, 1’ high.

THE ARMORY SHOW

1913

Named after the building in New York where it was held, The Armory Show introduced Americans to current trends in European painting and American artists.

MARCEL DUCHAMP, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, 1912. Oil on canvas, 4’10” x 2’11”.

PHOTO-SECESSION

1902 – 1917

From 1902-1917 Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery, called 291, was the most progressive gallery in the United States, showing photographs as works of art and other avant-garde paintings.

ALFRED STIEGLITZ, The Steerage, 1907. Photogravure, 1’ x 10”.

SURREALISM

1924 – 1930s

Inspired by psychological studies of Freud and Jung. Surrealists sought to represent an unseen world of dreams, subconscious thoughts, and unspoken communication.

SALVADOR DALÍ, The Persistence of Memory, 1931. Oil on canvas, 10” x 1’1”.

MERET OPPENHEIM, Object, 1936. Fur-covered cup, saucer. 4” in diameter and 9” in diameter.

FRIDA KAHLO, The Two Fridas, 1939. Oil on canvas, 5’7” x 5’7”.

JOAN MIRÓ, Painting, 1933. Oil on canvas, 5’8” x 6’5”.

SUPREMATISM

1913 – 1920s

Suprematists thought that nonobjective reality was greater than anything that could be achieved by representation. Forms float on a white background, usually suspended in thoughtful arrangements.

KAZIMIR MALEVICH, Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying, 1915. Oil on canvas, 1’11” x 1’7”.

DESTIJL

1917 – 1930s

Literally ‘The Style,’ DeStijl was a Dutch movement that advocated pure abstraction by reducing images to the most basic forms and colors possible.

PIET MONDRIAN, Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930. Oil on canvas, 1’6” x 1’6”.

GERRIT RIETVELD, Shröder House, 1924, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

ARCHITECTURE

TITLE DATES LOCATION

BAUHAUS 1919-1933 Weimer and Dessau, Germany

INTERNATIONAL STYLE 1920s-1930s International

PRARIE STYLE 1900-1917 Chicago

ART DECO 1920-1930s International

WALTER GROPIUS, Shop Block, The Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany, 1925-1926.

LE COURBUSIER, Villa Savoye, Poissy-sur-Seine, France, 1929.

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, Kaufmann House (Falling Water), Bear Run, Pennsylvania, 1936-1939.

WILLIAM VAN ALEN, The Chrysler Building, New York, 1928-1930.

ORGANIC ART

Late 1920s -1930s

More organic than descriptive, Organic artists believed in the honesty of simple shapes and the sleekness and roundness of forms.

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI, Bird in Space, 1928. Bronze, 4’6” x 8” x 6”.

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL COMMENTARY

1930s

Depression art recognized the plight of the destitute and raised social issues and concerns.

PABLO PICASSO, Guernica, 1937. Oil on canvas, 11’5” x 25’6”.

DOROTHEA LANGE, Migrant Mother, Nipomo Valley, 1935. Silver gelatin print.

EDWARD HOPPER, Nighthawks, 1942. Oil on canvas, 2’6” x 4’9”.

JACOB LAWRENCE, Migration of the Negro #58, 1940-1941. Tempera on masonite, 1’ x 1’6”.

GRANT WOOD, American Gothic, 1930. Oil on beaverbord, 2’6” x 2’1”.