1

Chapter 33

The Development of Modernist Art:The Early 20th Century

Gardner’s Art Through the Ages,

12e

2

Colonial Empires About 1900

3

Goals

• Understand the impact of war and economic instability as

catalysts for change in art.

• Understand the development of Modernism and other art styles

in the early 20th century.

• Understand the rejection of illusionist art in favor of abstraction

and spatial distortion.

• Recognize important artists and works of art of the early 20th

century

• Understand the artists search for new expressions in color, form,

time, and space.

4

33.1 Expressionism

• Understand the evolution of Modernism and the growth of

the Avante-garde in the early 20th century.

• Examine the color and space issues of Fauvism.

• Examine the styles of the German Expressionists – Die

Brucke and der Blau Reiter.

5

The Art of the Fauves

• Explore the Fauves’ interest in color and in the altering of

space.

6

Figure 33-2 HENRI MATISSE, Red Room (Harmony in Red), 1908–1909. Oil on canvas, approx. 5’ 11” x 8’ 1”. State

Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

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Figure 33-3 ANDRÉ DERAIN, The Dance, 1906. Oil on canvas, 6’ 7/8” x 6’ 10 1/4”. Fridart Foundation, London.

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The German Expressionists

• Examine the styles of the German Expressionists, especially

Die Brucke, Der Blau Reiter, and later abstractions.

9

Figure 33-4 ERNST LUDWIG KIRCHNER, Street, Dresden, 1908 (dated 1907). Oil on canvas, 4’ 11 1/4” x 6’ 6 7/8”.

Museum of Modern Art, New York (purchase).

10

Figure 33-5 EMIL NOLDE, Saint Mary of Egypt among Sinners, 1912. Left panel of a triptych, oil on canvas, approx. 2’

10” x 3’ 3”. Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg.

11

Figure 33-6 VASSILY KANDINSKY, Improvisation 28 (second version), 1912. Oil on canvas, 3’ 7 7/8” x 5’ 3 7/8”.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (gift of Solomon R. Guggenheim, 1937).

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Figure 33-7 FRANZ MARC, Fate of the Animals, 1913. Oil on canvas, 6’ 4 3/4” x 8’ 9 1/2”. Kunstmuseum, Basel.

13

Figure 33-8 PABLO PICASSO, Gertrude

Stein, 1906–1907. Oil on canvas, 3’ 3 3/8”

x 2’ 8”. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New

York (bequest of Gertrude Stein, 1947).

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33.2 The Beginnings of Abstraction

• Understand the rejection of Illusion and the development of early Cubism

• Understand the Cubists dismissal of naturalistic depictions.• Examine the forms and concepts of analytic and synthetic

Cubism. • Examine the materials and forms of Cubist sculpture. • Examine other forms of Cubism: Purism and Futurism.

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Early Cubism

• Understand the fragmentation of form and the rejection of

illusion in early Cubism

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Figure 33-9 PABLO

PICASSO, Les Demoiselles

d’Avignon, June–July 1907.

Oil on canvas, 8’ x 7’ 8”.

Museum of Modern Art,

New York (acquired

through the Lillie P. Bliss

Bequest).

17

The Development of Cubism

• Examine the concepts behind analytic and synthetic cubism,

and the other forms of cubism in the early 20th century.

18

Figure 33-10 GEORGES BRAQUE, The

Portuguese, 1911. Oil on canvas, 3’ 10 1/8” x 2’ 8”.

Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel, Kunstmuseum,

Basel (gift of Raoul La Roche, 1952).

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Figure 33-11 ROBERT DELAUNAY,

Champs de Mars or The Red Tower, 1911.

Oil on canvas, 5’ 3” x 4’ 3”. Art Institute of

Chicago, Chicago.

20

Figure 33-12 PABLO PICASSO, Still Life with Chair-Caning, 1912. Oil and oilcloth on canvas, 10 5/8” x 1’ 1 3/4”.

Musée Picasso, Paris.

21

Figure 33-13 GEORGES BRAQUE, Bottle, Newspaper, Pipe and Glass, 1913. Charcoal and various papers pasted on

paper, 1’ 6 7/8” x 2’ 1 1/4”. Private collection, New York.

22

Figure 33-14 PABLO PICASSO,

Maquette for Guitar, 1912. Cardboard,

string, and wire (restored), 25 1/4” x 13” x

7 1/2”. Museum of Modern Art, New

York.

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Cubist Sculpture

• Examine the materials and forms of Cubist sculpture.

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Figure 33-15 JACQUES LIPCHITZ, Bather, 1917. Bronze, 2’ 10 3/4” x 1’

1 1/4” x 1’ 1”. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (gift of the

Friends of Art). Copyright © Estate of Jacques Lipchitz/Licensed by VAGA,

New York/Marlborough Gallery, NY.

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Figure 33-16 ALEKSANDR ARCHIPENKO, Woman Combing Her Hair, 1915.

Bronze, approx. 1’ 1 3/4” high. Museum of Modern Art, New York (bequest of Lillie

P. Bliss).

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Figure 33-17 JULIO GONZÁLEZ, Woman Combing Her Hair, ca. 1930–

1933. Iron, 4’ 9” high. Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

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Figure 33-18 FERNAND LÉGER, The City, 1919. Oil on canvas, approx. 7’ 7” x 9’ 9 1/2”. Philadelphia Museum of

Art, Philadelphia (A. E. Gallatin Collection).

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Figure 33-19 GIACOMO BALLA, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, 1912. Oil on canvas, 2’ 11 3/8” x 3’ 7 1/4”.

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York (bequest of A. Conger Goodyear, gift of George F. Goodyear, 1964).

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Figure 33-20 UMBERTO BOCCIONI,

Unique Forms of Continuity in Space,

1913 (cast 1931). Bronze, 3’ 7 7/8” high x

2’ 10 7/8” x 1’ 3 3/4”. Museum of

Modern Art, New York (acquired through

the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest).

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Figure 33-21 GINO SEVERINI, Armored

Train, 1915. Oil on canvas, 3’ 10” x 2’ 10 1/8”.

Collection of Richard S. Zeisler, New York.

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33.3 Challenging Artistic Conventions

• Understand the influence of the Dada movement with its

emphasis on spontaneity and intuition.

• Understand the issues of anarchy and chance as they apply to

form and content in visual art.

• Recognize the rejection of convention in Dada and its

reaction to world events.

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Dada: A State of Mind

• Understand Dada’s emphasis on intuition, spontaneity,

anarchy and chance as elements in art.

• Recognize Dada’s rejection of artistic convention.

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Figure 33-22 JEAN ARP, Collage Arranged

According to the Laws of Chance, 1916–1917. Torn

and pasted paper, 1’ 7 1/8” x 1’ 1 5/8”. Museum of

Modern Art, New York (purchase).

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Figure 33-23 MARCEL DUCHAMP, Fountain, (second version), 1950 (original version produced 1917). Ready-made

glazed sanitary china with black paint, 12” high. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (purchased with proceeds from

the sale of deaccessioned works of art).

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Figure 33-24 MARCEL DUCHAMP, The Bride Stripped

Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), 1915-23.

Oil, lead, wire, foil, dust, and varnish on glass, 9’ 1 1/2” x 5’

9 1/8”. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia

(Katherine S. Dreier Bequest).

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Figure 33-25 HANNAH HÖCH, Cut with

the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Last

Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of

Germany, 1919–1920. Photomontage, 3’ 9” x

2’ 11 1/2”. Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche

Museen, Berlin.

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Figure 33-26 KURT SCHWITTERS, Merz

19, 1920. Paper collage, approx. 7 1/4” x 5

7/8”. Yale University Art Gallery, New

Haven, (gift of Collection Société Anonyme).

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Figure 33-27 JOHN SLOAN, Sixth Avenue and 30th Street, 1907, 1909. Oil on canvas, 26 1/4” x 32”. Private Collection

(Mr. And Mrs. Meyer P. Potamkin).

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Figure 33-28 Installation photo of the Armory Show, New York National Guard’s 69th Regiment, New York, 1913.

Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

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33.4 Early 20th Century Art in America

• Understand the importance of the Armory Show and its

influence on American art, artists, and art patrons.

• Examine the creation and display of photography as an art

form.

• Understand the artistic directions of the Harlem Renaissance

• Examine the new lively, colorful, and precisionist forms of

Cubism in America.

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The Remarkable Armory Show

• Examine the art and artists of the influential Armory Show.

42

Figure 33-29 MARCEL DUCHAMP, Nude Descending a

Staircase, No. 2, 1912. Oil on canvas, approx. 4’ 10 “x 2’ 11”.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (Louise and Walter

Arensberg Collection).

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Figure 33-30 ALFRED STIEGLITZ,

The Steerage, 1907 (print 1915).

Photogravure (on tissue), 1’ 3/8” x 10

1/8”. Courtesy of Amon Carter Museum,

Fort Worth.

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Figure 33-31 EDWARD WESTON, Nude, 1925. Platinum print. Collection, Center for Creative Photography, University

of Arizona, Tucson.

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American Art Forms

• Examine the distinctive American art forms seem in

photography, art of the Harlem Renaissance, and precisionist

forms of Cubism.

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Figure 33-32 MAN RAY, Cadeau (Gift), ca. 1958

(replica of 1921 original). Painted flatiron with row

of 13 tacks with heads glued to the bottom, 6 1/8”

high, 3 5/8” wide, 4 1/2” deep. Museum of

Modern Art, New York (James Thrall Soby Fund).

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Figure 33-33 MARSDEN HARTLEY, Portrait of a

German Officer, 1914. Oil on canvas, 5' 8 1/4” x 3' 5 3/8”.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Alfred

Stieglitz Collection).

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Figure 33-34 STUART DAVIS, Lucky Strike, 1921. Oil on canvas,

2’ 9 1/4” x 1’ 6”. Museum of Modern Art, New York (gift of The

American Tobacco Company, Inc.). Copyright © Estate of Stuart

Davis/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

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Figure 33-35 AARON DOUGLAS, Noah’s Ark,

ca. 1927. Oil on masonite, 4’ x 3’. Fisk University

Galleries, Nashville, Tennessee.

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Figure 33-36 CHARLES DEMUTH,

My Egypt, 1927. Oil on composition

board, 2’ 11 3/4” x 2’ 6”. Collection of

Whitney Museum of American Art, New

York (purchase, with funds from

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney).

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Figure 33-37 GEORGIA O’KEEFFE, New York, Night, 1929. Oil on

canvas, 3’ 4 1/8” x 1’ 7 1/8”. Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln,

Nebraska (Nebraska Art Association, Thomas C. Woods Memorial

Collection).

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33.5 European Expressionism after World War I

• Understand the intense realistic post-war expressionism of

German artists.

• Understand the European post-war malaise and the

importance of cathartic subject matter in Expressionist art.

• Examine the origins, development, methods and content of

Surrealism and Fantasy art.

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Post-war Expressionism

• Understand the post-war expressionism of German artists.

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Figure 33-38 GEORGE

GROSZ, Fit for Active

Service, 1916–1917. Pen and

brush and ink on paper, 1’ 8” x

1’ 2 3/8”. Museum of Modern

Art, New York (A. Conger

Goodyear Fund). Copyright ©

Estate of George

Grosz/Licensed by VAGA,

New York, NY.

55

Figure 33-39 MAX BECKMANN, Night, 1918–1919. Oil on canvas, 4’ 4 3/8” x 5’ 1/4”. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-

Westfalen, Düsseldorf.

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Figure 33-40 OTTO DIX, Der Krieg (The War), 1929–1932. Oil and tempera on wood, 6’ 8 1/3” x 13’ 4 3/4”. Staatliche

Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister, Dresden.

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Figure 33-42 WILHELM LEHMBRUCK, Seated Youth, 1917. Composite tinted and plaster, 3’ 4 5/8” x 2’ 6” x 3’ 9”.

National Gallery of Art, Washington. (Andrew W. Mellon Fund).

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Figure 33-43 ERNST BARLACH, War Monument,

from Güstrow Cathedral, Güstrow, Germany, 1927.

Bronze. Schildergasse Antoniterkirche, Cologne.

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Surrealism and Fantasy

• Examine the development, methods and content of

Surrealism and Fantasy art.

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Figure 33-44 GIORGIO DE

CHIRICO, Melancholy and Mystery of a

Street, 1914. Oil on canvas, 2’ 10 1/4” x

2’ 4 1/2”. Private collection.

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Figure 33-45 MAX ERNST, Two

Children Are Threatened by a

Nightingale, 1924. Oil on wood with

wood construction, 2’ 3 1/2” high, 1’

10 1/2” wide, 4 1/2” deep. Museum

of Modern Art, New York (purchase).

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Figure 33-46 SALVADOR DALÍ, The Persistence of Memory, 1931. Oil on canvas, 9 1/2” x 1’ 1”. Museum of Modern

Art, New York (given anonymously).

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Figure 33-47 RENÉ MAGRITTE, The Treachery (or Perfidy) of Images, 1928–1929. Oil on canvas, 1’ 11 5/8” x 3’ 1”.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (purchased with funds provided by the Mr. and Mrs. William Preston

Harrison Collection).

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Figure 33-48 MERET OPPENHEIM, Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure), 1936. Fur-covered cup, 4 3/8” in diameter;

saucer, 9 3/8” in diameter; spoon, 8”. Museum of Modern Art, New York (purchase).

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Figure 33-49 FRIDA

KAHLO, The Two

Fridas, 1939. Oil on

canvas, 5’ 7” x 5’ 7”.

Collection of the

Museo de Arte

Moderno, Mexico City.

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Figure 33-50 JOAN MIRÓ, Painting, 1933. 5’ 8” x 6’ 5”. Museum of Modern Art, New York (Loula D. Lasker Bequest

by exchange).

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Figure 33-51 PAUL KLEE, Twittering Machine,

1922. Watercolor and pen and ink, on oil transfer

drawing on paper, mounted on cardboard, 2’ 1” x

1’ 7”. Museum of Modern Art, New York

(purchase).

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33.6 New Art for a New Society

• Understand the early 20th century belief that art could

contribute to improving society.

• Examine the art movements that espoused utopian notions

such as Suprematism and Constructivism in Russia, De Stijl

in Holland, and the Bauhaus in Germany.

• Examine the International Style in architecture and the

concept of modernism in architecture.

• Understand the geometric forms of Art Deco and Modern

Sculpture.

• Understand the desire for natural and organic forms in

sculpture and architecture.

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The Utopian Styles

• Examine the forms and utopian notions in Suprematism,

Constructivism, and in De Stijl.

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Figure 33-52 KAZIMIR

MALEVICH, Suprematist

Composition: Airplane Flying, 1915

(dated 1914). Oil on canvas, 1’ 10 7/8”

x 1’ 7”. Museum of Modern Art, New

York (purchase).

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Figure 33-53 NAUM GABO, Column, ca. 1923

(reconstructed 1937). Perspex, wood, metal, glass, 3’ 5” x

2’ 5” x 2’ 5”. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New

York.

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Figure 33-54 Photograph of Vladimir Tatlin

with Monument to the Third International,

1919–1920. Annenberg School for

Communication, University of Southern

California, Los Angeles.

73

Figure 33-55 PIET

MONDRIAN,

Composition in Red,

Blue, and Yellow, 1930.

Oil on canvas, 2’ 4

5/8” x 1’ 9 1/4”.

Private Collection.

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Modernism in Architecture

• Examine the forms of Modernist designs and architecture of

the Bauhaus and in the International Style.

75

Figure 33-56 GERRIT THOMAS RIETVELD, Schröder House, Utrecht, the Netherlands, 1924.

76

Figure 33-57 LÁSZLÓ MOHOLY-NAGY, From

the Radio Tower Berlin, 1928. Gelatin silver print.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago.

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Figure 33-58 JOSEF

ALBERS, Homage to

the Square:

“Ascending”, 1953. Oil

on composition board,

3’ 7 1/2” x 3’ 7 1/2”.

Collection of Whitney

Museum of American

Art, New York

(purchase).

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Figure 33-59 WALTER GROPIUS, Shop Block, the Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany, 1925–1926.

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Figure 33-60 MARCEL BREUER, tubular chair, 1925.

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Figure 33-61 GUNTA STÖLZL, Gobelin tapestry,

1926–1927. Linen and cotton.

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Figure 33-62 LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE, model for

a glass skyscraper, Berlin, Germany, 1922 (no longer extant).

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Figure 33-63 LE CORBUSIER, perspective drawing for Domino House project, Marseilles, France, 1914.

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Figure 33-64 LE CORBUSIER, Villa Savoye, Poissy-sur-Seine, France, 1929.

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Figure 33-65 WILLIAM VAN ALEN, Chrysler Building, New York,

New York, 1928–1930. Spire of stainless steel, overall height 1,048’.

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Natural and Organic Forms

• Understand the desire for natural and organic forms in

sculpture and architecture.

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Figure 33-66 FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, Robie House, Chicago, Illinois, 1907–1909.

87

Figure 33-67

FRANK LLOYD

WRIGHT, plan

of the Robie

House, Chicago,

Illinois, 1907–

1909.

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Figure 33-68 FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, Kaufmann House (Fallingwater), Bear Run, Pennsylvania, 1936–1939.

89

Figure 33-69 CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI, Bird in Space, 1928. Bronze

(unique cast), 4’ 6” x 8” x 6” high. Museum of Modern Art, New York

(given anonymously).

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Figure 33-70 BARBARA HEPWORTH, Oval Sculpture (No. 2), 1943. Plaster cast, 11 1/4” x 16 1/4” x 10”. Tate

Gallery, London.

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Figure 33-71 HENRY MOORE, Reclining Figure, 1939. Elm wood, 3’ 1” x 6’ 7” x 2’ 6”. Detroit Institute of Arts,

Detroit (Founders Society purchase with funds from the Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. Trustee Corporation).

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Figure 33-72 ALEXANDER CALDER, Untitled, 1976. Aluminum honeycomb, tubing, and paint, 29’ 10 1/2” x 76’.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Gift of the Collectors Committee).

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33.7 Art as Political Statement

• Understand issues of rebellion and the depiction of social injustice in art.

• Examine the art of the Depression, the depiction of displaced workers, poverty and urban isolation, along with the beginnings of government support for art in the WPA programs.

• Examine the political content and form of art resulting from African American migration in the United States.

• Understand the themes of Regionalism in American art.• Examine the political statements of the Mexican muralists

along with their mediums, techniques, and methods.

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Figure 33-73 PABLO PICASSO, Guernica, 1937. Oil on canvas, 11’ 5 1/2” x 25’ 5 3/4”. Museo Nacional Centro de

Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid.

95

Figure 33-74 VERA MUKHINA, Worker and

Collective Farm Worker. Sculpture for the Soviet

Pavilion, Paris Exposition, 1937. Stainless steel, approx.

78’ high.

96

Rebellion and Social Injustice as Subject Matter in Art

• Examine the depiction of social injustice, poverty, urban

isolation and other social issues in art.

97

Figure 33-75 DOROTHEA LANGE,

Migrant Mother, Nipomo Valley, 1935.

Gelatin silver print. Copyright © the

Dorothea Lange Collection, The Oakland

Museum of California, City of Oakland

(gift of Paul S. Taylor).

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Figure 33-76 EDWARD HOPPER, Nighthawks, 1942. Oil on canvas, 2’ 6” x 4’ 8 11/16”. The Art Institute of Chicago,

Chicago (Friends of American Art Collection).

99

Figure 33-77 JACOB LAWRENCE, No. 49 from The

Migration of the Negro, 1940–1941. Tempera on

masonite, 1’ 6” x 1’. The Phillips Collection,

Washington.

100

Documenting Lives in Art

• Examine the political content of art resulting from African

American migration along with the themes of Regionalism.

101

Figure 33-78 GRANT WOOD,

American Gothic, 1930. Oil on

beaverboard, 2’ 5 7/8” x 2’ 7/8”. Art

Institute of Chicago, Chicago (Friends of

American Art Collection).

102

Figure 33-79 THOMAS HART BENTON, Pioneer Days and Early Settlers, State Capitol, Jefferson City, 1936. Mural.

Copyright © T. H. Benton and R. P. Benton Testamentary Trusts/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

103

The Mexican Muralists

• Examine the art of the Mexican muralists along with their

mediums, techniques, and methods.

104

Figure 33-80 JOSÉ CLEMENTE OROZCO, Epic of American Civilization: Hispano-America (panel 16), Baker

Memorial Library, Dartmouth College, Hanover, ca. 1932–1934. Fresco. Copyright © Orozco Valladares

Family/SOMAAP, Mexico/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

105

Figure 33-81 DIEGO RIVERA, Ancient Mexico, from the History of Mexico fresco murals, National Palace, Mexico

City, 1929–1935. Fresco.

106

Discussion Questions

What caused artists in the early 20th century to reject

observational naturalism in art?

How did Cubism influence other art styles in the early 20th

century?

Why is art a powerful means for the expression of

sociopolitical concerns?