Introduction to US Art美国文化介绍

1、Introduction to American ArtTopics for this courseAbstract Expressionists Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Colour field artists: Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Helen Frankenthaler, Pop artists: Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Feminist Artists: Judy

2、 Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Realist & Super Realist artists: Edward Hopper, George Segal, Robert Estes, Audrey Flack, Duane Hanson. Prior Knowledge checkIn pairs, write down the following:Major historical eventsEconomic factorsSignificant leadersNew ideas / philosophies

3、Social / technological shifts Cultural developmentsof the United States of America 1930-1980.HISTORICAL CONTEXTEvents that influenced Modern American ArtThe Armory Show 1913This exhibition introduced Americans to the European Avant Garde art even though public was skeptical / scandalised!Featured ma

4、jor Post-Impressionists, Fauves, Cubists1929 opening of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)RIGHT: Marcel Duchamps Nude descending a Staircase and a parody from a newspaper, Seeing New York with a Cubist: the Reds descending a staircaseArmory Show highlightsWorks such as these created an artistic renaiss

5、ance in America. US artists were exposed to new styles and approaches.LEFT Matisse Luxury II (1908) ABOVE Picasso Woman with Pepper Pot (1910)Great Depression1929 Great Depression. Destruction of the carefree life during the Roaring Twenties.Artists began to look internally for inspirationThis led t

6、o an interest in Surrealism art of dreams and fantasy; removed from terrors of realityPrecisionism - 1930sAmerica becomes more industrializedPrecisionism (1929-1935) aka Cubist RealismStyle: Crisp, linear, flat planes, hard edged Themes: Industrialization, ModernizationE.g. Charles Demuths I Saw the

7、 Figure 5 in Gold (1928), inspired by the poem “The Great Figure,” by Williams Carlos Williams 1930s: Arrival of Diego Rivera and Mexican mural paintersFamous for murals showing history of his country / left wing revolution in Mexico cityCompleted large scale murals in US e.g. Man at at the Crossroa

8、ds at Radio City in the Rockefeller Center, New York This mural, which contained a portrait of Lenin, was destroyed around midnight of Feb 9, 1934, by being chipped from the wall and smashed to powder. 1930s Social RealismGrant Woods 1930 work American Gothic showing a farmer and his spinster daught

9、er. Works shows the Puritan ethics of the Mid West.Much art of this time was strongly regionalist.The New Deal 1929-1941To relieve unemployment, Franklin D. Roosevelts WPA (Works Progress Admin) gave jobs to artists, writers and composersMurals for public buildingsPlays / ballets for regional theatr

10、es1930s: dominant art style was social realismEdward Hopper 1940s Realist artistGas 1940Nighthawks 1942Hoppers work captures the isolation and existential loneliness of the 20th CWorld War II period (1941-1945)Artists and intellectuals emigrate to America e.g. Albert Einstein, Mies Van der Rohe (arc

11、hitect), Aldous HuxleyEuropean artists like Marcel Duchamp, Mondrian, Marc Chagall settled in New York & become very influential.Rapid Industrialisation in WWII eraThe Wreck of the Ole 97 ( 1943) by Thomas Hart Benton captures the tension between the industrialization of the American west and the di

12、sappearance of the Midwestern rural tradition Surrealism comes to AmericaEuropean Migrant painters Gorky and De Kooning explore surrealism, cubism, expressionismPsychic AutomatismInfluenced by Freuds theories of Psychoanalysis is used by artists who want to access their subconsciousRIGHT The Liver i

13、s the Cocks Comb Arshile Gorky 1944Post-War period (1945-1968)POSITIVESUS emerges as a superpowerUS capitalist society, wealthy, high standard of living, attracted more migrants from Europe who enriched the arts scene (esp in NY)NEGATIVESHowever: destruction of Pearl Harbour (atomic bomb) and Cold W

14、ar atmosphere left people feeling a sense of depression and despair.70% of Americans expected a war with USSR within 10 years Post War period cont.The New York School emerges 1st time an International style comes from USATheir art captured the anger / pain of a generation who had faced the Great Dep

15、ression as young people and lived through the horrors of war.Einsteins Theory of Relativity andJean-Paul Sartres theory of Existentialism becomes influentialAbstract Expressionism emergesLate 1940sJackson Pollocks drip paintings(One: No 31, 1950)Colour field paintings of Mark Rothko (Red, Orange, Ta

16、n, and Purple, 1949)Vietnam and the Crisis of Confidence (1968-70)Society / PoliticsAnti-Vietnam / student ProtestsRace riotsCivil Rights demonstrationsAssassinations American moon landingLiterature: Beat Poets Allan Ginsberg and Jack KerouacRichard Rauschenberg Retroactive I, 1963Pop artRoy Lichten

17、stein and Andy Warhol challenge the boundaries of art and comment on mass production / consumer culture of USA.It was a celebration of the banal and familiar and countered the “seriousness” of Abstract ExpressionismEnd of Pop Art - Super realism Below: Duane Hansons sculpturesRight: Chuck Closes self portraitFeminism & the Womens movement (1970s)Response to Sexual Revolution- availability of the pill; Women seeking equal rights / opportunities; sexual freedomWomens arts - Craft