Art Between the World Wars Lecture by Ivy C. Dally South Suburban College, South Holland, IL
Art in Europe
The Aftermath of World War I World War I devastated Europe. The promises made by the three revolutions of the 19 th century brought about death and disillusionment. Nationalism=war mongering Industry=new, destructive weapons Science/Enlightenment=no rationality to be found. Art world sought to undermine the forces at work that caused the war and turn inwards to the mind. Raoul Hasmann, Mechanical Head (Spirit of the Age), 1920.
Dada Only art movement that arose during WWI that protested the status quo. Founded in Switzerland. Dada was anti-art, anti-politicians, anti-war, anti-social graces. They were provocative, absurd, their works strange. The content behind the art was often more important than the form. The term Dada chosen at random from a dictionary. Max Ernst, Two Children are Threatened by a Nightingale, 1924
Marcel du Champ, Fountain, ceramic compound, 1917.
Surrealism Launched as a type of writing the visual arts were an afterthought. Influenced by the theories of Freud; sought to understand the subconscious and dreams. Anti-rational. Surrealism, according to its founder Breton, is intended to express, either verbally, or in writing, or in any other way, the true function of thought. Thought expressed in the absence of any control exerted by reason, and outside all moral and aesthetic considerations. Three main branches: automatic, representational, and objects. Rene Magritte, Time Transfixed, 1938.
Joan Miro, Composition, 1933.
Dali, The Persistence of Memory, oil on canvas, 1931.
Dali, The Metamorphosis of Narcissus, 1937.
Geometric Abstraction An early type of nonrepresentational art that focuses on form and color. Geometric abstraction appears in several parts of Europe under different names. In Russia is it known as Supremetism or Constructivism; in Holland it is DeStijl. In Architecture it is called the International Style. The natural by-product of cubism. Gerrit Rietveld, Schroder House, 1924.
Mondrian, Trafalgar Square, oil on canvas, 1939-1943
Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying, 1915.
Art in the Americas: Spiritual Yearnings, Identity, and the Failure of the Modern World
The United States After WWI Unlike Europe, the US experienced an economic boom following the war. The Roaring Twenties. Artists either embraced modernity or criticized it. Some sought spirituality, others looking to find themselves. The economic boom ended in 1929 with the onset of the Great Depression. Dorthea Lange, Migrant Mother, California. 1936.
Georgia O Keefe, Black Iris III, 1926.
Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930.
Jacob Lawrence, The Migration of Negro Series, Number 58: In the North the Negro had Better Educational Facilites, 1940-1941.
Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1941.
Mexican Social Realism and Modernism Mexican Social Realists abandoned the avant garde ideas of art in Europe. Works were meant to communicate political ideals, social welfare, and current issues to the masses. Inspired by the art of the Italian Renaissance and Pre-Columbian art forms. Frido Kahlo, a modern Mexican artist, also looked to native arts for inspiration, though she is known today as a Surrealist. Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait.
War Threatens: Europe is Devastated Again Works leading up to World War 2
Pablo Picasso, Guernica. Oil on Canvas, 1937. (Parts may also have been worked on by his lover Dora Maar.)
Newspaper photo the day after the bombings. The town was all but wiped from the map. Viewers admiring Picasso s work, which was kept on display at MOMA until the death of General Franco (and then a few more years MOMA didn t want to give up the most famous work in their collection.
In the wake of WW2 artists fled Europe to the United States. The story of contemporary art begins in New York in 1945.
Thank You for a Wonderful Semester!