20th-century art

The visual arts and art history of 1900–2000. Characterized by fresh innovative thought, and numerous and dynamic art movements, 20th-century art was a constantly changing reflection of modern society. Influenced by advances in science, technology, communication, and the political and economic state of varying regions around the world, art ventured into creative areas and abstraction, unthinkable in previous eras. The century began with fauvism, expressionism, and cubism and ended in a time of postmodern pluralism, the 20th-century tradition of originality being carried forward into the 21st century.

Early 20th-century The century began with the emergence of two new movements that were to have an enormous effect on western art; fauvism, with its strong lines and vivid colour palette, emerged in France in 1905, led by Henri Matisse, while in Germany expressionism, an exploration of an inner world, often depicted with distorted form, infused the work of members of Die Brücke (‘the Bridge’), as well as that of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch and German artists Käthe Kollwitz and Max Beckmann. In Italy, Futurism celebrated the mechanization and dynamism of the modern world with its efforts to capture movement. In 1911 der Blaue Reiter (‘the Blue Rider’) group emerged in Germany; at its forefront were Vasily Kandinsky, a pioneer of abstract art and Franz Marc. In 1904 Picasso settled permanently in Paris and by 1910 he had joined the artist Georges Braque in laying the groundwork for cubism. The Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, who was influenced by cubism, was a founder member of De Stijl (‘the Style’) movement, and pioneered neoplasticism, a rigidly geometric non-objective style of painting. By 1917 a number of artists, reflecting their rebellion against a society that waged and countenanced World War I, began making non-art. Joined by writers of the same persuasion, they called their movement Dada, an intentionally meaningless and irrational name. Artists central to the Dada movement include Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, and Kurt Schwitters. In Paris the Dada movement led to the emergence of surrealism in the 1920s; also antirationalist, but more optimistic in outlook, its leading artists included Giorgio de Chirico, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, and Paul Klee. Other new art forms included kinetic art, moving sculptures pioneered by Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner.

Mid 20th-century art Running alongside many of the movements, and as a result of the 1930s' depression, political and social unrest, racial and cultural tensions, urban development, and war, were a number of movements and artists working in a similar fashion to one another. Exponents of social realism (realistic depiction of subjects of social concern) included the kitchen-sink painters in the UK, such as John Bratby; while in the USA, social realists included individuals such as Ben Shahn, and movements such as the Ashcan School (for example, the work of Robert Henri), Regionalism (artists such as Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood), New Realism (for example, Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth), and the Harlem Renaissance artists Jacob Lawrence, and Romare Bearden. In Mexico, social realists included the Muralists José Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera.

Other mid-century art movements include Precisionist art (derived from cubism, where the underlying structures of objects are depicted in straight lines and flat colours) as seen in the work of Georgia O'Keeffe; abstract expressionism (emotion sensually depicted in heavy paint) led by artists Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning; colour-field painting (contemplative works of uniform shape and colour) beginning with Mark Rothko; and hard-edge painting (use of sharply defined flat colour), as in the work of Ellsworth Kelly and Kenneth Noland. Pop art began in the 1950's, led by artists Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Roy Lichtenstein in the USA and Richard Hamilton in the UK, and conceptual art (in which the idea behind a work takes precedence over appearance) flourished from the 1960s.

Late 20th-century art Referred to as the ‘age of pluralism’, late 20th-century art includes: performance art, as demonstrated by Gilbert and George and Joseph Beuys; op art, such as the work of Bridget Riley; Photorealism (Richard Estes, among others); Land art, including Robert Smithson's earthworks and Christo's ‘packages’ (wrappings of buildings); political art, such as the paintings of Leon Golub; Installation art (an arrangement of materials to fit a specific space), such as the work of Richard Wilson; and the birth of ‘feminist’ art, led by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro.

Staged photography, as in the work of Cindy Sherman; mixed media art (that of Judy Pfaff and many others); and video art, such as the work of Nam June Paik and Gillian Wearing, reflect the technological advances of the era, and dominate the last 20 years of the century. Individual artists, rather than art movements, characterize the last ten years; artists who have achieved notoriety include Damien Hirst (for his bisected and pickled animal parts), Chris Ofili (for his paintings incorporating elephant dung), Tracey Emin (for her ‘lived in’ bed submitted for the 1999 Turner Prize), and Martin Creed (for his Turner prizewinning Light Going On and Off (2001; Tate Britain)).