Topic: MODERN ART

SUB TOPICS:
 Impressionism
 Expressionism
 Cubism
 Dadaism
 Surrealism
 Performance Art
 Pop Art
 Op Art
 Abstract Realism
 Happenings and Mob

TOPIC 1: IMPRESSIONISM
IMPRESSIONISM
Impressionism is a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible
brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities
(often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, unusual visual
angles, and inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience.
Impressionism originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions
brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s.
 FAMOUS ARTIST OF
IMPRESSIONISM
OSCAR – CLAUDE MONET
Oscar-Claude Monet, November 1840 – 5 December 1926
was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting
who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in
his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it.
During his long career, he was the most consistent and
prolific practitioner of impressionism's philosophy of
expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as
applied to plein air (outdoor) landscape painting.
The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his
painting Impression, soleil levant, exhibited in the 1874
("exhibition of rejects") initiated by Monet and his
associates as an alternative to the Salon.

PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR
25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist
who was a leading painter in the development of the
Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and
especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir
is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly
from Rubens to Watteau.
His initial paintings show the influence of the colorism of
Eugène Delacroix and the luminosity of Camille Corot. He
also admired the realism of Gustave Courbet and Édouard
Manet, and his early work resembles theirs in his use of
black as a color. Renoir admired Edgar Degas' sense of
movement. Other painters Renoir greatly admired were the
18th-century masters François Boucher and Jean-Honoré
Fragonard.
Renoir was considered the other leader of the Impressionist
movement. He shared Monet’s interests but often preferred
to capture artificial light in places like dance halls and
directed his studies of the effects of light on figures,
 particularly the female form, rather than scenery, and he
frequently focused on portraiture.
Everyday life was Renoir’s preferred subject matter, and
his portrayal of it is drenched in optimism. His 1876
painting Moulin de la Galette, which depicts the crowded
dance garden on the Butte Montmartre, utilizes both
artificial and natural light to portray a jolly party
atmosphere and highlights many of Renoir’s interests.

TOPIC 2: EXPRESSIONISM
EXPRESSIONISM
Expressionism refers to art in which the image of reality is distorted in order to make it
expressive of the artist’s inner feelings or ideas.
The term Expressionism was originally borrowed from visual art and literature. Artists created
vivid pictures, distorting colours and shapes to make unrealistic images that suggested strong
emotions. Expressionist composers poured intense emotional expression into their music and
explored the subconscious mind.
As its name suggests, Expressionism is characterized by the use of paint to depict and exaggerate
emotions and feelings. Prior to this, artists were more focused on capturing what is physically in
front of us, rather than what goes on in our minds.
 Defining Characteristics Of Expressionism

 Focused on capturing emotions and feelings, rather than what the subject actually looks
like.
 Vivid colors and bold strokes were often used to exaggerate these emotions and feelings.
 Showed influences from Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and Symbolism.
The Expressionist art movement can be traced to artists like Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch
and Henri Matisse who each started to show signs of a departure from realistic depiction in favor
of capturing subjective thoughts and outlooks. Expressionism took it to the next level and made
those subjective thoughts a defining feature of the movement.

VINCENT van GOGH

"Painted portraits have a life of their own, something that
comes from the roots of the painter's soul, which a machine
cannot touch. The more often people look at photos, the
more they will feel this, it seems to me."
Vincent van Gogh painted a lot of self-portraits,
experimenting with various techniques and approaches (and
saving money on a model!). Many, including this one, are
not finished to the same level of detail throughout, but are
psychologically powerful nonetheless. Van Gogh's style of
self-portrait (the poses, the intense brushwork, the
introspective expression) influenced the portraits created by
Expressionist painters.
In Vincent van Gogh's painting below, notice how the vivid
colors and bold brushwork are used to exaggerate the man
in a state of melancholy. The weak oranges of the subject's
face make him look weak and defeated, especially in
contrast with the strong blues and reds in the rest of the
painting.

TOPIC 3: CUBISM
CUBISM
Cubism was a revolutionary new approach to representing reality invented in around 1907–08 by
artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. They brought different views of subjects (usually
objects or figures) together in the same picture, resulting in paintings that appear fragmented and
abstracted. Pablo Picasso.
Pablo Picasso was one of the greatest artists of the 20th
century, famous for paintings like 'Guernica' and for the art
movement known as Cubism.
Cubism was one of the most influential styles of the
twentieth century. It is generally agreed to have begun
around 1907 with Picasso’s celebrated painting
Demoiselles D’Avignon which included elements of cubist
style. The name ‘cubism’ seems to have derived from a
comment made by the critic Louis Vauxcelles who, on
seeing some of Georges Braque’s paintings exhibited in
Paris in 1908, described them as reducing everything to
‘geometric outlines, to cubes’.
Since the main idea of Cubism is to decompose realistic
subjects into geometric shapes to help give them
perspective and distinct impressions, this statement is seen
as a major precursor to Cubism.

Types of cubism: Analytical vs. synthetic

Cubism can be seen to have developed in two distinct phases: the initial and more austere
analytical cubism, and a later phase of cubism known as synthetic cubism.
Analytical cubism ran from 1908–12. Its artworks look more severe and are made up of an
interweaving of planes and lines in muted tones of blacks, greys and ochres.
Synthetic cubism is the later phase of cubism, generally considered to date from about 1912 to
1914, and characterised by simpler shapes and brighter colours. Synthetic cubist works also often
include collaged real elements such as newspapers. The inclusion of real objects directly in art
was the start of one of the most important ideas in modern art.
 TOPIC 4: DADAISM
Dada was an art movement formed during the First World War in Zurich in negative reaction to
the horrors and folly of the war. The art, poetry and performance produced by dada artists is
often satirical and nonsensical in nature.
Hugo Ball
The founder of dada was a writer, Hugo Ball.

What kind of art is Dadaism?

The art of the movement spanned visual, literary, and sound media, including collage, sound
poetry, cut-up writing, and sculpture.

Characteristics of Dadaism Found in Literature

1. Humor

Laughter is often one of the first reactions to Dada art and literature.

2. Whimsy and Nonsense

Much like humor, most everything created during the Dada movement was absurd, paradoxical,
and opposed harmony.

3. Artistic Freedom

Dada artists rejected cultural standards and values, and were thus dissatisfied with traditional
definitions of what art could be. 
 4. Emotional Reaction

Everything written, created, danced, and performed was intended to oppose all established sets of
protocol and to create shock value.

5. Irrationalism

Dada writers and poets used free association as a writing tool where they would write everything
they thought and felt without censoring it.

6. Spontaneity

Dada artists were equally spontaneous in their collective bodies of work. They used
improvisation to appeal to individuality and further challenge accepted artistic practice.

Who are the main Dadaist artists?

Some of the most renowned Dada artists are Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray in Paris, Tristan
Tzara, Richard Huelsenbeck

Examples of Famous Dada Artworks

The movement has brought many famous artworks. Here are a selected few examples of dadaism
artworks:
Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917)
Man Ray’s Ingres’s Violin (1924)
Hugo Ball’s Sound Poem Karawane (1916)

1. Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917)
2. Man Ray’s Ingres’s Violin (1924)

3. Hugo Ball’s Sound

Poem Karawane ( 1916)
FILIPINO ARTIST
OF DADAISM
Artist: Carlos “Botong”
Francisco
Artwork: Bayanihan
sa Bukid
Date:
1940Medium- use: oil on
canvas
Self-portrait by Lito Mayo
 TOPIC 5: SURREALISM
What is Surrealism?
Surrealism aims to revolutionise human experience. It balances a rational vision of life with
one that asserts the power of the unconscious and dreams. The movement's artists find magic and
strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional.
Features of Surrealistic Art

 Dream-like scenes and symbolic images

 Unexpected, illogical juxtapositions
 Bizarre assemblages of ordinary objects
 Automatism and a spirit of spontaneity
 Games and techniques to create random effects
 Personal iconography
 Visual puns 
 Distorted figures and biomorphic shapes
 Uninhibited sexuality and taboo subjects
 Primitive or child-like designs

Famous surrealist artists

Includes: Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Frida Kahlo, Man Ray, and Max Ernst.
The Persistence of Memory  by: Salvador Dalí

The Lost Jockey by: René Magritte

FILIPINO ARTIST WITH SURREALISM ARTWORKS
Into the Fray by: Andres Barrioquinto
 TOPIC 6: PERFORMANCE ART
PERFORMANCE ART
• Is an art that has to be acted out live in front of an audience.
• It can be any situation that involves four basic elements time, space, the performer’s body
and a relationship between performer audiences.

Forms of Performance Art

 Dance
  Music

 Opera
 Mime

 Puppetry
  Ventriloquism

Marina Abromovic
 She was known for works that dramatically tested the endurance and limitations of her
own body and mind.
 She is a famous performance artist who is widely known for her work called “The art is
present”

Murakami Saburo
 was a Japanese visual and performance artist
 Passing Through
 He is using his body to represent how sometimes we have to push through our own
thoughts to do a good job at something.

TOPIC 7: POP ART

• Popular Art
• Form of art that uses everyday objects as the subject matter for artistic composition.
• Pop art uses images borrowed from advertising, photography, comic strips and other
mass media sources.

POP ART CHARACTERISTICS

 Recognizable imagery

 Bright colors

 Irony and satire

 Innovative techniques
  Mixed media and collage

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

 its familiar to audiences and thus making it really popular.
 it is easy to understand most of the meanings behind them.
 it brought more people into art
 it is prone to plagiarism accusations
 some might see it as copying

POP ARTISTS WHO DEFINED THE MOVEMENT

Andy Warhol
 was one of the most famous Pop artists.
 He is the King of Pop art.
 He uses a specially prepared section of silk as a stencil, allowing one silk-screen to create
similar patterns multiple times.

Roy Lichtenstein
 Another iconic American Pop artist. Known for his use of primary colors and bold
outlines.
 He uses rendition of images employed a unique form of painting called “Benday Dot”

OP ART
(Optical art)
 Art that creates optical illusions
 Optical Illusion – an image that tricks your eyes into seeing something that’s not there
 Elements of art; line, shape, space
 Principles of design; pattern and movement

 Fraser Spiral Illusion

 Hermann Grid Illusion

Famous Op Artist
Bridget Riley
 Is best known for her black and white paintings that create unique optical effects on
canvas.
 Famous for creating Op Art that looks like it is moving.

Victor Vasarely
 Is a French painter, considered to be one of the first Op Art artist. He is often claimed as
the father of Op Art.
 Main objective was the creation of an illusion of movement.
 TOPIC 8: ABSTRACT REALISM
Abstract Realism
 Abstract Realism is a real Art form that is a union of two contradictory
terms, Abstract  art and Realistic art. Abstract art exists through patterns, colors, texture
and line without the need for an external motivation. Realistic art consists of art that aims
to replicate nature such as Photography.
 Abstract Realism is difficult to explain because of the infusion of two distinct styles of
art.  Abstract art does not attempt to depict real objects while Realistic art aims to create
realistic interpretations of real objects.
 The goal of abstract realism involves using abstract painting techniques to slightly distort
a real object. Artists take an image and distort it through impressionist, surrealistic and
expressionist techniques to make the painting recognizable but somewhat blurred and
distorted.

Famous Abstract Realism Artists and their Works

 Paul Jackson Pollock
 Franz Kline

Paul Jackson Pollock

 Paul Jackson Pollock was an
American painter and a major
figure in the abstract expressionist
movement. He was widely noticed
for his "drip technique" of pouring
or splashing liquid household paint
onto a horizontal surface, enabling
him to view and paint his canvases
from all angles.

Summertime: Number 9A (1948)

 This painting is called
Summertime: Number 9A. It was
painted in 1948 at a happy time in
Jackson Pollock’s life when he had
just moved to a farmhouse in the
countryside with his wife.

Yellow Islands
 Yellow Islands  is a large oil
painting on a rectangular,
horizontally oriented canvas. The
abstract patterns within the
composition were achieved by
pouring the paint in layers onto an
unprimed beige canvas, the
surface of which remains partially
visible in places.

Franz Kline
 American Abstract Expressionist
Franz Kline is best known for
large black and white paintings
 Painting No. 7
 The characteristic black slashes of
Painting No. 7 suggest the full body
movement of the artist as he
spontaneously applied the paint,
incorporating chance splatters and
smearing. In fact, Kline’s paintings
were constructed only to look as if
they were painted in a moment of
inspiration—they usually resulted
from the transfer of a sketch to the
canvas.

Chief
 The dynamic curves and slashes of
Chief may seem spontaneous, but
this painting, like many of his so-
called action paintings, was likely
carefully reproduced from a
preliminary study. The painting’s title
refers to the name of a train that
passed through his childhood
hometown in Pennsylvania.

TOPIC 9: HAPPENINGS AND MOB

  Happening is a form of avant-garde art - a type of creative expression, closely associated
with performance art. In practice, it is not easy to distinguish between Performance and
Happenings, both being a form of carefully planned entertainment (albeit with elements
of spontaneity) during which the artist performs (or manages) a theatrical artistic event.
 The actual term 'happening' was first used in 1959 by the American artist Allan
Kaprow whose later book 'Assemblage, Environments and Happenings' (1966)
influenced a wide range of contemporary art events.

Famous Happenings and Mob Artists and their Works

 Allan Kaprow

Allan Kaprow
 Allan Kaprow is probably best
known as the leading pioneer of
"Happenings", a type of
performance art whose aim is to
remove the barrier between
performer and spectator, leaving
only participants.

Happenings in 1960’s New York

 A woman, cradled in the arms of her dance partner
 Takes a bite from a loaf of challah while reading the Sunday comics.