How Did Modern Art Develop Between 1870 and 1970?

1870-1900

Although in some ways the last third of the 19th century was dominated by the new
Impressionist style of painting, in reality there were several pioneering strands of
modern art, each with its own particular focus. They included: Impressionism (accuracy
in capturing effects of sunlight); Realism (content/theme); Academic Art (classical-style
true-life pictures); Romanticism (mood); Symbolism (enigmatic
iconography); lithographic poster art (bold motifs and colours). The final decade saw a
number of revolts against the Academies and their 'Salons', in the form of the Secession
movement, while the late-1890s witnessed the decline of "nature-based art", like
Impressionism, which would soon lead to a rise in more serious "message-based" art.

1900-14

In many ways this was the most exciting period of modern art, when everything was still
possible and when the "machine" was still viewed exclusively as a friend of man. Artists
in Paris produced a string of new styles, including Fauvism, Cubism and Orphism, while
German artists launched their own school of expressionist painting. All these progressive
movements rejected traditionalist attitudes to art and sought to champion their own
particular agenda of modernism. Thus Cubism wanted to prioritize the formal attributes
of painting, while Futurism preferred to emphasize the possibilities of the machine, and
expressionism championed individual perception.

1914-24

The carnage and destruction of The Great War changed things utterly. By 1916, the
Dada movement was launched, filled with a nihilistic urge to subvert the value system
which had caused Verdun and the Somme. Suddenly representational art seemed
obscene. No imagery could compete with photographs of the war dead. Already artists
had been turning more and more to non-objective art as a means of expression. Abstract
art movements of the time included Cubism (1908-40), Vorticism (1914-15),
Suprematism (1913-18), Constructivism (1914-32), De Stijl (1917-31), Neo-Plasticism
(1918-26), Elementarism (1924-31), the Bauhaus (1919-33) and the later St Ives
School. Even the few figurative movements were distinctly edgy, such as Metaphysical
Painting (c.1914-20). But compare the early 20th century Classical Revival in modern
art and Neoclassical Figure Paintings by Picasso (1906-30).

1924-40

The Inter-war years continued to be troubled by political and economic troubles. Abstract
painting and sculpture continued to dominate, as true-to-life representational art
remained very unfashionable. Even the realist wing of the Surrealism movement - the
biggest movement of the period - could manage no more than a fantasy style of reality.
Meantime, a more sinister reality was emerging on the Continent, in the form of Nazi
art and Soviet agit-prop. Only Art Deco, a rather sleek design style aimed at architecture
and applied art, expressed any confidence in the future.

1940-60

The art world was transformed by the catastrophe of World War Two. To begin with, its
centre of gravity moved from Paris to New York, where it has remained ever since.
Nearly all future world record prices would be achieved in the New York sales rooms of
Christie's and Sotheby's. Meantime, the unspeakable phenomenon of Auschwitz had
undermined the value of all realist art, except for Holocaust art of those affected. As a
result of all this, the next major international movement - Abstract Expressionism - was
created by American artists of the New York School. Indeed, for the next 20 years,
abstraction would dominate, as new movements rolled off the line. They included: Art
Informel, Action-Painting, Gesturalism, Tachisme, Colour Field Painting, Lyrical
Abstraction, Hard Edge Painting, and COBRA, a group best known for its child-like
imagery, and expressive brushstrokes. During the 1950s other tendencies emerged, of a
more avant-garde kind, such as Kinetic art, Nouveau Realisme and Neo-Dada, all of
which demonstrated a growing impatience with the strait-laced arts industry.

1960s

The explosion of popular music and television was reflected in the Pop-Art movement,
whose images of Hollywood celebrities, and iconography of popular culture, celebrated
the success of America's mass consumerism. It also had a cool 'hip' feel and helped to
dispel some of the early 60s gloom associated with the Cuban Crisis of 1962, which in
Europe had fuelled the success of the Fluxus movement led by George Maciunas, Joseph
Beuys, Nam June Paik and Wolf Vostell. Down-to-earth Pop-art was also a welcome
counterpoint to the more erudite Abstract Expressionism, which was already started to
fade. But the 1960s also saw the rise of another high-brow movement known as
Minimalism, a form of painting and sculpture purged of all external references or
gestures - unlike the emotion-charged idiom of Abstract Expressionism.