SURREALISM:

- Surrealism emerged from the Dada art movement in 1916, showcasing works of art that

defied reason.
- Surrealists denounced the rationalist mindset.
- They blamed this thought process on events like World War I and believed it to repress
imaginative thoughts.
- Influential Surrealist artists like Rene Magritte & Salvador Dalí tapped into the
unconscious mind to depict revelations found on the street and in everyday life.

Example of Rene Magritte’s artwork:

René Magritte, The Son of Man, 1964.

 Magritte painted The Son of Man as a self-portrait.

 At the start of 1946, Margritte was painting in both his realist style and his impressionist
style. Some of his works, like The Son of Man, were already headed toward more
extreme colors.
 Today, along with Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali, The Son of Man has become
the most iconic image of Surrealism Movement.
PREVALENT ARTISTS IN THIS ERA:

Salvador Dalí His artwork:

The Persistence of Memory 1931

Frida Kahlo Her artwork:

Henry Ford Hospital, 1932

Joan Miró His artwork:

L’étoile, oil on canvas, 1927

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM (1940s–1950s)
- Shaped by the legacy of Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York after
WWII. It’s often referred to as the New York School or action painting.
- Originating in 1940s America, Abstract Expressionism took its inspiration from European
painters working in abstraction, such as Wassily Kandinsky. It tended to reject all
recognizably realistic forms and used color and texture as the primary tool for expression.
- It encompassed a wide-spanning group of artists whose work included rough
brushstrokes, abstract, often chaotic subject matter, and bright color pops. It emphasized
expression with gestural, nonrepresentational artistic methods.
- Most famous among them is Jackson Pollock, who made many of his paintings by laying
the canvas on the floor of his studio and dripping paint in swirls and spirals, creating a
chaotic and mesmerizing field of visual activity.
Example of Jackson Pollock’s artwork:

Convergence, 1952
 Perhaps his most famous work was a painting entitled Convergence, which was a
collage of colors splattered on a canvas that created masterful shapes and lines that
evoke emotions and attack the eye. The painting was created in 1952 and is oil on
canvas.
 It was a 340-piece puzzle that they promoted as "the world's most difficult puzzle".
 Jackson Pollock's style of painting, as exemplified by Convergence, is an important,
innovative development in the history of painting. At the time of the painting, the
United States took very seriously the threat of Communism and the cold war with
Russia.
PREVALENT ARTIST IN THIS ERA:
Mark Rothko His artwork:

No. 61 (Rust and Blue) (1953).

Willem de Kooning His artwork:

Two figures in a landscape,1968

Barnett Newman His artwork:

First Station (1958) (from the series Stations of the Cross, 1958-66)

Lee Krasner Her artwork:

Bald Eagle (1955)

OPTICAL ART (1950s–1960s)
- Heightened by advances in science and technology as well as an interest in optical effects
and illusions, the Op art (short for “optical” art) movement launched with Le
Mouvement, a group exhibition at Galerie Denise Rene in 1955.
- Artists active in this style used shapes, colors, and patterns to create images that appeared
to be moving or blurring, often produced in black and white for maximum contrast. These
abstract patterns were meant to both confuse and excite the eye.
- English artist Bridget Riley is one of the most prominent Op Art practitioners. Her 1964
artwork Blaze features zigzag black and white lines that create the illusion of a circular
decent.
- Op Art Movement is Sometimes Linked with Postmodernism, but There is No Clear
Connection Between These Two Movements.
-
Example of Bridget Riley’s artwork:

Zebra, 1937
 In this early work, created while Vasarely was a graphic designer in Paris, two
zebras’ twine around each other against a black background.
 In its use of such optical trickery, Zebra is often considered one of the earliest works
of Op Art.
 Vasarely had been exposed to the avant-garde ideas of the Bauhaus at the Mühely art-
school in Budapest in the late 1920s, and there is an obvious Constructivist influence
on this work, with its reduction of representative elements to an absolute, iconic
minimum.
PREVALENT ARTISTS IN THIS ERA:
Julian Stanczak His Artwork:

Trespassing Light, 1970

Bridget Riley His artwork:

Blaze 1, 1962
POP ART (1950s–1960s)
- Pop art is one of the most recognizable artistic developments of the 20th century. The
movement transitioned away from methods used in Abstract Expressionism, and instead
used every day, mundane objects to create innovative works of art that challenged
consumerism and mass media.
- Pop art was an art movement that originated in the United States during the mid-20th-
century. It is known for its appropriation of elements from popular culture including mass
media, advertisements, and comic books.
- Pop artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein sought to establish the idea that art
can draw from any source and there is no hierarchy of culture to disrupt that.
Example of Andy Warhol’s artwork:

Marilyn Monroe (May 1998).

 Obsessed with celebrity, consumer culture, and mechanical (re)production, Pop artist
Andy Warhol created some of the most iconic images of the 20th century.
 Warhol, being infatuated with fame and pop culture, obtained a black-and-white publicity
photo of her (from her 1953 film Niagara).
 Warhol responded to mass-media culture of the 1960s. His silkscreens of cultural and
consumer icons—including Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Campbell’s Soup Cans,
and Brillo Boxes—would make him one of the most famous artists of his generation.
 “The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do,”
PREVALENT ARTISTS IN THIS ERA:
Roy Lichtenstein His artwork:

In the Car, 1963. Oil, magna, and graphite on

canvas.
Keith Haring His artwork:

Pop Shop I, 1987

David Hockney His artwork:
\
 A Bigger Splash, 1967

MINIMALISM (1960s–1970s)
- The Minimalist movement emerged in New York as a group of younger artists began to
question the overly expressive works of Abstract Expressionist artists.
- Extension of the artistic abstraction that permeated the 20th century.
- Minimalist sculpture generally focused on simple, standalone geometric shapes made of
various materials. Its painting also centered around geometric shapes composed in simple
block color sequences.
- Focus on precisely what was in front of them, rather than draw parallels to outside
realities and emotive thoughts through the use of purified forms, order, simplicity, and
harmony.
- American artist Frank Stella was of the earliest adopters of Minimalism, producing
nonrepresentational paintings, as seen in his Black Paintings completed between 1958
and 1960. 
Example of Frank Stella’s artwork:

The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, II, 1959

 In 1959, Frank Stella unveiled his Black Paintings series at the Museum of Modern Art.
Rejecting the tendencies du jour of Abstract Expressionism, Stella shocked and
bewildered critics and viewers with the bleak, repetitive systems of his Black Paintings.
 His Black Paintings were effectively priming the stage for the artists of the Minimalist
movement, which would emerge in the 1960s.
PREVALENT ARTISTS IN THIS ERA:
Yayoi Kusama His artwork:

PUMPKIN: BIG, 2008

Sol LeWitt His artwork:

Detail of A Square Divided Horizontally and

Vertically into Four Equal Parts, Each with a
Different Direction of Alternating Parallel Bands
of Lines, 1982
Dan Flavin His artwork:

Untitled (to Barry, Mike,

Chuck and Leonard),
(1972–1975)