20th century art

Painting, Sculpture and Architecture

 20 century art
th

• Modern art starts with the

– Romantics 19th century movements,
– Realists naturalism and realism
depicted in narratives and in
– And Impressionists stylized formats

20th century and abstraction

• The process of analyzing and simplifying observed reality into geometric shapes.
With photography, the painstaking realistic portrayal was passé.
• The same phenomenon happened during Renaissance with the development of
perspective drawing.
Abstraction - Cubism
Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973, Portrait of
Ambroise Voillard, 1910, 3’x2’,
•Cubist portrait of the publisher Voillard
•Depth is achieved through layers and
textures
•Note the absence of perspective
•Note the structural complexity
•Note the monochromatic (almost)
treatment so as not to compete with the
structure

Note Cezanne’s structure of the landscape

Pablo Picasso

Girl with a
mandolin
Pablo Picasso
Still life with chair caning,
1912, collage of oil, oilcloth
and pasted paper, 11”x14”

•The technique of mixed

media which dominated art
world ever since
•The now famous art form
of collage
Georges Braque, 1882-1963
Woman with a guitar, 1913
•Analytical cubism
•Part and the whole
•Technique of ‘layering’
Georges Braque, 1882-1963
Newspaper, bottle, packet of tobacco,
1914, collage of charcoal, pencil, ink,
pasted paper on cardboard, 20”x25”
The Abstract, painting
Marcel Duchamp, 1887-1968, nude descending
a staircase, 1912, oil on canvas, 5’x3’
•Superimposition of successive phases of
movement
•Almost similar to multiple exposure
photography
The Abstract, painting
Picasso, Three musicians, 1921, oil
on canvas, 7’x7’
The Abstract, painting
Piet Mondrian, 1872-1944, composition in
red, yellow and blue, 1930
•Possibility of all representation is
eliminated
•Primary color field
•‘pure’ composition to achieve
equilibrium
The Abstract, painting
Jackson Pollock
(1912-56).

•Action painting
•Chaos as against
equilibrium
Transformation
Roy Lichtenstein
Modernism in Architecture:
a brief summary

Gerrit Rietveld
 Modernism in Architecture:
a brief summary

Minimalism
Modernism in Architecture:
a brief summary

Gerrit Rietveld: Schroder

House, 1924
 Modernism in Architecture:
a brief summary
Minimalism:
Adolf Loos

Maison Tristan
Tzara, 1925
Steiner house,
1910
Modernism in Architecture:
a brief summary

Minimalism:
Tugendhat
house, 1929
 Modernism in Architecture:
a brief summary
The white box:
villa Stein, 1927
 Modernism in Architecture:
The white box:
a brief summary
villa Savoye, 1929
Modernism in Architecture:
a brief summary

Organic Architecture: Robie House, 1909

Modernism in Architecture:
a brief summary

Organic Architecture: the Falling water, 1937

 Modernism in Architecture:
a brief summary
Contextual Universalism:
Villa Mairea, 1939
 Modernism in Architecture:
a brief summary
Contextual Universalism:
Villa Mairea
20 century sculpture
th

Constantin Brancusi, Bird in space, bronze,

1928, 54” tall
20 century sculpture
th

Henry Moore, Recumbent

figure, 1938, stone, 54”
20 century sculpture
th

Picasso, the bull’s

head
Collected ready-
made

Marcel Duchamp, the fountain