1. Abstract Expressionism
The “end” of Modernism marked by the fall of Europe and the rise of the United States
Abstract Expressionism
The New York School
Between the modern and the postmodern

2. Paris World Fair (left) German Pavilion by Albert Speer with Comrades, by Joseph Thorak (right) USSR Pavilion, Vera Mukhina, The Worker and The Collective Farm Woman, welded sheets of stainless steel. Notice gigantic scale, signaling the insignificance of the individual relative to the state.

3. Picasso, Guernica, 1937, Paris Worlds Fair, Spanish Pavilion

4. ANXIOUS VISIONS for anxious times – Spanish Civil War and impending World War Salvador Dali, Soft Construction with Boiled Beans: Premonitions of Civil War, 1936, oil on canvas, 39 x 39” (Spanish Civil War), Surrealism

5. Hitler and Goebbels visit the Degenerate Art Exhibition, Munich, (insert below) German Expressionist, “degenerate” artist, Max Beckmann at MoMA NYC in 1947 with 1933 painting, Departure

6. (left) Nazi 1937 music poster for degenerate art exhibition
(left) Nazi 1937 music poster for degenerate art exhibition. Jazz was despised as Jewish (Star of David) and Black. (right) Degenerate art show installation – “Dada” with confiscated works by modern masters, Kurt Schwitters and Paul Klee artworks visible

7. National Socialist (Nazi) Realism Arno Breker, (left) Comradeship, 1940; (right) The Party, 1938

8. German Fuhrer Adolph Hitler (Austrian-German, ) Photograph sent to Eva Braun after occupation of Paris,1940 The Fall of Paris marks “the end” of Modernism

9. Occupation of Paris signifies the “end” of Modernism “ Hundreds of refugee European artists, scholars, and scientists came to the United States. Surrealism is the last European art movement. World center of art shifts from Paris to New York City.
Photo of émigré artists for 1942 exhibition, “Artists in Exile” at the Pierre Matisse gallery, New York

10. Nazi (Axis) Blitzkrieg of London, beginning in 1941, inaugurating the ceaseless bombing of civilian populations throughout the war by both sides

11. Soviet (Allied) bombing of Berlin, August 11, 1941
Dresden, September 1945
after fire bombings by British &
American air forces – 30,000 deaths

12. The atrocities of the Holocaust threw Western humanist culture, with its premise that man is essentially good and perfectable, into crisis. Auschwitz, near Warsaw Poland, largest of the Nazi concentration camps, was liberated by Soviet troops in January, Famous assertion by postmodern theorist Theodor Adorno that "writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric"
"Selection" on the unloading ramp at Birkenau, May/June To be sent to the right meant assignment to a work detail; to the left, the gas chambers.

13. (left) Francis Bacon (British), panel from Three Studies for a Crucifixion, 1947 (right) Alberto Giacometti (Swiss), Pointing Man, Europe after the War: Existentialist Expressionism

14. Neo Rauch, Das Neue (The New), 2003

15. "We came from the people, we remain part of the people, and see ourselves as the executor of the people's will.“ (left) Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister for People's Enlightenment and Propaganda: 1938 Nazi propaganda rally in Graz. (right) Hans Haacke, And You Were Victorious After All, Graz, Germany, 1988, a reconstruction of 1938 Nazi propaganda, a public art work attacked and destroyed.

16. American hydrogen bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945
The total estimated human loss of life caused by World War II was roughly 72 million people. The civilian toll was around 47 million. The Allies lost about 61 million people, and the Axis lost 11 million.
Aftermath of Hiroshima bomb – estimated 170,000 deaths

17. Post-colonialism is one of the most important historical contexts for global culture
Decolonization of Europe’s world empires occurred after World War II.

18. The Algerian War of Independence from France ( ), one of many such anti-colonial wars for national identity. De-colonization characterized the post-modern period.
Bomb blast, Algiers, 1957
Poster for film about the Algerian
War of Independence from France.

19. World map in 1980: The Cold War (1947-1991)

20. Berlin Wall, August 13, 1961, the German Democratic Republlic (Communist East Germany) began under the leadership of Erich Honecker to block off East Berlin and the GDR from West Berlin by means of barbed wire and antitank obstacles. Construction crews replaced the provisional barriers by a solid wall.

21. Syllabus quiz – 5 minutes Please put everything away except a sheet of paper and pens. Write your name, Art 112 or 212, and the date on top.

22. Question: Explain in as much detail as you can the requirements and policies described under “participation” on the course syllabus, including the percentage of the grade.

23. American Abstract Expressionism: Two modes: gestural abstraction (Action Painting) and chromatic abstraction (also called “Sublime” or “Color Field” painting)

24. “The Irascibles” (Abstract Expressionists), Life Magazine cover story, 1951
Theodoros Stamos, Jimmy Ernst, Barnett Newman, James Brooks, Mark Rothko, Richard Pousette-Dart, William Baziotes, Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell, Bradley Walker Tomlin, Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Ad Reinhardt, Hedda Sterne

25. Post WW II: New York becomes the capital of the art world (left) Jackson Pollock ( ) painting, (right) Willem de Kooning (1904–97) painting Woman I, 1951 “Action Painting”

26. Willem de Kooning, Orestes, 1947 compare (right) Arshile Gorky, biomorphic surrealist cubism, 1936-7

27. Willem de Kooning making an early study for Woman I, c
Willem de Kooning making an early study for Woman I, c (right) Woman I,

28. Willem de Kooning (American, born The Netherlands, 1904–1997) (left) Woman, 1944, oil and charcoal on canvas, 46 x 32 in. (right) De Kooning, The Painter, 1940

29. (left) Willem de Kooning, Pink Angels, c
(left) Willem de Kooning, Pink Angels, c. 1945, oil and charcoal on canvas (right) Peter Paul Rubens ( ), The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus, 1618

30. Willem de Kooning, Woman I, Venus of Willendorf, limestone, painted with ochre, 4 3/4 inches, ca. 25,000 years old

31. De Kooning, Gotham News, 1955 “Action Painting” – Abstract Expressionism

32. De Kooning, Gotham News, 1955, with detail of upper right Action Painting

33. De Kooning in studio, Springs, NY, 1960s

34. Jackson Pollock (American, ) painting in Springs NY studio, 1950 Action Painting – American Abstract Expressionism “I believe the easel picture to be a dying form.” (Guggenheim Application, 1947)
James Dean in
Rebel Without a
Cause
8 August 1949 issue of Life magazine:
first artist to become a media celebrity

35. Lee Krasner (American, ) in New York studio, mid-1930s Blue Painting, 1946, oil on canvas, 28 x 36” Met Pollock in 1942; married him in 1945.

36. Pollock, Going West, ; compare: Thomas Hart Benton, The Ballad of the Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley, 1934, Oil/tempera/canvas

37. (left) Pollock, Flame, 1934, and (below left) Naked Man with a Knife, 1938, o/c, 50 x 36” Compare (right) David Alfaro Siqueiros (Mexican, 1896–1975), Collective Suicide, 1935, enamel on wood with applied sections, 49" x 6‘ (“Il Duco”)

38. Pollock, Pasiphae, 1943; compare André Masson, Pasiphae, 1943 Surrealism (subjective mythos and automatism) and Jungian psychoanalysis: the collective unconscious

39. Pollock, Guardians of the Secret, 1943, SFMoMA

40. Pollock, Mural, 19'10" x 8‘1“, 1943, for Peggy Guggenheim

41. Jackson Pollock, Full Fathom Five, 1947, oil on canvas with nails, tacks, buttons, key, coins, cigarettes, matches, etc., 50 7/8 x 30 1/8,“ MoMA. Partly poured and partly conventionally-painted abstraction.

42. Hans Namuth, photographs and film stills of Pollock Painting, 1951

43. Jackson Pollock, Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist),1950, oil, enamel, and aluminum on canvas, 7 ft 3 in x 9 ft 10 in, National Gallery of Art

44. Pollock created "drip" paintings for only a few years 1947-51
Navajo sand painting, a spiritual / healing practice; compare to “Action Painting”: the automatist, performance methods of Jackson Pollock “I feel nearer, more part of the painting This is akin to the method of Indian sand painters of the West" Pollock
Pollock created "drip" paintings for only a few years

45. American Abstract Expressionist Chromatic Expressionism Painters of the Sublime Barnett Newman & Mark Rothko

46. Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774 -1840), Monk by the Seashore, 1809-10, German Romantic Sublime

47. Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930, o/c, 20 x 20” Neo-Plasticism – dynamic equilibrium (without symetry) of opposites symbolizes reconciliation of universal dualities (e.g: male><female, good><evil, nature><culture) Dialectics: rational resolution of opposites: thesis><anti-thesis: dynamic synthesis

48. Kasimir Malevich, 0.10: The Last Futurist Exhibition, in 1915, Saint Petersburg, Russia

49. Barnett Newman ( ), Pagan Void, 1946, oil on canvas, 33 x 38” At this point the artist destroys all previous works. “The Ideographic Picture”

50. Barnett Newman, Genesis -- The Break, 1946, oil on canvas, 24 x 27” (c
Barnett Newman, Genesis -- The Break, 1946, oil on canvas, 24 x 27” (c.61 x 69 cm), Dia Center for the Arts

51. Barnett Newman, Onement I (1948), 27 1/4 inches by 16 1/4 inches, oil on canvas and oil on masking tape on canvas; (right) Kasimir Malevich, Suprematist Composition: White on White, 1918, oil on canvas, 79,5 x 79,5 cm.

52. Barnett Newman Vir Heroicus Sublimis (Man, Heroic, Sublime) , o/c, 8 x 18 ft “We are freeing ourselves of the impediments of memory, association, nostalgia, legend, myth, or what have you, that have been the devices of Western European painting.”

53. Barnett Newman and an unidentified viewer with Cathedra in Newman's studio, 1958.

54. Newman, Broken Obelisk, 1971, Rothko Chapel, Houston; designed by Philip Johnson

56. Mark Rothko (American b
Mark Rothko (American b. Marcus Rothkowitz, Lithuania ) (left) Self-Portrait, o/c, 32/25”, 1936; (right) Entrance to Subway [Subway Scene], o/c, "Art Must be Tragic and Timeless"

57. Surrealism and myth Rothko, Omen of the Eagle, 1942
In a 1943 letter to the New York Times co-written with Barnett Newman, Rothko wrote: “It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints, as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing. We assert that the subject is crucial and only that subject matter is valid which is tragic and timeless. That is why we profess a spiritual kinship with primitive and archaic art."

58. Biomorphic Surrealism and automatism "It was with the utmost reluctance that I found the figure could not serve my purposes....But a time came when none of us could use the figure without mutilating it.“ Rothko, (left) Sea Fantasy, 1946; (right) Untitled, 1944/1945

59. Rothko, (left) Number 7, 1947-48; (right) No. 17/No
Rothko, (left) Number 7, ; (right) No. 17/No. 15 [Multiform],1949

60. Rothko, Untitled,1949, National Gallery of Art

61. Rothko, Untitled [Blue, Green, and Brown],1952; Rothko in West 53rd Street Studio "The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them."

62. Mark Rothko, No. 14, 1960, o/c, 9.48 x 9.70 ft, SFMoMA

63. Rothko Chapel suite of paintings, 1965-66, De Menil Collection, Houston, Texas, 1970
“I wanted to paint both the finite and the infinite…. I was always looking for something more.” Mark Rothko

64. Robert Motherwell (American, ), Elegy to the Spanish Republic #34, , oil on canvas, 80 x 100" Motherwell painted over 150 works in the Elegy series between inspired by the defeat of the Spanish Republic in the civil war of , which left fascist dictator Francisco Franco in power. The artist was 21 years old in 1936.

65. "a funeral song for something one cared about"
Robert Motherwell, Elegy to the Spanish Republic #70, 1961, oil on canvas, 69 x 114 in. (175.3 x cm)
"a funeral song for something one cared about"

66. David Smith (American, ) Smith at “Terminal Iron Works, Boiler-Tube Makers and Ship-Deck.” (Brooklyn NYC), iron-welding workshop used as Smith’s studio between

67. David Smith, series of 15 bronze medals inspired by Nazi war medals he had seen in Europe. (top left) Untitled Study, 1939, pencil on paper, 11 in. (top center) Medal for Dishonor: Private Law and Order Leagues, 1939 (right below) Bombing Civilians, 1939, cast bronze, 10 3/4 in. S

68. Exhibition Catalogue: "Medals for Dishonor by David Smith" Willard Gallery, New York, November cover and page, text and design by Smith

69. Smith, (left) Jurassic Bird, painted steel, 1945 (right top) Specter of Profit, 1946 steel and stainless steel with (right below) Smith’s notebook sketches from the Museum of Natural History

70. Smith, Australia, 1951, painted steel, 6' 7 x 8'12" x 16" (on cinder block base) “Drawing in space” (right) Julio Gonzalez (Spanish, ), Woman Combing Her Hair, 1932; (below center) Picasso (Spanish, ), Head of a Woman, 1933

71. David Smith, "drawing in space“ welding, construction, assemblage process Surrealist & Action Painting automatism, spontaneity (right) Compare Picasso studio, 1912 with constructed guitar (first constructed sculpture)

72. Compare David Smith with RUSSIAN CONSTRUCTIVIST sculptors (left) Third Obmokhu (student) exhibition, Moscow, 1920 Vladimir Tatlin, Monument to the Third International, model completed in 1920
Smith, Voltri XVII, 1962
95 in. H

73. Smith, Hudson River Landscape, detail and two views, 1951 “Drawing in Space” (2-D perception?)

74. Smith, Tanktotems, ; (center top) Picasso, Bull’s Head, 1943; (center below) photo of tank tops c.1951) – anthropomorphism, found materials assemblage welding

75. Smith, Zig IV, painted steel, 1963

76. Voltri series, 1962, 27 welded sculptures in 30 days

77. David Smith, (left) Cubi XXVII, 1965, 111” H; (center) Cubi XVII, 1963, stainless steel
Detail showing polished
surface “gesture”

78. David Smith, Cubi sculpture at NYC Guggenheim, 2006 exhibition

79. Smith surveying his “personages” at Bolton landing, Smith died 2 years later in a pickup truck crash. The “Tragic Generation”