Abstract Expressionism In Modern Society

While Nighthawks is this artist’s most recognized piece of work, a similarly named artifact leaves his audience pondering with a feeling of mysteriousness and somber. In Night Shadows, Edward Hopper creates an etching of a man walking near a building. The artifact, which was created in 1921, has a man approaching the corner of a lit-up street in a long black coat and hat. Casted across this corner is a shadow, presumably from a streetlight (Slater 143). Viewers receivs a bird’s-eye view of the anonymous man whose back faces towards the them, and in the upper half of this etching is a small building shaped like a pub, which appears no taller than three stories. With the historical context and background of the artifact and artist, Night Shadows portrays the imminent challenges of urbanization that occurred in the United States during the early twentieth century.

Edward Hopper's style of painting is realistic, and often hyper-realistic in their near-photographic imagery. However, his early career was also influenced by Impressionism. Most of Hopper's canon of work consists of oil paintings, but he has also produced a substantial number of watercolors and prints. In his paintings, Hopper generally covers the theme of modern American life.

Picasso is an abstract artist, and therefore is thought of as “unskilled,” by the way he accentuates parts of the human figure. Picasso’s art had the most impact on the twentieth century. Even though he suggests going against what he had learned academically, it is important to know that he had started at a very young age. His father was a drawing teacher and a conservator at a small museum. Soon after his father became a professor at the art academy in Barcelona, the young Picasso completed the entrance examinations and was accepted to the school’s upper-level program. Picasso went to Paris determined to work through the avant-gardes’ techniques and subjects to better understand such art.

Overall, the ideologies discussed within the articles Written In Blood: 20th Century Art by Stephanie Dudek and Estrangement As A Motif In Modern Painting by John Adkins Richardson address similarities and differences from various standpoints. Modernistic ideologies towards social, cultural and technological changes of the 20th century are demonstrated in both articles. The article by Stephanie Dudek emphasizes on the employment of radical and transgressive values by modern artists within their work to target cultural, and artistic principles that have persisted over many generations leading to a transformation within the subject of art (Dudek 105). Furthermore, modern art set out to obtain new visions of reality as witnessed within the Cubist

In the early 20th century the United States was rapidly industrializing. There were many changes including political, economic, cultural and social changes. All of these changes set the stage for artistic movements. Norman Perceval Rockwell was a famous and well-known author, painter, and illustrator in his era. His drawings depicted the simplicity and nobility of American life and culture even in tough times like World War II.

Abstract Expressionist Romare Bearden exhibited after World War II with other distinguished Abstract Expressionists; however, not a short time after Bearden began to be exhibited exclusively with other black artists rather than his contemporaries in the Abstract Expressionist movement.  Abstract Expressionists’ universal language in Postwar America became inconsistent because the collective roles given to black people did not lend them to participate in the art movement.  Towards the beginning of Bearden’s career, he was praised for his developed analysis of the African-American while remaining avant-garde, abstract, and stylistic.  After 1950 Bearden was almost exclusively shown with often African-American abstract artists. Furthermore, around

In order to fully understand the meaning of Edward Hoppers paintings we must under-stand a little about him and his past. Edward (as we will call him from now on) was born to an art loving middle class family in New York in 1882. Edward’s family fostered his love of art and his desire to pursue it as a career. He came to love fine art, over the illustrations he had seen as a child, while he studied at the New York school of art for six years. Upon completing his schooling he made several trips to Europe. The majority of these trips found him in France, more specifically Paris, where he discovered and fell in love with Impressionism. He was inspired by and greatly admired several Impressionist including Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, and

Characteristics of Abstract Expressionist Paintings-optical buzz, all-over composition, Matisse sometimes painted images on large canvases, as did Picasso but paintings still retained an object like character- the viewer needed to stand back to see the complete composition. Abstract expressionist paintings, on the other hand, draw the spectator into them. The field of vision is thus larger than the field of vision of the spectator, who finds himself in a world beyond measurement (class handouts) "Portable Mural"

Around the turn of the century many artists were trying to lay the foundation for modern art. In the 1880’s and 1890’s Art Nouveau, an international style of decoration and architecture urbanized. New developments also included, Post Impressionism, which “rejected the objective naturalism of impressionism and used form and color in more personally expressive ways.” At the time Romanticism, a growing artistic movement, was popular to artists like Runge, Goya, Blake and Friedrick, all who inspired Munch during the various stages of his artistic life. However, when compared to other artists of the time, Munch was new and ingenious. Able too courageously and dispassionately “reveal his innermost secrets of his own life,

In his text entitled “Modernist Painting”, Greenberg focuses on the development of painting between the 14th and 19th century and emphasizes on what distinguishes Modernist painting from previous forms of painting, particularly those of the Old Masters. Greenberg begins by relating Modernist art to Kantian philosophy claiming that, the same way Kant used reason in order to examine the limits of reason, Modernist art is when art became self critical because it uses the technique of art to draw attention to its status as art. Indeed, he explains how without this self-examination similar to that of Kant’s reflection on Philosophy, art would’ve been “assimilated to […] therapy” like religion, because

The movements of German Expressionism and Japanese pre-war cinema produced trends greatly influenced by its historical context. These contexts contributed to shaping their own stylistic styles captured throughout the theme, mise-en-scene, and cultural ideologies. Although these two movements occurred in fairly similar time periods, they both occurred in different parts of the world which had a fundamental role in generating key contrasts between these movements. Both occurring in pre-war periods, a striking similarity existed between the two; they both displayed the economic instabilities. Both subtly exhibited the internal anxieties that the individuals faced in the differing societies. German Expressionism had the stylistic forms that in turn captured distorted images or grotesque style to convey an abstract sense of reality throughout 1920’s. On the other hand, the Japanese pre-war cinema expressed the humanistic family by displaying their everyday struggles of the lower middle class known as the “common people” during the 1930’s. Although these movements were individually unique throughout their distinct stylistic devices and ideologies, they essentially came together during this time period to help transform the art of national cinema.

Abstract Expressionism is making its comeback within the art world. Coined as an artist movement in the 1940’s and 1950’s, at the New York School, American Abstract Expressionist began to express many ideas relevant to humanity and the world around human civilization. However, the subject matters, contributing to artists, were not meant to represent the ever-changing world around them. Rather, how the world around them affected the artist themselves. The works swayed by such worldly influences, become an important article within the artists’ pieces. Subjectively, looking inward to express the artist psyche, artists within the Abstract Expressionism movement became a part of their paintings. Making the paintings more of a representation

The second half of the 19th century was centered on an urban lifestyle, and capitalist like consumerism. Art had become a form of entertainment and museums, operas, music, and dance were common place in the cities. Artists like Van Gogh, Claude Monet and Edgar Degas were reminiscent of the late 1800’s. Their focus was on the Impressionistic style utilizing short brush strokes with an attention to light. Even though

The beginning of 20th century was a time of drastic change. New developments were made in the arenas of the classical sciences, social science, psychology and philosophy - each challenging traditional thought. Industrialization and the introduction of many new, challenging concepts in the fields of politics as well as the development of new technologies gave artist more freedom to innovate and break the rules of traditional art. By using new materials, techniques and the new approach artists were pushing boundaries of what has previously been accepted art practice in order to invent radically new styles.

“Modern painting, breaking through old conversation, has released countless suggestions which are still waiting to be used by the practical world.”(Gropius) The birth of modernism and modern art goes back to the Industrial Revolution, a period that lasted from the 18th to the 19th century, in which rapid changes in manufacturing, transportation, and technology profoundly affected the social, economic, and cultural conditions of life in Western Europe, North America, and eventually the world. Before the 19th century, artists created art pieces for wealthy people and institution places like the church where they can create art works about storytelling of religious or mythological scenes . These arts were there to instruct the viewers.However, this changed when during the 19th century many artists began to create works that were about people, places, or ideas that interested them, and of which they had direct experience. With the popularization of the idea of a subconscious mind, many artists began exploring dreams, symbolism, and personal iconography as avenues for the depiction of their subjective experiences.Challenging the notion that art must realistically depict the world, some artists experimented with the expressive use of color, non-traditional materials, and new techniques and mediums.