The Late 20th Century!
After World War II, the center of the art world shifted
from Paris to New York. The city had become a
thriving community for artists because of the federally
funded Works Progress Administration during the
Great Depression. European artists fleeing the
violence and destruction of warfare in their homelands
also moved to New York for a fresh start.
Abstract Expressionism!
Pollock s
Convergence
(1952)
The art style that first came to represent the new generation of
New York artists was Abstract Expressionism. This style became
famous for its nonobjective paintings that show the gestures and
actions with which the artist nearly covered the canvas with paint.
Color Field Painting
Other artists took the
nonrepresentational style of
Abstract Expressionism
away from gestural painting
and toward a focus on
large, soft areas of color.
Rothko s Orange and
Yellow (1956) is part of a
series of paintings in which
he gradually shifted from
one color to another and
from one shape to another.
Pop Art
Warhol s
Marilyn
Diptych
(1962)
Unlike Abstract Expressionists, artists of the Pop Art movement
included naturalistic images in their works. They challenged
tradition instead by integrating images from popular culture (film,
television, and advertising) into the world of high art, as a
commentary on the commercialization of American culture.
Photorealism
As many prominent
artists moved away from
realistic images, some
artists shifted in the
opposite direction,
creating paintings with
the incredible detail of
photographs. As the
title of this work implies,
such extreme realism
was a radical departure
from other styles of the
time, which were highly
abstract or nonobjective.
Estes s Cafeteria
(Radical Realism
Series) (1970)
Feminist Art
Like many other works of
art in the late twentieth
century, Chicago s Dinner
Party (1974-79) defies
categorization as a
particular artistic form. It
combines several types of
materials (including
ceramics and embroidery)
to create a mixed-medium
work called an installation.
Artists assemble installations in room-sized exhibition
spaces, allowing viewers to experience the works more
fully than traditional paintings or sculptures.
Feminist Art
Chicago s Dinner Party
honored famous women
from many periods of
history. It was
controversial because it
highlighted not only their
intellectual and artistic
contributions, but also the
basic form of female
genitalia. Some saw
Chicago s method as
honoring women, and
others saw it as
denigrating them.
Postmodern Architecture
Just as Pop artists integrated images from popular culture into
artistic works, postmodern architects specialized in borrowing.
Johnson s design for the Hines College of Architecture in Houston
(1985) is based on a plan for a villa from the eighteenth century.
The villa plan itself borrows the form of the ancient Greek temple,
so Johnson is imitating a design that wasn t new even in its own
time. Critics disliked its lack of originality.