Chapter 29: Modernism in Europe and America, 1900 to 1945

Preview: The period in art between 1900 and 1945 in Europe and America was intense and marked by international exchange due to the onset of two world wars. In the early part of the century, Pablo Picasso’s Cubism and German Expressionism represented radical new ways of representing reality. Futurists in Italy captured the dynamism and movement of modern life, while Dadaists across Europe and in the U.S. traded in obscure, nonsensical protests against rational society. In 1913, the Armory Show in New York introduced American audiences to European modern art. The Harlem Renaissance saw African American artists embrace modernist expressions, and under the direction of Alfred Stieglitz, American photography defines a distinctive style. In Europe, the Neue Sachlichkeit movement developed in Germany as a reaction to World War I. The 1920s saw the emergence of Surrealism, Russian Constructivism, and the Bauhaus in Germany, which promoted the idea of “total architecture” and the integration of arts. Between 1930 and 1945, Mexican artists Orozco and Rivera painted murals thematizing Mexico’s history, while Frida Kahlo explored autobiographical, psychological themes. In the mid-20th century, Frank Lloyd Wright was recognized as the leading architect in the U.S., and his expressive, daring structures continue to inspire architects.

Key Figures: Gertrude & Leo Stein

Key Cultural Terms & Events: World War I (1914-1918), World War II (1939-1945), Russian Revolution, Harlem Renaissance, “Entartete Kunst” (“Degenerate Art”) show (1937)

Key Art Terms: Primitivism, Expressionism, Analytic and Synthetic Cubism, Orphism, Futurism, Dadaism, De Stijl, Surrealism, Bauhaus, Suprematism, Constructivism, Art Deco, Neue Sachlichkeit

Lecture Notes:

Introductory Notes:

MODERNISM IN EUROPE AND AMERICA, 1900-1945

Europe, 1900 to 1920:

Fauvism:

  • Henri Matisse, Woman with the Hat, 1905
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Matisse, Le Bonheur de Vivre, 1905-1906
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Matisse, Red Room (Harmony in Red), 1908-1909
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • André Derain, The Dance, 1906
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Derain, Mountains at Collioure, 1905
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

German Expressionism:

  • Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Street, Dresden, 1908
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Emil Nolde, Masks, 1911
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Nolde, Saint Mary of Egypt among Sinners, 1912
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Vasily Kandinsky, Improvisation 28 (second version), 1912
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Franz Mar, Fate of the Animals, 1913
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Paula Modersohn-Becker, Self-Portrait, 1906
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Käthe Kollwitz, Woman with Dead Child, 1903
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Lehmbruck, Seated Youth, 1917
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Egon Schiele, Nude Self-Portrait, Grimacing, 1910
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

Primitivism and Cubism:

  • Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, 1906-1907
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Picasso, Family of Saltimbanques, 1905
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Frank Gelett Burgess, photograph of Pablo Picasso in his studio in the rue Ravignan, Paris, France, 1908
  • Notes:
  • Georges Braque, The Portuguese, 1911
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Robert Delaunay, Homage to Blériot, 1914
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Delaunay, Champs de Mars, 1911
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Picasso, Still Life with Chair-Caning, 1912
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Braque, Bottle, Newspaper, Pipe, and Glass, 1913
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Picasso, Guernica, 1937
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Picasso, Three Musicians, 1921
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Picasso, maquette for Guitar, 1912
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Aleksandr Archipenko, Woman Combing Her Hair, 1915
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Julio Gonzalez, Woman Combing Her Hair, 1936
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Jacques Lipchitz, Bather, 1917
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Fernand Leger, The City, 1919
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Leger, Three Women, 1921
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

Futurism:

  • Giacomo Balla, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, 1912
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913 (cast 1931)
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Gino Severini, Armored Train, 1915
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

Dada:

  • Jean (Hans) Arp, Collage Arranged According to the Laws of Chance, 1916-1917
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1950 (original version produced in 1917)
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q., 1919
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Duchamp, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), 1915-1923
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

Suprematism and Constructivism:

  • Kurt Schwitters, Merz 19, 1920
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying, 1915
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Liubov Popova, Architectonic Painting, 1916-1917
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Naum Gabo, Column, ca. 1923 (reconstructed 1937)
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

Architecture:

  • Vladimir Tatlin, Monument to the Third International, 1919-1920
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Adolf Loos, garden façade of the Steiner House (looking northwest), Vienna, Austria, 1910
  • Description, style, & architectural features:

United States, 1900 to 1930:

Painting and Sculpture:

  • John Sloan, Sixth Avenue and Thirtieth Street, New York City, 1907
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2, 1912
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Arthur Dove, nature Symbolized No. 2, ca. 1911
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Man Ray, Cadeau (Gift), ca. 1958 (replica of 1921 original)
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Marsden Hartley, Portrait of a German Officer, 1914
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Stuart Davis, Lucky Strike, 1921
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Aaron Douglas, Noah’s Ark, ca. 1927
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Douglas, Slavery through Reconstruction, 1934
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Charles Demuth, My Egypt, 1927
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Georgia O’Keeffe, New York, Night, 1929
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

Photography:

  • Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage, 1907
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Stieglitz, Equivalent, 1923
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Edward Weston, Pepper No. 30, 1930
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Weston, Nude, 1925
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

Architecture:

  • Frank Lloyd Wright, Robie House, Chicago, Illinois, 1907-1909
  • Description & Architectural features:
  • Wright, plan of the second (main) level of the Robie House, Chicago, Illinois, 1907-1909
  • Description:
  • William van Alan, Art Deco spire of the Chrysler Building (looking south), New York, New York, 1928-1930
  • Description & Architectural features:

Europe, 1920 to 1945:

Neue Sachlichkeit:

  • George Grosz, The Eclipse of the Sun, 1926
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Grosz, Fit for Active Service, 1916-1917
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Max Beckmann, Night, 1918-1919
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Ernst Barlach, War Monument, Güstrow Cathedral, Güstrow, Germany, 1927
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

Degenerate Art Exhibition:

  • Adolf Hitler, accompanied by Nazi commission members, including photographer Heinrich Hoffmann, Wolfgang Willrich, Walter Hansen, and painter Adolf Ziegler, viewing the “Entartete Kunst” show on July 16, 1937
  • Notes:

Surrealism:

  • Giorgio de Chirico, The Song of Love, 1914
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Max Ernst, Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale, 1924
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Rene Matritte, The Treachery (or Perfidy) of Images, 1928-1929
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Magritte, The False Mirror, 1928
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Meret Oppenheim, Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure), 1936
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Joan Miro, Painting, 1933
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Paul Klee, Twittering Machine, 1922
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Wifredo Lam, The Angels, 1943
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

De Stijl:

  • Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

Sculpture:

  • Constantin Brancusi, Bird in Space, 1924
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Brancusi, The Newborn, 1915
  • Subject & significance:
  • Barbara Hepworth, Oval Sculpture (No. 2),1943
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Henry Moore, Reclining Figure, 1939
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Vera Mukhina, The Worker and the Collective Farm Worker, Soviet Pavilion, Paris Exposition, 1937
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

Architecture:

  • Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, Schröder House (looking northwest), Utrecht, the Netherlands, 1924
  • Description & significance:
  • Walter Gropius, Shop Block (looking northeast), the Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany, 1925-1926
  • Description & significance:
  • Marcel Breuer, Wassily Chair, 1925
  • Description & significance:
  • Gunta Stölzl, Gobelin tapestry, 1927-1928
  • Description & significance:
  • Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, model for a glass skyscraper, Berlin, Germany, 1922
  • Description & significance:
  • Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye (looking southeast), Poissy-sur-Seine, France, 1929
  • Description & significance:

United States and Mexico, 1930 to 1945:

Painting:

  • Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Jacob Lawrence, No. 49 from The Migration of the Negro, 1940-1941
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Thomas Hart Benton, Pioneer Days and Early Settlers, fresco in the State Capitol, Jefferson City, Missouri, 1936
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • José Clemente Orozco, Epic of American Civilization: Hispano-America (Panel 16), freco in Baker Memorial Library, Dartmouth C ollege, Hanover, New Hampshire, ca. 1932-1934
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Diego Rivera, Ancient Mexico, detail of History of Mexico, fresco in the Palacio Nacional, Mexico City, 1929-1935
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Rufino Tamayo, Friend of the Birds, 1944
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Frido Kahlo, The Two Fridas, 1939
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

Photography:

  • Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, Nipomo Valley, 1935
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:
  • Margaret Bourke-White, Fort Peck Dam, Montana, 1936
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

Sculpture:

  • Alexander Calder, Lobster Trap and Fish Tail, 1939
  • Medium, scale:
  • Subject & significance:

Architecture:

  • Frank Lloyd Wright, Kaufmann House (Fallingwater; looking northeast), Bear Run, Pennsylvania, 1936-1939
  • Description & significance:

Concluding notes:

Exercises for Study:

1. Select two works of art directly related to World War I and describe how they relate to the conflict.

2. Select two works of art directly related to World War II and describe how they relate to the conflict.

3. What are the main tenets of Surrealism? Select a Surrealist work of art and describe how it illustrates them.

4. Compare and contrast the following pairs of artworks, using the points of comparison as a guide.

A. Frank Lloyd Wright, Fallingwater (Fig. 29-79); Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye (Fig. 29-68)

  • Style:
  • Materials & forms:
  • Relationship to site:

B. Jacob Lawrence, No. 49 from The Migration of the Negro (Fig. 29-70); Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Street, Dresden (Fig. 29-5)

  • Subjects:
  • Style:
  • Treatment of figure and space:
  • Themes:

C. Henry Moore, Reclining Figure (Fig. 29-63); Naum Gabo, Column (Fig. 29-31)

  • Materials:
  • Forms:
  • Subjects: