HUM 101 • Myers

Mid-20th Century and Later

I.World War II

  1. The greatest war in history in terms of human and material resources expended.
  2. The human cost – not including 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust – is estimated to have been 55 million dead: 25 million of those military and 30 million civilian.
  3. The U.S. had no significant civilian losses, and a total of 407,318 deaths related to the war.
  1. Balance of power shifts:
  2. Only two real world powers left – eventually referred to as the “super powers” – the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
  3. Britain, France, Germany, and Japan all devastated by war on their home soils.
  4. The Cold War

a)Massive military buildup on both sides.

b)Nuclear proliferation.

c)Ideological war: Communism/socialism vs. Capitalism/materialism.

II.An “Age of Affluence”

  1. Relative stability in international relations after the war was resolved.
  2. Economic factors:
  3. Economic boom created by war manufacturing.
  4. Opening up of international commerce.
  5. Social factors:
  6. More open access to education: More widespread interest in “the finer things.”
  7. Rise of the middle class: Leisure time.
  1. The United States becomes the most “affluent” country of an affluent age.
  2. Unquestioned leadership of the U.S. in world affairs.

a)Leader of the Allied forces during the war.

b)Relatively unscathed on home ground, U.S. manufacturing and commerce is free to expand into international markets.

c)Supervised reconstruction of Germany and Japan, which led them to become economic powers in their own right.

  1. The focus in arts and popular culture shifts from Europe to the U.S.

a)Artists, writers, filmmakers, and architects emigrate to the U.S. to “escape the ravages of war-torn Europe.”

III.Mid-20th Century: Painting

  1. Terms
  2. Representational: Art that attempts to portray the visual reality of an object [AS PERCEIVED BY THE ARTIST].
  3. Nonrepresentational: Art that is not intended to represent any real object.
  4. Abstract: Art that does not portray the visual reality of a subject, but reflects an artist’s nonrepresentational conception of it. [MAY LOOK SOMETHING LIKE OR COMPLETELY UNLIKE THE VISUAL REALITY.]

a)Representational art can be abstract.

b)Nonrepresentational art is always abstract.

  1. Edward Hopper & Georgia O’Keeffe
  2. Influenced by European modernism.
  3. Representational work that tends toward abstraction.
  1. Abstract Expressionism
  2. Spontaneous representation of individual emotion.
  3. No recognizable images.
  4. No concern for form.
  5. “Action painting”: Painting quickly and without a plan.
  1. Jackson Pollock
  1. Pop Art
  2. Images taken from popular culture: i.e. advertising, television, movies, comics, consumer goods.
  3. Used modern techniques like silk screen, photography, plastic, acrylic paint. Fused commercial and fine art.
  1. Roy Lichtenstein; Andy Warhol

IV.American Architecture

  1. Terms
  2. Classical: Anything that refers to the architecture of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

a)The Classical Orders of Architecture: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian

b)Capital, Volute, Shaft, Fluting, Base

  1. Beaux-Arts: Architecture that is based on classical structures and elements, often designed by architects who studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
  2. Façade: Elements that make up the outside of a building. Usually decorative. Usually refers to the front.
  1. World’s Columbian Exposition
  2. Ushered in the style of architecture known as Beaux-Arts Classicism
  3. Classical orders
  4. Order, balance, symmetry
  5. Grandeur
  6. Symbolic of U.S.’s equality with Europe and its inclusion in the European tradition.
  1. WCE Firsts

 Aunt Jemima pancake mix  Hamburger in the United States

 Cracker Jack  Hershey’s chocolate (before this, Milton Hershey made caramels)

 Cream of Wheat  USPS picture postcards and commemorative stamps

 Quaker Oats  Exotic dancer

 Elongated coins  Use of the term “midway”

 Juicy Fruit gum  Chicago referred to as “The Windy City”

 Shredded Wheat  Pabst beer won a blue ribbon at the fair

  1. Beaux-Arts Classicism
  2. Dominant architectural style at the turn of the 20th century
  3. Dominant architectural style in Washington, D.C.
  4. Influence spread from Washington to most cities across the country, especially for public buildings