Art, Design and Culture Notes - Akansha

ART, DESIGN AND
CULTURE NOTES
Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

EARLY RENAISSANCE
At the beginning of the 15th century, Italy experienced a cultural rebirth, a
renaissance that would massively affect all sectors of society. Turning away
from the preceding Gothic and Romanesque periods' iconography,
Florentine artists spurred a rejuvenation of the glories of classical art in line
with a more humanistic and individualistic emerging contemporary era.
Based in this flourishing new environment that empowered people to fully
immerse themselves in studies of the humanities, Early Renaissance artists
began to create work intensified by knowledge of architecture, philosophy,
theology, mathematics, science, and design. The innovations that emerged
in art during this period would go on to cause reverberations, which
continue to influence creative and cultural arenas today.
This Early Renaissance is also known as the Quattrocento, derived from

the Italian mille quattrocento, meaning 1400, and refers primarily to the
period dominating the 15th century in Italian art. It was the forebear to the
following High Renaissance, North European Renaissance, Mannerism,
and Baroque periods that followed.
Key Ideas & Accomplishments
● An evolution of radically fresh artistic techniques came into practice, departing

from the flat-planed and two-dimensional icon artworks that were popular prior. This
included the introduction of revolutionary methods such as one point linear
perspective, derived from an understanding of math and architecture, relieve
schiacciato, a new style of shallow carving to create atmospheric effect,
foreshortening, naturalistic and anatomical detail, proportion, and the use of
chiaroscuro and trompe l'oeil to create illusionary realities.

● New subject matter evolved beyond the traditional religious stories that had
historically dominated art. This included battle scenes, portraits, and depictions
of ordinary people. Art was no longer a way to solely elevate the devotional, but
became a way to document the people and events of contemporary times,
alongside the historical.
● Early Renaissance artists were highly influenced by the Humanist philosophy that
emphasized that man's relationship with the world, the universe, and God was no
longer the exclusive province of the Church. This resulted in work that
emphasized the emotionally expressive and individualistic characteristics of its
subjects in fresh new ways, leading to a more intimate way for viewers to
experience art.
● A new standard of patronage in the arts arose during this time, separate from the
church or monarchy, the most notable of which was supported by the prominent
Medici family. Artists were suddenly in demand to produce work that expressed
historical, and often religious, narratives in bold new ways for a community that
fostered the arts and nurtured its artists like never before.

Brunelleschi's famous octagonal dome crowning the Florence Cathedral.
The birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli

HIGH RENAISSANCE
The High Renaissance, subsequently coined to denote the artistic pinnacle
of the Renaissance, refers to a thirty-year period exemplified by the
groundbreaking, iconic works of art being made in Italy during what was
considered a thriving societal prime. A rejuvenation of classical art married
with a deep investigation into the humanities spurred artists of unparalleled
mastery whose creations were informed by a keen knowledge of science,
anatomy, and architecture, and remain today, some of the most
awe-inspiring works of excellence in the historical art canon.
● Although many artists vied for status and commissions during the
High Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and
architect Donato Bramante are undoubtedly the period's most notable
legends who exemplify the term "Renaissance" man in their
proficiency and mastery of multiple subjects and interests.
● During this period, a cultural movement toward Humanism arose,
compelling artists to return to Classical Roman and Greek
philosophies concerning universal man and his place in the world.
This was a departure from the medieval era's idealized religious
iconography and resulted in fresh depictions of divine subjects
infused with a more resonant and human emotionality and
expression.

● High Renaissance artists utilized and perfected a bevy of techniques
borrowed from Early Renaissance artists. This included the use of
linear perspective to create extreme depth, highly accurate and
scientifically correct depictions of human anatomy, the
foreshortening of figures and subjects within elevated paintings and
sculptures to provide an authentic viewing experience from below,
and trompe l'oeil effects to seamlessly incorporate architectural
elements into a work of art.
● A rise of new styles arose that were groundbreaking for the time.
Leonardo created sfumato, a glazing effect that revolutionized the
blending of tone and color, and quadratura, or ceiling paintings, were
born, meant to rapturously draw the gaze of viewers up into a
heavenly visage.
● The period is noted for infusing ideals of beauty back into art.
Whether depicting religious figures or everyday citizens, in
architecture and in art, the High Renaissance artists' key concerns
were to present pieces of visual, symmetrical, and compositional
perfection.

The last supper by Leonardo Da Vinci
Statue of David by Michaelangelo

Monalisa by Leonardo da Vinci
The creation of Adam by Michaelangelo

MANNERISM
Mannerism launched a highly imaginative period in art following the climax of
perfection that naturalistic painting had reached in Renaissance Italy.
Artists in 16th century Florence and Rome started to veer from classical
influences and move toward a more intellectual and expressive approach.
This ushered in a veer from authentic portrayals of figures and subjects, a
rejection of harmony, and the development of a dramatic new style
unconfined by the pictorial plane, reality, or literal correctness. Radical
asymmetry, artifice, and the decorative also informed this movement. New
discoveries in science had led society away from Humanist ideals and
paintings no longer posited man as the center of the universe, but rather as
isolated, peripheral participants in the great mysteries of life.
Some scholars further divide Mannerism into two periods. Early

Mannerism, which expressed an anti-traditional approach and lasted until
1535, was followed by High Mannerism where a more intricate and artificial
style appealed to more sophisticated patrons, becoming a kind of court
style. Later, the use of the term Mannerism to denote a particular period of
art history was pioneered by Luigi Lanzi, a 17th century art historian and
archeologist. The period would become a forebear to the Baroque period.
● A key element of Mannerism was the use of figurative serpentinata, or

"serpentine figure" in depicting human bodies. With extended limbs,
elongated forms, and a fluid S-shaped grace, these figures presented
an otherworldliness that departed from classical renditions.

● Many Mannerist works presented individuals or scenes in
non-naturalistic settings, oftentimes without any contextual basis,
inviting the viewer into a more philosophical experience rather than a
literal reading of the work.
● Mannerisms' reach was wide, with many important schools that
cropped up to experiment within this new form. Yet, while each
school drew upon its own indigenous attachments and cultural lore,
the styles of presentation remained largely the same.
● Subjects and themes of Mannerism furthered the Venetian School's
genres and expounded upon them. Mythological and allegorical
subjects with an erotic theme, architecture, landscapes, and pastorals
were common motifs albeit evolved via the new morphed aesthetics.
Madonna with the long neck by Parmigianino

The burial of the Count of Orgaz by El Greco
View of Toledo by El Greco

BAROQUE
In 1527 Europe, religious dominance had the power to direct and inform the
content and climate of society's artistic output. At the time, a backlash
against the conservative Protestant Reformation was compelled by the
Catholic Church to re-establish its importance and grandeur within society.
Artists followed suit by reviving Renaissance ideals of beauty, infusing into
the era's artwork, music, and architecture a revived nod to classicism
further enhanced by a new exuberant extravagance and penchant for the
ornate. This highly embellished style was coined Baroque and became
marked by its innovative techniques and details, delivering a lush new
visual language into what had been a relatively toned down period for art.
Baroque disseminated throughout Europe, primarily led by the Pope in

Rome and Catholic rulers in Italy, France, Spain, and Flanders. It was further
disseminated by powerful religious orders through their extensive network of
monasteries and convents. The style spread rapidly to France, northern
Italy, Spain and Portugal, then to Austria and southern Germany.

● Baroque brought images for religious worship back into the public
eye after being banned for their glorification of the ethereal and ideal.
The movement's leaders professed that art should be easily
understood and strongly felt by common people with the effect of
encouraging piety and an awe for the church.
● Baroque churches became a pivotal example of the invigorated
emphasis on the glory of Catholicism with their designs that
incorporated a large central space with a dome or cupola high
overhead, allowing light to illuminate the space below. The dome was
one of the central symbolic features of baroque architecture
illustrating the union between the heavens and the earth. Extremely
intricate interiors, rife with ornamentation, allowed for a feeling of
being fully immersed within an elevated and sacred space.
● The defining characteristics of the Baroque style were: real or implied
movement, an attempt to represent infinity, an emphasis on light and
its effects, and a focus on the theatrical. A number of techniques
were introduced, or further developed, by Baroque artists to
accomplish these effects including quadro riportato (frescos that
incorporated the illusion of being composed of a series of framed
paintings), quadrature (ceiling painting), and trompe l'oeil techniques.
This allowed for a blurring of the boundaries between painting,
sculpture, and architecture that was signature to the movement.
● Baroque ushered in a new era for European sculpture, led largely
bythe work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which emphasized sensual

richness, dramatic realism, intense emotion, and movement. In
Baroque sculpture figures assumed new importance, often spiraling
outward from a central vortex, reaching into the surrounding space,
meant to be seen in the round from multiple perspectives.
● The use of chiaroscuro, in which the treatment of light and dark in an
artwork helped to create dramatic tension, was a key component in
Baroque artwork. It was further evolved by Baroque master
Caravaggio into tenebrism, which used the intensification of contrast
within dark atmospheric scenes to spotlight particular elements.
Medusa by Carravagio

The calling of St. Mathew by Carravagio
Baldachin (ceremonial canopy) for the site of St. Peter's tomb by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

NEOCLASSICISM
New classics of the highest rank! This was the rallying cry of populations immersed in
the 18th century Age of Enlightenment who wanted their artwork and architecture to
mirror, and carry the same set of standards, as the idealized works of the Greeks and
Romans. In conjunction with the exciting archaeological rediscoveries of Pompeii and
Herculaneum in Rome, Neoclassicism arose as artists and architects infused their work
with past Greco-Roman ideals. A return to the study of science, history, mathematics,
and anatomical correctness abounded, replacing the Rococo vanity culture and
court-painting climate that preceded.
● Neoclassical art arose in opposition to the overly decorative and gaudy styles of
Rococo and Baroque that were infusing society with a vanity art culture based on
personal conceits and whimsy. It brought about a general revival in classical
thought that mirrored what was going on in political and social arenas of the
time, leading to the French Revolution.
● The primary Neoclassicist belief was that art should express the ideal virtues in
life and could improve the viewer by imparting a moralizing message. It had the
power to civilize, reform, and transform society, as society itself was being
transformed by new approaches to government and the rising forces of the
Industrial Revolution, driven by scientific discovery and invention.
● Neoclassical architecture was based on the principles of simplicity, symmetry,
and mathematics, which were seen as virtues of the arts in Ancient Greece and
Rome. It also evolved the more recent influences of the equally
antiquity-informed 16th century Renaissance Classicism.

● Neoclassicism's rise was in large part due to the popularity of the Grand Tour, in
which art students and the general aristocracy were given access to recently
unearthed ruins in Italy, and as a result became enamored with the aesthetics
and philosophies of ancient art.
The Oath of the Horatii by Jacques louis David
The death of Socrates by Jacques louis David

ROMANTICISM
At the end of the 18th century and well into the 19th, Romanticism quickly
spread throughout Europe and the United States to challenge the rational
ideal held so tightly during the Enlightenment. The artists emphasized that
sense and emotions - not simply reason and order - were equally important
means of understanding and experiencing the world. Romanticism
celebrated the individual imagination and intuition in the enduring search
for individual rights and liberty. Its ideals of the creative, subjective powers
of the artist fueled avant-garde movements well into the 20th century.
Romanticist practitioners found their voices across all genres, including

literature, music, art, and architecture. Reacting against the sober style of
Neoclassicism preferred by most countries' academies, the far reaching
international movement valued originality, inspiration, and imagination, thus
promoting a variety of styles within the movement. Additionally, in an effort
to stem the tide of increasing industrialization, many of the Romanticists
emphasized the individual's connection to nature and an idealized past.
● In part spurred by the idealism of the French Revolution, Romanticism

embraced the struggles for freedom and equality and the promotion
of justice. Painters began using current events and atrocities to shed
light on injustices in dramatic compositions that rivaled the more staid
Neoclassical history paintings accepted by national academies.

● Romanticism embraced individuality and subjectivity to counteract
the excessive insistence on logical thought. Artists began exploring
various emotional and psychological states as well as moods. The
preoccupation with the hero and the genius translated to new views
of the artist as a brilliant creator who was unburdened by academic
dictate and tastes. As the French poet Charles Baudelaire described
it, "Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor
in exact truth, but in a way of feeling."
● In many countries, Romantic painters turned their attention to nature
and plein air painting, or painting out of doors. Works based on close
observation of the landscape as well as the sky and atmosphere
elevated landscape painting to a new, more respectful level. While
some artists emphasized humans at one with and a part of nature,
others portrayed nature's power and unpredictability, evoking a feeling
of the sublime - awe mixed with terror - in the viewer.
● Romanticism was closely bound up with the emergence of newly
found nationalism that swept many countries after the American
Revolution. Emphasizing local folklore, traditions, and landscapes,
Romanticists provided the visual imagery that further spurred
national identity and pride. Romantic painters combined the ideal
with the particular, imbuing their paintings with a call to spiritual
renewal that would usher in an age of freedom and liberties not yet
seen.

Wanderer above the sea of fog by Caspar Freidrich
The Hay wain by John Constable
Liberty leading people by Eugene Delacroix

REALISM
Though never a coherent group, Realism is recognized as the first modern
movement in art, which rejected traditional forms of art, literature, and
social organization as outmoded in the wake of the Enlightenment and the
Industrial Revolution. Beginning in France in the 1840s, Realism
revolutionized painting, expanding conceptions of what constituted art.
Working in a chaotic era marked by revolution and widespread social
change, Realist painters replaced the idealistic images and literary conceits
of traditional art with real-life events, giving the margins of society similar
weight to grand history paintings and allegories. Their choice to bring
everyday life into their canvases was an early manifestation of the
avant-garde desire to merge art and life, and their rejection of pictorial
techniques, like perspective, prefigured the many 20th-century definitions
and redefinitions of modernism.
● Realism is broadly considered the beginning of modern art. Literally,

this is due to its conviction that everyday life and the modern world
were suitable subjects for art. Philosophically, Realism embraced the
progressive aims of modernism, seeking new truths through the
reexamination and overturning of traditional systems of values and
beliefs.

● Realism concerned itself with how life was structured socially,
economically, politically, and culturally in the mid-19th century. This
led to unflinching, sometimes "ugly" portrayals of life's unpleasant
moments and the use of dark, earthy palettes that confronted high
art's ultimate ideals of beauty.
● Realism was the first explicitly anti-institutional, nonconformist art
movement. Realist painters took aim at the social mores and values
of the bourgeoisie and monarchy upon who patronized the art
market. Though they continued submitting works to the Salons of the
official Academy of Art, they were not above mounting independent
exhibitions to defiantly show their work.
● Following the explosion of newspaper printing and mass media in the
wake of the Industrial Revolution, Realism brought in a new
conception of the artist as self-publicist. Gustave Courbet, Édouard
Manet, and others purposefully courted controversy and used the
media to enhance their celebrity in a manner that continues among
artists to this day.

The stone breakers by Gustav Courbet
The Gleaners by Jean Francois Millet
Luncheon on the grass by Edouard Manet

IMPRESSIONISM
Impressionism is perhaps the most important movement in the whole of

modern painting. At some point in the 1860s, a group of young artists
decided to paint, very simply, what they saw, thought, and felt. They weren’t
interested in painting history, mythology, or the lives of great men, and they
didn’t seek perfection in visual appearances. Instead, as their name
suggests, the Impressionists tried to get down on canvas an “impression”
of how a landscape, thing, or person appeared to them at a certain moment
in time. This often meant using much lighter and looser brushwork than
painters had up until that point, and painting out of doors, en plein air. The
Impressionists also rejected official exhibitions and painting competitions
set up by the French government, instead organizing their own group
exhibitions, which the public were initially very hostile to. All of these moves
predicted the emergence of modern art, and the whole associated
philosophy of the avant-garde.
● The Impressionists used looser brushwork and lighter colors than

previous artists. They abandoned traditional three-dimensional
perspective and rejected the clarity of form that had previously served
to distinguish the more important elements of a picture from the
lesser ones. For this reason, many critics faulted Impressionist

paintings for their unfinished appearance and seemingly amateurish
quality.
● Picking up on the ideas of Gustave Courbet, the Impressionists aimed
to be painters of the real: they aimed to extend the possible subjects
for paintings. Getting away from depictions of idealized forms and
perfect symmetry, they concentrated on the world as they saw it,
which was imperfect in a myriad of ways.
● Scientific thought in the Impressionist era was beginning to recognize
that what the eye perceived and what the brain understood were two
different things. The Impressionists sought to capture the former - the
optical effects of light - to convey the fleeting nature of the present
moment, including ambient features such as changes in weather, on
their canvases. Their art did not necessarily rely on realistic
depictions.
● Impressionism records the effects of the massive mid-19th-century
renovation of Paris, led by civic planner Georges-Eugène Haussmann,
which included the city's newly constructed railway stations; wide,
tree-lined boulevards that replaced the formerly narrow, crowded
streets; and large, deluxe apartment buildings. The works that
focused on scenes of public leisure - especially scenes of cafés and
cabarets - often conveyed the new sense of alienation experienced by
the inhabitants of the first modern metropolis.

Impression, sunrise by Claude Monet
L’Absinthe by Edgar Degas
Boulevard Montmartre, Afternoon by Camille Pissarro

POST IMPRESSIONISM
Post-Impressionism encompasses a wide range of distinct artistic styles
that all share the common motivation of responding to the opticality of the
Impressionist movement. The stylistic variations assembled under the
general banner of Post-Impressionism range from the scientifically oriented
Neo-Impressionism of Georges Seurat to the lush Symbolism of Paul
Gauguin, but all concentrated on the subjective vision of the artist. The
movement ushered in an era during which painting transcended its
traditional role as a window onto the world and instead became a window
into the artist's mind and soul. The far-reaching aesthetic impact of the
Post-Impressionists influenced groups that arose during the turn of the 20th
century, like the Expressionists, as well as more contemporary movements,
like the identity-related Feminist Art.
● Symbolic and highly personal meanings were particularly important

to Post-Impressionists such as Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh.
Rejecting interest in depicting the observed world, they instead
looked to their memories and emotions in order to connect with the
viewer on a deeper level.
● Structure, order, and the optical effects of color dominated the
aesthetic vision of Post-Impressionists like Paul Cézanne, Georges
Seurat, and Paul Signac. Rather than merely represent their
surroundings, they relied upon the interrelations of color and shape to
describe the world around them.

● Despite the various individualized styles, most Post-Impressionists
focused on abstract form and pattern in the application of paint to
the surface of the canvas. Their early leanings toward abstraction
paved the way for the radical modernist exploration of abstraction
that took place in the early-20th century.
● Critics grouped the various styles within Post-Impressionism into two
general, opposing stylistic trends - on one side was the structured, or
geometric style that was the precursor to Cubism, while on the other
side was the expressive, or non-geometric art that led to Abstract
Expressionism.
Sunday Afternoon by George Seurat
Vision after the sermon by Paul Gauguin

The scream by Edvard Munch
Starry night by Vincent Van Gogh
Potato eaters by Vincent Van Gogh

ARTS AND CRAFTS
The founders of the Arts & Crafts Movement were some of the first major
critics of the Industrial Revolution. Disenchanted with the impersonal,
mechanized direction of society in the 19th century, they sought to return to a
simpler, more fulfilling way of living. The movement is admired for its use of
high quality materials and for its emphasis on utility in design. The Arts &
Crafts emerged in the United Kingdom around 1860, at roughly the same
time as the closely related Aesthetic Movement, but the spread of the Arts
& Crafts across the Atlantic to the United States in the 1890s, enabled it to
last longer - at least into the 1920s. Although the movement did not adopt
its common name until 1887, in these two countries the Arts & Crafts
existed in many variations, and inspired similar contemporaneous groups of
artists and reformers in Europe and North America, including Art Nouveau,
the Wiener Werkstatte, the Prairie School, and many others. The faith in
the ability of art to reshape society exerted a powerful influence on its many
successor movements in all branches of the arts.
● The Arts & Crafts movement existed under its specific name in the
United Kingdom and the United States, and these two strands are
often distinguished from each other by their respective attitudes
towards industrialization: in Britain, Arts & Crafts artists and

designers tended to be either negative or ambivalent towards the role
of the machine in the creative process, while Americans tended to
embrace the machine more readily.
● The practitioners of the movement strongly believed that the
connection forged between the artist and his work through handcraft
was the key to producing both human fulfillment and beautiful items
that would be useful on an everyday basis; as a result, Arts & Crafts
artists are largely associated with the vast range of the decorative
arts and architecture as opposed to the "high" arts of painting and
sculpture.
● The Arts & Crafts aesthetic varied greatly depending on the media
and location involved, but it was influenced most prominently by both
the imagery of nature and the forms of medieval art, particularly the
Gothic style, which enjoyed a revival in Europe and North America
during the mid-19th century.
Red house by William Morris and Philip Webb

Wallpaper by Morris & Co.
Gamble house by Greene and Greene
Sideboard by Charles Voysey

ART NOUVEAU
Generating enthusiasts in the decorative and graphic arts and architecture
throughout Europe and beyond, Art Nouveau appeared in a wide variety of
strands, and, consequently, it is known by various names, such as the
Glasgow Style, or, in the German-speaking world, Jugendstil. Art Nouveau
was aimed at modernizing design, seeking to escape the eclectic historical
styles that had previously been popular. Artists drew inspiration from both
organic and geometric forms, evolving elegant designs that united flowing,
natural forms resembling the stems and blossoms of plants. The emphasis
on linear contours took precedence over color, which was usually
represented with hues such as muted greens, browns, yellows, and blues.
The movement was committed to abolishing the traditional hierarchy of the
arts, which viewed the so-called liberal arts, such as painting and sculpture,
as superior to craft-based decorative arts. The style went out of fashion for
the most part long before the First World War, paving the way for the
development of Art Deco in the 1920s, but it experienced a popular revival
in the 1960s, and it is now seen as an important predecessor - if not an
integral component - of modernism.
● The desire to abandon the historical styles of the 19th century was an
important impetus behind Art Nouveau and one that establishes the
movement's modernism. Industrial production was, at that point,

widespread, and yet the decorative arts were increasingly dominated
by poorly-made objects imitating earlier periods. The practitioners of
Art Nouveau sought to revive good workmanship, raise the status of
craft, and produce genuinely modern design that reflected the utility
of the items they were creating.
● The academic system, which dominated art education from the 17th
to the 19th century, underpinned the widespread belief that media
such as painting and sculpture were superior to crafts such as
furniture design and ironwork. The consequence, many believed, was
the neglect of good craftsmanship. Art Nouveau artists sought to
overturn that belief, aspiring instead to "total works of the arts," the
famous Gesamtkunstwerk, that inspired buildings and interiors in
which every element worked harmoniously within a related visual
vocabulary. In the process, Art Nouveau helped to narrow the gap
between the fine and the applied arts, though it is debatable whether
this gap has ever been completely closed.
● Many Art Nouveau practitioners felt that earlier design had been
excessively ornamental, and in wishing to avoid what they perceived
as frivolous decoration, they evolved a belief that the function of an
object should dictate its form. In practice this was a somewhat flexible
ethos, yet it would be an important part of the style's legacy to later
modernist movements, most famously the Bauhaus.

Paris metro subway entry by Hector Guimard
Park Guell by Antoni Gaudi
The kiss by Gustav Klimt

ART DECO
The Art Deco style manifested across the spectrum of the visual arts: from
architecture, painting, and sculpture to the graphic and decorative arts.
While Art Deco practitioners were often paying homage to modernist
influences such as Cubism, De Stijl, and Futurism, the references were
indirect; it was as though they were taking the end results of a few decades
of distilling compositions to the most basic forms and inventing a new style
that could be visually pleasing but not intellectually threatening.
The Art Deco style originated in Paris, but has influenced architecture and
culture as a whole. Art Deco works are symmetrical, geometric,
streamlined, often simple, and pleasing to the eye. This style is in contrast
to avant-garde art of the period, which challenged everyday viewers to find
meaning and beauty in what were often unapologetically anti-traditional
images and forms.
● Art Deco, similar to Art Nouveau, is a modern art style that attempts
to infuse functional objects with artistic touches. This movement is
different from the fine arts (painting and sculpture) where the art
object has no practical purpose or use beyond providing interesting
viewing.

● With the advent of large-scale manufacturing, artists and designers
wished to enhance the appearance of mass-produced functional
objects - everything from clocks and ashtrays to cars and buildings.
Art Deco's pursuit of beauty in all aspects of life was directly reflective
of the relative newness and mass usage of machine-age technology
rather than traditional crafting methods to produce many objects. The
Bauhaus school was also interested in industrial production, but in a
sense The Bauhaus is the polar opposite as it refrained from artistic
embellishments - preferring clean and simple geometric forms.
● The Art Deco ethos diverged from the Art Nouveau and Arts and
Crafts styles, which emphasized the uniqueness and originality of
handmade objects and featured stylized, organic forms. That crafted
quality was emblematic of a kind of elitism in opposition to Art Deco's
more egalitarian aim: to make aesthetically appealing, machine-made
objects that were available to everyone.
● Streamline Moderne, the American version of the Art Deco style was
a stripped-down and sleek version of the more elaborate and often
bespoke European Art Deco style. In many ways, the American style
grew and evolved to have a much bigger following and use in the U.S.
than in Europe.

Table and chairs by Maurice Dufrêne
Armchair by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann

Empire State Building, New York City, by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon
The American Radiator Building, New York City, N.Y., by Raymond Hood
Interior door in the Chrysler Building

FUTURISM
Focusing on progress and modernity, the Futurists sought to sweep away
traditional artistic notions and replace them with an energetic celebration of
the machine age. Focus was placed on creating a unique and dynamic
vision of the future and artists incorporated portrayals of urban landscapes
as well as new technologies such as trains, cars, and airplanes into their
depictions. Speed, violence, and the working classes were all glorified by
the group as ways to advance change and their work covered a wide variety
of artforms, including architecture, sculpture, literature, theater, music, and
even food.
Futurism was invented, and predominantly based, in Italy, led by the

charismatic poet Marinetti. The group was at its most influential and active
between 1909 and 1914 but was re-started by Marinetti after the end of the
First World War. This revival attracted new artists and became known as
second generation Futurism. Although most prominent in Italy, Futurist
ideas were utilized by artists in Britain (informing Vorticism), the US and
Japan and Futurist works were displayed all over Europe. Russian Futurism
is usually considered a separate movement, although some Russian
Futurists did engage with the earlier Italian movement. Futurism
anticipated the aesthetics of Art Deco as well as influencing Dada and
German Expressionism.

● A key focus of the Futurists was the depiction of movement, or

dynamism. The group developed a number of novel techniques to
express speed and motion, including blurring, repetition, and the use
of lines of force. This last method was adapted from the work of the
Cubists and the inclusion of such lines became a feature of Futurist
images.
● The Futurists published a huge number of different manifestos, using
them to communicate their aesthetic, political, and social ideals.
Although both the Realists and Symbolists had previously produced
similar documents, the sheer scale with which the Futurists created
and disseminated their manifestos was unprecedented, allowing them
to transmit their ideas to a wider audience. To assist them logistically
with their distribution, the group made use of some of the new
technologies they depicted in their art including advancements in mass
media, printing, and transportation.
● Many Italian Futurists supported Fascism and parallels can be drawn
between the two movements. Like the Fascists, the Futurists were
strongly patriotic, excited by violence and opposed to parliamentary
democracy. When Mussolini took power in 1922 it brought Futurism
official acceptance, but, later, this adversely affected many of the
artists as they became tainted by association.

The City Rises by Umberto Boccioni
Unique forms of continuity in space by Umberto Boccioni
Funeral of the Anarchist Galli by Carlo Carra

CONSTRUCTIVISM
Constructivism was the most influential modern art movement in twentieth
century Russia. With its aesthetic roots fixed firmly in the Suprematism
movement, Constructivism came fully to the fore as the art of a young
Soviet Union after the revolution of 1917. The movement was conceived
out of a need for a new aesthetic language; one benefitting from a
progressive new era in Soviet socialist history. Constructivism also
borrowed elements of other European avant-gardes, notably Cubism and
Futurism, and at its heart was the idea that artmaking should be
approached as a process of cerebral “construction”.
Released from the old romantic notion of being tied to the studio and the
easel, Constructivist artists were reborn as technicians and/or engineers
who, much like scientists, were seeking solutions to modern problems. By
the early 1920s Constructivist art had evolved to accommodate the idea of
Productivism which took the aesthetic principles of Constructivism and
applied them to “everyday” art such as photography, fashion, graphic and
textile design, cinema, and theater. Nevertheless, by the early 1930s the
Soviet avant-garde had rudely fallen foul of the new regime that wished to
promote the more transparent style of Socialist Realism.

● The shared goal of the founders of Constructivism was to produce

artworks and buildings using modern materials and designs that
would awaken the proletariat to imperialist class divisions and other
bourgeois inequalities. The Constructionists sought, in Aleksei Gan’s
words, “to find the Communist expression of material construction
[and] to establish a scientific base for the approach to constructing
buildings and services that would fulfill the demands of Communist
culture”.
● Constructivism became closely aligned with the idea of agitprop
(agitational propaganda) which applied to an artwork that aimed to
educate and indoctrinate its audience to the prevailing Bolshevik
cause. By employing arrangements of basic industrial geometric
forms and colors the new Soviet Union would be represented by the
new languages of industry and modernity. However, most of the
country were semi/illiterate land workers, and these remote
communities were reached through Agit Trains. These featured
(amongst other things) purpose-built cinemas which delivered the
Bolshevik message through unambiguous propaganda films, known
as agitki.
● Once evolved into Productivism, Constructivist art promoted the idea
that industrial production must directly address the needs of the
proletariat. Without abandoning their commitment to basic geometric
shapes and colors, Productivists moved away from abstraction and

engaged with design activities including furniture design, ceramics,
textile design, graphic design and advertising, and theater set design.
● Constructivist art often aimed to demonstrate how materials behave
and to test, for instance, the properties of materials such as wood,
glass, and metal. The form an artwork would take would be dictated
by its materials rather than in traditional art practice whereby the
artist transforms his or her base materials into something different
(and possibly beautiful). These inquiries were often in and of
themselves. For many Constructivists, this entailed a commitment to
the "truth to materials' ', that being, the belief that materials should be
employed only in accordance with their capacities, and in such a way
that demonstrated the uses to which they should be put.
Suprematism by Kazimir Malevich

Proun room by El Lissitzky
The sailor by Vladimir Tatlin
Tatlin tower by Vladimir Tatlin

CUBISM
Cubism developed in the aftermath of Pablo Picasso's shocking 1907 Les
Demoiselles d'Avignon in a period of rapid experimentation between Pablo
Picasso and Georges Braque. Drawing upon Paul Cezanne’s emphasis on
the underlying architecture of form, these artists used multiple vantage
points to fracture images into geometric forms. Rather than modeled forms in
an illusionistic space, figures were depicted as dynamic arrangements of
volumes and planes where background and foreground merged. The
movement was one of the most groundbreaking of the early-20th century
as it challenged Renaissance depictions of space, leading almost directly to
experiments with non-representation by many different artists. Artists
working in the Cubist style went on to incorporate elements of collage and
popular culture into their paintings and to experiment with sculpture.
A number of artists adopted Picasso and Braque's geometric faceting of

objects and space including Fernand Léger and Juan Gris, along with
others that formed a group known as the Salon Cubists.
● The artists abandoned perspective, which had been used to depict

space since the Renaissance, and they also turned away from the
realistic modeling of figures.

● Cubists explored open form, piercing figures and objects by letting
the space flow through them, blending background into foreground,
and showing objects from various angles. Some historians have
argued that these innovations represent a response to the changing
experience of space, movement, and time in the modern world. This
first phase of the movement was called Analytic Cubism.
● In the second phase of Cubism, Synthetic Cubism practitioners
explored the use of non-art materials as abstract signs. Their use of
newspapers would lead later historians to argue that, instead of being
concerned above all with form, the artists were also acutely aware of
current events, particularly World War I.
● Cubism paved the way for non-representational art by putting new
emphasis on the unity between a depicted scene and the surface of
the canvas. These experiments would be taken up by the likes of Piet
Mondrian, who continued to explore their use of the grid, abstract
system of signs, and shallow space.
The young ladies of Avignon by Pablo Picasso

Houses at L’Estaque by Georges Braque
Guernica by Pablo Picasso
Tea time by Jean Metzinger

DADA
Dada was an artistic and literary movement that began in Zürich,
Switzerland. It arose as a reaction to World War I and the nationalism that
many thought had led to the war. Influenced by other avant-garde
movements - Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, and Expressionism - its
output was wildly diverse, ranging from performance art to poetry,
photography, sculpture, painting, and collage. Dada's aesthetic, marked by
its mockery of materialistic and nationalistic attitudes, proved a powerful
influence on artists in many cities, including Berlin, Hanover, Paris, New
York, and Cologne, all of which generated their own groups. The movement
dissipated with the establishment of Surrealism, but the ideas it gave rise to
have become the cornerstones of various categories of modern and
contemporary art.
● Dada was the direct antecedent to the Conceptual Art movement,

where the focus of the artists was not on crafting aesthetically
pleasing objects but on making works that often upended bourgeois
sensibilities and that generated difficult questions about society, the
role of the artist, and the purpose of art.
● So intent were members of Dada on opposing all norms of bourgeois
culture that the group was barely in favor of itself: "Dada is anti-Dada,"
they often cried. The group's founding in the Cabaret Voltaire in
Zürich was appropriate: the Cabaret was named after the 18th

century French satirist, Voltaire, whose novella Candide mocked the
idiocies of his society. As Hugo Ball, one of the founders of both the
Cabaret and Dada wrote, "This is our Candide against the times."
● Artists like Hans Arp were intent on incorporating chance into the
creation of works of art. This went against all norms of traditional art
production whereby a work was meticulously planned and completed.
The introduction of chance was a way for Dadaists to challenge
artistic norms and to question the role of the artist in the artistic
process.
● Dada artists are known for their use of readymades - everyday
objects that could be bought and presented as art with little
manipulation by the artist. The use of the readymade forced
questions about artistic creativity and the very definition of art and its
purpose in society.
The fountain by Marcel Duschamp

Chinese Nightingale by Max Ernst
Hugo Ball designed this costume for his performance of the sound-poem, "Karawane,"
The spirit of our time by Raoul Hausmann

SURREALISM
The Surrealists sought to channel the unconscious as a means to unlock
the power of the imagination. Disdaining rationalism and literary realism,
and powerfully influenced by psychoanalysis, the Surrealists believed the
rational mind repressed the power of the imagination, weighing it down with
taboos. Influenced also by Karl Marx, they hoped that the psyche had the
power to reveal the contradictions in the everyday world and spur on
revolution. Their emphasis on the power of personal imagination puts them
in the tradition of Romanticism, but unlike their forebears, they believed that
revelations could be found on the street and in everyday life. The Surrealist
impulse to tap the unconscious mind, and their interests in myth and
primitivism, went on to shape many later movements, and the style remains
influential to this today.
● André Breton defined Surrealism as "psychic automatism in its pure

state, by which one proposes to express - verbally, by means of the
written word, or in any other manner - the actual functioning of
thought." What Breton is proposing is that artists bypass reason and
rationality by accessing their unconscious mind. In practice, these
techniques became known as automatism or automatic writing,
which allowed artists to forgo conscious thought and embrace
chance when creating art.

● The work of Sigmund Freud was profoundly influential for Surrealists,
particularly his book, The Interpretation of Dreams (1899). Freud
legitimized the importance of dreams and the unconscious as valid
revelations of human emotion and desires; his exposure of the
complex and repressed inner worlds of sexuality, desire, and violence
provided a theoretical basis for much of Surrealism.
● Surrealist imagery is probably the most recognizable element of the
movement, yet it is also the most elusive to categorize and define.
Each artist relied on their own recurring motifs arisen through their
dreams or/and unconscious mind. At its basic, the imagery is
outlandish, perplexing, and even uncanny, as it is meant to jolt the
viewer out of their comforting assumptions. Nature, however, is the
most frequent imagery: Max Ernst was obsessed with birds and had a
bird alter ego, Salvador Dalí's works often include ants or eggs, and
Joan Miró relied strongly on vague biomorphic imagery.
Carnival of Harlequin by Joan Miro

The persistence of memory by Salvador Dali
The human condition by Rene Magritte
Object by Meret Oppenheim

BAUHAUS
The Bauhaus was arguably the single most influential modernist art school of
the 20th century. Its approach to teaching, and to the relationship between
art, society, and technology, had a major impact both in Europe and in the
United States long after its closure under Nazi pressure in 1933. The
Bauhaus was influenced by 19th and early-20th-century artistic directions
such as the Arts and Crafts movement, as well as Art Nouveau and its
many international incarnations, including the Jugendstil and Vienna
Secession. All of these movements sought to level the distinction between
the fine and applied arts, and to reunite creativity and manufacturing; their
legacy was reflected in the romantic medievalism of the Bauhaus ethos
during its early years, when it fashioned itself as a kind of craftsmen's guild.
But by the mid-1920s this vision had given way to a stress on uniting art
and industrial design, and it was this which underpinned the Bauhaus's
most original and important achievements. The school is also renowned for
its extraordinary faculty, who subsequently led the development of modern
art - and modern thought - throughout Europe and the United States.
● The origins of the Bauhaus lie in the late 19th century, in anxieties
about the soullessness of modern manufacturing, and fears about
art's loss of social relevance. The Bauhaus aimed to reunite fine art

and functional design, creating practical objects with the soul of
artworks.
● Although the Bauhaus abandoned many aspects of traditional
fine-arts education, it was deeply concerned with intellectual and
theoretical approaches to its subject. Various aspects of artistic and
design pedagogy were fused, and the hierarchy of the arts which had
stood in place during the Renaissance was leveled out: the practical
crafts - architecture and interior design, textiles and woodwork - were
placed on a par with fine arts such as sculpture and painting.
● Given the equal stress it placed on fine art and functional craft, it is no
surprise that many of the Bauhaus's most influential and lasting
achievements were in fields other than painting and sculpture. The
furniture and utensil designs of Marcel Breuer, Marianne Brandt, and
others paved the way for the stylish minimalism of the 1950s-60s,
while architects such as Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe were acknowledged as the forerunners of the similarly slick
International Style that is so important in architecture to this day.
● The stress on experiment and problem-solving which characterized
the Bauhaus's approach to teaching has proved to be enormously
influential on contemporary art education. It has led to the rethinking
of the "fine arts" as the "visual arts", and to a reconceptualization of
the artistic process as more akin to a research science than to a
humanities subject such as literature or history.

Yellow-Red-Blue by Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily chair by Marcel Breuer
The Bauhaus building in Dessau by Walter Gropius

Barcelona pavilion by Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe
Barcelona chair by Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe
Teapot by Marianne Brandt

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
“Abstract Expressionism" was never an ideal label for the movement, which
developed in New York in the 1940s and 1950s. It was somehow meant to
encompass not only the work of painters who filled their canvases with fields
of color and abstract forms, but also those who attacked their canvases with
a vigorous gestural expressionism. Still Abstract Expressionism has become
the most accepted term for a group of artists who held much in common. All
were committed to art as expressions of the self, born out of profound
emotion and universal themes, and most were shaped by the legacy of
Surrealism, a movement that they translated into a new style fitted to the
post-war mood of anxiety and trauma. In their success, these New York
painters robbed Paris of its mantle as leader of modern art, and set the stage
for America's dominance of the international art world.
● Political instability in Europe in the 1930s brought several leading

Surrealists to New York, and many of the Abstract Expressionists
were profoundly influenced by Surrealism's focus on mining the
unconscious. It encouraged their interest in myth and archetypal
symbols and it shaped their understanding of painting itself as a
struggle between self-expression and the chaos of the subconscious.
● Most of the artists associated with Abstract Expressionism matured in
the 1930s. They were influenced by the era's leftist politics, and

came to value an art grounded in personal experience. Few would
maintain their earlier radical political views, but many continued to
adopt the posture of outspoken avant-gardists.
● Having matured as artists at a time when America suffered
economically and felt culturally isolated and provincial, the Abstract
Expressionists were later welcomed as the first authentically
American avant-garde. Their art was championed for being
emphatically American in spirit - monumental in scale, romantic in
mood, and expressive of a rugged individual freedom.
● Although the movement has been largely depicted throughout
historical documentation as one belonging to the paint-splattered,
heroic male artist, there were several important female Abstract
Expressionists that arose out of New York and San Francisco during
the 1940s and '50s who now receive credit as elemental members of
the canon.
Autumn rhythm by Jackson Pollock

No.6 by Mark Rothko
Chief by Franz Kline
Pink angels by Willem de Kooning

BRUTALISM
Brutalism was a movement in modern architecture responsible for some of
the most striking building designs of the twentieth century. But its
achievements also proved shocking and controversial, partly because of its
emphasis on the use of unfinished concrete for exterior surfaces. Brutalism
emerged after the Second World War but was rooted in the ideas of
functionalism and monumental simplicity that had defined earlier
architectural modernism, including the International Style. Brutalism sought to
adapt earlier principles to a post-war world where urban reconstruction was
a pressing necessity. In this sense, it was partly inspired by
democratic-socialist visions of community, but it was also propelled by the
avant-garde idiosyncrasies of maverick architects, and it is remembered as
much for the 'devil-may-care' brashness of its designs as for their
communitarian ethos. In the decades following its zenith, Brutalism
became redolent of urban deprivation and decline, largely because of its
use in large scale social housing projects, but in the twenty-first century
Brutalism is decidedly back in critical and popular fashion.
● Brutalism's most famous stylistic motif was the use of raw concrete
(French "béton brut") for exterior surfaces, leaving evidence of the
construction process, such as the holes and seam lines left by the
setting of liquid concrete, visible on the outsides of buildings. For

Brutalist architects this approach showed a truth to the textural
qualities of materials, and to the labor of construction, that
epitomized their socially engaged, ethics-driven approach to their
work.
● The way in which Brutalism emphasized the physical properties of
building materials represented an update on Louis H. Sullivan's
famous 'form follows function' maxim, which had inspired an earlier
wave of modernist architecture culminating in the International Style.
But whereas International Style often favored a sleek, streamlined
efficiency of construction - doing the most with the least - Brutalism
was more likely to emphasize the brash abundance of its materials,
drawing attention to the weight, density, and mass of concrete, steel,
and stone.
● Brutalism emerged at a time of urgent need for large-scale, affordable
residential architecture. Europe's major cities were heavily
bomb-damaged, while the need to clear urban slums, and a
widespread desire to improve the lot of the common citizen, inspired
largescale rehousing projects across much of the continent. With the
scale of its designs and emphasis on cheap building materials,
Brutalism became the style of choice for many of these projects: with
mixed results for its own critical and popular fortunes.
● Brutalism was part of a broader wave of mid-century-modernist
functional design. Whereas modernism in visual art and literature is
generally associated with the early twentieth century, and often with
notions of complexity and difficulty, this mid-century modernism was
notable for the iconic simplicity of its designs, and for its egalitarian

emphasis on mass production and utility, an aesthetic rooted in the
advances of the Bauhaus and Constructivism.
● Brutalism undoubtedly owed an allegiance to the emphasis on brute
materiality that defined the Art Brut movement. In Britain, Brutalist
architects such as Alison and Peter Smithson were acquainted with
Jean Dubuffet, the primary exponent of Art Brut, and sought to
emulate his primitive, visceral approach through the spirit of their
designs.
Unité d’Habitation by Le Corbusier

Habitat 67 by Moshe Safdie
Breuer building by Marcel Breuer and Hamilton Smith
Bangladesh National Parliament house by Louis Kahn

MINIMALISM
Minimalism emerged in New York in the early 1960s among artists who
were self-consciously renouncing recent art they thought had become stale
and academic. A wave of new influences and rediscovered styles led
younger artists to question conventional boundaries between various
media. The new art favored the cool over the "dramatic": their sculptures
were frequently fabricated from industrial materials and emphasized
anonymity over the expressive excess of Abstract Expressionism. Painters
and sculptors avoided overt symbolism and emotional content, but instead
called attention to the materiality of the works. By the end of the 1970s,
Minimalism had triumphed in America and Europe through a combination of
forces including museum curators, art dealers, and publications, plus new
systems of private and government patronage. And members of a new
movement, Post-Minimalism, were already challenging its authority and
were thus a testament to how important Minimalism itself became.
● Minimalists distanced themselves from the Abstract Expressionists

by removing suggestions of biography from their art or, indeed,
metaphors of any kind. This denial of expression coupled with an
interest in making objects that avoided the appearance of fine art led
to the creation of sleek, geometric works that purposefully and
radically eschewed conventional aesthetic appeal.

● The post-Sputnik era revived active interest in Russian
Constructivism. The Constructivist approach led to the use of
modular fabrication and industrial materials in preference to the craft
techniques of traditional sculpture. The readymades of Marcel
Duchamp were also inspirational examples of the employment of
prefabricated materials. Based on these sources, Minimalists created
works that resembled factory-built commodities and upended
traditional definitions of art whose meaning was tied to a narrative or
to the artist.
● The use of prefabricated industrial materials and simple, often
repeated geometric forms together with the emphasis placed on the
physical space occupied by the artwork led to some works that forced
the viewer to confront the arrangement and scale of the forms. Viewers
also were led to experience qualities of weight, height, gravity, agility
or even the appearance of light as a material presence. They were
often faced with artworks that demanded a physical as well as a
visual response.
● Minimalists sought to break down traditional notions of sculpture and to
erase distinctions between painting and sculpture. In particular, they
rejected the formalist dogma espoused by the critic Clement
Greenberg that placed limitations on the art of painting and privileged
artists who seemed to paint under his direction. The Minimalists'
more democratic point of view was set out in writings as well as
exhibitions by their leaders Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, and Robert
Morris.

Cedar piece by Carl Andre
Greens crossing greens by Dan Flavin
Untitled by Donald Judd

POP ART
Pop Art's refreshing reintroduction of identifiable imagery, drawn from
media and popular culture, was a major shift for the direction of modernism.
With roots in Neo-Dada and other movements that questioned the very
definition of “art” itself, Pop was birthed in the United Kingdom in the 1950s
amidst a postwar socio-political climate where artists turned toward
celebrating commonplace objects and elevating the everyday to the level of
fine art. American artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, James
Rosenquist and others would soon follow suit to become the most famous
champions of the movement in their own rejection of traditional historic
artistic subject matter in lieu of contemporary society’s ever-present
infiltration of mass manufactured products and images that dominated the
visual realm. Perhaps owing to the incorporation of commercial images,
Pop Art has become one of the most recognizable styles of modern art.
● By creating paintings or sculptures of mass culture objects and

media stars, the Pop Art movement aimed to blur the boundaries
between "high" art and "low" culture. The concept that there is no
hierarchy of culture and that art may borrow from any source has
been one of the most influential characteristics of Pop Art.
● It could be argued that the Abstract Expressionists searched for
trauma in the soul, while Pop artists searched for traces of the same

trauma in the mediated world of advertising, cartoons, and popular
imagery at large. But it is perhaps more precise to say that Pop artists
were the first to recognize that there is no unmediated access to
anything, be it the soul, the natural world, or the built environment.
Pop artists believed everything is interconnected, and therefore
sought to make those connections literal in their artwork.
● Although Pop Art encompasses a wide variety of work with very
different attitudes and postures, much of it is somewhat emotionally
removed. In contrast to the "hot" expression of the gestural
abstraction that preceded it, Pop Art is generally "coolly" ambivalent.
Whether this suggests an acceptance of the popular world or a
shocked withdrawal, has been the subject of much debate.
● Pop artists seemingly embraced the post-World War II manufacturing
and media boom. Some critics have cited the Pop Art choice of
imagery as an enthusiastic endorsement of the capitalist market and
the goods it circulated, while others have noted an element of cultural
critique in the Pop artists' elevation of the everyday to high art: tying
the commodity status of the goods represented to the status of the
art object itself, emphasizing art's place as, at base, a commodity.
● Some of the most famous Pop artists began their careers in
commercial art: Andy Warhol was a highly successful magazine
illustrator and graphic designer; Ed Ruscha was also a graphic
designer, and James Rosenquist started his career as a billboard
painter. Their background in the commercial art world trained them in
the visual vocabulary of mass culture as well as the techniques to
seamlessly merge the realms of high art and popular culture.

Drowning girl by Roy Lichtenstein
Campbell’s soup 1 by Andy Warhol
Funhouse by Richard Hamilton

POSTMODERNISM
Postmodernism is best understood by defining the modernist ethos it

replaced - that of the avant-garde who were active from the 1860s to the
1950s. The various artists in the modern period were driven by a radical
and forward thinking approach, ideas of technological positivity, and grand
narratives of Western domination and progress. The arrival of Neo-Dada
and Pop art in post-war America marked the beginning of a reaction
against this mindset that came to be known as postmodernism. The
reaction took on multiple artistic forms for the next four decades, including
Conceptual art, Minimalism, Video art, Performance art, Institutional
Critique, and Identity Art. These movements are diverse and disparate but
connected by certain characteristics: ironical and playful treatment of a
fragmented subject, the breakdown of high and low culture hierarchies,
undermining of concepts of authenticity and originality, and an emphasis on
image and spectacle. Beyond these larger movements, many artists and less
pronounced tendencies continue in the postmodern vein to this day.
● Postmodernism is distinguished by a questioning of the master

narratives that were embraced during the modern period, the most
important being the notion that all progress - especially technological
- is positive. By rejecting such narratives, postmodernists reject the

idea that knowledge or history can be encompassed in totalizing
theories, embracing instead the local, the contingent, and the
temporary. Other narratives rejected by postmodernists include the
idea of artistic development as goal-oriented, the notion that only
men are artistic geniuses, and the colonialist assumption that
non-white races are inferior. Thus, Feminist art and minority art that
challenged canonical ways of thinking are often included under the
rubric of postmodernism or seen as representations of it.
● Postmodernism overturned the idea that there was one inherent
meaning to a work of art or that this meaning was determined by the
artist at the time of creation. Instead, the viewer became an
important determiner of meaning, even allowed by some artists to
participate in the work as in the case of some performance pieces.
Other artists went further by creating works that required viewer
intervention to create and/or complete the work.
● The Dada readymade had a marked influence on postmodernism in
its questioning of authenticity and originality. Combined with the
notion of appropriation, postmodernism often took the undermining of
originality to the point of copyright infringement, even in the use of
photographs with little or no alteration to the original.
● The idea of breaking down distinctions between high and low art,
particularly with the incorporation of elements of popular culture, was
also a key element of postmodernism that had its roots in the
late-19th and early-20th centuries in the work of Edgar Degas, for
example, who painted on fans, and later in Cubism where Pablo
Picasso often included the lyrics of popular songs on his canvases.

This idea that all visual culture is not only equally valid, but that it can
also be appreciated and enjoyed without any aesthetic training,
undermines notions of value and artistic worth, much like the use of
readymades.
AT & T building by Phillip Johnson
Marylin Diptych by Andy Warhol

The physical impossibility of death in the mind of someone living by Damien Hirst
Vana Venturi house by Robert Venturi


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ART, DESIGN AND

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

This Early Renaissance is also known as the Quattrocento, derived from

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

● An evolution of radically fresh artistic techniques came into practice, departing

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

The birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Statue of David by Michaelangelo

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

The creation of Adam by Michaelangelo

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Some scholars further divide Mannerism into two periods. Early

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

● A key element of Mannerism was the use of ﬁgurative serpentinata, or

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Madonna with the long neck by Parmigianino

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

View of Toledo by El Greco

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Baroque disseminated throughout Europe, primarily led by the Pope in

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

The Oath of the Horatii by Jacques louis David

The death of Socrates by Jacques louis David

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Romanticist practitioners found their voices across all genres, including

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

● In part spurred by the idealism of the French Revolution, Romanticism

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

The Hay wain by John Constable

Liberty leading people by Eugene Delacroix

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

● Realism is broadly considered the beginning of modern art. Literally,

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

The Gleaners by Jean Francois Millet

Luncheon on the grass by Edouard Manet

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Impressionism is perhaps the most important movement in the whole of

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

● The Impressionists used looser brushwork and lighter colors than

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

L’Absinthe by Edgar Degas

Boulevard Montmartre, Afternoon by Camille Pissarro

Aakanksha Batra B.Des Sem-1 | Interior Design | UID

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

● Symbolic and highly personal meanings were particularly important