The Contemporary Contour (Art After World War II and Contemporary Art)

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The Contemporary Contour (Art After World War II
and Contemporary Art)
The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of
Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945
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Outline Chapter 22
Outline Chapter 22 The Contemporary
Contour Chapter 22 The Contemporary
Culture Toward a Global Culture Existentialism
Painting since 1945 Abstract Expressionism The
Return to Representation Contemporary Sculpture
Architecture Some Trends in Contemporary
Literature A Note on the Postmodern Music since
1945 Avant-Garde Developments The New
Minimalists Traditional Approaches to Modern
Music Popular Music
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Timeline Chapter 22
Timeline Chapter 22 The Contemporary
Contour 1945 World War II ends Holocaust
becomes widely known 1945 Salinger, The Catcher
in the Rye c.1925-1972 O'Keeffe, paintings of
giant flowers and western themes 1948 Pollock,
Number 1 (abstract expressionism) 1952 Beckett,
Waiting for Godot 1953 Hopper, Office in a
Small City Night Hawks(1942) 1955 Warhol,
Soupcans 1956 Bergman, Wild Strawberries 1958
Miës Van der Rohe and Philip Johnson, Seagram
Building, New York 1959 Wright, Guggenheim
Museum, New York 1959 Calder, Big Red 1964
Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
1977 Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, Pompidou
Center, Paris 1978 Pei, East Wing, National
Gallery of Art, Washington 1994 Gehry, American
Center, Paris Guggenheim, Bilbao (1997)
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The World after WWII, Post-Modernism, and The
Contemporary Landscape
This chapter deals with Western culture after the
time of the Second World War. In the postwar
period, with Europe in shambles and the Far East
still asleep, we confidently felt that the
twentieth was the American century many people,
not always admiringly, spoke of the
"Coca-Colazation" of the world. From the vantage
point of the beginning of the 21st century we now
see that, however powerful the United States may
be, there now exist other countervailing powers,
as the economic power of China readily
demonstrates.
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The Arts after WWII, Post-Modernism, and The
Contemporary Landscape
This period has also seen some dramatic shifts in
the arts. The modernist temper that prevailed
both in literature and in the arts has had its
inevitable reaction. The power of the New York
School of painting (abstract expressionism/color
field painting/minimalism) has been challenged by
new art forces, mainly from Europe, that
emphasize once again the picture plane and the
expressive power of emotion. In literature, the
modernist temper exemplified in writers like
Eliot, Woolf, and others has now given way to a
postmodern sensibility represented in writers who
are from Latin America, Japan, and Europe.
Increasing attention is being paid to the writers
both from Eastern Europe and from Africa.
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Questioning and Revising the Underpinnings of
Culture
Out of the human rights movement of the past
decades has arisen a determined effort to affirm
the place of women in the world of the arts both
by retrieving their overlooked work from the past
and by careful attention to those who work today.
Similarly, peoples of color, both male and
female, have come to the attention of large
audiences as the arts democratize. Contemporary
debates over the core humanities requirements in
universities (Should they restrict themselves to
the old "classics" or should they represent many
voices and many cultures?) simply reflect the
pressures of the culture, which is no longer sure
of its older assumptions.
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Existentislism, Humanism, Secularism, Relativism
No consensus exists on a humanistic worldview.
The power of existentialism after the war sprang
both from its philosophical ideas and from its
adaptability to the arts, especially the literary
arts. While the writings of Albert Camus are
still read and the plays of Beckett and Ionesco
are still performed, they now reflect a settled
place in the literary canon with no new single
idea providing the power to energize the arts as
a whole.
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Pluralism(and What is Next?)
It may well be that the key word to describe the
contemporary situation is pluralism a diversity
of influences, ideas, and movements spawned by an
age of instant communication and ever-growing
technology. The notion of a global culture argues
for a common culture growing out of mutual links.
There is some evidence of commonality, but it
must be said that in other areas there are
regional differences and even antagonisms. What
we seem to be seeing in an age when more people
buy books, see films, watch television, listen to
tapes and CDs, go to plays and concerts than ever
before is a situation the Greek philosophers
wrote about millennia ago-the curious puzzle
about the relationship of unity and diversity in
the observable world We are one, but we are also
many.
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Hopper, Edward

• Hotel Room 1931 (150 Kb)
• Oil on canvas,
• 60 x 65 inches

• Office at Night 1940 Oil on canvas, 22 1/8 x 25
  inches

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Georgia O'Keeffe
Untitled (Two Pears), 1921 Oil on board, 8 7/8
x 10 in.
Bella Donna, 1939 Oil on canvas, 36 1/4 x 30
1/8 in.
Black Mesa Landscape, New Mexico /Out Back of
Maries II, 1930Oil on canvas, 24 1/4 x 36 1/4
in.
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Pollock, Jackson
The She-Wolf 1943 (230 Kb) Oil, gouache, and
plaster on canvas, 41 7/8 x 67 in
Number 8, 1949 (detail) 1949 (280 Kb) Oil,
enamel, and aluminum paint on canvas
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Franz Kline
Lehigh V Span, 1959-1960 60 1/4 in. x 80 in.
(153.04 cm x 203.2 cm)oil on canvas
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WILLEM DE KOONING
Composition1955Oil, enamel, and charcoal on
canvas79 1/8 x 69 1/8 inches
Woman and Bicycle, 1952-53Oil on canvas, 76 1/2
x 49 in.
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Robert Motherwell
Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110, Easter
Day, 1971. Acrylic with pencil and charcoal on
canvas, 82 x 114 inches. Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum, Gift
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HELEN FRANKENTHALER
HELEN FRANKENTHALER b. 1928Viewpoint II,
1979Acrylic on canvas, 81 1/4 X 94 1/2"
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Jasper Johns
Flag. 195455 Encaustic, oil, and collage on
fabric mounted on plywood (three panels)42 1/4 x
60 5/8" (107.3 x 154 cm)The Museum of Modern
Art, New York
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Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg. Bed. 1955. Combine
painting oil and pencil on pillow, quilt, and
sheet on wood supports, 6' 3 1/4"x 31 1/2" x 8"
Robert RauschenbergMalaysian Flower Cave /ROCI
MALAYSIA, 1990
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Andy Warhol
Marilyn, 1964
Campbell's Soup 1, 1968
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Roy Lichtenstein
Picture and Pitcher, 1977 cast 1978Painted
bronze, 95 x 40 x 24 1/2"
Vicki, 1964 enamel on steel H.42 x W.42 x D.2 in.
Brushstroke, 1965color screenprint on paper
58.4 x 73.6 cm
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Philip Pearlstein
Two Models on Kilim Rug with Mirror, 1983 acrylic
paint on canvas90 x 72 inches
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Frank Stella
Adelante, 1964 97 1/4 in. x 165 1/2 in. metallic
powder in polymer emulsion on canvas
Frank StellaJarama II, 1982
Harran II, 1967. Polymer and fluorescent polymer
paint on canvas, 120 x 240 inches.
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Cornell, Joseph
Untitled (Soap Bubble Set) 1936 (140 Kb)
Construction, 15 3/4 x 14 1/4 x 5 7/16 in
Untitled 1942 Construction, 13 1/8 x 10 x 3 1/2
in
Untitled (Medici Boy) 1942-52 Construction, 13
15/16 x 11 3/16 x 3 7/8 in
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Alexander Calder
Mobile (Mobile), 1941. Painted aluminum,
Approx. 84 1/4 inches high.
Red Lily Pads, 1956. Painted sheet metal, metal
rods, and wire, 42 x 201 x 109 inches.
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Edward Kienholz
Night Clerk at the Young Hotel, 1982-1983 118
3/4 in. x 120 1/2 in. x 48 1/2 in. mixed media
Back Seat DodgeDate 1964
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Claes Oldenburg
Claes OldenburgGiant Soft Fan (Ghost
Version)1967Canvas, wood, and foam rubber
Bedroom Ensemble   1963 wood, vinyl, metal,
artificial fur, cloth and paperinstallation
space 3 x 6.5 x 5.25 m
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Robert Smithson
SPIRAL JETTY Rozel Point, Great Salt Lake,
UtahApril 1970mud, precipitated salt crystals,
rocks, water coil 1500' long and 15' wide
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Nam June Paik
Megatron, 1995 Video Screens142x270x23in
Mars, 1990 Neon and video
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Postmodernism and Contemporary Art
See Video Art Of The Western World Volume 9
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The Internet and the Future