A post-World War I cultural movement in visual art as well as literature (mainly poetry), theatre, and graphic design
Dadaism
A protest against the barbarism of the War and what Dadaists believed was an oppressive intellectual rigidity in both art and everyday society
Its works were characterized by deliberate irrationality and the rejection of the prevailing standards of art
Dadaists
First met at a café Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916
Tristan Tzara
The leader of the Dadaists, a poet from Romania
Richard Huelsenbeck
The co-founder of the Dadaists
Dada's motto was "Destruction is also creation" because Dada had no rules and no values, and it shocked people
The idea is more important than the work itself
Art can be made of anything
Dada sought to undermine all art, viewing it as part of cultural norms and sensibilities that established oppressive aesthetic standards and emphasized the "reason" and "order" that had led to the self-annihilating destruction of World War I
Surrealism
Launched in Paris in 1924 by French poet André Breton with the publication of his Manifesto of Surrealism
Surrealists
Believed that automatism (automatic writing and drawing) was a better way to tackle societal change than the Dada movements attack on prevailing values
The Surrealist artist often sought to challenge the social and political norms
The role of dreams and the unconscious mind is explored through symbolic imagery and metaphor in Surrealism
Constructivism
An artistic and architectural theory that originated in Russia at the beginning of 1913 by Vladimir Tatlin, a rejection of the idea of autonomous art by constructing it
Constructivism
Supported art as a practice for social objectives
Focused on industrial production
Used stripped-down, geometric forms and modest materials
Visual language existed in forms that could be drawn with practical instruments like compasses and rulers
Materials like wood, glass, and metal were analyzed and judged based on how suitable they were for use in mass-produced objects and images
Abstract Expressionism
A painting movement in which artists typically applied paint rapidly, and with force to their huge canvases to show feelings and emotions
The main result of the new American fascination with Surrealism was the emergence of Abstract Expressionism
Abstract Expressionism was produced in New York roughly between 1940-1960, and made New York the center of the art world, often called the "New York School"
Arshile Gorky was the artist to put the Abstract Expressionism movement into motion, because his art ideals were obtained from Surrealism, Picasso, and Miro
Optical Art or Opt Art
A form of geometric abstract art, that explores optical sensations through the use of visual effects such as recurring simple forms and rhythmic patterns, vibrating color combinations, moiré patterns, and foreground-background confusion
Optical Art
Employs tricks of visual perception like manipulating rules of perspective to give the illusion of three-dimensional space, mixing colors to create the impression of light and shadow
Elements of Optical Art
Line
Shape
Space
Principles of Optical Art
Pattern
Movement
Minimalism
Describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental form
Minimalism was most strongly associated with American visual arts in the late 1960's and early 1970's
Photorealism
An art movement that involves replicating the original photo image into a painting or a sculpture, commonly using photography to create their artwork
Photorealism derived from pop art minimalism because it challenged people's art paradigms and it also focused on American consumerism
Photorealism originated in the United States in the 1970's
Pop Art
Fused high art with everyday culture, employing common materials and popular imagery from mass media like comic strips and advertising
Artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein subverted traditional ideas of originality by replicating mass media visuals through techniques such as screen printing
Installation Art
Art that engages with three-dimensional space
Examples of Installation Art
Hairstyles
Nail Art
Makeup
Tattoos
Piercings
Performance Art
An art in which the medium is the artist's own body and the artwork takes the form of actions performed by the artist
Performance Art is art that could not be bought, sold, or traded as a commodity
While the terms 'performance' and 'performance art' only became widely used in the 1970s, the history of performance in the visual arts is often traced back to futurist productions and dada cabarets of the 1910s
Throughout the twentieth century performance was often seen as a non-traditional way of making art, with live-ness, physical movement and impermanence offering artists alternatives to the static permanence of painting and sculpture
In the post-war period performance became aligned with conceptual art, because of its characteristics as a legitimate artistic movement that is live, has no rules or guidelines, is not for sale, and may be comprised of various media
Conceptual art
Characterized by a focus on the idea or concept underlying the piece rather than the final product
The term "conceptual art" mainly refers to work created between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s
Conceptual art originated as an art trend in the 1960s