MODERN AND

CONTEMPORARY ARTS
EXPRESSIONISM
• IS AN ARTISTIC STYLE IN WHICH AN ARTIST ATTEMPTS TO PORTRAY NOT THE
OBJECTIVE REALITY BUT MORE ON SUBJECTIVE EMOTIONS AND RESPONSES
THAT OBJECTS, EVENTS, OR SITUATION AROUSEIN HIM/HER.
• EXPRESSIONIST ARTS SHOWS DISTORTION, EXAGGERATION, PRIMITIVISM, AND
FANTASY THROUGH THE VIVID, JARRING VIOLENT, OR DYNAMIC APPLICATION OF
FORMAL ELEMENTS.
• EXPRESSIONISM IS DIFFERENT FROM THE IMPRESSIONISM BECAUSE ITS GOALS
WERE NOT TO DUPLICATE THE IMPRESSION SUGGESTED BY THE SURROUNDING
WORLD, RATHER TO STRONGLY IMPOSE THE ARTIST’S OWN SENSIBILITY TO
HIS/HER WORLD’S REPRESENTATION. AMONG, THE DIFFERENT STYLES THAT
ASCENDED WITHIN THE EXPRESSIONIST ART MOVEMENT WERE: NEO-
PREMITIVISM, FAUVISM, SURREALISM, DADAISM, AND SOCIAL REALISM.
NEO-PRIMITIVISM
• THIS IS A NEW MOVEMENT OR GENRE IN ART THAT TREND IN
RUSSIAN PAINTING IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY INFLUENCES
FROM THE WESTERN AVANT-GARDE WERE COMBINED IN A
DELIBERATELY CRUDE WAY WITH FEATURES DERIVATIVE FROM THE
PEASANT ART, LUBKI AND OTHER ASPECTS OF RUSSIA’S ARTISTIC
HERITAGE.
LOOK CLOSELY AT THE CONVEYED ART
EXPRESSIONS IN THE FOLLOWING NEO-
PREMITIVISM ARTWORKS:
SELF PORTRAIT(1907) BY NATALIA SERGEEVNA GONCHAROVA

REVOLUTION (1917) BY DAVID BURLIUK

FAUVISM
• FAUVISM WAS THE FIRST OF THE AVANT-GARDE MOVEMENTS THAT
FLOURISHED IN FRANCE IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE TWENTIETH
CENTURY. IT IS THE STYLE OF LES FAUVES (FRENCH FOR “ THE WILD
BEAST”)
• IT WAS GRADUALLY INCLUDED INTO THE CANON OF MODERN ART,
BUT INFLUENCE LIBERATED THE USE OF COLOR FOR THE FUTURE
GENERATIONS OF ARTIST WHO ULTIMATELY EXPLORED COLOR AS AN
ABSTRACT SUBJECT.
• FAUVISM WAS SHORT-LIVED, AND BY 1910, ARTIST IN THE GROUP
HAD DIVERGED TOWARDS MORE OF THEIR INDIVIDUAL INTERESTS.
• ONE OF THE HIGHLY-REGARDED FAUVIST PERSONALITIES IS THE
FRENCH COLLAGIST, DRAFTSMAN, SCULPTOR, AND PAINTER HENRI
MATISSE.

HENRI MATISSE
• He was known as one of the world’s greatest colorist of the 20th century and
a rival to the Spanish artist PABLO PICASO in the importance of innovation.
• Toward the end of his career , he made a significant contribution to collage
with his series of cutout artworks of colors.
• COLLAGE- is a technique where an artwork is made from different materials
like pieces of photographs or paper. It was coined by Pablo Picaso and
Georges Braque when the collage become distinctive part of modern art.
 HENRI MATISSE – WAS CRITICIZED
BECAUSE OF HIS CONVENTIONAL
PORTRAITURE WITH THIS IMAGE OF HIS
WIFE. AMELIE’S POSE AND DRESS ARE
TYPICAL FOR THE DAY . MATISSE
UNEVENLY APPLIED BRILLIANT COLOR
ACROSS HER FACE, HAT, DRESS, AND EVEN
THE BACKGROUND. THIS KIND OF ART
STYLE SHOCKED HIS CONTEMPORARIES
WHEN HE SENT THE PICTURE TO THE 1905
SALON d’AUTOMNE. THE PAINTING
MARKED A STYLISTIC CHANGE DUE TO
MATISSE’S USE OF NON-NATURALISTIC
COLORS AND LOOSE BRUSHWORK THAT
CONTRIBUTED TO A SKETCHY OR
“UNFINISHED” QUALITY.
WOMAN WITH A HAT (1905) BY HENRI MATISSE
DADAISM
• DADA WAS A LITERARY AND ARTRISTIC MOVEMENT THAT
ORIGINATED IN EUROPE DURING THE TIME OF THE HORRORS OF
WORLD WAR 1.
• THE REPULSION OF WAR BROUGHT SEVERAL ARTISTS, WRITERS, AND
INTELLECTUALS TOGETHER. MOST OF THEM WERE FRENCH AND
GERMAN NATIONALITIST WHO FOUND THEMSELVES CONGREGATING
IN REFUGE THAT ZURICH (IN NEUTRAL SWITZERLAND) OFFERED. THEY
EXPRESSED THEIR ANGER THROUGH AN ARTISTIC TRADITION OF
PROTESTING.
CHARACTERISTICS OF DADAISM
INCLUDE THE FF:
• IT HAD ONLY ONE RULE: NEVER FOLLOW KNOWN RULES.
• IT ART WAS INTENDED TO PROVOKE AN EMOTIONAL REACTION
FROM THE VIEWER (TYPICALLY SHOCK OR OUTRAGE).
• IT WAS NONSENSICAL TO THE POINT OF BEING WHIMSICAL.
ALTHOUGH ALMOST ALL MEMBERS WHO CREATED IT WERE FIERCELY
SERIOUS.
• THERE WAS NO PREDOMINANT MEDIUMS AND STYLES IN DADAIST
ART. THEY USED ASSEMBLAGE, PHOTOMONTAGE, COLLAGE AND THE
USE OF READY-MADE OBJECTS, AMONG OTHERS.
 HANNAH HOCH
IS KNOWN FOR HER
COLLAGES AND
PHOTOMONTAGES
OUT OF NEWSPAPER
AND MAGAZINE
CLIPPINGS

CUT WITH THE ITCHEN KNIFE THROUGH THE BEER-

BELLY OF THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC (1919)
BY HANNAH HOCH
SURREALISM
• THE SUREALIST IS A CULTURAL MOVEMENT THAT BEGAN IN THE 1920s. IT WAS
NOTED FOR ITS VISUAL ARTWORKS AND WRITINGS.
• SURREALISM EXHIBITS PRINCIPLES, IDEALS, OR PRACTICES OF PRODUCING
FANTASTIC OR INCONGROUS IMAGERY OR EFFECTS IN ART, LITERATURE, FILM OR
THEATER BY MEANS OF UNNATURAL OR IRRATIONAL JUXTAPOSITIONS AND
COMBNATIONS.
• THE SUREALIST PAINTS DISCOMFORTING, ILLOGICAL SCENARIOS, WITH
PHOTOGRAPIC PRECISION, AND CREATES STRANGE CREATURES FROM EVERYDAY
OBJECTS.
• SURREALISM ALSO SHOWS PAINTING TECHNIQUES THAT ALLOWED THE
UNCONSCIOUS TO EXPRESS ITSELF. IT AIMS TO UNLOCK THE POWER OF
IMAGINATION.
L’Ange du Foyer ou Triomphe du
Surrealisme (1937) by MAX ERNST

THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY (1931) BY

SALVADOR DALI
SOCIAL REALISM
• THE SOCIAL REALISM IS AN ARTISTIC AND POLITICAL MOVEMENT THAT
FLOURISHED PRIMARILY DURING THE 1920s AND 1930s. IT WAS THE TIME OF
GLOBAL ECONOMIC DEPRESSION.
• THE SOCIAL REALISTS PRODUCED FIGURATIVE AND REALISTIC IMAGES OF THE
“MASSES” A TERM THAT COVERED THE LOWER AND WORKING CLASSES, THE
LABORERS WHO WERE INTO UNIONS, AND POLITICALLY MARGINALIZED.
• THE AMERICAN ARTISTS WERE NOT SATISFIED WITH THE FRENCH AVANT-GARDE
AND THEIR OWN ISOLATION FROM THE GREATER SOCIETY. THIS LED THEM TO
EARCH FOR NEW VOCABULARY AND NEW SOCIAL IMPORTANCE. WITH SOCIAL
REALISM, THEY FOUND THEIR PURPOSE IN THE BELIEF THAT ART WAS INDEED A
WEAPON THAT COULD FIGHT THE CAPITALIST MISTREATMENT OF WORKERS AND
STEM THE ADVANCE INTERNATIONAL FASCISM.
COVER
ASPECTS
IMAGE
OF OF
NEGRO
THE NEW
LIFE: MASSES
SONG OF(1933)
THE
BYTOWERS
WILLIAM(1934)
GROPPER
BY AARON DOUGLAS