1920s Art and Architecture

Modernism• Modern thought• Modernism was a revolt

against the conservative values of realism

Fernand Leger, The City, 1919• Machinelike • Tube shapes- mached parts

like pistons and cylinders

• Stuart Davis, Lucky Strike• His sense of jazz tempos

and perception of the energy of the fast-paced American culture.

• Robert Delaunay, Champs de Mars

• Aaron Douglas, Noah’s Ark• Harlem Renaissance Artist• Religious vision

Cubism

• Rejected naturalistic depictions• Preferred abstract shapes and

forms abstracted • Reflects the public’s dwindling

faith in a safe, concrete world. • Reflects fears fostered by physics

of Einstein and others.

• Georges Braque, The Portuguese, 1911

Precisionism (aka Cubist Realism)

• Charles Demuth, My Egypt• Themes: – industrialization– modernization of the American

landscape.– Expanding technology

• Extolling industry? Comparison between Egyptian pyramids and American Grain elevators as cultural icons

• Charles Sheeler, Upper Deck

Charles Demuth, Aucassin and Nicolette

Dada

• Mindset/attitude• Political anarchy, irrational• Reason and logic

responsible for WWI• Absurdity• Word dada- irrational and

nonsensical• Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q.

• Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917

• Man Ray, Cadeau, 1921

• Francis Picabia, Portrait of Cezanne

• Hannah Hoch, Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany

• Kurt Schwitters, Merz 19

Abstract Photography

• Edward Weston, Nude

Abstract Painting

• Georgia Okeefe• Simplified to almost abstraction

Surrealism

• Expressing the world of dreams and the unconscious

• Fantasy• Exploring the inner psyche• Inspired by Sigmund Freud• Max Ernst, Two Children

Are Threatened by a Nightingale, 1924

• Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931

Surrealist Sculpture

• Incongruity, humor, visual appeal, eroticism• Meret Oppenheim, Object

Art Deco

• Elegant, glamorous, functional modern, decorative, bold, lavish, rich festive.

• Celebrates the Machine Age through explicit use of man-made materials (particularly glass, stainless steel and the new plastics) symmetry, and repetition.

• Crisp, symmetrical geometric forms. • Used in consumer products such as

furniture, china, lamps, cars, jewelry, watches, ash trays etc

• .

Art Deco Architecture

• Chrysler Building

The End of an EraEmpire State Building

Wrigley Building

Tribune Tower

“Natural” Architecture

• Frank Lloyd Wright, Robie House, Chicago, 1907-1909

• Frank Lloyd Wright, Kauffmann House, Pennsylvania, 1936

• “Falling waters”