Movements in Twentieth-Century Art
After World War II
(Action Painting and Color Field Painting)
- Name: Term used as early as 1920s to describe Kandinsky's
abstract paintings. Writer Robert Coates first uses the term for contemporary
paintings in the March 30, 1946 issue of the New Yorker. Supportive
critic Harold Rosenberg used the term "Action Painting," while
another critic, Clement Greenberg, preferred "American-style Painting."
Still, "Abstract Expressionism" was the term used most frequently
in the U.S.
- Who: Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning,
Lee Krasner, Adolph Gottlieb, Arshile Gorky, Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline,
Barnett Newman, and Clyfford Still.
- When: Mid-1940s through 1950s.
- Where: United States (New York City).
- What: Consciously American style of art that influenced
similar European movements, such as Tachisme. Abstract Expressionism can
be broken into two large subdivisions: Action Painting, which came first,
and Color Field Painting. Action Paintings generally have a more violent,
frenzied appearance, while Color Field Paintings have a calmer, almost
- Subject Matter: Abstract, with an emphasis on the artist
expressing everything from personal feelings to universal, spiritual concerns.
With the Action Painters, the physical act of painting becomes, to a certain
extent, the subject matter.
- Style: Not really a coherent style so much as an attitude
against traditional styles (Realism), techniques, and "finished"
works. The painters do share in common their reliance on psychic self-expression.
Generally, "Action Painters" employed dripping, splatter, pouring,
or other aggressive techniques in an effort to be spontaneous and instinctive,
while "Color Field Painters" preferred a saturated approach to
paint application. Large canvases were normally used.
- Janson Example: POLLOCK, Autumn Rhythm: Number 30,
1950, 1950 (Action Painting) and ROTHKO, White and Greens in Blue,
1957 (Color Field Painting).
- Kissick Example: POLLOCK, Number 1, 1950 (Lavender
Mist), 1950 (Action Painting) and ROTHKO, Untitled, 1960 (Color
- Influenced by: Van Gogh, Cubism (shallow space), Kandinsky,
Dada, Surrealism (Miró and Automatism), European artists fleeing
Hitler-dominated Europe, and Native American sand painting.
- Will influence: Tachisme, Art Brut, COBRA, Hard-Edge
Painting, and Neo-Expressionism.
- Name: Short for "Optical Art." Other names:
Retinal Art, and Perceptual Abstraction. Term coined by sculptor George
Rickey in 1964 during a conversation with two curators at the Museum of
Modern Art in New York, where the defining Op show, "The Responsive
Eye," was shown in 1965.
- Who: Josef Albers, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Bridget Riley,
Lawrence Poons, and Victor Vasarely.
- When: Mid-1950s to early 1970s.
- Where: Europe and the United States.
- What: Art devoted primarily to optical illusions. Op
paintings often give the illusion of movement (vibration, pulsation) and/or
- Subject Matter: Non-representational.
- Style: Rigid geometric precision; repetitive lines and
shapes that may appear three dimensional; no visible brushstrokes; often
- Janson Example: ANUSZKIEWICZ, Entrance to Green,
- Influenced by: Bauhaus color theory; Mondrian; hard-edge
abstraction (Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella); and perceptual psychology.
- Name: Short for "Popular Art." Term first appeared
in the article "The Arts and the Mass Media," by the British
critic Lawrence Alloway, which was published in the Feb. 1958 issue of
Architectural Design. Pop is more associated with the early 1960s,
when Time, Life and Newsweek all ran cover stories
- Who: Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhhol,
Tom Wesselmann, James Rosenquist, Ed Ruscha, Wayne Thiebaud, Mel Ramos,
Claes Oldenburg, Robert Indiana, Robert Arneson, Jim Dine, and David Hockney.
- When: Late 1950s through 1960s.
- Where: Began in Great Britain then quickly spread to
the United States. Movement is most associated with American artists.
- What: Movement was both a reaction against Abstract Expressionism,
which was seen as too elitist and non-objective, as well as a celebration
of postwar consumer culture. Pop is playful and ironic, not spiritual or
- Subject Matter: Popular culture: mass media, advertisements,
comic strips, billboards, packaging, television and movie personalities,
commonplace objects, etc.
- Style: Similar to the styles of mass media production:
bright, lurid color that is sometimes off register; sometimes the small
Benday dots seen in newspaper print is copied; bold lines and shapes; immediately
recognizable objects and people. Although Pop artists rejected Abstract
Expressionism, their work is, nonetheless, stylistically flat.
- Janson Example: LICHTENSTEIN, Drowning Girl, 1963.
- Kissick Example: LICHTENSTEIN, Masterpiece, 1962.
- Influenced by: Marcel Duchamp, Dada, Jasper Johns, and
- Will influence: Post-modernist tendency toward appropriation.
- Name: Term emerged from the writings of the critic Barbara
Rose, who wrote an article entitled "ABC Art." Although that
name did not catch on, her reference to art reduced to the "minimum"
soon transformed into the common term "Minimalism" by the late
- Who: Donald Judd, Ronald Bladen, Dan Flavin, Sol Lewitt,
Robert Morris, Richard Serra, Tony Smith, and Frank Stella.
- When: 1960s to mid-1970s.
- Where: Mostly the United States.
- What: Painting and sculpture reduced to essentials. An
art that is neither expressive nor illusionistic. First art movement of
international significance pioneered exclusively by American-born artists.
More frequently associated with sculpture rather than painting. Sculptures
often referred to as "Primary Structures" after an influential
show at New York's Jewish Museum in 1966.
- Subject Matter: Representational imagery is eliminated;
non-objective art; identical and interchangeable units.
- Style: Geometric abstraction; grid designs; absence of
a personalized "artist's touch."
- Janson and Kissick Example: JUDD, Untitled, 1989.
- Influenced by: Constructivism; post-war work of Barnett
Newman, Ad Reinhardt and David Smith; and International Style architecture.
- Will influence: Earth art, Post-Minimalism, and post-modernism.
- Name: Term "Conceptual art" came into wide
use after the article "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art" by the Minimalist
artist Sol Lewitt appeared in the summer 1967 issue of Artforum.
"Idea art" is a synonym for Conceptual art.
- Who: Joseph Kosuth, John Baldessari, Mel Bochner, John
Cage, Hans Haacke, and Dennis Oppenheim.
- When: Mid-1960s through 1970s.
- Where: International.
- What: In Conceptual art the idea, rather than the object,
is most important. Conceptual artists were reacting against the commercialized
art world of the 1960s, the formalism of post-war art (especially the impersonality
of Minimalism), as well as the limitations of traditional art. What the
viewer usually saw in the gallery was merely the document (drawing, photograph,
written proposals, charts, maps, video, and even language itself.) of the
artist's thinking process. Sometimes, not even a document was produced.
The concept was the "material." Conceptualism was sometimes used
as an all- encompassing term to describe other non-traditional art movements
as well, such as Performance art and Earth art.
- Subject Matter: Because the art is conceptual, the subjects
were extremely varied and esoteric.
- Style: No single style and, oftentimes, no art object
with which to attach a style.
- Janson and Kissick Example: KOSUTH, One and Three
- Influenced by: Dada, Duchamp's ready-mades, Jasper Johns'
work, Earth art, and Minimalism.
- Will influence: Performance art.
- Name: Name refers to a wide range of activities that
are usually presented before a live audience and therefore constitute a
"performance" by the artist/artists.
- Who: Joseph Beuys, Allan Kaprow, Vito Acconci, Laurie
Anderson, Chris Burden, Karen Finley, Gilbert and George, Tim Miller, and
- When: Late 1960s to the present.
- Where: International.
- What: Performance art can encompass such activities as
music, dance, poetry, theater, and video. The term can also be applied
to earlier "performance" activities such as Happenings, Body
Art, Actions, etc., all of which involve some degree of performance. The
movement came about in the 1960s from a desire by artists to communicate
more directly with their audiences than conventional painting or sculpture
allowed. To a certain extent, the artists were reacting against the austerity
of Minimalism. Parody is often an element of Performance art.
- Subject Matter: Extremely varied, though at a base level,
the artist's body is always used in some way.
- Style: Also extremely varied; the style constitutes various
actions performed by the artist.
- Janson and Kissick Example: BEUYS, Coyote (I Like
America and America Likes Me), 1974.
- Influenced by: Dada, Jackson Pollock's painting for a
film camera in 1950, Yves Klein's "actions," Conceptual art,
Happenings, and Body Art
- Name: Louis Meisel, a New York art dealer, is usually
credited as originating the term "Photo-Realism." The style has
also been referred to as Sharp-Focus Realism, Hyper-Realism, and Super-Realism.
- Who: Don Eddy, Richard Estes, Audrey Flack, Chuck Close,
and Janet Fish.
- When: Mid-1960s to mid-1970s.
- Where: Primarily the United States.
- What: A type of realist painting in which artist usually
copies a photograph. Photorealists usually painted from slides projected
onto a canvas. Sculptors at this time who worked in a very realistic manner
are referred to as Superrealists. They include such artists as John de
Andrea and Duane Hanson, whose figures are made from human casts and, in
the case of Hanson, include real clothes and other props.
- Subject Matter: The photograph itself, as opposed to
nature, is the subject matter. Normal, everyday, banal subjects are common.
- Style: Everything is in sharp focus; sometimes there
is a flattening of the space, as is common with photographs. Photorealists
are more concerned with the way a camera distorts a scene, as well as the
way a photograph can bring certain elements into sharp focus.
- Janson Example: ESTES, Food Shop, 1967.
- Influenced by: Pop Art.
- Will influence: Post-modernism.
- Name: In 1969, Cornell University staged the "Earth
Art" exhibition, which included artists who in some way manipulate
the earth as part of their work. Also known as Environmental Art, Earthworks,
and Land Art.
- Who: Robert Smithson, Christo (Christo Javacheff), Alice
Aycock, Michael Heizer, Nancy Holt, Walter de Maria, Robert Morris, and
- When: Mid-1960s through 1970s.
- Where: Mostly northern Europe and the U.S.
- What: Earth artists rejected the commercialization of
art and supported the growing ecological movement of the 1960s. Many of
these artists approached the earth and its resources with a spiritual attitude.
Instead of using the land as merely a site for art, proponents of Earth
art molded the land itself into a work of art. Earth artists were not part
of an organized movement; their goals and methods were wide-ranging. Photographic
documentation is often part of the earth artist's process, since many of
the works are designed to last only a short time. Some of the projects
are never realized due to their scale or cost, and therefore exist only
- Subject Matter: Anything to do with the earth and the
life it supports.
- Style: Usually geometric or biomorphic shapes composed
of natural materials within a natural setting.
- Janson Example: SMITHSON, Spiral Jetty, 1970.
- Influenced by: Minimalist sculpture, architecture, Conceptual
Art, and prehistoric builders (Stonehenge).
- Name: First use of term is unknown, but it was
widely used by 1982 to describe new German and Italian art.
- Who: Francesco Clemente, Sandro Chia, Anselm Kiefer,
Georg Baselitz, A. R. Penck, Jörg Immendorff, Susan Rothenberg, Kay
Walkingstick, Eric Fischl, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Robert Longo, Robert Morris,
David Salle, and Julian Schnabel.
- When: Late 1970s to mid-1980s.
- Where: International.
- What: Neo-Expressionism includes a very broad range of
artists with different concerns. The loosely defined movement was a reaction
against Conceptual art, rigidly abstract art, and the lack of imagery from
either natural or art historical sources.
- Subject Matter: Although the subject matter is very diverse,
the human figure, and recognizable objects, make a "come back"
with the Neo-Expressionists. Works are sometimes allegorical and symbolic.
- Style: Based on recognizable people and objects, yet
these are filtered through the artists' personal, expressionistic vocabulary.
Paint is often handled in a rough, gestural manner. Many of the paintings
are done on a large scale.
- Janson Example: ROTHENBERG, Mondrian, 1983-1984.
- Kissick Example: CHIA, Rabbit for Dinner, 1981.
- Influenced by: Art historical sources, figurative painting,
German Expressionism, Post-Impressionism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism,
Pop Art, and contemporary events.
- Will influence: Post-modernism.
- Name: Term probably first appeared in print in Daniel
Bell's End of Sociology in 1960. In the early 1960s, the term was used
mainly by literary critics. In the early 1970s, the term was applied to
architecture. By the late 1970s, art critics were using the term regularly.
Like the term "Post-Impressionism," "post-modernism"
refers not to a single, specific style, but to a period; the period after
- Who: Michael Graves, James Stirling, Nam June Paik, Ann
Hamilton, Mark Tansey, Barbara Kruger, and Cindy Sherman.
- When: 1970s to today.
- Where: International.
- What: Post-modernism in art and architecture can refer
to both a rejection of "modernism," as well as art that came
"after modernism." Several cultural factors have influenced this
corresponding art shift from modernism to post-modernism. Perhaps the biggest
factor is the advent of the technological age. Just as modern culture was
influenced by the industrial age, so post-modernism has had to deal with
the electronic age. As a result of this electronic, or information, age,
traditional geographic boundaries have been destroyed. Images of artworks
are instantly accessible to an international audience. In the art world,
artists and architects embrace a rich variety of images and sources while
rejecting the pure, clean elements that represented the "end"
of modern art: minimalism.
- Subject Matter: Whereas modernists promoted abstraction,
post-modern painters advocated a return to traditional subject matter such
as landscape and history painting. Some post-modernists reject the modern
notion that each art movement be completely original; this rejection takes
the form of borrowing (appropriation) from art or architectural history,
or other sources, and combining previous images and styles in new juxtapositions.
Often, post-modern subject matter in the visual arts is issue-oriented
and activist. Toward this end, and because post-modernism has its roots
in literature, visual artists often incorporate text into their work.
- Style: Extremely varied and eclectic in both art and
architecture, although post-modern visual artists use identifiable, representational
- Janson Example: KRUGER, You Are a Captive Audience,
- Kissick Example: KRUGER, Untitled ("We Won't
Play Nature to Your Culture"), 1984.
- Influenced by: Dada, Surrealism, Pop Art, Conceptual
Art, and Neo-Expressionism.