American Context Flashcards
modernity
the quality of being current or of the present
modernism
A style or movement in the arts that aims to break with classical and traditional forms.
avant-garde
any creative group active in the innovation and application of new concepts and techniques in a given field (especially in the arts).
Surrealism
A 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind.
Automatism
a method of producing pictorial art, as paintings and collages, associated chiefly with the dadaists and surrealists, in which the artist strives to allow the impulses of the unconscious to guide the hand in matters of line, color, and structure without the interference of conscious choice.
Mexican Muralists
a Mexican art movement that took place primarily in the 1930s. The movement stands out historically because of its political undertones, the majority of which are of a Marxist nature, or related to a social and political situation of post-revolutionary Mexico.
WPA
(Works Progress Administration) was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects
Straight Photography
Also called “idea” photography. Unlike pictorialist photography, images were not manipulated in the darkroom and there was a greater emphasis on geometric compositional experimentation using sharply focused images. The urban landscape often provided the subject matter for these photographers.
documentary photography
taking of photographs to provide a record of social and political situations with the aim of conveying information.
Andre Masson • Battle of the Fishes (1926)
Diego Rivera • Detroit Industry (1932)
Dorothea Lange • White Angel Breadline, San Francisco (1933)
Aaron Siskind • Acolman I (1955)
