Prequel to the Story of Postmodernisms: 1933 to 1950s Flashcards
Modernization
technological advances in production, transportation, communication, etc. during the Industrial Revolution (mid-18th - early 20th centuries)
Modernity
everyday experience of those changes
Modernism
representations of those experiences
Realism
“a truthful, objective and impartial representation of the real world, based on meticulous observation of contemporary life”
Socialism
ideal of classless society with equal distribution of goods for well-being of all
Capitalism
free-market, profit-based control by wealthy class -1%-
Communism
full government/totalitarian control of economy and people
Colonialism
imperial power-based control of peoples/nations
Socialist Realism
Mandated in Soviet Union in 1934 by Stalin; racial purity, sexual identification purity, emphasis on youth, mythology; proletarian (relevant and understandable to workers), scenes of everyday life, Partisan (aligned with the policies of the state and the party)
“Degenerate Art”
“decadent byproduct of Bolshevist Jewish corruption… these artists should be treated as dangerous lunatics and handed over to the State for sterilisation” - Hitler; troops sent out to confiscate art showing qualities such as “decadence”, “weakness of character”, “mental disease”, and “racial impurity”
Chinese Communist Social Policies
all art should reflect the life of working class and consider them an audience; art should serve Socialism
Figuration
sculpture, outline/linear, body, symbolic
Abstraction
no necessary relationship to figure, irregular, summary, transformative
Trowell School
Uganda (1937-1949), Margaret Trowell taught silk screening (1945) at The School of Fine and industrial Arts; ‘allowed’ her students to connect with and embrace their culture
Ruptura Group
(early 1950s) Waldemar Cordeiro & Luiz Sacilotto; married to the simplicity of form, the poignancy of materials, the vast possibility of materials
Social Realism
naturalistic realism focusing specifically on social issues and the hardships of everyday life
Madí
(1946-present) international abstract art movement initiated in Buenos Aires by the Hungarian-Argentinian artist and poet Gyula Kosice, and the Uruguayans Carmelo Arden Quin and Rhod Rothfuss; encompasses all branches of art , typically focus on the concrete, physical reality of the medium and play with the traditional conventions of Western art
Concrete Art
non-representational geometric abstraction
Grupo Frente
(1952-64) group of Brazilian artists originated in Rio de Janeiro led by Ivan Serpa and formed by artists such as Helio Oiticica, Aluisio Carvão, Lygia Clark, and Lygia Pape; geometric abstraction aka concrete art, pushed for neo-concrete art
Neo-Concrete
Brazilian art movement developed by Grupo Frente; rejected the pure rationalist approach of concrete art and embraced a more phenomenological and less scientific art
Spanish Civil War
(1936-39) fought between the Republicans, who were loyal to the democratic, left-leaning Second Spanish Republic, and the Nationalists, a falangist group led by General Francisco Franco; Nationalists won, and Franco then ruled Spain for the next 36 years
COBRA
(1948-51) European avant-garde movement fomed by Karel Appel, Constant, Corneille, Christian Dotremont, Asger Jorn, and Joseph Noiret; evolved from the criticisms of Western society and a common desire to break away from existing art movements, including naturalism and abstraction; complete freedom of colour and form, as well as antipathy towards Surrealism, the artists also shared an interest in Marxism as well as modernism; believed experimentation was the symbol of an unfettered freedom, embodied by children and the expressions of children
Abstract Expressionism
(1947-60s) post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York; predecessor = surrealism, with its emphasis on spontaneous, automatic, or subconscious creation
