Lesson 1: The Modern Art Phenomenon

Definition of Modern Art

The beginning of the 20th century is recognized as a period of revolution and change in art.
IMPRESSIONISM
Impressionism was described as an art style that tried to capture an impression of what the
eye sees at a given moment and the effect of sunlight on the subject.
Characteristics of Impressionism
- Strokes (use quick loose, brush strokes)
- Bright painting
- Painting outside
- Relative color
- Clearer picture from further away
Well-known Impressionists
Claude Monet
- True pioneer of the impressionists.
- He had a long-lasting fascination in observing and painting light and nature.
- His paintings show places in the garden he created for himself and his wife.
- His paintings: Nympheas (Waterlilies), Woman with a Parasol-Madame Monet and
Her Son, San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- He paints lively groups of figures
- He usually used the maids as models
- His pictures were full of sketchy patches of colors and contrasts of light and shade.
- His paintings: The Swing 1876, Two Sisters 1881, Two young Girls at the Piano 1892
Filipino Impressionists
Juan Luna
- Spolarium 1884, Tampuhan 1895
Fernando Amorsolo
- Planting Rice 1951, LAVANDERAS 1952, Market Scene 1949
EXPRESSIONISM
Art movement in which artworks conveyed strong feelings.
Proponents of Expressionism
Edvard Munch
- He was the best-known forerunner of expressionism.
- His early life was tortured by sickness, death, insanity, unhappy love affairs, and guilt.
- His paintings: Anxiety, Eye to Eye, Love and Pain, Melancholy
Wassily Kandinsky
- He believed that shape, line, and color have emotional properties capable of
conveying heightened feelings.
- COMPOSITION X, Yellow-Red-Blue, COMPOSITION VIII
Filipino Expressionists
Victorio Edades
- He realized that modernist’s experimentation and new perspective at seeing the world
was what the Philippines needed.
- His paintings: The Wrestlers, The Sketch, The Builders, Mother and Daughter
CUBISM
A style of painting sculpture that reduces natural shapes to their geometrical forms.
Founders of Cubism
Pablo Picasso
- Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios
Cipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruiz y Picasso. Was
considered as the leader of cubism.
- His paintings: Woman in Hat and Fur Collar, Girl Before a Mirror, Girl with
Mandolin, Weeping Woman
Georges Braque
- Braque’s work between 1908 and 1912 is closely associated with his colleague Pablo
Picasso. Their respective cubist works were indistinguishable for many years.
- His paintings: Violin and Candlestick, Little Harbor in Norman, Houses at l’Estaque,
The Portuguese
They decided to paint objects as firm, solid forms, at the same time, painting light and color.
Cubists explored the idea of sticking down paper shapes to make a special kind of
picture, called a collage- this development is known as “synthetic Cubism”
Filipino Cubism Artists
Vicente Manansala
- Sungka 1967, Birds of Paradise 1954
DADAISM
- Hugo Ball
- Founded in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916, one group of artists expressed their
disillusionment in their art. It protested the madness of World War I.
- Dada Artist overthrows all authority, tradition, and cultivate absurdity.
Dadaism Movement’s Most Famous Inventor
Marcel Duchamp
- whose earliest work was already-made bicycle wheel mounted on a kitchen stool
(1913).
- He said that he took an ordinary object, placed it in a gallery so that its useful
significance disappeared, to create a new thought for that object.
- His works: Bicycle Wheel (1913) by Charmel Duchamp, Fountain (1917)

Lesson 2: The Modern Art Phenomenon

SURREALISM
- Surrealism was founded by writer and poet Andrĕ Robert Breton (1896-1966). He
was as influenced by the works of the psychologist Sigmund Freud—discoveries
relating to the hidden desires and unconscious processes of the mind.
- Paintings: The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali, Lullaby of Uncle Magritte”
(2016) Michael Cheval.
Main Formulators
Giorgio de Chirico
- Created one of the first of those invented worlds of the surrealists and one of most
enduring.
- He created once desolate and empty but filled with suggestions, deserted yet full of
mysterious presence art.
- His paintings: Nostalgia of the Infinite 1911, Premonition of Civil War 1936
Automatism
Is the creation of art without conscious control as in intuition and dream experience.
- Art Pieces: Meret Oppenhein’s Luncheon in Fur 1936, Man Ray’s Gift 1958
Filipino Artists
Galo Ocampo
- a Filipino painter known for rejecting academic tradition and embracing Western
modernism.
- He worked as a curator for the Presidential Museum at Malacañang Palace, and was
later appointed director of the National Museum.
- His paintings: Nuclear Ecce Homo 1931, Our lady and Child
Hernando Ocampo
- His artworks were greatly influenced by the traumas he experienced.
- His paintings: Blooming 1949
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
Abstract Expressionism artist associated with abstract expressionism produced paintings that
are abstract but expressed the artist’s state of mind.
Artists
Jackson pollock
- Pollock made a revolutionary breakthrough by abandoning the paintbrush altogether –
pouring, flickering, and dripping paints into a large canvas on the floor.
Franz Kline
- A leading abstract expressionist, Franz Kline painted in the manner that was typical of
his time: gestural, personal, spontaneous, and full of emotion.
Willem de Kooning
- Is a Dutch-born painter and decorator who went to New York and became one of the
most consistent longest-lived abstract expressionists.
Abstract Expressionism in The Philippines
Jose Joya
- A National Artist of the Philippines who pioneered abstract expressionism.
- He values the dynamic and quick gestures in painting that became significant artistic
influences.
- Granadian Arabesque 1958
Lee Aquinaldo
- He was also a pioneer of modern art in the Philippines.
- His painting Homage to Pollack from his “Flick” series was inspired by the abstract
expressionist Pollock.
- Homage to Pollock 1953
POP ART
Refers to a style grounded in consumer culture, the mass, media, and popular culture.
Well -known Pop Artists
Andy Warhol
- was an American artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the
visual art movement known as pop art; known for his prints and paintings of
consumer goods, celebrities, and photographed disasters.\
- Coca-cola Bottles 1962
Roy Lichtensin
- American Pop artist
- He turned his attention to the comic book as another mainstay in American culture.
- He became famous for his bright and bold paintings of comic strip cartoons as well as
his paintings of everyday objects.
- Girl Drowning 1963
Filipino Pop Artists
- Limbo
- Plut by JP Cuison
- Alamat ng panget
OP ART
- All about physical sensations.
- It was developed in the United States in 1960s.
- The artists create and organize lines, patterns, and designs sharpen up the viewers
eyesight or eye perception.
- Making Waves 1965, Bridget Riley
How OP Art Began
- One of the key figures in the creation of Op Art.
- His lifelong fascination with line, patterns along with his experiments on creating
illusion.
- Zebra 1937 Victor Vasaley,, Relativity, 1953M.C Escher
HAPPENINGS
- A historic event that knocked down painting and sculpture from their supremacy in
the arts world.
- Combines elements of paintings, poetry, music, dance, and theater and stages them as
a live action.
- Allan Kaprow happening in 6 Parts, 1959
PERFORMANCE ART
Performing arts during this period focused on body, and is often referred to as Body art.
- Performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary.
- Performing arts may include dance, music, opera, theater and musical theater, magic,
illusion, mime, spoken word, puppetry, circus arts, performance art.
- How to Explain Picture to a dead hare 1965, Joseph Beuys
MOB ART
It refers to a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place and perform an
unusual and seemingly pointless act for a short time.
- This can be for entertainment, satire, or artistic expression and are organized via
telecommunication, social media, or viral e- mails.