LATER EUROPE & AMERICAS PART 2
1900 CE - 1980 CE

Theories & Interpretations

• Artists in the early 20th century rejected realism and classical ideals as defined by Academic art in favor of experimentation and change to parallel political and economic climate

• WWI and WWII played a large role in how artists responded to their environment and the trauma

• Philosophy and Psychology thinkers (Nietzsche, Freud, and Jung) influenced artists to explore the subconscious, dreams, and myth

• Rapid techonolgy growth and city life shaped how artists saw the modern world (machines, noise, speed, and social alienation) were common themes

• Exposure to African, Oceanic, and Asian art challenged and influenced Western ideas of beauty and form

• Post-WWII economic boom, television, and advertising changed how people saw the world

• Artists responded to social movements, gender sterotypes, race, and power in art

Style Characteristics

• There was a shift in the artists mentality where the beliefe in progress, originality, and the power of art should reflect the self and the world

• This was a period marked by different art movements, or -isms, which each comprising of a group of artists that share similarities in style, technique, ideology, or purpose, often centered around a manifesto where they are reacting to their time or to previous artistic conventions