From Modernism to Pop Art

THE TWENTIETH - CENTURY

It is a period full of changes from life style side and from the new centrality of man's subconscious with desires and fears. Art is changing too. Here rise different styles characterized by the same feelings and new doubt about the man at the centre of his world, about the future and about the existence of God. Now the art take a new direction and start to looking for new subjects and new languages.

In 1905 some artists show their new works in Paris. The paintings are very bright and dominated by vivid colours so the new generation of artist led by Henry Matisse are defined FAUVES (wild beast).

In this period Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque inaugurate the CUBISM. It's characterized by new vision of space and its organization and it study the tree-dimensional space with more possibilities of colours and geometrical position.

In London emerge a new group of artist with similar characteristic to all the modern movements. The main artist of this new group of Bloomsbury are Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry and Duncan Grant.  In 1913 Fry form the Omega Workshops and both paintings use intense colours and bold forms.

In 1914 the American poet Ezra Pound coin the word VORTICISM to identify the new movement led by Wyndham Lewis and linked to Italian Futurism. The aim of this new art is the exaltation of the dynamic energy of industry an new machine age. David Bomberg was influenced by the Vorticism movement.

Between 1910 and 1920 we can find the ABSTRACT ART and the major figures of this art are the Russian Wassily Kandinsky and the Dutch Piet Mondrian.

In the period of First World War there is the dominant figure of Stanley Spencer. His art is characterized by freedom of form and interpretation of religious themes or events.

In the mid-1920s there are some figures as the sculptor  Henry Moore influenced by primitive culture, and Paul Nash with an art influenced by the experience of war, then his art showed some romantic aspects and something was near Surrealism art. Ben Nicholson' s art was direct towards an abstract and poetic dimension.

In 1930s some realistic painters as Lowry and Freud develop a personal vision of urban landscape and human figure in erotic realism. The American Realism remember the name of Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth.

With the World War II Francis Bacon paint distortion and imaginative figure of human and animals.

The American Abstract Expressionist painting of mid-20^th century is led by Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. This art try to convey on canvas an art  purify by the corruption and material world giving evidence just to imagination and psychological truth of human existence.

In 1950s take place the Pop Art that use the advertising message with bright colours linked to a graphic art using different techniques (collage, assemblage, silk-screen).

Instead the Op Art of 1960s use great effect giving by some compositions of lines and with plays of  colours and shapes. A great example of this art is Bridget Riley.