Slide1: An Introduction to Modern Art:
Early Styles, Movements, & Influences
Slide2: What is Modern Art?
Who is Alfred H. Barr, Jr.?
Barr’s 1936 flow chart from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Cubism & Abstract Art exhibition
Modern styles and artistic tendencies Barr left out of his narrative *Click the Bullets*
Slide3: Click on an artist or movement to call up an image Back
Vincent Van Gogh, Self Portrait, 1888: Vincent Van Gogh, Self Portrait, 1888
Sonia Terk-Delaunay, Composition, 1938: Sonia Terk-Delaunay, Composition, 1938
Vladimir Tatlin, Corner Counter-Relief, 1914-15: Vladimir Tatlin, Corner Counter-Relief, 1914-15
Georges Seurat, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte, 1884-86: Georges Seurat, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte, 1884-86
Henri Rousseau, Sleeping Gypsy, 1897: Henri Rousseau, Sleeping Gypsy, 1897
Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, Schroder House: Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, Schroder House Utrecht, Netherlands, 1924
Odilon Redon, Evocation of the Butterflies, 1898-1916: Odilon Redon, Evocation of the Butterflies, 1898-1916
Pablo Picasso, Girl with Mandolin, 1910: Pablo Picasso, Girl with Mandolin, 1910
Francis Picabia, Amorous Parade, 1917: Francis Picabia, Amorous Parade, 1917
India, Portrait of a Princess (page from Shah Jahan Album), Mughal Period (1526-1756): India, Portrait of a Princess (page from Shah Jahan Album), Mughal Period (1526-1756)
Georg Muche, Haus am Horn: Georg Muche, Haus am Horn Weimar, Germany, 1923
Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Yellow, & Blue, 1921: Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Yellow, & Blue, 1921
Joan Miro, Harlequin’s Carneval, 1924: Joan Miro, Harlequin’s Carneval, 1924
Fritz Lang & Otto Schultze, Metropolis film still, 1927: Fritz Lang & Otto Schultze, Metropolis film still, 1927
Henri Matisse, Joy of Life, 1905-6: Henri Matisse, Joy of Life, 1905-6
Kasimir Malevich, Suprematist Composition “Airplanes Flying,” 1914: Kasimir Malevich, Suprematist Composition “Airplanes Flying,” 1914
Meret Oppenheim, Fur Breakfast (photo by Dora Maar), 1936: Meret Oppenheim, Fur Breakfast (photo by Dora Maar), 1936
Slide21: Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret), Still Life, 1920
Central Africa, Kota Reliquary Figure: Central Africa, Kota Reliquary Figure
Koryusai, Early Summer Evening, 1770s: Koryusai, Early Summer Evening, 1770s
Slide24: Vasily Kandinsky, Improvisation 30 “Cannons,” 1913
Slide25: Robert Delaunay, Windows on the City, 1912
Slide26: Paul Cezanne, Gardanne, 1885-86
Slide27: Constantin Brancusi, Newborn II (photo by artist), 1923
Slide28: Umberto Boccioni, The City Rises, 1910-11
Slide29: Paul Gauguin, Vision After the Sermon, 1888
Slide30: Commonly, Modern Art is thought to: Stress the artist’s individual achievement and vision Evolve toward greater degrees of abstraction Explore light, color, volume, texture, movement, and other elements involved in visual perception Develop out of dialogue between and amongst artistic communities Challenge popular artistic traditions and values Back Relate to contemporary social, religious, and political issues
Slide31: Alfred H. Barr, Jr. During his lifetime, Alfred Barr was a curator, connoisseur, teacher, theoretician, critic, and generally influential fixture in the art scene. He became the first director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1929. In 1936, Barr mounted Cubism and Abstract Art at the MoMA. The flow-chart he composed to accompany the exhibition was the first compelling historiography of modern artistic tendencies. The chart, like the exhibition, emphasized cubism as the most influential modern art movement and posited abstraction as the goal of modern artistic endeavor.
Barr’s chart influenced the ideas of many students, historians, and critics of modern art for decades after the exhibition. Even at the time of its publication, Barr’s model was criticized. For instance, one of the artists exhibited in Cubism and Abstract Art, Vasily Kandinsky, questioned whether the modern artistic impulse was toward abstraction, noting he created both realistic and abstract works. Kandinsky also took issue with Barr’s emphasis on formal developments in modern art, noting his work developed from religious as well as stylistic concerns. Similarly, a scholar contemporaneous with Barr, Meyer Schapiro, criticized Barr’s assumption of realism and abstraction as pure absolutes separate from experience. Contemporary revisionist art historians have rejected Barr’s temporal and spatial evolutionary model, drawing attention to the complex cultural, political, personal, and historical issues which inform the work of individual artists.
In short, Alfred Barr’s conception of modern art is very selective and limited. It is not gospel. Back
Slide32: Barr’s diagram presents an artistic evolution. He disregarded artists who didn’t fit the story he wanted to tell. Barr offers us the European male version of modern abstract art history. He ignored artistic input from women, ethnic minorities, and artists living outside Europe. Also, Barr did not consider non-academic art, like graphic art, photography, and textile design. Similarly, Barr’s focus on abstraction led him to exclude art which is more figurative or realistic. Today, scholars emphasis the shortsightedness of Barr’s history of early modern art. Here are some artists Barr excluded from his modernist canon. Click on the artist’s name to view an image. Tshyela Ntendu Nina Hamnett & Winifred Gill James Van Der Zee E. McKnight Kauffer Augusta Savage Kathe Kollwitz Diego Rivera Claude Cahun Home Natalia Goncharova Qi Baishi
Slide33: Tshyela Ntendu, The Train, 1926, Zairian
Slide34: Nina Hamnett & Winifred Gill, Omega workshop dresses, c.1913, British
Slide35: James Van Der Zee, Portrait of a Young Girl on the Telephone, 1926, African-American
Slide36: E. McKnight Kauffer, Poster for the London Underground, 1931, British
Slide37: Kathe Kollwitz, Hunger, 1922, German
Slide38: Augusta Savage, Gamin, c.1930, African-American
Slide39: Diego Rivera, Bolivar Amphitheatre mural, “Creation,” 1922-3, Mexican
Slide40: Claude Cahun, Self-Portrait, c.1921, French
Slide41: Natalia Goncharova, Potato Farm, 1908-09, Russian
Slide42: Qi Baishi, The Quiet Delight of the Lotus Pond, 1924, Chinese hanging scroll