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Modernisms
1900-1980

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A beginner's guide
Representation and abstraction: looking at Millais and Newman
Art and context: Monet's Cliff Walk at Pourville and Malevich's White on White
Contemporary Art, an introduction
An Introduction to photography in the early 20th century
Fauvism + Expressionism
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Fauvism
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Fauvism, an introduction
Henri Matisse
Luxe, calme et volupté
Bonheur de Vivre
Dance I
The Red Studio
The Blue Window
Goldfish
The Piano Lesson
The illustrated book Jazz
Expressionism
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Expressionism, an introduction
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Self-Portrait As a Soldier
Street, Dresden
Street, Berlin
Emil Nolde, Young Couple
Alexej von Jawlensky, Young Girl in a Flowered Hat
Egon Schiele
Seated Male Nude (Self-Portrait)
Nazi looting: Egon Schiele's Portrait of Wally
The Hermits
Vasily Kandinsky
Improvisation 28 (second version)
Klänge (Sounds)
Cubism + early abstraction
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The Case for Abstraction
Who created the first abstract artwork?
Abstract art and Theosophy
Cubism
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Pablo Picasso
Picasso's Early Work
Portrait of Gertrude Stein
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
Inventing Cubism
The Reservoir, Horta de Ebro
Pablo Picasso and the new language of Cubism
Still Life with Chair Caning
Picasso's Guitar
Guernica
Georges Braque
Le Viaduc à L'Estaque, (The Viaduct at L'Estaque)
The Portuguese
Fernand Léger, Contrast of Forms
Futurism
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Italian Futurism: An Introduction
Giacomo Balla, Street Light
Carlo Carrà, Funeral of the Anarchist Galli
Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Horse
Orphism
Robert Delaunay, Simultaneous Contrasts: Sun and Moon
Russian avant-garde
Constructivism, Part I
Constructivism, Part II
Suprematism, Part I: Kasimir Malevich
Suprematism, Part II: El Lissitzky
Kasimir Malevich and Cubo-Futurism
Kazmir Malevich, Suprematist Composition: White on White
Tatlin's Tower
Russian Neo-Primitivism: Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov
Varvara Stepanova, The Results of the First Five-Year Plan
School of Paris
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Amedeo Modigliani, Young Woman in a Shirt
Constantin Brancusi
The Kiss
Bird in Space
Photography
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare
De Stijl
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De Stijl, Part I: Total Purity
De Stijl, Part II: Near-Abstraction and Pure Abstraction
De Stijl, Part III: The Total De Stijl Environment
Piet Mondrian
Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow
TateShots: Piet Mondrian
Composition No. II, with Red and Blue
British art and literature
British Art and Literature During WWI
Dada + Surrealism
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Dada
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Introduction to Dada
Marcel Duchamp
Nude Descending a Staircase, No 2
Art as concept: In Advance of the Broken Arm
Fountain
The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass)
Boite-en-valise, Series F
Raoul Hausmann, Spirit of the Age: Mechanical Head
Hannah Höch, Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany
Francis Picabia, Ideal
Surrealism
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A beginner's guide
Surrealism, an introduction
The Case for Surrealism
Man Ray, The Gift
René Magritte, The Treachery of Images (Ceci n'est pas une pipe)
Salvador Dalí
The Persistence of Memory
Metamorphosis of Narcissus
Alberto Giacometti, The Palace at 4 a.m.
Meret Oppenheim, Object (Fur-covered cup, saucer, and spoon)
German art between the wars
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Prints and photography
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Käthe Kollwitz, In Memoriam Karl Liebknecht
August Sander, Portraits
Umbo, The Roving Reporter
Bauhaus
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The Bauhaus, an Introduction
The Bauhaus: Marianne Brandt
The Bauhaus: Marcel Breuer
Lyonel Feininger, Cathedral for Program of the State Bauhaus in Weimar
Paul Klee, Twittering Machine (Die Zwitscher-Maschine)
László Moholy-Nagy
Telephone Pictures
Composition A.XX
Climbing the Mast
New Objectivity
Christian Schad, Self-Portrait
George Grosz, Remembering
Nazi visual culture
Paul Troost, House of (German) Art
Art in Nazi Germany
Latin American Modernism
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Mexican Muralism
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Mexican Muralism: Los Tres Grandes David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and José Clemente Orozco
Diego Rivera
Sugar Cane
Man at the Crossroads
Man Controller of the Universe
Detroit Industry Murals
Calla Lilly Vendor (Vendedora de Alcatraces)
Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Central Park
José Clemente Orozco, Dive Bomber and Tank
Surrealism
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Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo, introduction
Frieda and Diego Rivera​
The Two Fridas (Las dos Fridas)
Wilfredo Lam, The Jungle
Constructivism
Joaquín Torres-García, Inverted America
Lygia Clark, Bicho
Brazilian modernism
The origins of modern art in São Paulo, an introduction
Tarsila do Amaral, Abaporú
International Style architecture in Mexico and Brazil
American art to WWII
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American Impressionism
When the department store was new: Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones, The Shoe Shop
Symbolism
Henry Ossawa Tanner
The Banjo Lesson
Angels Appearing before the Shepherds
Ashcan School
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The Ashcan School, an introduction
George Bellows, Both Members of This Club
John Sloan, Movies
291
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Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage
Marsden Hartley, Portrait of a German Officer
Joseph Stella, The Voice of the City of New York Interpreted
Charles Demuth, I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold
Georgia O'Keeffe, The Lawrence Tree
The American south and southwest
The lure of the American Southwest: E. Martin Hennings, Rabbit Hunt
Bill Traylor
Harlem Renaissance
Aaron Douglas, Aspiration
Jacob Lawrence
The Migration Series
Ambulance Call
Social Realism
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Todros Geller, Strange Worlds
Grant Wood
American Gothic
Parson Weems' Fable
Reginald Marsh, Wooden Horses
Ben Shahn
The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti
Miners' Wives
Millard Sheets, Tenement Flats
Romare Bearden, Factory Workers
Edward Hopper, Nighthawks
Norman Rockwell, Rosie the Riveter
Sculpture
Alexander Calder, Mobile
Photography
Walker Evans, Subway Passengers, New York City
Ansel Adams: Visualizing a Photograph
Postwar American art
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Abstract Expressionism
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Abstract Expressionism, an introduction
Willem de Kooning, Woman, I
Barnett Newman
Onement, I
Barnett Newman at MoMA
The Painting Techniques of Barnett Newman
Representation and abstraction: looking at Millais and Newman
Mark Rothko
The Case for Mark Rothko
No. 210/No. 211 (Orange), 1960
No. 3/No. 13
Mark Rothko (at MoMA)
Restoring Rothko
Jackson Pollock
Why is that important? Looking at Jackson Pollock
The Case for Jackson Pollock
Mural
The Painting Techniques of Jackson Pollock
Conservation: Jackson Pollock, One: Number 31, 1950
Paint Application Studies of Jackson Pollock's Mural
Lee Krasner, Untitled
Robert Motherwell, Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 57
Franz Kline
Franz Kline at MoMA
The Painting Techniques of Franz Kline
New York School
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The Impact of Abstract Expressionism
Jasper Johns
Flag
White Flag
Robert Rauschenberg
Erased de Kooning Drawing
Canyon
Bed
Retroactive I
Ed Kienholz and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, Useful Art #5: The Western Motel
Ad Reinhardt
Abstract Painting
Ad Reinhardt at MoMA
The Painting Techniques of Ad Reinhardt
Helen Frankenthaler
Mountains and Sea
The Bay
Frank Stella, The Marriage of Reason and Squalor
Postwar figurative art
Jess, If All the World Were Paper and All the Water Sink
Benny Andrews, Flag Day
Duane Hanson, Executive
Faith Ringgold, Ben
Postwar abstraction
Josef Albers, Homage to the Square
Ruth Asawa, Untitled
Pop art
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A beginner's guide
Contemporary Art, an introduction
Pop Art
Andy Warhol
Coca-Cola [3]
Marilyn Diptych
Why is this art? Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans
The Case for Andy Warhol
Gold Marilyn Monroe
Marisol, The Party
Claes Oldenburg
Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks
Floor Cake
James Rosenquist, F-111
Roy Lichtenstein, Rouen Cathedral Set V
Minimalism + Earthworks
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A beginner's guide
An introduction to Minimalism
The Case for Minimalism
The Case for Land Art
Donald Judd, Untitled
Robert Morris
(Untitled) L-Beams
Bodyspacemotionthings
Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty
Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field
James Turrell, Skyscape, the way of color
Richard Serra
Tilted Arc
Intersection II
Torqued Ellipse IV
Band
Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Gates
Photography
Gordon Parks, Off on My Own (Harlem, New York)
Gary Winogrand, Democratic Convention, 1960
Postwar European art
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France
Jean Dubuffet
A View of Paris: The Life of Pleasure
Childbirth
Switzerland
Alberto Giacometti, Walking Man II
Germany
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Joseph Beuys
Table with Accumulator (Tisch mit Aggregat)
Fat Chair
Feet Washing and Conceptual Performance
Sigmar Polke
Bunnies
Watchtower series
Gerhard Richter
Uncle Rudi
Betty
Gerhard Richter, September
Gerhard Richter, The Cage Paintings (1-6)
Anselm Kiefer, Shulamite
Britain
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Barbara Hepworth, Pelagos
Describing Sculpture: Henry Moore's Reclining Figure
Francis Bacon, Triptych – August 1972
Lucian Freud, Standing by the Rags
Poland
Magdalena Abakanowicz, Androgyne III
Conceptual + Performance Art
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Conceptual Art
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A beginner's guide
Conceptual Art, An Introduction
The Case for Conceptual Art
Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs
The Case for Yoko Ono
John Baldessari, I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art
Hans Haacke, Seurat's "Les Poseuses" (small version), 1884-1975
Nam June Paik, Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii
Yayoi Kusama
Narcissus Garden
Yayoi Kusama (Tate)
Bruce Nauman, The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths
Performance Art
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Performance Art, an Introduction
The Case for Performance Art
Vito Acconci, Following Piece
Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Washing/Tracks/Maintenance: Outside (July 23, 1973)
Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting
Marina Abramović, The Artist is Present
Post Minimalism
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Louise Bourgeois, Cumul I
Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party
Eva Hesse
Eva Hesse, Untitled (Rope Piece)
Eva Hesse, Untitled
Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF)
Lynda Benglis, Omega, and Judy Chicago, Pasadena Lifesaver, Blue Series, Number 4
Eleanor Antin, Carving: A Traditional Sculpture
Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party
Mary Kelly, Post-Partum Document
Jackie Winsor, #1 Rope
Global vanguards
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Mexico
Mónica Mayer, The Clothesline
Nigeria
Uche Okeke
Korea
Song Su-Nam, Summer Trees
China
Liu Chunhua, Chairman Mao en Route to Anyuan
Architecture and design
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Vienna Secession
Otto Wagner, Postal Savings Bank
Chicago School
Louis Sullivan, Carson, Pirie, Scott Building
New York skyscrapers & landmarks
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Cass Gilbert, Woolworth Building
Van Alen, The Chrysler Building
Rockefeller Center
A Landmark Decision: Penn Station, Grand Central, and the architectural heritage of NYC
International style
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Peter Behrens, Turbine Factory
Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye
Frank Lloyd Wright
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City
Fallingwater
Gordon Bunshaft for Skidmore Owings and Merrill, Lever House
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Seagram Building, New York City
Negotiating the past in Berlin: the Palast der Republik
American design
Libbey Glass Company, Punch Bowl
Connecticut Klan robe
Russel Wright, "American Modern" Pitchers
Glass Chair at the 1939 New York World's Fair
Late Modernism/Post-Modernism
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The Berlin Wall as a political symbol
Breuer, The Whitney Museum of American Art (now The Met Breuer)
Maya Lin, Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Robert Venturi, House in New Castle County, Delaware
Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Bilbao
Zaha Hadid, MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts

The Case for Minimalism

by The Art Assignment

Speaker: Sarah Urist Green

Additional resources:

Minimalism definition from the Tate

Resources related to Minimalism from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Smarthistory images for teaching and learning:
Judd, Untitled (Stack), 1967Judd, Untitled (Stack), 1967Judd, Untitled (Stack), 1967

More Smarthistory images…

Cite this page as: The Art Assignment, "The Case for Minimalism," in Smarthistory, August 2, 2017, accessed December 5, 2019, https://smarthistory.org/case-for-minimalism/.

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