Modernisms 1900–1980

Two world wars, sweeping technological change, and the undoing of traditional academic art.

1900–1980 C.E.

Beginner's guide and key concepts

The 20th century saw radical shifts in the way art was made—and it kept on shifting.

Contemporary Art, an introduction
An Introduction to Photography in the Early 20th Century
Modern art and reality
Expression and modern art
Primitivism and modern art
Formalism I: Formal Harmony
Formalism II: Truth to Materials

Movements in art 1900–1980

Fauvism and Expressionism

c. 1905–1914 C.E.

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With exuberant color and expressive forms, these two movements broke free of the academic traditions of the 19th century and helped catapult art into the modern era.

Cubism and early abstraction

c. 1907–1939 C.E.

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Cubism broke free of the representational strictures of academic art, and revolutionized painting in the process.

Dada and Surrealism

c. 1913–1939 C.E.

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Artists in these two movements questioned the nature of art and plumbed the realms of the unconscious and championed the idea of chance.

German and Italian art between the wars

1918–1939 C.E.

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Art flourished in Germany, before the rise of the Nazis brought the period to a violent end. In Italy, artists looked to ancient Rome to proclaim the triumph of Fascism.

Nazi and Fascist visual culture

Latin American modernism

c. 1920–1970 C.E.

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In Latin America, modernism took on socially- and politically-oriented forms.

American art to World War II

c. 1890–1939 C.E.

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American artists found new ways of representing a society that was rapidly changing.

Postwar American art

1945–1980 C.E.

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New York became the center of the art world after World War II. From Abstract Expressionism to Conceptual Art and beyond, artists in the United States led a wave of rapidly shifting styles and approaches in the mid-20th century.

Abstract Expressionism

New York School

Postwar abstraction

Postwar figurative art

Photography

Postwar European art

1945–1980 C.E.

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In Europe, artists continued to forge their own ways, while also responding to trends across the Atlantic.

France

Switzerland

Germany

Britain

Poland

Pop Art

c. 1956–1980 C.E.

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Pop Art gloried in the banality of consumer culture in order to draw attention to its ubiquitous presence in our daily lives.

Hamilton, Just What is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, so Appealing?

Marilyn Diptych 1962 by Andy Warhol 1928-1987

Warhol, Marilyn Diptych

Marisol, The Party

Lichtenstein, Rouen Cathedral Set V

Oldenburg, Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks

Conceptual and Performance art

c. 1960–present

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These two radical art practices grew out of early 20th century movements, but took on a new potency beginning in the tumultuous 1960s.

Conceptual Art

Vito Acconci, Following Piece, between October 3 and 25, 1969, performance, photograph (The Museum of Modern Art) © 2023 Vito Acconci

Performance art

Minimalism and Earthworks

c. 1960–present

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Minimalist and Earth artists posited that if art could be anything, it could be either industrially fabricated or fashioned directly from nature itself.

Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field

Nicolás García Uriburu, Coloration of the Grand Canal, Venice

Richard Serra, Tilted Arc

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Gates

Donald Judd, Untitled

Post-Minimalism

c. 1965–1980 C.E.

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Artists used the new formal approaches developed by Minimalist and Conceptual artists and used them to interrogate the body and its social construction.