Postwar American art

Abstract Expressionism

c. 1945 - 1960

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To understand mid-20th-century art, start here: the Abstract Expressionists paved the way for pure abstraction, as well as its discontents.

New York School

1945 - 1980

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In postwar New York, painters revolted against traditional modes of representation, and they did it through more than just action painting.

Postwar figurative art

1945 - 1980

Despite the popularity of Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism, many American artists remained committed to figural representation—with a critical edge.

Postwar abstraction

1945 - 1980

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Artists in the United States worked in a variety of styles, including ones that did not fit into larger movements.

Pop Art

c. 1956 - 1980

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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.

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.

Photography

1945 - 1980

Photography functioned not just as fine art, but as social commentary in the postwar United States.