Postwar European art

France

1945 - 1980

Vacillating between joyful and jarring, Jean Dubuffet's art looked to alternative sources like children's drawings for inspiration.

Switzerland

1945 - 1980

Alberto Giacometti's elongated figures evoke the loneliness and existential trauma of the postwar period.

Germany

1945 - 1980

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Artists in postwar Germany dealt with the legacy of Nazism and the Holocaust in different ways. Some sought solace in spirituality, others chose to directly picture the ruins of German culture.

Britain

1945 - 1980

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British artists reconceptualized figure painting to emphasize the abject features of the human body.

Poland

1945 - 1980

The work of Magdalena Abakanowicz is often understood as expressing dehumanization in the twentieth century.