Smarthistory Logo
Smarthistory Logo
  • About
      • ABOUT SMARTHISTORY
      • What is Smarthistory?
      • Who is Smarthistory?
      • Is Smarthistory reliable?
      • Museum and institutional partners
      • Major donors
      • Press coverage
      • Our blog
      • Give us feedback
      • Contact us

      • At Smarthistory, the Center for Public Art History, we believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background.

        With 503 contributors from 201 colleges, universities, museums, and research centers, Smarthistory is the most-visited art history resource in the world.

  • For Learning
      • ART HISTORIES
      • Start here
      • Prehistoric
      • Africa
      • Americas
      • Asia
      • Ancient Mediterranean + Europe
      • Medieval Europe + Byzantine
      • The Islamic World
      • Europe 1300–1800
      • Europe 1800–1900
      • Pacific Islands
      • Modernisms 1900–1980
      • Art since 1980
      • TOPICS & COURSES
      • Art Appreciation
      • AP® Art History
      • A-Level Art History
      • History of photography
      • Creating and conserving
      • SPECIAL PROJECTS
      • The U.S. Civil War in Art
      • Seeing America
      • Not your grandfather’s art history: a BIPOC Reader
      • ARCHES: At-risk Cultural Heritage
      • Expanding the Renaissance
      • Across Cultures
      • Virtual Visits
  • Books
      • SMARTHISTORY BOOKS
      • Reframing Art History, a new kind of textbook
      • Guide to Byzantine Art
      • Guide to Ancient Roman Art
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 1 (#1–47)
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 2 (#48–98)
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 3 (#99–152)
      • See complete collection of titles
      • NEW TITLES
        • reframing art history cover smReframing Art History
          a new kind of textbook
        • Byzantine cover jpgGuide to Byzantine art
  • For Teaching
      • TOOLS FOR TEACHING
      • All content for teaching
      • Webinars past & present
      • Teaching with images: K-12
      • Syllabi
      • Do-it-yourself tools
        • UPCOMING EVENT
          • Dr. Elena FitzPatrick Sifford on casta paintings

            Check back for upcoming events

        • PAST EVENT
          • Dr. Elena FitzPatrick Sifford on casta paintings

            Dec.06.2023

            Black Pharaohs: Nubia, Egypt, and Historical Racism…

  • Support
      • SUPPORT SMARTHISTORY
      • Donate
      • Contribute an essay

      • We created Smarthistory to provide students around the world with the highest-quality educational resources for art and cultural heritage—for free.

  • Search

Modernisms 1900-1980

  • Browse this content
  • A beginner’s guide
    • An Introduction to photography in the early 20th century
    • Contemporary Art, an introduction
    • Representation and abstraction: looking at Millais and Newman
    • Art and context: Monet’s Cliff Walk at Pourville and Malevich’s White on White
  • Key concepts
    • Modern art and reality
    • Expression and modern art
    • Primitivism and Modern Art
    • Formalism I: Formal Harmony
    • Formalism II: Truth to Materials
  • Fauvism + Expressionism
    • Browse this content
    • Fauvism
      • Browse this content
      • Women in the Interior I Museums Without Borders
      • Fauvism, an introduction
      • Fauve Landscapes and City Views
      • André Derain, The Dance
      • Henri Matisse
        • Luxe, calme et volupté
        • Open Window, Collioure
        • Bonheur de Vivre
        • Dance I
        • The Red Studio
        • The Blue Window
        • Goldfish
        • The Piano Lesson
        • The illustrated book Jazz
    • Expressionism
      • Browse this content
      • Expressionism, an introduction
      • Expressionism as Nordic?
      • Der Blaue Reiter
      • Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
        • Self-Portrait As a Soldier
        • Street, Dresden
        • Street, Berlin
      • Paula Modersohn-Becker, Self-Portrait Nude with Amber Necklace, Half-Length I
      • Emil Nolde, Young Couple
      • Alexej von Jawlensky, Young Girl in a Flowered Hat
      • Vasily Kandinsky
        • Kandinsky, Apocalypse, Abstraction
        • Improvisation 28 (second version)
        • Klänge (Sounds)
      • Franz Marc and the animalization of art
      • Egon Schiele
        • Seated Male Nude (Self-Portrait)
        • Nazi looting: Egon Schiele’s Portrait of Wally
        • The Hermits
        • Wangechi Mutu on Egon Schiele
  • Cubism + early abstraction
    • Browse this content
    • The Case for Abstraction
    • Abstract art and Theosophy
    • Who created the first abstract artwork?
    • Cubism
      • Browse this content
      • Beginner’s guide to Cubism
        • Pablo Picasso and the new language of Cubism
        • Inventing Cubism
        • Cubism and multiple perspectives
        • Synthetic Cubism, Part I
        • Synthetic Cubism, Part II
        • Salon Cubism
      • Pablo Picasso
        • How to paint like Pablo Picasso (Cubism)
        • Picasso’s Early Work
        • The Old Guitarist, and the question of beauty
        • Guernica
        • Portrait of Gertrude Stein
        • Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
        • Three Women
        • The Reservoir, Horta de Ebro
        • Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler
        • Still Life with Chair Caning
        • The Three Musicians
        • Guitar
      • Georges Braque
        • Le Viaduc à L’Estaque, (The Viaduct at L’Estaque)
        • Georges Braque, Violin and Palette
        • Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso: Two Cubist Musicians
        • The Portuguese
      • Cubist sculpture
        • Cubist Sculpture I
        • Cubist Sculpture II
      • Juan Gris, The Table
      • The Cubist City – Robert Delaunay and Fernand Léger
      • Fernand Léger
        • Contrast of Forms
    • Simultanism (Orphism)
      • Sonia Delaunay
      • Robert Delaunay
      • Robert Delaunay, Simultaneous Contrasts: Sun and Moon
    • Russian avant-garde
      • Russian Neo-Primitivism: Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov
      • Kazimir Malevich, Black Square (1915)
      • Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Composition: White on White
      • Kazimir Malevich and Cubo-Futurism
      • Suprematism, Part I: Kazimir Malevich
      • Suprematism, Part II: El Lissitzky
      • Constructivism, Part I
      • Constructivism, Part II
      • Tatlin’s Tower
      • Varvara Stepanova, The Results of the First Five-Year Plan
    • Purism
    • School of Paris
      • Browse this content
      • Amedeo Modigliani, Young Woman in a Shirt
      • Constantin Brancusi
        • The Kiss
    • Photography
      • Henri Cartier-Bresson, Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare
      • Alexander Rodchenko, At the Telephone
    • De Stijl
      • Browse this content
      • 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
        • Composition No. II, with Red and Blue
        • TateShots: Piet Mondrian
  • Italian art before WWI
    • Futurism
      • Browse this content
      • Italian Futurism: An Introduction
      • Futurist Free Word Painting
      • Umberto Boccioni and the Futurist City
      • Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
      • Gino Severini, Dynamic Hieroglyph of the Bal Tabarin
      • Giacomo Balla, Street Light
      • Carlo Carrà, Funeral of the Anarchist Galli
      • Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Horse
    • Metaphysical Art
      • Giorgio de Chirico, The Soothsayer’s Recompense
  • British art and literature
    • British Art and Literature During WWI
  • Dada + Surrealism
    • Browse this content
    • Dada
      • Browse this content
      • A beginner’s guide to Dada
        • Introduction to Dada
        • Dada Manifesto
        • Dada Pataphysics
        • Dada Politics
        • Dada Collage
        • Dada Readymades
        • Dada Performance
      • 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
        • Marcel Duchamp and the Viewer
      • Max Ernst, Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale
      • Raoul Hausmann, Spirit of the Age: Mechanical Head
      • Dada’s “Aproximate Man”: A Portrait of Tristan Tzara (1919) by Marcel Janco
      • Hannah Höch,Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany
      • Francis Picabia, Ideal
    • Surrealism
      • Browse this content
      • A beginner’s guide
        • Surrealism, an introduction
        • The Case for Surrealism
        • Surrealism: Imagining A New World
        • Surrealism: Origins and Precursors
        • Surrealism and Psychoanalysis
        • Surrealist Techniques: Automatism
        • Surrealist Techniques: Subversive Realism
        • Surrealist Techniques: Collage
        • Surrealist Photography
        • Surrealist Exhibitions
        • Surrealism and Women
        • A brief guide to Egyptian 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)
      • André Masson, Battle of Fishes
  • German & Italian art between the wars
    • Browse this content
    • Prints and photography
      • Browse this content
      • Käthe Kollwitz, In Memoriam Karl Liebknecht
      • August Sander, Portraits
      • Umbo, The Roving Reporter
      • Horst P. Horst, Mainbocher Corset, Paris
      • Lotte Jacobi, Head of a Dancer
      • Gertrud Arndt, Self-Portrait with Veil
    • Bauhaus
      • Browse this content
      • The Bauhaus, an Introduction
      • The Bauhaus and Bau
      • The Bauhaus: Marcel Breuer
      • The Bauhaus: Marianne Brandt
      • Lyonel Feininger, Cathedral for Program of the State Bauhaus in Weimar
      • Paul Klee, Twittering Machine (Die Zwitscher-Maschine)
      • László Moholy-Nagy
        • Telephone Pictures
        • Photogram
        • Composition A.XX
        • Climbing the Mast
    • New Objectivity
      • Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) – An Introduction
      • Christian Schad, Self-Portrait
      • George Grosz, Remembering
    • Nazi & Fascist visual culture
      • Browse this content
      • Paul Troost, House of (German) Art
      • Adolf Ziegler, The Four Elements: Fire, Water and Earth, Air
      • Art in Nazi Germany
      • What is: Degenerate Art?
      • Murals and Public Art in 1930s Rome
      • The Mausoleum of Augustus and the Piazza Augusto Imperatore in Rome
  • Latin American Modernism
    • Browse this content
    • Beginner’s guide
      • Latin American art, an introduction
    • Early vanguards
      • Francisco Goitia, Tata Jesucristo
      • Luis Nishizawa and mexicanidad
      • Jaime Colson, Merengue
      • Amelia Peláez del Casal, Fishes
    • Mexican Muralism
      • Browse this content
      • Mexican Muralism: Los Tres Grandes David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and José Clemente Orozco
      • Diego Rivera
        • Diego Rivera, first and second floor murals of the Secretaría de Educación Pública
        • Diego Rivera, Stairwell and Third Floor “Court of Labor” at the SEP
        • Diego Rivera, third floor murals of the Secretaría de Educación Pública
        • The History of Mexico: Diego Rivera’s Murals at the National Palace
        • 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
      • Browse this content
      • Frida Kahlo
        • Frida Kahlo, introduction
        • Frieda and Diego Rivera​
        • The Two Fridas (Las dos Fridas)
      • Rosa Rolanda, Self-Portrait
      • Wifredo Lam
        • The Jungle
        • The Eternal Presence
      • Hector Hyppolite, Ogou Feray also known as Ogoun Ferraille
    • Constructivism
      • Geometric Abstraction in South America, an introduction
      • Joaquín Torres-García
        • Composition
        • Inverted America
      • Lygia Clark, Bicho
      • Breaking the Frame – the Concrete Art Movement
      • Painting in an Industrial Age – the Concrete Art Movement
      • The Challenge of a Straight Line – the Concrete Art Movement
      • Rhod Rothfuss, Yellow Quadrangle
    • Brazilian modernism
      • The origins of modern art in São Paulo, an introduction
      • Tarsila do Amaral, Abaporú
      • An Antidote for Social Amnesia: The Memory Space of the Cais do Valongo
      • Letícia Parente, Marca registrada
      • Hélio Oiticica, Parangolés
    • International style architecture
      • International Style architecture in Mexico and Brazil
      • Building Brasília
    • Photography
      • Martín Chambi, Juan de la Cruz Sihuana, Cuzco Studio
      • Lola Álvarez Bravo, Architectural Anarchy in Mexico City
      • José Yalenti, Architecture or Twilight
  • American art to WWII
    • Browse this content
    • American Impressionism
      • Metcalf, Havana Harbor
      • When the department store was new: Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones, The Shoe Shop
    • Symbolism
      • Henry Ossawa Tanner
        • The Banjo Lesson
        • Angels Appearing before the Shepherds
        • The Good Shepherd
    • Ashcan School
      • Browse this content
      • The Ashcan School, an introduction
      • George Luks, Hester Street
      • George Bellows
        • Pennsylvania Station Excavation
        • Both Members of This Club
        • Return of the Useless
      • John Sloan, Movies
    • 291
      • Browse this content
      • 291—Little Galleries of the Photo Secession
      • Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage
      • Florine Stettheimer, Portrait of Alfred Stieglitz
      • 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
        • Radiator Building—Night, New York
        • The Lawrence Tree
    • North American Modernism
      • Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Little Joe with Cow
      • Elsie Driggs, Blast Furnaces
      • Millard Sheets, Tenement Flats
      • Franklin Carmichael, Grace Lake
    • The American west
      • Stephen Mopope, U.S. Post Office Murals, Anadarko, OK
      • Stephen Mopope, Game of Skill
    • The American south and southwest
      • Robert Henri, Tom Po Qui (Water of Antelope Lake/Indian Girl/Ramoncita)
      • Walter Ufer, Hunger
      • The lure of the American Southwest: E. Martin Hennings, Rabbit Hunt
      • Velino Shije Herrera (Ma Pe Wi), Design, Tree and Birds
      • Nampeyo (Hopi-Tewa), polychrome jar
      • Puebloan: Maria Martinez, Black-on-black ceramic vessel
      • Julian Martinez, Buffalo Dancers
      • Awa Tsireh’s Pottery Makers
    • Harlem Renaissance
      • Aaron Douglas, Aspiration
      • Jacob Lawrence
        • The Migration Series
        • Ambulance Call
    • Social Realism
      • Browse this content
      • Raphael Soyer, Dancing Lesson
      • Todros Geller, Strange Worlds
      • Hale Woodruff, The Banjo Player
      • Grant Wood
        • American Gothic
        • Parson Weems’ Fable
      • Alexandre Hogue, Crucified Land
      • Vertis Hayes, The Lynchers
      • Vertis Hayes, Juke Joint
      • Reginald Marsh, Wooden Horses
      • Ben Shahn
        • The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti
        • Miners’ Wives
        • Contemporary American Sculpture
      • Romare Bearden, Factory Workers
      • Edward Hopper, Nighthawks
      • Horace Pippin
        • Horace Pippin, Mr. Prejudice
        • Josiah McElheny on Horace Pippin
      • Norman Rockwell, Rosie the Riveter
      • Eldzier Cortor, Southern Landscape
    • Sculpture
      • Frederick MacMonnies, Civic Virtue
      • Stone Mountain, Georgia
      • Alexander Calder, Mobile
    • Photography
      • Shigemi Uyeda’s Reflections on the Oil Ditch
        Getty Conversations
      • Walker Evans, Subway Passengers, New York City
      • Ansel Adams: Visualizing a Photograph
      • Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother
      • Lotte Jacobi, Albert Einstein
      • Harold Edgerton, Milk-Drop Coronet Splash
      • Esther Bubley, Waiting for the Bus at the Memphis Terminal
  • Postwar American art
    • Browse this content
    • Abstract Expressionism
      • Browse this content
      • Finding meaning in abstraction
      • Abstract Expressionism, an introduction
      • What is: Abstract Expressionism?
      • Norman Lewis, Untitled
      • Willem de Kooning, Woman, I
      • Hedda Sterne, Number 3—1957
      • Lee Krasner, Untitled
      • Robert Motherwell, Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 57
      • Jackson Pollock
        • Autumn Rhythm
        • Mural
        • The Case for Jackson Pollock
        • Why is that important? Looking at Jackson Pollock
        • The Painting Techniques of Jackson Pollock
        • Conservation: Jackson Pollock, One: Number 31, 1950
        • Paint Application Studies of Jackson Pollock’s Mural
      • Mark Rothko
        • No. 210/No. 211 (Orange), 1960
        • No. 3/No. 13
        • The Case for Mark Rothko
        • Mark Rothko (at MoMA)
        • Restoring Rothko
      • Barnett Newman
        • Onement, I
        • Barnett Newman at MoMA
        • The Painting Techniques of Barnett Newman
        • Representation and abstraction: looking at Millais and Newman
      • Franz Kline
        • Franz Kline at MoMA
        • The Painting Techniques of Franz Kline
      • Beauford Delaney, Marian Anderson
      • Mark Bradford on Clyfford Still
    • New York School
      • Browse this content
      • The Impact of Abstract Expressionism
      • Sari Dienes, Star Circle
      • Jasper Johns
        • Flag
        • White Flag
      • Robert Rauschenberg
        • Erased de Kooning Drawing
        • Canyon
        • Bed
        • Retroactive I
        • Robert Rauschenberg, Signs
      • 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
      • Browse this content
      • Thelma Johnson Streat, Girl with Bird
      • Charles Sebree, The Mystic
      • George Tooker, Highway
      • Jess, If All the World Were Paper and All the Water Sink
      • Benny Andrews, Flag Day
      • Romare Bearden, Three Folk Musicians
      • Brummett Echohawk (Pawnee), An Island of Redbuds on the Cimarron
      • Duane Hanson, Executive
      • Faith Ringgold, Dancing at the Louvre
      • Faith Ringgold, Ben
      • Ruthe Blalock Jones (Delaware, Shawnee, Peoria), Medicine Woman
      • Lin Tianmiao on Alex Katz’s Black and Brown Blouse
    • Postwar abstraction
      • Josef Albers, Homage to the Square
      • Ruth Asawa, Untitled
      • Rita Mae Pettway, Housetop (fractured medallion variation)
      • Alma Thomas, Lunar Rendezvous—Circle of Flowers
      • Sam Gilliam, Purpled (Chasers Series)
    • Photography
      • Browse this content
      • Gordon Parks, Off on My Own (Harlem, New York)
      • LaToya Ruby Frazier on Gordon Parks’s Red Jackson
      • Garry Winogrand, Democratic Convention, 1960
      • Richard Avedon, Audrey Hepburn, New York, January 1967
      • New Topographics
      • How Photographs of Poverty in the Americas Ignited an International Battle over Propaganda
      • Richard Misrach’s early work and Border Cantos
      • Robert Frank
        • An interview with Robert Frank
        • Rashid Johnson on Robert Frank’s The Americans
  • Postwar European art
    • Browse this content
    • France
      • Jean Dubuffet
        • A View of Paris: The Life of Pleasure
        • Childbirth
    • Switzerland
      • Alberto Giacometti, Walking Man II
      • Jean Tinguely, Homage to New York
    • Germany
      • Browse this content
      • Joseph Beuys
        • Table with Accumulator (Tisch mit Aggregat)
        • Fat Chair
        • Feet Washing and Conceptual Performance
      • Bernd & Hilla Becher, Water Towers
      • Sigmar Polke
        • Bunnies
        • Watchtower series
      • Gerhard Richter
        • Uncle Rudi
        • Betty
        • Gerhard Richter, September
        • Gerhard Richter, The Cage Paintings (1-6)
      • Anselm Kiefer
        • Anselm Kiefer, Shulamite
        • An interview with Anselm Kiefer
    • Britain
      • Browse this content
      • 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
      • Step inside Magdalena Abakanowicz’s forest of woven sculptures
  • Pop Art
    • Browse this content
    • A beginner’s guide
      • Pop Art
    • Richard Hamilton, Just What is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, so Appealing?
    • 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
    • Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee), Me and My Neon Box
    • Betye Saar, Liberation of Aunt Jemima
    • Harry Fonseca, Two Coyotes with Flags
    • Roy Lichtenstein, Rouen Cathedral Set V
  • Conceptual + Performance Art
    • Browse this content
    • Conceptual Art
      • Browse this content
      • A beginner’s guide
        • Conceptual Art, An Introduction
        • The Case for Conceptual Art
      • Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs
      • Martha Rosler
        • The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems
        • Semiotics of the Kitchen
      • 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
      • Mónica Mayer, The Clothesline
    • Performance Art
      • Browse this content
      • Performance Art, an Introduction
      • The Case for Performance Art
      • Black Mountain College
      • Shiraga Kazuo, Challenging Mud
      • Vito Acconci, Following Piece
      • Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Washing/Tracks/Maintenance: Outside (July 23, 1973)
      • Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting
      • Marina Abramović, The Artist is Present
  • Minimalism + Earthworks
    • Browse this content
    • A beginner’s guide
      • An introduction to Minimalism
      • The Case for Minimalism
      • The Case for Land Art
    • Carl Andre, Lever
    • Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty
    • Robert Morris
      • (Untitled) L-Beams
      • Robert Morris, Bodyspacemotionthings
    • Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field
    • Nicolás García Uriburu, Coloration of the Grand Canal, Venice
    • Donald Judd, Untitled
    • Richard Serra
      • Tilted Arc
      • Intersection II
      • Torqued Ellipse IV
      • Band
    • Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Gates
  • Post Minimalism
    • Browse this content
    • Alternative art spaces in NYC
    • Melvin Edwards, Some Bright Morning
    • Eva Hesse
      • The last work of Eva Hesse
      • Untitled (Rope Piece)
      • Untitled
    • Louise Bourgeois, Cumul I
    • Barbara Zucker
      • Mix, Stir, Pour (White Floor Piece)
      • Time Signatures: Homage to Linda and Lucy. My Luminaries
    • Eleanor Antin, Carving: A Traditional Sculpture
    • Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party
    • Mary Kelly, Post-Partum Document
    • Olga de Amaral, El gran muro
    • Jackie Winsor, #1 Rope
    • Lynda Benglis – ‘Form and Texture Create the Magic’
    • Chicano Art Movement
      • Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF)
      • Self Help Graphics and Art
      • Malaquías Montoya, Vote Register
      • Harry Gamboa Jr., À la Mode, from the Asco era
    • Arte Povera
      • Mario Merz, Giap’s Igloo
      • Michelangelo Pistoletto, Newspaper Sphere
    • Robert Colescott, I Gets a Thrill Too When I Sees De Koo
    • Senga Nengudi, Linda Goode Bryant and the Just Above Midtown Gallery
  • Colonial and postcolonial modernisms
    • Browse this content
    • Democratic Republic of the Congo
      • Tshibumba Kanda Matulu, Le 30 juin 1960, Zaïre indépendant
    • Ethiopia
      • Skunder Boghossian, Night Flight of Dread and Delight
      • Battle of Adwa
    • Mali
      • Seydou Keïta, Untitled (Seated Woman with Chevron Print Dress)
      • Mickalene Thomas on Seydou Keïta
    • Nigeria
      • Uche Okeke
    • Puerto Rico
      • Ramón Frade, Our Daily Bread
      • Rafael Tufiño
        • La Plena
        • Goyita
    • South Asia
      • Amrita Sher-Gil, Self-Portrait as a Tahitian
    • Sudan
      • Ibrahim El-Salahi, Reborn Sounds of Childhood Dreams
      • Ibrahim El-Salahi , Reborn Sounds of Childhood Dreams 1 studio visit
      • Ibrahim El-Salahi, The Inevitable
    • Syria
      • Mahmoud Hammad, Arabic Writing no. 11
    • Turkey
      • Fahrelnissa Zeid – ‘She Was the East and the West’
  • Postwar Asia
    • China
      • Liu Chunhua, Chairman Mao en Route to Anyuan
    • Korea
      • Song Su-Nam, Summer Trees
  • Architecture, design, and dance
    • Browse this content
    • A beginner’s guide
      • What is: brutalism?
    • Vienna Secession
      • Josef Maria Olbrich, The Secession Building
      • Otto Wagner, Postal Savings Bank
    • The Wiener Werkstätte
    • New York skyscrapers & landmarks
      • Browse this content
      • Ziggurats in the U.S.: the reception of Assyrian architecture in New York City
      • 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
      • Browse this content
      • Peter Behrens, Turbine Factory
      • Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye
      • The White City of Tel Aviv 
      • 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
      • Anni Albers and modern weaving
    • Indians of Canada Pavilion, Expo 67, Montreal
    • Late Modernism/Post-Modernism
      • Browse this content
      • Running in sneakers, the Judson Dance Theater
      • The Berlin Wall as a political symbol
      • Breuer, The Whitney Museum of American Art (then The Met Breuer, and now the Frick Madison)
      • 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

Modernisms 1900-1980

  • Browse this content
  • A beginner’s guide
    • An Introduction to photography in the early 20th century
    • Contemporary Art, an introduction
    • Representation and abstraction: looking at Millais and Newman
    • Art and context: Monet’s Cliff Walk at Pourville and Malevich’s White on White
  • Key concepts
    • Modern art and reality
    • Expression and modern art
    • Primitivism and Modern Art
    • Formalism I: Formal Harmony
    • Formalism II: Truth to Materials
  • Fauvism + Expressionism
    • Browse this content
    • Fauvism
      • Browse this content
      • Women in the Interior I Museums Without Borders
      • Fauvism, an introduction
      • Fauve Landscapes and City Views
      • André Derain, The Dance
      • Henri Matisse
        • Luxe, calme et volupté
        • Open Window, Collioure
        • Bonheur de Vivre
        • Dance I
        • The Red Studio
        • The Blue Window
        • Goldfish
        • The Piano Lesson
        • The illustrated book Jazz
    • Expressionism
      • Browse this content
      • Expressionism, an introduction
      • Expressionism as Nordic?
      • Der Blaue Reiter
      • Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
        • Self-Portrait As a Soldier
        • Street, Dresden
        • Street, Berlin
      • Paula Modersohn-Becker, Self-Portrait Nude with Amber Necklace, Half-Length I
      • Emil Nolde, Young Couple
      • Alexej von Jawlensky, Young Girl in a Flowered Hat
      • Vasily Kandinsky
        • Kandinsky, Apocalypse, Abstraction
        • Improvisation 28 (second version)
        • Klänge (Sounds)
      • Franz Marc and the animalization of art
      • Egon Schiele
        • Seated Male Nude (Self-Portrait)
        • Nazi looting: Egon Schiele’s Portrait of Wally
        • The Hermits
        • Wangechi Mutu on Egon Schiele
  • Cubism + early abstraction
    • Browse this content
    • The Case for Abstraction
    • Abstract art and Theosophy
    • Who created the first abstract artwork?
    • Cubism
      • Browse this content
      • Beginner’s guide to Cubism
        • Pablo Picasso and the new language of Cubism
        • Inventing Cubism
        • Cubism and multiple perspectives
        • Synthetic Cubism, Part I
        • Synthetic Cubism, Part II
        • Salon Cubism
      • Pablo Picasso
        • How to paint like Pablo Picasso (Cubism)
        • Picasso’s Early Work
        • The Old Guitarist, and the question of beauty
        • Guernica
        • Portrait of Gertrude Stein
        • Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
        • Three Women
        • The Reservoir, Horta de Ebro
        • Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler
        • Still Life with Chair Caning
        • The Three Musicians
        • Guitar
      • Georges Braque
        • Le Viaduc à L’Estaque, (The Viaduct at L’Estaque)
        • Georges Braque, Violin and Palette
        • Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso: Two Cubist Musicians
        • The Portuguese
      • Cubist sculpture
        • Cubist Sculpture I
        • Cubist Sculpture II
      • Juan Gris, The Table
      • The Cubist City – Robert Delaunay and Fernand Léger
      • Fernand Léger
        • Contrast of Forms
    • Simultanism (Orphism)
      • Sonia Delaunay
      • Robert Delaunay
      • Robert Delaunay, Simultaneous Contrasts: Sun and Moon
    • Russian avant-garde
      • Russian Neo-Primitivism: Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov
      • Kazimir Malevich, Black Square (1915)
      • Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Composition: White on White
      • Kazimir Malevich and Cubo-Futurism
      • Suprematism, Part I: Kazimir Malevich
      • Suprematism, Part II: El Lissitzky
      • Constructivism, Part I
      • Constructivism, Part II
      • Tatlin’s Tower
      • Varvara Stepanova, The Results of the First Five-Year Plan
    • Purism
    • School of Paris
      • Browse this content
      • Amedeo Modigliani, Young Woman in a Shirt
      • Constantin Brancusi
        • The Kiss
    • Photography
      • Henri Cartier-Bresson, Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare
      • Alexander Rodchenko, At the Telephone
    • De Stijl
      • Browse this content
      • 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
        • Composition No. II, with Red and Blue
        • TateShots: Piet Mondrian
  • Italian art before WWI
    • Futurism
      • Browse this content
      • Italian Futurism: An Introduction
      • Futurist Free Word Painting
      • Umberto Boccioni and the Futurist City
      • Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
      • Gino Severini, Dynamic Hieroglyph of the Bal Tabarin
      • Giacomo Balla, Street Light
      • Carlo Carrà, Funeral of the Anarchist Galli
      • Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Horse
    • Metaphysical Art
      • Giorgio de Chirico, The Soothsayer’s Recompense
  • British art and literature
    • British Art and Literature During WWI
  • Dada + Surrealism
    • Browse this content
    • Dada
      • Browse this content
      • A beginner’s guide to Dada
        • Introduction to Dada
        • Dada Manifesto
        • Dada Pataphysics
        • Dada Politics
        • Dada Collage
        • Dada Readymades
        • Dada Performance
      • 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
        • Marcel Duchamp and the Viewer
      • Max Ernst, Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale
      • Raoul Hausmann, Spirit of the Age: Mechanical Head
      • Dada’s “Aproximate Man”: A Portrait of Tristan Tzara (1919) by Marcel Janco
      • Hannah Höch,Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany
      • Francis Picabia, Ideal
    • Surrealism
      • Browse this content
      • A beginner’s guide
        • Surrealism, an introduction
        • The Case for Surrealism
        • Surrealism: Imagining A New World
        • Surrealism: Origins and Precursors
        • Surrealism and Psychoanalysis
        • Surrealist Techniques: Automatism
        • Surrealist Techniques: Subversive Realism
        • Surrealist Techniques: Collage
        • Surrealist Photography
        • Surrealist Exhibitions
        • Surrealism and Women
        • A brief guide to Egyptian 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)
      • André Masson, Battle of Fishes
  • German & Italian art between the wars
    • Browse this content
    • Prints and photography
      • Browse this content
      • Käthe Kollwitz, In Memoriam Karl Liebknecht
      • August Sander, Portraits
      • Umbo, The Roving Reporter
      • Horst P. Horst, Mainbocher Corset, Paris
      • Lotte Jacobi, Head of a Dancer
      • Gertrud Arndt, Self-Portrait with Veil
    • Bauhaus
      • Browse this content
      • The Bauhaus, an Introduction
      • The Bauhaus and Bau
      • The Bauhaus: Marcel Breuer
      • The Bauhaus: Marianne Brandt
      • Lyonel Feininger, Cathedral for Program of the State Bauhaus in Weimar
      • Paul Klee, Twittering Machine (Die Zwitscher-Maschine)
      • László Moholy-Nagy
        • Telephone Pictures
        • Photogram
        • Composition A.XX
        • Climbing the Mast
    • New Objectivity
      • Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) – An Introduction
      • Christian Schad, Self-Portrait
      • George Grosz, Remembering
    • Nazi & Fascist visual culture
      • Browse this content
      • Paul Troost, House of (German) Art
      • Adolf Ziegler, The Four Elements: Fire, Water and Earth, Air
      • Art in Nazi Germany
      • What is: Degenerate Art?
      • Murals and Public Art in 1930s Rome
      • The Mausoleum of Augustus and the Piazza Augusto Imperatore in Rome
  • Latin American Modernism
    • Browse this content
    • Beginner’s guide
      • Latin American art, an introduction
    • Early vanguards
      • Francisco Goitia, Tata Jesucristo
      • Luis Nishizawa and mexicanidad
      • Jaime Colson, Merengue
      • Amelia Peláez del Casal, Fishes
    • Mexican Muralism
      • Browse this content
      • Mexican Muralism: Los Tres Grandes David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and José Clemente Orozco
      • Diego Rivera
        • Diego Rivera, first and second floor murals of the Secretaría de Educación Pública
        • Diego Rivera, Stairwell and Third Floor “Court of Labor” at the SEP
        • Diego Rivera, third floor murals of the Secretaría de Educación Pública
        • The History of Mexico: Diego Rivera’s Murals at the National Palace
        • 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
      • Browse this content
      • Frida Kahlo
        • Frida Kahlo, introduction
        • Frieda and Diego Rivera​
        • The Two Fridas (Las dos Fridas)
      • Rosa Rolanda, Self-Portrait
      • Wifredo Lam
        • The Jungle
        • The Eternal Presence
      • Hector Hyppolite, Ogou Feray also known as Ogoun Ferraille
    • Constructivism
      • Geometric Abstraction in South America, an introduction
      • Joaquín Torres-García
        • Composition
        • Inverted America
      • Lygia Clark, Bicho
      • Breaking the Frame – the Concrete Art Movement
      • Painting in an Industrial Age – the Concrete Art Movement
      • The Challenge of a Straight Line – the Concrete Art Movement
      • Rhod Rothfuss, Yellow Quadrangle
    • Brazilian modernism
      • The origins of modern art in São Paulo, an introduction
      • Tarsila do Amaral, Abaporú
      • An Antidote for Social Amnesia: The Memory Space of the Cais do Valongo
      • Letícia Parente, Marca registrada
      • Hélio Oiticica, Parangolés
    • International style architecture
      • International Style architecture in Mexico and Brazil
      • Building Brasília
    • Photography
      • Martín Chambi, Juan de la Cruz Sihuana, Cuzco Studio
      • Lola Álvarez Bravo, Architectural Anarchy in Mexico City
      • José Yalenti, Architecture or Twilight
  • American art to WWII
    • Browse this content
    • American Impressionism
      • Metcalf, Havana Harbor
      • When the department store was new: Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones, The Shoe Shop
    • Symbolism
      • Henry Ossawa Tanner
        • The Banjo Lesson
        • Angels Appearing before the Shepherds
        • The Good Shepherd
    • Ashcan School
      • Browse this content
      • The Ashcan School, an introduction
      • George Luks, Hester Street
      • George Bellows
        • Pennsylvania Station Excavation
        • Both Members of This Club
        • Return of the Useless
      • John Sloan, Movies
    • 291
      • Browse this content
      • 291—Little Galleries of the Photo Secession
      • Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage
      • Florine Stettheimer, Portrait of Alfred Stieglitz
      • 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
        • Radiator Building—Night, New York
        • The Lawrence Tree
    • North American Modernism
      • Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Little Joe with Cow
      • Elsie Driggs, Blast Furnaces
      • Millard Sheets, Tenement Flats
      • Franklin Carmichael, Grace Lake
    • The American west
      • Stephen Mopope, U.S. Post Office Murals, Anadarko, OK
      • Stephen Mopope, Game of Skill
    • The American south and southwest
      • Robert Henri, Tom Po Qui (Water of Antelope Lake/Indian Girl/Ramoncita)
      • Walter Ufer, Hunger
      • The lure of the American Southwest: E. Martin Hennings, Rabbit Hunt
      • Velino Shije Herrera (Ma Pe Wi), Design, Tree and Birds
      • Nampeyo (Hopi-Tewa), polychrome jar
      • Puebloan: Maria Martinez, Black-on-black ceramic vessel
      • Julian Martinez, Buffalo Dancers
      • Awa Tsireh’s Pottery Makers
    • Harlem Renaissance
      • Aaron Douglas, Aspiration
      • Jacob Lawrence
        • The Migration Series
        • Ambulance Call
    • Social Realism
      • Browse this content
      • Raphael Soyer, Dancing Lesson
      • Todros Geller, Strange Worlds
      • Hale Woodruff, The Banjo Player
      • Grant Wood
        • American Gothic
        • Parson Weems’ Fable
      • Alexandre Hogue, Crucified Land
      • Vertis Hayes, The Lynchers
      • Vertis Hayes, Juke Joint
      • Reginald Marsh, Wooden Horses
      • Ben Shahn
        • The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti
        • Miners’ Wives
        • Contemporary American Sculpture
      • Romare Bearden, Factory Workers
      • Edward Hopper, Nighthawks
      • Horace Pippin
        • Horace Pippin, Mr. Prejudice
        • Josiah McElheny on Horace Pippin
      • Norman Rockwell, Rosie the Riveter
      • Eldzier Cortor, Southern Landscape
    • Sculpture
      • Frederick MacMonnies, Civic Virtue
      • Stone Mountain, Georgia
      • Alexander Calder, Mobile
    • Photography
      • Shigemi Uyeda’s Reflections on the Oil Ditch
        Getty Conversations
      • Walker Evans, Subway Passengers, New York City
      • Ansel Adams: Visualizing a Photograph
      • Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother
      • Lotte Jacobi, Albert Einstein
      • Harold Edgerton, Milk-Drop Coronet Splash
      • Esther Bubley, Waiting for the Bus at the Memphis Terminal
  • Postwar American art
    • Browse this content
    • Abstract Expressionism
      • Browse this content
      • Finding meaning in abstraction
      • Abstract Expressionism, an introduction
      • What is: Abstract Expressionism?
      • Norman Lewis, Untitled
      • Willem de Kooning, Woman, I
      • Hedda Sterne, Number 3—1957
      • Lee Krasner, Untitled
      • Robert Motherwell, Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 57
      • Jackson Pollock
        • Autumn Rhythm
        • Mural
        • The Case for Jackson Pollock
        • Why is that important? Looking at Jackson Pollock
        • The Painting Techniques of Jackson Pollock
        • Conservation: Jackson Pollock, One: Number 31, 1950
        • Paint Application Studies of Jackson Pollock’s Mural
      • Mark Rothko
        • No. 210/No. 211 (Orange), 1960
        • No. 3/No. 13
        • The Case for Mark Rothko
        • Mark Rothko (at MoMA)
        • Restoring Rothko
      • Barnett Newman
        • Onement, I
        • Barnett Newman at MoMA
        • The Painting Techniques of Barnett Newman
        • Representation and abstraction: looking at Millais and Newman
      • Franz Kline
        • Franz Kline at MoMA
        • The Painting Techniques of Franz Kline
      • Beauford Delaney, Marian Anderson
      • Mark Bradford on Clyfford Still
    • New York School
      • Browse this content
      • The Impact of Abstract Expressionism
      • Sari Dienes, Star Circle
      • Jasper Johns
        • Flag
        • White Flag
      • Robert Rauschenberg
        • Erased de Kooning Drawing
        • Canyon
        • Bed
        • Retroactive I
        • Robert Rauschenberg, Signs
      • 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
      • Browse this content
      • Thelma Johnson Streat, Girl with Bird
      • Charles Sebree, The Mystic
      • George Tooker, Highway
      • Jess, If All the World Were Paper and All the Water Sink
      • Benny Andrews, Flag Day
      • Romare Bearden, Three Folk Musicians
      • Brummett Echohawk (Pawnee), An Island of Redbuds on the Cimarron
      • Duane Hanson, Executive
      • Faith Ringgold, Dancing at the Louvre
      • Faith Ringgold, Ben
      • Ruthe Blalock Jones (Delaware, Shawnee, Peoria), Medicine Woman
      • Lin Tianmiao on Alex Katz’s Black and Brown Blouse
    • Postwar abstraction
      • Josef Albers, Homage to the Square
      • Ruth Asawa, Untitled
      • Rita Mae Pettway, Housetop (fractured medallion variation)
      • Alma Thomas, Lunar Rendezvous—Circle of Flowers
      • Sam Gilliam, Purpled (Chasers Series)
    • Photography
      • Browse this content
      • Gordon Parks, Off on My Own (Harlem, New York)
      • LaToya Ruby Frazier on Gordon Parks’s Red Jackson
      • Garry Winogrand, Democratic Convention, 1960
      • Richard Avedon, Audrey Hepburn, New York, January 1967
      • New Topographics
      • How Photographs of Poverty in the Americas Ignited an International Battle over Propaganda
      • Richard Misrach’s early work and Border Cantos
      • Robert Frank
        • An interview with Robert Frank
        • Rashid Johnson on Robert Frank’s The Americans
  • Postwar European art
    • Browse this content
    • France
      • Jean Dubuffet
        • A View of Paris: The Life of Pleasure
        • Childbirth
    • Switzerland
      • Alberto Giacometti, Walking Man II
      • Jean Tinguely, Homage to New York
    • Germany
      • Browse this content
      • Joseph Beuys
        • Table with Accumulator (Tisch mit Aggregat)
        • Fat Chair
        • Feet Washing and Conceptual Performance
      • Bernd & Hilla Becher, Water Towers
      • Sigmar Polke
        • Bunnies
        • Watchtower series
      • Gerhard Richter
        • Uncle Rudi
        • Betty
        • Gerhard Richter, September
        • Gerhard Richter, The Cage Paintings (1-6)
      • Anselm Kiefer
        • Anselm Kiefer, Shulamite
        • An interview with Anselm Kiefer
    • Britain
      • Browse this content
      • 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
      • Step inside Magdalena Abakanowicz’s forest of woven sculptures
  • Pop Art
    • Browse this content
    • A beginner’s guide
      • Pop Art
    • Richard Hamilton, Just What is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, so Appealing?
    • 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
    • Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee), Me and My Neon Box
    • Betye Saar, Liberation of Aunt Jemima
    • Harry Fonseca, Two Coyotes with Flags
    • Roy Lichtenstein, Rouen Cathedral Set V
  • Conceptual + Performance Art
    • Browse this content
    • Conceptual Art
      • Browse this content
      • A beginner’s guide
        • Conceptual Art, An Introduction
        • The Case for Conceptual Art
      • Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs
      • Martha Rosler
        • The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems
        • Semiotics of the Kitchen
      • 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
      • Mónica Mayer, The Clothesline
    • Performance Art
      • Browse this content
      • Performance Art, an Introduction
      • The Case for Performance Art
      • Black Mountain College
      • Shiraga Kazuo, Challenging Mud
      • Vito Acconci, Following Piece
      • Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Washing/Tracks/Maintenance: Outside (July 23, 1973)
      • Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting
      • Marina Abramović, The Artist is Present
  • Minimalism + Earthworks
    • Browse this content
    • A beginner’s guide
      • An introduction to Minimalism
      • The Case for Minimalism
      • The Case for Land Art
    • Carl Andre, Lever
    • Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty
    • Robert Morris
      • (Untitled) L-Beams
      • Robert Morris, Bodyspacemotionthings
    • Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field
    • Nicolás García Uriburu, Coloration of the Grand Canal, Venice
    • Donald Judd, Untitled
    • Richard Serra
      • Tilted Arc
      • Intersection II
      • Torqued Ellipse IV
      • Band
    • Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Gates
  • Post Minimalism
    • Browse this content
    • Alternative art spaces in NYC
    • Melvin Edwards, Some Bright Morning
    • Eva Hesse
      • The last work of Eva Hesse
      • Untitled (Rope Piece)
      • Untitled
    • Louise Bourgeois, Cumul I
    • Barbara Zucker
      • Mix, Stir, Pour (White Floor Piece)
      • Time Signatures: Homage to Linda and Lucy. My Luminaries
    • Eleanor Antin, Carving: A Traditional Sculpture
    • Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party
    • Mary Kelly, Post-Partum Document
    • Olga de Amaral, El gran muro
    • Jackie Winsor, #1 Rope
    • Lynda Benglis – ‘Form and Texture Create the Magic’
    • Chicano Art Movement
      • Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF)
      • Self Help Graphics and Art
      • Malaquías Montoya, Vote Register
      • Harry Gamboa Jr., À la Mode, from the Asco era
    • Arte Povera
      • Mario Merz, Giap’s Igloo
      • Michelangelo Pistoletto, Newspaper Sphere
    • Robert Colescott, I Gets a Thrill Too When I Sees De Koo
    • Senga Nengudi, Linda Goode Bryant and the Just Above Midtown Gallery
  • Colonial and postcolonial modernisms
    • Browse this content
    • Democratic Republic of the Congo
      • Tshibumba Kanda Matulu, Le 30 juin 1960, Zaïre indépendant
    • Ethiopia
      • Skunder Boghossian, Night Flight of Dread and Delight
      • Battle of Adwa
    • Mali
      • Seydou Keïta, Untitled (Seated Woman with Chevron Print Dress)
      • Mickalene Thomas on Seydou Keïta
    • Nigeria
      • Uche Okeke
    • Puerto Rico
      • Ramón Frade, Our Daily Bread
      • Rafael Tufiño
        • La Plena
        • Goyita
    • South Asia
      • Amrita Sher-Gil, Self-Portrait as a Tahitian
    • Sudan
      • Ibrahim El-Salahi, Reborn Sounds of Childhood Dreams
      • Ibrahim El-Salahi , Reborn Sounds of Childhood Dreams 1 studio visit
      • Ibrahim El-Salahi, The Inevitable
    • Syria
      • Mahmoud Hammad, Arabic Writing no. 11
    • Turkey
      • Fahrelnissa Zeid – ‘She Was the East and the West’
  • Postwar Asia
    • China
      • Liu Chunhua, Chairman Mao en Route to Anyuan
    • Korea
      • Song Su-Nam, Summer Trees
  • Architecture, design, and dance
    • Browse this content
    • A beginner’s guide
      • What is: brutalism?
    • Vienna Secession
      • Josef Maria Olbrich, The Secession Building
      • Otto Wagner, Postal Savings Bank
    • The Wiener Werkstätte
    • New York skyscrapers & landmarks
      • Browse this content
      • Ziggurats in the U.S.: the reception of Assyrian architecture in New York City
      • 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
      • Browse this content
      • Peter Behrens, Turbine Factory
      • Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye
      • The White City of Tel Aviv 
      • 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
      • Anni Albers and modern weaving
    • Indians of Canada Pavilion, Expo 67, Montreal
    • Late Modernism/Post-Modernism
      • Browse this content
      • Running in sneakers, the Judson Dance Theater
      • The Berlin Wall as a political symbol
      • Breuer, The Whitney Museum of American Art (then The Met Breuer, and now the Frick Madison)
      • 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 Mark Rothko

by The Art Assignment

Speaker: Sarah Urist Green

Cite this page as: The Art Assignment, "The Case for Mark Rothko," in Smarthistory, April 9, 2018, accessed December 9, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/the-case-for-mark-rothko/.
Flickr Icon

Browse Smarthistory images for teaching & learning!

Sign up for our newsletter!

Receive occasional emails about new Smarthistory content.

Smarthistory is a nonprofit organization

At Smarthistory we believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background. Smarthistory’s free, award-winning digital content unlocks the expertise of hundreds of leading scholars, making the history of art accessible and engaging to more people, in more places, than any other publisher.

  • Donate
  • Contact Us
facebook icon
twitter icon
instagram icon
youtube icon
flickr icon
  • About Smarthistory
  • Smarthistory’s blog
  • Contribute an essay
  • Content editors and contributors

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License