1. The International
Scene Since 1945

2. • Artists since 1945 have used their art to comment on the
state of the world, and the spread of mass media after WWII
(TV invented in early 50’s)
• Addressed a variety of problems: racism, the environment,
weapons of mass destruction, social and political issues) – a
very tense atmosphere
• Great experimentation
• Short-lived movements of intense activity
• Artists express themselves in new ways via technology
• Artists work in a variety of media
• Computers have impact on architecture – easier and faster to
draw plans, computer checks for structural errors too!
• Other new technologies: plastics, video projections, computer
graphics, sound installations, fiberglass, lasers, etc.
• Women play a larger role than ever before (as artists, patrons,
gallery owners, and customers)

3. • Existentialism reflected in artwork – there is no God, no
supreme being, humans are “condemned to be free” –
the self is a process in constant evolution as each of us
establishes an identity and responds to our world
• Humans are responsible for the world they have
created, and are free to decide how to act in it
• Most valuable art = shows honest individual thoughts
about life and existence
• Assault on traditional art continues
• Artists investigate the nature of art – created works as
experiments to test the boundaries of art
• Paris is no longer the art capital of the world, position
taken by New York (because Europeans moved in, it
had an active art community, and it was afraid of
experimentation)

4. What’s happening with PAINTING:
• Artists still paint with oils, but ACRYLIC paint is
introduced and became popular
• ACRYLICS dry fast and can be thinned with
water (easy cleanup!) – but they crack over
time (so many artists still prefer oils)
• Traditional painting techniques still popular,
but artists often use computers to make the
process easier

5. What’s happening with SCULPTURE:
• Goodbye marble – takes too long to carve, too
easy to mess up, no market for it….old fashioned
• Hello fast and easy sculpture methods! –
porcelain, fabric, beeswax – anything that can be
molded, shaped, modified to make an impact
• Sculptures made of multiple objects =
ASSEMBLAGES
• Big ASSEMBLAGES are called INSTALLATIONS an
can even take up a whole room in a museum or
gallery

6. FIGURAL ART
• Figuration keeps art close to the
human condition – connect to
humanity – expresses kinship with
the wounded, displaced, and dead

7. CITY SQUARE, by: Alberto Giacometti, 1948, bronze
•Opposite of the classical ideal- thin, fragile, lumpy, rough, crude
•Bravely occupy their limited space, frail nobility, they exist in the
space (existentialism)

8. •Inspired by
Expressionists
•Depicts a figure
howling in a black
void, anguished,
insubstantial
•Similar mood to
“The Scream” by
Munch
•Figure (a Pope) in
a claustrophobic
box, frightful cries,
terror
Head Surrounded
by Sides of Beef
Francis Bacon,
1954, oil on
canvas

9. ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
• Sometimes called “The New York School”
• First American avant-garde movement
• A reaction against artists like Mondrian
and Malevich, who took the minimalist
approach to abstraction
• Abstract Expressionists want more active
representation of the artist’s process (aka:
Action Painting)

10. Number 1, 1950
Jackson Pollock, 1950
oil, enamel, and aluminum paint on canvas

11. • ACTION PAINTING: the
artist places canvas on
the floor and drips and
splatters paint on the
surface
•Huge painting – engulfs viewer (about
9’x17’)
•Made with spontaneity and
improvisation
•Limited color palette
•No hierarchical arrangement – every
area of the canvas is equally energized

12. •We can re-trace Pollock’s steps around the canvas (even his
footprints are on the edges) – he worked from all four sides
•Used conventional oil paint with house paint – dripped them with
sticks and brushes, fluid arm and wrist motions
•Listened to jazz music as he worked, also inspired by Navajo sand
painting (shaman pours colored sand on floor in symbolic patterns)
•One of the most important breakthroughs in modern art

15. Number 8
Jackson Pollock

16. The Seasons
Lee Krasoner, 1957, oil on canvas

17. •Lee Krasner = Jackson Pollock’s wife, temporarily stopped painting to
“play wife”
•Pollock died in a car crash (don’t drink and drive!), and she took over
his studio and did more work, emerged from Jackson’s shadow
•Bold, sweeping curves that express her new sense of liberation (it
wasn’t a great marriage) and her identification with the forces of nature
– bursting rounded forms and springlike colors

18. Woman II
Willem de Kooning, 1952
oil on canvas
•Slashing of paint onto canvas
•Jagged lines create an
overpowering image
•Ferocious woman with fierce
teeth and huge eyes
•Large breasts – satire on
women who appear in
magazine advertisements
(response to mass media)
•Smile inspired by a woman in
a Camel cigarettes
advertisement (response to
mass media)
•“Art never seems to make me
peaceful or pure” – de Kooning

19. ASHEVILLE
William de Kooning, 1948, oil and enamel on canvas
•Painted in an
agitated way
•Urgent
improvisation
(though done
on an easel)
•Dominant
rhythm in dark,
jagged,
dripping
brushstrokes
•Natural arm
movements
with brush

20. COLOR FIELD PAINTINGS
•We won’t see the “aggression” of
Abstract Expressionism
•Subtle tonal values, often
variations of the same hue
•Popular in the 1960’s

21. Four Darks in Red
Mark Rothko, 1958, oil on canvas
•Blocks of color
•Rich color
stretches across
picture plane
•Radically simple
composition
•Tension in the
harmony of the
color
relationships =
tension in
harmonious
relationships in
life and in one’s
self

22. No. 61, Brown, Blue, Brown on Blue
Mark Rothko, 1953, oil on canvas
•Luminous colors seem to
emerge and recede
•Hazy edges
•Paintings have no titles, just the
names of the colors used
•Usually have 2-4 soft-edged
rectangular blocks hovering
against a monochrome ground
•Rich color = emotional and
instinctual
•Simple composition = rational,
disciplined
•Believed people were
“tragically divided” – his
paintings are a collection of
separate parts

23. No. 61, Brown, Blue, Brown on Blue
Mark Rothko, 1953, oil on canvas
•Three blocks
approximate the
human division of
head, torso, and legs
•Paintings are usually
just a little taller than
an adult, so they are a
sort of mirror image of
the divided self
•Dark tones =
implications of division

24. Vir Heroicus Sublimis
Barnett Newman, 1950-1951, oil on canvas
•Newman specialized in monochrome canvases with one or more
vertical lines (“zips”) dividing the surface – engulf the viewer with color
•Modern experience of the sublime (basic to most of the world’s
religions)

25. NEW YORK SCHOOL SCULPTURE
•Use abstract means to transmit meaning and
emotional states

26. Hudson River Landscape
David Smith, 1951, welded steel

27. •Defied traditional vertical sculpture, welded in horizontal format
•Open form, resembles a drawing in space, fluent metal calligraphy,
like Pollock’s poured lines
•Inspired by views from a train window of rolling landscape of
upstate NY
•Meant to be seen from the front, like a painting

28. Assemblage:
•Artists gather seemingly random objects and put
them together
•Not meant to make a predetermined statement
•Want to see what kind of meaning might emerge

29. Sky Cathedral
Louise Nevelson, 1958, wood (ASSEMBLAGE)
•Huge wooden
construction made
of random wooden
parts
•Furniture, dowels,
moldings, etc. – all
painted black,
unifies composition
and obscures
identity of
individual elements
•Shallow boxes with
wooden
components
•Complex interplay
of recession and
projection

30. Sky Cathedral
Louise Nevelson, 1958, wood (ASSEMBLAGE)
•Analytic Cubist
influence in the
arrangement of
forms (similar to
Picasso collage)
•Displayed it in
soft blue light (like
moonlight)
because she
believed she could
transform an
ordinary space
into another,
higher realm (just
like she changed
the pieces of
wood)

31. Canyon
Robert Rauschenberg, 1959, combine painting
•COMBINES: combine
painting and sculpture
•Family photos, public
imagery (Statue of
Liberty), fragments of
political posters, objects
from the trash
(flattened steel drum),
purchased objects
(stuffed eagle)
•Various patches of
paint
•Disorderly – makes the
viewer try to make
sense of it
•Wants each viewer to
interpret it differently

32. Target with Four Faces
Jasper Johns, 1955,
assemblage
•Controlled, emotionally cool,
highly cerebral
•Inspired by Marcel Duchamp
•Conceptually puzzling,
•Representation vs. abstraction
•Target is representational, and
representational art usually
creates the illusion of 3-D
space…..but this target is
flat…..
•Target hovers between two
kind of painting struggling for
dominance in American art

33. Post-WWII Photography
•Photojournalism grew more popular – commercial
assignments help earn a living and express
concerns
•Magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar provide
work for photographers, influenced the
development of color photography
•Documentary photography – rejected aesthetic
standards, depicted raw, unsentimental subject
matter
•Combines social commentary with formal interest
in composition

34. Trolley, New Orleans
Robert Frank, 1955, photograph

35. •Documentary-style photo about racial segregation – white passengers sit in
front of trolley, African-Americans in back (this is before civil rights movement
forced changes in the South)
•Rectangular frames of trolley window isolate individuals – urban alienation
•Top row of windows have ghostly reflections – almost like photos themselves

36. POP ART
•POPular in 1950’s and 1960’s
•Draws on materials from every world – items of mass
popular culture like consumer goods and celebrities
•Also used mass-production techniques to make art
•No distinction between “high” art and the design of mass-
produced objects
•Glorifies and magnifies common things, brings the viewer
face to face with everyday reality
•A reaction against Abstract Expressionism, not meant to be
satirical
• A response to the growing presence of mass media in the
prosperous postwar culture
•Slick look due to exclusive use of mass-produced
imagery/techniques
•ironic, cynical, detached attitude

37. Just What Is It
That Makes
Today’s Homes
So Different, So
Appealing?
Richard
Hamilton
1956, collage

38. •Consumer
productions put
together in a
collage: Armor
ham, Ford insignia,
Tootsie Pop, etc.
•Mass-marketed
items arranged in a
somewhat
Surrealist way –
woman with
headlights for
breasts wears a
lampshade, and a
romance comic
book is a framed
painting

39. •Abstract
expressionist
painting is a rug
•Photo of moon is
ceiling art
•Contemporary
details (room,
furniture)
•Consumer society
is obsessed with the
human body and
advertising.
•Hamilton called the
man and woman in
this “Adam and Eve”
– in their domestic
setting

40. •“The Jazz Singer” is
showing at the
theater outside the
window (first sound
movie, 1927)
•Images of modern
comfort, progress,
and success

41. Marilyn Monroe
Andy Warhol, 1964, silkscreen and oil on canvas
•Marilyn’s highly-
recognizable face is
highlighted in bold,
artificial colors
•Her private personality
is hidden behind her
public image
•Social characteristics
magnified brilliant
blonde hair, heavy
lipstick, seductive
expression

42. Marilyn Diptych, Andy Warhol, 1962
oil, acrylic, and silkscreen on enamel on canvas, 2 panels

43. •Warhol used an “assembly line”
technique of silkscreening
photographic images onto canvas
– quicker than painting by hand =
more $ gained…. Also, he could
produce more versions of the
same subject (mass-production of
art)
•Established his own art workshop
in 1965 called “The Factory”
•He was obsessed with celebrity
•Prompted to use Marilyn’s image after her suicide in 1962
•This piece looks almost like a film strip, sequential (some black and
white, some color, just like her movies
•Shows Monroe as a star, not as a person (he wasn’t interested in her
real self)
•Made this a diptych – a format he remembered from his childhood
church – symbolically treating the actress as a saint

44. WARHOL

45. Warhol said of Campbell’s
Soup, “I used to drink it. I
used to have the same lunch
every day, for 20 years, I
guess, the same thing over
and over again. Someone
said my life has dominated
me; I liked that idea.”

46. Hopeless
Roy Lichtenstein, 1963, oil on canvas
•First American artist to
make art from the LOOK
as well as the SUBJECT of
popular culture
•Used images from
advertisements and
cartoons
•Used thick black outlines
and BENDAY DOTS to add
tone in printing (just like
in comics)

47. Hopeless
Roy Lichtenstein, 1963, oil on canvas
•Heavy black outlines
frame unmodulated flat
color
•Hard, precise painting
•His work usually captures
a moment of transition or
crisis
•Used images for
reference, but made
formal adjustments that
tightened, clarified, and
strengthened the final
image
•We know that comic book
emotions aren’t real, but
he presents them vividly
and reverently (What IS
real in our media-
saturated culture?)

48. Oh Jeff…I Love You, Too…But…
Roy Lichtenstein, 1964, oil on canvas

51. Lipstick (Ascending) On
Caterpillar Tracks
Claes Oldenburg
1969
steel, aluminum, fiberglass
It’s at Yale Art Gallery!

52. •Oldenburg had a critical and
humorous attitude about pop
culture
•Did this as a response to Yale
School of Architecture students’
request for a monument to the
“Second American Revolution” of
the late 60’s – marked by student
demonstrations against the
Vietnam War
•Mounted a giant lipstick tube on
tracks from a Caterpillar tractor –
suggests a missile grounded in a
tank
•Missile is in the form of a
feminine cosmetic , with erotic
overtones
•Make love, not war

53. OP ART
•Short for “optical”
•Strictly abstract, relies on optical illusions
•Fine lines used in receding/emerging patterns
create a 3-D effect over canvas
•Mind-boggling illusions created by varying length
and waviness of lines
•Popular in the 60’s

54. Fall
Bridget Riley,
1963, synthetic
polymer on
board

55. •Plays with
viewer’s depth
perception
•Narrow lines
describe wave
patterns, natural
rhythm
•Impossible to
keep our eyes
perfectly still
when looking at
this
•Visual
immersion –
suited to a fast-
paced society

56. Movement in
Squares
Bridget Riley
1961
tempera on board

57. Pause
Bridget
Riley
1964

58. MINIMALISM
•A form of abstract art that denies representation of
any kind (the objects, the titles, nothing!)
•Completely abstract aesthetic, lacking narrative,
gestures, and impulses, metaphor personal feelings,
etc.
•Wanted to purge their art of everything that was not
essential to art
•Emphasized simple geometric forms, plain surfaces
•Industrial techniques and materials often used
•Popular in 60’s and 70’s

59. Untitled
Donald Judd
1974, stainless steel
and plexiglass
•Geometric boxlike shapes
aligned in a row on a wall
•Highly polished surfaces
•Personality of the artist
completely suppressed
•Spaces between boxes
create dynamic interplay of
solids, voids, and shadows

60. Avicenna
Frank Stella, 1960
aluminum paint on canvas
•Paint normally applied to
radiators
•Chose the paint because it
“had a quality of repelling the
eye”
•Cut notches out of the
corners and the center –
striped “jog” in response to
these irregularities
•He experimented with the
possibilities of the shaped
canvas

61. STELLA!!!!

62. CONCEPTUAL ART
•Conceptual artists see art in its purest form
•Emphasis on thought process, not artistic process
•Popular in 1960’s
•Pushed Minimalism to the extreme by eliminating the art
object itself (I know, I know, how is it ART if it’s not ART?)
•Sometimes a printed statement, set of directions,
documentary photograph
•Root of conceptual art – Marcel Duchamp – said making
art should be a mental, not physical, activity
•Every art object begins as an idea – more important that
carrying out the idea
•If an idea is good, the piece of art will also be good!

63. •We could even call Michelangelo a
conceptual artist!
•Sistine chapel- creative envisioning of the
relationship between God and people
•IDEA of God reaching out to Adam was the
masterpiece, and all he had to do was paint
the idea
•Other artists had similar skills, but no one
thought as creatively as Michelangelo
•Michelangelo is a good conceptual artist!

64. One and Three Hammers
Joseph Kosuth, 1965, hammer, photo of hammer,
printed dictionary definition of a “hammer”

65. •So which type of hammer is the real hammer? Which expresses the
greatest concept of the hammer? Photo of hammer, 3D hammer,
definition of hammer?
•A study of the relationship of the three items – comparison and
contrast
•A study in semiotics- a philosophical theory that discusses the
relationship and function of signs and symbols in language

66. One and Three Chairs
Joseph Kosuth, 1965, wood folding chair, photo of
chair, dictionary definition of chair

67. Self Portrait as a Fountain
Bruce Neuman, 1966,
color photo
•Many conceptual artists
used their bodies as an
artistic medium and
engaged in
activities/performances
that they considered
works of art
•Bare chested artist tips head back, spurts water into air,
designates himself a work of art
•“Fountain” a reference to Duchamp’s urinal

68. How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare
Joseph Beuys, 1965
photograph of performance
• Beuys covered his head in honey
and gold leaf
• Large metal flange on one shoe
• Hobbled around gallery w/ dead
rabbit in his arms, stopped at each
work in the gallery and whispered
to the animal the meaning of
each, then touched its lifeless paw
to the glass-covered surface
• Radiant golden head makes him
look magical, like a wizard, but the
metal flange handicapped him and
made him appear frail at the same
time
• “Even a dead animal preserves
more powers of intuition than
some human beings” - Beuys

69. EARTHWORKS and SITE-SPECIFIC ART
(you could call this SITE ART too)
• Dependent on its location to render full
meaning
• Sometimes the works are temporary (like
works by Christo and Jeanne-Claude)
• Other times the works remain, but need
the original environment intact in order to
be fully understood
• 1970’s – the present

70. Spiral Jetty
Robert Smithson, 1970, Great Salt Lake, Utah

71. •1500-foot spiraling stone and earth platform extending into the Great
Salt Lake, Utah
•Smithson wanted to illustrate the “ongoing dialectic” in nature
between constructive forces (forces that build, shape, form) and
destructive forces (those that destroy it)
•Chose this lake because it represents the origins of life in the salty
waters of the primordial ocean as well as the end of life (few
organisms can live in this salty water, mostly just alga that give the
water a red tinge, suggestive of blood
•Located in an extremely
remote and inaccessible
area near abandoned
mines and mining
equipment
•Walk on the jetty and the
curling path changes your
view from every angle

72. •Artist used a tractor and native stone to create the jetty
•A jetty is supposed to be a pier in the water – here is is transformed
into a curl of rocks sitting silently in a vast empty wilderness
•Coil is an image seen in North American earthworks
•Used a spiral because it is the most fundamental shape in nature
(seen in galaxies, seashells, DNA molecules, salt crystals)
•He liked the dialectical shape (one that opens, closes, curls, uncurls
•Suggested to him the coming and going of things
•Since he made it, the
surrounding lake water
has turned red and
back to blue, risen up
to drown the work, and
revealed it again
covered in salt.

73. Serpent Mound
2300 BCE, Ohio
•A snake seizing a huge egg
•Dates from a time period without any
written record, could mean anything!
Influence
of North
American
earthworks

74. Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Maya Lin, 1981-1983, black granite, D.C.

75. •V-shaped monument cut into the earth, 60,000 casualties of the
Vietnam War in the order they were killed or reported missing
•One arm of the monument points to the Lincoln Memorial, the
other to the Washington Monument
•Black granite is very reflective – viewers can see themselves in the
names of the veterans, and black is a somber color for the memorial
Strong
influence of the
minimalist
movement

78. Running Fence
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
1972-1976, nylon fence 18’ high
and 24 ½ miles long in California

79. •Christo obsessed with wrapping places or things in fabric
•Chose the location for aesthetic reasons, and to call attention to
the link between urban, suburban, and rural spaces
•Had a hard time convincing the county commissioners to let this
happen
•Installed by a diverse group of supporters – teachers, students,
ranchers, lawyers, artists – broke down social barriers between
people as they worked on it
•Remained up for 2 weeks, property owners kept materials

80. Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin
Christo and Jeanne-Claude,
1971

81. The Gates, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, 1979-2005
In Central Park, NYC

82. FEMINIST ART
•Developed out of the Women’s Liberation movement of
the late 60’s and early 70’s
•Challenged the fact that Western art had been
dominated by men all along
•Goals: increase recognition of the accomplishments of
women artists, past and present, and increase awareness
and acceptance of feminist issues in society
•“Craft” media – traditionally women (ceramics, textiles,
jewelry) – tried to elevate craft media to fine art status
•Some artists see the “feminist” label as categorizing and
demeaning
•1970’s – the present
•In 1970, only 18% of the New York galleries carried
works by female artists

83. You Are a Captive Audience
Barbara Kruger, 1983,
photograph
• Kruger began as a
graphic designer for
Mademoiselle magazine
• Works have mass-media
influence
• Words place in large
photos as design
elements, and to
highlight a message
• Large single image with
short catchy phrase, like
a magazine ad layout
• Artistic message relies
on irony

89. Untitled Film Still, #14
Cindy Sherman, 1978,
photograph
•MOMA has 69 of the
pieces in this series
•Imitates the way that
women have been
stereotypically depicted in
the movies
•Criticizes the concept of
women as objects to be
merely gazed at
•Artist used herself as the
primary figure in the series

90. She always uses herself as her
model, but sometimes changes
so dramatically that you
wouldn’t even recognize her!

92. Tar Beach
Faith Ringgold
1988, quilt
•Drew on the
traditional American
craft of quilt
making- combined it
with traditional
African textiles –
creates statement
about American race
relations
•Signature medium:
story quilt

93. •Always narrated by
women about
women’s lives
•This piece reflects
her memories of
growing up in
Harlem
•“Tar Beach”-
reference to the roof
of the apartment
building her family
lived in – they’d
sleep up there to
cool off (no AC)
•Sleeping on Tar
Beach was magical!

94. •Fictional character
“Cassie” lies on
blanket with her
brother, dreams he
can fly over
Washington bridge,
new union building,
ice cream factory (we
see her flying)
•Family and neighbors
play cards at table
•Her dreams remind
us of the social
limitations African-
Americans have faced
throughout American
history

95. VIDEO, COMPUTER, DIGITAL ART
•New technology = alternative ways to express the
artist’s soul
•Artists can take or create an original subject and
change the size, color, background, shape, and
continuity of the object almost indefinitely
•Artist has complete license to maneuver the work

96. Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S.
Nam June Paik, 1995, video installation

98. •Nam June Paik was the pioneer of video as an artistic
medium, saying that the television will replace canvas
•Worked with live, recorded, and computer-generated
images displayed on video monitors of varying sizes,
which he often combined into sculptural ensembles
•Site-specific work for a
NYC gallery
•A map of the continental
U.S. outlined in neon and
backed by video monitors
flashing with color and
movement, accompanied
by sound (side walls have
Hawaii and Alaska)

99. • Monitors within the borders of each state play images
reflecting that state’s culture and history, past and recent
• In the NY monitors, the gallery visitors see themselves in
a closed-circuit broadcast – puts them into the artwork,
transforms them from passive spectators to active
participants

100. MODERN ARCHITECTURE
• Classical influences and dark interiors
banned!
• Proud display of technology – innovative
materials like titanium, unusual shapes
• Natural light supplements artificial light
• Obsession with light – domes, glass, etc.
• Buildings are either in harmony with
surroundings or purposefully stand out as
being completely different

101. Notre Dame-du-Haut
Le Corbusier, 1950-1955, France

103. •Spaces for outdoor services
•Roof seems to float over the body of the building
•Random placement of windows – deeply religious effect of
scattered light on interior – thick walls w/ stained glass
•Walls are plain concrete – primitive feeling
•Sweeping roof bends downward over nave
•Resembles a
ship, nun’s
habit, dove
(Holy Spirit!),
and/or
praying hands

106. Guggenheim Museum
Frank Lloyd Wright,
1943-1959, NY

107. •Curvilinear patterns of the outside reveal circular domed walkway
inside
•Exhibits placed on walls around spiraling ramps
•Circular motif throughout building
•Poured concrete

108. •Exhibits placed on
walls around spiraling
ramps
•Permanent
collection of
Impressionist, Post-
Impressionist, Early
Modern, and
Contemporary art,
and special exhibits
•Named after its
founder, Solomon R.
Guggenheim (a
wealthy art collector)

109. •Wider at the top than bottom, like a rounded inverted ziggurat!
•Open rotunda – you can see several layers at once and interact with guests on
other levels
•Wrights idea of a “temple of the spirit”
•Skylight in middle adds natural light to whole space
•Visitors go through interconnected rooms, leisurely pace along the gentle slope of
the continuous ramp
•Spiral design, like a nautilus shell – blend of natural shape and rigid geometry

113. Seagram Building
Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe
1956-1958
NY
•A reflection of the
Minimalist movement in art,
“less is more”
•Simplicity, geometric
design, elegant
•Set back in the plaza,
balanced by reflecting pools

114. •Bronze veneer gives skyscraper a monolith look
•Interplay of vertical and horizontal accents
•Steel and glass skyscrapers like this are popular after WWII
•A triumph of the International Style of architecture

115. •Worse energy star rating of any
building in NY (3 out of 100)
•Headquarters of Canadian distillers
Seagram & Sons
•Miles wanted the steel frame visible,
but building codes required all
structural steel to be covered in
fireproof material (usually concrete,
which he didn’t want) – so he used
non-structural bronze-toned beams
to suggest structure instead – run
horizontally land surround the large
glass windows
•Miles wanted a uniform appearance
(window blinds, noooo!!!) – Kept it
organized by installing blinds that
only operate in 3 positions – open,
closed, or half open

116. Sydney Opera House
Joern Utzon, 1959-1972
Sydney, Australia

117. •Vaults grow upward
from their bases,
glass connects them
•3 buildings in 1 – concert hall, opera house, and
restaurant
Fanlike groupings, resemble a ship’s sails (makes sense
since it’s in Sydney Harbor, surrounded by water on 3
sides

122. Georges Pompidou Center
Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano
1977, Paris

123. •An art museum and cultural complex
•Interior framework of building is exposed (like an exoskeleton)
•Color coded system:
•Red: escalators, elevators, stairs
•Green: plumbing
•Blue: air ducts, AC
•Yellow: electricity
•Interior has
interchanging walls,
good for flexible
viewing spaces
•Metal and glass –
lots!
•GERBERETTES on
exterior – steel
vertebrae that allude
to ship building and
symbolize the center
as a cultural ship

127. GERBERETTES
Pompidou Center
ship

130. Guggenheim Bilboa Museo
Frank Gehry, 1997, Bilboa, Spain

131. •Appearance of asymmetrical exterior with outside walls giving no hint to
interior space
•Irregular masses of titanium walls
•Sweeping curved lines
•Called “Deconstruction Architecture: seeks to create a seemingly unstable
environment with unusual spatial arrangements

132. •Built along a river
•Permanent and
visiting exhibits of
Spanish and
international artists
•Represents a VERY
rare moment – critics,
academics, and the
general public were all
pleased with the
structure
•Random curves were
designed to catch the
light
•Atrium nicknamed
“the flower” because
of its shape

133. Atrium
ceiling

135. Exterior is
glass,
titanium,
and
limestone

136. Check out Gehry’s “Fish” in Barcelona

137. Or his
“Dancing
House” in
Prague

138. AT&T Building
(now the Sony
Building)
Philip Johnson
1978-1983
NY

139. •Moved away from glass and
steel box of International
Style to a reintroduction of
stone on the exterior
POSTMODERN ARCHITECTURE
•Emerged in the 1970’s and
early 80’s
•International Style
perceived as cold and
removed from the needs of
modern cities with
cosmopolitan populations
•Nothing wrong with
incorporating ornament,
traditional architectural
expressions, and references
to past styles IN A MODERN
CONTEXT
•Shift away from Postmodern
ideal

140. •36-story building with
floors w/ exceptionally
tall ceilings (so the
building is actually 66
stories)
•Pediment on top
(OMG!!!) – in the style
of 18th century English
Chippendale furniture

141. •Strong vertical
emphasis
•Looks like a spin on
old-fashioned phones
that had coin slots at
the top and coin returns
at the bottom (AT&T,
get it?)

142. VOCABULARY:
•ACTION PAINTING: an abstract painting in which
the artist drips or splatters paint onto a surface like a
canvas in order to create his or her work
•ASSEMBLAGE: a 3-D work made of various
materials such as wood, cloth, paper, and other
misc. objects
•BENDAY DOTS: named for inventor Benjamin Day –
the printing process uses the pointillist technique of
colored dots from a limited palette placed closely
together to achieve more colors and subtle shadings

143. •COLOR FIELD: a style of abstract painting
characterized by simple shapes and monochromatic
color
•EARTHWORK: a large outdoor work in which the
earth itself is the medium
•INSTALLATION: a temporary work of art made up of
assemblages created for a particular space, like an
art gallery or museum

144. FIN
It’s the end of an era!!!