of a Soccer Player, 1913

Suprematist Composition:  White on White, 1918
-reductive & pure, everyone understands it
-new vocabulary that everyone understands and connects to
-feeling is supree
-potential nationalism

Associated artists: Alexander Calder

The collective unconscious

Reactions to war

Both naturalistic and non-objective forms

City Life

Midwest imagery

Murals—art for the people

Influence of art in Europe: Realism, Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal (Farm Security Administration)

Native dress and subjects

•Importance of feeling

•Influence of Surrealism, Native American sand painting, ancient myths and art, ancient language and writing

•Heroic scale

•First international style originating from US; puts NYC on the map as art center

Robert Rauschenberg. Odalisk. 1955–58 

Jasper Johns. Three Flags. 1958 

Jasper Johns, Target with Plaster Casts, 1955

George Segal. The Gas Station. 1963

Interest in mass media, consumer culture

Reaction to elitism and deep emotion of Abstract Expressionism

Similar to Dada in love of ready-made, common objects

Interested in materialism of consumer culture

Stain painting (Frankenthaler, Louis)

Clement Greenburg and his definitions of Modern Art, Post-Painterly Abstraction, Minimalism

Hard-Edge Abstraction 

Mass production methods in sculpture (Donald Judd)

The hare is an animal with broad, centuries-old symbolic meaning in many religions. In Greek mythology it was associated with the love goddess Aphrodite, to the Romans and Germanic tribes it was a symbol of fertility, and in Christianity it came to be connected with the Resurrection. This interpretation is also supported by the "mask" that Beuys wore during his performance: gold as a symbol for the power of the sun, wisdom, and purity, and honey as a Germanic symbol for rebirth.

The relationship between thought, speech, and form in this performance was also characteristic of Beuys. In his last speech Speaking about Germany (German: Sprechen über Deutschland, 1985) he emphasized that he was essentially a man of words. In another instance he is quoted as saying: "When I speak, I try to guide that power's impulse so that it flows into a more fully descriptive language, which is the spiritual perception of growth."^{[nb 1][3]} The integration of speech and conversation into his visual works plays a meaningful role in How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare.

The hare is an animal with broad, centuries-old symbolic meaning in many religions. In Greek mythology it was associated with the love goddess Aphrodite, to the Romans and Germanic tribes it was a symbol of fertility, and in Christianity it came to be connected with the Resurrection. This interpretation is also supported by the "mask" that Beuys wore during his performance: gold as a symbol for the power of the sun, wisdom, and purity, and honey as a Germanic symbol for rebirth.

Art as idea

Art that can’t be collected

Improvisation/Art as experience

Art with a political point

Art as physical experience

Entropy—Art that changes with time

Site-specific sculpture

Taking art out of the gallery

Art that can’t be collected

Sculpture as monument (Vietnam Veterans Memorial)

Namely, this artwork opens up the question of how we interact with nature and other species, so the artist essentially becomes an intermediary of experience which makes this work operating on several levels – from a psychological perspective with human fears; from a zoological perspective with the features and characteristics of an animal; from the perspective of popular culture with the disturbing imagery; and finally from an artistic perspective with the broadening of the notion of an artwork.

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Representational art re-emerges, but often with an emphasis on formal qualities and 

lack of narrative (Diebenkorn, Katz, Celmins)

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Photorealism emerges as an extreme response to non-objective and Minimalist art; also 

as a response to photography

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Re-emergence of symbolism (Flack)

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Pattern & Decoration emerges as both a response to Minimalism and its lack of 

embellishment and as a homage to women’s art mediums of the past

and in many ways opposite to the ideals of Modernism; characterized by:

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Post-structuralism (the denial of fixed rules in forms or structures)

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A return to ornament and embellishment

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A reintroduction of historical references (beginning in architecture)

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An interest in sense of place and local interests (vs. international style)

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Appropriation as a deconstruction of the modernist myth of genius and of authoritarian 

control

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Irony and skepticism

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Emphasis on multiculturalism 

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Pluralism of styles vs. a logical order

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Emphasis on collaboration vs. individual genius

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A denial of fixed truths

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Extension of Modernism, since it continues to question rules of the past

A return to emotion after the detachment of Minimalism

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A return to seeking influence from the past

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A return to expressing contemporary issues

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For many Germans, a time of confronting and coming to terms with the Nazi past 

(Baselitz, Kiefer, Richter)

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For many, a reaction to corporate, capitalist culture (Polke, Longo)

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Pluralism of styles vs. a logical order (Richter)

Anti-elitist

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Taking art to the masses

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Art as an object to be bought and sold, art that is not “made” by the artist

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Idea of fragility of life

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Interactive art

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Installations

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Art as political statement