During the period of time between 1947 & 1991, the United States of America experienced a political, social and cultural rivalry with the Soviet Union. This era is concerned to as “The Cold War” because even though the two nations fought each other directly there was no physical fighting involved. Rather, the two separate political agenda between U.S and Soviet Union (democratic and communist respectively), “fought” each other through the means of stopping each other’s administrative ideologies. Other than the tension caused by politics, the cultural differences caused by the unique ideas on the governing of society. One of the lesser-known impacts of the Cold War was art. In particular the avant-garde movement known as Abstract Expressionism, …show more content…
Painters like Jackson Pollock, Marc Rothko, and Willem de Kooning embodied the idea of intellectual and creative expression.
The pairing of art with politics allowed for a cultural exchange that created advertising for the “first world”. The patronage of the arts during the Cold War served as a step in America’s battle against communism. However, this was not the initial sentiment shared among political leaders in the country. Some political leaders did not support the Modern Art Movement because they found it swayed towards communist viewpoints. This was caused by the Second “Red” Scare which was started by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the late 40’s and 50’s. He accused many members of the United States State Department of either being communists or communist sympathizers. This created public fear of communism, which in turn affected the public’s view on Modern Art because many art galleries were funded by the government. In beginning Modern Art expeditions were defended because organizations such as the State Department itself; which previously was mentioned as being blamed for sympathy towards communism, considered them to be "social hazards" . This fear-based
…show more content…
Thus, much of the public had not yet been exposed to the abstract Expressionism and did not have an opinion on it. This made it easier for the public to find interest and appreciation of the art movement because politics had not formed their opinions. Abstract Expressionist art was not a mass produced movement. Even though people still were interested in its value specifically the wealthy. For example, by the 1960’s when the avant-garde was being accepted in American Culture; billionaire David Rockefeller purchased Mark Rothko’s painting, White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose). Families like the Rockefeller’s had a unique connection with the art world not only because of their wealth but because of their interest. They also had connections because Nelson Rockefeller and Abby Rockefeller were trustees of the Museum of Modern Art. Having families like the Rockefeller’s as supporter’s shows that more people were interested in Modern Art. This can also be shown in the many art
Modris Eksteins presented a tour-de-force interpretation of the political, social and cultural climate of the early twentieth century. His sources were not merely the more traditional sources of the historian: political, military and economic accounts; rather, he drew from the rich, heady brew of art, music, dance, literature and philosophy as well. Eksteins examined ways in which life influenced, imitated, and even became art. Eksteins argues that life and art, as well as death, became so intermeshed as to be indistinguishable from one another.
What’s your favorite song? Sweater Weather? Counting Stars? How about Royals? Although it has always had a place in humanity's cultures and hearts, music wasn’t always as bold, flashy, and prominent as it is in this day and age; it took time to gradually evolve into what we consider to be “popular”, and many believe that one street in New York City was the start of such a great American evolution. Tin Pan Alley, one street among hundreds, and a piece of tragically overlooked American History; dating back to the late 1880's to past World War II, Tin Pan Alley played a critical role in peoples lives and attitudes throughout the early part of the 20th century.
This movement started in Germany and later on settled in the United States. Neo-Expressionists were sometimes called Neue Wilden (“The Wild Ones”). The word Expressionism was a movement in poetry and in paintings and this usually would present the subjective perspective.
Former U.S. President Richard Nixon once said, “Communism is never sleeping; it is, as always, plotting, scheming, working, fighting.” From 1919 – 1921, a hysteria over the perceived threat of communism spread like wildfire across the nation. Known as the First Red Scare, the widespread fear of Bolshevism and anarchism quickly invaded the infrastructure of the U.S. government and radically influenced the American people. American citizens, such as Sacco and Vanzetti, were convicted and found crimes that evidence showed otherwise only because they supported anarchism. The US government arrested and deported radicals only because of their political standing. Although The First Red Scare may have begun as a cultural movement, private business owners actually catalyzed and facilitated the wide spread hysteria over communism.
In the mid-1950s in Britain and late 1950s in the United States pop art is a movement that rise. Eduardo Paolozzi and Richard Hamilton in Britain, and Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns in the United States Shaped the pop art movement among the early artists. Art itself refers not as much as to the attitude behind the art. Mass culture, such as advertising, comic books, and mundane cultural objects of pop art employs shape, form, value or line. As well as in expansion of those ideas, pop art interpreted as a reaction to the then-dominant idea of abstract expressionism. Art movement that precede postmodern art, or are some of the earliest examples of postmodern themselves are known as post art and minimalism.
This article will discuss the influence of visual art on politics from two parts of visual arts , which are political photography and poster propaganda, through the unique social and historical stage of Nazi Germany. Additionally, it emphasizes the ideology, Nazis in Nazi Germany inflamed the political sentiment of the masses and took the visual art as their important instrument of political propaganda, while Nazi party used visual art on anti-society and war which is worth warning and criticizing for later generation. Despite an emphasis on the ideology, this article will conclude with significant application for the long-term impact of Nazi
Western culture had many important effects on the United States as a developing nation, and art education was no exception to this. In order to come to terms with the impact of Western culture on American art education, it is important to chronicle the progression of art education throughout Europe. Spanning centuries, the political, social, and economic development of European nations, each played an important role the philosophies of art education, which in the long run, affected American ideas concerning the subject.
After the 1940 surrender of Paris, which many Americans viewed as the fall of culture due to Paris’ status as the international mecca for the arts, it was evident that the world required a new and superior cultural hub. Throughout the 1940s American artists, with the influence of European Modern and Surrealist painters, were able to elevate New York City to the center of the art world by implementing a “new, strong, and original” artistic style that simultaneously fought fascist ideology: Abstract Expressionism (Guilbault 65). After the war, galleries throughout Europe exhibited American Abstract art, Rothko’s in particular, to prove that American art, once thought tasteless, possessed artistic depth and merit (“Mark Rothko”). Therefore, Abstract Expression had a major role in making New York City the worldwide cultural metropolis that it is today. In terms of shifts in worldview, Abstract Expressionism placed a great importance on intense emotion and spirituality in a society where religiousness was, and continues to be, replaced by other, often self-centered or materialistic, pursuits. The movement allowed and encouraged the public to explore their darkest fears and woes, which, in the wake of the Second World War and, later on, during the Cold War was likely therapeutic. Above all else, it made society recognize that art should no longer be viewed with suspicion; instead, it should be accepted as an integral element of culture
When studied with World War 1, “Dada was not an artistic movement in the accepted sense; it was a storm that broke over the world of art as the war did over the nations (Tucker).”
One of the first sources I examined was a web site on Pop Art. The
This paper will explore Vladimir Tatlin and Naum Gabo's differences in the role of the Avant-Garde artists and how their beliefs influence the kind of work they produce. A pioneer of Russian design, Vladimir Tatlin is a representative of Russian Realism. He left home when he was fifteen and served on the shipboard. When he became a painter, he often represented sailors in his pictures. Art and culture in Russia after Revolution was a tool for creating industrially aesthetic reality.
“Philosophers, writers, and artists expressed disillusionment with the rational-humanist tradition of the Enlightenment. They no longer shared the Enlightenment's confidence in either reason's capabilities or human goodness.” (Perry, pg. 457) It is interesting to follow art through history and see how the general mood of society changed with various aspects of history, and how events have a strong connection to the art of the corresponding time.
The German Expressionism movement started in the early twentieth century art world, pre-WWI, presumably from Vincent Van Gogh’s “pioneering expressionist paintings like… Starry, Starry Night”(Encyclopaedia of Art History). It was a purely aesthetic movement at this time that sought to oppose the Impressionist movement, which imitated nature, by imposing unnatural, distorted images. Aspects of those distortions served to convey the emotions an artist held towards their subject. War brought terror. War brought mental meltdowns. War changed the Expressionistic style into a “bitter protest movement”(Encyclopaedia of Art History) as artists “suffered from war-induced disillusionment and were dissatisfied with post-war German
The questionable influence and dominance of western culture is at the forefront of a new form of seemingly ephemeral diplomatic history that is termed ‘new internationalism’. Internationalism itself is not really a new concept, and is basically a system based on equality for all people and cultures on a global scale. In the global art world ‘new internationalism’ is an active topic and was the focus of a 1994 INIVA Symposium entitled, A New International Symposium. The topics discussed included: Recording the International; Art, History and the Modern Museum; Beyond Diversity and Difference; Curatorship and International Exhibitions.1 During his lecture at the symposium, sculptor, essayist and poet Jimmie Durham puts forth the idea that, “…Europeans seem to think that, as art is their invention, effective art is within a developed vocabulary and accent…”2 This kind of statement emphasizes the enormous task of disuniting ‘actual’ art history from that recorded under the influence of western culture, and it demonstrates the long-standing influence of imperial thinking.
In United States, many artist had been inspired by the movement, artists like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and James Rosenquist. Though not everyone thought the Pop art movement was purposeful, and these artist that had been involved in the Pop art movement, “were still labelled by critics as New Realists” (ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ART HISTORY). During the movement there were two big known art shows called “The New Painting of Common Objects” and “New Realism”; these two art shows were another reason the pop art movement got its name Pop Art, “because the critics found discomfort with the...