Expressionism to Pop Art

Brought to you by Smarthistory. Matisse, Kandinsky, Picasso all used abstraction to invent new systems of representation.

Brought to you by Smarthistory. Boccioni and the Futurists responded very differently than did Duchamp and the Dada artists to the violence of the Great War.

Brought to you by Smarthistory. Utopia and the dream preoccupied artists during the depression and the rise of dictators like Hitler.

Brought to you by Smarthistory. In the years of recovery after WWII, British artists explored both abstraction and figural representation as we see with Henry Moore and Anthony Caro.

Brought to you by Smarthistory.

Brought to you by Smarthistory. After WWII, Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko and other abstract artists reinvented painting.

Brought to you by Smarthistory. Wham! Warhol, Lichtenstein and Oldenburg crashed the gates of high culture asking what authentic art looks like in a society filled with tawdry commercial images.

Brought to you by Smarthistory. Minimalism isn’t simple, although Judd, Smithson, Christo and others did use simple forms to convey complex issues about the nature of art.