First one: Humanities

First one: Humanities

During the 1960s, geometric abstraction became a powerful alternative for artists reacting against the increasing commercialization of art Geometric abstraction is a form of abstract art based on the use of geometric forms sometimes, though not always, placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective (non-representational) compositions. Throughout 20th century art historical discourse, critics and artists working within the reductive or pure strains of abstraction have often suggested that geometric abstraction represents the height of a non-objective art practice, which necessarily stresses or calls attention to the root plasticity and two-dimensionality of painting as an artistic medium. (Filler, Martin 1987)

Thus, it has been suggested that geometric abstraction might function as a solution to problems concerning the need for modernist painting to reject the illusionistic practices of the past while addressing the inherently two dimensional nature of the picture plane as well as the canvas functioning as its support. A movement that began in Britain and the United States in the 1950s, Pop Art used the images and techniques of mass media, advertising, and popular culture, often in an ironic way. Works of Andy Warhol (1928-1987), Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997), and Swedish-American Claes Oldenburg (1929-) and James Rosenquist (1933-) exemplify this style. The materials and techniques long used by abstract, or action, painters acrylic paints, stencils, silk screens, spray guns were applied to figurative uses by pop artists. They emphasized contemporary social values: the sprawl of urban life, the transitory, the vulgar, the superficial, and the flashy the very opposites of the values cherished by artists of the past. Seeking cultural resources, pop artists reworked such industrial products as soup and beer cans, American flags, and automobile wrecks. American Scene subjects were taken from American history or contemporary America, portraits, landscapes, etc. Schellmann, J. Andy Warhol, Art from Art. ...