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1 Towards Abstraction
The first decades of the twentieth century witnessed an unprecedented
transformation of artistic styles. Many artists became more concerned
with form, colour and design than with trying to make realistic descriptions
of the world. |
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2 The Legacy of Cubism
Cubism evolved in the calm before the storm of the First World War.
It was primarily an intellectual pursuit that aimed to explore and expand
the possibilities of representation. Its radical fragmentation of the
human body and aggressively angular forms could also be seen |
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3 The Call to Order
The disorder and violence of the First World War was seen as a catalyst
for a new direction in art - a return to tradition, figuration and classicism.
This shift was described as 'the call to order', a phrase coined by the
influential poet and critic Jean Cocteau, writing in Paris in 1926. Seen
as a rallying cry, it was taken up by avant-garde artists and critics
of the time, initially in Paris and then throughout Europe. |
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4 A New Beginning
Unlike 'the call to order' that followed the end of the First World
War, the prevailing mood in the aftermath of the Second World War was
of a desire to start anew. Instead of a return to the classical values
of the past, based on order and reason - values that many felt had been
discredited by the War - artists around the world began to search for
new forms of expression. |
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5 The New Realism
In the mid 1950s artists in Europe and America began to reject the
autonomy of Abstraction. Motivated by the post-war rise in consumerism
and mass production, artists such as the Paris-based Nouveau Réalists
sought alternative forms of expression that engaged directly with the
grittiness of modern life. Calling for 'new approaches to the perception
of the real', artists such as Arman, César, Martial Raysse and Jean Tinguely
found a new expressive vocabulary through the use of found objects or
'readymades'. |
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6 Scarred for Life
Throughout history artists have continued to make work in response
to political, social and economic upheaval. The works in this section
engage with some of the most important issues and events of our recent
history which have become the focus of artists' critical intervention.
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