Duchamp, Fountain, 1917, Dada

Porcelain urinal signed R. Mutt. Part of Duchamp's "Readymades" where he took took traditional objects and exhibited them. He was critiqued by this piece of art saying that it wasnt art. He rejected the assumption that art had to be some sort of craft and argued that art should just be from an artist's idea. 

Jean Arp, Untitled (Collage with Squares Arranged According to the Laws of Chance), 1916-17, Dada

Arp was working on painting but was not happy with it, so he tore it up and made this piece of art instead. When he tore it up and it fell on the floor, he noticed a pattern it made and created the collage. He realized that this instance was fate and meant to be his piece of art.

Salvador Dali, The persistence of memory, 1931, Surrealism, Oil paint

Based this seaside of landscapes on the cliffs of his home region of Catalona, Spain. Used ants and clocks in almost an abstract way. Time is the theme with the melting watches to the decay implied by the swarming ants. "To systematize confusion and thus to help discredit completely the world of reality." There is a nod to the real; his home in Spain.

Max Ernst, Ubu Imperator, 1924, Dada, oil on canvas

An anthropomorphic top dances in a vast, empty landscape. The red imperator marked his entry into Surrealism by his use of a literary narrative that sometimes political, sometimes personal. The red carcass, human hands, and spinning top express an image of the Ubu Father, a symbol of authority.

Kasimir Malevich, Black Square, 1913, Suprematism, oil on canvas

• Time has not been well to Black Square because when it was first created, it was pristine and pure but as time went on, the paint became cracked. 
• The artist declared this as "first step into new art, pure creation". 
• Gave his new art the name "Suprematism" (founder). 
• First piece of art that was non-representational. 
• Rejects idea of subject matter. 
• First abstract art.

Composition, VII, 1913, oil on canvas, abstract, Der Blaue Reiter

• Known for his lyrical style on nonfigurative art
• Did many pencil sketchings and water color etudes
• Liked relationship b/w art and music
• Organizer of Der Blaue Reiter

1. Named after favorite color
2. German expressionism
3. Interested in abstract forms and color
4. Flattened perspective
5. Dissolved w/ WWI

• Said it embodied the spirit of times

Pollock, "Number 1A, 1948", 1948, Oil on canvas

• Early work reflected influence of Picasso and surrealism
• Example of drip technique that he is famous for - radical new style
• Around this time, Pollock began naming his paintings with numbers and letters instead of actual names
• This did not sell during first exhibition
• Detached line from color and displayed space in new way

Mark Rothko, "Black on maroon", 1958, Oil, glue, and acrylic on canvas

• Born in Russia, worked in New York
• Inspired by Nietzsche, Greek mythology
• Abstract expressionist
• Painted as a series for the Four Seasons restaurant that he wanted to be as depressing as possible for the rich people to eat there "fat rich bastards to lose their appetite"
• Gave them to Tate as a gift instead
• Didn't believe that paintings should be displayed in public
• Darker and more somber than other paintings
• Inspired subconsciously by Michelangelo's staircase, which made you feel trapped
• Wanted them to be displayed in dimly lit room

Jannis Kounellis, "Untitled", 1968, Wood and wool

• Arte povera (poor art)
• Movement in Italy; radical because use of unconventional materials
• Rejected painting and supported art made out of everyday materials
• Organic matter makes the connection more direct with the viewer than paint
• Four wood bars wrapped with wool, some of which is died blues
• Supposed to suggest the coming together of human work and natural material
• Inspired by Pollock in the way that the colors mimic drip painting and rods represent diagonal poles of Pollock's painting

Jasper Johns, ‘Flag’, 1954-55, Neo-dadaism, Encaustic, oil, and collage on fabric mounted on plywood, three panels

• Included three canvases that he mounted on plywood, strips of newspaper, and encaustic paint—a mixture of pigment and molten wax that has formed a surface of lumps and smears
•  The American flag is something “the mind already knows,” Johns has said, but its execution complicates the representation and invites close inspection

• A critic of the time encapsulated this painting’s ambivalence, asking, “Is this a flag or a painting?”

Robert Rauschenberg, ‘Bed’, 1955, Oil and pencil on pillow, quilt, and sheet on wood supports

• One of Robert's first combines
• Combine is a technique of attaching found objects to traditional canvas supports
• Similar to Pollock's drip painting
• Rumored that these were his own pillow and sheets because he could not afford brand new canvas
• Sort of a self-portrait
• Goes along with quote "“painting relates to both art and life…[and] I try to act in that gap between the two.”

Andy Warhol, ‘Campbell’s Soup Cans’, 1962, Synthetic polymer paint on thirty-two canvases, pop art

• 32 soup cans of each flavor
• Mocking mass production
• Used to drink this everyday for 20 years for lunch
• After completing this, he turned to the silk-screening process
• Mimicked repetition and uniformity of advertising

Andy Warhol, ‘Orange Car Crash Fourteen Times’, 1963, Silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on two canvases, pop art

• In 1962 Warhol began to cull images of tragic frontpage news stories
• Blank spot evokes emptiness of death
• You see so many images so it desensitizes it
• Commentary to the media