Modernism, Postmodernism, and Contemporary Art in Europe and America 1945-1980
New York City, NY, United States
Module 12 presents the art produced after World War II and coincided with New York City as the new cultural epicenter. When Paris fell to the Nazis in 1940, the center of the art world shifted to the United States. Avant-garde artists, dealers, and collectors fled to America and cultivated new forms of art. Abstract Expressionism was seen as the first major American avant-garde movement, but artists soon began to express their interest in returning to more recognizable objects in their work. With the arrival of Postmodernism, artists began to reject modernist principles and to combine different styles from the past to produce a new vision for the future.