Loryn Lees Modern Art II: Contemporary Art Grogan May 16, 2012 Modernism to Postmodernism Frank Stella

was a painter, a printmaker, and a sculptor during the art movement known as Abstract Expressionism. Some of his most recognizable pieces are his Black Paintings series because of their symmetry and the optical illusion created by such high contrast white and black lines. Stellas work was constantly changing from black and white to bright vibrant colors to sculpture and printmaking all while remaining recognizable as his work. Stellas oddly shaped canvases and use of different media made him a large influence on many artists to come. His work inspired the Minimalism, Color Field Painting and Post-Painterly Abstraction movements to come after. Robert Rauschenberg was also a part of the Abstract Expressionism movement. His work, like Retroactive I, was almost Pop Art in its use of color and screen prints. His incorporation of an icon like JFK lead to Pop Art and the use of other icons in popular and political culture. Both Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein describe Rauschenberg as being an influence on their art especially when it came to silk screening. Rauschenberg believed the artist had the authority to determine whether what they made was art or not. While his work only angered his contemporaries, the art and the processes he used gave life to Pop, Conceptual, and later Modern artists. When Roy Lichtenstein first began to make art in his most familiar style critics and his peers laughed at his work saying it lacked originality. However, his work made many think about how art was being made in a very machine-like way; while his art often looked machine made it was, in fact, painted by hand. Lichtenstein took images from comic books, made them larger and put them in a museum; this took what was considered low art and brought it to the public eye to be viewed out of its original context. While Lichtenstein does not have one specific painting more well-known than others he does

have a specific style that has become household. The entire movement of Pop Art greatly influenced the Postmodernism movement. One of the most identifiable Pop artists is Andy Warhol. Theres no doubt that no matter where you go in the world someone will recognize his name. Warhol was the first celebrity artist and his studio, The Factory, was where everyone who was anyone hung out. Warhol was also the first artist to use a more hands-off approach to his work employing hundreds of other artists to do it for him over the years. As part of the Pop Art movement his work always included popular imagery and cultural icons like his Campbells soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. Again, being a part of Pop Art meant inspiring the generation of artists who came next and all of his work helped to influence Postmodernism. An artist that was immensely inspired by Warhols practice and work was Jeff Koons. Koons, though, decided to take a completely hand-off approach to his work. Instead of starting out as a struggling artist doing on his own work Koons took a conceptual route and decided to just give his ideas to other artists skilled in their field and dictate to them whether his idea is being realized or not. He never had any technical training like Duchamp did and never worked with his medium like Warhol did before The Factory. Koons also used icons in his work like his piece of Michael Jackson and his monkey Bubbles but he mainly stuck to gigantic scale models of tchotkes one would find on their grandmothers mantelpiece. He then placed these pieces in a gallery setting instantly creating the assumption that they were art.