CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
MODERN ART IN EUROPE AND
THE AMERICAS, 1900-1950
32
Multiple Choice
1. When compared to paintings by Diego Rivera, those of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo are
considered
A. more historical.
B. more modern.
C. more personal.
D. more abstract.
2. Which movement inspired Paula Modersohn-Becker’s painting?
A. Cubism
B. Romanticism
C. Primitivism
D. Realism
3. Surrealist painters’ variety of techniques were known collectively as
A. collage.
B. automatism.
C. primitivism.
D. readymades.
4. Who exhibited with the Surrealists but never formally joined the movement, embracing,
instead, biomorphic abstraction?
A. Lawrence
B. Moore
C. Hepworth
D. Miró
5. The best-known artist to emerge from the Harlem Community Art Center was
A. Dali.
B. Lawrence.
C. Hepworth.
D. Moore.
6. A spare, geometric style of Modern architecture in Europe developed in response to
A. Pre-Raphaelite
B. Neo-Baroque
C. Bauhaus
D. Art Nouveau
7. In the years after World War II, Francis Bacon’s paintings evoked the horrors of war and
human suffering through
A. expressive images of distorted figures.
B. raw, heavily worked abstract forms.
C. biomorphic images that held personal symbolism.
D. large-scale murals inspired by Renaissance frescoes.
8. What motivated Picasso to create his large-scale painting Guernica (Fig. 32-64) for the
Spanish Pavilion at the 1938 Paris Exposition?
A. It was a celebration of Spain’s technological innovations in the early twentieth century.
B. It was a response to the German bombing of a small Basque town, sponsored by Spanish
Nationalists.
C. It memorialized the huge loss of life through trench warfare in World War I.
D. It was a modern version of traditional history painting recognizing Spanish accomplishments.
1950.
9. What ideals are reflected in Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, Poissy-Sur-Seine (Fig. 32-40) in its
geometric design and avoidance of ornamentation?
A. Dada
B. Bauhaus
C. Purist
D. Futurist
1950.
10. Why did the U.S. government hire Dorothea Lange and other photographers during the Great
Depression?
A. It was a part of a program that provided jobs to unemployed artists.
B. They hoped to build public support for federal assistance for rural America.
C. They wanted artwork that reflected the national American identity.
D. It was part of an effort to create an art market for underdeveloped states.
11. How did Picasso’s treatment of space in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (Fig. 32-6) dramatically
change the practice of painting in the West?
A. It was an alternative to traditional systems of perspective.
B. It legitimized non-objectivity as a viable interest in painting.
C. It emphasized deconstruction of the human form and the picture plane.
D. It implied that art was an intellectual activity not rooted in emotional expression.
12. How does Synthetic Cubism reference the real world?
A. Illusionistic painting techniques are used to render objects.
B. The suggestions are of discernible subjects.
C. Paintings typically display overt political critique.
D. Figural proportions are accurately portrayed.
13. Which Dadaist idea would have a radical influence on art of the later twentieth century?
A. the rejection of three-dimensional illusionism in painting
B. the belief that art could convey spiritual concerns through non-objective imagery
C. the notion that art was not precious but could exist as conceptual ideas and actions
D. the role of the subconscious in revealing universal symbols and meaning
14. Which of the following was a significant factor in providing New York with the foundation
to supersede Paris as the center of the world of Modern art?
A. the Armory Show
B. the 291 Gallery
C. the Harlem Renaissance
D. the Federal Arts Project
15. What theme does Constantin Brancusi incorporate into both The Newborn (Fig. 32-25) and
Torso of a Young Man (Fig. 32-26)?
A. capitalism
B. reproduction
C. transience
D. humor
16. What created the radical asymmetry sought after in the De Stijl movement of Gerrit
Rietveld’s Schröder House, Utrecht (Fig. 32-51)?
A. exposed skeletal structure
B. large expanses of windows
C. richly encrusted surfaces
D. horizontal and vertical lines
17. How did Walter Gropius’s design for the Bauhaus building convey the dynamism of modern
life?
A. The three large cubic areas had a balanced asymmetry.
B. It used modern materials and technology in a traditional architectural form.
C. It emphasized handcrafted workmanship and aesthetic quality.
D. It integrated the building’s form organically into the surrounding landscape.
18. Which artist explicitly addressed feminist concerns in her work?
A. Georgia O’Keeffe
B. Hannah Höch
C. Anni Albers
D. Helen Frankenthaler
19. The Abstract Expressionist painters were greatly influenced by which of the following, who
described a collective unconscious of universal archetypes shared by all humans?
A. Sigmund Freud’s
B. Carl Jung’s
C. Clement Greenberg’s
D. Vassily Kandinsky’s
20. What term, which is based on the French word for “wild beast,” was the name of an art
movement that included Henri Matisse?
A. Die Brücke
B. Fauvism
C. Dada
D. Orphism
21. What did artist Franz Marc paint because they were “primitive”?
A. landscapes
B. symphonies
C. animals
D. still lifes
22. Which of the following is a term that comes from the French word meaning “to glue” and
describes an important aspect of Synthetic Cubism?
A. readymade
B. merz
C. collage
D. bauhaus
23. Kandinsky believed that looking at a painting should be comparable to experiencing
A. music.
B. mathematics.
C. psychology.
D. love.
24. Which artist conceptualized the readymade?
A. Brancusi
B. Boccioni
C. Léger
D. Duchamp
25. What served as an incubator for fascism and communism in Europe during the early
twentieth century?
A. the Weimar Republic
B. the Nazis’ concentration camps
C. the Great Depression
D. the Spanish Civil War
Short Answer
1. What did the Fauvists do to repudiate traditional notions of pictorial representation?
2. How does Umberto Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (Fig. 32-23) embrace the
Futurists idea of “the beauty of speed”?
3. How did the Suprematists combine Cubist picture space with complete abstraction?
4. Why and how did Duchamp create L.H.O.O.Q.?
5. How did Mary Colter express a connection to the landscape in her architecture?
6. How did Russian Constructivists combine Modern styles with practical needs?
7. How did Bauhaus artists incorporate the idea of modern mass production?
8. What techniques did the Harlem Renaissance combine to raise awareness of African-
American culture?
9. What was Meret Oppenheim’s intention with Object (Luncheon in Fur) (Fig. 32-59)?
10. What is the International Style?
Essay
1. How did early twentieth-century artists systematically undermine the traditional rules of
Western art?
2. In what ways did artists give their art a deeper social relevance in the period between the wars
in the Americas?
3. How did Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (Fig. 32-29) change the course of art?
Answer:
4. Explore the significance of Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings. How did he make them, and did
they move beyond any abstract work made previously?
5. Color Field painters such as Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman embraced abstraction in a way
that was completely different from Jackson Pollock’s. Explain what they tried to achieve with
their nonrepresentational work.