CHAPTER 30—MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM IN EUROPE AND
AMERICA, 1945 TO 1980
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Performance Art can be described as movements, gestures and sounds of persons communicating.
Which of the following describes the focus of Performance Art?
a.
It imitates live theater.
b.
It is a commentary on contemporary art.
c.
It replaces physical objects.
d.
It is purposefully confusing the audience.
2. What is the evidence of a Performance Art event?
a.
documentary photos of a rehearsed performance
b.
documentary photos at the time of the performance
c.
a script for a repeat performance
d.
a script and direction transformed into video
3. Because of the spontaneous and informal nature of Performance Art, which of the following was the
primary medium?
a.
the human body
b.
newsprint
c.
cheap paper
d.
cardboard
4. Which of the following earlier art styles formed the characterizing spirit of Performance Art?
a.
German Expressionism
b.
Cubism
c.
Dada
d.
Abstract Expressionism
5. Which of the following was the purpose of Performance Art?
a.
To challenge art’s function as commodity
b.
To challenge art’s function as art
c.
To challenge art’s function
d.
To challenge art’s function in the Post-Modern period
6. How did museum commissions of performance events neutralize Performance Art?
a.
The commissions neutralized the purpose of art.
b.
The commissions made the events mundane.
c.
The commissions neutralized the subversiveness.
d.
The commissions nullified Performance Art.
7. How did Allan Kaprow view art?
a.
He had no views whatsoever.
b.
He viewed it as an intersection of art and life.
c.
He viewed art as the zenith of his existence.
d.
He was interested in music as an art form.
8. Which of the following describes Happenings?
a.
planned
b.
controlled
c.
individualized
d.
participatory
9. How did the Fluxus group see aesthetic potential?
a.
in the traditional
b.
in the nontraditional and commonplace
c.
in the traditional and unique
d.
in the experimental
10. How did Carolee Schneeman transform Performance Art?
a.
She introduced a political dimension.
b.
She introduced a social dimension.
c.
She introduced a racist dimension.
d.
She introduced a feminist dimension.
11. Which of the following describes Joseph Beuys purpose for his art?
a.
It was illuminating the condition of the political classes.
b.
It was illuminating the condition of women.
c.
It was illuminating the condition of modern humanity.
d.
It was illuminating the condition of the homeless.
12. Beuys wanted “to shape our thoughts into words.” Which of the following did he want to create?
a.
social sculptures
b.
word sculptures
c.
no sculpture
d.
formless sculptures
13. Which of the following artists is best known for his large-scale portraits?
a.
Willem de Kooning
b.
Chuck Close
c.
Jackson Pollock
d.
Francis Bacon
14. Which of the following painters illustrates Clement Greenberg’s insistence “on purity in art”?
a.
Frank Stella
b.
Francis Bacon
c.
David Smith
d.
Jean Dubuffet
15. Color field painting emphasized painting’s basic properties. Color field painters poured diluted paint
onto unprimed canvas. Which of the following artists was a color field painter?
a.
Jasper Johns
b.
Jackson Pollock
c.
Helen Frankenthaler
d.
Barnett Newman
16. When did the center of the Western art world shift from Europe to the United States?
a.
with the Armory Show of 1913
b.
during the 1920s
c.
during the 1940s
d.
during the 1960s
17. What was the main focus of the work of the postwar New York School?
a.
life on the streets
b.
optical phenomena
c.
the act of painting itself
d.
Postmodern appropriation of early material
18. The terms gestural abstraction and Action Painting are most appropriately applied to the work of
____.
a.
Jackson Pollock
b.
Robert Motherwell
c.
Ellsworth Kelly
d.
Barnett Newman
19. The New York artist whose paintings became compositionally simple and focused on color was ____.
a.
Jackson Pollock
b.
Jean Dubuffet
c.
Mark Rothko
d.
Willem de Kooning
20. How did Barnett Newman increase the capacity of color to communicate emotion?
a.
by simplifying the composition
b.
by creating complex compositions using the widest range of colors
c.
by using soft pastel color
d.
by creating softly colored complex compositions
21. Which of the following describes the work of Jackson Pollock.
a.
quiet and intense remaining true to conventional painting
b.
strictly organized adhering to conventional painting
c.
colorful remaining true to conventional painting
d.
significant departure from conventional painting
22. Who was the sculptor who believed that “the only stable thing is movement”?
a.
Donald Judd
b.
David Smith
c.
Jean Tinguely
d.
Claes Oldenburg
23. Which of the following describes what artists working in the Post-Painterly Abstractionist style
believed?
a.
Abstract Expressionists had gone too far in removing social references from works of art.
b.
Their works should contain no reference to the world outside their own compositions.
c.
They wanted to express religious feelings through simple forms.
d.
They were deeply influenced by the work of African and pre-Columbian cultures.
24. A good example of Postmodernist architecture is ____.
a.
Portland Building, Portland
b.
Guggenheim Museum, New York
c.
Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp
d.
Seagram Building, New York
25. Which artist stated that she wanted her pieces to be “non art, non connotative, non anthropomorphic,
non geometric, non nothing, everything, but of another kind, vision, sort”?
a.
Helen Frankenthaler
b.
Judy Chicago
c.
Sonia Sheridan
d.
Eva Hesse
26. Pop Art, and art that utilized the techniques of advertising, industrial design, and Hollywood movies
were at their heights during which of the following decades?
a.
1950s
b.
1960s
c.
1970s
d.
1980s
27. John Cage encouraged his students to link their art to which of the following?
a.
life
b.
music
c.
a collaborator
d.
poetry
28. Cindy Sherman works in which medium representing the “male gaze”?
a.
sculpture
b.
acrylics
c.
video
d.
photography
29. Which of the following describes the Portland Building located in Portland, Oregon?
a.
a Las Vegas monstrosity
b.
a tribute to Philip Johnson
c.
an enlarged jukebox
d.
a sham palace
SLIDE IDENTIFICATION
Select the response that identifies or corresponds best to the image on the screen.
30. (Figure 30-36)
a.
Kiki Smith
b.
Cindy Sherman
c.
Ana Mendieta
d.
Faith Ringgold
31. (Figure 30-6)
a.
Jackson Pollock
b.
Willem De Kooning
c.
Mark Rothko
d.
Barnett Newman
32. (Figure 30-13)
a.
Frank Stella
b.
Barnett Newman
c.
Helen Frankenthaler
d.
Morris Louis
33. (Figure 30-21)
a.
Maya Lin
b.
Jasper Johns
c.
Eva Hesse
d.
Louise Nevelson
34. (Figure 30-51)
a.
Joseph Beuys
b.
Jasper Johns
c.
Kazuo Shiraga
d.
Carolee Schneeman
35. (Figure 30-56)
a.
David Em
b.
Bruce Nauman
c.
Joseph Casuth
d.
Naum June Paik
36. (Figure 30-34)
a.
Helen Frankenthaler
b.
Judy Chicago
c.
Miriam Schapiro
d.
Ana Mendieta
37. (Figure 30-18)
a.
Joseph Beuys
b.
David Hammons
c.
Donald Judd
d.
Christo
38. (Figure 30-10)
a.
Jackson Pollock
b.
Ellsworth Kelley
c.
Barnett Newman
d.
Mark Rothko
39. (Figure 30-12)
a.
Barnett Newman
b.
Morris Louis
c.
Frank Stella
d.
Willem de Kooning
40. (Figure 30-20)
a.
Donald Judd
b.
Eva Hesse
c.
Louise Bourgeois
d.
Robert Smithson
41. (Figure 30-52)
a.
Jean Tinguely
b.
Joseph Beuys
c.
Judy Chicago
d.
Jasper Johns
42. (Figure 30-17)
a.
Tony Smith
b.
Louise Nevelson
c.
Louise Bourgeois
d.
David Smith
43. (Figure 30-55)
a.
Bruce Nauman
b.
Jasper Johns
c.
Robert Rauschenberg
d.
Roy Lichtenstein
44. (Figure 30-39)
a.
Robert Venturi
b.
Frank Gehry
c.
Michael Graves
d.
Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano
45. (Figure 30-26)
a.
Claes Oldenburg
b.
Jean Tinguely
c.
Jasper Johns
d.
David Smith
46. (Figure 30-8)
a.
Pop art
b.
Minimal Art
c.
Post-Painterly Abstractionism
d.
Abstract Expressionism
47. (Figure 30-37)
a.
Eva Hesse
b.
Cindy Sherman
c.
Hannah Wilke
d.
Louise Nevelson
48. (Figure 30-45)
a.
New Orleans
b.
Portland
c.
New York
d.
Chicago
49. (Figure 30-35)
a.
color photograph
b.
C-print
c.
gelatin silver print
d.
acrylic and oil paint stick
50. (Figure 30-26A)
a.
Mapplethorpe
b.
Basquiat
c.
Arbus
d.
Saint-Phalle
51. (Figure 30-24)
a.
Post-Painterly Abstraction
b.
Surrealism
c.
Abstract Expressionism
d.
Pop Art
52. (Figure 30-15)
a.
Superrealism
b.
Minimalism
c.
Op Art
d.
Pop Art
SHORT ANSWER
1. How did WW II impact the second half of the twentieth century?
2. What artist used the technique of benday dots and why?
3. Who was Clement Greenberg?
4. What was the purpose of Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party?
5. What is meant by Minimal Art?
6. What is Performance Art?
7. What is the artistic issue of Environmental art— sometimes called Earth art or earthworks?
ESSAY
1. Contrast the Sony Building (formerly AT&T building) in New York with the Portland Building in
Portland, Oregon. How does each work reflect the Postmodern architectural vocabulary?
2. Compare and contrast the work of Francis Bacon and Jean Dubuffet.
3. Explain the relationship between modern movements and consumer culture. How have the issues of
culture and society shaped the art? Use examples to support your essay.
4. How did the principles and the techniques of the Minimalists differ from those of the Abstract
Expressionists? Use specific works to illustrate your discussion.
5. Describe the influence and use of modern technologies in the arts of the late twentieth century. How
have artists transformed these “tools” into viable art-making processes? Use examples to support your
essay.
6. Select three works of art or architecture and evaluate their significance. How does each respond to the
issues of modernity and post-modernity? How are they relevant? How do they reveal the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries?
OTHER
SLIDE QUESTIONS
1. How is this photograph contemporaneous with the Superrealist movement?
2. How is this work “modern”?
3. How do this buildings reflect post-modernism?
4. What does this work evoke?
5. What is the focus of this work?
6. How did these artists assert the feminist doctrine?
