Postwar Art

What this page covers

The resources follow art made after the Second World War. Many look at Abstract Expressionism: there are mind maps on Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler and Mark Rothko's Red On Maroon. Others cover Pop Art, with maps on Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Wayne Thiebaud and the legacy of the movement. Minimalism, Happenings, assemblage and performance also appear in the flashcard decks.

Where to start

1. Open the Pop Art mind map. It moves from Warhol's soup cans of 1962 to his Brillo box sculptures.
2. Read the Pollock and de Kooning maps next. They sort each artist into background, influences, themes, techniques and materials.
3. Look at Red On Maroon to see how one painting can be broken down by scale, color, form, brushwork, tone and materials.

Using maps and flashcards together

The maps give you the shape of a movement. The flashcard decks then ask you to recall the details. Test 1 Art since 1945 pairs artists with works and dates, such as Louise Bourgeois and Jackson Pollock. High Modernist Painting and Post Painterly Abstraction covers Helen Frankenthaler and Hans Hoffman. ArtH 3307 moves into John Cage, Happenings and Allan Kaprow.

Several decks are labeled as exam or midterm sets from individual courses. Treat them as another student's study notes. Your own course may stress different artists, so check them against your class material.

The quiz

There is one quiz here, Fine Arts - Chapter 14 A. Use it after a few maps and decks to see which artists and terms still feel unfamiliar, then go back to those resources.

Where this unit fits

Postwar Art sits in the Modern and Contemporary Art strand of Art history. It suits university students first, with plenty for school students and teachers too. Pick one movement, work through its map and deck, then try the quiz.