Art History of the 19th and 20th Centuries: Avant-gardes, Modernisme and Contemporary Art
This domain covers the rupture we call the avant-garde, from the inheritance of Romanticism to contemporary practice, including Catalan Modernisme and the Balearic nodes the syllabus expects.
Sequence and landmarks
- 1789–1848: Romanticism (Friedrich's sublime, Delacroix), Realism (Courbet's 1855 Pavillon du Réalisme, Millet).
- 1874: first Impressionist exhibition in Nadar's studio; Monet, Impression, soleil levant.
- Post-Impressionism: Cézanne's constructive stroke, Van Gogh's impasto, Gauguin's synthetism; Symbolism.
- Modernisme: Gaudí (Palau Güell 1886–90, Casa Batlló 1904–06), Domènech i Montaner, Puig i Cadafalch; in Palma, Can Forteza Rey (1901) and Gaudí's reform of La Seu (1904–14).
- Cubism: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907); analytic phase (1909–12, faceted, monochrome) → synthetic phase (1912–14, collage, papier collé).
- Futurism (Marinetti, 1909), Expressionism (Die Brücke 1905; Der Blaue Reiter 1911), Dada (Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich, 1916), Surrealism (Breton's manifesto, 1924), De Stijl (1917), Bauhaus (1919–33).
- Post-1945: Abstract Expressionism (Pollock, 1947), Pop (Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans, 1962), conceptual practice; in Spain Dau al Set (1948, Tàpies, Brossa), El Paso (1957).
- Balearic: Anglada Camarasa settles in Pollença (1913); Miró's Son Abrines workshop in Palma (1956, Sert building); Es Baluard opens 2004.
Worked example
Fountain (1917): a porcelain urinal signed "R. Mutt", submitted to the Society of Independent Artists, rejected, photographed by Stieglitz, original lost. Nothing is crafted, so the work must be explained by designation plus context: the artist's choice, the signature, the exhibition frame. Say that explicitly and you have answered "why is this art?" through the institutional theory (Danto 1964, Dickie 1974) rather than through taste.
Traps that cost marks
- Mixing analytic and synthetic Cubism, or dating collage to 1907.
- Calling Surrealism a style rather than a programme: automatism (Miró, Masson) versus veristic dream imagery (Dalí, Magritte).
- Treating Modernisme as simply French Art Nouveau; it is a broader Catalan movement tied to the Renaixença.
- Forgetting the date checks: 1874, 1907, 1917, 1924, 1937.