French art of the 20th century

French art of the 20th century, part of the French art history series, covers the history of the visual and plastic arts in France in the twentieth century. Following on the radical developments of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism at the end of the nineteenth century, the first half of the twentieth century in France saw the even more revolutionary experiments of cubism, dada and surrealism, artistic movements that would have a major impact on western, and eventually world, art. After World War II, while French artists explored such tendencies as tachism, fluxus and new realism, France's preeminence in the visual arts was eclipsed by developments elsewhere (the United States in particular).

From Impressionism to World War II

The early years of the twentieth century were dominated by experiments in colour and content that Impressionism and Post-Impressionism had unleashed. The products of the far east also brought new influences. Les Nabis explored a decorative art in flat plains with a Japanese print graphic approach. At roughly the same time, Les Fauves, exploded in color (much like German Expressionism).

The discovery of African tribal masks lead Pablo Picasso to his "Demoiselles d'Avignon" of 1907. Picasso and Georges Braque (working independently) returned to and refined Cézanne's way of rationally understanding objects in a flat medium; but their experiments in cubism would also lead them to integrate all aspects of the day to day life: collage of newspapers, musical instruments, cigarettes, wine… Cubism in all its phases would dominate Europe and America for the next ten years. Go to the article Cubism for a complete discussion.

World War I did not stop the dynamic creation of art in France. In 1916 a group of discontents met in a bar in Zurich (the Cabaret Voltaire) and create the most radical gesture possible: the anti-art of Dada. At the same time, Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp were exploring similar notions. At the an art show in New York in 1917 Duchamp presented a white porcelain urinal signed "R. Mutt" as work of art, becoming the father of the "readymade".

The killing fields of the war (nearly one-tenth of the French adult male population had been killed or wounded) had made many see the absurdity of existence. This was also the period when the "Lost Generation" took hold: rich Americans enjoying the liberties of Prohibition-free France in the 1920s and poor G.I.'s going abroad for the first time. Paris was also, for African-Americans, amazingly free of the racial restrictions found in America (James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Josephine Baker).

When Dada reached Paris, it was avidly embraced by a group of young artists and writers who were fascinated with the writings of Sigmund Freud, and particularly by the notion of the unconscious mind. The provocative spirit of Dada became linked to the exploration of the unconscious mind through the use of automatic writing, chance operations and, in some cases, altered states. The surrealists quickly turned to painting and sculpture. The shock of unexpected elements, the use of Frottage, collage and decalcomania, the rendering of mysterious landscapes and dreamscapes were to become the key techniques through the rest of the 1930s.

World War II ended the feast. Many surrealists like Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, André Breton and André Masson fled occupied France for New York and the States (Duchamp had already been in the U.S. since 1936), but the cohesion and vibrancy were lost in the American geometric city.

"For a chronological list of artists from the period, go here."

Post World War II

The French art scene immediately after the war went roughly in two directions. There were those who continued in the artistic experiments, especially surrealism, from before the war, and there were those who took on the new Abstract Expressionism and action painting from New York and tried them in a French manner (Tachism or L'art informel). Parallel to both of these tendencies, Jean Dubuffet dominated the early post-war years while exploring child-like drawings, graffiti and cartoons in a variety of media.

In 1960, Pierre Restany and Yves Klein founded the New Realism movement (in French: "Nouveau Réalisme"), and a joint declaration was signed on October 27, 1960 by nine people: Yves Klein, Arman, Francois Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Martial Raysse, Pierre Restany, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely and Jacques de la Villeglé; in 1961 these were joined by César, Mimmo Rotella, then Niki de Saint Phalle and Gérard Deschamps. The artist Christo joined the group in 1963. The members of the group saw the world as an image, from which they would take parts and incorporate them into their works. They sought to bring life and art closer together, and has often been compared with "Pop Art". Yves Klein had nude women roll around in blue paint and throw themselves at canvases; Niki de Saint-Phalle created bloated and vibrant plastic figures; Arman gathered together found objects in boxed or resin-coated assemblages; César Baldaccini produced a series of large compressed object-sculptures (similar to Chamberlain's crushed automobiles); Daniel Spoerri used meals and food as artsistic material.

Associated in various ways with New Realism, the artists of the international Fluxus movement – named and loosely organized in 1962 by George Maciunas (1931-78), a Lithuanian-born American artist – encouraged a do it yourself aesthetic, and valued simplicity over complexity. Like Dada before it, Fluxus included a strong current of anti-commercialism and an anti-art sensibility, disparaging the conventional market-driven art world in favor of an artist-centered creative practice. Fluxus artists preferred to work with whatever materials were at hand, and either created their own work or collaborated in the creation process with their colleagues. Outsourcing part of the creative process to commercial fabricators was not usually part of Fluxus practice. The most significant French Fluxus artist, Ben Vautier incorporated graffiti and found objects into his work.

Other artist in the period include Victor Vasarely who invented Op-Art by designing sophisticated optical patterns.

In May 1968, the radical youth movement, through their "atelier populaire", produced a great deal of poster-art protesting the moribund policies of president Charles de Gaulle.

"For a chronological list of artists from the period, go here."

Contemporary art in France

Many contemporary artists continue to be haunted by the horrors of the war and the specter of the holocaust. Christian Boltanski's harrowing installations of the lost and the anonymous are particularly powerful.

The work of his wife Annette Messager, who represented France at the 2005 Venice Biennale, deals with issues of identity and feminism.

The photographer, installation artist and conceptual artist Sophie Calle’s work is distinguished by its use of arbitrary sets of constraints, and evokes the French literary movement of the 1960s known as Oulipo. Her work frequently depicts human vulnerability, and examines identity and intimacy. She is recognized for her detective-like ability to follow strangers and investigate their private lives. Her photographic work often includes panels of text of her own writing.

Beginning in the 1980s, the Figuration Libre movement was constituted around French outstanding figures like Remi Blanchard, François Boisrond, Robert Combas, Hervé Di Rosa and Richard Di Rosa and Louis Jammes. Between 1982 and 1985, these artists expose on several occasions with their American counterparts: Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, Tseng Kwong Chi, and inter alia, Crash (exhibitions in New York, London, Pittsburgh, Paris,…). The Figuration Libre falls under the prolongation of artists and historical movements whose specificity was the opening to marginalized forms of expression, as the Cubism had opened with African and Oceanian art, Surrealism with the children's and "art brut" drawings, Pop art with publicity and comic strip.

Pierre et Gilles (Pierre Commoy and Gilles Blanchard), are gay French artistic and romantic partners. They produce highly stylized photographs, building their own sets and costumes as well as retouching the photographs. Their work often features images from popular culture, gay culture including porn (especially James Bidgood), and religion.

Other important contemporary French artists include Jean-Pierre Raynaud, Orlan, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Daniel Buren, Jean-Marc Bustamante, Pierre Huyghe, Valérie Mréjen.

See also

*France in the twentieth century