Great 20th Century Works of Art

[ggw]

I have to write a paper on a significant work of art of the 20th century.  It can be film, literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, etc...  Something along the lines of Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon, Eliot's The Wasteland, Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion, etc... Something that changed the direction of its genre.
 
 I'm having a mental block -- Anyone have any suggestions?

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

The best work of art I saw on my vacation was grafitti scrawled on a wall in Florence that said "Renoir is shite".
 
 Perhaps my wifey has an opinion on this one, but she's probably too hard at work to be reading the board.

[sueandnotu]

Oh lord, my art-crazed boyfriend would probably want to write that paper for you.  I'm asking him for suggestions...

[vansmack]

<img src="http://www.warholfoundation.org/images/photobooth%20600%20px%20.gif" alt=" - " />

[lily1]

jacob lawrence should be a fine subject...his emancipation series...21 prints outlining the african american experience...

[lily1]

oops, its the migration series. not the emancipation series.
 
 probably the single most important black painter of the 20th c.  http://www.jacoblawrence.org/

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

Are you sure he was the blackest? Surely there were some that were blacker.
 
 

Originally posted by lily1:
  oops, its the migration series. not the emancipation series.
 
 probably the single most black painter of the 20th c.  http://www.jacoblawrence.org/

[lily1]

woops.  

[markie]

Jacob Lawrence is really shite....
 
 
 How about the obvious:
 
 
 Picasso, Guernica
 
 Warhol, would be a fine example.
 
 As would Duchamps Urinal
 
 Magrittes ce n'est pas une pipe.
 
 So all visual arts....
 
 Why not just write about the Sex Pistols? Or Elvis? Or that blues guy robert Johnson.
 
 
 Literature from this century....I have no idea.
 
 But as for films 2001 was a clear breakthrough.

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

How about the collected works of Milan Kundera?

[lily1]

why? do you feel that there is another american painter that is a better selection, aside from the obvious warhol? you've already mentioned some european selections.
 
 

Originally posted by Andrew WK:
  Jacob Lawrence is really shite....
 

[Venerable Bede]

Originally posted by Andrew WK:
  Jacob Lawrence is really shite....
 How about the obvious:
 
 Picasso, Guernica
 
 Warhol, would be a fine example.
 
 As would Duchamps Urinal
 
 Magrittes ce n'est pas une pipe.
 
 So all visual arts....
 
 Why not just write about the Sex Pistols? Or Elvis? Or that blues guy robert Johnson.
 
 Literature from this century....I have no idea.
 
 But as for films 2001 was a clear breakthrough.

most of that has already been written about, and mostly in one book: "lipstick traces" by greil marcus.  one of my favourite books, too.

[Joymonster]

OK...
 
 Louis Armstrong
 Igor Stravinsky
 Rogers & Hammerstein
 Steven Spielberg
 Ernest Hemmingway
 George Bernard Shaw

[ggw]

Thanks for the suggestions.
 
 I considered Guernica, but I think someone else may claim it before I get to class.  If not, I may have to go with it.
 
 I also considered Warhol, but I think the prof is one of those Pop-Art haters.  Perhaps I should take the challenge of converting her?
 
 Jacob Lawrence isn't a bad idea at all.  I don't like him visually, but think he and the Migration Series are probably rich soil for an overly long academic examination.
 
 R. Mutt's Fountain is out.  Important, but I don't think I could write twenty pages on it.
 
 The Sex Pistols just reminds me of that Onion article about the kid that thought he was being original by tying punk rock into all his English assignments.
 
 How about a film?  I thought you people were all cinephiles.  What do you consider the most important films of the 20th century?
 
 Also, the paper has to be on a single work.

[markie]

Originally posted by lily1:
  why? do you feel that there is another american painter that is a better selection,
 
   

Originally posted by Andrew WK:
  Jacob Lawrence is really shite....
 

[/b]

I just think Lawrence is shite
 
   <img src="http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~yosimi/stay/2001/images/Jacob.jpg" alt=" - " />
 
 to mee looks like someones art school project. I really dont feel that it is clever original or beautiful. Perhaps I am wrong, but they are my opinions.
 
 I prefer Basquait, but he was just Warhols bitch.....
 
 I can never remember who is American and from this not last Century...
 
 Winslow Homer, last century?
 
 Arthur Bellows
 
 Wayne Thiebaud
 
 Edward hopper
 
 Ed ruscha
 
 Calder
 
 is Lichtenstein American?
 
 
 that list is just off the top of my head.
 
 
 I prefer all of them to the dire Lawrence. I dont think American painters have excelled (other than Warhol). The sculptures of Flavin or Judd are more interesting and innovative in a lot of ways.