The Age of Consumption - Mid Modern

 The post-WWII landscape of the Western world, in particular the United States, was a time of great prosperity, increased liberties, and of course increased consumption. Americans were ready to spread their wings and dip their toes into any and everything this new Era had to offer them. Post WWII America saw rapid growth in the major cultural hubs America is known for today. Cities like Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco experienced rapid population growth due to the invention of air-conditioning and the influx of middle Americans to the newfound sunbelt region. The cities of the past also saw even greater growth and prosperity including New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Boston to list a few. 

When reflecting on the 1950s and 1960s America we see a change in perception of how life was to be lived. To this day the glamour and extravagance of the time period is highlighted in our modern culture. Think of a classic car and it's likely you think of Cadillac or Buick from the 60s. Imagine a diner or a drive-in movie, 'classic America', and you're likely picturing this time period. Even amidst the Cold War many people today don't think of this time period as scary or dark as the 1930s and 40s were perceived. This is largely due to the lifestyle changes the country underwent during this time. In this blog post I intend to explore how the substantive wealth of America during this Era was reflected in the lives of Americans and their cities and how these new ideals permeated upon the art of the time period.

This first piece is "monument" 1 for V. Tatlin by American artist David Flavin finished in 1964. I found this minimalist piece created by fluorescent lights to be highly representative of the cultural sentiment of America during this Era. The use of staggering lengths of lights creates an imitation skyscraper. New York City post WWII was seen as the shining star of the country that emitted affluence and new beginnings. The use of fluorescent lighting is a visual representation of the increased productivity, business ventures, and the creation of the white collar job market for the middle class. The choice of an orange and brown background highlights the hazy tumultuous past of the city. The Great Depression was only finally extinguished at the beginning of the war. Decades of sorrow and heartbreak couldn't feel farther away after a few short years of recovery. 

This next piece is a pop art painting by Belgian painter Evelyne Axell completed in 1965. Axell was known for her depictions of femininity. Immediately I was drawn to this painting due to some of the abstract concepts portrayed. The use of squares and rectangles under and next to the subject's right foot appear to be pedals to a car. At least in my interpretation it can be seen as her foot on the gas pedal with her left resting to the side while the brake and clutch lay to the left of her right foot. The representation reveal the new found civil liberties of women. They had been the major workforce during the war while the men were off fighting. Many had gained their own personal wealth for the first time in their lives. The car with a woman driver highlights the success many women had found during the Mid Modern Era. Another aspect of this painting is the use of color to portray wealth. We see bright red to depict the woman's heels. This reveals another aspect of womanhood during this era, consumption. The American woman was a major consumer during this time. Many wives and mother's did the family shopping, TV ads were targeted towards women from cleaning supplies, TV dinners, appliances, clothes, and even the car she is seen driving were now being targeted at the modern woman. Whether from her own pocketbook or her husbands she had a much higher access to cash to spend then her mother or grandmother did. 

Two Cheeseburgers with Everything by Claes Oldenburg completed in 1962 is a sculpture made up out of plaster and enamel. This Pop Art sculpture is the most obvious example of American consumerism we saw at the time. The cheeseburgers themselves highlight the invention of fast food, the luxury of convenience. This is the first time an American can spend their money on more than just a product. They are buying a lifestyle. Fast food, department stores, the television, and the modern kitchen exploded during this time period. Oldenburg creates another commentary on the life of new American consumer in this painting, excess. Two Cheeseburgers with Everything is a straightforward but very targeted title choice. Why purchase just one when you can have it all? The lettuce and cheese are spilling over the bun in this sculpture portraying the large pockets of the middle class consumer. 

Pop art piece Girl with Ball by Roy Lichtenstein finished in 1961 highlights the rise of vacations and the influx to the sunbelt region of the country. Lichtenstein was inspired by a hotel advertisement he had seen and created this comic strip version depicting a woman enjoying the beach. What first catches my eye with this piece is the use of color. The woman's hair is a glossy black with white highlights and her lips and tongue are created using two different shades of red. The choice of color feminizes her and creates an appeal that draws the viewer in. I find she is a great representation of the new Era of advertisement. We see a use of sex appeal to convey a lifestyle that is obtainable through spending. The main concept of the painting is supposed to be the activity of vacationing but through the curvature in the lines of her body it pulls the woman to the foreground. Lichtenstein has effectively taken the advertisement he based his painting off of and transformed it into an advertisement for makeup, and hairstylists, and swimsuits. It has become an advertisement of a lifestyle and sex appeal further highlighting how this Era targeted the new market of female consumers. 

At first I felt Woman by Willem de Kooning completed in 1952 was out of place amongst the rest of my chosen pieces. However the Abstract Expressionism fills the gap that made the Mid Modern Era feel empty without it. The idea of an Age of Consumption and the rise of the consumer lacks substance and drive. Surely we as a nation didn't experience two decades of meaningless expansion and overconsumption due to our new found prosperity? It is deeper than that though and Woman conveys those concepts well. Immediately the viewer is drawn towards the face depicted in this painting. Kooning uses these abstract simple shapes to very quickly trick our pattern recognizing brain into seeing the face and with it make out the other limbs in lesser detail. The longer the viewer stares at the painting, the more detail is revealed. The use of bright pastel oranges, yellows, and dark reds, and blues and an exuberance to the painting. Still being abstract the entire picture is up to interpretation and seemingly incomplete. That's how this Mid Modern Era comes across. The use of consumption fuels the American dream. An immediate gratification for the work that is put in by each working class citizen to enjoy. It is also a distraction from the horrors the country has endured the decades prior with the Great Depression and second World War. Consumerism was the bandaid that hid the ugly scar of the past and brought forth new hope for the future. Unfortunately it has its drawbacks. There is a lack of meaningfulness to consumerism, what really is the point other than to make us feel good? Kooning shows us that consumerism is the identity crisis of the nation. The blonde highlights you get after a breakup when you're trying to remember who you are. America was as strong as it ever has been during the Mid Modern Era it just wasn't sure how to continue to move forward. 

The final piece I have chosen is A Bigger Splash by David Hockney completed in 1967. This painting is a Pop Art painting representative of 1960s Los Angeles. The city we know today as LA, home of Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and the Kardashians was truly born during the Mid Modern Era. As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, the invention of air conditioning allowed for millions of Americans to move to the Southwest. Los Angeles already known for its budding movie scene in since the 1930s was transformed. Investment in the nationwide freeway system under President Eisenhower began in Los Angeles referred to as the Pasadena freeway. Hockney creates a world that only exists in this grand city with his use of bright blues, greens, and yellows to saturate the landscape and create artificial feelings of glamour. The use of squares and rectangles accurately depicts the architecture of the time period. The main subject of this painting is of course the above ground pool. Together the elements of this painting almost serve as a targeted advertisement for Los Angeles. It not so subtly tells the viewer, come to LA your dream life awaits. Hockney created a painting that was honest to the sentiment of the period. The American consumer wants a well manicured lawn, palm trees, comfortability, and class that represents their personal triumph and wealth without going against the status quo. Inoffensive while conveying the prosperity they are desperately trying to obtain. 

Works Cited

David Hockney. The Met Fifth Avenue

https://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2017/david-hockney

Dan Flavin. Museum of Modern Art

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81337?

Evelyne Axell. Museum of Modern Art

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/425478

Remembering Claes Oldenburg, 1929-2022. Museum of Modern Art

https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/757

Roy Lichtenstein. Museum of Modern Art

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79665 

Woman Willem de Kooning. The Met Fifth Avenue

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/483877

 

Early Modern Exhibit

 

For the Early Modern Era I was drawn towards the Great Depression. Nearly one-hundred years later the Great Depression is a time in American history that everyone is aware of. The stock market crash of 1929 that preceded the worst economic downturn in our nation's history is still feared to this day. Knowing this I wanted to explore the art of the depression and how it was impacted, and actually thrived, during this otherwise dark time period. 

The first piece I chose is Newsboy finished in 1938 By Carl G. Hill an African American artist. This piece was created during the later half of the Great Depression which is a theme all of the pieces I chose share. This is likely due to the nature of art during this time period. The most likely reason I could find was due Works Progress Administration which was created in 1935 under President Roosevelt that created millions of jobs in the arts. 

This piece was created by Carl G. Hill when he was a teenager at the Harlem Community Art Center which was funded through the WPA. The piece itself was a lithograph print. This piece beautifully encapsulates the Great Depression. The shading of this work highlights the main subject with his shirt and body more opaque than the background. We see the main subject is a young boy likely working to help support his family. Selling newspapers which were the backbone of the American Household at the time. One of the cheap amenities alongside radio that were afforded in order to stay informed about the happenings of the nation. The use of large rectangular shapes creates an almost engulfing backdrop around the boy. The cars are stacked upon each other and buildings are stacked upon the cars while the skyscrapers are stacked upon the buildings. They highlight the industrialization of the nation and the urbanization. At this point more Americans lived in urban areas than rural ones. 

The next piece I have chosen is Miners by American artist Elizabeth Olds completed in 1937.

I chose this piece due to its juxtaposition of technological advancement of the era with the death of industry. Shortly preceding the Great Depression America enjoyed the greatest advancements in technology that had been seen up until this point. Electricity and the headlamp were less than half a century old technology by this point. We see use of bright gold and yellow used to show the light pouring towards an unknown subject we cannot see. This ambiguity is heightened when viewing the miners' faces. Dark lines are used to over accentuate their facial expressions. On the left we see a deep scowl almost of disgust. The middle miner appears to be that of curiosity mixed with disappointment and anxiety with his nostrils flared and piercing eyes and eyebrows. The man on the right appears pleased drawn towards the light. 

During the Great Depression natural resource extraction dropped significantly. There was no new construction being created and a drop in consumption of jewelry products. There was no need to maintain the mining extraction of the past. During this era conservationists advocated for the conservation of natural resources and Theodore Roosevelt was in favor putting forth many protections and limitations of what could be extracted. This all came together to prevent the rebounding of the natural resource extraction sector of the economy. It also creates a symbolism that possibly the miners are actually one miner experiencing the destruction of his livelihood. This is supported in the lack of clear definition of lines between each miner. They almost morph into on subject.

The final piece I have chosen is Brooklyn Bridge by Louis Lozowick finished in 1930. 

This piece conveys the sentiment of America during the Great Depression. The Brooklyn Bridge was completed during the height of the industrial era in 1869. By the Great Depression New York City had surpassed London to become the most populous city in the world. The rapid urbanization was fueled by the country's unique advantage to produce steel, concrete, and other industrial goods but more importantly the millions of Americans hustling and striving to create this urban scape through their own personal achievement. Drawings of architecture was very popular during the early modern era. Lozowick had a unique way of using this popular subject to convey the feelings of the entire nation. We see a singular biker in on the bridge meant to move hundreds at a time. The dark shading of the sky above the bridge conveys the uncertainty of the time, was recovery possible. My favorite aspect of this drawing though is the linear perspective we see of the structural wire of the bridge. They pull the viewers eye to the darkly shaded bridge and its resilience during a tense time. The structural wire also represent the strength of the nation. Like bone scaffolding meant to provide shape and a place for new muscle to attach, the structural wire is meant to support the nation. The background of this drawing depicts the buildings of the city but they do not surpass the bridge. It is a representation of hope and of the gate of America is still the greatest pathway to success even if it is emptier than before. 

Works Cited 

Brooklyn Bridge. Art Institute of Chicago

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/8130/brooklyn-bridge

Carl G. Hill Newsboy. The Met Museum 

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/491482

Conservation in the Progressive Era. The Library of Congress

https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/progressive-era-to-new-era-1900-1929/conservation-in-progressive-era/#:~:text=In%20the%20mid%20to%20late,achievements%20of%20the%20Roosevelt%20era.

Miners. Smithsonian American Art Museum

https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/miners-18996

Today in History - April 8. The Library of Congress 

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/april-08/