The following is an overview of French art of the 20th century.

From Impressionism to World War II

The early years of the twentieth century are dominated by experiments in color and content that Impressionism and Post-Impressionism had unleached. 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). Impressionism was a 19th century art movement, that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists who began publicly exhibiting their art in the 1860s. ... A Hundred Years of Independence by Henri Rousseau Post-impressionism is a term applied to painting styles of the late 19th and early 20th centuries — after impressionism. ... Les Nabis, Art Movement In 1888-89, Les Nabis originated as a rebellious group of young student artists who banded together at the Académie Julian in Paris, France. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... On White II by Wassily Kandinsky, 1923. ...

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. Young Pablo Picasso The first cubist painting, Les Demoiselles dAvignon (1907) Pablo Picasso, formally Pablo Ruiz Picasso, (October 25, 1881 – April 8, 1973) was one of the recognized masters of 20th century art, probably most famous as the founder, along with Georges Braque, of Cubism. ... Violin and Candlestick, Paris, spring 1910 (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) Georges Braque (May 13, 1882 – August 31, 1963) was a French painter and sculptor, and with Pablo Picasso one of the inventors of Cubism. ... Woman with a guitar by Georges Braque, 1913 Cubist house in Prague Cubism was an avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture in the early 20th century. ... Woman with a guitar by Georges Braque, 1913 Cubist house in Prague Cubism was an avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture in the early 20th century. ...

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 in Paris were exploring similar notions. At the In 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. World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas. ... 1916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ... Cabaret Voltaire is the name of more than one thing: The original, historic Cabaret Voltaire was situated in Zürich, where it served as the stage for Dada performances. ... Cover of the first edition of the publication, Dada. ... Francis-Marie Martinez Picabia (January 28, 1879 - November 30, 1953) was a well-known painter and poet born of a French mother and a Spanish father who was an attaché at the Cuban legation in Paris, France. ... Marcel Duchamp (July 28, 1887 – October 2, 1968) was an influential French/American artist. ... 1917 was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... Found art, or more commonly and less confusingly, Found Object (French: objet trouvé) is a term used to describe art created from common objects not normally considered to be artistic (also assemblage). ...

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). The term Lost Generation was coined by Gertrude Stein to refer to a group of American literary notables who lived in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. ... Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol. ... African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ... James Baldwin, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1955 James Baldwin (August 2, 1924 - December 1, 1987) was an African-American novelist and essayist, probably best known for his novel Go Tell it on the Mountain. ... Richard Wright, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 Richard Nathaniel Wright (September 4, 1908 - November 28, 1960) was an African-American author of novels and short stories. ... Josephine Baker, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1949 Josephine Baker (June 3, 1908 - April 12, 1975), born Freda Josephine McDonald, was an African American dancer, actress and singer, sometimes known as The Black Venus. ...

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. Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud (May 7, 1856 – September 23, 1939) was an Austrian psychiatrist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, based on his discovery that unconscious motives control much behavior, that particular kinds of unconscious thoughts and memories, especially sexual and aggressive ones, are the source of... At a simple and informal level, the notion of an unconscious mind (or subconscious) would seem a usefully straightforward way of accounting for aspects of the mind of which we are not directly conscious or aware. ... For an article about music album Automatic Writing go to Automatic Writing (album). ... This article is about the art technique. ... Collage (From the French, coller, to stick or glue) is the assemblage of different forms creating a new whole. ... Decalcomania is a surrealist technique originated by Oscar Dominguez (and called by him decalcomania with no preconceived object) in 1936 in which gouache is spread thinly on a sheet of paper or other surface (glass has been used), which is then pressed onto another surface such as a canvas. ...

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. World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons like the atom bomb World War II, also known as the Second World War, was by far the bloodiest, most expensive, and most significant war in... Indefinite Divisibility 1942 Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy (January 5, 1900 – January 15, 1955) was a surrealist painter. ... Max Ernst Max Ernst (April 2, 1891 – April 1, 1976) was a German painter. ... André Breton (February 18, 1896 – September 28, 1966) was a French writer, poet, and surrealist theorist. ... Pedestal Table in the Studio, (1922) André-Aimé-René Masson (January 4, 1896 – October 28, 1987) was a French artist. ...

Meanwhile a new generation of Americans were making art that finally owed nothing (or nearly so) to the old world.

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. This USPS stamp illustrates Pollocks drip technique. ... Jackson Pollock in 1950 Action painting, sometimes called gestural abstraction, is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied. ... Tachisme (alternative spelling: Tachism, derived from the French word tache - stain) was a French style of abstract painting in the 1940s and 1950s. ... Tachisme (alternative spelling: Tachism, derived from the French word tache - stain) was a French style of abstract painting in the 1940s and 1950s. ... Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (July 31, 1901 - May 12, 1985) was a French artist. ...

The late 1950s and early 1960s in France saw what might be considered Pop Art. Yves Klein had attractive nude women roll around in blue paint and throw themselves at canvases; Victor Vasarely invented Op-Art by designing sophisticated optical patterns; artists of the Fluxus movement like Ben Vautier incorporated graffiti and found objects into their work; Niki de Saint-Phalle created bloated and vibrant plastic figures; Arman gathered together found objects in boxed or resin-coated assemblages and César Baldaccini produced a series of large compressed object-scuptures (similar to Chamberlain's crushed automobiles). Pop art was an artistic movement that emerged in the late 1950s in England and the United States. ... Untitled blue monochrome in the style of Yves Klein. ... Victor Vasarelyis a german artist (9th April 1908 - 15th March 1997) was a Hungarian-born artist often acclaimed as the father of Op-art. ... Op art is a term used to described certain paintings made primarily in the 1960s which exploit the fallibilty of the eye through the use of optical illusions. ... Fluxus (from to flow) is an art movement noted for the blending of different artistic disciplines, primarily visual art but also music and literature. ... Ben Vautier is a French Fluxus artist living and working in Nice. ... Graffiti on the banks of the Tiber river in Rome, Italy. ... Niki de Saint Phalle Niki de Saint Phalle, n e Catherine Marie-Agnes Fal de Saint Phalle (October 29, 1930 - May 21, 2002) was a French sculptor, painter, and film maker. ... Arman (November 17, 1928, Nice - ), born Armand Pierre Fernandez, is a French painter and sculptor. ... César Baldaccini (January 1, 1921 in Marseille - December 6, 1998 in Paris) was a noted sculptor. ...

In May 1968, the radical youth movement, through their attelier populaire, produced a great deal of poster-art protesting the moribund policies of president Charles de Gaulle. May 1968 poster: Be young and shut up In May 1968 a general insurrection broke out across France. ... General Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (   listen?) (November 22, 1890 – November 9, 1970), in France commonly referred to as le général de Gaulle, was a French military leader and statesman. ...

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. Christian Boltanski is a French photographer, sculptor and installation artist. ...