The events of world war ii cast a shadow over the rest of the century and perhaps over the rest of history. Inevitably, they changed the course of western art. In europe, the unbelievable scale of the nazi genocide against the jews left europeans with the task not only of restoring their broken cities, but of repairing their shattered culture. In america, the explosion of the first atom bomb in the deserts of the southwest meant that medieval mans fears might come true, that the world might be destroyed in a single terrifying apocalypse. It was against this background that the postwar artists created their art. While europeans couldnt forget their past, in america, artists turned their backs on what they saw as the public and political dimension of art. The abstract expressionists, centered in new york, escaped to an interior world, where the subject of landscape and the struggle with brushwork and pigment became the goal of painting. For the first time, europe looked to new york. Abst
Captioning made possible by the annenberg cpb project the events of world war ii cast a shadow over the rest of the century and perhaps over the rest of history. Inevitably, they changed the course of western art. In europe, the unbelievable scale of the nazi genocide against the jews left europeans with the task not only of restoring their broken cities, but of repairing their shattered culture. In america, the explosion of the first atom bomb in the deserts of the southwest meant that medieval mans fears might come true, that the world might be destroyed in a single terrifying apocalypse. It was against this background that the postwar artists created their art. While europeans couldnt forget their past, in america, artists turned their backs on what they saw as the public and political dimension of art. The abstract expressionists, centered in new york, escaped to an interior world, where the subject of landscape and the struggle with brushwork and pigment became the goal of paintin
The events of world war ii cast a shadow over the rest of the century and perhaps over the rest of history. Inevitably, they changed the course of western art. In europe, the unbelievable scale of the nazi genocide against the jews left europeans with the task not only of restoring their broken cities, but of repairing their shattered culture. In america, the explosion of the first atom bomb in the deserts of the southwest meant that medieval mans fears might come true, that the world might be destroyed in a single terrifying apocalypse. It was against this background that the postwar artists created their art. While europeans couldnt forget their past, in america, artists turned their backs on what they saw as the public and political dimension of art. The abstract expressionists, centered in new york, escaped to an interior world, where the subject of landscape and the struggle with brushwork and pigment became the goal of painting. For the first time, europe looked to new york. Abst