European art after 1900

European Art after 1900 in the National Museum, Cardiff.

By 1900 Impressionism had lost its revolutionary edge and began to be viewed as a safe, academic style. Artists rejected loose, impressionistic brushwork and even questioned the need to capture the visual appearance of the world.

The recognition that the formal qualities of a work (such as shape, line, texture and colour) could be important and expressive in their own right led to the development of abstract or non-representational art.

A little later a group of radical artists looked to unleash the power of the subconscious imagination. The Surrealist movement began in Paris in the 1920s and developed new artistic techniques to connect with dreams and the subconscious. Like the development of abstraction some ten years earlier, Surrealism's influence soon spread across Europe.

Andre Derain, The Church at Vers, 1912, (oil on canvas)

This landscape has been painted from a window in a knowingly naive, almost child-like way. Derain wanted to paint with honesty and directness. He found these qualities in the work of Cezanne and the 'primitive' painting of the early Italian Renaissance.

Christopher Wood, The Rug Seller, Treboul, 1930, (oil on board)

David Jones, Jesus Mocked, 1922-23, (oil on tongue and groove board)

Ceri Richards, Costers at Coconut Shy, 1943

Graham Sutherland, Fountain, 1963

Mary Fedden, Fruit and Flowers, 1946

Rene Magritte, Le Masque Vide, 1928

Jean Lurcat, La Tour Carree, 1927

Ceri Richards, Black and White, 1936

Paul Nash, Plage, 1928

Stanley Spencer, Souvenir of Switzerland, 1935, (oil on canvas)

looking closer

looking closer

Gwen John, Girl in a Blue Dress, 1914-15, (oil on canvas)

Portraits of women are the most frequent subject of Gwen John's oil paintings. As here, they tend to place the subject in an extremely simple interior. They are frequently three-quarter length with the figure clasping her hands. John was born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, but spent most of her career living in France.

Gwen John, Mere Poussepin Seated at a Table, mid-1910s,  (oil on canvas)

Gwen John, Girl in a Green Dress, 1920s-early 1920s, (oil on canvas)

This work is from a series of at least eight almost identical paintings of the same model, a neighbour at Meudon. The chalky surface has been created using paint applied dryly and evenly in small brushstrokes.

Augustus John, Dorelia McNeill in the Garden of Alderney Manor, 1922, (oil on canvas)

Augustus John, A French Fisherboy, 1907, (oil on canvas)