Post-war art

What is post-war art?

Post-war art denotes the work made from 1945 to roughly the 1960s. The world was then recovering from the horrors of the Second World War, and so artists' work shows a marked turn away from traditional beauty towards rawness and abstraction. It responded at the same time to the division of the world and to the newly emerging consumer way of life. This is not a single style, then, but a whole era spent searching for a new language.

When and how did post-war art come about, and which movements dominated it?

After 1945 the dominant position was won by abstract expressionism (a painting movement built on spontaneous gesture and fields of colour), whose major figures included Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Alongside it came pop art, which responded to consumerism and found inspiration in advertising, comics and celebrity, and is associated above all with Andy Warhol. A change on the map was equally fundamental: the main centre of art shifted definitively from Paris to New York, which became the breeding ground of new progressive movements.

Who are its most important figures?

On the international scene, the Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko mentioned above for abstract expressionism, and Andy Warhol for pop art. These names remain among the strongest and most expensive segments of the art market. Museum institutions also give them heightened attention, because without an understanding of this period it is hard to find one's bearings in contemporary art.

How did post-war art fare in the Czech context?

In Czechoslovakia the official current at that time was socialist realism — art in the service of the regime. Running parallel to it, though, was an unofficial scene that maintained the continuity of modern art even in the hardest times. The main tendency was informel, or structural abstraction (a movement working with matter, structure and the chance behaviour of the material itself), whose notable figures included Mikuláš Medek and Vladimír Boudník.

Why is post-war art interesting for collectors?

On the global market post-war art is among the strongest segments of all and its value continues to rise. For collectors it is an attractive band between the classics and the present, with a shorter investment horizon than the newest art, where prices are still finding their place. It is a period, then, that combines proven quality with room for growth, which is precisely why both museums and private collections reach for it.

— Anna Pulkertová, founder of Art Part Club