The visual arts has changed a great deal in the last century, simply because of the coming to prominence of film and television. In 1911, film was in its infancy and television hadn’t been invented. The Cubism movement dominated painting and sculpture, led by artists such as Pablo Picasso, George Braque and Juan Gris. Cubism still exerts an influence over painting and sculpture today, though a somewhat diminished one, but film and television now dominate the culture.

In the early 20th century the film industry was still centered New York, though the exodus to southern California had begun.Want more? Click here/tag The films were primitive westerns, historical pieces, and comedies. As time went on, film making became more sophisticated, especially under the direction of D.W. Griffith. There were new lighting and camera techniques, including close ups, point of view shots and cross cutting. At the same time the acting became somewhat more natural. This all culminated in Griffith’s brilliant but unfortunate epic, Birth of a Nation, in 1915.

Painting and sculpture developed more slowly during these years. Constructivism, founded in Russia, came on the scene around 1913, a few years before the Dada movement. In constructivism, sculpture was made using industrial objects like pipes, and painting was created using abstract, mechanical forms. The movement didn’t last long, but its effect is felt even today. Dada was the anti-art. An example of this is Marcel Duchamp’s urinal, which he exhibited as a “fountain.” Dada evolved into surrealism, which was mastered by artists like Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte. Abstract expressionism, which was developed in New York in the 1940s, was championed by painters like Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell. By then, television had been invented, and by the ’50s many households in America had one. Like cinema, the visual art form of television has evolved greatly since its birth. Television and movies represent the greatest change in the visual arts in the last century.