of Dadaism moved to surrealism, in which accident, chance, and the subconscious were employed in the creation of art.Until the late 1940s, nearly all-modern American art styles originated in Europe. The Ashcan school was a reaction against impressionism and concentrated on ordinary—even ugly—city scenes. Fauvism and cubism were relatively unknown in America until after the Armory Show, an international art exhibition held in New York City in 1913. The precisionist style grew out of cubism and depicted a sharp-focus, stylized realism.Despite the growing acceptance of European modernism in the United States, exemplified by the 1929 founding of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the 1930s were also a period of reaction and rebellion against imported styles. Urban realist painters depicted the harsh political, social, and economic conditions of the Great Depression era. Regionalists drew inspiration from rural midwestern life and folklore. A number of American artists after the 1930s created a new movement called abstract expressionism, which derived from the surrealists an interest in the subconscious, symbolism, and myth. In reaction against abstract expressionism, other American artists drew their imagery from everyday, popular-culture objects. They became known as pop artists.Internationally, abstract painting continued to develop, resulting in op art, in which stark black-and-white patterns or brilliant color contrasts were intended to create optical illusions; and in minimalism, which ranged from geometric forms to serialized patterns and almost monochromatic canvases. Conceptual art, in which the artist's idea or concept took precedence over the actual work, grew from minimalism. By the 1980s a reaction had developed against abstract styles, leading to a revival of figurative and narrative painting known as neoexpressionism.Like modern painters, sculptors were influenced by primitive and ancient art. Some reduced...
