The 100 Most Important Art Works of the Twentieth Century

A Friend in Need by C. M. Coolidge (ca. 1910)
  1. Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (Cubist: 1907): the geometry of naked French ladies.
  2. Pablo Picasso, Guernica (Surrealist: 1937): screaming horse and severed heads.
  3. Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (Futurist: 1913): lumpy multi-dimensional walking.
  4. Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (Futurist: 1912): downhill kaleidoscope.
  5. Vladimir Tatlin, Monument to the Third International (Russian Constructivism: 1919-20): steel-framed ziggurat
  6. Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory (Surrealist: 1931): limp watches.
  7. Constantin Brancusi, Bird in Space (1928): smooth and shiny, pointy and skinny.
  8. Robert Smithson, SpiralJetty (Conceptual Art: 1970): coil of rocks in the water.
  9. Gustav Klimt, The Kiss (Art Nouveau: 1907-08): sparkly cape.
  10. Marcel Duchamp, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (Dada: 1915-1923): shiny things on glass.
  11. Marcel Duchamp, Fountain (Dada: 1917): urinal.
  12. Rene Magritte, The Human Condition I (Surrealist: 1933): a painting of a painting in a window
  13. Paul Cézanne, Mont Ste-Victoire (Impressionist: 1904-1906): vague hilly landscape.
  14. Constantin Brancusi, The Kiss (Transcendentalism: 1908): two lovers fused into a block.
  15. Richard Hamilton, Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? (Pop Art: 1956): cheesy muscle man and stripper.
  16. Willem de Kooning, Woman I (Abstract Expressionist: 1952): the ugliest picture ever painted ever. In fact, you have to admire the skill with which the artist managed to rid this painting of anything asthetically pleasing.
  17. Max Ernst, Elephant of the Celebes (Surrealist: 1921): steam powered pachyderm -- or long-necked cow.
  18. Edward Hopper, Nighthawks (American Realist: 1942): diner, outside looking in.
  19. Henri Matisse, The Dance (Fauvist: 1910): ring around the rosey.
  20. Max Beckman, Departure (Expressionist: 1933): king and dungeon
Back to Introduction Continue to next 30

to Table of Contents

Last updated November 2002

Copyright © 2002 Matthew White