ABSTRACT
The world of art was never more heterogeneous and international than it was in 1900. Artists, depending on their ideological stance and aesthetic preferences, could choose from a widening array of media, since photography and print making were rapidly gaining the respectability previously accorded only painting and sculpture. The century’s rapid urbanization and industrialization continued to inform much of the subject matter depicted by artists, whether to condone, to condemn, or to ponder. Attitudes toward nature shifted in the decades around 1900, a situation reflected by the frequent replacement of nude women by nude men in outdoor scenes. The world of art was never more heterogeneous and international than it was in 1900. Artists, depending on their ideological stance and aesthetic preferences, could choose from a widening array of media, since photography and print making were rapidly gaining the respectability previously accorded only painting and sculpture.
