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Devil's Island

The penal colony of Cayenne (French: Bagne de Cayenne), commonly known as Devil's Island (Île du Diable), was a French penal colony that operated for 100 years, from 1852 to 1952, and officially closed in 1953, in the Salvation Islands of French Guiana.

Opened in 1852, the Devil's Island system received convicts from the Prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni, who had been deported from all parts of the Second French Empire. It was notorious both for the staff's harsh treatment of detainees and the tropical climate and diseases that contributed to high mortality. The prison system had a death rate of 75 percent at its worst and was finally closed down in 1953.

Devil's Island was also notorious for being used for the exile of French political prisoners, with the most famous being Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who had been accused of spying for Germany. The Dreyfus affair was a scandal extending for several years in late 19th and early 20th century France, exposing antisemitism and corruption in the French military.

Organization
The prison system encompassed several locations, both on the mainland and in the off-shore Salvation Islands. Île Royale was the reception centre for the general population of the penal colony; they were housed in moderate freedom due to the difficulty of escape from the island. Saint-Joseph Island was the Reclusion, where inmates were sent to be punished by solitary confinement in silence and darkness, for attempted escapes or offences committed in the penal colony. Devil's Island was for political prisoners. In the 19th century; the most famous such prisoner was Captain Alfred Dreyfus.

In addition to the prisons on each of the three islands in the Salvation Islands group, the French constructed three related prison facilities on the South American mainland: just across the straits at Kourou, 50 km east in Cayenne (which later became the capital of French Guiana), and St. Laurent, 160 km to the west.

Early penal system

Prisoners convicted of felonies in the 17th and 18th centuries were sentenced to serve as oarsmen in the French Mediterranean galley fleet. Given the harsh conditions, this was virtually a death sentence. Following the decommissioning of the Mediterranean galley fleet in 1666, the French detained the majority of prisoners in pairs, held in chains aboard galley hulks (bagnes) moored in French harbours, until the bagnes rotted and sank. The prisoners were transferred to live on the adjacent pontoons. Prisoners relied on charity or their families for food, bedding and clothing. They were required to work 12 hours a day in the docks, earning 10–15 centimes, which they could spend on food and wine. Other prisoners were housed in prisons onshore, but conditions were reportedly so bad that many prisoners would beg to be transferred to the hulks.

By the early 19th century, the French urban population had increased from under six million to over 16 million, and crime kept pace. In 1832, legislation was passed mandating the state's provision of basic necessities to prisoners. Prison reform changed the previous reliance on corporal punishment through hard labor, to imprisonment with a goal of punishment and deterrence. Imprisonment was considered a way to remove offenders from society. Recidivism of up to 75% had become a major problem; released and unemployed prisoners entered cities to seek a way to live.

In the 1840s, the state set up internal agricultural penal colonies as a place to receive prisoners, thereby removing them from urban environments and giving them work. Prisoners were commonly sentenced under doublage by which, on completion of their sentence, they were required to work as employees at the penal colony for an additional period equal to their original sentence.

The French Navy, which had been given the task of managing the prison hulks, complained strongly about the cost of guarding the hulks and the disruption they caused to the work of the shipyards. Following his coup in 1851, Emperor Napoleon III ordered that the hulks be permanently closed and that civil law convicts be transferred overseas to colonies. Debate over where the convicts would be sent was prolonged. Algeria was ruled out by the Navy as it was controlled by the French Army; Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Texas in the United States were considered, but the government eventually chose its own colony of French Guiana.

Since 1604, France had repeatedly failed to colonize French Guiana. The last attempt at colonization was in 1763. Some 75% of the 12,000 colonists who had been sent there died in their first year, often from tropical diseases. By the 1850s, the declining number of survivors were on the brink of extinction. In 1852, Napoleon called for volunteer prisoners from the hulks to transfer to the new Bagne de Cayenne (Cayennes penal colony) at French Guiana; 3,000 convicts applied. Two categories of prisoners were eligible for transportation: transportés, those civil-law prisoners sentenced under doublage, and déportés, prisoners convicted of political crimes, such as espionage or conspiracy. France also continued to use the hulks, housing an average of 5,400 prisoners at a time, until they were finally closed around the end of the 19th century. The agricultural penal colonies continued to be used for juveniles until the last was closed in 1939.

Use as penal colony
Devil's Island and associated prisons eventually became one of the most infamous prison systems in history. While the prison system was in use (1852–1952), inmates included political prisoners (such as 239 republicans who opposed Napoleon III's coup d'état in 1851) and the most hardened of thieves and murderers. The islands housed those convicted by juries rather than magistrates.

The vast majority of the more than 80,000 prisoners sent to the Devil's Island prison system never returned to France. Many died due to disease and harsh conditions. Sanitary systems were limited, and the region was mosquito-infested, with the insects transmitting endemic tropical diseases. The only exit from the island prisons was by water, and few convicts escaped.

The main part of the penal colony was a labor camp that stretched along the border with Dutch Guiana (present-day Suriname). This penal colony developed a reputation for harshness and brutality, and generated periodic calls for reform. Prisoner-on-prisoner violence was common; tropical diseases were rife. Only a small minority of broken survivors returned to France to tell how horrible it was; they sometimes scared other potential criminals to go straight. This system was gradually phased out and closed completely in 1953.

Convicts who were lucky enough to have family or friends willing to send them money had to have it sent to them in care of a prison guard. The standard practice was for the guard to keep for himself a quarter of the amount sent and give the rest to the prisoner.

On 30 May 1854, France passed a new law of forced residency. It required convicts to stay in French Guiana after completion of sentence for a time equal to their forced labour time. If the original sentence exceeded eight years, they were forced to stay as residents for the remainder of their lives and were given land on which to settle. In time, a variety of penal regimes emerged, as convicts were divided into categories according to the severity of their crimes and the terms of their imprisonment or "forced residence" regime.

An 1885 law provided for repeat offenders for minor crimes to be sent to the French Guiana prison system, previously reserved for serious offenders and political prisoners. A limited number of convicted women were also sent to French Guiana, with the intent that they marry freed male inmates to aid in settlement and development of the colony. As the results were poor, the government discontinued the practice in 1907. On Devil's Island itself, the small prison facility did not usually house more than 12 persons.

Alfred Dreyfus in captivity on Devil's Island 1898.jpg in his room on Devil's Island 1898,

stereoscopy sold by F. Hamel, Altona-Hamburg...; collection Fritz Lachmund ]]

The horrors of the penal settlement were publicized during the Dreyfus affair, as the French army captain Alfred Dreyfus was unjustly convicted of treason and sent to Devil's Island on 5 January 1895. In 1938, the penal system was strongly criticized in René Belbenoît's book Dry Guillotine.

Shortly after the release of Belbenoît's book, which aroused public outrage about the conditions, the French government announced plans to close the bagne de Cayennes. The outbreak of World War II delayed this operation but, from 1946 until 1953, one by one the prisons were closed. The Devil's Island facility was the last to be closed.

The cable car system that provided access to Devil's Island from Royale Island deteriorated and Devil's Island is now closed to public access. It can be viewed from off shore by use of charter boats. The two larger islands in the Salut island group are open to the public, with some of the old prison buildings restored as museums. They have become tourist destinations.

Fifteen women to camp
Around the middle of the 19th century, an experiment was carried out in which 15 prostitutes were brought to Devil's Island, who were thought to encourage prisoners to live a dignified life and start a family. The women were guarded by nuns. No families were born, but the women offered sexual favors to anyone who could offer them rum. Disputes arose among the men, and eventually a syphilis epidemic raged on the island.

Charles DeRudio
After an attempt on 14 January 1858, to assassinate Emperor Napoleon III, Charles DeRudio was sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. He escaped with twelve others, making their way to British Guiana. In later life, he joined the American Army and survived the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Clément Duval
Clément Duval, an anarchist, was sent to Devil's Island in 1886. Originally sentenced to death, he later received a commuted sentence of hard labour for life. He escaped in April 1901 and fled to New York City, where he remained for the rest of his life. He eventually wrote a book about his imprisonment called Revolte.

François Frean, Paul Renuci, Raymond Vaude, and Giovanni Batistoti
Four escapees from Devil's Island - François Frean, 37, Paul Renuci, 32, Raymond Vaude, 35, all French, and Giovanni Batistoti, 35 - arrived in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands on 18 October 1936. Their native boat was nearly wrecked on the reef and the convicts were initially entertained as guests and treated for injuries at the Municipal Hospital.

Henri Charrière and Sylvain
Henri Charrière's bestselling book Papillon (1969) describes his successful escape from Devil's Island, with a companion, Sylvain. They used two sacks filled with coconuts to act as rafts. According to Charrière, the two men leaped into heavy seas from a cliff and drifted to the mainland over a period of three days. Sylvain died in quicksand a short distance from the shore. From there, Charrière was to meet a man by the name of Cuic-Cuic who would help him continue and complete his escape to freedom; instead Charrière was caught again and served for a time in the Bagne at El Dorado, Venezuela. Once finally freed, he remained in Venezuela.

Charrière's account aroused considerable controversy. French authorities disputed it and released penal colony records that contradicted his account. Charrière had never been imprisoned on Devil's Island. He had escaped from a mainland prison. French journalists or prison authorities disputed other elements of his book and said that he had invented many incidents or appropriated experiences of other prisoners. Critics said he should have admitted his book was fiction.

Felix Milani
Felix Milani travelled on the same ship over as Henri Charrière and wrote a book about his experiences titled The Convict.

René Belbenoît
René Belbenoît is perhaps the most renowned escapee of the penal colony, who wrote about his experiences in two well-received memoirs: Hell on Trial (1940) and  The Dry Guillotine: Fifteen Years Among the Living Dead (1938). After leaving the colony with temporary permission in 1930, he eventually made his way to the Panama Canal where he worked for nearly a year. In late 1930, he decided to return to France to argue for his freedom. However, it was a crime for a Devil's Island convict to return to France. He was sent back to French Guiana in 1931 to the prison colony. This time he was sent to Île Royale rather than Devil's Island. He was put into solitary confinement for almost one year. In 1934, he was again released, but as a libéré, or free prisoner, he was, as before in 1930, not allowed to return to France. He eventually made his way to the United States. He gained US citizenship in 1956. He died in California in 1959, age 59.

Francis Lagrange
Francis Lagrange was a painter and forger who wrote a book about his experiences on Devil's Island.

Bernard Carnot
According to the second memoir of American sailor and writer William Willis (Damned and Damned Again), a few days after New Years in 1938, he rented a room in New York City from a French immigrant named Madame Carnot. Her son, Bernard Carnot, had been sent to Devil's Island in 1922 for a murder that he did not commit, and the Carnot family had since moved to the United States. Out of compassion and a sense of adventure, Willis set out to the penal colony to effect Bernard Carnot's escape, which he eventually accomplished. The subtitle of the book indicates that it documents the 'true story of the last escape from Devil's Island'.

Carnot was smuggled to Brazil aboard a supply ship, and was never reunited with his family, although they learned via Willis that he had gained his freedom. On the outbreak of WW2 he returned to Europe and joined the French forces. He is believed to have been killed in action shortly before the liberation of Strasbourg.

Aftermath
In 1938, the French government stopped sending prisoners to Devil's Island. In 1953, the prison system was finally closed entirely. Most of the prisoners at the time were repatriated to metropolitan France by the Salvation Army. Some chose to stay and resettle in French Guiana.

In 1965, the French government transferred responsibility for most of the islands to its newly-founded Guiana Space Centre under the authority of the National Centre for Space Studies. The islands are under the trajectory of the space rockets launched eastward from the CNES facility toward the sea (to geostationary orbit). They must be evacuated during each launch. The islands host a variety of measurement apparatus for space launches and some buildings classified as historical monuments have been restored.

Since the late 20th century, the islands have become tourist destinations with areas of the former prisons open for tours. With the addition of tourism facilities, the islands receive more than 50,000 tourists each year.

In popular culture
In Rob Zombie's 2022 movie The Munsters, Herman and Lilly vacation on the beach at Devil's Island Hotel. Herman wears a prison uniform that says Property of Devil's Island Penal Colony.
 * In the 1925 American film The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney, the Phantom is said to have escaped Devil's Island.
 * Devil's Island is featured in the plot of The Dain Curse (1928), a novel by Dashiell Hammett, an American mystery writer.
 * Ronald Colman plays a Devil's Island prisoner in Condemned (1929 film).
 * Danish writer Aage Krarup Nielsen wrote a novel Helvede hinsides havet (1933) (Hell beyond the Sea), describing life in the prison system.
 * In 1939, Boris Karloff was cast as Dr. Charles Gaudet in the American film Devil's Island.
 * Director Frank Borzage's 1940 film Strange Cargo stars Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Ian Hunter, and Albert Dekker as three convicts and a woman who escape from Devil's Island; they are led by Hunter's character, a possible personification of God. Peter Lorre also stars, playing a bounty hunter pursuing the others.
 * In the American film To Have and Have Not (1944), Paul de Bursac (Walter Surovy) tells Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart): "Did you ever hear of Pierre Villemars? .... He's on Devil's Island, they sent me here to get him, to bring him back here to Martinique."
 * The 1944 film Passage to Marseilles directed by Michael Curtiz is about five men who escape from Devil's Island to fight for Free France during World War Two.
 * We're No Angels is a 1955 American movie directed by Michael Curtiz which starred Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, and Peter Ustinov as escapees from Devil's Island.
 * The season 2, episode 8 of The Wild Wild West (first broadcast on 4 November 1966) takes place on Devil's Island.
 * Episode 9 of The Time Tunnel (first broadcast on 11 November 1966), titled "Devil's Island", was set on Devil's Island.
 * Henri Charrière's memoir, Papillon (1969), ostensibly described the extreme brutality of the penal colony. He claimed to be an escaped convict but was found never to have visited the island. The book was adapted as an American movie of the same name; released in 1973, it starred Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. A remake of Papillon was released in 2017, starring Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek.
 * Argentine author Adolfo Bioy Casares's novella Plan de Evasion (A Plan for Escape, 1969), is set on Devil's Island. The novella tells of a French military officer sent to the archipelago and his interactions with the island's governor and staff.
 * In the fifth season of American TV series Frasier, episode 23, "Party, Party", Niles extols Seattle's exclusive Safari Club, saying "These are the people who introduced badminton to Devil's Island!"
 * Alexander Miles's 1988 history of Devil's Island, including an analysis of Charrière's "memoir" based on the records of the penal colony, show that most of the latter account did not happen, were embellishments, or were feats ascribed to others. Although prisoners were not treated well, conditions were not as bad as in Charrière's account.
 * In the 2003 episode "Bend Her" of the animated comedy Futurama, Devil's Island has independently entered the 3004 Olympics; its athletes appear to be wearing striped prison uniforms.
 * "Devils Island" is the title of a song by the band Megadeth on their 1986 album Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? The song expresses the thoughts of a prisoner on Devil's Island about to be executed.
 * Devil's Island has one full episode of Dave Salmoni's Deadly Islands series dedicated to it. Aired on Animal Planet (Discovery Channel Network) in 2015, the episode documents Salmoni's exploration of the island together with talk of its flora & fauna, dangers, and past as host to a network of penitentiaries.
 * The life of Vere St. Leger Goold is the subject of a 2012 Irish theatrical play called Love All. He was a top tennis player in the late 19th century who was convicted of murder and sentenced to Devil's Island. He committed suicide there.
 * Devil's Island is the title of a song by musical group CocoRosie, featured as a hidden track on the album Tales of a GrassWidow.
 * In Tour de Farce, a short film starring The Inspector, the title character accompanies a prisoner to Devil's Island.
 * William Willis's adventure on Devil's Island was featured in the Season 4 premiere of Drunk History on Comedy Central.
 * Devil's Island is mentioned in the plot of the 2015 sci-fi book Seveneves.

title: Devil's Island


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Talk:Mens rea

Mens rea
Mens rea does *NOT* translate from Latin as "bad mind." Mens is Latin for "mind," and rea is Latin for "defendant." Therefore, the literal translation of mens rea is "defendant's mind." In the context of criminal law, the connotation is "a guilty state of mind." -- NetEsq 02:58 Jan 1, 2003 (UTC)

I agree that "guilty mind" is misleading in technical termsScMeGr 23:43, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Mens rea does *NOT* translate from Latin as "defendant's mind". Mens is Latin for "mind" (feminine singular). Rea is the Latin adjective for "accused" (feminine singular). Therefore, the *literal* translation of mens rea is "accused mind". [Rea is definitely not genitive and may not in any sense be translated literally as "of the defendant" or "defendant's".] In the context of law, the idiomatic translation is "criminal intent". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.208.23.154 (talk) 02:41, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

"Rea" is a noun, not an adjective. In classical Latin, it would be in the nominative, ablative, or vocative case, and is very likely an ablative of description, which is often translated into English as a prepositional phrase beginning with "of." So, the previous comment is right; in classical Latin, "rea" cannot be genitive. Still, the ablative produces "mind of a defendant" or "mind of an accused person."

Statutory Rape
Statutory rape victims are not necessarily female - probably not a big deal, but the article does deal with legal definitions and that paragraph consistently refers to "the girl".

Can someone reword this a bit more generally?

Statutory rape refers to a minor who has been sexually assaulted, a minor would be any male or female child who is protected by the State and who has not attained the age of majority or the status of a major/adult

mens rea
this expression was first recorded in the 13 century when st. augustine said in respect to pajury that: reum linguam nisi mens sit rea..... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 85.159.201.52 (talk) 16:00, 16 April 2007 (UTC).

Augustine lived in the 4th and 5th centuries. The Leges Henrici Primi, which records (more or less) his comments on perjury, was written in the early 12th century. A small detail, yes, but small mistakes can have a large effect on credibility.

I don't agree with the previous comments, as a Masters student of Criminal Law there is a need for recklessness to be treated in depth in it's own right. Recklessness is a complex element of mens rea and is far from settled. ''

all the other articles are about subtypes of mens rea. it'd be better to have them all in one article. right now they all add up to between 50-60K total, and i'm sure there's lot of redundancy that could be edited out if merged to make a comprehensive article. Foofighter20x (talk) 18:30, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

the more i think about this, the more i'm thinking the articles shouldn't be merged... Foofighter20x (talk) 16:36, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

 * I agree that the articles should not be merged. Mens rea has a very specific legal meaning that is important to understand clearly, for anyone seeking to learn about criminal law in countries with legal systems based on English common law. I think merging terms muddies the meaning, as throwing too many distinct legal concepts into one article taxes the general reader, especially since what legally falls under each concept may vary from country to country and jurisdiction to jurisdiction.  — Mattisse  (Talk) 17:05, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

 * I concur. As any first-year law student can tell you, mens rea is hard enough as is.  If people need more detail, that's what the other articles are for. --Coolcaesar (talk) 19:24, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

On that note, I'm withdrawing my proposal for a merger. The reason I brought it up in the first place was that the Crim Law template listed the elements of mens rea as elements of a crime. Since I've edited those sub-elements out of the template, it's probably just better to leave the articles alone and have the mens rea point to each of the sub elements. Thanks for the opinions! Foofighter20x (talk) 21:53, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Translation of Latin Phrase at Start of Article
I'm just writing this to say I'm changing the translation of the verb "sit", being a Latin subjunctive, which is correctly translated with the English subjunctive "be", not the indicative "is". It may sound a bit pedantic, but isn't that what law is about? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.19.201.55 (talk) 14:03, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

The various and somewhat conflicting translations of the Latin are far from literal. I suggest showing both the literal translation and the idiomatic translation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.208.23.154 (talk) 02:32, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

"in jurisdictions with due process"
"Thus, in jurisdictions with due process, there must be an actus reus accompanied by some level of mens rea to constitute the crime with which the defendant is charged (see the technical requirement of concurrence)." - This conclusion is far from obvious. It should be better explained or removed. --JensMueller (talk) 15:30, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
 * As I thought about it, mens rea is an essential component of due process in Germany, too, although we don't have common low here. From the principle of due process ("Rechtsstaatsprinzip") derives the need for punishment adequate to deed and guilt ("Prinzip des tat- und schuldangemessenen Strafens"). Deed and guilt seem to be essentially the same as actus reus and mens rea ... But as I said, this is far from obvious. --JensMueller (talk) 11:38, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

English Definition of "Knowingly"
I noticed in the section describing the English "modes of culpability" that knowingly is defined to include situations in which one "should know" that some result is "reasonably certain" to result from his/her conduct. I am a recent American law school grad and we spent what seemed like ages in torts/criminal law hammering home that knowingly, in American law, indicates a mental state in which a person, at a minimum, knew (or, possibly, for purposes of proof "must have known") that a given result was substantially certain under the circumstances. The phrase "should have known" is an objective (i.e. based on what a reasonable person would have perceived)standard that is reserved for the "lower" levels of culpability (objective recklessness, negligence.)

Does England really define "knowingly" with an objective standard? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aelsbeck (talk • contribs) 04:55, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

 * I've recently edited the Subjective/objective section to include previous and current english law on that. Someone might want to clean it up abit 2A00:23C7:F78A:FF01:249B:A111:DEA3:C888 (talk) 22:20, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Finishing my LLB, I can only speak with limited authority on English law. But as nobody else has taken up the question, I will do my best to answer it. The definition of knowledge in England is "true belief" which doesn't go a long way to determine it's nature. This means we need to focus on specific offenese. Few common law offenses remain in the English law and those that do exist (murder, manslaughter, ...) usually require intention or recklessness. It follows that the question of the objective/subjective nature of knowledge appears mostly in the context of statutes. As a general rule of statutory interpretation, a subjective standard is presumed unless the statute requires an objective standard either explicitly or by necessary implication. As far as I know there's no statute that has displaced the presumption of subjective standard of knowledge. So... no, "knowingly" is not defined by an objective standard in English law.

If you think it's important, I can back up the answer with case law. Daebwae (talk) 15:00, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Recklessness (United States: "willful blindness")
Recklesness and knowledge are two distinct mental states. To prove knowledge, the prosecution can allege "willful blindness." If succesful, then the mens requirement of knowledge is satisfied. However, neither in England, nor to my knowledge in the US, can wilfull blindness satisfy the requirement of recklessness. Maybe I'm wrong but I'm confused why recklessness is lumped together with wilfull blindness.Daebwae (talk) 15:50, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Edits by 31.205.151.83
31.205.151.83, a self-proclaimed academic, has twice tried to change this page to define mens rea as "the mind thing". Not only is this based on a false equivalence of reus/rea with the noun res (I defy anyone to find a single Latin dictionary that defines reus/rea as "thing"), but he/she even admits in the edit that this claim goes against the consensus of academic opinion ("…does not mean what most textbooks say it means"), which is enough to invalidate the edit on its face. The preceding version has an academic source published by Oxford, and it's trivially easy to find more. (Compare the alternative.) --Lazar Taxon (talk) 22:52, 8 October 2015 (UTC)

Removal of unsubstantiated claims
There is no satisfactory proof that mens rea has been deprecated in Australia and replaced by 'alternative terminology'. The 13th edition of Waller and Williams Criminal Law, a common legal textbook in the criminal law in Australia, consistently uses mens rea (and actus reus) throughout. There is no statement in the High Court case cited suggesting that mens rea is not to be used, rather merely a lack of its use. It does, however, specifically mention the use of 'really serious injury' in lieu of 'grievous bodily harm' in the case. Until such stronger evidence is provided, this claim is unsubstantiated. Deonyi (talk) 11:22, 14 March 2019 (UTC)

In Popular Culture?
Why no mention of Legally Blonde? Johnhwynne (talk) 04:59, 13 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Mens rea by its very nature comes up as a plot point in most trial films, so an attempt to list pop culture references here would largely end up duplicating the list in that article on trial films. That's totally pointless. --Coolcaesar (talk) 05:03, 13 July 2020 (UTC)

Mens rea
What's are the other forms of mens rea Oluwasegun Xs (talk) 12:38, 29 July 2021 (UTC)

Implication of negligence in a finding of mens rea
In the Wikipedia article, the following is asserted: "The above mental states also work in a hierarchy, with negligence as the lowest mental state and purposefully as the highest: a finding of purposefully/intentional establishes a state of knowingness, recklessness, and negligence; a finding of knowingness establishes a finding of recklessness and negligence, and a finding of recklessness establishes a state of negligence.(5)"

It lists that if someone does something knowingly as to a mens rea state of knowingly done some conduct, then it is implied that a person behaved negligently. I'm not sure how the legal system treats a knowing state that is criminal, but I am under the impression that if a knowing state was categorized as criminal, then it is necessarily implied that the defendant was negligent. In my talks with ChatGPT4 on the issue, it appears that it is not the case that if a defendant had a knowing mens rea that the defendant was necessarily negligent. I've looked at the sources listed for what I've quoted, but I did not find any information that claims that a mens rea of knowledge necessarily implies that the defendant was negligent. Please someone clarify whether or not the Wikipedia article is correct on this matter. Another personal problem of mine with the quoted text is the presumption that if someone knowingly did something, then it's implied they also recklessly did something.

I'd like to know where there information came from. Presuming that the term "mens rea" is equivalent to "guilty mind," it appears to me that it is implied that of necessity for something to be a guilty mind, it must be the situation that the person behaved negligently, thus leading to any guilty mind state being a negligent mental state. Dennis Blewett (talk) 18:20, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

 * One of the citations explains this, although I would say that it's not a great source, but notwithstanding, I believe that the assertion is correct as a matter of law generally. The idea is that negligence is simply the act in which one fails to act in a manner in which they are supposed to do so. Knowing acts are that which occur when one not only fails to act in such a manner but knowingly fails to do so; whereas, in the case of negligence, there is no requirement that one needs to know of the duty he has. For example, if a doctor forgets to wash his hands, he is negligent, even though at the material time he may not have known that he was supposed to wash his hands. If the doctor, in contradistinction, cannot be bothered to wash his hands, he is firstly negligent, for he has breached a duty of care, and secondly having committed a knowing breach. Intention is simply a level further, where the doctor actually wants to not wash his hands for whatever purpose. Intention must be done with knowledge, and knowledge of a duty of care would also entail negligence, when such duty of care is actually breached. It it important to note that negligence has both an actus reus and a mens rea element, but what we refer to in this context is a negligent state of mind rather than a negligent act per se. Dawkin Verbier (talk) 08:19, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Mens rea


text:
Corps area

A corps area was a geographically-based organizational structure (military district) of the United States Army used to accomplish administrative, training, and tactical tasks from 1920 to 1942. Each corps area included divisions of the Regular Army, Organized Reserve, and National Guard of the United States. Developed as a result of serious mobilization problems during World War I, this organization provided a framework to rapidly expand the Army in times of war or national emergency, such as the Great Depression.

The nine corps areas, created by the War Plans Division under authority of United States War Department General Order No. 50 on 20 August 1920, had identical responsibilities for providing peacetime administrative and logistical support to the army's mobile units as was provided by the six territorial "Departments" they replaced. In addition, the corps areas took on the responsibilities for post and installation support units ("Zone of the Interior" units) created during World War I. Corps areas had the added responsibility for planning and implementing mobilization plans for all Regular Army, National Guard, and Organized Reserve mobile units in their respective geographic areas; the development and administration of hundreds of new Organized Reserve and Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) units; and managing the personnel records for thousands of Reserve officers, enlisted personnel, ROTC cadets, and Citizens Military Training Camp (CMTC) candidates.

To create the corps areas, the United States was divided geographically by state lines, making nine multi-state areas that were all roughly equal in population. Each corps area was responsible for organizing two tactical corps, consisting of three infantry divisions each. Each corps area also had responsibility for organizing various other field army, General Headquarters Reserve, Zone of the Interior (later designated as Corps Area Service Command), and Communications Zone units. The First, Second, Third, Fourth, Eighth, and Ninth Corps Areas also organized units to man various fixed coastal defenses. The corps areas were further grouped into three army areas of two field armies each.

Early army administrative units
For the century preceding 1920 the U.S. Army was geographically divided into series of Military Divisions, "Departments" and smaller "Districts" and Subdistricts. Departments and divisions were numbered or named for their geographic location. Before the War of 1812 these administrative units were geographically named starting with the Department of the East and Department of the West. About 1815, the areas were numbered until after the Civil War. After the Civil War, the system used until after World War I was again geographically identified; i.e. Department of the East or Department of the Missouri and subordinate units were called divisions or districts. The last reorganization of departments was done in 1917 after the beginning of World War I.

National Defense Act of 1920 and establishment of corps area-level organizations
Authorized by the National Defense Act of 1920, which amended the National Defense Act of 1916, nine multi-state sized "corps areas" were established on 20 August 1920 by the U.S. Army Chief of Staff through War Department General Order Number 50. The corps areas were formed for administration, training, and tactical control of the army, replacing the six geographical (or territorial) military departments into which the continental United States had been divided since 1917 and with little variation since the Civil War. Three overseas commands: the Hawaiian Department, Panama Canal Department, and the Philippine Department continued to be identified as departments.

The 1920 act was a realization that the mobilization of a citizen army could no longer meet the defense needs of the United States and for the first time placed an emphasis on peacetime preparedness. Yet with its passage, Congress never fully funded the program. But Congress did recognize the value of a professional officer education program by enhancing existing general service schools such as the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. The act authorized the establishing new schools to meet modern military educational needs, such as the Army Industrial College in 1924. Thirty-one additional special service schools were established or improved to provide training to the various branches of the Army.

The act established the division as a basic Army unit, replacing the pre-World War I notion of the regiment in war planning. Tactically and administratively, each corps area commander was the senior army officer for his geographical area, typically functioning as a commanding general of an existing Regular Army corps or division in their area. During times of civil unrest, labor strikes, or natural disasters, corps area commanders provided Army resources needed to address the emergency.

Each corps area was allocated two "type" corps (with a standard table of organization) and six infantry divisions. The corps were numbered in accord with their corps area designation, i.e. I and XI Corps in the First Corps Area. The lower numbered corps (I through IX) consisted of one Regular Army and two National Guard divisions among the various states of the corps area. The higher numbered corps (XI through XIX) each consisted of three divisions, also assigned by state boundaries, of the newly established (but rarely funded) Organized Reserve. By 1925, in the face of steady Coolidge Administration and congressional budget cutting, the United States Army only had three active regular divisions nationwide; the remainder of its divisions, both regular and reserve components, only existed on paper.

The amended National Defense Act also grouped three corps areas into an "army level" mobilization organization whose boundaries were also identical for the two "type" armies located within them. For example, First, Second, and Third Corps Areas, and the First and Fourth (Field) Armies, comprised the First "Army Area". The 1921 mobilization planning that created the six field army headquarters did not envision a need for active field army-level commands in peacetime and thus the headquarters were constituted in the Organized Reserve rather than the Regular Army.

Until fully activated with its own headquarters staff, an army area was typically jointly staffed, headquartered, and commanded by the most senior corps commander in that area. Between 1927 and 1933 all six field army headquarters were deactivated as the Army wrestled with structure, mobilization, and manpower issues.

Corps area and army area organizations, 1921-1932
An army area included three corps areas, and in the early years was concurrently staffed and headquartered with one of the corps areas. For example, First Army Area headquarters staff was also the Second Corps Area headquarters staff based at Fort Jay at Governors Island in New York, New York; Sixth Corps Area provided the Second Army Area headquarters staff.

First Army Area
First Army Area included First Army (Active) and Fourth Army (reserve on paper).

 * First Corps Area replaced the Northeastern Department, and was headquartered in Boston Army Base, Massachusetts, encompassing Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and Connecticut. It was responsible for the mobilization, and administration of the First United States Army (1936–38); the Fourth Army, I Army Corps with 9th Division, 26th Division, 43d Division; XI Corps with three divisions; coast defense units of the First Coast Artillery District, some units of the GHQ Reserve, and the Zone of the Interior support units of the First Corps Area Service Command. First Corps Area was redesignated First CASC in May 1941.
 * Second Corps Area replaced the Eastern Department, headquartered at Fort Jay on Governors Island in New York City and encompassed New York, New Jersey, Delaware and from 1921 to 1937, the District of Puerto Rico.
 * Formations included the United States First Army (1921–36 and 1938–41); Fourth Army (1921–33); the II Corps (United States), with the 1st Infantry Division, the only active division in the area; the 27th Infantry Division of the New York National Guard; and the 44th Infantry Division of the New Jersey, New York, and Delaware National Guards; and XII Corps (United States), assigned the 77th Division, 78th Division, and 98th Division of the Organized Reserves. Also in the corps area was the 21st Cavalry Division (United States) of the New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and New Jersey National Guards; the 61st Cavalry Division of the Organized Reserves; the Second Coast Artillery District; and the Second Corps Area Service Command.
 * Third Corps Area variously headquartered at Fort McHenry and Fort Howard in Baltimore, Maryland and included Pennsylvania, Maryland, District of Columbia and Virginia. Responsible for units of the First and Fourth Armies, III Army Corps (8th, 28, 29 Divisions) and XIII Army Corps (79th, 80th, 99th Divisions, coast defense units of the Third Coast Artillery District, select units of the GHQ Reserve, and the Z.I. support units of the Third CASC. From 15 October 1921, included the 62nd Cavalry Division, Organized Reserves (also part of Fourth Army); included the 2d Observation Wing, later 2d Wing, from 20 August 1920. From 1921 to 30 September 1927, Washington D.C. was withdrawn from the Third Corps Area and established as the District of Washington. After discontinuation, DC duties were taken on by the 16th Infantry Brigade. The 14th Aero Squadron (or 14th Bombardment Squadron) was assigned to the Third Corps Area, August 28, 1933 and then transferred to the 9th Bombardment Group, on March 1, 1935. From 1940 to 1942, Third Corps Area was commanded by Walter S. Grant, and the organization was designated the Third Corps Area Service Command in May 1941.

Second Army Area
Second Army Area included Second Army (Active) and Fifth Army (reserve on paper).

 * Fourth Corps Area replaced the Southeastern Department based in Charleston, South Carolina and was originally headquartered there then transferred to Atlanta, Georgia, and encompassed the states of Alabama (for a period), Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Formations included Third Army (1936–40); IV Corps: 4th Division, 30th Division, 31st Division; XIV Corps: 81st Division, 82d Division, 87th Division; Fourth Coast Artillery District; and Fourth Corps Area Service Command.
 * Fifth Corps Area was established on 20 August 1920 with headquarters at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, and organized from parts of the discontinued Central Department. The headquarters was transferred to Fort Hayes, Columbus, Ohio, on 20 June 1922. The Fifth Corps Area included the states of Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky. The headquarters was responsible for the units of the Second and Fifth Armies, the V Army Corps (5th, 37th, and 38th Divisions) and XV Army Corps (83rd, 84th, 100th Infantry Divisions), select GHQ Reserve units, and Zone of the Interior support units of the Fifth Corps Area Support Command. Mobile units of the corps area, less GHQ Reserve and Z.I. units, were assigned to the Second and Fifth Armies from 1921 to 1933. With the adoption of the four field army plan on 1 October 1933, the units of the Fifth Corps Area were reassigned to the Second Army, GHQR, or demobilized.
 * Sixth Corps Area covered the states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois and Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. The headquarters was established at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, in August 1920, from portions of the former Central Department, but then moved to the U.S. Post Office Building at 1819 West Pershing Road in Chicago on 10 October 1921. Sixth Corps Area was responsible for the mobilization, administration, and training of units of the Second and Fifth Armies, I Cavalry Corps (Regular Army, but inactive, 1927–1940), VI Army Corps (including the Regular Army 6th Division, 32d and 33rd Divisions) and XVI Army Corps (85th, 86th, 101st Divisions), select GHQ Reserve units, and the Zone of the Interior support units of the Sixth Corps Area Support Command.

Third Army Area
Third Army Area included Third Army (Active), including, seemingly, the Reserve 23rd Cavalry Division (United States), and Sixth Army (reserve on paper).

 * Seventh Corps Area initially included Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri (but not Jefferson Barracks), North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. Responsibility for Arkansas was transferred from the Fourth Corps Area to the Seventh Corps Area on 1 December 1920. The headquarters was established on 20 August 1920 with headquarters at Fort Crook, Nebraska, again from elements of the previous Central Department. HQ, Seventh Corps Area moved to Fort Omaha, NE, on 27 May 1922 and further moved to the Army Building at 15th and Dodge Streets in Omaha - the Omaha Army Depot - on 25 March 1929.
 * Eighth Corps Area, variously headquartered in Dallas and Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, replaced the Southern Department and included Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. From 1922-27 the 44th Observation Squadron was attached to the Field Artillery School, initially at Post Field, Oklahoma. The 154th Observation Squadron was assigned to the Eighth Corps Area on 16 September 1940, but was later reassigned to Third Army.
 * At the end of General Frank M. Andrews' four-year term as Commanding General of GHQ Air Force on March 1, 1939, he was not reappointed, reverted to his permanent rank of colonel, and was reassigned as air officer for the Eighth Corps Area in San Antonio, the same exile to which Billy Mitchell had been sent. Possibly expected to retire, he instead was recalled to Washington just four months later by Marshall after President Franklin D. Roosevelt named George C. Marshall to serve as Chief of Staff of the United States Army following Malin Craig's retirement.
 * Ninth Corps Area, headquartered at the Presidio of San Francisco, California, replaced the Western Department and included Alaska, Idaho, Montana, California, Wyoming, Washington, Utah, Nevada and Oregon. Included the 41st Division, the 18th Squadron (Observation) from October 1921 to July 1922; the 19th Squadron (Pursuit) October 1921-June 1922; and the 7th Bombardment Group from 1 June 1928 - c. 30 October 1931, and then again from c. 1 October 1933 - 1 March 1935. 17th Attack Group was located at March Field from 1931 but reported to the 1st Bombardment Wing. The 91st Aero Squadron, later the 91st Observation Squadron, was almost continuously associated with the Ninth Corps Area from its reformation on 20 August 1920 until 1940. The 805th Observation Squadron was constituted in the Organized Reserve (Oregon) on 31 March 1924; and was then consolidated on 8 December 1936, with the 805th Aero Squadron. Its mission was to provide aerial observation support to the Commanding General, Ninth Corps Area. The 805th Observation Squadron was inactivated on 11 June 1937 and then disbanded on 31 May 1942.

The Civilian Conservation Corps was organized roughly along army corps area boundaries since most of the logistical administration and support (food, housing, uniforms, transportation) for this 1930s Great Depression-era emergency work program was provided by the U.S. Army. The corps areas provided Regular Army officers to oversee these tasks. In time, they were replaced by officers of the Organized Reserve, freeing Regular Army officers to return to their assigned duties and providing practical experience to the Reserve officers.

The end of the "corps area" concept
General Douglas MacArthur, the Army's Chief of Staff, believed that the 1921 mobilization plan was based on unsound assumptions and that the Army required active field army headquarters before the start of any mobilization to manage the integration and training of subordinate units as they mobilized. He also concluded that the existing three army area/six army arrangement was too ponderous to field a force that might be needed in a hurry and that existing mobilization plans were not flexible enough to tailor to various war plans then in existence.

After a War Department study, MacArthur on 9 August 1932 constituted three new army headquarters in the Regular Army (the headquarters of the First United States Army was already constituted) and outlined the organization of what became known as the "four army" plan, which effectively abolished the three army area/six army system.

On 3 October 1940, the War Department transferred tactical command functions to the newly-activated General Headquarters, U.S. Army, separating the field armies from the corps areas. Corps areas were then limited to their Zone of the Interior functions as service commands and the field armies assumed control of all tactical units.

In 1942, after the start of World War II and by executive order, the army level organizations took to training or the field as home defense and combat commands under the control of Army Ground Forces. In March 1942, home defense and training activities were assigned to the newly formed Eastern, Central, Southern, and Western Defense Commands, which overlaid the existing Corps Areas. The geographical corps areas were redesigned as numbered service commands under the Services of Supply on 22 July 1942 (renamed in 1943 as Army Service Forces, the ASF). They served the Army's supply system, and performed administration, and "housekeeping" functions within the United States such as the issuance of Army serial numbers and the operation of induction centers and army posts located in the United States and its territories. By this time, the corps area boundaries and departments experienced some minor readjustments:

 * Eastern Defense Command (co-headquartered with First Army until October 1943)
 * 1st Corps Area – ME, VT, NH, MA, CT, RI
 * 2nd Corps Area – NY, NJ, DE
 * 3rd Corps Area – PA, MD, VA, DC
 * 4th Corps Area – NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, TN
 * Central Defense Command (co-headquartered with Second Army)
 * 5th Corps Area – OH, IN, KY, WV
 * 6th Corps Area – IL, MI, WI
 * 7th Corps Area – MO, KS, NE, CO, IA, MN, ND, SD, WY
 * Southern Defense Command (co-headquartered with Third Army until December 1943)
 * 8th Corps Area – AR, LA, TX, OK, NM
 * Western Defense Command (co-headquartered with Fourth Army)
 * 9th Corps Area – WA, OR, CA, ID, MT, NV, UT, AK
 * Hawaiian Department
 * Panama Canal Department
 * Philippine Department
 * Puerto Rican Department

Abolition of the Service Commands
On 30 August 1945, Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall created a board headed by Lieutenant General Alexander M. Patch to review the organization of the War Department. The board had no officers from the ASF staff but two came from the technical services. The board submitted its recommendations to the Chief of Staff on 18 October. These were that the technical services be continued, with the Transportation Corps made permanent, and that the Finance Department becoming an eighth technical service. The service commands would be abolished, and their functions transferred to the Armies. The ASF would also be abolished, and its staff sections transferred to the War Department General Staff.

In accordance with these recommendations, on 11 June 1946, Army Service Forces and the nine service commands areas were abolished. The service commands were replaced by six field army level organizations. These six Army Areas, though similar in name, operated on a functional rather than geographic basis but roughly followed along the old corps areas boundaries.

 * First Army Area, headquartered at Fort Jay in New York, New York included ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT, NJ, NY and DE.
 * Second Army Area, headquartered at Baltimore, Maryland included PA, MD, VA, WV, OH, IN and KY.
 * Third Army Area, headquartered variously in rented office space in downtown Atlanta and in 1946 at Fort McPherson in Atlanta, Georgia included NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, TN and MS
 * Fourth Army Area, headquartered at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas included TX, AR, LA, OK, and NM.
 * Fifth Army Area, headquartered at Fort Sheridan near Chicago, Illinois included IL, MI, WI, MN, IA, MO, KS, NE, ND, SD, WY and CO.
 * Sixth Army Area, headquartered at Presidio of San Francisco, California included WA, OR, ID, MT, UT, NV and CA.

The postwar Seventh United States Army in Germany and Eighth United States Army in Korea were outside the continental United States as they remain today, but under different names.

This organizational scheme served until the Army reorganization of 1973, with the creation of Forces Command and Training and Doctrine Command.

title: Corps area


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Modern art

Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of experimentation. Modern artists experimented with new ways of seeing and with fresh ideas about the nature of materials and functions of art. A tendency away from the narrative, which was characteristic of the traditional arts, toward abstraction is characteristic of much modern art. More recent artistic production is often called contemporary art or Postmodern art.

Modern art begins with the heritage of painters like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec all of whom were essential for the development of modern art. At the beginning of the 20th century Henri Matisse and several other young artists including the pre-cubists Georges Braque, André Derain, Raoul Dufy, Jean Metzinger and Maurice de Vlaminck revolutionized the Paris art world with "wild," multi-colored, expressive landscapes and figure paintings that the critics called Fauvism. Matisse's two versions of The Dance signified a key point in his career and the development of modern painting. It reflected Matisse's incipient fascination with primitive art: the intense warm color of the figures against the cool blue-green background and the rhythmical succession of the dancing nudes convey the feelings of emotional liberation and hedonism.

At the start of 20th-century Western painting, and initially influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin and other late-19th-century innovators, Pablo Picasso made his first Cubist paintings based on Cézanne's idea that all depiction of nature can be reduced to three solids: cube, sphere and cone. With the painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), Picasso dramatically created a new and radical picture depicting a raw and primitive brothel scene with five prostitutes, violently painted women, reminiscent of African tribal masks and his new Cubist inventions. Analytic cubism was jointly developed by Picasso and Georges Braque, exemplified by Violin and Candlestick, Paris, from about 1908 through 1912. Analytic cubism, the first clear manifestation of cubism, was followed by Synthetic cubism, practiced by Braque, Picasso, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, Albert Gleizes, Marcel Duchamp and several other artists into the 1920s. Synthetic cubism is characterized by the introduction of different textures, surfaces, collage elements, papier collé and a large variety of merged subject matter.

The notion of modern art is closely related to Modernism.

Roots in the 19th century
Although modern sculpture and architecture are reckoned to have emerged at the end of the 19th century, the beginnings of modern painting can be located earlier. Francisco Goya is considered by many as the Father of Modern Painting without being a Modernist himself, a fact of art history that later painters associated with Modernism as a style, acknowledge him as an influence. The date perhaps most commonly identified as marking the birth of modern art as a movement is 1863, the year that Édouard Manet showed his painting Le déjeuner sur l'herbe in the Salon des Refusés in Paris. Earlier dates have also been proposed, among them 1855 (the year Gustave Courbet exhibited The Artist's Studio) and 1784 (the year Jacques-Louis David completed his painting The Oath of the Horatii). In the words of art historian H. Harvard Arnason: "Each of these dates has significance for the development of modern art, but none categorically marks a completely new beginning .... A gradual metamorphosis took place in the course of a hundred years."The strands of thought that eventually led to modern art can be traced back to the Enlightenment. The modern art critic Clement Greenberg, for instance, called Immanuel Kant "the first real Modernist" but also drew a distinction: "The Enlightenment criticized from the outside ... . Modernism criticizes from the inside." The French Revolution of 1789 uprooted assumptions and institutions that had for centuries been accepted with little question and accustomed the public to vigorous political and social debate. This gave rise to what art historian Ernst Gombrich called a "self-consciousness that made people select the style of their building as one selects the pattern of a wallpaper."

The pioneers of modern art were Romantics, Realists and Impressionists. By the late 19th century, additional movements which were to be influential in modern art had begun to emerge: post-Impressionism and Symbolism.

Influences upon these movements were varied: from exposure to Eastern decorative arts, particularly Japanese printmaking, to the coloristic innovations of Turner and Delacroix, to a search for more realism in the depiction of common life, as found in the work of painters such as Jean-François Millet. The advocates of realism stood against the idealism of the tradition-bound academic art that enjoyed public and official favor. The most successful painters of the day worked either through commissions or through large public exhibitions of their work. There were official, government-sponsored painters' unions, while governments regularly held public exhibitions of new fine and decorative arts.

The Impressionists argued that people do not see objects but only the light that they reflect, and therefore painters should paint in natural light (en plein air) rather than in studios and should capture the effects of light in their work. Impressionist artists formed a group, Société Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs ("Association of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers") which, despite internal tensions, mounted a series of independent exhibitions. The style was adopted by artists in different nations, in preference to a "national" style. These factors established the view that it was a "movement." These traits—establishment of a working method integral to the art, the establishment of a movement or visible active core of support, and international adoption—would be repeated by artistic movements in the Modern period in art.

Early 20th century
Among the movements that flowered in the first decade of the 20th century were Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism, and Futurism.

Futurism took off in Italy a couple years before World War I with the publication of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto. Benedetta Cappa Marinetti, wife of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, created the second wave of the artistic movement started by her husband. "Largely thanks to Benedetta, her husband F.T. Marinetti re orchestrated the shifting ideologies of Futurism to embrace feminine elements of intuition, spirituality, and the mystical forces of the earth." She painted up until his death and spent the rest of her days tending to the spread and growth of this period in Italian art, which celebrated technology, speed and all things new.

During the years between 1910 and the end of World War I and after the heyday of cubism, several movements emerged in Paris. Giorgio de Chirico moved to Paris in July 1911, where he joined his brother Andrea (the poet and painter known as Alberto Savinio). Through his brother, he met Pierre Laprade, a member of the jury at the Salon d'Automne where he exhibited three of his dreamlike works: Enigma of the Oracle, Enigma of an Afternoon and Self-Portrait. In 1913 he exhibited his work at the Salon des Indépendants and Salon d'Automne, and his work was noticed by Pablo Picasso, Guillaume Apollinaire, and several others. His compelling and mysterious paintings are considered instrumental to the early beginnings of Surrealism. Song of Love (1914) is one of the most famous works by de Chirico and is an early example of the surrealist style, though it was painted ten years before the movement was "founded" by André Breton in 1924. The School of Paris, centered in Montparnasse flourished between the two world wars.

World War I brought an end to this phase but indicated the beginning of many anti-art movements, such as Dada, including the work of Marcel Duchamp, and of Surrealism. Artist groups like de Stijl and Bauhaus developed new ideas about the interrelation of the arts, architecture, design, and art education.

Modern art was introduced to the United States with the Armory Show in 1913 and through European artists who moved to the U.S. during World War I.

After World War II
It was only after World War II, however, that the U.S. became the focal point of new artistic movements. The 1950s and 1960s saw the emergence of Abstract Expressionism, Color field painting, Conceptual artists of Art & Language, Pop art, Op art, Hard-edge painting, Minimal art, Lyrical Abstraction, Fluxus, Happening, video art, Postminimalism, Photorealism and various other movements. In the late 1960s and the 1970s, Land art, performance art, conceptual art, and other new art forms attracted the attention of curators and critics, at the expense of more traditional media. Larger installations and performances became widespread.

By the end of the 1970s, when cultural critics began speaking of "the end of painting" (the title of a provocative essay written in 1981 by Douglas Crimp), new media art had become a category in itself, with a growing number of artists experimenting with technological means such as video art. Painting assumed renewed importance in the 1980s and 1990s, as evidenced by the rise of neo-expressionism and the revival of figurative painting.

Towards the end of the 20th century, many artists and architects started questioning the idea of "the modern" and created typically Postmodern works.

Art movements and artist groups
(Roughly chronological with representative artists listed.)

19th century

 * Romanticism and the Romantic movement – Francisco de Goya, J. M. W. Turner, Eugène Delacroix
 * Realism – Gustave Courbet, Camille Corot, Jean-François Millet, Rosa Bonheur
 * Pre-Raphaelites – William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti
 * Macchiaioli – Giovanni Fattori, Silvestro Lega, Telemaco Signorini
 * Impressionism – Frédéric Bazille, Gustave Caillebotte, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Armand Guillaumin, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley
 * Post-impressionism – Georges Seurat, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri Rousseau, Henri-Jean Guillaume Martin, Albert Lebourg, Robert Antoine Pinchon
 * Pointillism – Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Maximilien Luce, Henri-Edmond Cross
 * Divisionism – Gaetano Previati, Giovanni Segantini, Pellizza da Volpedo
 * Symbolism – Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, Edvard Munch, James Whistler, James Ensor
 * Les Nabis – Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Félix Vallotton, Maurice Denis, Paul Sérusier
 * Art Nouveau and variants – Jugendstil, Secession, Modern Style, Modernisme – Aubrey Beardsley, Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Klimt,
 * Art Nouveau architecture and design – Antoni Gaudí, Otto Wagner, Wiener Werkstätte, Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos, Koloman Moser
 * Early Modernist sculptors – Aristide Maillol, Auguste Rodin

Early 20th century (before World War I)

 * Abstract art – Francis Picabia, Wassily Kandinsky, František Kupka, Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay, Léopold Survage, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich, Hilma af Klint
 * Fauvism – André Derain, Henri Matisse, Maurice de Vlaminck, Georges Braque, Kees van Dongen
 * Expressionism and related – Die Brücke, Der Blaue Reiter – Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, Emil Nolde, Axel Törneman, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Max Pechstein
 * Cubism – Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Fernand Léger, Robert Delaunay, Henri Le Fauconnier, Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Villon, Francis Picabia, Juan Gris
 * Futurism – Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Benedetta Cappa Marinetti, Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Gino Severini, Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov
 * Orphism – Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay, František Kupka
 * Suprematism – Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko, El Lissitzky
 * Synchromism – Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Morgan Russell
 * Vorticism – Wyndham Lewis
 * Sculpture – Constantin Brâncuși, Joseph Csaky, Alexander Archipenko, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Jacques Lipchitz, Ossip Zadkine, Henri Laurens, Elie Nadelman, Chaim Gross, Chana Orloff, Jacob Epstein, Gustave Miklos, Antoine Bourdelle
 * Photography – Pictorialism, Straight photography

World War I to World War II

 * Dada – Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Francis Picabia, Kurt Schwitters
 * Surrealism – Marc Chagall, René Magritte, Jean Arp, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Giorgio de Chirico, André Masson, Joan Miró
 * Expressionism and related: Chaim Soutine, Abraham Mintchine, Isaac Frenkel
 * Pittura Metafisica – Giorgio de Chirico, Carlo Carrà, Giorgio Morandi
 * De Stijl – Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian
 * New Objectivity – Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, George Grosz
 * Figurative painting – Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard
 * American Modernism – Stuart Davis, Arthur G. Dove, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keeffe
 * Constructivism – Naum Gabo, Gustav Klutsis, László Moholy-Nagy, El Lissitzky, Kasimir Malevich, Vadim Meller, Alexander Rodchenko, Vladimir Tatlin
 * Bauhaus – Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Josef Albers
 * Scottish Colourists – Francis Cadell, Samuel Peploe, Leslie Hunter, John Duncan Fergusson
 * Social realism – Grant Wood, Walker Evans, Diego Rivera
 * Precisionism – Charles Sheeler, Charles Demuth
 * Boychukism - Mykhailo Boychuk, Sofiya Nalepinska-Boychuk, Ivan Padalka, Vasily Sedlyar
 * Sculpture – Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Gaston Lachaise, Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso, Julio Gonzalez

After World War II

 * Figuratifs – Bernard Buffet, Jean Carzou, Maurice Boitel, Daniel du Janerand, Claude-Max Lochu
 * Sculpture – Henry Moore, David Smith, Tony Smith, Alexander Calder, Richard Hunt, Isamu Noguchi, Alberto Giacometti, Sir Anthony Caro, Jean Dubuffet, Isaac Witkin, René Iché, Marino Marini, Louise Nevelson, Albert Vrana
 * Abstract expressionism – Joan Mitchell, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky, Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Clyfford Still, Lee Krasner,
 * American Abstract Artists – Ilya Bolotowsky, Ibram Lassaw, Ad Reinhardt, Josef Albers, Burgoyne Diller
 * Art Brut – Adolf Wölfli, August Natterer, Ferdinand Cheval, Madge Gill
 * Arte Povera – Jannis Kounellis, Luciano Fabro, Mario Merz, Piero Manzoni, Alighiero Boetti
 * Color field painting – Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb, Sam Francis, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Helen Frankenthaler
 * Tachisme – Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Soulages, Hans Hartung, Ludwig Merwart
 * COBRA – Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Asger Jorn
 * Conceptual art – Art & Language, Dan Graham, Lawrence Weiner, Bruce Nauman, Daniel Buren, Victor Burgin, Sol LeWitt
 * De-collage – Wolf Vostell, Mimmo Rotella
 * Neo-Dada – Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, John Chamberlain, Joseph Beuys, Lee Bontecou, Edward Kienholz
 * Figurative Expressionism – Larry Rivers, Grace Hartigan, Elaine de Kooning, Robert De Niro, Sr., Lester Johnson, George McNeil, Earle M. Pilgrim, Jan Müller, Robert Beauchamp, Bob Thompson
 * Feminist Art — Eva Hesse, Judy Chicago, Barbara Kruger, Mary Beth Edelson, Ewa Partum, Valie Export, Yoko Ono, Louise Bourgeois, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith, Guerrilla Girls, Hannah Wilke
 * Fluxus – George Maciunas, Joseph Beuys, Wolf Vostell, Nam June Paik, Daniel Spoerri, Dieter Roth, Carolee Schneeman, Alison Knowles, Charlotte Moorman, Dick Higgins
 * Happening – Allan Kaprow, Joseph Beuys, Wolf Vostell, Claes Oldenburg, Jim Dine, Red Grooms, Nam June Paik, Charlotte Moorman, Robert Whitman, Yoko Ono
 * Dau-al-Set – founded in Barcelona by poet/artist Joan Brossa, – Antoni Tàpies
 * Grupo El Paso – founded in Madrid by artists Antonio Saura, Pablo Serrano
 * Geometric abstraction – Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Nadir Afonso, Manlio Rho, Mario Radice, Mino Argento, Adam Szentpétery
 * Hard-edge painting – John McLaughlin, Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, Al Held, Ronald Davis
 * Kinetic art – George Rickey, Getulio Alviani
 * Land art – Ana Mendieta, Christo, Richard Long, Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer
 * Les Automatistes – Claude Gauvreau, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Pierre Gauvreau, Fernand Leduc, Jean-Paul Mousseau, Marcelle Ferron
 * Minimal art – Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Richard Serra, Agnes Martin
 * Postminimalism – Eva Hesse, Bruce Nauman, Lynda Benglis
 * Lyrical abstraction – Ronnie Landfield, Sam Gilliam, Larry Zox, Dan Christensen, Natvar Bhavsar, Larry Poons
 * Neo-figurative art – Fernando Botero, Antonio Berni
 * Neo-expressionism – Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer, Jörg Immendorff, Jean-Michel Basquiat
 * Transavanguardia – Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Paladino, Sandro Chia, Enzo Cucchi
 * Figuration libre – Hervé Di Rosa, François Boisrond, Robert Combas
 * New realism – Yves Klein, Pierre Restany, Arman
 * Op art – Victor Vasarely, Bridget Riley, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Jeffrey Steele
 * Outsider art – Howard Finster, Grandma Moses, Bob Justin
 * Photorealism – Audrey Flack, Chuck Close, Duane Hanson, Richard Estes, Malcolm Morley
 * Pop art – Richard Hamilton, Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, David Hockney
 * Postwar European figurative painting – Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Gerhard Richter
 * New European Painting – Luc Tuymans, Marlene Dumas, Neo Rauch, Bracha Ettinger, Michaël Borremans, Chris Ofili
 * Shaped canvas – Frank Stella, Kenneth Noland, Ron Davis, Robert Mangold.
 * Soviet art – Aleksandr Deyneka, Aleksandr Gerasimov, Ilya Kabakov, Komar & Melamid, Alexandr Zhdanov, Leonid Sokov
 * Spatialism – Lucio Fontana
 * Video art – Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell, Joseph Beuys, Bill Viola, Hans Breder
 * Visionary art – Ernst Fuchs, Paul Laffoley, Michael Bowen

Austria

 * Leopold Museum, Vienna

Belgium

 * SMAK, Ghent

Brazil

 * MASP, São Paulo, SP
 * MAM/SP, São Paulo, SP
 * MAM/RJ, Rio de Janeiro, RJ
 * MAM/BA, Salvador, Bahia

Colombia

 * Bogotá Museum of Modern Art (MAMBO)

Croatia

 * Ivan Meštrović Gallery, Split
 * Modern Gallery, Zagreb
 * Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb

Ecuador

 * Museo Antropologico y de Arte Contemporaneo, Guayaquil
 * La Capilla del Hombre, Quito

Finland

 * EMMA, Espoo
 * Kiasma, Helsinki

France

 * Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art, Montsoreau
 * Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art, Villeneuve d'Ascq
 * Musée d'Orsay, Paris
 * Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
 * Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris
 * Musée Picasso, Paris
 * Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Strasbourg
 * Musée d'art moderne de Troyes

Germany

 * Degenerate Art exhibition, a touring exhibition of modern art held in Nazi Germany to condemn modern art
 * documenta, Kassel, an exhibition of modern and contemporary art held every 5 years
 * Museum Ludwig, Cologne
 * Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich

India

 * National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
 * National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai
 * National Gallery of Modern Art, Bangalore

Iran

 * Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran

Ireland

 * Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin
 * Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin

Israel

 * Tel Aviv Museum of Art

Italy

 * Palazzo delle Esposizioni
 * Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna
 * Venice Biennial, Venice
 * Palazzo Pitti, Florence
 * Museo del Novecento, Milan

Mexico

 * Museo de Arte Moderno, México D.F.

Netherlands

 * Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
 * Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Norway

 * Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo
 * Henie-Onstad Art Centre, Oslo

Poland

 * Museum of Art, Łódź
 * National Museum, Kraków

Qatar

 * Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha

Romania

 * National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest

Russia

 * Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
 * Pushkin Museum, Moscow
 * Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Serbia

 * Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade

Spain

 * Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona
 * Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
 * Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
 * Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia
 * Atlantic Center of Modern Art, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
 * Museu Picasso, Barcelona.
 * Museo Picasso Málaga, Málaga.

Sweden

 * Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Taiwan

 * Asia Museum of Modern Art, Taichung

United Kingdom

 * Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London
 * Saatchi Gallery, London
 * Tate Britain, London
 * Tate Liverpool
 * Tate Modern, London
 * Tate St Ives

Ukraine

 * National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv
 * Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum of Lviv, Lviv

United States

 * Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
 * Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
 * Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection, Albany, New York
 * Guggenheim Museum, New York City, New York, and Venice, Italy; more recently in Berlin, Germany, Bilbao, Spain, and Las Vegas, Nevada
 * High Museum, Atlanta, Georgia
 * Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
 * McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
 * Menil Collection, Houston, Texas
 * Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
 * Museum of Modern Art, New York City, New York
 * San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
 * The Baker Museum, Naples, Florida
 * Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
 * Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, New York

title: Modern art


text:
Department

Department may refer to:

 * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility

Government and military

 * Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, for example:
 * Departments of Colombia, a grouping of municipalities
 * Departments of France, administrative divisions three levels below the national government
 * Departments of Honduras
 * Departments of Peru, name given to the subdivisions of Peru until 2002
 * Departments of Uruguay
 * Department (United States Army), corps areas of the U.S. Army prior to World War I
 * Fire department, a public or private organization that provides emergency firefighting and rescue services
 * Ministry (government department), a specialized division of a government
 * Police department, a body empowered by the state to enforce the law
 * Department (naval) administrative/functional sub-unit of a ship's company.

Other uses

 * Department (film), a 2012 Bollywood action film about police taking on Mumbai criminals
 * The Department (film), a 2015 Nigerian action film, about two lovers undermining dodgy business dealings
 * The Department, a satirical comedy on BBC Radio 4
 * The Department (play), a 1975 play by David Williamson
 * The Department, a 1980 TV film based on the play
 * Academic department, a division of a university or school faculty devoted to a particular academic discipline
 * Department head, a management position
 * Department store, a retail store that includes many specialized departments such as clothing or household items

title: Department


text:
Erasure (duo)

Erasure is an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1984, consisting of lead vocalist and songwriter Andy Bell with songwriter, producer and keyboardist Vince Clarke, previously co-founder of the band Depeche Mode and a member of synth-pop duo Yazoo. From their fourth single, "Sometimes" (1986), Erasure established themselves on the UK Singles Chart, becoming one of the most successful acts of the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. From 1986 to 2007, the pair achieved 24 consecutive top-40 entries in the UK singles chart. By 2009, 34 of their 37 chart-eligible singles and EPs had made the UK top 40, including 17 climbing into the top 10. At the 1989 Brit Awards, Erasure won the Brit Award for Best British Group.

Erasure made their debut with the studio album Wonderland in 1986, however it did not perform well chart-wise. With their second release The Circus the following year in 1987 came major success, the album reaching UK number 6 and spawning four top-20 singles. Their third studio album, The Innocents released in 1988, was a number one and was followed the same year by the Christmas EP Crackers International peaking at number 2. The Innocents was the first in a string of albums to place in the top spot, with their next five long-form releases also reaching the pole position of the UK Albums Chart: the albums Wild! (1989) and the Mercury Prize nominated Chorus (1991), the ABBA tribute EP Abba-esque (1992), the compilation Pop! The First 20 Hits (1992), then the studio album I Say I Say I Say (1994).

Erasure's songs from albums of this period include "Oh L'amour", "Sometimes", "Victim of Love", "The Circus", "Ship of Fools", "Chains of Love", "A Little Respect", "Stop!", "Drama!", "Blue Savannah", "Star", "Chorus", "Love to Hate You", "Breath of Life", "Always" and "Run to the Sun".

Overall in their career, Erasure have written over 200 songs and have sold over 28 million albums worldwide.

Origins
As a teenager, Vince Clarke was inspired to make electronic music after hearing Wirral synth band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD). He was a founding member of Depeche Mode and the sole writer of their first three singles, including the breakthrough top 10 single "Just Can't Get Enough". After leaving the band in late 1981, Clarke forged a similarly notable career with the duo Yazoo (known as Yaz in the United States).

After two successful studio albums in as many years (1982–1983), he split with Yazoo partner Alison Moyet and formed the short-lived project the Assembly with producer Eric Radcliffe. The project spawned a UK number-four single, "Never Never", featuring Feargal Sharkey on lead vocals. Clarke then released another single with vocalist Paul Quinn, "One Day". It flopped, leading Clarke to place an advertisement in Melody Maker looking for a vocalist for a new musical project. Peterborough-born Andy Bell phoned and got a call back a few days later. Bell practiced for the audition listening to Alison Moyet, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Communards. It went well, and he was chosen. Clarke had been his hero.

Erasure's influences include OMD, Kraftwerk, Gloria Gaynor and ABBA.

First recordings and international success: 1985–1994
Erasure's first three singles were commercial failures in the UK, although the third, "Oh L'amour", charted well in Australia, South Africa and a few European countries (especially in France, where it still remains Erasure's only hit to date, and Germany where it was a Top 16 success). Their debut studio album, Wonderland, was mostly recorded in 1985 and released in June 1986. Although it only made the UK top 75, it made a sizeable mark in Germany, making the top 20.

It was the release of their fourth single, "Sometimes", which finally received recognition in the UK in late 1986. The song peaked at number 2 in the UK and Germany and spent many weeks in the UK top 40, marking the beginning of a long string of major hits for the duo. The single's parent album, The Circus, was released in March 1987 and reached number 6 and turned platinum in the UK with three additional hit singles: "It Doesn't Have To Be", "Victim of Love", and "The Circus". The album remained on the charts for over a year.

Erasure's third studio album, The Innocents, was released in April 1988. Preceded by the top 10 single "Ship of Fools", the album hit number one in the UK on its initial release and returned to the summit a year later, eventually going double platinum. It also turned platinum in the U.S., generating two top 20 hits in "Chains of Love" and "A Little Respect". The Innocents was the first of five consecutive number one albums for Erasure in the UK, including the greatest hits compilation Pop! The First 20 Hits. In November 1988, the Crackers International EP, hit number 2 in the UK. The albums Wild! (1989) and Chorus (1991) both contained four top 20 singles and were major sellers.

Crackers International was bettered in 1992 by another EP, Abba-esque, (covering 4 ABBA hits), which became Erasure's first (and to-date only) number one on the UK Singles Chart. It featured a video of the duo dressed in ABBA outfits, and was one of the principal drivers of the ABBA revival scene in the 1990s.

Also in 1990, Erasure contributed the song "Too Darn Hot" to the Cole Porter tribute album Red Hot + Blue produced by the Red Hot Organization. In 1992, a singles compilation, Pop! The First 20 Hits, also hit number one and went triple platinum, featuring all the band's singles released from 1985 to 1992. In 1994, Erasure released I Say I Say I Say, their fifth consecutive number one on the UK Albums Chart. Its first single, "Always", became the band's third top 20 hit in the United States. A second single, "Run to the Sun", was released in July and became their final UK top 10 hit until 2003. "I Love Saturday" was released in November and was the third and final single from the album.

Releases 1995–2007
The October 1995 release of the studio album Erasure marked a determined shift away from Erasure's signature three-minute synth-pop to a more introspective and experimental sound. Nevertheless, it made the UK top 15 and spawned two UK top 20 singles, "Stay with Me" and "Fingers & Thumbs". A remixed version of "Rock Me Gently" was released only in Germany and the Czech Republic as the third single.

In spite of a return to three-minute pop songs, the 1997 studio album Cowboy did not restore the success of their 1986–1994 era. Cowboy enjoyed a short-lived success, peaking at number 10 in the UK but lasting only two weeks in the UK top 40. In the U.S. Billboard charts though, it was one of their most successful records. The first single "In My Arms" reached number 13 in the UK and entered the top 2 on the U.S. Dance chart. The second single "Don't Say Your Love Is Killing Me" made number 23 in the UK. The third single "Rain" was also only released in Germany and the Czech Republic.

In October 2000, Erasure released their ninth studio album Loveboat, co-produced with Flood, though only peaking at a lowly number 45. The first single was "Freedom", which made a brief entry into the UK top 30. In 2001, they released a limited EP, Moon & the Sky containing new versions of the title song, a cover of the Supremes song "Baby Love" and some acoustic versions of Loveboat songs.

The 2003 release Other People's Songs was a collection of cover versions. Its first single, a cover of Peter Gabriel's song "Solsbury Hill", reached the UK top 10, and Erasure were invited to perform on Top of the Pops for the first time since March 1997. The second single from the album was a cover of Steve Harley's "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)", which made number 14 in the UK. In 2003, a new 'best of' compilation was released, called Hits! The Very Best of Erasure. Included was a new version of the 1986 song "Oh L'amour" — originally a commercial flop in the UK, this new version charted in the top 15.

Erasure's 2005 studio album Nightbird's first single, "Breathe", reached number 4 in the UK charts (their first top 5 hit in more than a decade) and achieved the number one position on the U.S. Dance chart, 18 years after their first chart-topper.

The next single, "Don't Say You Love Me", which made the UK top 15, enabled purchasers to configure their own remixes of the single through the band's website, with each variant of the song limited to a single download. The third single was a double A-side, featuring new versions of "Here I Go Impossible Again"/"All This Time Still Falling Out of Love".

Union Street was a 2006 side-project which featured a collection of previously released album tracks that the band re-interpreted in an acoustic and country & western style. The album was named after the recording studio in Brooklyn where it was recorded. The duo then released a more 'dance-oriented' album than some of their more recent work. Titled Light at the End of the World, the album was produced by Gareth Jones and was released on 21 May 2007 in the UK, and in North America the following day. The album was preceded by its first single "I Could Fall in Love with You", which peaked at number 21 in the UK. A second single, "Sunday Girl", was released in June and made number 33 in the UK. The album was supported by the Light at the End of the World Live tour. The Storm Chaser EP included an exclusive B-side, "Early Bird", a duet with Cyndi Lauper.

Releases 2009–2019
Total Pop! The First 40 Hits, a collection of Erasure's first 40 hits plus a new remix of "Always" by Jeremy Wheatley, was released on 23 February 2009. The compilation fractionally missed the UK top 20, reaching number 21.

On 10 August 2009, Erasure released a six-track EP of classic remixes entitled Erasure.Club.

To celebrate 21 years since its release, the album The Innocents (1988) was remastered and re-released on 26 October 2009.

Andy Bell released his second solo studio album, Non-Stop, on 7 June 2010.

In February and March 2010, the song "Always" enjoyed an unexpected peak of popularity among flash-game players for its prominent role as the soundtrack of the Adult Swim game Robot Unicorn Attack.

Vince Clarke stated in radio interviews that the band wanted to complete the concept album of nursery rhymes that they had been working on for some time. On 16 December 2010, Erasure's official website announced a new studio album planned for release in summer 2011 to be produced by Frankmusik. Also, a world tour was announced (including the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Florida in March 2011 and the Total Pop! Forest Tour of the UK in June and July 2011) with dates including stops in Europe and South America.

Erasure played a 27-date US and Canada tour, as well as at Estadio Monumental "U" in Lima, Peru on 18 August. The Tomorrow's World Tour began on 31 August 2011 in Tampa, continuing through September, and finished in Seattle on 6 October 2011. The UK and European leg of the Tomorrow's World tour began on 12 October 2011 in Leicester, UK, continuing through to 14 November 2011 in Dresden, Germany.

On 20 June 2011, it was confirmed via their official website that their new studio album was to be called Tomorrow's World. This album was released on 3 October 2011 (11 October 2011 in the US). The first single from the album was "When I Start To (Break It All Down)". The album reached number 29 in the UK, number 35 in Germany and number 61 in the US. The second single from Tomorrow's World, "Be with You", peaked in the top 10 on the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart, making it their highest peak since "Breathe" in 2005. The third and final single from the album, "Fill Us with Fire" was released on 12 March 2012.

Erasure toured internationally in 2011; it was one of their longest tours and included visits to some places for the first time, including Russia and Ukraine. They also did a whole South American Tour, including two shows in Buenos Aires, where they last performed in 1997 during the Cowboy Tour.

On 11 November 2013, Erasure released their first Christmas album, Snow Globe. The first single from the album was a cover of the 1973 Steeleye Span track "Gaudete" which was available as a digital download from 28 October, in advance of the single's full release as a CD and download bundle on 9 December. The track was available in the US on 29 October.

On 27 May 2014, Erasure announced their sixteenth studio album for a September 2014 release, a 10-track record titled The Violet Flame. Released on 22 September 2014 and produced by Richard X, it entered the UK Albums Chart at number 20, giving the duo their first top 20 album since Other People's Songs in 2003.

In October 2015, in order to celebrate their 30 years in the music industry, Erasure released an updated version of "Sometimes" as a single and a new compilation album entitled Always: The Very Best of Erasure. Release dates were 23 October and 30 October 2015.

On 29 July 2016, Erasure announced that they would be continuing their special series of releases to mark their 30th anniversary with the autumn release of an anthology box-set entitled From Moscow to Mars.

On 23 February 2017, Erasure announced that their seventeenth studio album would be titled World Be Gone and would be released via Mute on 19 May 2017. To mark the release, the band would headline three UK shows at Glasgow's O2 Academy Glasgow on 27 May 2017, Manchester's Albert Hall on 28 May 2017 and London's Roundhouse on 29 May 2017 before embarking on a four-month European tour as special guests of Robbie Williams in June, July, August and September.

In March 2018, the album World Beyond was announced, a re-recording of Erasure's previous year's World Be Gone in a post-classical garb. It was recorded in ten days by Andy Bell and seven musicians from the Brussels-based ensemble Echo Collective. Erasure's album World Beyond then debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Albums and Classical Crossover Albums charts dated 24 March 2018.

2020–present: The Neon and Day-Glo
On 21 August 2020, Erasure released their eighteenth studio album, The Neon. The album reached number 4 in the UK and was their highest placed album in the UK charts for 26 years. The Neon was preceded by the single "Hey Now (Think I Got a Feeling)", which was first heard on BBC Radio 2's The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show. The band stated that they tried to go back to their original sounds. Clarke used some of his older synthesizers and Bell described the new album as "going back to the beginning".

On 13 May 2021, Erasure announced the release of "Secrets", a new single available as a one-track stream or download ahead of a new album, The Neon Remixed. The album, a two-disc set of remixes from their eighteenth album, was released on 30 July and also included the single "Secrets". It charted on the UK Albums Chart in August 2021 at number 33, with a sales total of 2,255 units and became Erasure's 23rd hit on the UK Albums Chart. The band played a twelve venue tour of the UK in October 2021.

In June 2022, Erasure announced the release of their nineteenth studio album, Day-Glo (Based on a True Story), which was stated as being a follow-up to the previous release The Neon (2020). It was released on 12 August 2022.

Musical style
Erasure's music has been described as electropop, synth-pop,  dance-pop,  hi-NRG, disco,       and new wave. According to Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, the group's style, like Vince Clarke's previous groups Depeche Mode and Yazoo, is "synth-based, but with stronger, more house-oriented dance inclinations, as well as a sharp, accessible sense of pop songcraft". The Washington Post wrote that Erasure's music "combines synth-pop, disco, cabaret, light opera and a bit of English choirboy sound."

Discography

 * Wonderland (1986)
 * The Circus (1987)
 * The Innocents (1988)
 * Wild! (1989)
 * Chorus (1991)
 * I Say I Say I Say (1994)
 * Erasure (1995)
 * Cowboy (1997)
 * Loveboat (2000)
 * Other People's Songs (2003)
 * Nightbird (2005)
 * Union Street (2006)
 * Light at the End of the World (2007)
 * Tomorrow's World (2011)
 * Snow Globe (2013)
 * The Violet Flame (2014)
 * World Be Gone (2017)
 * The Neon (2020)
 * Day-Glo (Based on a True Story) (2022)

Awards and nominations
{| class=wikitable ! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result !! Ref.
 * rowspan=2|1986
 * rowspan=5|Billboard Music Awards
 * Themselves
 * Top Dance Club Play Artist
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|
 * "Oh L'amour"
 * Top Dance Club Play Single
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|1987
 * Themselves
 * Top Dance Club Play Artist
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|
 * "Victim of Love"
 * Top Dance Club Play Single
 * Nominated
 * 1988
 * "Chains of Love"
 * Top Dance Sales Single
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=3|1989
 * Ivor Novello Awards
 * "A Little Respect"
 * Best Contemporary Song
 * Nominated
 * Brit Awards
 * rowspan=3|Themselves
 * Best British Group
 * Won
 * rowspan=4|Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
 * rowspan=2|Best Group
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=4|1990
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|
 * Wild!
 * Best LP
 * Nominated
 * Andy Bell
 * Most Fanciable Male
 * Nominated
 * Brit Awards
 * Themselves
 * Best British Group
 * Nominated
 * 1991
 * Ivor Novello Awards
 * "Blue Savannah"
 * Most Performed Work
 * Won
 * rowspan=2|1992
 * Mercury Prize
 * Chorus
 * Album of the Year
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=3|Brit Awards
 * "Love to Hate You"
 * rowspan=2|British Video of the Year
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=5|1993
 * "Take a Chance on Me"
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|
 * rowspan=2|Themselves
 * British Group
 * Nominated
 * Hungarian Music Awards
 * Concert of the Year by a foreign artist
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|Pollstar Concert Industry Awards
 * rowspan=2|Tour
 * Small Hall Tour of the Year
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|
 * Most Creative Stage Production
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=3|1994
 * Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
 * "Always"
 * Best Pop Video
 * Nominated
 * Goldene Europa Awards
 * rowspan=2|Themselves
 * Best International Group
 * Won
 * !scope="row"|Cash Box Year-End Awards
 * Top Alternative Crossover Artist
 * Nominated
 * 1998
 * GLAAD Media Awards
 * Cowboy
 * Outstanding Music Artist
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|2015
 * Classic Pop Readers' Awards
 * The Violet Flame
 * Album of the Year
 * Won
 * rowspan=2|AIM Independent Music Awards
 * Themselves
 * Best Live Act
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|2017
 * From Moscow to Mars
 * Special Catalogue Release of the Year
 * Nominated
 * Attitude Awards
 * rowspan=3|Themselves
 * Icon Award
 * Won
 * 2018
 * AIM Independent Music Awards
 * Best Live Act
 * Won
 * 2019
 * rowspan=2|Classic Pop Readers' Awards
 * Live Act of the Year
 * Won
 * 2020
 * Wild!
 * Reissue of the Year
 * Nominated
 * 2023
 * British LGBT Awards
 * Andy Bell
 * Lifetime Achievement
 * Won
 * Cowboy
 * Outstanding Music Artist
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|2015
 * Classic Pop Readers' Awards
 * The Violet Flame
 * Album of the Year
 * Won
 * rowspan=2|AIM Independent Music Awards
 * Themselves
 * Best Live Act
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|2017
 * From Moscow to Mars
 * Special Catalogue Release of the Year
 * Nominated
 * Attitude Awards
 * rowspan=3|Themselves
 * Icon Award
 * Won
 * 2018
 * AIM Independent Music Awards
 * Best Live Act
 * Won
 * 2019
 * rowspan=2|Classic Pop Readers' Awards
 * Live Act of the Year
 * Won
 * 2020
 * Wild!
 * Reissue of the Year
 * Nominated
 * 2023
 * British LGBT Awards
 * Andy Bell
 * Lifetime Achievement
 * Won
 * rowspan=2|Classic Pop Readers' Awards
 * Live Act of the Year
 * Won
 * 2020
 * Wild!
 * Reissue of the Year
 * Nominated
 * 2023
 * British LGBT Awards
 * Andy Bell
 * Lifetime Achievement
 * Won
 * British LGBT Awards
 * Andy Bell
 * Lifetime Achievement
 * Won

title: Erasure (duo)