INTRODUCTION TO MODERNISM

Major Issues in Modernism

Beginnings of Globalization
Increase in print media
Newspapers, books, journals, magazines

Major Issues in Modernism

Beginnings of Globalization
Artist migration/correspondences
The role of wars and oppressive political regimes.

Major Issues in Modernism

Beginnings of Globalization
Colonialism and International Trade
Influence of the art of foreign cultures: Tribalism, Japonisme

Major Issues in Modernism

New Technology
Collapsible paint tube
Impressionists: ability to paint outdoors

Major Issues in Modernism

New Technology
Photography
Originally only in studios due to the cost and size of equipment. Easily portable, cheaper technology allowed artists to capture scenes in everyday life.

Major Issues in Modernism

New Technology
Cinematography
Same shift through cost and portability as photography Collage storytelling: placing fragments together to form a whole. Photography and cinematography allowed artists to document new works of art that lack a physical product.
Ephemeral art Performance art

Major Issues in Modernism

The psychological effects of war
A great deal of modern art depicts the confusion and horror of widespread violence.
World War I World War II

Major Issues in Modernism

Moving away from representation
Breaking down of traditional artistic mediums (painting, sculpture, etc.) to their purest forms. Emphasis of form over content
Looking for new ways of showing things rather than telling a succinct story, recounting an event, etc.

Major Issues in Modernism

The development of -isms
Avant-garde groups of artists independent of statestructured Academies and Salons The MANIFESTO
used by artists to describe the ideas and politics behind their artwork. The ideas behind a work of art are often considered to be as or more important than the work itself.

Major Issues in Modernism

Definitions
Avant-garde: unorthodox or experimental, ahead of its time, radical. Manifesto: a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives.

THE isms of MODERNISM

A brief survey

REALISM
France, Circa 1850

Realism
Capital R Realism Paintings remain very realistic in the style of the French Academy and Salon. The key difference is in the subjects of the paintings.
They are ordinary people: naturalistic rather than idealized.

IMPRESSIONISM
Primarily 1870-1880s France

Impressionism
French painting movement circa 1850. Artists include Monet, Renoir, and Degas. Mainly painted outdoors. Emphasis on light. The use of small, loose brushstrokes. Paint mixed directly on the canvas. Ordinary settings and people as subjects.

POST-IMPRESSIONISM
1880s-1890s France

Post-Impressionism
French painting movement. Artists include Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Paul Cezanne. Use of vivid, unnatural colors. Less realistic, more subjective view of the world. Main subjects include those of the Impressionists as well as an added emphasis on Paris nightlife and the exotic cultures of French colonies.

IMPRESSIONISM

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

CUBISM
1907-1919 France

Cubism
French painting/collage movement. Primary artists are Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Colors are often muted browns and grays. Shows multiple sides of an object together, leading to a more flat, distorted appearance. Paintings remain figurative, but at times are abstracted to the point that seeing the figure is nearly impossible. Often used found objects in the creation of collages.

EXPRESSIONISM
Begins 1890s, peak in 1920 Germany

Expressionism
Primary mediums include painting, woodcut (printmaking), and film. Major artists include Edvard Munch, Franz Marc, and Wassily Kandinsky. Even more subjective and abstracted than PostImpressionist works, yet still figurative in nature. More interested in depicting the interior, psychological world than the physical.

SUPREMATISM
1915-1924 Russia

Suprematism
Founded by Kasimir Malevich. Interest in geometric forms. Lack of depth/perspective. Interested in a flat, clean surface.

CONSTRUCTIVISM
Concurrent with Suprematism in Russia

Constructivism
Believed in the application of arts into architecture, graphic design, and politics rather than art for arts sake. Bold geometric forms. Use of photomontage
Photomontage: A collage constructed from photographs that has often been used as a means of expressing political dissent.

FUTURISM
Italy, 1909 - 1916

Futurism
Broad application of the aesthetic/ ideas moving beyond Constructivists reach (including fashion, literature, and even gastronomy). Believed war to be the ultimate artistic act (linked to fascism). Praised new technology. Paintings depict objects and people in motion, emphasizing industrial strength and speed.

DADA or DADAISM
1916-1922 Zurich, Switzerland

DADA
Collage, Plays, Sculpture. Strong reaction to bourgeois (aka middle class) ideals, rational modes of thinking. Used the element of chance to make works with vitality (a trait absent, they believed, in heavily planned, classical paintings). Used found objects as complete or nearcomplete final products in what Duchamp named readymades

DADA
Readymade: art created from the undisguised, but often modified, use of objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function. Appropriation: The borrowing or taking over of a real object or an existing work of art. Anti-art: Term coined by Marcel Duchamp. Art that challenges the existing accepted definitions of art.

http://www.ralphmag.org/AR/dada.html

Kinetic sculpture: sculpture that includes moveable parts (whether movable through wind, the audiences touch, electronics, etc)

SURREALISM
Began 1920 France

Surrealism
Artists include: Giorgio de Chirico, Ren Magritte, Salvador Dali, and Frida Khalo. Mostly painting, but also film. Characterized by juxtapositions, the element of surprise, non sequitur, and dream imagery.
Automatic drawing: drawing without thinking, the artist working purely by intuition.

At times abstract; at times representational.

Activity SURREALIST GAME: The Exquisite Corpse

Review
Name the Art Movement