of Modernism and Post M

odernism

an exploration FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION

NEW

VISUAL

LANGUAGE

FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION

AN EXPLORATION O

F MODERNISM

AND POST M

ODERNISM

ISSUE 1March 2014

DS

MODERNISM

iImpressionism

Abstract art

Cubism

Futurism

Constructivism

De stijl

DS

POST MODERNISM

Dada

Surrealism

Pop art

Abstract expressionism

Modernism is more a way of thinking than a style. Modernists believed that the design of an object should be based purely on its purpose - that ‘form follows function’.

Modernism is more a way of thinking than a style. Modernists believed that the design of an object should be based purely on its purpose - that ‘form follows function’.

Impressionism is the name given to a colorful style of painting in France at

the end of the 19th century. The Impressionists searched for a more

exact analysis of the effects of color and light in nature. They sought to capture the atmosphere of a particular time of day or the effects of different weather conditions. They often worked outdoors and applied their paint in small brightly colored strokes which meant sacrificing much of the outline and detail of their subject. Impressionism abandoned the conventional idea that the shadow of an object was made up from its color with some brown or black added. In-stead, the Impressionists enriched their colors with the idea that a shadow is

broken up with dashes of its complementary color.

Impressionism

1870-1890

Camille Pissarro , Boulevard Montmartre, ef-fet de nuit 1898

Camille Pissarro ,The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning 1897

Abstract Art is a generic term that describes two different methods of abstraction: ‘semi abstraction’ and ‘pure abstraction’. The word ‘abstract’ means to withdraw part of something in order to consider it separately. In Abstract art that ‘something’ is one or more of the visual elements of a subject: its line, shape, tone, pattern, texture, or form.Although elements of abstraction are present in earlier artworks, the roots of modern abstract art are to be found in Cubism. Among other important abstract styles that developed in the 20th century are Orphism, Rayonism, Constructivism, Tachisme, Abstract Expressionism, and Op Art.

Abstract Art1907 - onwards

Georges Braque Man With a Guitar 1914

Abstract Art is a generic term that describes two different methods of abstraction: ‘semi abstraction’ and ‘pure abstraction’. The word ‘abstract’ means to withdraw part of something in order to consider it separately. In Abstract art that ‘something’ is one or more of the visual elements of a subject: its line, shape, tone, pattern, texture, or form.Although elements of abstraction are present in earlier artworks, the roots of modern abstract art are to be found in Cubism. Among other important abstract styles that developed in the 20th century are Orphism, Rayonism, Constructivism, Tachisme, Abstract Expressionism, and Op Art.

Abstract Art1907 - onwards

Georges Braque Man With a Guitar 1914

Cubism was invented around 1907 in Paris by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. It was the first abstract style of modern art. Cubist paintings ignore the traditions of perspective drawing and show you many views of a sub-ject at one time. The Cubists believed that the traditions of Western art had become exhausted and to revitalize their work, they drew on the expres-sive energy of art from other cultures,

particularly African art.

Cubism(1907-1915)

Pablo Pica

sso ,W

oman with

a book 19

32

Cubism was invented around 1907 in Paris by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. It was the first abstract style of modern art. Cubist paintings ignore the traditions of perspective drawing and show you many views of a sub-ject at one time. The Cubists believed that the traditions of Western art had become exhausted and to revitalize their work, they drew on the expres-sive energy of art from other cultures,

particularly African art.

Cubism(1907-1915)

Pablo Pica

sso, )L

es Dem

oiselle

s d’Avig

non 1907

Futurism was a revolu-tionary Italian move-ment that celebrated modernity. The Futur-ist vision was outlined in a series of manifes-tos that attacked the long tradition of Italian art in favour of a new avant-garde. They glorified industrializa-tion, technology, and transport along with the speed, noise and energy of urban life. The Futurists adopted

Futurism(1909-1914)

the visual vocabulary of Cubism to express their ideas - but with a slight twist. In a Cubist paint-ing the artist records selected details of a subject as he moves around it, whereas in a Futurist painting the subject itself seems to move around the art-ist. The effect of this is that Futurist paintings appear more dynamic than their Cubist coun-

terparts.

Giacomo Balla, Mimicry synoptic’: the tree-woman or woman-flower 1915

Giacomo Balla, Mimicry synoptic’: the sky-woman 1915

Constructivism used the same geomet-ric language as Suprematism but aban-doned its mystical vision in favour of their ‘Socialism of vision’ - a Utopian glimpse of a mechanized modernity according to the ideals of the October Revolution. However, this was not an art that was easily understood by the proletariat and it was eventually repressed and replaced by Socialist Realism. Tatlin, Rodchenko, El Lissitzky and Naum Gabo were among the best artists associated with Construc-

tivism.

Constructivism1913-1930

El Lissitzky, Kestnermappe Proun, Rob. Levnis and Chapman GmbH Hannover #5 1923

De Stijl was a Dutch ‘style’ of pure abstrac-tion developed by Piet Mondrian, Theo Van Doesburg and Bart van

der Leck.

Mondrian was the outstanding artist of the group. He was a deeply spiritual man who was intent on de-veloping a universal visual language that

De Stijl1917-1931

was free from any hint of the nationalism that led to the Great War.

Mondrian gradually refined the elements of his art to a grid of lines and primary colors which he configured in a series of composi-tions that explored his universal principles of harmony. He saw the elements of line and

color as possessing counteracting cosmic forces. Vertical lines embodied the direc-tion and energy of the sun’s rays. These were countered by hori-zontal lines relating to the earth’s movement around it. He saw pri-mary colors through the same cosmic tint-ed spectacles: yel-low radiated the sun’s

energy; blue reced-ed as infinite space and red materialized where blue and yellow met. Mondrian’s style which he also called ‘Neo-Plasticism’ was inspired by the Theo-sophical beliefs of the mathematician and philosopher, M.H.J.

Schoenmaekers.

“There are no hard distinctions be-tween what is real and what is un-real, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not neces-sarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.”

“There are no hard distinctions be-tween what is real and what is un-real, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not neces-sarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.”

Dada was not a style of art like Fauvism or Cubism. It was a form of artistic anarchy born out of disgust for the social, political and cul-tural establishment of the time which it held responsible for Europe’s descent into World

War.

Dadaism was an ‘anti art’ stance as it was intent on destroying the artistic values of the past. The aim of Dada was to create a cli-mate in which art was alive to the moment and not paralysed by the corrupted tradi-tions of the established order. Dada’s weap-ons in the war against the art establishment were confrontation and provocation. They confronted the artistic establishment with the irrationality of their collages and assemblag-es and provoked conservative complacen-cy with outrageous actions at their exhibitions

and meetings.

The Dada movement started in Zurich and spread as far as New York. Marcel Duchamp, Raoul Hausmann, Jean Arp and Kurt Schwit-ters were among the best of the Dada artists.

Dada 1916-1922

Marcel Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel 1913

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain 1917

Surrealism was the positive response to Da-da’s negativity. Its aim, as outlined in the First Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, was to lib-erate the artist’s imagination by tapping into the unconscious mind to discover a ‘superior’ reality - a ‘sur-reality’. To achieve this the Surrealists drew upon the images of dreams, the effects of combining disasso-ciated images, and the technique of ‘pure psychic automatism’, a spontaneous form of drawing without the conscious control

of the mind.

The look of Surrealist art was inspired by the irrational juxtaposition of images in Dada collages, the metaphysical art of Giorgio de Chirico, and both ‘primitive’ and ‘out-

sider’ art.

The most influential of the Surrealist artists were Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Salvador Dali and René Magritte. The movement broke up at the outbreak of war in 1939 when several of the Surrealists left Europe for New York where they had a formative influence on the development of Abstract Expres-

sionism.

Surrealism1924-1939

Rene Magritte, The Lovers.1928

Abstract Expression-ism was the first Ameri-can art style to exert an influence on a global scale. It drew upon the ‘spiritual’ approach of Kandinsky, the ‘autom-atism’ of the Surrealists, and a range of dramat-ic painting techniques.

Abstract Expressionism was also known as ‘Action Painting’, a title which im-plied that the physical act of painting was as impor-

tant as the result itself.

Abstract Expressionism1946-1956

The Abstract Expression-ist movement embraced paintings from a wide range of artists whose work was not always purely abstract or truly expressionistic. The ‘all-over’ drip paintings of Jackson Pollock, which entangle the viewer in a skein of light, color and texture, were the biggest challenge to the interpre-

tation of pictorial space since Cubism. The paint-ings of Mark Rothko bathe the spectator in a mystical world of diffuse color while the art of Robert Mother-well sets up an abstract dialogue between his ‘au-tomatic’ calligraphy and the conscious control of shapes and colors. Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Barnet Newman and Clif-ford Still were other major figures associated with

the movement.

Abstract Expressionism1946-1956

Jackson Pollock, Number 8, 1949

Pop Art was the art movement that char-acterized a sense of optimism during the post war consumer boom of the 1950’s and 60’s. It coincided with the globalization of pop music and youth culture, per-sonified by Elvis and The Beatles.

Pop Art was brash, colorful, young, fun and hostile to the ar-tistic establishment. It included different styles of painting and sculpture from var-ious countries, but what they all had in common was an in-terest in popular cul-ture.

Pop Art (1954-1970)

The stark look of Pop Art emerged from a fusion of Dada collag-es and ‘readymades’ with the imagery of the consumer cul-ture. It was seen as an antidote to the intro-spection of Abstract Expressionism. The ex-pressive techniques of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg provided the stylis-tic link between Ab-stract Expressionism and Pop but the im-ages of celebrity and consumerism by Andy Warhol and the comic book iconography of Roy Lichtenstein rep-resent the style as we know it today.

Roy Lichtenstein, Drowning Girl 1963

Roy Lichtenstein, Varoom! 1963