Modernism - Postmodernism

Modernism and modern art was created with the boom of the Industrial Revolution. Offsetting immense change, the Industrial Revolution affected almost every aspect of life in Europe, North American, and later the world. The poet Ezra Pound’s 1934 injunction to “Make it new!” was the touchstone of the movement’s approach towards what it saw as the now obsolete culture of the past. Artists now began to paint for themselves that was based on their experiences or what was happening in the world. Before, art work was of the church or for wealthy monarchs, but now art began to engage in symbolism and was more reflective of the society in which the artist lived. The movement of modernism included movements such as: abstract, surrealism, dadaism, cubism, etc.

Traditional academic painting and sculpture dominated the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Women began to separated themselves from naturalistic, traditional artwork, and modernism split into two different directions. Chadwick describes this in Women, Art, and Society when she writes, “While some artists worked primarily in two dimensions, others emphasized construction, texture and design.” (264) Modernism can be easily identified because it is abstract. It was a new way of expression which additionally functioned to be therapeutic to the artist.

“In Western art, movements and ‘isms’ appeared, one after the other: impressionism, postimpressionism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, constructivism, dadaism, surrealism, expressionism, abstract expressionism, etc. put them all together what do we get? Modernism.” (Guerrilla Girls, 59). In this time, there were advances in industrialization, rapid social change, and advances in science and the social sciences. These advances also gave artists the ability to create new kinds of work that was not possible before.

 Cubism is an offshoot in modernism in which perspective with a single viewpoint was abandoned and use was made of simple geometric shapes, interlocking planes, and, later, collage. Sonia Delaunay was a Ukrainian born, French artist who cofounded Orphism, a subsection of cubism. Chadwick writes, “modernity could best be expressed through a dynamic interplay of color harmonies and dissonances which replicated the rhythms of modern urban life” (Chadwick 260).

Yellow-Red-Blue, Wassily Kandinsky, 1925

Yellow-Red-Blue can actually be divided in half with how different each of the sides are. The left side has rectangles, squares and straight lines in bright colors while the right side features darker colors in various abstract shapes. These two sides show different influences and are meant to create varied emotions in the viewer. Although simple, there is a complex beauty which is defined by the reality of the work which can be seen with deeper observation. This, is an important characteristic of not only cubism, but modernism. Because modernism was the further departure from the old ways of painting, that which involved biblical paintings and still life paintings of nobility, there was now room for symbolism, meanings, and stances. Artwork was no longer just for entertainment. Audiences then had to pay attention to the colors and their relationships. 

Georgia O'Keeffe, Ram's Head White Hollyhock and Little Hills 1935, The Brooklyn Museum

In 1935 - after a period of personal and professional stress during which she was absent from New Mexico and nearly abandoned her art - O'keeffe returned to the Southwest. The landscapes reanimated her as seen in this painting. This work embodies personal freedom and inspiration. The painting features a skull of an animal with large horns, and next to it is a hollyhock flower. The background features a Southwestern style landscape with vibrant colored hills in juxtaposition with a somber, gray, cloud filled sky.

After World War II, postmodernism emerged as a rejection to the ideologies that defined modernism. Postmodernism was a period of attitudes of cynicism, irony, and overall questioning of the assumptions of Enlightenment rationality. Thus the artwork was deliberately impersonal.

In the discussion about realism there was immense discussion about the male gaze, and now postmodernism discusses the female gaze. Women now began to own their bodies and depict realistic female bodies with flaws and body hair.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, at the end of the Modernist period, we saw the second wave of Feminism, which produced the first wave of Feminist art. The sexism seen within the art world, was indicative of a larger, generalised misogyny, and through liberating and accessible forms of art such as performance, photography and film, women artists were able to express their dissatisfaction about gender roles, and the policing of their bodies.

 Martha Rosner, ‘Semiotics of the kitchen,’ 1975 

Here Rosner parodies a cooking show. She names cooking utensils alphabetically and then demonstrates how to use these utensils in an aggressive manner. 1975 was deep in the feminist movement and this is clearly a stance on how women are expected to stay in the kitchen. 

Alice Neel was considered one of the best portraitists of the 20th century.  whom created expressionist portraits is just one artist that embraced this idea. Neel was not interested in types, she wanted to portrait individuals with all these little things that make them unique. Her insistence on representing a broad cross-section of the American public, from a range of racial, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds was firmly rooted in her political convictions.

Alice Neel, Pregnant Maria, 1964

This painting was one of many that Neel painted of pregnant women in erotic poses. Neel worked to capture the confidence of these women who were not society's idea of an ideal woman. The woman's confidence works to reject the sexualization of her body. 

Works Cited

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Langara College, 2016.

Guerilla Girls. The Guerilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art.