Modernism and Postmodernism

   Modernism and Postmodernism are two new kinds of art form, which comes with the industrialization.  In 20^th, with the development of economic and political environment and the change in social culture, more and more women devote their time into female right campaign, and these kinds of changes was reflected in the art area.  The new changes happens to the world also changes the status of female.  More and more female artist gained achievements in art and play important roles in the struggle for the statues of women.

The industrialization changes the world the people live, and changes the people's emotion.  Followed by the attraction of the World War 1, people want to change the way to express their emotion.  Therefore,  they create one kinds of new art form named "modernism". As Guerrilla Girls' mentioned in "Beside Companion to the history of western art "From the end of the 19th century to the 20th, revolution was on everyone's mind, including artists.  Some wanted to change the world, others just wanted to change art. In Western art, movements and "isms" appeared, one after another: impressionism, postimpressionism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, constructivism, dada-ism, surrealism, expressionism, etc. Put them all together and what do we get?" "Modernism"(pg 59) From the definition we know that the Modernism is kind of art which included different kinds of art forms.  The artists want to express different kinds of emotion, and this kind of art breaks the distinction between artists, works and audiences. Besides the modernism absorbs the essence of some important concepts in modern art, such abstraction, German expressionism, dada and surrealism, and other movements in 20^th century.  More importantly, the art also influence the society for a really long time.

One of the typical artist is Gabriele Munter, was a German expressionist painter whowas at the forefront of the Munichavant-garde in the early 20th century.[1] She studiedwith the painter Wassily Kandinsky and was afounding member of the expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter.

Gabriele Munter, portrait of Marianne von Werefkin, 1909
the representative of Munter's artwork, using pure colors and single lines

  Her abstraction art played an important role in the born of the special art style and had great influence on the following abstraction society.  As Chadwick states in the “Art, Women and Society”. We can find that she is unique and special. “First collected examples of this folk tradition and both artists subsequently experimented with pure colors on the black sides of plates of glass.” The author means Munter create a new technique that add a new door.  Her abstraction artwork breaks the formal limit of painting, and pay more attention on the self-expression.

The modernism art form does not only existed in the art area, but also expresses in the fashion area.  The new fashion style changes a lot from the satisfying the male gaze to combine the female body with the identical cloth. Use dress as example, the dress is just a factory product, but now a dress can designed in various form foe different female for different use.  It has more self-sufficient use for females to express their own characteristics.This kind of change is not just a symbol of fashion but also the status of female.  They have more room to express themselves.  The different kinds of cloth is the best way to express their personality.  They also change the traditional impression of female.

Sonia Delaunay, appliqued coat, 1920s
the coat is a new form of fashion art and it's the best way to against the male gaze

Postmodernism started after World War 2in 1950’s.  It’s kind of scientific developments, technological advancements which shift from traditional to modernism ways and views of making art.  According to Chadwick states that “Challenges to Modernism notions of male authority, originality, and the autonomy of the art object have become central features of postmodernism critical theory.( pg384)  The author means postmodernism has improved from the modernism. The postmodernism breaks the traditional definition of the art.  It breaks the higher statues of male and have strong influence to the society.  During this time the feminist movement is thriving and the movement influence postmodernism a lot.  Therefore the main topic of this period art is to break the patriarchy and male gaze.  For example, the well-known artwork of Barbara Kruger, Your Gaze Hits My Face. 

Barbara Kruger, Your Gaze Hits My Face
the combination of female bust and the boxed text 

This is an image of a female bust, overlaid with boxed text on the left side, comments on women’s position as object in the minds and views of men.  While the statement “Your gaze hits the side of my face” seems simple, actually it express that the women are not just the objective that used to accept the male gaze. The depiction of the woman as a statue furthers the idea that men imprison women within their femininity by telling them that they are nothing more than sexual objects to be visually appreciated by men.  Through her unique positioning of powerful text in this and other works, Kruger “emphasizesthe ways in which language manipulates and undermines the assumption ofmasculine control over language and viewing, by refusing to complete the cycleof meaning, and by shifting pronouns in order to expose the positioning ofwoman as ‘other.'” From the artwork, we can see that the female artist during that time use the simple artwork to express their strong will against the male gaze and pursue the gender equality.