Revolution was on everyone’s
mind from the end of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th
century. This was the time period where Modernism began. Modernism was a global
movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where
artists used new techniques to create artworks that better fit and related to
current modern society. “Some wanted to change the world, others just wanted to
change the art. In Western art, movements and “isms” appeared, one after
another: impressionism, postimpressionism, fauvism, cubism, futurism,
constructivism, dada-ism, surrealism, expressionism, abstract expressionism,
etc. Put them all together and what do we get? Modernism” (Guerilla Girls, 59).
These styles of art created a movement for artists and it would soon allow
women to have the same freedom as men.
Modernism soon became a movement that
influenced the men and women who lived in Europe. Compared to the middle ages, women’s
social position has changed drastically, as it gave them more rights in terms
of work related to art. Prior to this, mostly the male sex was dominant when it
came to art, and only wealthy families were acknowledged if a woman wanted to try
and get into the art field. Women were still at times the laughing stock, but
they were headed in the right direction in terms of the increase in their opportunities.
“There was still lots of discrimination, still lots of critics nagging that
women’s work was not as good as men’s. But there was also more opportunity than
ever before for a woman to live her life and make her own terms. In the 20th
century, women won rights never given to them before, including the right to
vote. With more freedom, more women have become artists” (Guerrilla Girls, 59).
Women being granted the right to vote was a huge accomplishment in the United
States. It gave women hope and freedom to start having control over their own lives.
Women have come a long way in their
development of art. Most female artists had to go through great deals of
obstacles just to be recognized in the art world. So, you might ask, where were
women in society? As usual, women didn’t fit the normal stereotypes. They would
do work that their husbands got credit for. Sometimes they held back so they wouldn’t
outshine the men in their lives and if they wanted to make art they had to wait
until after they retired from their day jobs.
Vanessa Bell is one of many female
artists who influenced abstraction. She used abstraction by doing a lot of oil
paintings about nature and used wool and linen to show what women had to work
with in the world of art. She was born into an upper-class family and her
artwork is considered one of the most influential during her time. Her art was
mostly impacted by textiles and oil paintings.
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| Vanessa Bell, Cracow, 1913 |
Dadaism is an art movement that uses
shapes to portray the modern world. The art is mostly dull since it displays
emotions. Sonia Delaunay was one female artist that was known for her bold use
of patterns using color. “Delaunay’s work with textiles and embroidery
encouraged her to break down forms and emphasize surface structure” (Chadwick, 261).
Delaunay’s skills quickly made her an influential artist during her time. In
this painting, she used the colors of black, white, and gray to signify the
world.
 |
| Sophie Taeuber-Arp Vertical Horizontal Composition c. 1916-18. |
Surrealism was a new movement in the
1900s within art and literature, which allowed artists to express their ideas
within the unconscious mind. Louise Bourgeois was a strong influence in the
surrealist movement during the 20th century. Her drawing usually
displayed the body of a female and showed how woman were silenced during the
time and how they had no voice.
 |
| Louise Bourgeois, Maman, 1999 |
Postmodernism came in the 1960s,
right after modernism. It questioned the rationality of modernism, and it took
place after the second World War. This caused major rift around the world and
caused many people to change their ideas and beliefs. The way Chadwick describes postmodernism in Women Art, and Society is “The term
Postmodernism has been used to characterize the breaking down of the unified
(though hardly monolithic) traditions of Modernism…The fact that Postmodernism
draws heavily on existing representations, rather than inventing new styles,
and that it often derives its imagery from mass media or popular culture, has
focused attention on the ways that sexual and cultural difference are produced
and reinforced in these images” (Chadwick, 382). Artists during this
period wanted to experiment with feminism and women empowerment, something that
modernism didn’t do. Women began to talk more about sexism and gender roles in their
artwork. “Designers like Coco Chanel were ‘masculinizing’ women’s fashions, the
‘new look’ also began to make its presence felt in the visual arts” (Chadwick,
302). This shows how postmodernism was influencing society. This led to people’s
focus and attention being shifted towards how a women’s image looked in a
sexual way.
Postmodernism started to show that
women can too be treated the same way men are. “In the current postmodern era, more kinds of art
practice and more kinds of artists are accepted and written into the historical
record. This is creating a truer, richer picture of the present and the past” (Guerrilla
Girls 90). In other words, women used postmodernism as a way to push boundaries
they couldn’t push before. They were more than just housewives. They too can do
things men are able to do. Postmodernism created a whole new approach for art
and women.
Modernism and postmodernism both affected society and the
women living in it during the time. Postmodernism contradicted modernism. Modernism was a global movement in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries, where artists used new techniques to
create artworks that better fit and related to current modern society.
Postmodernism was characterizing and questioning the traditions of modernism.
 |
| Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your body is a battleground), 1989 This piece addresses media and politics in their native tongue. It is an act of feminism and an example of postmodernism. |
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| Suzanne Valadon, The Blue Room, 1923 This is a post-impressionism style painting that uses a oil canvas,. It uses strong colors to emphasize the background and decorative materials. |
Works Cited
The Guerilla Girls, The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. Penguin Books, 2006.
Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Langara College, 2016
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