Modernism and Post-Modernism

"Yellow Calla" 1926 by Georgia O'Keeffe

Modernism is “impressionism, postimpressionism, fauvisms, cubism, futurism, constructivism, dad-ism, surrealism, expressionism, abstract expressionism, etc...” (Guerrilla Girls 59) all put together. We learn that modernism was able to call out the assault of women and feminist issues. It was a time period for reconstruction and change because art was expressed for women searching fortheir identity. Women artists in Europe influenced the techniques and development of modernism and the movements of abstraction, German expressionism, dada and surrealism and other movements in modernism by acknowledging that they were identified by nature, femininity in its instinctive, enigmatic, and sexual ways that it strayed them away from the prior art and influenced artists like Georgia O’Keeffe, Emily Carr, Frida Kahlo, and Leonor Fini. It is stated in “Women, Art, and Society” that “Modernity is both linked to the desire for the new fashion expressed so well, and culturally tied to the development of a new visual language for the twentieth century - abstraction.” (Chadwick 253) We see that with the artist Georgia O’Keefee who did unabashedly female work. “She was always outspoken about how she was treated and mistreated as a female…she remarked women were oppressed…” (Guerilla girls 75) Her painting “Yellow Calla” was painted in a provocative way because many people associate with a flower in many different ways (whether by touching it or smelling it), so she painted it the way she saw a flower.

"Self Portrait with Amber Necklace"1906 by Paula Modersohn-Becker

It was the real-life experiences that made the crafting of many artists of this time genuine and outspoken. Paula Modersohn-Becker was also a famous artist whose art was a clash between modernist ideology and social reality. Social reality was portraying women in a fantasy such as  privileged or wealthy, trying to sell women by their youth, beauty, and fashion. However, she was 1 of the 2 first women artists to work extensively with the nude female form and her paintings collude with and challenge narratives that view women as controlled. Her painting “Self Portrait with Amber Necklace 1906” presented the female not only naked by looking out with bold possession but also a half smile to the viewer. It was apparent that her work strayed away from a basic portrayed painting, especially from a woman. This art speaks different because it is hardly the ravished female model relegated to the background. You can tell that Becker developed a powerful style of primitive art which allowed her to create a range of expressionist compositions, primarily portrait art. Furthermore, Frida Kahlo spoke with her art and one of her famous paintings “The Broken Column” was made after a trolley accident she experienced where she expressed consciousness of her own vulnerability.

"The Broken Column" 1944  by Frida Kahlo

Women artists have been instrumental in the development of its main themes because they were the ones targeted in history. The male culture was obviously more dominated in art by portraying women to be weak which influenced not only artists but many women throughout society. Some women were politically engaged, while others embraced philosophical or theoretical models. Modernism’s feminism in the arts from the beginning were committed to exposing the assumptions underlying many of the beliefs that defied vanguard art. Furthermore, Chadwick mentions how modernism had a complex relationship between feminist practices which shaped modernism as well as dominant cultural forms. However, post modernism differed because it was used to characterize the breaking down of the unified traditions of modernism. Post modernism was also expressed through photography, abstract painting collage, drawing, constructive sculpture, installations, public art which were less traditional art making methods. 

 Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face) 1981 by Barbara Kruger 

(Example of a less traditional art work during Post-Modernism)

Women were committed to political activism and evolving their work through the images they displayed. It differed from modernism because it drew heavily on existing representations than inventing new styles. It also derives its imagery from mass media or popular culture. For example, an art piece, “Untitled 1979” by Cindy Sherman reveals the instability of gender, and challenges the idea that there might be an innate, unmediated female sexuality. Sherman does this by “exposing the fiction of a real woman behind the images that Western culture constructs for our consumption in film and advertising media.” (Chadwick 383) Cindy Sherman  was an artist who did self-portraits, but never revealed anything about herself in those. Moma’s website has all the collection of “untitled” on their website representing post modernism focuses attention on the ways sexual and cultural differences are produced and reinforced.  

“Untitled” 1979 by Cindy Sherman

References:

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. 5th ed. New York, N.Y.: Thames and Hudson

The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. Print.

By: Hena Rana