Modernism and Post-modernism

Modernism was a philosophical movement during the late 19th and 20th centuries that transformed the cultural trends like art, literature, philosophy, social organization, science or daily activities. These changes in the society were heavily induced by the transformation of western society. The factors that shaped modernism were due to the development of modern industrial societies and rapid growth of cities, and reactions of horror to the World War I. Many modernist rejected religious beliefs and enlightenment thinking. Modernist created art that consciously engaged with everyday life. During the late nineteenth century, the clothing of women was influenced significantly by feminist concerns. Chadwick discusses this significant change of clothing in her book “Art and Women”. She writes, “Aesthetic, medical, social and anthropological discourses finally converged in a fundamental re deigns of the ideal female figure that replaced the corsets exaggerated and constricting curves with the more flexible serpentine curvatures of the modern body” (Chadwick, 259). This “healthy shift” in women’s clothing showed that women were more comfortable with their own body and wore clothes to please themselves rather than men. Women were getting more comfortable with their style which was significantly reflected in their art. In 20th century, women were granted right to vote, which was a milestone for women. This progress was also reflected in their art. Women were granted more freedom which allowed them to make art with free strokes. Modern art basically replaced the classical art with abstract, cubism, pop, minimalism and dadaism.

Vanessa Bell, Cracow 1913

During the early 1900, artist in Europe started to abandon naturalism and move towards more of a abstract style art. Women in Europe started to make art by using different kinds of medium. In 1910, Vanessa Bell started to experiment art by using lacquered boxes, introducing geometric pattern generated from mosaic and tile work.


In May 1913, Roger Fry opened the Omega Workshops in Fitzory square, London. This workshop was mostly for people who liked to make art by designing and decorating fabrics, furniture, pottery, and other small items. The typical items that were made in this workshop were more of a abstract motifs (simple art).

Roger Fry in the Omega Workshop, 1913

Winifred Gill, Sketch of dancers, 1916
(Omega Workshop)

Artist in Europe influenced other artist all over the world. Many people started to abandon classical art for abstract, cubism, dadaism or surrealism. Cubism was an early 20th century art movement which brought European painting and sculpture historically forward towards 20th century Modern art. Robert Delaunay was one of the well-known Cubist painter who married Sonia Delaunay's. Sonia's work started to get well known during the years of Omega. Sonia also believed that "modernity could be best expressed through dynamic interplay of color harmonies and dissonance which replicated the rhythms of modern urban life" (Chadwick 260).  The industrial revolution had a great impact on materials that were being used to make art. Many artist like Sonia herself, started to use textiles and embroidery to form structured surface.

Sonia Delaunay, Couverture 1911

Dadaism was also an art movement in the early 20th century. It was developed in the reaction of World War I. Dada movement consisted of artists who rejected the logic, reasons, and aestheticism of modern capitalist society, instead expressing nonsense, irrationality, and anti-bourgeois protest in their works. Hannah Hoch is one of the German Dada artist. Hoch's work consist of primarily of collages often made from photographs. Her art was mainly influenced by the invention of the camera.

                 Hannah Höch, The Kitchen Knife, 1919                

Many artist around the world were influenced by this idea of the "new world" which led them to make art using creative and simple materials. For example, surrealism, that was also a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s. Artists painted  illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures using everyday objects and developed art that allowed the unconscious to express itself. Once people or mostly women started using different medium like embroidery or textiles to make art, it started a movement where art was more of a craft than just drawing and painting.

The various modern periods were driven by radical forward thinking, ideas of technological positivity. The arrival of Neo-Dada and Pop art in post-war marked the beginning of a reaction against modernism which came to known as postmodernism. The postmodernism was a broad movement that developed in the mid to late 20th century across philosophy, architecture, art and criticism. It was the era that marked the departure of modernism. It was also influenced by the disenchantment bought by the Second World War. Postmodernism is typically defined by an attitude of skepticism, irony or rejection of aspects of modernism. In general, it is a movement consisted of as inter-media, installation art, conceptual art and multimedia. Postmodernist artist tend to work with new image-based technologies, including television, videos, LEDs etc. They source, manipulate and process imagery rather than simply creating it from scratch.

Unlike modernism, which focused on the simplicity and elegance of the art, postmodernism art brought high and low culture by using industrial materials and pop culture imagery. Postmodern art is decorative. During the modernist era, art and literary work were considered unique creations of the artist; whereas during postmodernism artist created their art by manipulating technology. People no longer believed in art and literary work to be unique.

One of the example of postmodernism would be Houben R.T who is a painter and experimental artist from New York. His art is all about manipulating different objects and deriving idea from it. His art is a good example for postmodernism movement because it is not original or unique to the artist but the ideas derived from other inspirations are unique to his style. A brief glimpse of his art is shown in "Inside the Artist Studio".



References:
Chadwick Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Fifth Edition. New York: Penguin, 2002. Print.Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. Print.