Modernism and Postmodernism

Associated with the period after World War I, the term modernism is best defined as the significant movement in western arts and culture from the 19th century to the mid 20th century. The movements mainly focused on rejecting the styles of the past and emphasizing styles and artworks that reflected modern society. “The avant-garde movements that followed—including Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, Constructivism, de Stijl, and Abstract Expressionism—are generally defined as Modernist.” (Britannica) “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) During this era, there were advances in a lot of areas:  industrialization, rapid social change, and advances in science and the social sciences. Artists viewed these advances as a reason to progress further with their works; hence making them more modern. They thought of it as adapting to the changes. They also grew focus on advancing the quality of the media they use in their artwork. “There are certain underlying principles that define modernist art: A rejection of history and conservative values (such as realistic depiction of subjects); innovation and experimentation with form (the shapes, colours and lines that make up the work) with a tendency to abstraction; and an emphasis on materials, techniques and processes.” (Tate) This portrays that there was a common belief in progress with the improvement of other aspects of human society. 

Georges Braque, 'Bottle and Fishes' c.1910–2

Modernism, Post-Modernism, and Dada in a Nutshell

It was a much-changed world after World War I; industrialization and urbanization took its course. Art transformed into a whole different level with cultural trends and changes. However, despite the advances in literature and other domains, women artists were still being treated poorly and not serious at all. Similarly to the male gaze, women were also, still being depicted as objects in paintings. Women were fed up with all of this occurring, and they took action. A few women tried to bring awareness to this case through their paintings, and others followed in their footsteps. 

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

Men weren’t the only ones advancing their artwork with correlation to modernism. Women were applying methods of modernism in their paintings as well. They took modernism as a way to capitalize its uses and advance in their career as artists. This helped women artists grow just a tad bit when it comes to recognition. But there was much more improvement needed to move forward; especially when society was giving all the credit to men. "While some artist worked primarily in two dimensions, others emphasized construction, texture and design Neo-Primitivism, Cubo Futurism, etc.(Chadwick). Georgia O’Keeffe is a great example of a woman artist during the era of modernism. She was an American artist, “best known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes.” (Wikipedia) She synthesized the use of modernism in her art. She grew up in a family of 7 children; she was the second oldest of her siblings. The media employed in her paintings are fundamental, oil paintings, sketches, important pastels, watercolors, and charcoals.

GEORGIA O'KEEFFE, “Heliconia,” 1939, oil on canvas, 19 x 16 in, Private collection

After modernism came the era of postmodernism. It was the ideology of bringing back tradition in arts. “Architecture saw a return to traditional materials and forms and sometimes to the use of decoration for the sake of decoration itself, as in the work of Michael Graves and, after the 1970s, that of Philip Johnson.” (Britannica) It was an essentially a reaction against modernism. The term first being used in 1970, postmodernism took its course and said to begin with pop art and then, later on, embraced conceptual art, neo-expressionism, feminist art, and the Young British Artists of the 1990s. “Postmodernism was a reaction against modernism. Modernism was generally based on idealism and a utopian vision of human life and society and a belief in progress. While modernism was based on idealism and reason, postmodernism was born of skepticism and a suspicion of reason.” (Tate) What this fundamentally means is that postmodern art was attached to the ideology that grew with mid 20th century to late 20th-century philosophy; which produced the main focus of individualism and interpretation rather than abstract principles. Tate states, “While the modernists championed clarity and simplicity; postmodernism embraced complex and often contradictory layers of meaning.”

Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1974 - 1979, mixed media, 48 x 48 ft., Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Collection of the Brooklyn Museum.

Judy Chicago’s, The Dinner Party is an excellent example of postmodernism art and an essential icon of 1970s feminist art. It is an exhibition that comprises a triangular table consisting of 39 place settings, which honored important women of history. It was an efficient way to resemble feminist art, and it shows how great women can be. Each women being honored had distinctive styles appropriate to distinguish them from the others. A total of 1,038 women are being honored in this exhibition, with the names of 999 other women embroidered in gold below the table. 

Work Citied

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art and Society. Thames and Hudson, 2015.

The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. Penguin Books, 2006.

https://www.britannica.com/art/Modernism-art

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/modernism,