Desiree Roman
Art and Women
November 21, 2017
Modernism
Modernism
is a, “broad movement in Western arts and literature that gathered pace from around
1850, and is characterized by a deliberate rejection of the styles of the past;
it emphasized innovation and experimentation in forms, materials and techniques
to create artworks that better rejected modern society.” (Tate). Modernism is
linked to the new desire that fashion expressed so well and culturally
influenced by the development of new visuals in the late 20th
century. Women Artists were concerned with the issue of the women’s dress at
the end of the 19th century. Therefore, “The bustles, whalebone
stays, and tight lacing so fashionable in the 1880s came under attack in
progressive circles” (Chadwick, 254). Women’s body have evolved from the women’s
body in the 1880’s, therefore women reformed and changed the ideal female
figure. They replaced the, “corset’s exaggerated” and, “constricting curves” to
a more flexible, “serpentine curvature of the modern body.” Wassily Kandinsky,
a male artist, paved a path for women artists throughout the Munich period. His
experiments in fashion design were related to the goals of the reform movement.
Both female and male artists were looking for a new identity and new kinds of
meaning in the period of modernism. His paintings were influenced by, “Russian
folk art, Tunisian abstract geometric motifs, and through his companion
Gabriele Munter’s intervention, Bavarian glass painting.” (Chadwick, 255). Other
male painters such as, Picasso and Renoir still incorporated the male gaze in
their work, they always painted to a male pleasing energy/view. They still
viewed women as sexually submissive and inferior and painted them as objects
for male’s pleasure. Carol Duncan illustrates the idea of women being sexualizing
during the Fauves, the Cubists, and the German Expressionists in her article, “Domination
and Virility in Vanguard Painting.” She argues how nude women have faced a long
history of, “male viewing pleasures, morality, and female sexuality, but the persistent
presentation of the nude female body as a site of male viewing pleasure… has left
little place for explorations of female subjectivity, knowledge, and
experience.” (Chadwick, 280-281). Women were still treated inferior due to how
they were represented nude in artworks and appealed to the male viewers
pleasure. To continue on, The Omega workshops were created in 1913, which was a
collaborative experiment in modern design. It was a meeting place for artists
and a place for them to design and decorate fabrics, furniture, pottery and
other small items. “Lady Desborough, Lady Curzon, Lady Ottoline Morrell, Lady
Cunard, Lady Drogheda- set up a relationship between class and modernity.”
(Chadwick, 257). The Omega Workshops
were significant because they challenged Victorian distinction between high and
low art and art and craft. Sonia Delaunay was influenced by
 |
| Sonia Delaunay, Simultaneous Contrasts, 1912 |
 |
Sonia Delaunay, Converture, 1911
|
this in her
painting and decoration. She was convinced that modernity could be expressed
through a dynamic play of color harmonies and dissonances which connected with
the modern urban life. Her first piece was a quilt that was influenced by
Russian peasant design. In 1912, she produced
Simultaneous Contrasts, which was produced through the theory of
actual light. With this painting she was heavily interested in the dynamics of
surface design. In 1913, she began to make dresses, “their patterns of abstract
forms were arranged both to enhance the natural movement of the body and to
establish a shimmering movement of color.” (Chadwick, 262). With this she
designed a costume for
Cleopatre in
1918, having the same patterns of abstract forms. Suzanne Valadon was also
important in applying the techniques of design and craft in the innovative
approaches to art. “Instead of presenting the female body as a lush surface
isolated and controlled by the male gaze, she emphasized the awkward gestures
of figures apparently in control of their own movements.” (Chadwick, 285).
Valadon emphasized context, specific movement, and physical action. She went against
the male gaze and portrayed women not in a sexual manner. Surrealism, gave
artists new artistic form to some of the problems that women faced. Frida Kahlo
used this movement to paint her reality. Surrealism celebrated the idea of
women and their creativity.
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| Suzanne Valadon, The Blue Room, 1923 |
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| Frida Kahlo, The Broken Column, 1944 |
Post-Modernism
is a reaction against modernism. Post-Modernism, “overturned the idea that
there was one inherent meaning to a work.” (http://www.theartstory.org/definition-postmodernism.htm)
It allowed different people, artists, viewers, etc. to create their own
meaning, instead of just having one. Post-Modernism also incorporated elements
of popular culture. The Guerrilla Girls were important during the era of
Post-Modernism. They continued to fight for women artist’s rights and continued
to address situations were women were sexualized. They addressed Do Women have to be naked to get into the
Met. Museum? Women artists have always been treated inferior to male
artists. They are addressed as female artists rather than just falling into the
category of artists. The Dada movement was a movement that focused more on the
purpose of art rather than art in a pleasing manner.
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| Guerrilla Girls, Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Net. Museum |
Works
Cited
Chadwick, Whitney.
Women, Art, and Society. Thames & Hudson, 2012
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