Modernism // Post-Modernism

Patricia Ramirez
21 November 2017
Modernism is defined as a practice, usage, or expression peculiar to modern times. It sparked a big change in the late 19th and early 20th century western society. There were changes spreading in art, architecture, religious faith, philosophy, etc. and is often characterized by a rejection of styles from the past. Instead it emphasizes innovation in forms, materials and techniques that would create artwork to better reflect society. Modernism can be difficult to define clearly as it is composed of many different movements. It includes post-impressionism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, constructivism, dada-ism, surrealism, expressionism, abstract expressionism, and more. (examples of the modernist art movements). One of the most well- known modernists would be Pablo Picasso with his very famous cubist styled art.

 Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937

Although at first women artists were not fitting to the stereotypes of this movement, they managed to work in their respective fields anyway. Through modernism, visual language developed from decorative arts (textiles) and fashion designs were coming from geometric abstraction. At this point, women started to function as both producers and signifiers of the new visual culture brought up by modernism. Sonia Delaunay was one of the female artists that expanded this field of art. “Delaunay’s work with textiles and embroidery encouraged her to break down forms and emphasize surface structure” (Chadwick, 261). She not only designed quilts, book covers, posters, curtains and more but she also began costume designing and creating dresses.

Sonia Delaunay, costume for Cleopatre, 1918

Delaunay’s costumes and designs sparked new ways of thinking about the female body and display.

Modernism brought about the idea of the New Woman. During this time period, women were becoming professionals in their fields as they became increasingly confident. Women artists in particular played a major part representing the New Woman by painting and exemplifying their own lives into art. They created works with perspectives that opposed the male gaze. “Marginalized in the aesthetic and political debates swirling around modern art movements in the early decades of the twentieth-century, many women turned to the female body as the primary subject of a woman’s experience” (Chadwick, 282). These women artists had different viewpoints on what femininity meant. Artists such as Paula Modersohn-Becker and Suzanne Valdon bring this movement to life with the way they constructed the female identity through their paintings of female nudes.

Paula Modersohn-Becker, Mother and Child Lying nude, 1907

In Modersohn-Becker’s painting she shows the nude female body laying with her child. She “ignored conventional perspective and anecdotal detail to produce monumental images of idealized motherhood: ‘I kneel before it (motherhood) in humility,’ she wrote” (Chadwick, 287).

Following modernism, in the mid-late 20th century came the idea of Post-Modernism.  It included a body of movements that sought to contradict certain aspects of modernism. Post-Modernism did not stress race or gender. The movements included intermedia, installation art, collages, assemblage, conceptual art, and multimedia.

Feminist art was symbolic and narrative during this time period. Women would often embrace alternative materials of art that men would hardly use such as performance and video. That is where the idea of femininity became important in performance art. It was an opportunity for women to now tell stories about female servitude, vulnerability or suffering to a live audience. Yves Klein, Yuko Ono and Carolee Shneemann are all women performers who stressed the idea of women’s suffering.

Carolee Shneemann, Interior Scroll, 1975

In her performance, Carolee felt the need to explore female sexuality as a direct response to an apparent disconnect between women’s experiences of their bodies and historical and cultural representations.

Another important form of Post-Modernism is installations. Installations are huge, larger-than-life works. It was influenced by conceptualism, Dada and performance art. These works are meant to be large scale and site specific in order to really interact with the viewers. One of the most well-known installations of feminist art installation is Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party.

Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party 1974-79

The Dinner Party consists of a large banquet table with place settings for thirty-nine women of history and mythology. The settings have porcelain plates painted with butterfly and vulva inspired designs that represent Mother Nature and the vagina.

Modern and Post-Modern art can be seemingly similar, they are different in terms of their concepts and ideas. Modernism had to do with the creativity of the artist and all art was unique to its artist. It had deeper meaning underlying the subject and had much more individual importance. A lot of time was taken on the final production of a modern artist's’ work. On the other hand, Post-Modernism had a lot more media influence. You see creations of different media forms in one. This gives less individualism in the art. There is more use of technology in post-modern art, allowing for less time on a final product. The era of post-modernism believes less in the theory of going into the subject. Overall, these new approaches of art created a whole new ball game in the art world. There is more room for individuality and expression in artists work.

Works Cited

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Thames & Hudson, 2007.

Moreland, Quinn, et al. “Forty Years of Carolee Schneemann's.” Hyperallergic, 1 Sept. 2015, hyperallergic.com/232342/forty-years-of-carolee-schneemanns-interior-scroll/.

“What Is Installation Art? Take a Look at the Top Installation Artists Working Today.” My Modern Met, 31 Oct. 2017, mymodernmet.com/what-is-installation-art-history-artists/.

https://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Modernism.pdf