Monday, November 20, 2017

Modernism


Kruti Patel
As society started to change, women also began to stand up for themselves, become successful in what they like, and also they were given more tools and resources so that they can pursue their dream. “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). Modernism as defined by (http://www.tate.org.uk/)  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; emphasizing instead innovation and experimentation in forms, materials, and techniques in order to create artworks that better reflected modern society.” In other words, Modernism became a period where artists would create ideas in a more significant way in order to capture different forms of art and life.
During this time period, abstractionism began to arise. Artist started using different shapes, blurs, and other vivid colors to show emotions within their work and also be able to convey their message and expression to others. For example, Sonia Delaunay started using different forms of shapes, sizes, and colors in her work to show her way of what modernism meant to her.
Sonia Delaunay, Electric Prisms, 1914
“ Delaunay soon became firmly convinced that modernity could best be expressed through a dynamic interplay of color harmonies and dissonances which replicated the rhythms of modern urban life” (Chadwick 262). In the beginning, she mainly lives with her family, taking care of her husband and children. She started to focus on herself and her art in the late 1950’s and after that, she was recognized as the most famous artists of the modernist movement where her artistic capabilities of using vibrant colors and shapes soon gave way to the birth of other movements. Suzanne Valadon was also important in applying these techniques of design and craft and colors in her 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 appear in control of their own movements.” (Chadwick, 285).
Suzanne Valadon, Girl braiding her hair,  1885
She was against the male gaze and so she never portrayed women in any sexual manner. Her painting mostly included portraits of women in everyday life like Mary Cassatt but she never expressed them in any sexual manner or showed female sexual parts in her paintings.
Dada-ism is a movement that began around the beginning of the 20th century and was innovative in its own way. Dada-ism was one of the first forms of art that focused on the deeper meaning of the piece. Dadaism works often question society, the purpose of the artist and of art itself. One such artist who painted such artworks was Hannah Höch. A German artist, who took pieces from multiple medias and placed them together in a manner that would show a powerful message to the audience. Her piece, "Marlene" is a prime example of the dadaism movement.
Hannah Hoch, Merlene, 1930

The purpose of this piece was to show how Hollywood sees women and to highlight society's acceptance of the male gaze. Photo of actress Marlene Dietrich's legs and lips are the subjects. Her legs are on a display, and most of her face is hidden only exposing her lips, while there are men staring at her.
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. It often focused on the unconscious mind and the creativity found within the artist. One of the famous women artist that focused on surrealism was Frida Kahlo. She typically painted self-portraits using vibrant colors in a style that was influenced by cultures of Mexico as well as influences from European Surrealism. Her self-portraits were often an expression of her life and her pain. (http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/surrealism/Frida-Kahlo.html)  
Frida Kahlo, The broken column, 1944
The piece "The broken column" may be the one painting that best shows her pain. It shows her physical pain which she was suffering through and the tears in her eyes show her pain. Her nudity shows that even after suffering a lot, she was helpless. She couldn’t do anything much for herself.
Post-modernism was a reaction against Modernism. “Postmodern art drew on the philosophy of the mid to late twentieth century and advocated that individual experience and interpretation of our experience was more concrete than abstract principles. While the modernists championed clarity and simplicity; postmodernism embraced complex and often contradictory layers of meaning.” (http://www.tate.org.uk/art) It introduced a new era where anything could be possible. Anyone could do anything they like but according to their self-awareness and no one would judge anyone. The Guerilla Girls were most famous during this period. They knew that men were always considered more important than women, especially in the art world. There was “The Male Gaze” where men could do anything and they were still considered superior to women and that women always have to follow men’s commands. Even after all of these difficulties, they continued to fight for Women’s rights. The Guerrilla Girls have been working to expose sexual and racial discrimination in the art world, particularly in New York, and in the wider cultural arena.
Guerrilla Girls', Do Women Have to Get Naked to Get into the Met. Museum? 1989
The guerilla girls mentioned that: “the number of female nudes versus the number of male nudes and counted the number of works by female artists versus the number of male artists. Their findings were startling: not even 5 percent of the artists represented in the modern galleries were women, while fully 85 percent of the nudes in those same galleries were female.” (www.nga.gov) Another movement during this period was the Installation art. “Installation artworks (also sometimes described as ‘environments’) often occupy an entire room or gallery space that the spectator has to walk through in order to engage fully with the work of art. Some installations, however, are designed simply to be walked around and contemplated, or are so fragile that they can only be viewed from a doorway, or one end of a room.” (http://www.tate.org.uk/art/)  One of the artist from this movement was Louise Bourgeois. Her work “maman” which is a giant spider.
Louise Bourgeois, Maman, 1999
Bourgeois once mentioned that “The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver.” The word maman means “mother.” It is placed outside of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain.
Art in post-modernism improved from the modernist era. New movements occurred and these movements, new women artists began to take a stand for themselves. Art became the life of many artists.

Work Cited
Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Thames & Hudson, 2007.
The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. Print.


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