Modernism was a movement when the visual arts started to experience radical change and experimentation, in the decades surrounding the first World War. The last several centuries before modernism, artists tried to portray accurate representations of reality. However, modernism was when a new artistic group emerged to challenge the assumptions of their elders. From impressionism and expressionism to dadaism and surrealism, an array of artistic movements followed one after another. Modern paintings became increasingly abstract. Artists turned their backs on figurative representation and began to break down form into parts: lines, shapes, and colors.
The most famous artist of the modernist movement was Sonia Delaunay. Her artwork included abstract patterns and vibrant colors and shapes that lead to other similar movements. “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) She had a way of combing art and life in a very appealing way. Her abstract patterns were used on clothing pieces that are sometimes recycled in today’s fashion world.
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Sonia Delaunay, A 'simultaneous' dress next to a Citroen B12, the first car she designed, 1925
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Additionally, Suzanne Valadon was another modern artist. Who can identify a female body better than a female herself? For a long period of time, men were the ones who illustrated female bodies; however, as the Modernism era began, female artists started to reveal the “real” female body through their artwork. They demonstrated the female body in its natural state, in movement, (as shown in “Grandmother and Young Girl Stepping into the Bath”) rather than through the male gaze, objectified. Women artists started to shift the male gaze in art, and they started to focus more on portraying women’s bodies in their “real” forms. This was a more modern way of portraying a woman’s body in art. It was about time female artists painted female’s perspectives.
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Suzanne Valadon, Grandmother and Young Girl Stepping into the Bath, c. 1908
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Suzanne Valadon painted the woman in the “The Blue Room” in a comfortable state. In a place where she was alone, with no one watching her. This was modern because it showed women in a different light. The woman is depicted as more than just a sexual object for a man’s pleasure. The woman is educated for herself. She is smoking a cigarette that symbolizes her independence. She is also more fleshy than a male gaze’s painting would illustrate a woman to be. The woman’s posture is real, as though you can almost feel yourself laying in that same position. She is also not fully nude, the way it was common in paintings that involved the male gaze. As stated in Chadwick, “Instead of presenting the female body as a lush surface isolated and controlled by the male gaze, she emphasizes the awkward gestures of figures apparently in control of their own movements” (Chadwick 285). Additionally, the woman in the painting is not looking towards the audience, instead she is looking forward, proving she is not phased by her audience at all. Valadon, uses bold patterns on her clothing as well as bold colors and loose paint overall. This painting perfectly captures the shifts modernism art was adapting.
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Suzanne Valadon, The Blue Room, 1923
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Another exceptional artist was Georgia O’Keeffe, who was often referred to as the “mother of modernism”. Most of her artwork consisted of flowers and she actually hated flowers and once stated “I hate flowers- I paint them because they’re cheaper than models and they don't move!” (Guerrilla Girls 75). She produced various artworks that captured the emotion and power of objects through abstracting the natural world. Additionally, “Feminists love Georgia because she did unabashedly female work and because she made it in the art world with the big boys” (Guerrilla Girls 75). They labeled her as one of the best female artists; however, she refused accept the label “the best ‘female’ artist” and instead said she was the best artist period. O’Keeffe’s attitude and confidence towards her artwork inspired many other women to do the same.
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Georgia O’Keeffe, Blue Morning Glories, 1935
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Frida Kahlo was known for creating famous surrealism paintings. Her paintings were self-portraits that were influenced by the Mexican culture, therefore many vibrant colors were present. She lived a very hard life filled with a lot of physical and emotional pain. “The Broken Column” is one of her paintings that captures both her physical and emotional pain. There are nails pinged all over her body in the painting which demonstrates the physical pain. While the largest nail is in her heart, which represents her emotional heartbreak pain that was caused by Diego Rivera. Her nudity also symbolizes that with all her suffering she was in a state of helplessness. Frida Kahlo’s artwork had extreme symbols woven within them. It is important to have some background knowledge of Frida Kahlo’s life in order to fully understand those symbols.
Additionally, postmodernism was a departure from modernism. There is more freedom and not as much judgement in this era. Artists broke away from established rules about style. New forms of art that were never seen before were being created and shared. Postmodernism was when artists finally exposed their true passions and viewpoints through their work without fear of being judged. There was also the philosophical aspect to postmodernism in which people began to also change the way they interpreted art, people were becoming more open-minded. Live performances were rising and the audience appreciated the new types of art forms. The Guerrilla Girls, Yoko Ono, Louise Bourgeois, Judy Chicago are only a few of the many female artists who impacted and influenced postmodernism. The Guerrilla Girls openly spoke up about how female artists deserve more credit than they are given. While Yoko Ono helped emphasized feminism through a different form of art, live performances. Louise Bourgeois’s creative sculptures brought art to life. While, Judy Chicago’s artwork, such as “The Dinner Party,” was an installation art piece that shed light onto feminism in a unique and detailed way. Overall, postmodernism wouldn't have been able to arise without modernism.
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Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1979
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WORKS CITED
(1) The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. Penguin Books, 2006.
(2) Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art and Society. Thames and Hudson, 2015.
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