Modernism and Post Modernism

Modernism covered many different creative areas from art and design to influencing architecture, music and literature. New technology had massive influences on how artists and designs approached there work, an influence that is still present today. New technology gave way for mass production with machines themselves becoming a theme for the Modernist movement. Modernism is considered the most influential movement of the 20th century, inspiring a wide range of fine art including Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism and Surrealism, which is considered the most extreme movement to arise from Modernism, but was a revolt against the conservative values of realism.

Modernism had a especially big impact on graphic design and typography. The pre-modernist 19th century style of designs and type was to be overly decorative and elaborate, trying to fill as much space as possible and leaving very little White space. When Modernism started to form designers abided to a strict structured grid system with a heavy emphasis on white space as well as using clean and simple sans-serif fonts. Typical typefaces that were used around the Modernist era include Franklin Gothic, Monotype Grotesque, Futura and Helvetica Neue.

Current forms and interpretations of modernism vary with the movement itself being normally being divided into Modernism and Post modernism but some see the two aspects as part of the same movement,

Pop Art

The Pop art movement first starting appearing during the mid 1950s in the UK and then spread to America during the 1960s. This movement came during a time of optimism in both these regions as it came during the end of the World War 2. Pop artists used sources such Hollywood movies, advertising, packaging, pop music and comic books to inspire there work and often used bright, bold and youthful colours in there work to help show positivity. One of the biggest artists during this time was one Andy Warhol who was considered the pioneering artist in this movement.

‘Portrait of Marilyn Monroe’ Andy Warhol 1942

Another Pioneer of the pop art movement was Roy Lichtenstein an American painter. Lichtenstein used a unique form of painting call the Benday dot technique. This technique uses small closely kitted dots of paint when applied create a large detailed image.

‘In the Car’ Roy Lichtenstein 1963

‘Whaam!’ Roy Liechtenstein 1963

Pop art was thought to be one of the first manifestations of post modernism. Inspiration for pop art included Hollywood films, advertising, packaging and comic books. Although this movement was mostly happening in America it was also seen in the UK by certain artists. A similar movement called Nouveau Realism (New Realism) was also happening in Europe.

One of the most revolutionary techniques used in the pop art movement was silkscreen printing. The Marilyn Monroe canvases were early examples of Andy Warhol’s use of silkscreen printing. This method allowed for the same photo to be used over and over with different coloured ink used each time. Warhol describe this as being a very quick simple process that he found thrilling.

Pop Art is another movement that hasn’t really ended. Many artists still take influence from this movement and although its not a common sight or the most dominate movement currently about it never really came to a end and can still be seen around today.

Expressionism and Abstract Expressionism

The Expressionism art movement started in Germany and was at its hight from around 1905 to 1925, Around this time it mostly dominated the art world. The main feature of Expressionism art the use of exaggerated and distorted features for emotional effect. In this art movement colour in particular can be very intense and often look in-natural. Artists in this movement tended to use paints to create there work and the application tends to be generous and highly textured.

Expressionism brought a new look and judgement towards art. This was art that comes from within the artists. The artists were to show there emotions and reactions to what they saw around them to influence there work to show there representation of what they see.

Franz Marc was at the forefront of German Expressionism. He was very sensitive to his surroundings and his paintings were highly distinctive and powerful. He also co-founded the Blue Rider magazine, a publication that focused on the movement. His later works were mostly based on mythology and wrote a number of plays including the controversial ‘Murder Hope of Women’.

Franz Marc ‘Tiger’ 1912

Abstract Expressionism followed after Expressionism being mostly dominate in America in the 1940s and 50s. Abstract Expressionism was characterised by gestural brush-strokes or mark-making, and the impression of spontaneity. These Expressionists were mostly based in New York. There name sums up there aims as a art movement which was to make art that was abstract but also expressed emotion and personal responses. As a movement they were heavily inspired by the surrealist ideology that art should come from the unconscious mind and the automatism idea of artist Joan Miro, who’s work is interpreted as being surrealist.

‘Woman and Bird in the Moonlight’ Joan Miro 1949

One of the major artist of Abstract Expressionism was an American painter Jackson Pollock. He was the most well-know Abstract Expressionist. His work ranged from scenes of primitive rites to purely abstract drip paintings later in his career. Another of the foremost Abstract Expressionist painters was a Dutch painter Willem De Kooning who immigrated to New York. His abstract work was based upon Surrealist and figurative traditions. Both these artists were considered to be action painters who worked in a spontaneous and improvisatory manner often using large brushes to make bigs sweeping marks on the canvas. The other type of Abstract Expressionist were the colour field painters, who were very interested in religion or myth. They created simple compositions with larges areas having only one colour. The most notable colour field painters were Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Clyfford Still.

‘Birth’ Jackson Pollock 1941

Abstract Expressionism is a movement that hasn’t ever really ended. Even in the current art work many artist continue to paint in a abstract and expressive manner, with most painters staying with this style throughout the whole of there career.

De Stijl (Neoplasticism)

De Stijl was an art movement founded in 1917 starting in Amsterdam and translates to ‘The Style’ in Dutch. Some of the recognised artists in this movement were the painters Theo van Doesburg, who was also a writer and a critic, and Piet Mondrian who are the founders of De Stijl art and pioneers of abstract art, along with the architect Gerrit Reitveld.

The main element of De Stijl art was pure abstraction and universality by the reduction to simple geometric forms with the used of only primary colours and the shades of black and white in there work. De Stijl was also the name of a publication the discussed the groups theories. This publication was published by van Doesburg.

Piet Mondrian – Composition of Red, Blue, Yellow and White: Nom 2 1939

Gerrit Rietveld – Red and Blue Chair 1917

The De Stijl art movement emerged largely in response to the horrors of World War 1 as a wish to remake society in its aftermath. The main point of De Stijl art was to represent a new world by disregarding all complex elements. By only using the primary colours and simple right angle geometric shapes De Stijl art invites those who see it to focus on the most basic representation of the world. Almost as if art was starting a new after WW1.

De Stijl work aimed to show the movements utopian vision and the realisation that there vision was unattainable in the real world effectively brought an end to movement. The cause of De Stijl’s continuing fame is mostly due to the achievement of its best-know member Piet Mondrian.

This is a De Stijl artwork i created inspired by the works of Piet Mondrian.

Dada and Surrealism

Dada was a small artistic and literary movement that appeared in Europe during the middle of the first World War around 1916. The movement its self protested against the horror of WW1 as well as a protest against the upper class who they believed inspired the war. The followers of the movement rejected rules, logic and rational art and embraced the irrational and absurd.

Due to the war a number of the artist, writers and intellectuals found refuge in Zurich (Switzerland being neutral ground) where the art movement was thought to of really started.

One of the main founders of Dadaism was Tristan Tzara a Romanian-born French poet and essayist. Tzara wrote the first Dada texts as well as the movements manifestoes – 1924: Seven Dada Manifestos. While in Pairs he worked with Andre Breton, Philippe Soupault and Louis Aragon to shock the public with there work in Dadaism. In 1929 he move more towards more constructive works in the Surrealism movement.

Poster for Salon Dada – 1921

The Dada movement was a vary male dominated art movement but did have a few female contributors most notably Emmy Hennings. To escape growing nationalism Hennings moved to Zurich in 1915. While in Zurich she worked in a Cabaret where she was the star attraction. She not only performed popular songs from Paris, Berlin and Denmark but also Chinese ballads, folk songs and both her own poems and poetry written by other dadaists.

Twilight Song
for Hugo Ball

Octaves reel, and through the grey years — echoes
as heaps of days collapse upon themselves.
I want only to be yours.
Within my tomb my blond hair grows;
in elderberry bushes live strange folk.
A pale curtain whispers “homicide.”
Two eyes range restless through the room,
inside our cupboards spirits hide.
Little fir trees are the children’s souls
and ancient oaks the souls of aged men
that whisper of miscarried lives.
The cliff-king sings an old, old tune.
I had no guard against the evil eye,
Though black men creep out of the water pail,
The picture book’s Red Riding Hood
Has me in thrall for once and for all time.

A poem by Emmy Hennings

The main element to Dada art was that it was random, depended on chance and cynical. It also reflected life and non-sensical nature of war. One defining element was to be a true Dadaist you had to also be against Dada.

After Dada had died out in Berlin it made small appearances in America and Barcelona but eventually gave way to surrealism roughly around the 1920s. Surrealism used many characteristics from Dada especially in performance with crowds being represented by one person, using a MC to explain or announce each action and purposely provoking the audience.

One of the defining members of surrealism was Andre Breton born 1896. He was know as the fonder of surrealism after being involved with Dadaism for some time with his writings including the first surrealism Manifesto in 1924. He defined surrealism as being ‘pure psychic automatism, by which an attempt is made to express, either verbally, in writing or in any other manner, the true functioning of thought.’

The publishing of the first surrealist manifesto lead to the set up of the Bureau of Surrealist research. The Bureau focus there work towards automatism, dreams, the un conscious, the unexpected, memory and psychological studies. Many of there works were considered ‘dream-like’ and disjointed from reality.

Salvador Dali – Premonition of Civil War 1936

Philippe Halsman – Salvador Dali A (Dali Atomicus) 1941

The end of WW2 generally marked the end of the surrealist movement. During the period of optimism after the war seen movements such as Expressionism/ Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art.

Futurism

In the early 20th century a group of Italian writers and artists created pieces of art to celebrate industrialisation. This artistic movement was called Futurism. The art work in this movement aimed to capture the idea of modernity, the aesthetics of speed and movement and industrial development. ‘Futurists’ worked in nearly every field of art including painting, sculptures, literature and architecture. The painters of Futurism were very successful with the work they produced but many of the ideas of the movement came from writings with manifestos of futurism were written and published.

in the 20th century Futurism was one of the most politicised art movements. Both artists and politicians followed similar agendas of trying to propel change in Italy and Europe. The Futurists of the time in Italy were reported to of intending of starting riots to erupt the ‘status quo’. After World War 1 a ‘second wave’ of Futurism artists emerged with new areas of focus and new members. Around this time it is also recorded that the movement had strong tires to that of Fascism.

One of the most important art works to come out of the Futurism era was the ‘Futurism Manifesto’ which was written by Filippo Tommaso Martinetti (1876 – 1944) an Italian poet and editor and the founder of the Futurist movement. This work was written as celebration of change, originality and industrialism.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

Unique Forms of Continuity and Space

Umberto Boccioni was the only major sculpture among the artists in the futurist movement. In 1913 Boccioni produced his masterpiece ‘Unique Forms of Continuity and Space’. The work inspired by the movement of the body and to illustrate hie theory of ‘dynamism’. Other major artists around include Giacomo Balla an painter, Anton Giulip Bragaglia an artist as well as the architect Antonio Sant’Eila expressed his ideas of modernity in his drawings of ‘La Citta Nuova’ (The New City) (1912 – 1914).

Below is an inspired art piece done be me based upon ‘Zang Tumb Tumb’ Manifesto by Marinetti.

Cubism

Cubism is an early 20th century art movement created by Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) and Georges Braque (1882 – 1963). cubism is normally split into two section – Analytically Cubism which has a strong fragmented style and Synthetic Cubism which uses more simplified geometric shape with a sense of layers.

Picasso main Cubism period was during 1909 to 1912 and was influenced by African Tribal Masks and Great Bathers by Cezanne with its geometric shapes. like many of the other cubist artists at the time his artworks had a distortion of view using multiple view points to create the structures in the image. Georges Braques is also hailed as being the co creator of Cubism and collage. He was a sculptor, engraver and lithographer as well as supposedly being friends with Picasso. Another major artist around this time was Marcel Duchamp. He was inspired by impressionism and studied in Paris. His main section of work was done during 1914 – 18 with his most famous being ‘Nude descending a staircase’ which is a unique piece of art showing a moving figure in Cubism style.

Impressionism and Post Impressionism

The Impressionism Art movement came into light at the end of the 19th century and the start of the  20th century mainly dominate during the 1870s and 19880s. This art movement was thought to break down the barriers of realism with the style of work using ‘primitive’ techniques. The main features of the artwork done at the time showed more light with little mixing of colours creating strong contrast. The pieces are created with short fixed strokes of paint to make the overall image.

Major artists around the Impressionism movement include that of Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890), Edvard Munch (1863 – 1944) and Edgar Degas (1834 – 1917). These artist created some of the most important artworks of the time including The Scream by Edvard Munch, Starry Night by Van Gogh and Water Lilly Pond by Monet.

These artist’s used many new and different techniques and innovations that were invented around the time. New colours and dyes were available to use paint tubes and different styles and designs of brushes were made and used during the Impressionism and post impressionism eras.

Renaissance Art

The Renaissance is a cultural movement that spanned roughly from the 14th century to the 17th century. The main point of Renaissance art focused on things such as Humanism, Realism and Naturalism   Around this time the Church was losing power to Governments with the view of the world changing to scientific theories, people were being struck with the Black Death and other plagues and many technical developments where made throughout the period.

It was during this time that artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519), Michelangelo (1475 – 1564), Donetello (1386 – 1466) and Raphael (1483 – 1520) were creating there artworks that would make them pioneers in years to come.

There were many technical innovations were made at the time that changed the way artists like Da Vici and Donetello worked which lead to the term Renaissance art. Dry docks had been made allowing for increase trade in pigments that led to a wider colour range available to artists. Oil paintings also came in around this time that allowed for a new form of painting for artists to explore. This lead to specific features that were used around the time including the use of perpective and light colours in artworks made. Better more realistic proportions of subject matter became key usually with expressive gestures.

One of the biggest features used in Renaissance Art was the use of perspective that had not been widely used in art before as seen above in Da Vinci’s Last supper. This drawing below was done of a local store near me in a perspective style.