As Wikipedia says, “modernism is both a philosophical movement and an art movement that, along with cultural trends and changes, arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries” (Wikipedia). This definition is too dry to describe modernism; therefore, we have to dig deeper. Modernism is time “of the time.” It is a time where art finally has no rules. It is a time where we don’t exactly see the whole picture, rather pieces that make up the whole. “Modernity is both linked to the desire for the new that fashion expresses so well, and culturally tied to the development of that new visual language for the twentieth century – abstraction” (Chadwick, 253). Abstraction, fashion, social changes, visual language, decorative art, textiles, geometry, individualism, and freedom are some of the attributes of modernism. It is a big cluster consisting of impressionism, postimpressionism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, constructivism, dada-ism, surrealism, expressionism, abstract expressionism, and the list goes on. We don’t precisely know the birthplace of modernism, but we do know that Berliners, Parisians, and Muscovites had awakening moments due to revolutions and social changes that took place. Although white men somewhat took over the art (again), women still calmed their ownership of society. Furthermore, with more freedom, and with some extreme changes in social structures that were way overdue, more women have become artists.
 |
| Sonia Delaunay, Prismes électriques, 1914 |
Not only Sonia Terk Delaunay was one of those females; her husband Robert was a real example of a white male mentioned previously. Sonia’s eager to learn, to think of new ideas, and to be innovative is an understatement. The fact that she went from Russia to Paris to study art speaks the volume. Although Sonia and her husband Robert were great artists of their time, Robert Delaunay got the most credit for the work. Sonia states, “From the day we started living together, I played second fiddle, and I never put myself first until the 1950s” (Chadwick, 261). A considerable crown of English and French artist abounded the naturalism in favor of stylized abstractions. Some of the artists focused on geometric patterns derived from mosaic and
 |
| Sonia Delaunay, Sonia's Design for Clothes and Citroen, 1925 |
tile work; others were interested in decorating fabrics, furniture, pottery. All of a sudden, art became arts and crafts.
For the longest time ever, the female body has been organized for male viewing pleasure. Although we have been slowly moving away from the needy male gaze, it has not been an easy journey. The difficulty of distinguishing between overtly sexualized and other forms of looking, the issue of female subjectivity, and the identification of the female body with nature, generation, and the instinctual life have become important areas of investigations for contemporary feminism (Chadwick, 282). Many females turned to the female body as their primary weapon against the male gaze. One of those female artists was Suzanne Valadon. In her Grandmother and Young Girl Stepping into the Bath, c. 1908 art piece, she emphasized the context, specific moment, and physical action.
 |
| Suzanna Valadon, Grandmother and Young Girl Stepping into the Bath c.1908 |
Although Suzanne worked extensively with the nude female form, she also fought the male gaze with a fully clothed woman yet so different from what was desired. Suzanna's The Blue Room work from 1923 was, to a very high degree, rebellious. The Blue Room goes against all of the expectations women should comply with. She smoked, she was educated, she was dressed in pants, she had short hair, and she did not fit 90-60-90 measurements.
 |
| Suzanna Valadon, The Blue Room, 1923 |
It is fair to say that postmodernism starts somewhat after World War II. Going back to Wikipedia, postmodernism, by definition, is a broad movement that developed in the mid- to late 20th century across philosophy, the arts, architecture, and criticism, marking a departure from modernism (Wikipedia). When it comes to this period of art and society, we can describe it with attributes such as irony, sarcasm, skepticism, enrichment, rationality, intellectuality and uncertainty. Postmodernism is the reaction to modernism. While modernism looks at the world from an abstract perspective, postmodernism looks at the world from a hyper-reality perspective. The female protagonist continued addressing to a female audience the issues specified as “female” – domestic life, the family, maternity, self-scarifies, and romance. This time around, the “female issues” that we have seen for decades were described in a sarcastic and ironic way, which makes postmodernism indeed what it was.
A great example is Louise Bourgeois and her Femme-Maison from 1946. Under the influence of surrealism, she developed the personal, quasi-figurative imagery of these femme-Maison paintings with their houses
 |
| Louise Bourgeois, Femme-Maison, c.1946 |
perched on top of women’s bodies in place of heads (Chadwick, 324). These particular paintings scream identity search, rage, fear, and frustration to be a woman. Everything women do is viewed from a male’s perspective, and it inherits the assumption, judgment, and stereotype that comes with sexuality, motherhood, and housekeeping. All the Femme Maison, which literally means women/housewife, share the same idea. Society sees the house as a safe place, while women see it as a domestic prison. Women were jailed, abused, and patronized in their own homes. The Femme Maison paintings concisely summarize the struggle of every woman and their destiny to live with the responsibilities and expectations to maintain the balance of wife, mother, and housekeeper while trying to retain identity in such sapping domestic circumstances.
As far as we have seen through out the history of women art, women have been fighting the same fight. Fight against the male gaze, fight for the equality, fight for the recognition. Each and every period has some of the most extravagant attributes that describe the significance of the era, yet women find new ways to fight the same fight.
Works Cited
Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Thames & Hudson, 2012.
Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. Penguin Books, 1998.
“Postmodernism.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism.
“Modernism.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism.
No comments:
Post a Comment