Modernism & Postmodernism

Modernism & Postmodernism

Modernism refers to the era in which experimentation arose in art from the late 19th century to the mid 20th century, following World War I. (Kuiper, n.d.) The Modernist Art movement consisted of Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism and Futurism. The artists during this time desired to break apart from conventional methods of painting and the conventions of representational art. To achieve this goal, they abandoned previous rules of perspective, color and composition in order to work out their own visions. (Modernism in Art, n.d.) 

  During this time women artists were able to get out of their comfort zone and began to work on art pieces they would have not worked on in the past. For example, Valadon and Modersohn-Becker were two of the first women artists to work extensively with the nude female form. Their paintings colluded with, and challenged, narratives that constructed female identity, through connections to nature, and that viewed women as controlled by emotions, sexual instincts, and biology. (Chadwick, 282) Before Suzanne Valadon was an artist she was a model, which helped her in her work. 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 movement. Valadon often placed her figures in specific domestic settings, surrounding them with images of domesticity and community. (Chadwick, 285) Below is some of her work. 

Suzanne Valadon, The Blue Room, 1923

Suzanne Valadon, Grandmother and Young Girl Stepping into the Bath, c. 1908

As shown above, Valadon often turned her bathers away from the viewer and depicted them absorbed in their own activities. (Chadwick, 286) Turning away the bather from the viewer and focusing on the activity rather the figure, demonstrates the changes these artists were making in their art. Typically photos of nude women were demonstrated being controlled by the male gaze, but Valadon wanted to change this.

Paula Modhersohn-Becker was associated with expressionism. "Her nude self-portraits may be the first such paintings in oil by a woman artist, but as such, they reveal all the contradictions inherent in the woman's artist's attempt to insert her own image into existing artistic conventions."(Chadwick, 289) This demonstrates to us how women during this period were comfortable attempting to try producing new art. Modhersohn-Becker ignored conventional prespective and anecdotal detail to produce monumental images of idealized motherhood. (Chadwick, 287) Mother and Child Lying Nude is not your typical mother-child portrait, but Modhersohn-Becker used her art to demonstrate the connection a mother and child have at an early age.

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

The main goal during this time for artists was to overthrow the conventions of the past generation of artists.  Everyone wanted to be the first artists to create something, which lead to the creation of all the -isms that were possible during this period. During this time it was believed that art was only for the elite not for everyone, which is why everyone competed against each other to be better. These standards changed when Postmodernism was created. 

Following the Modernism era, was post modernism. Post modernism sought to overthrow modernism and create a new version of art. This new version of art would allow anyone to express their art in whatever way they chose. Therefore, nobody in this time could be told that their work is not considered art or that it is not good enough. Everyone's work was to be accepted. This new era brought about many artist. 

Barbara Kruger is an example of the amazing artists that flourished during this period. Kruger worked as a graphic designer and art director which then led to her becoming an artist. Her early career path directly influenced the style her art would eventually take. Kruger's blown-up, severely cropped photographs of women, and their short accompanying texts would subvert the meanings of both the image and text in order to destabilize the positioning of woman as objects. She emphasized the ways in which language manipulated and undermined the assumption of masculine control over language and viewing, by refusing to complete the cycle of meaning, and by shifting pronouns in order to expose the positioning of women as "other."(Chadwick, 382) This kind of art is important because it demonstrates how women were fighting for themselves to be treated as equal and not be sexualized in the art world. Below is one of Kruger's art pieces that demonstrate this type of work. 

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face), 1981

Another artist who stood out to me during this time was Faith Ringgold. In 1985-86, Faith Ringgold executed Change: Faith Ringgold's Over 100 Pound Weight Loss Story Quilt. The quilt not only recorded Ringgold's gain and loss of weight over two decades, but also became a pictorial transcription of her autobiography, visually recording her transformation through childhood, adolescence, marriage, motherhood, and career. (Chadwick, 415) This work stood out to me because Ringgold was able to take a quilt and tell her entire life story in it, which to me is extremely beautiful. 

Faith Ringgold, Change: Faith Ringgold's Over 100 Pound Weight Loss Story Quilt, 1985-86

Another piece from Faith Ringgold that I enjoyed seeing was The Wedding: Lover's Quilt No. 1 1986. In this piece the text-squares are restricted to one vertical strip in the center, like the aisle of the church. The placement of the text is appropriate, because the text-strip tells a story of infidelity and fear that divides bride from groom, family from family, and friends from each other. (Morris & Dunn, n.d.) Formatting the quilt in such a way is extremely creative and shows how much thought Ringgold put into her work. 

Faith Ringgold, The Wedding: Lover's Quilt No. 1, 1986.

Modernism paved the way in art to allow woman to attempt to become "the perfect" artist. Women made a name for themselves each time they created a new -ism. Postmodernism on the other hand, accepted everyone and their art. This is a major change compared to when the art world began. While art as a whole has made major changes, some things have remained the same. Women artists still get collected less and shown less. (Guerrilla Girls, 90) Hopefully in the years to come this changes so women artist receive the attention they deserve. 

Citation

Kuiper,K.(n.d.). Modernism in Art. Retrieved November 18, 2019, from https://www.britannica.com/art/Modernism-art.

Modernism in Art. (n.d.). Retrieved November 18, 2019, from https://modernism-literature-movement.weebly.com/modernism-in-art.html.

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. 4th Edition. United Kingdom: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1990

The Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998

Morris, A. R., & Dunn, M. M. (n.d.). Narrative Quilts and Quilted Narratives: The Art of Faith Ringgold and Alice Walker . Retrieved November 19, 2019, from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0462/d5924b84043351371dc623dbefe04668f194.pdf.

Links

https://www.britannica.com/art/Modernism-art

https://modernism-literature-movement.weebly.com/modernism-in-art.html