Modernism was a style that influenced art and architecture that dominated the Western culture from the 19th century up until the 1960s. Some mentionable movements associated with modern art were Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Impressionism, and Futurism. Chadwick writes that "Modernity is both linked to the desire for the new that fashion expresses so well, and culturally tied to the development of a new visual language for the twentieth century – abstraction" (Chadwick). Women during this time wanted to be treated with equal rights in the different sectors of our majority male-dominated society, especially in art. Modernism quickly rejected the ideology of realism, and it was revolutionary and created a significant shift in art, generally for men and women.
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Suzanne Valadon, "Grandmother and Young Girl Stepping
into the Bath, highlights women existing exclusively for themselves. |
In modern art, artists were able to display female subjects without the work feeling or being sexualized. Not only were women creators of revolutionary art, but they were also in charge of the image that they wanted women to have. This new form of expression from women caused a new wave of feminism because women were no longer just subjects of the male gaze. They were finally in control of their movements, an idea illustrated in Suzanne Valadon's Grandmother and Young Girl Stepping into the Bath.
Before this time, the male gaze has used art inspired by female bodies for personal pleasure and to objectify women's bodies. Society excluded women from male-dominated art shows and institutions up until about 1970. Suzanne Valadon's painting The Blue Room displays a woman behaving naturally, not posing for anyone, but rather just relaxing normally like a human being. She emphasized the awkward gestures in her works of subjects apparently in control of their movements (Chadwick 285). Women being depicted as having control was contrary to the popular images throughout art that had shown women as being controlled through the male gaze. Women had begun to create pieces of art using rags, fabric, and thread associated with women's cultural traditions. However, only certain materials and specific processes were glorified and honored over others (Chadwick 363). When women like Gina Pane climbed up and down a sharp ladder, depicting the glass ceiling restricting women from climbing up the ladder of success, it was ignored or labeled as a masochist by American feminists (Chadwick 367).
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Gina Pane climbing the difficult
ladder of success. Escalade 1971,
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Feminism developed as an international movement when women artists started questioning where to exhibit their work and finding space to work. Women inspired and developed new ideas in modernism in all sectors of art, including clothes, how people perceived them in society, and their abilities as human beings.
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| Red Canna, 1924 by Georgia O'Keeffe |
In Europe, many women were creating new ways of forming art. They persevered and eventually were acknowledged even though males were superior in the art industry. One of the first women artists that influenced modern art was Georgia O'Keeffe. She used several techniques from a variety of other artists, and Paul Strand is one of those artists who influenced her close-up paintings. She used his method of cropping and painting American objects that were abstract and detailed. The Society for Applied Art in Munich displayed works from artists such as Margaretha von Brauchitsch, who's embroidery designs gained a mass following and amount of attention at the World Exposition in Paris around the year 1900. Chadwick explained that she used nature and abstract designs in her work (Chadwick, 253). Like many artists, Eva Hesse was praised for feminine minimalist abstraction when she was close to her death. Being a woman artist was taking a risk while alive with the hopes of becoming acknowledge and recognized after death. Since many women like Lee Krasner and Alma Thomas had to work harder than the male artists during their lifetime to be taken seriously, they admitted that it was still worth it at the end because they enjoyed what they did and were passionate.
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Barbara Kruger
"Who does she think she is?" |
In the late 20th century, Postmodernism emerged. This movement is often coupled with modernism because while they do have specific topics in common, they also serve to exhibit each other's differences. Postmodernism rejected the ideas of modernism and consisted of the "breaking down of the unified traditions of Modernism" (Chadwick 380). As stated in the article, "What is Postmodernist Art?" the objective of Postmodernism was to show that art is something "special," which should be "elevated from" popular taste." This desire to be something experimental and expressive led to the development of new mediums. It was during this movement that conceptual art, performance art, and installation art were introduced. The use of innovated technology allowed different forms of expression and exhibited the idea that all art forms are equally valid and that art can be made by any individual and out of anything. Modernism, however, portrayed different levels of art with painting being the most valued. One theme both movements had in common was their push for feminism. However, even though modernism enabled women to make tremendous progress, male artists still continued to be labeled as geniuses. Postmodernist artists utilized novel forms of technology such as video, or live performances so that their messages were more accessible to the public. Artists tackled issues such as combating the notion that sexuality and gender are fixed, the double standards and efficiently introduced the concept of the female gaze. Barbara Kruger is essential to the Postmodernist movement as she introduced a very innovative and peculiar type of artwork. Barbara Kruger reused photographs she found in magazines and such and created distinctive collages that exhibited the pictures in the background with blunt, aggressive phrases with impacting red and white fonts in the forefront. Her artwork engages and challenges anyone who views it, as she forces them to examine stereotypes and troubling behaviors in society, such as consumerism
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| Marina Abramovic, 1974 "Rhythm 0" |
An incredibly crucial postmodernist artist was Marina Abramovic because she created an art piece unlike any other called "Rhythm 0". It involved an interactive performance with her audience, where she laid out objects such as feathers or knives that respectively belonged to the pain or pleasure category. She then told her audience; they could do whatever they wanted to her. This piece sheds light on the nature of humanity and how distinct people can be. This performance took a dangerous turn as people became increasingly aggressive towards Marina, and others had to intervene to protect her from harm. Her performance showed how humanity could be divided into specific categories. For instance, there were the protectors, who felt compassion for Marina and the aggressors, who wanted to take advantage of the situation.
Links
Work Cited
Chadwick, W. (2012). Women, Art, and Society(5th ed.). New York, NY: Thames and Hudson.
Guerrilla Girls (1998). The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York, NY: Penguin Books
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