Modernism is a departure from tradition and the start of something new, it’s a movement that leaves tradition behind and presents something never seen before. In art, It’s an innovatIve form that has new and different styles in abstract, feelings and ideas, fantasies, and creativity. Modernism is leaving behind reality and allowing your imagination to take over. The art doesn’t simply portray the message, It requires you to think deeper than what is presented. Women in Europe greatly influenced the techniques and the development of modernism. Artists like Charles Baudelaire and Wassily Kandinsky played a major role in the new aesthetic demand in modernism. Whitney Chadwick describes Vanessa Bell, a woman artist in Europe who influenced the development of abstraction and shaped modernism.
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| Vanessa Bell, Cracow 1913 |
“Within a year of the 1910 exhibition, Bell and Grant had begun their experiments in decoration with lacquered boxes, introducing geometric patterns derived from mosaic and tile work” (Chadwick 256). Vanessa Bell not only contributed to the movement of modernism but she introduced the abstraction contribution of modernism by incorporating geometric patterns in her paintings. Sonia Delaunay was another European artist who contributed to modernism with her paintings and decorations. Delaunay believed that modernity could best be expressed through a dynamic interplay of color harmonies and dissonances (Chadwick 260). Although this was true, Delaunay focused her work on surface structure.
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| Sonia Delaunay, Couverture, 1911 This image is an example of modernism |
The important circumstances that aided modernism were the techniques of design and craft; women applied these new approaches of art, and they were very essential in the expansion of modernism. Sonia Delaunay is a perfect example of this phenomenon. Sonia found her true liking of surface structure but she didn’t find out right away. She began by applying the techniques of modernism to her art and it led to her finding her true passion. “Delaunay’s work with textiles and embroidery encouraged her to break down forms and emphasize surface structure” (Chadwick 261). In other words, Sonia’s testing the waters in modernism led to another thing, where she discovered her favorite form of art.
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| Sonia Delaunay, Prismes Electriques, 1914 |
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| Vanessa Bell, The Tub, 1917 |
According to an article, postmodernism is defined as, “a reaction against the ideas and values of modernism… the term is associated with skepticism, irony, and philosophical critiques of the concepts of universal truths and objective reality.” In contrast to modernism, after the second world war, modernism began to be questioned and criticized. “Abstract and figurative art coexisted despite the increasing critical and curatorial attention directed toward the abstract expressionists and their successors after 1948” (Chadwick 316). This demonstrates how post- modernism is a reaction to “the ideas and values of modernism”. Postmodernism is a departure from modernism. The artist, Lousie Bourgeois is a perfect example of a woman that has contributed to the themes of postmodernism. In her painting “Femme-Maison” she paints a woman's naked body with a home over her head. This is supposed to address the conflict that a woman faces in the relationship between her and her home. With her sarcasm in the painting, she addresses the political issue of gender inequality. She leaves behind the modernism ideas of abstract, and moves to the postmodernism idea which is more intellectual. The painting addresses the issues that women live with; living in a domestic box while society reinforces the safety of this particular box. She paints the home to cover the woman’s head and only show her body, the windows in the home are small, which represent a woman’s freedom. Although the decade had moved on to postmodernism, there were still women in the 1950s that contributed to the abstract of modernism. “Mitchell, Frankenthaler, and Hartigan were ambitious artists who received positive critical support during the early 1950s and whose work was included in major Abstract Expressionist exhibitions” (Chadwick 326). These women incorporated their works to the visual theme of Abstract Expressionism. Another artist who contributed to the postmodernism movement was Barbara Kruger’s, specifically her unnamed piece, “Your gaze hits the side of my face”.
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| Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your gaze hits the side of my face), 1981 |
Postmodernism was an expansion and departure from abstract, and an emergence into addressing politics through art. Chadwick likewise describes the meaning of Barba Kruger’s piece, “Your gaze hits the side of my face”. “She emphasizes the ways in which language manipulates and undermines 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 woman as other” (Chadwick 382). Her powerful piece not only is a theme in postmodernism, but emphasizes the feminist movement in post-modernistic art. Kruger addresses a message to her audience, but unlike others, she has a uniqueness to her message. Sherrie Levine was a unique artist who rephotographed and repainted works of Modernist art from different photographers. Levine’s work situated the ideas within patriarchy. She doesn’t try to receive credit for originality but instead puts an emphasis on the act of refusal. “Hers is an act of refusal: refusal of authorship, rejection of notions of self-expression originality, or subjectivity” (Chadwick 384). Levine was contributing to the postmodern critical theory, Chadwick explains the postmodern critical theory: “challenges to modernist notions of male authorship, originality, and the autonomy of the art object” (Chadwick 384). The Guerrilla girls describe the change in women’s lives during the 20th century. “There was still lots of discrimination, still lots of critics nagging that women’s work was not as good as men’s. But there was also more opportunity than ever before for a woman to live her life, and make art on her own terms” (The Guerrilla Girls 59). The 20th century was an influential decade for women, not only did they finally get the right to vote which allowed them to have more freedom and be artists but women had a big contribution in modernism and postmodernism. To conclude, both movements, modernism and postmodernism, had a great impact on the importance and expression of feminism, it gave women an opportunity to expand their art and have a voice. Especially postmodernism, which allowed feminism, sexism, and patriarchy to be addressed and talked about.
Work Cited
Unknown author, Postmodernism art term, Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/postmodernism
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
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