Modernism

Amanda Leung

Modernism describes the movements that “[...] appeared one after another: impressionism, postimpressionism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, constructivism, dadaism, surrealism, expressionism, abstract expressionism, etc.” (Guerilla Girls 59). There are multiple types of Western art that describe modernism because change and revolution was being emphasized during the 20th century. Creativity was encouraged, so artists tried to break the norms with the different uses of styles. However, the role of women artists still wasn’t concrete, since they continued to face struggles. During this time period, women were given a lot more freedom, including the right to vote and more opportunities to have control over the art they made. But, as artists, women still faced struggles and lack of acceptance from critics. Women artists had to find a balance in their work, to make sure that they didn’t overshine their husbands and let their work affect their daily lives.

Prism Isotiques, Sonia Delaunay 

One important artist during this time period was Sonia Delaunay, who mainly used colorful shapes in her paintings. Her art career was controlled by her husband’s success, she put her career on hold from 1908-1953 for him. While working with her husband, Robert, “they developed a theory of color that named simultanism, but he got most of the credit for it” (Guerilla Girls 60). What happened to Sonia is representative of the female roles in the 20th century, it was expected that she would let her husband’s career thrive, while hers was in the shadow. Two of Sonia’s most well-known paintings are “Prisms Isotiques” and “Simultaneous Contrasts.”

The Two Friedas, Frieda Kahlo

Surrealism was the main style used in Frieda Kahlo’s art, since it emphasized emotion and the appearance of women in vulnerable settings. Surrealist artists “[...] constructed women as magic objects and sites on which to project male erotic desire. They re-created themselves as beguiling personalities, poised uneasily between the worlds of artifice (art) and nature, or instinctual life” (Chadwick 314). Kahlo often represented the unconscious and conscious worlds in her paintings, representing her exterior in traditional clothing, but “[...] an interior image nourished on the pain of a body crippled [...]” (Chadwick 314). 

The Broken Column, Frieda Kahlo

Two of Kahlo’s painting representative of this theme are “The Two Friedas” and “The Broken Column.” The facial expression on Kahlo’s face in the paintings and the positioning of her body reveals her true inner emotions relating to the accident. Her self-portraits allowed people to understand how she was feeling after the accident, without her having to directly tell us her emotions.

Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic , Hannah Hoch

German impressionism refers to the art movement before WWI that emphasized distorted colors to display subjective feelings based on what artists saw. Meanwhile, Dada art occurred in reaction to WWI and had a diverse type of mediums. Pieces using the dada art style included sculptures, photographs, and collages. Dada art was used not create aesthetically pleasing art, but to make comments on nationalism and materialism through sarcasm. The Delaunays and Hannah Hoch were some of the important artists representative of this movement.

Image sources:
https://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2010/11/modernart.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6b/Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife.jpg
http://www.fridakahlo.org/images/paintings/the-two-fridas.jpg
http://people.bethel.edu/~rooway/American%20test%203/American%20Scene%20Social%20Realism/Kahlo/broken_columb.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/ee/58/c6/ee58c63fe75d64192cb5819d7ebaee9d.jpg

Sources:

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Londres: Thames & Hudson, 2012. Print. 

The Guerrilla Girls, The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion To The History of Western Art. New York: Penguin Books USA, 1998. Print.