modernism

Alexa Sanchez

Art and Women

post 4

4/3/2017             

                             Modernism

        In general, Art in the 20th century was arguably the most eventful period in the history of art, the 20th century witnessed the birth and outgrowth of abstraction, along with innumerable movements that came and went amidst radical changes across the globe. Modernism? A movement along with cultural trends and changes that tends to break with classical and traditional forms. Even then modernism is a difficult cultural impulse to define. It's advocacy of individualism, self-expression and self-criticism withheld from the durable recommendations of mid-19th century art.  Modernism, according to the Guerilla Girls, "In Western art, movements and "isms” appeared, one after another: impressionism, post-impressionism, . . .  Put them all together and what do we get? "Modernism"' (Guerilla Girls 59). Many of most influential contemporary, modern art movements and developments of the century include Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Minimalism. 

            

Modernism tested the idea that art should be lifelike, realistic. Reflect of Abstraction for instance. Using intense colors often applied, Abstraction prolonged impressionism while denying its boundaries. Its prominence is on geometric form, misleading form for expressive effect.The use unnatural or random colors, for example, neon green circles. Sonia Delaunay, and her husband Robert Delaunay are credited for this type of art. Although Sonia did not get as much acknowledgement as Robert did. She began to blow up once her husband died, they opened up the field of collaborative art and showed how extensive it could be. Their work held symbols inside them, like in Robert’s “Hommage to Bleriot”.

Sonia Delaunay swimsuits 1928

    

Sonia Delaunay’s exquisitely designed collection of fifty swimsuits (1928) assisted in the bringing of the new age in fashion in the 20th century. Sonia was an exceptional influential designer of the 1920’s, she was seen as being one of the developers of a popular art movement “one of the great dames of Modernism”.

Elaine De Kooning 

Bacchus #3 1978 

Abstract Expressionism is largely remembered as a movement defined by the paint-slinging. The main characteristic of abstract art is that it has no recognizable subject.  Elaine de Kooning was a high-volume and multipurpose painter, writer, and teacher. Although she was closely associated with the New York School and Abstract Expressionism, De Kooning disdained from just creating a singular style and instead painted in an assortment from realism to abstraction. “Style is something I’ve always tried to avoid. I’m more interested in character,” De Kooning said. The focuses in her work also diverse, including tradition, sceneries, and photography; one of her later bodies of work was inspired by the cave paintings in Lascaux. De Kooning was a fixture of New York’s tight-knit Abstract Expressionist regiment, which included her husband Willem de Kooning, she separated herself from the rest by making portraits. She edged her masterpieces with the movement’s high-octane gestures, getting inspiration as well as her own obstruction caused by the marginalization of female artists. Her “Faceless Men” series, for example, disguised the landscapes of her prominent male contemporaries, like post-war poet and art critic Frank O’Hara. Being first exposed at her first solo exhibition at the Stable Gallery in 1952.