Modern Art

Modern art started at a time when artists were eager for a change and sought new forms of artistic expressions.  Its birth can be traced back during the late 18^th century up to the 19^th century in which traditions of the past have been thrown aside in an effort to create an art that were more appropriate to modern life. Modern art is the creative world’s response to the rapid social transformation wrought by the industrial revolution in Western Europe, triggering the emergence of new ideas in all areas including the fine arts. The artists experimented with new materials, new techniques of painting, and expressed their views of the world around them according to their own unique perspective.

A wide variety of movements and schools arose to become the core of modern art. These movements are groupings of artists categorized according to their specific objective and artistic style. However, this simple approach of classifying individuals into units of like-minded and historically connected artists is not always accurate or appropriate, as many movements or schools consist of widely diverse artists and modes of artistic representation. Furthermore, some artists do not fit into any particular movement or category. The imperfect designation of movements allows the vast history of modern art to be broken down into smaller segments separated by contextual factors that aid in examining the individual artists and works.  The modern era encompasses ground-breaking movements like Art Nouveau, Cubism, Expressionism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Pop-Art, as well as a host of smaller schools like Pointillism, Der Blaue Reiter, Die Brucke, Bauhaus, Orphism, Social Realism, Futurism, De Stijl, Op-Art, Hard Edge Painting and Feminist art, to name a few.

Progression in the visual arts occurred centuries prior to the modern era. However, one common characteristic seen during these early modern eras was an idealization of the subject matter. Artists did not derive from their subjective perspective, but rather on what they visualized as the epitome of their subject. Although, during the early decades of the 19^th century, artists across the continent were split on how they created their artworks. While some artists portray people and situations objectively, with imperfections and all, others focused on emphasizing the visual sensation of their observed subjects instead of an accurate and naturalistic depiction. This practice represented the beginnings of abstraction in the visual arts.

Most of the successful and creative modern artists were “avant-gardes”, which is French for “vanguard”. To put it simply, being avant-garde involves exploring new artistic methods or experimenting with new techniques in order to produce better art, and to continually challenge the established common artistic form for the sake of conveying the artists’ experience of modern life. Modern artists were also introduced to a new style called Pictorialism, an approach to photography that emphasizes beauty of the subject matter, tonality, and composition rather than the documentation of reality. As technology further developed, photography became increasingly accessible to the general public. This posed a serious threat to classical artistic modes, as sculpture and even painting, could not capture the same degree of detail as photography. Due to this, artists were obliged to find new methods of expression which led to new paradigms in art.

References:

Modern art. (n.d.). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_art

Modern art. (n.d.). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/387137/modern-art

Modern Art. (n.d.). Visual Arts Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/modern-art.htm

Wolf, J. (n.d.). Modern art. theartstory.org. Retrieved March 21, 2015, from http://www.theartstory.org/definition-modern-art.htm

Esaak, S. (n.d.). What Is Modern Art?. arthistory.about.com. Retrieved March 21, 2015, from http://arthistory.about.com/od/modernart/f/what_is.-Eoj.htm

Avant-Garde Art. (n.d.). Visual Arts Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 22, 2015, from http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/definitions/avant-garde-art.htm

Pictorialism. (n.d.). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 22, 2015, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/752375/Pictorialism

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