A Modern Instance

haunted house to partake in a study of its paranormal activity. Eleanor Vance, the protagonist, is exceptionally susceptible to the haunting and feels oddly drawn to the house, with her life ultimately ending in suicide after she was ordered to leave. Modern Times, by Charlie Chaplin, is set in the 1930s during the time of a depression and follows the story of Charlie (as himself) and his precarious…

paint what he sees and is who he is. They began to understand light and color and even pigmentations of oil and other chemicals (1). Yet rather than painting scenes from insides they wanted to paint the world, as the world, outside in that moment in modern, contemporary life. These Impressions were heavily influenced by Japanese Woodprints that illustrated the trade between Japan and the West in the last 1800s (1). They referred to this art as Uliyo-e means “fleeting or floating science”.…

Rachel Lowry writes in her essay “Straddling Online and Offline Profiles, Millennials Search for Identity” that according to a recent online study, one out of four Millennials say they can only be their true self when alone (p. 500). But in this modern age of social media and smartphones, are we ever truly alone? Everyone can be connected with people all over the world in a second, and everyone can easily find out information about whoever they want with a simple Google search. Consequently,…

Sonia Delaunay and her husband Robert were at the forefront of style and artistic innovation. It was popular at the time, and continues to be to this day, to create art that does not depict the true nature of reality. As the trends of art were in full swing towards cubism, which tended to utilize a more muted color palette, the Delaunay’s wanted to bring back color in their works while still depicting geometric forms. The new movement used to describe the works of the Delaunay’s was called…

Aleksandr Rodchenko lived in the time between November 23rd of 1981 and December 3rd of 1956. His legacy and influence, however, still persists today. He left behind a visible mark across graphic design. Rodchenko brought with him abstraction conventions, line as a structural element and the innovation of art to having a practical application in everyday life. Starting in 1910 with the School of Arts in Kazan, Rodchenko first emerged with painting (Karginov 9). In terms of influences, Rodchenko…

Jackson Pollock was an abstract artist whose paintings have a deeper meaning than they seem to have. Everything he put on a canvas represented a form of expression whether through chalk or paint splatters. It was a way for him to be vulnerable and put his thoughts into a body of work. Pollock was a fan of John Cage’s music, because Cage too was pushing normal artistic views. Cage was introduced to the idea of Abstract Expressionism by an exhibit by Mark Tobey. He realized that art could just…

in their natural state, outdoors. In The Weather Project, Eliasson brings inside the weather, which is a part of the natural world that is ever-present, even in our concrete cities. He has brought a part of London into the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern, where this project was realised in 2003. The installation is fairly simple to describe- a semicircular ‘sun’ giving off a yellow light hangs high above the hall, set against an uneven ceiling mirror which reflects the semicircle into a full,…

Anna Pavlova was born on February 12, 1881 in St. Petersburg, Russia. After she attended the Imperial Ballet School she made her own company debut in 1899 and she quickly became the prima ballerina. Her breakthrough performance was in The Dying Swan in 1905 which became her signature role. Contracting double pneumonia while she was on tour Pavlova died in 1931. Anna’s active imagination and love of fantasy drew her to the world of ballet. Looking back to her childhood she described her budding…

The practice of writing-whether it was to contextualize their own work, or that of their peers through analytical and critical writing-became an increasingly common practice among artists during the 1960’s. This was perhaps a consequence of the sudden increase in accessibility of university education and graduate degrees in fine arts in the mid 20th century. One such writer-artist was Dan Graham, who consistently published various written works related to his artistic production over more than…

trends. Although there are many differences among countries at one period of time, you will find that trends seem to make their way around the globe and expand to represent a certain style of that certain period. One example would be art from the modern world, which includes a time frame from 1800 through 1945. Realism was a popular theme and style for many artists in this particular time period. Basically, artists chose to produce pieces which displayed everyday actions instead of unordinary or…