Dada

1. What did “modernism” mean in the 1960’s, for art writers such as Clement Greenberg and Michael Fried? In the late 1950’s and 60’s, modernistic art was referred to as ‘high modernism’. This term was generated by Greenberg’s well thought out and expressive theorizations of modern art. At that time, there were numerous issues in regards to modern art. The art market was growing at an accelerated rate due to the variation in artistic approaches in a fast pace and competitive world. As a result,…

When one hears the name ‘Salvador Dali’, one can’t help but think of the surrealist movement. The two have become so intertwined, it’s hard to discard the cemented association. After all, it was Dali who would bring attention and recognition to the movement. It’s important to note that the surrealist school is known for dismissing what was previously valued, like technique and grandiose, and taking on a new subject matter - all things taboo. Dali's major contribution to the Surrealist movement…

. Although theses three modern styles varied, the works involved all occupied a new and more complex space. Mel Gooding explains this as a ‘trend in modern art away from the representation of recognisable objects in pictorial space and towards presentation of a painting or sculpture as a real object in real space.’ Up until this time the pictorial space created in the art work aimed to create the illusion of a real pictorial space for the spectator. The technique of one point perspective which…

World War One was a time where violence, terror, and heavy bloodshed were the only words fit enough to describe the destruction happening in those years. One German painter, Otto Dix, witnessed all of these things, first hand, during his volunteered service in the German Army from 1915 until being discharged in 1918 due to a neck injury (“Otto Dix”). From his experience in the war, watching many soldiers be physically destroyed, and others, including himself, be mentally broken down into tiny,…

Some artists set out to challenge their audience through a subversion of artistic conventions and an innovative approach to their artmaking decisions and actions. Two such visionaries are the conceptual artists Marcel Duchamp and Antony Gormley who have successfully experimented with both the form and philosophy of art. Marcel duchamp defied the traditionalist movement, through challenging the conventional styles which have been around for centuries. Nevertheless, becoming the founding father of…

In Mary Borden’s compilation of poems from, The Forbidden Zone, she focuses on the denial of the cruelty and dehumanization effects of the Great War as a coping mechanism. Not only does she provide the perspectives of women, but also the different experiences of the infantry men and the officers. Borden presents two specific types of women throughout her poems. The women who sacrificed their lucidity to become nurses and the women who remained at home with a romanticized idea of war. In her…

There has been great debate over the difference between the surrealist and the avant-garde, and whether or not they are simply different branches of the same movement, that surrealism is just a romanticised extension of the avant-garde. André Breton, the movement’s considered leader, regarded surrealism as a belief in superior forms of reality in his 1924 Surrealist Manifesto, and irrespective of more contemporary arguments over the exact definition or difference, was above all explicit in his…

When Andres Breton first used the word surrealism, he claimed ownership of the word, attributing it to the movement and claiming it was independent from any prior associations. From that point in time in 1924, surrealism thinking has come far in terms of the depth of interpretation through a variety of works that have been published ever since. This progress is best exemplified with Breton’s original manifesto and Anais Nin’s more recent novel, House of Incest, where there is a similarity in…

The American modernist are “American” because they choose to live and work in the United States. The American modernist were “modernist “because they struggled with the problem of modernism central to accepting the beginning of the 20th century. The America modernist are also significant for the late art that they influenced. (Spam, 2016) Subject and Styles Joseph Stella was an immigrant to America as an artist he had a figurative art…

By discussing the conditions during the Postmodern era we can understand why artists such as Tracey Emin, Cindy Sherman, The Chapman Brothers chose to reject traditional aesthetics instead conveying their intentions through shocking subjects and media to convey their intentions to the audience. “In both Britain and New York contemporary artists have shunned the tradition of aesthetics, preferring to communicate their meaning through shocking subjects and media, what is now referred to as the…