We continue to move forward in Media Arts: History and Theory, finding us in the mid-18th century to 19th century. Where a lot of advancements are happening with the Industrial Revolution. During this time, economies were based on large-scale industry, mechanized manufacturing, and the factory system. This brought new machines, power sources, and new ways of organizing causing industries to become more productive and efficient. It was also during this time that Modernism and Modern Art were born. New forms of transportation came to be such as, railroads, steam engines, and the subway which changed the way people lived, worked, and traveled. This allowed space for individuals to expanding their worldviews and accessing new ideas. Workers flocked to cities for industrial jobs, growing the urban populations and urban's centers prospered.
It was during this time that artists made art based on their own personal experience and topics they chose. Which was different than what was allowed in art previously. With the help from Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), the idea of a subconscious mind, many artists began exploring dreams, symbolism and personal iconography. This opened up a new world for artists. Whatever they imagined, they could paint. They were no longer limited to painting only what they want to see. Artists experimented with expressive use of color, non-traditional materials, new techniques and mediums which challenged the notion that art must depict the world, realistically.
Modernism became to be in the late 19th century to mid-20th century. Modernist broke away from the past. They searched for new forms of expression, and were no longer controlled by Academia. They sought out new alignment with the experience and values that came with industrial life. Artists would use new imagery, materials, and techniques to create artworks they felt reflected the realities and hopes of modern societies. There was now freedom in art. People created art to just create art. They weren't paid to create a specific type of art. They weren't told what they had to paint or what they couldn't paint.
The Modernist Art movement would have been nothing if it weren't for the Impressionist Movement. Developed by Claude Monet and other Paris-based artists from the early 1860s. Impressionists focused their paintings on capturing a sense of immediacy with their subject matter usually being casual, everyday life enhanced by the fleeting effects of light and the atmosphere. Critics rejected Impressionists and used "Impressionism" as an insult, implying the works were only an impression of an artwork and shouldn't be considered actually art. What made Impressionists different was that they didn't use black on their color pallet, created hues separately on the canvas, and painted outside as a everyday leisure activity. Impressionists captured scenes that had no symbolism. Impressionist artists were the first artists to break up picture plain and to not use the technique of blending of colors.
With Impressionists there comes Post-Impressionists. Post-Impressionists wanted their art to show emotion. They fought to bring back focus and structure. The French oil painter, Paul Cezanne, broke away from Impressionism and actually created a bridge between Post-Impressionism to Abstract and Cubism by simplifying shapes and using math.
Later came the Symbolists, who wanted to use emotion on the inside, and not the outside. They used vibrant colors and could paint whatever colors based on what the artist was feeling. They showed artists that they didn't have to duplicate reality in their art. It was based on emotion and what it could make people feel. Symbolist artists and writers were inspired by new psychological content that had the common themes of love, fear, death and unrequited desire and many more.
Now in the 20th century, we are introduced to Fauvism, the first avant-garde art movement. Fauvism had unrealistic colors and inaccurate figures. The background of the paintings would be done in abstract. The brush strokes would be built on top of each other with the want of bringing structure back. This allowed for a more intense work. Fauvism artists created more emotion in their work then Symbolist artists. Fauvism artists felt that the artist should use whatever colors they felt necessary to express an emotion or feeling.
In 1907, Pablo Picasso co-created Cubism. Cubism art showed fractures in paintings. The artwork would display various perspectives of objects in one piece. There would be different views that can be viewed from multiple angles simultaneously in the fragmented subject. Following along with Picasso and his art, we come to his Blue period. Where he was inspired by Gauguin would create genre paintings that showed emotion, usually sad emotions.
Magritte came in the 20th century as a avant-garde art movement. This movement pushed the limits of the creative potential of the unconscious mind. This brings us to Surrealism. Surrealism used juxtaposition. Artists would use an image in their head that would expand in their imagination. Sigmund Freud wrote The Interpretation of Dreams which caused artists to do anything and everything to get inspiration to create random art. This was also inspired by Gauguin. Salvador Dali created paintings that conveyed memories and the passage of time. Picasso working alongside Guernica, combined Cubism and Surrealism. They took the part of Surrealism that has odd objects that aren't really anything and took the part of Cubism that fractures in the work.
Even though Academia was no longer a thing, a new wave of rules and what was to be considered art came with the replacement of Critics. These critics set up the new rules and defined art. Walter Benjamin was one of the critics. He was a philosopher and social critic who lived between 1892 to 1949. His critique on art was that mass production of art made the art invaluable. He believed that seeing the real work of art in person causes a different emotion then seeing a reproduced work of it. To contradict his beliefs, he also believed that mass-reproduced work has more value since more people know about it.
Another art critic was Clement Greenberg, he was an American who thought that educated art and uneducated art were to be separated. He believed that uneducated art was "Kitsch". He also created rules that the artwork should follow for it to be not considered kitsch. Such as, the painting should be done with lines, shapes, and color. There is no meaning to the painting. It can just be enjoyed as is, there is nothing to breakdown to understand it. All the visual and making of the painting looks right. The painting should be flat and have no value. He strongly supported Abstract expressionism. He had a elitist view that art was for the few that were happy, and were only for those who had the perception and understanding to truly appreciate and evaluate art.
One of Greenbergs favorite artists was Jackson Pollock, who did Abstract expressionism. He would get house paint and drizzle paint on-top of canvas. He lifted boundaries by showing that one doesn't need paint utensils and you don't even need art paint to create art. Once Pollocks work got popular by the masses, Greenberg's love for it was ruined because uneducated people were copying Pollocks art style.
Let's dive into Abstract art. Abstract art included shapes, colors and lines. The artwork never meant anything. This movement was a total breakaway from Renaissance art. It didn't represent reality and concentrates on colors and shapes that just move around the canvas never really creating a specific subject. The colors used were the one's telling the story of the art. That conveyed the emotion.
There would be no Abstract Expressionism if there was no Abstract art to base it from. Abstract Expressionism is a movement that came in the mid-20th century. This art movement used diverse styles and techniques. It emphasized an artist's liberty to convey attitudes and emotions through nontraditional and usually didn't represent anything. Was used to convey the painters and their work on how they filled their canvas and with what colors but also how the canvas had vigorous gestural expressionism.
Another type of Abstract Art is Systemic paintings. These were created with geometric designs and used various colors. Joseph Albers painted in this style.
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