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2012 intro to modernism ed uni 1
This document provides an overview of the course "Modernism in Art: An Introduction". It discusses key topics that will be covered such as the Salon des Refusés of 1863, Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, Dada, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism. It explains how the concepts of modernity and modernism emerged from the Enlightenment, French Revolution, and Industrial Revolution. It also provides context on how these broader societal changes influenced artists and the hierarchy of artistic genres in the 19th century Academy. A bibliography of recommended resources is included.
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2012 intro to modernism ed uni 1
- 1. Salon des Refusés:Breaking with the Academy Modernism in Art: An Introduction deborah.jackson@ed.ac.uk
- 2. Content of Course Salondes Refusés: Breaking with the Academy Flirting with controversy: Courbet and taboo in 19th-century Europe Introducing Subjectivity: From Impressionism to Cubism Picasso‟s Exorcism: fear of „Primitives‟ and „Prostitutes‟ “Standing on the World‟s Summit”: Futurism‟s becoming... Revolution and Rebuilding: Constructivism, De Stijl and the Bauhaus Dada and Surrealism Reflections upon a Modern World (An Introduction to some key thinkers) Abstract Expressionism and the Rise of Formalism In Jeopardy: Idealism, Authenticity, Universality and the Avant-Garde Unseen assessment and credit essay workshop.
- 3. This lecture should •Give you a general idea understanding of the broader factors influencing the way European artists working before and during the 19th century •Give you a knowledge of what the Salon des Refuses of 1863 signified and how it represented changes in society and culture at that time •Encourage you to think critically about visual representations, connecting the art of the new painters to the political agendas of the time •Provide a clear definition of Modernism, Modern Art and Modernity
- 4. The concepts of modernityand modernism are amongst the most controversial and vigorously debated in contemporary philosophy and cultural theory
- 5. Why Have ThereBeen No Great Women Artists? Linda Nochlin http://www.miracosta.edu/home/gfloren/nochlin.htm
- 6. Modernism is relatedto but not to be confused with Modernity. Modernity relates to the massive changes in culture and society due mainly to the developments brought about by the industrial revolutions and subsequent political unrest within Europe.
- 7. The Enlightenment projectof modernity The French Revolution The Industrial Revolution Eugène Delacroix - Liberty Great Exhibition set in the vast Crystal Palace in Leading the People (1830) London's Hyde Park (1851)
- 8. Key components thathad a great impact on artists • Individuality • State (liberty, human rights) •Progress •Truth • Rational Thinking •New Technologies Georges Seurat A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte (1884)
- 9. Georges Seurat Bathers atAsnières (1884)
- 10. Marx and Freudwere seminal figures in Modernism
- 11. The modernity ofthe Enlightenment also had aesthetic consequences Gabriel de Saint-Aubin The„Salon du Louvre‟ in 1765
- 12. Hierarchy of theArts •History Painting •Portraiture •Genre Painting •Landscape •Still Life
- 13. Salon des Refuses Le palais de l’industrie
- 14. Le déjeunersurl'herbe -testimony to Manet's refusal to conform to convention and his initiation of a new freedom from traditional subjects and modes of representation - can perhaps be considered as the departure point for Modern Art.
- 15. Each week’s presentationcan be viewed on Slideshare Type Slideshare into google Type Deborah Jackson into the search box Filter the results by clicking ‘Users’
- 16. Bibliography Foster, H. ed.(2004) Art since 1900: Modernism, Anti Modernism, Postmodernism. London, Thames & Hudson. Cottington, D. (2005) Modern Art – A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, University Press. Lechte, J.(1994) Fifty Key thinkers from Structuralism to Postmodernity. London, Routledge. Clark, TJ (1999) Farewell to an Idea. London, Yale University Press, Wood, P. (2004) Varieties of Modernism. Yale, The Open University. Meecham, P & Sheldon, J. (2000) Modern Art: A Critical Introduction. London, Routledge.
- 17. Bibliography cont… Harrison, C.(1997) Modernism. London, Tate Gallery. Harrison, C& Wood, P. ed. (2003) Art in Theory. Oxford, Blackwell. Chadwick, W. (2002) Women, art, and society. New York, Thames & Hudson. Crow, T (1996) Modern Art in the Common Culture. London, Open University Press. Fer&Batchelor& Wood Ed. (1993) Realism, Rationalism, Surrealism – Art between the Wars. London, Open University Press.
- 18. Bibliography cont… Harrison, Frascina,Perry. Ed. (1993) Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction – The early Twentieth Century. London, Open University Press. Frascina& Harris. Ed. (1992) Art in Modern Culture. London, Phaidon. Perry, G. (1999). Gender and Art.Yale University Press. Wood, Frascina, Harris, Harrison. Ed. (1993) Modernism in Dispute – Art Since the Forties. London, Open University Press.
Editor's Notes
- #2 Salon des Refusés: Breaking with the AcademyThis lecture takes it title from the Salon of the Refused), an art exhibition held in 1863 in Paris by command of Napoleon III for those artists whose works had been refused by the jury of the official Salon. Among the exhibitors were Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissarro, Armand Guillaumin, Johan Jongkind, Henri Fantin-Latour, James Whistler, and the image on the screen, ÉdouardManet, who exhibited his famous painting “Le Déjeunersurl’herbe,” officially regarded as a scandalous affront to taste.Hints towards what the critic Hal Foster, refers to asthe perpetual revolution of modernity. Specifically it points towards the concept of the avant-garde, which can be described as being that of loosely organized oppositional forces and challenges to the dominant artistic culture. The avant-garde is often thought of as part of the "inner logic of modernism"—the built-in source of contradiction or critique that moves art forward. (It is important to note that this assumes a model of progress as part of the inner development of the arts and culture. We will return to this notion of progress later on.)
- #3 No doubt we are familiar withterm Postmodernism, although admittedly you may not pertain to understand fully what it may meanPostmodernism itself with its prefix of ‘post’ means after modernism but this is a misnomer. Postmodernism is not Anti-Modernism and we will begin to see particular inheritances from Modernism in contemporary art practice and theory. In that sense Postmodernism is not necessarily a rupture, a breakNow the dynamic motor of change in contemporary society and culture can be seen to parallel with Modernism and Modernity Modernity: a similar sense of dislocation, overwhelmed by change, connections (symptoms and effects) between what was experiences in Modernism and PostmodernismThe precise duration of Modernism is debated within art historical circlesThe period we will cover is from the late19th century and the Enlightenment through to examining aspects of the European avant-garde from the 1930s to the aftermath of the Second World War and the emergence of Abstract Expressionism in the U.S., in particular the work of Jackson Pollock and important critics such Clement Greenberg, and debates surrounding the “autonomous” high modernism of the early to mid-1960s and the contemporary, related modernist theorization of photography. We will also addresses the reemergence in the 1950s and 1960s of the concerns of the 1920 avant-gardes operating in the so-called “gap between art and life.”
- #4 This lecture shouldGive you a general idea understanding of the broader factors influencing the way European artists working before and during the 19th centuryGive you a knowledge of what the Salon des Refuses of 1863 signified and how it represented changes in society and culture at that timeEncourage you to think critically about visual representations, connecting the art of the new painters to the political agendas of the timeProvide a clear definition of Modernism, Modern Art and Modernity
- #5 The concepts of modernity and modernism are amongst the most controversial and vigorously debated in contemporary philosophy and cultural theory.There are also a number of partisan,and subjective histories that have been proliferated
- #6 Most notable Gombrich’s The Story of Art which had a huge impact on the general post-war populace. This canon of artists all but excluded female artists.I would recommend for an elaborated version of modernism, James Elkins’s Stories (in the plural) of Art and Varieties of art as well the celebration of forgotten women resonates with Linda Nochlin’s investigation into the lack of great woman artists.
- #7 It is also important to make clear the distinction between Modernity and ModernismWHAT IS MODERNITY?The project of modernity is one with that of the Enlightenment: to develop spheres of science, morality and art according to their inner logic. It was dependent on the belief in universal laws and truths, and the idea that knowledge is objective, independent of culture, gender, etc. Modernity was posited on the notion that progress is based upon knowledge, and man is capable of discerning objective absolute truths in science and the arts. Modernity refers to a period extending from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries (in the case of Europe) to the mid to late twentieth century characterized by the growth and strengthening of a specific set of social practices and ways of doing things. It is often associated with capitalism and notions such as progress.Modernity is fundamentally about order: about rationality and rationalization, creating order out of chaos. The assumption is that creating more rationality is conducive to creating more order, and that the more ordered a society is, the better it will function.Thus modern societies rely on continually establishing a binary opposition between "order" and "disorder," so that they can assert the superiority of "order." In western culture, then, disorder becomes "the other"—defined in relation toother binary oppositions. Thus anything non-white, non-male, non-heterosexual, non-hygienic, non-rational, (etc.) becomes part of "disorder,” and has to be eliminated from the ordered, rational modern society.The "project of Modernity" can be thought of as the development of science, philosophy, and art, each according to its own inner logic. We will see in later weeks how these idea can to the fore in the latter part of modernism as it was articulated by the notable ad influential critic Clement Greenberg. (you will be hearing al lot more about him in later weeks)Modernism as a term is typically associated with the twentieth-century reaction against realism and romanticism within the arts. ThereforeModernism can be thought of as the self-conscious response in the arts to the experience of modernity.A radically altered aesthetic form and perspective: the modernist stress upon art as a self-referential construct instead of as a mirror of nature or societyModernism is generally used as a way of referring to an aesthetic approach dominant in European and American art and literature in this period. The principles of formalism and the autonomy of art are generally assumed to be key features of Modernism. So clearly then we have identified how the term Modernism is related to but not to be confused with Modernity. This is because modernity relates to the massive changes in culture and society due mainly to the developments brought about by the industrial revolutions and subsequent political unrest within Europe, namely WW1 and WW2.
- #8 There were a number of key developments that had a big impact on artists working in the 19th centuryThe transformations and changes happening in Europe between led to demand new ways of looking at, understanding and explaining things and events through the social science. The Enlightenment was a cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th-century Europe, that sought to mobilize the power of reason, in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted science and intellectual interchange and opposed superstitionThis preoccupied many great thinkers to theorize on the phenomena of changes. They were motivated by feelings of beneficent humanity, that they were on the side of the future and that the future was on their side. In spite of its allegiance to the classical tradition, the Enlightenment was a modernising force, keen to review and regenerate culture and society.In its desire to replace outmoded, irrational ways of thinking by the rational, the sensible and the progressive, the Enlightenment was self-consciously modern. A manifestly scientific age and the visible advancement of knowledge in the eighteenth century required, it was felt, an overhaul – or at least a careful critical and radical scrutiny – of culture, society and their institutions.The Enlightenment project of modernity stressedthe importance of truth and abstract reasonuniversalizing grand narratives that aspire to completeness; the distinction between "high" and "low" or popular culture. These ideas we will see becomeproblematised as thought, reason, and observation come to be seen as dependent on language as a structural, mediating system and not as enlightenment project of modernity that they are the acts of a pure, nonmaterial consciousness with direct access to reality. We will also see how Modernism valorizes personal style. This presupposes a unique individuality—a private identity or self (subject)— that generates his or her own style according to a personal vision. From a contemporary or Postmodern position this refuted and presents us with a problem: If there are no individual, creative subjects, and nothing new is possible, what is it that an artist does? e. What is left to the postmodern artist is the possibility of imitation—the recycling of images and forms, i.e. pastiche.
- #9 Key components that had a great impact on artists IndividualityState (liberty, human rights)ProgressTruthProgressRational ThinkingNew Technologies
- #10 Another modernising force in the period was the growing pace of industrialisation, as the methods of cottage outworkers were gradually replaced by mass factory production of goods. As people moved increasingly to work in towns, old social communities and values were under threat.Philosophy of Modernism, was also the rejection of religion, of myths etc, asthe shift was towards rationalism, logic.The concept of ‘modernity’ is often associated with the secular, rational and progressive aspects of the Enlightenment, more specifically with the growing status of secular public opinion.The process of ‘modernising’ permeated culture in all kinds of ways, however, and was certainly not restricted to the secular. Whilstthe Enlightenment was characterised by an impulse towards modernity in matters of government, politics, religion and aesthetics. There were those, however, who questioned the rapid momentum and effects of change.The Industrial RevolutionModern city as symbolic of modernity, progress and innovationPower of man over nature, man at the centre of the universe, domesticating, managing natureIdea of a better tomorrow (modernity), this utopian idea is something we have perhaps lost as cynicism crept in in the 1970sHowever as Seurat’s painting demonstrates there is a radical ambiguity at play here…critique of modernity…chimneys, factories, workers etcModernism and modernity are by now mortal antagonist, not blood brotherse.g. Seutat’s ‘Bathers of Asnieves’ (1884)
- #11 Modernity – the gap between the promise and the reality, the consequences. The paradox of emancipatory projects Marx and Freud were seminal figures in Modernism.Marx’s analysis of workers, alienating labour (call centres now)Unforseen circumstances of modernity, sophisticated technology, educated workforces, radicalised workforce.
- #12 The modernity of the Enlightenment also had aesthetic consequences.Academies“During the 1700s academies became the principle centres of art instruction, so that to entertain the notion of becoming an artist was to prepare for entry into the academy…[Fromm} 1738 on, academies opened I virtually every large city in France…” (Goldstein 1996, p.49)
- #15 Le Déjeunersurl'HerbeA keyflashpont:Rejected by the jury of the 1863 SalonWhilst there areclassical references to Titian for example, in the work, this was counterbalanced by Manet's boldness. The presence of a nude woman among clothed men is justified neither by mythological nor allegorical precedents. This, and the contemporary dress, rendered the strange and almost unreal scene obscene in the eyes of the public of the day. Manet's style and treatment werealso considered as shocking as the subject itself. He made no transition between the light and dark elements of the picture, abandoning the usual subtle gradations in favour of brutal contrasts. And the characters seem to fit uncomfortably in the sketchy background of woods from which Manet has deliberately excluded both depth and perspective. Le déjeunersurl'herbe - testimony to Manet's refusal to conform to convention and his initiation of a new freedom from traditional subjects and modes of representation - can perhaps be considered as the departure point for Modern Art.
- #16 Each week’s presentation can be viewed on SlideshareType Slideshare into googleType Deborah Jackson into the search boxFilter the results by clicking ‘Users’