meline of art history
The history of art can be traced back to cave paintings of about 15000 BC.
The nature of paintings changed little until around 1450 AD, when the Renaissance brought-about naturalistic styles and formal rules of composition, such as perspective (Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, etc).
Following the Renaissance, new styles emerged every 50 to 100 years, but nothing significantly changed (e.g. the rules of perspective were still applied).
In 1874, Impressionism was born (Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, etc). The term was originally used to make fun of Claude Monet’s painting “Impression: Sunrise”, but was adopted by artists to describe their style of work. Most people are familiar with Impressionism, so I will not waste words describing the style, and move on.
At the end of the 1800s, Impressionism spawned Post Impressionism (Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, etc). While Impressionism had remained faithful to nature, Post Impressionism favoured brighter and more unnatural colours.
Next we had Abstraction, where artists (Modigliani, Picasso, etc) changed the appearance of their subject so it no longer looked realistic, by shifting the point of view, exaggeration, simplification, etc.
At the risk of over simplifying things myself – Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, and Dada all quickly followed, and were variations on Abstraction. It’s the Dada artists that I want to write about.
In 1916, the Dada movement was formed amidst despair and revulsion arising from the horrors of World War I. Dada art was intentionally anti-aesthetic, and sought to reject all rules and conventions. Many Dada artists considered their work to be anti-art, and to have the purpose of enraging their audiences.
The single most influential Dada artist was arguably Marcel Duchamp.
Conceptual Art springs from the “Fountain”
As a young boy, Duchamp aspired to become an artist, and took classes in academic drawing. He worked in the styles of the time (Post Impressionism, Cubism, etc), but failed to achieve recognition, until 1917, when his notorious ‘Fountain’ changed the face of art.
“Fountain” was a signed urinal. Duchamp claimed it to be a work of art that he had created, because; he chose it, he gave it a name, he placed it in a different context, and created a new thought for that object.
In December 2004, Duchamp’s Fountain was voted the most influential artwork of the 20th century by 500 selected British art world professionals. The Independent noted in a February 2008 article that with this single work, Duchamp invented conceptual art and “severed forever the traditional link between art and merit”.
Each person has to draw his or her own conclusions, but these are mine
Duchamp was taking the “p” (urinal!).
He was an art anarchist, and his aim was to damage the art establishment. Unfortunately the art establishment evolved to embrace his prank, and allowed Duchamp to achieve his goal.
Perhaps this happened because Duchamp presented an opportunity for those similarly without skill to enter a world previously closed to them? Whatever, more than 90 years later, our art galleries, art awards, and media coverage are all full of “fountains”, and the objective of our most notorious present day “artists” still appears to be enraging their audiences. Modern art has become a very weary joke.
Reasoning that anything can be art is no different to saying that everything is everything. History has even been rewritten, and the cave paintings now often given a new conceptual twist: they were not decoration, but an early form of communication.
Detractors of modern art are often shot down. When we voice our views we are usually patronisingly told that we don’t like it because we don’t understand it. I do understand … I honestly do!
The point I am trying to make is that conceptual art is one very tiny and polarised viewpoint. It does not render all other points of view invalid.
Isn’t it time for a change soon?
Portraits by John Burton
By: John Burton
Posts Tagged ‘Cubism’
Why I Hate Modern Art
December 30th, 2009John Stezaker’s Biography and Exhibitions at Saatchi-gallery
December 28th, 2009John Stezaker is fascinated by the power of images and questions the authority of pictures found in books, magazines, postcards and encyclopaedias by directly intervening into their ordinary status. Through the handcrafted act of splicing together, inverting, or simply adjusting an image Stezaker embarks upon ‘a process that cuts it off from its disappearance into the everyday world’.
Stezaker has been centrally influential in a number of developments in art over the last three decades; from Conceptual Art, New Image Art through to the contemporary interest in collage. Showing first as a part of the British Conceptual Art group in ‘The New Art’, 1972 (the first Hayward Annual), Stezaker’s interest in the concept soon gave way to a long-term fascination with the image, finding new aesthetic allegiances with the image through working with found photographs and printed matter.
This fascination is translated into alterations, deletions, visual concordances and juxtapositions of disparate sources, intuitively creating new images, relationships, characters and meanings. Stezaker’s investigations continue to develop in this exhibition of new works that concentrate specifically on the portrait. In the ‘Love’ series, subtle but masterful alterations to found original film star portraits shift and magnify emotion and expression that had before only been implied, sometimes imperceptibly, in the original image. The glamorous and carefully posed faces are subtly transformed into otherworldly, uncanny beings. Playing with ideas of cubism and caricature, Stezaker’s series of black and white portraits fuse male and female faces, reflecting the idea of marriage and hybrid symmetry, but also a discord of union. Perhaps the most subtle of found image alterations are the ‘Reclined’ series;
what to Do Next. . .
Find more information about John Stezaker Exhibitions or looking for his paintings please visit us on http://www. saatchi-gallery. co. uk/artists/john_stezaker. htm
Modern Art Vs. Contemporary Art
November 2nd, 2009The success of a piece of art depends on how deftly it connects with the audience. If an artwork successfully communicates its message, it is considered to be a masterpiece. Some of the most artistic works of art began flowering in the 19th century till 1970. The flowering of modern art thus began in this era consequently leading the artists to move away from the traditional practices and emphasize more on portrayal of emotion on canvas. Post 1970, modern art preferred being called contemporary art. This includes any art that has been created after 1970 till the present age.
Modern art is not synonymous to contemporary art. The former encompasses only those works that have been created in the first half of the 20th century. Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism- they all form a part of modern art. Contemporary art, on the other hand, signifies those works done at the present time or in the very recent past. The best thing about today’s art is that it is bound by no rigid tradition and has the liberty to experiment with various styles.
Ever since the two world wars took place, there has been a surge of art movements- Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Post-modernism, Minimalism, and Feminist Art. The number of art movements has grown in numbers in recent times. It’s now common to come across avant-garde movements surfacing with new names every year. The one movement that created quite an uproar in recent times was that of Abstract Expressionism. The followers of this movement believed that art was created just to convey their own feelings and had no relation with the external world.
However, there is a section of people who does not consider modern art as art in the true sense of the term. Many people consider landscape and nature portrayals as the true art form. When modern and contemporary artists create something that challenges their imagination, they question the idea of their being an art.
As a matter of fact, abstract art needs proper understanding and intellect to decode its hidden meaning. Understanding the concept of the artist and appreciating the work on that basis lays the foundation for a successful modern art representation.
By: Suzanne
