Postmodern art is the representation of the return to pre-modern art styles and genres, and there is no longer a division between art, popular culture, and media. This philosophical term challenged and reacted against what modernism had to say, echoing dramatic changes in our social and economic features. Furthermore postmodern essays and critiques coincided with the arrival of contemporary art. Contemporary art is more socially conscious and philosophically all encompassing of several styles and medias than art works previous to this era. Contemporary art is experimental and often includes crossbreeds of styles, as well as mixes of many varied periods of art history from earlier times to the present times. Contemporary art cultivates toward conceptual, political and social messages, addressing feminism, multiculturalism, globalization, bioengineering and AIDS, among other trends. Contemporary art is created in the here and now and which makes it contemporary to us. Contemporary art are works of art made from the 1960's or 70's up until the present and it is an ever-evolving art style. I will analysis three contemporary works of art and how different philosophers and theorists would interpret each one. The first work of art ‘Surreal’ by Marcus A. Jansen is an oil enamel collage on canvas done in 2009 hanging in the MW Gallery Aspen. Marcus Jansen fits into the general category of contemporary postmodernism because of the time period in which he paint, the various high and low subject matter he incorporates into his paintings, and his use of appropriation or barrowing. Jansen’s painting ‘Surreal’ appropriates images from Pablo Picasso’s painting ‘Guernica’ done in 1937, which depicts that towns bombing during the Spanish Civil Wa... ... middle of paper ... ...y object, existing only and truly in the artist’s mind, and that it is an expression of the artist’s emotions. Since the work of art according to this theory exist only in the artist mind than the answer, to the question of whether Lia Chavez artwork is art, is yes it is art. And then if it is also a representation of her emotions at the time she was most likely feeling remote, dejected, and commanding at the same time. Though also according to Collingwood so get to this state of release the artist must not know the outcome of the art before is happens. So then Chavez would not have been able to take her photographs with knowing in someway how they would turn out. Collingwood indicates this by saying “an artists who setting out to produce a certain emotion in his audience is setting out to produce not an individual emotion, but an emotion of a certain kind (p.126).”
Spanish painter Salvador Dali was undeniably one of the most eccentric personalities of the XX century. He is well known as a pioneer of surrealist art whose production has had a huge influence on media and modern artists around the globe . By bringing surreal elements into everyday objects he pushed surrealism forward. It is partly to his credit that surrealism is this popular today. In "M...
Though most works of art have some underlying, deeper meaning attached to them, our first impression of their significance comes through our initial visual interpretation. When we first view a painting or a statue or other piece of art, we notice first the visual details – its size, its medium, its color, and its condition, for example – before we begin to ponder its greater significance. Indeed, these visual clues are just as important as any other interpretation or meaning of a work, for they allow us to understand just what that deeper meaning is. The expression on a statue’s face tells us the emotion and message that the artist is trying to convey. Its color, too, can provide clues: darker or lighter colors can play a role in how we judge a piece of art. The type of lines used in a piece can send different messages. A sculpture, for example, may have been carved with hard, rough lines or it may have been carved with smoother, more flowing lines that portray a kind of gentleness.
Diego Rivera was deemed the finest Mexican painter of the twentieth century; he had a huge influence in art worldwide. Rivera wanted to form his own painting fashion. Although he encountered the works of great masters like Gauguin, Renoir, and Matisse, he was still in search of a new form of painting to call his own (Tibol, 1983). His desire was to be capable of reaching a wide audience and express the difficulties of his generation at the same time, and that is exactly what h...
“In Miss Levitt’s photographs the general feeling is that surrealism is that of the ordinary metropolitan soil which breeds these remarkable juxtapositions and moments, and that what we call “fantasy” is, instead, reality in its unmasked vigour and grace.” (Levitt & Agee 1965)
Varnedoe, Kirk. A Fine Disregard: What Makes Modern Art Modern. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1990. 152. Print.
Abstract Expressionism is making its comeback within the art world. Coined as an artist movement in the 1940’s and 1950’s, at the New York School, American Abstract Expressionist began to express many ideas relevant to humanity and the world around human civilization. However, the subject matters, contributing to artists, were not meant to represent the ever-changing world around them. Rather, how the world around them affected the artist themselves. The works swayed by such worldly influences, become an important article within the artists’ pieces. Subjectively, looking inward to express the artist psyche, artists within the Abstract Expressionism movement became a part of their paintings. Making the paintings more of a representation of one’s self.
In the book “Ways of Seeing,” John Berger explains several essential aspects of art through influence of the Marxism and art history that relates to social history and the sense of sight. Berger examines the dominance of ideologies in the history of traditional art and reflects on the history, class, and ideology as a field of cultural discourse, cultural consumption and cultural practice. Berger argues, “Realism is a powerful link to ownership and money through the dominance of power.”(p.90)[1] The aesthetics of art and present historical methodology lack focus in comparison to the pictorial essay. In chapter six of the book, the pictorial imagery demonstrates a variety of art forms connoting its realism and diversity of the power of connecting to wealth in contradiction to the deprived in the western culture. The images used in this chapter relate to one another and state in the analogy the connection of realism that is depicted in social statues, landscapes, and portraiture, also present in the state of medium that was used to create this work of art.
From the creation of art to its modern understanding, artists have strived to perform and perfect a photo realistic painting with the use of complex lines, blend of colors, and captivating subjects. This is not the case anymore due to the invention of the camera in 1827, since it will always be the ultimate form of realism. Due to this, artists had the opportunities to branch away from the classical formation of realism, and venture into new forms such as what is known today as modern art. In the examination of two well known artists, Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock, we can see that the artist doesn’t only intend for the painting to be just a painting, but more of a form of telling a scene through challenging thoughts, and expressing of the artists emotion in their creation.
Georges Didi-Huberman is critical of the conventional approaches towards the study of art history. Didi-Huberman takes the view that art history is grounded in the primacy of knowledge, particularly in the vein of Kant, or what he calls a ‘spontaneous philosophy’. While art historians claim to be looking at images across the sweep of time, what they actually do might be described as a sort of forensics process, one in which they analyze, decode and deconstruct works of art in attempt to better understand the artist and purpose or expression. This paper will examine Didi-Huberman’s key claims in his book Confronting Images and apply his methodology to a still life painting by Juan Sánchez Cotán.
Surrealism and the surrealist movement is a ‘cultural’ movement that began around 1920’s, and is best known for its visual art works and writings. According to André Berton, the aim was “to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality” (Breton 1969:14). Surrealists incorporated “elements of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and ‘non sequitur”. Hence, creating unnerving, illogical paintings with photographic precision, which created strange creatures or settings from everyday real objects and developed advanced painting techniques, which allowed the unconscious to be expressed by the self (Martin 1987:26; Pass 2011:30).
Different art movements are created as a reflection of the type of response to the existing or older art movement. It does not necessarily mean scrapping the old to make way for the new. In art, the new movement always takes with it part of the past, but what makes it distinct is the new and fresh perspective that it brings to the table that wasn't present or appreciated before. If anything, the chronology of art movements is testament to the growth process of the world of art, proof of how the art has evolved ever since. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism are two art movements that happened in succession, and the characteristics of and existence of Post Impressionism reflects how Post Impressionism is a reaction to the earlier Impressionism and how Post Impressionism, despite its efforts to introduce something new, still retains many important characteristics found in Impressionism.
In the 1950s, authors tended to follow common themes, these themes were summed up in an art called postmodernism. Postmodernism took place after the Cold War, themes changed drastically, and boundaries were broken down. Postmodern authors defined themselves by “avoiding traditional closure of themes or situations” (Postmodernism). Postmodernism tends to play with the mind, and give a new meaning to things, “Postmodern art often makes it a point of demonstrating in an obvious way the instability of meaning (Clayton)”. What makes postmodernism most unique is its unpredictable nature and “think o...
Art has had its roots, one may argue, when civilization was born. With each respective civilization and time periods from the past, humans have formed a diverse and unique society, a group of people with their own individual characteristics, cultures, as well as philosophies within which all kinds of differing ideas, thoughts and opinions are always brought upon for challenge and evaluation. These distinct aspects of a culture and/or time period may be recorded by people in varying forms of expression we all know as art. Directly from where culture had originated, events and/or emotions from that time period have been reflected or directly recorded in the arrangement of pictures i.e. paintings from the past which inform us about the people’s experiences and events in the past historical periods. Ultimately, History is the record of the development and how we have evolved as humans together in a society. History can be expressed and reflected in different kinds of music, sculptures, as well as paintings. There are several different periods of Art, each has contributed and reflected to how a society was. Art has been usually used by historians as one of the vehicles of history to illustrate and illuminate it as they are able to recognize that some types of art may be able to help them identify and explain the nature of societies and periods in history. Art and society have counteracted with each different type bringing forth new arts and new societies for many generations to come. Ideas have caused responses by citizens and therefore bring forth several different types of influences on a period’s background, heredity, and environments. These influences are then translated into new a idea, which then triggers the circle to repeat it...
Picasso's Portrait of Gertrude Stein is a haunting and pensive work, imbued with a great sense of mystery and pondering. Stein's gaze is cast to the side, her hands in a gestural position, leaning forward with her chin tilted and lips slightly parted. It is as if she is about to speak and through the body language of her portrait, we envision an ensuing scene where she articulates what she's been thinking, elaborating with her hands. The essence of Stein's character is embodied in this posture and gesture, the truth of her being in this physical representation. Knowing nothing of Stein, one would at once understand that this woman is a thinker carefully considering her points and that this intellectual characterization is of fundamental importance to her mode of being.
Postmodernism is described as the phase of twentieth century Western culture that has been often defined as the visual culture produced in the period after modernism, though there has been much recent debate since the early 1980’s as to what the definition of Postmodernism could be. Postmodern art has always been difficult to define for various reasons which include what styles of art should be included in the movement, what is the exact artistic style of Postmodern art and the insufficiency to specify what exactly postmodernism is. One of the most basic definitions of the term postmodernism is that it is post-modern or after the modernist period, this not only gives us a better understanding but a clearer starting point in the search for the true definition of Postmodernism that everyone can come to an agreement on.